Mindy
Copyright 1991-1993 By Ed Howdershelt
ISBN:1585059420
http://abintrapress.tripod.com

A Quick Introduction

	I had work-related reasons (an understatement of the situation) to leave Germany for a while. While we were working on a drug bust that spanned three countries, I was a witness to a murder. The Turkish "suspect" had escaped arrest, so I was ordered back to the U.S. for safekeeping. My employers placed me on indefinite standby due to the politics involved, so I visited family near Dallas, Texas, to wait until I was summoned to testify or work elsewhere. 
	I had been involved with a group of people who camp out and play in the woods with homemade armor, swords, and shields back in Germany. When I discovered a similar group in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area, I was happy to get reinvolved. At one of this group's open events in Grapevine, Texas, I met a lady named Mindy and her best friend, Diane. We managed to blend our own events into those already in progress.
	Mindy has had much to say and contribute during the writing of this recollection, but Diane couldn't contribute. She died of cancer in 1997. We miss you, Diane.

Chapter One

	A Midsummer Renaissance Event in Texas is a hot and dusty affair, but most everybody manages to have a good time. It amounts to lots of people trying to dress and act as they believe people would have in the middle ages and related times. Many of us also use it as an excuse to get out and party at a campground on a long weekend.
	After a few hours of trading techniques with some of the other "knights" at just such an event, I put down my sword and shield near the tavern booth and started peeling off my homemade armor as the "tavern wench" filled my mug with "ale" (probably Lone Star beer) from a concealed tap. By three in the afternoon I'd had enough pummeling and pounding in the heat. I was off the lists, anyway. These had been personal-challenge matches that could get you noticed, but weren't worth real brownie points toward rank.
	"Need help with the straps?" came a feminine voice from behind me. I noted that she wasn't using archaic, 'thee & thou' form of English and figured she was taking a break from it all, too. I turned to see a rather tall blonde in a green dress standing with hands clasped behind her, a questioning look in her lovely green eyes that were nearly on a level with my own. What I could see of her arms and shoulders told me she was neither skinny or fat under that heavy, Elizabethan-style costume.
	"No, thank you, MiLady. I used Velcro," I said, yanking two wide straps to let my chest armor fall off. Damn, it felt good to be rid of the extra weight. I stretched and reached for my beer. "But I'd be happy to help you with yours. How do you women spend all day in those outfits in this heat? May I get you something?" I waved at the tavern booth.
	"We don't stay in them all day, of course," she said, and nodding at my beer, "One of those would be nice. Your armor isn't made of steel, is it?"
	"Nope. Aluminum. More precisely, old road-signs, personally recycled." I lifted a piece to show her the underside of what once was a 'one-way' sign, then ordered her a beer.
	"Interesting," she said, "What we do in the name of fun, isn't it?" She made a point of noticing that her bodice needed re-tied and busied herself with performing that task while awaiting my next comment. As expected, I watched her tie it as I answered her.
	"If you mean making armor to wear while performing strenuous combative exercises or wearing heavily-layered, Elizabethan-style costumes in the middle of a Texas summer, then, yes, it is. If what you really meant was, 'did I steal a bunch of road signs', then the answer is no, I didn't. They were all damaged, replaced, and sent to be scrapped."
	She smiled slightly, tightened and patted her new bow knot into place between her breasts, and then, as if slightly shocked by her own suspicions, said, "Well, far be it from me to question the honor of a knight, Sir. How might I make it up to you?"
	I pretended to have to think about that a moment, then said, "Well, MiLady, if you truly wish to atone, you could accompany me to the feast tonight. I could then focus on your loveliness and ignore the banality and bravado so common to such events. Even the king would have to forgive my inattention if a woman as lovely as you were to be my companion at the feast table."
	She assimilated my answer for a moment, then grinned and said, "Oooo, that came out very well indeed. And with a straight face, too."
	"Aha, you think it's a line. Well, consider this: The king has a new girlfriend, so I'm not worried about incurring his attention, anyway. Since you are very lovely and they can be very banal at feasts, I can't think that even one word was misspoken."
	"It was still a line of fluff, MiLord, but I liked it. Certainly, sir, I'd be happy to accompany you to the feast if I may bring a lady friend." She made a small curtsey.
	I took her hand as it was offered for a kiss and felt the familiar mental nudge as her name came to me during our touching. "You're Mindy," I said, "A lovely name. I'm Ed."
	Some people don't react well to being identified by touch, but Mindy handled it well enough. She didn't try to break contact, but she tensed and her eyes narrowed a bit. "Cute trick," she said, "But you could have overheard it or asked someone about me."
