AUTUMN KNIGHT
         A seasonal Clef story

Preface: (If you have read “Summer Nights”, you can bypass this.)

Oswald MacDonald (call me Mac) met and fell for June Jones during
a battle of the bands at Naked City nudist colony. His band, Slip
Stream, won the contest and a recording contract. Her band,
Jonesville, won nothing but got a lot of gigs from the publicity.
Their romance flourished over the summer, but now that it is fall
school and working with the bands is causing friction.

               ****************

I knew it was too good to last. June was a beautiful girl and a
great guitarist, why would she want a string bean like me? Now
she was even letting her brothers give excuses for her. All she
had to do was to tell me it was over and I would understand.

Ever since that magical summer night at the nudist colony I have
expected it to end. Now that school was in session again there
were too many constraints on my time. Slip Stream was very
popular and the gigs were farther away than ever before. The
recording company would think nothing of booking us in Chicago
one night and Cleveland the next. We were never the headliners,
but we did prep the audiences for some big name bands. June’s
band, Jonesville, was getting more popular as well. They hadn’t
won anything at the contest where I met her, but word of mouth
from that event was enough to keep them busy all around the
Logansport area.

I had just finished practice and was in a bad mood anyway when I
got the message from June’s brother Jed. They were going to play
a party in Valparaiso and wouldn’t be back until Sunday. June
would not be able to see me tonight. That was the situation all
too often lately.

I say that I was in a bad mood from practice, and that was Dana’s
fault. Dana and Taylor Bernstein along with Janet Elms and Rex
Rogers made up the rest of Slip Stream. She has been getting more
and more of an attitude since the recording session in Memphis.
Her prima Donna act was getting old. After finding June I had
been hoping to work with her in some way; either to bring her
into Slip Stream, or work with her brothers in their band. The
distance between Logansport and Lafayette made both of those
ideas difficult at best. I was hoping that June would consider
moving in with me while I finished school, but she has never
brought up the idea, and I am afraid to.

The recording contract was another bone of contention. All bands
dream of getting a contract with a major studio, but when it
happens they are often disappointed. In this case, the studio
wasn’t all that big, and all they wanted from us was two songs,
an A and a B side. Our contest winner, “Summer Nights”, was the
required A side, and I chose “Dynamite Day” as a B side. I
reasoned that it was not all that great a song and would be no
great loss when the company kept us from using it later. I could
see that coming and had held out my rights to the music I had
written. Dana thought that I was being unreasonable and causing
strife with the label. I knew better. The label had a bunch of
country artists and didn’t know how to promote a rock band. More
than once we were paired with shitkickers and the audience didn’t
care for us a bit. Sales of our single had been lackluster at
best and I was about to call it quits, I just didn’t have the
time or patience required for this.

Now June was giving me the runaround. Things had been great for
us all through the rest of the summer after we met. She had spent
a lot of time in my small apartment and we had dated as much as I
could manage. I took her to clubs and dinner and had even gone
swimming with her several times. I wasn’t quite so embarrassed to
be seen in my swim suit after being at the nudist camp earlier
this summer. The drive from Lafayette to Logansport was only
about an hour and a half, but the time built up after a while. It
seemed to take longer and longer the more often I had to drive
it.

We practiced guitar together as often as we could, but no matter
how hard I tried, I couldn’t get us together in a band. Her
brothers wanted nothing to do with me and Dana and Janet put the
kibosh on her joining Slip Stream. I didn’t think I wanted to
remain in the band anyway. I was obligated to stay for another 3
months until the contract ran out with the record company, but
that would be it for me. We had signed a six month contract with
the label, and I knew they would never extend it. Dana was
counting on a new contract, but she was wrong. I think even my
buddy Rex has had enough of Dana’s attitude. When he first joined
up with the girls he was sleeping with all three, but now I
understand that Taylor is the only one gracing his bed. I am
being considerate and I am asking around school and at the music
stores to find someone to replace me. I was also looking for some
players to work with me and June in another band. I guess that
was a waste of time now that she seemed to be avoiding me.

Maybe I should go to the gig they had in Valparaiso and see if
there was a chance to fix things. Slip Stream did not have to
play anywhere this weekend for a change so I had some free time.
Maybe her mother would know where the gig was, I could call her.

“Mrs. Jones, this is Mac, could I talk to you for a minute?”

“Sure, Honey, what can I do for you?”

“I wanted to surprise June and show up where they are playing
tonight. Do you know where that is, Ma’am?”

“I think you must be confused, Dear, they aren’t playing anywhere
tonight. The last I heard John asked June to come over to his
house to practice some new music.”

“But Jed called me to tell me that they were playing a party
tonight. June was supposed to go out with me tonight and he
called to say that she couldn’t.”

