Thirty-Three

Allegra lay back on the bed and popped her earbuds in.  It had been a long day, but she was still on West Coast time and couldn’t sleep. 

They had arrived at Teterboro about three o’clock, Jersey time, with their backsides dragging as they exited the plane.  There was no time wallow in it though, as the younger boys were anxiously waiting at home for their Mama. 

Dot had just enough time to get to the house, gather the boys and get to Madison Square Garden for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.  Jake and Romeo had been looking forward to it for days, and were on the verge of panic that Dot wouldn’t make it home in time.  She had to spend half the ride from the airport on the phone with Jake, assuring him that she would be there and that they wouldn’t miss any of the dogs. 

When they arrived at the house, the boys rushed out of the door before the car had come to a stop.  Jake threw his arms around Dot and cried, “Mommy!  Is it time to go see the dogs?  Is it time?”

He was quickly followed by Romeo, who threw his little hands on his hips and demanded, “We ain’t gonna miss it are we?”

Everyone over the age of ten laughed at his mutinous expression, but he didn’t see anything funny about it.

“It ain’t funny!  You pwomised we could see the dogs and now you’re gonna make us miss ‘em!”  He did everything but stomp his foot in frustration, for all the world looking like his father.

Allegra knelt down to speak to him.  “Honey, Mommy hurried extra fast to make sure there was plenty of time to get you guys to the dog show.  She doesn’t want you to miss a thing.”

He was still pouting, with his set of mini duck lips, but said, “Oo-kay.  Can we go now?”

The driver had finished putting the luggage in the foyer.  Dorothea gave the boys a once-over to make sure there were no lingering cookie crumbs or jelly stains, before proclaiming them good to go.  “Okay guys, jump in and we’ll get this show on the road!”

She turned to Allegra and her teenagers.  “ Allegra, are you sure you wouldn’t like to go with us?”  At her polite refusal, Dot pointed to her children.  “You two.  Allegra has been her a dozen times, but don’t just assume she knows where everything is.  Show her around and make sure she’s comfortable.  Jess, take her luggage down to the guest house for her, please.  You guys don’t give Sophia a hard time, okay?  And don’t leave the grounds.”

Jake was pulling on her arm and saying, “Let’s GO Mommy!”

Dorothea rolled her eyes and succumbed to his tugging with a wave of her hand. “See you all later tonight!”

Allegra looked on in amusement as the car went back down the drive with the two energetic and one tolerant Bongiovi.

In all her visits to Jon’s house, she’d never had occasion to visit the guest house – or the recording studio for that matter.  The Shoe Inn, yes, of course.  There had been more than one family gathering flow out into Jon’s personal bar and game room.  She’d even managed a high score on the pinball machine once.  Jon spent a long time pouting over that one.

Jesse had carried her bags out to the guest house for her, and Steph tagged along to show Allegra around, as per her mother’s instructions.

“The kitchen is over here,”  the girl gestured to the left of the living room, “and the utility room is on the other side, with the washer and dryer.  The pantry is usually full, but if there’s something you want and can’t find, just call up to the house and tell Sophia.  She takes care of everything.” 

Moving further into the house, she indicated the two bedrooms.  “There’s the blue bedroom, and the brown one.  Most everybody stays in the blue one, except Uncle Richie.  He always picks the brown one because he says the bed is a California King, and so is he.  Very lame, but we always laugh like it’s funny.”  She looked at Allegra.  “You know they call him the King of Swing, right?  And he lives in California now.  So…  California King.”

“Definitely lame,” she agreed, silently choosing to take the brown bedroom as well.

“Anyway, both bedrooms have full baths attached, so you can use whichever one you like.”  Looking to see that her brother had gone back to the main house after dumping Allegra’s bags in the living room, Stephanie turned back to her cousin.  “So, I never did hear what Uncle Richie thought of your makeover.  Did he like it?  Are you going to start dating now?”

Finding a relaxing leather armchair to sit in next to the fireplace, Allegra studied the girl and tried to decide what to tell her.  She was only sixteen, but the truth happened to work in this case.  “He never really said anything one way or the other about my makeover.  And as far as dating, do you mean me dating him, or just dating in general?”