“That doesn’t sound right. June was planning on meeting you after
practice.”

“Thanks, Ma’am. I’ll check it out and talk to you later.”

Now I was confused. What the hell was going on? The only way I am
going to find out is to go and confront June. I need to know one
way or the other about us.

My van knows the way to Logansport just like a horse knows the
way home. I was driving on autopilot and seething the whole way
there. I knew where John lived; I had been to several practices
in his garage. The last I heard from June is that his wife had
left him again and Jed was living there now. Jed was a muscle
bound asshole and had never been married, in fact, very few of
his dates lasted the night. He played bass for Jonesville, and he
wasn’t even very good at that. My buddy Rex could run rings
around him. That and John’s mediocre drum lines are what kept
June’s band from winning anything and the contest this spring.

I finally pulled up to the curb in front of the house and heard
music coming from the garage. The door was locked, so I walked
around the house and let myself in through the broken back door.
John had gotten drunk and lost his key a few weeks ago. I think
that may have had something to do with his wife leaving. I walked
through the poorly kept house, crap was thrown over everything,
and the music got louder the closer I got to the garage. When I
opened the door to the garage, the scene inside took my breath
away. The music was blaring, but it must have been a recording
because the occupants of the garage were all naked and otherwise
engaged. June was on her back on a table with her arms and legs
tied down and her brothers were fucking her, one at her head and
one between her legs.

John was fucking her mouth and then pulled out for a moment,
“Keep your teeth back bitch, or I’m going to cut off your goddamn
tits. You’ve been putting out for that asshole string bean and
it’s time we got some.” He plugged back in, but that was all I
needed to hear.

I looked around and saw a baseball bat leaning up against a bench
by me. I hadn’t been noticed yet, but I was about to change that.
I wasn’t very good at many sports, but baseball was the
exception. The bat felt familiar in my hands as I tried to line
up the hits to do the most harm and keep them from retaliating.
They were both big guys who looked like they had been lifting
weights, and while I was taller than them, I just looked
anorexic. I decided on collar bones, painful and disabling, but
repairable. I could justify the damage to June’s mother, but as
much as I wanted to kill them right now, I knew that I shouldn’t.
I quickly moved to the table at June’s side and swung. First was
at John, and I caught him right below the neck. I could feel the
impact through the bat and thought that I could feel something
break. I quickly reversed direction, hoping to get to Jed before
he could react, but the snake was a little too quick for me. As
John fell back Jed was able to get his arm up just enough to
deflect the bat up into his face. The bat smashed into his face
right between the nose and mouth. I know that bone broke, and
probably the right cheekbone as well. He is lucky that I was
trying to direct the bat downward or the blow could have shoved
the cartilage of his nose up into his brain. As it was he would
never look the same and would have trouble breathing and eating
for a while.

Neither brother moved when I dropped the bat and cut June loose
with my pocket knife. She grabbed my neck as I picked her up and
walked out of the garage. She was crying into my shoulder until I
set her onto the passenger seat of my van.

“Do you need to see a doctor, June? Should I take you to the
hospital?”

“No, just take me home. Mama can take care of me.”

“Well, what about the police? Should I call them and get your
brothers arrested?”

“No, I don’t want to have to go to trial, Mac. Are they hurt, did
you do a job on them?”

“Yeah, they are broken up pretty bad, do you want me to call an
ambulance?”

“No, to hell with them. Can you go back and get my guitar? Jed
owns the amp and he can keep the goddamn thing, I just want my
Gibson.”

“Sure, I’ll be right back.”

I ran back inside and into the garage. John was trying hard to
stand up, and Jed was doing all he could to breathe. John was
cussing at me as I gathered June’s clothes and put her guitar in
its case. I could see where her blouse had been ripped off of
her. After I closed the guitar case, I stepped over to John and
kicked him hard in the stomach to shut him up.

“Listen up, asshole. You and your cocksucking brother are going
to need an ambulance real quick. When you try to explain what
happened, my name and June’s had better not come out or I’ll be
back and do a lot more damage next time. You are damn lucky that
June doesn’t want to press charges and that I didn’t do what I
wanted to do and kill both of you. You won’t get that lucky
twice.”

I ran back out to the van and threw June her clothes, then put
the guitar in back.

When we got to her mother’s house, June told me to wait a couple
of minutes before I went in so she could explain to her mother.

I waited for about fifteen minutes, then I saw June’s mother at
the door waving for me to come in. No soon had the door closed
behind me than Mrs. Jones was hugging me and crying.