She stretched out on the couch, plumping a cushion up behind her head.  “Both.  I’d rather hear that you’re going to date him, but I’m nosy enough to want to know either way.”

Allegra laughed at her honesty.  “Well, sweetie, Richie and I are friends and that’s probably all it will ever amount to.  As far as me dating anyone else, I’ll have to wait and see what happens.  Right now I’m more concerned about finding a job.”

“That one’s easy,”  Steph informed her with a wave of her hand.  “You should work for the Soul Foundation.  I know it’s still working for Daddy, but it’s not like being on tour with him.  He’s not there in person nearly as much and there’s nobody besides him that cares about people more than you do.  He should let you run it.”

The simplistic view of a teenager:  everything was black and white.  “Stephanie, I’m not qualified to run any kind of business, profit or charitable.  I don’t have that kind of experience.  Your dad has much more capable people watching after his foundation.”

“Mom and Dad say you don’t think you’re qualified to do anything – even be a nun.  If that’s true, then what are you going to do?”

“Your parents said that to you?”  Allegra was a little hurt, but still couldn’t believe that they would say that to their teenage daughter. 

The girl’s sheepish look was enough to confirm that belief.  “Well, not exactly.  I heard them talking about it while we were in Seattle.  They didn’t know I could hear them.”

“That’s about what I thought.  You know you shouldn’t eavesdrop on people,”  she scolded.  “You sometimes end up hearing things that you wish you hadn’t.”

“It hasn’t happened so far,”  Stephanie told her with an impish grin.

“Well, it could!”  Allegra returned, laughing.  “And I think I’ll wait and decide the rest of my life tomorrow.  This evening  I’m just going to deal with unpacking and jet lag.  Is that okay with you?”

“Hey, whatever rocks your socks.  I’ve got to get back to the house anyway; I’m supposed to meet someone online in a few minutes.  Remember, if you need anything, let Sophia know.  I’ll see ya later Allegra.”  Stephanie gave her a quick hug and made a beeline for the house, texting on her cellphone as she went.

Allegra had been considering that conversation ever since, still not coming to any conclusions about a career path.  So she was sticking to her word and doing nothing for the evening, except listening to music. 

She rolled over on the California king-sized bed in the brown bedroom, as the strains of a simple piano melody commanded her attention.   His voice washed over her like a soothing wave, and she felt warmer than she had since leaving Seattle.

“It’s haard to re-mem-ber a tiime

When I didn’t have youu…”

Hearing his simple croon, she admitted that she’d hidden from it long enough.  It was time to search out the answer to Dot’s question:  what did she want to come of this? 

Her gut instinct told her that she wasn’t done with him, no matter how irrational that was.  He was angry with her right now, and she could understand that, but he wouldn’t be forever. 

Maybe a couple days short of forever… The extra time allowed for not mentioning that she was coming home.   She winced slightly at the thought.  It hadn’t been intentional, there just wasn’t time.  He left before she told everybody at dinner, and then he left again after… well, after.

Speaking of after, she let her mind drift back to the before.  Never had she dreamed a forceful hand would be so arousing.  She hated to be ordered around, but when he took control of the situation and her…  Well, she was squirming just thinking about it.  And the talk, sweet Jesus, the talking.  In the middle of doing everything hot and perfect, he just dropped a few slightly raunchy words in her ear and made her blood pump all the harder.  It was a little embarrassing how strongly she’d reacted to the things he’d said. 

Maybe it wasn’t the traditional first time, but she couldn’t imagine a better one.  There were regrets – not about what she’d done, but what she hadn’t done.  She regretted not tasting him more thoroughly, even when he’d told her to stop.   Not spending enough time kissing that beautifully perfect mouth was another one.  And touching.  She wanted to have felt his hot skin under her hands until they scorched.

Was this typical ‘day after’ kind of thought?  Or was it really like Dorothea said and the first time wasn’t so good?

Hmmm…

She rolled off of the bed, and went to the living room, where her laptop was sitting on the coffee table.  Snatching it up, she fell back on the couch and flipped the lid open.  The little blue E called to her and she double-clicked. 

Page cannot be displayed

What?  She hit the X and tried double clicking again. 

Page cannot be displayed

Her cell phone was lying on the arm of the chair, and she stretched to reach for it.  Reinforcements were necessary.  A couple of taps later, and she was listening to it ring on the other side. 

“Jess?  It’s Allegra.  I can’t get to the internet from the guest house.  Can you help me?”

It sounded like he was eating something and spoke around his food when he said, “Sure.”  Now the gulping swallow of whatever it was.  “There should be some little bars in the lower right hand corner of your screen, down by the clock.”

Little bars.  Yes, right there. “Okay, I found them, but there’s a blue swirly thing over top of it.”

“That just means it’s looking for a connection.  Click on the bars.  It will bring up all the available networks.  You just pick one and click on Connect.  You’ll probably have the best luck with the one called LoveShack.”

“LoveShack?”  Why on earth would they call this the Love Shack? 

“Yeah, Uncle David set up the wireless routers.  He thought it was funny because that’s where the uncles stay when they bring their wives or girlfriends.  Otherwise they just stay in the house with us.”

“Of course it was David.”  Nothing should surprise her when it came to the Joker.  “I’ll act like I didn’t hear that, and that you don’t know what it means, okay?  Oh.  It looks like I’m connected now.  Thanks for your help, sweetie.”

“No problem,” he told her and hung up.

Now back to my research…

She double-clicked the blue E one more time and was rewarded with the Google homepage. 

David told me I could type anything in here and find out information on it.  Surely there should be something out there on sex. 

She carefully typed ‘all about sex’ into the search box and tapped the enter key.  “About 1,020,000,000 results.  That’s a lot about sex.  Surely I can find something in here.”  She clicked on the first link:  All Sex Positions.

“Oh my.”  There were dozens of different sexual positions listed, with little animated illustrations and written instructions.  There were even reviews of the various positions!

She stopped to take in a few and scrolled down the page.  “Oh now that doesn’t even look possible,” she murmured at a particularly bendy pose.   “But this one has possibility.  I’ve got to remember that one.  Ohhh, and that one.”

While informative, this wasn’t exactly what she’d been looking for.  She wanted to find out what the typical first sex experience was supposed to be like. 

“Okay, let’s try… virgin sex.”  Again, she carefully typed the letters in the search box.  “About 11,700,000 results.  Well, that narrowed it down some.”  She chose one of the links at random. 

“Sweet Mary, Mother of God!”  Blood rushed to Allegra’s face as the pictures of naked bodies filled her screen.  “THAT wasn’t what I expected!”  She quickly navigated her mouse to the X, clicking it, only to have two more windows pop up with more graphic pictures than the first.  There were two women, two women and a man, a man and a woman…  a HORSE?!?

Frantically, she kept clicking to close the windows, only to have them multiply in number and content. 

“How can I make it stop?  What do I do?”  Her brand new computer and it had already been overtaken by pornography!  Still clicking, she paused briefly as something caught her eye.  “Heyyy, now…”  Then she realized what she was doing and shook herself.  “Come on!  X is supposed to close it, not open more!”

I need to call David.  He’ll know what to do.

Allegra reached for the phone and had begun to dial before good sense came over her.  There was no WAY she could let David know she’d been deluged by… by… THAT!  He’d never let her hear the end of it.  Besides, they were probably in the middle of their show right now.

The lid shut with a click as she slammed it down and tossed the computer onto the cushion next to her. 

I’ll have to take it someplace out of town and see if they can fix it.  I’ll just tell them it belongs to my nephew.  Boys get into that kind of trouble don’t they?

She picked up her phone and went back to the bedroom, leaving the tainted machine lying on the sofa.  Her favorite nightshirt was waiting for her on the bed, and she felt it caress her skin as she slid into it, imagining that she could still smell Richie’s scent on the fabric. 

The rest of the night would be spent trying to erase those computer images from her mind – or at least figure out a way to use them to her advantage.  That big pornographic mess on her computer could be a little serendipity in disguise...