“Thank you, Mac. I cannot thank you enough for saving my baby
from those fucking barbarians I raised.” Now I knew where my
sweetheart got her foul mouth from. Mrs. Jones was built more on
the scale of her sons than that of her daughter, so her head
almost reached my chin, and her arms were strong enough to make
breathing difficult. When you add to that the massive mammaries
pressed into my abdomen and the overpowering scent of lilacs, I
was glad when she backed off to look up at my face. “June said
that you hit them with a baseball bat, did you hurt them bad
enough?”

“I don’t know if it was bad enough or not, Ma’am. I wanted to
strangle them both, but the first priority was to get June away
from there. I’m pretty sure that John has a broken collarbone,
maybe two, and Jed has a broken nose and cheekbone as well as
losing a few teeth. I could have done a lot more, but I
restrained myself for your sake, Ma’am.”

“You needn’t have worried about me, Mac. As far as I’m concerned
I have no sons, they can take care of themselves from now on.”
She gave me another hug, and then moved over to the kitchen
counter, “Would you like something to drink, Mac? I think June is
likely to be a while getting clean.”

“Sure, Ma’am, coffee would be great if you have it.”

“Coffee it is. Please call me Doris, Mac, you’re almost like
family now. Could I ask you a question?”

“Sure, Doris, ask what you want.”

“Why haven’t you asked June to move in with you? It would have
prevented tonight’s problem and saved you a lot of driving.”

I looked down at the cup of coffee she had just given me, “I was
afraid to, Doris. I’ve never had a girl friend before and I
didn’t want to move too fast and scare her off. I love June with
all my heart, but I keep expecting her to find someone else and
leave. I thought that if she wanted to stay with me she would say
something.”

“Aren’t you two a likely couple? She has been afraid to suggest
anything because she didn’t want you to feel trapped or
something. I’ve never seen a better pair than you two, but you
need to have some confidence. She feels the same as you do and
now she’ll need confirmation of your feelings more than ever. I’m
going to help her pack enough for a week or so, and I want you to
take her home and hold her as long as she wants you to. If you
can live together for a week without fighting, then come and get
some more stuff and try it for a month. Just so long as I am
invited to the wedding.”

I blushed and studied my coffee cup in humiliation. I then heard
a giggle and looked up to see that June was standing in the
doorway wearing a big fuzzy robe with her hair wrapped up in a
towel.

“How about it, big boy, wanna shack up?”

“Yes, I do, munchkin. I have been thinking about taking the
larger apartment downstairs when my friend moves out. It has a
fireplace.”

“Great, I’ve always wanted to make love in front of a roaring
fire. Come help me pack, Mama.”

It took almost an hour before we were ready to leave, and Doris
insisted on feeding us before we left. She got a call from the
hospital while we were packing, and she told John to go fuck
himself, I should say that she yelled it, plus that she never
wanted to see either of them again and slammed down the phone.
“That asshole tried to say that June wanted what happened. Her
torn blouse gives the lie to that.”

As were about to leave she hugged us and said, “Now don’t be
strangers. I know that it is a long drive and I don’t expect you
to come see me every week, but once a month or so would be nice,
and the phone is always available. I love you both, now go and be
happy.”

By the time I had finally pulled up in front of my apartment
building, I was exhausted. I looked over at June, and she was
shaking in her seat. I had noticed that the conversation had
lapsed for the last while, but attributed it to her being sleepy.
Now I saw that she was scared.

“Take it easy, June. I don’t expect to do anything tonight but
hold you. The last thing I want is for you to be afraid of me.” I
got out and locked up the van as I moved around to her door. She
was quietly sobbing when I got the door open and clung to me all
the way up to my apartment door. I guess the reaction from her
ordeal had finally set it.

Once we got to the top of the stairs I picked her up and carried
her to the bed. I lied her down on the bed and stripped down to
my shorts. While I was doing that she removed all but her
panties. I lay down next to her and held her as I fell asleep.

Sometime in the dark I awoke to June climbing on me and moaning.
I awoke again with light coming in through the edges of the
curtains and June on me like a blanket. I shifted her off and
went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. When I got back to
the bed June was awake and waiting for me.

“You stay here and don’t do anything Mac, I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.”

A few minutes later a nude redheaded elf came out and walked up
to where I was sitting on the side of the bed. She stepped in
between my legs and gave me a big kiss. “What made you show up at
John’s house, Mac?”

“I was afraid that you were getting ready to dump me, and when
Jed called to say that you couldn’t see me tonight I was sure of
it. I was going to surprise you at the gig Jed said you had, so I
called your mom to find out where it was. When I found out that
there was no gig but just practice, I got there as fast as I
could. I knew something was wrong.”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t make it plain to you that I love you
completely, Mac. I know what kind of problems you had with women
in the past and I should have taken that into account. I have
been getting frustrated with our situation lately, but it has not
been your fault. My brothers have been the problem, and now I
know why. What I need now, is for my lover to make love to me and
make me forget.”

I was getting hard before she said that, when my little redhead
is nude I always get hard, but now she grasped my rod and just
climbed on. I closed my legs together as June put her knees on
either side of me and lowered her tight little cunt onto my dick.
This was one of our favorite positions because June could control
my depth, and I could help her by holding on to her cute little
ass and lifting. She was still not able to take my whole length
without being uncomfortable. Sometimes she wanted that, but most
of the time not. I didn’t care; whatever made her happy was fine
with me.

My redheaded pixie bounced on my lap until she got two massive
orgasms. When she relaxed from the second one, I lay back on the
bed and began thrusting into her from below. It didn’t take long
before I was approaching my goal.

“Go ahead, Mac, get yours now. I will probably join you. Oh yes,
Lover, go, go, Oh yeah, I love you.”

“I love you, too, Sweetness. I’m sorry that I doubted you. Aargh!
That is sooo good.”

June collapsed onto my chest, and we rested for a bit. After a
shower I took June out to IHOP for breakfast.

“So what do you think, Dear? Are we going to be able to live
together?” June asked me over coffee.

“I don’t see why not, Darling. I like having you around, and the
idea that I get to wake up next to you each morning fills me with
joy.”

June reached across the table and clasped my hand. “Me too, Mac.
On a practical side, I’m going job hunting tomorrow. Can I borrow
the van to do it? We forgot to get my motorcycle at Mom’s. Maybe
we can go get it next weekend.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me. I saw a help wanted sign at one
of the stores at Five Points. Why don’t you check that out first?
If it works out you can walk to work. It’s only about four blocks
away from the apartment. I’ll talk to my buddy this afternoon
about taking the larger apartment downstairs. My loft was pretty
nice for me, but with two of us it is a bit crowded.”

“That sounds good. What about your band? You were talking about
dumping them at the end of the recording contract. Is that still
on?”

“More than ever. I’ve had about all of Dana’s bitching and
Janet’s whining I can take. I’m going to put up flyers at the
school tomorrow looking for a bass and drums to work with you and
me. The songs you and I have working on are some of the best I
have written, and I know a lot of people in Memphis now. Once we
have enough for an album, I am pretty sure I can get us recorded.
What do you think of “Scarlet Terror” as a group name?”

“Yeah, that sounds neat. We can have it printed on a red baseball
bat.” We both laughed at that. I knew that she was referring to
my actions against her brothers.

Monday morning June dropped me at school and headed out to look
for work. We didn’t really need the money, I was making out
pretty well on “Slip Streams” records. I was actually doing
better than the others because I had retained the rights to my
music. I got twice the royalties the others did.

June was looking for work because she would go nuts sitting home
alone all day waiting for me to get out of school.

I was sitting in the cafeteria at lunch when Rex came over to my
table with one of the flyers I had put up in his hand.

“What the hell is this, Mac?” He looked at the paper and read,
“Needed, hard working bass and drums for new band with two
experienced guitarists. Call Mac at seven six five, four two
three, one three one two.” He looked back up at me, “Are you
skipping out on our contract?”

“No, Rex, I will continue with you guys until the contract is
done. In the meantime I’m going to be working up a new group with
June. She moved in with me this weekend and I think I want to
marry her. We fit together in every way, including musically. I’m
writing some real good stuff that needs her to make them
complete.”

“But what if the recording company wants to extend the contract?”

“Come on, Rex. You know that isn’t going to happen. Dana has
destroyed anything that was good about “Slip Stream” and you know
it. I can’t take any more of her bull shit.”

“You are probably right, Mac, you’re a hell of a lot more
knowledgeable about this shit than I am. I’ve gotten fed up with
Dana’s shit too. What would you say to working with me and
Taylor? No one can back you as well as I do.”

“Taylor would drop her own sister? What makes you think that?”

“Well, the fact that she moved in with me last week could have
something to do with it. I’m actually thinking of settling down
for a change. What do you say, Mac, could we do it?”

“I admit, I wasn’t looking forward to breaking in a new bass
player. As long as Taylor and June go along with it, I’m good.”

“Then we had better take down the rest of these flyers. What’s
the name of our new band?”

“The Scarlet Terror” is what June and I decided on. Can you live
with that?”

“Sounds like a winner. We can practice in my mom’s garage just
like we used to. I can’t wait to see Dana’s face when we announce
that we are all quitting.”

That evening I made some phone calls to people I had met in
Memphis. We had a recording studio reserved for the week before
Christmas. If things went well, our first album could be out
before spring.

           The End, for now.