	"Absolutely possible," I said, "I'd imagine that many have asked about  you. Green eyes, blonde hair, beautiful... Yup. I'm pretty sure they have."
	Her skepticism was unabated. After a moment's hard gaze, she said, "That approach probably scares some people away, you know."
	I smiled and said, "I didn't approach you, you approached me, and it only scares the uninteresting people. Those who can think have to question unusual things. Fearful people and those who don't think or question are generally rather dull company."
	Mindy digested this bit of opinion for a moment. "I'm not afraid of you and I'm questioning. Are you going to tell me how you got my name?"
	"You saw it happen. Test me on someone you know I've never met."
	Mindy regarded me carefully for a moment or two as she sipped her beer. "You can bet I'll do that. Got any other tricks in store?"
	"Tricks? Well, no... But would you settle for a treat, instead?"
	I saw an 'Oh, no, here comes the REAL bullshit' look cross her face. She sighed and asked, "A treat? Dare I ask what that might be?"
	"No need. I'll tell. You also sort of told me you like gin and bitter lemon or lime. I know who has some gin I can trade for and we can liberate a lime from the feast table." I shouldered my armor. "Let's dump this stuff at my tent and wander around a bit."
	Mindy didn't bat an eye, she just picked up my sword and said, "We can get some clean ice and cups at my tent." She gave me an 'I'll see your bet and raise you' look. I smiled at her and started walking toward my tent.
	Did I mention it was hot? It had to be a hundred degrees in the shade, but there were a couple of "knights" battling with swords and shields as we passed the field. Mindy didn't seem interested, which made me wonder what about me had caught her attention. I'm not one of those overly-muscled hunks at 6'2" and 178 pounds, and since my day had largely been spent on the battlefield, she couldn't have spotted either my sparkling personality or incisive intellect. Or even my modesty... We didn't talk much as we wound our way to my tent, but as I was changing my shirt she asked, "What else did you pick up about me?"
	I took a moment to douse my head and chest with cool water before answering. "You're 34, sort-of single, you have no kids, and I saw a painting in there." I saw her eyes widen in my shaving mirror as I dried myself, but when I turned, she pretended skepticism and fanned herself with an events-program. "You saw a painting when you touched me?"
	"Yup, something Egyptian-looking, with bright colors. On a stand."
	"An easel," she said, "Don't you have any doubts? That maybe you might be just a little bit wrong about some small thing along the line?"
	"Not this sort of thing, and I would like to see that painting."
	"Why," she asked skeptically, "Just to see if there really is one?"
	"Nope. It's at your apartment, about half-finished." I could see she was having trouble adding something up.
	"So you're into Egyptian art?"
	I grinned slightly. "No, not particularly."
	"Then why do you want to see it?"
	As I buttoned my shirt, I smiled and said, "Because it's in your apartment, Mindy, and seeing it would mean  being there with you, and that would mean you think well of me."
	Mindy laughed aloud. "Think well of you? Think well of you? You think I'm going to take you home with me because I think well of you?"
	When her laughter died, I said, "You certainly wouldn't if you didn't, would you?"
	"Oh, well, no, I guess not. That's a good point, Ed." She laughed again.
	"You'll consider letting me see that painting, then?"
	She was really laughing, now. I gave her a questioning look.
	"Oh, it's just," she said, "That you seem to be trying to con ME into asking YOU to come up and see MY etchings."
	I summoned up my most innocent, thoughtful look and said, "Yes, well, I suppose it could appear that way, wouldn't it?"
	If anything, Mindy's laughter increased. She grabbed my towel to dry her face and sat with her face buried in the towel, laughing. A rather portly woman passing by saw her apparently sobbing into a towel and stormed over with a couple of similarly-indignant friends to ask in a rather accusatory tone if everything was alright, already glaring daggers at me.
	I grinned innocently and shrugged. Mindy looked up, saw them prepared to draw and quarter me for supposed offenses of word or deed, and howled with laughter, falling backwards off the cooler. She wound up wedged between the tent screening and the cooler. I moved to help her up, but she caught sight of the three women looking pretty damned confused, and the gales of laughter started all over again.  I settled for helping her to lie on her side behind the cooler for the moment.
	The three women drifted slowly away with the kind of glance-backs normally reserved for people of dubious sanity. As her laughter began to fade, I handed Mindy a freshly dampened towel and asked, "Are you gonna survive this?"
	She rolled flat on her back and breathed deeply. Elizabethan costumes tend to lend themselves well to deep-breathing,  I noted with appreciation.
	Mindy noted my appreciation. "What? Am I untied or something?"
	"Ah, no. I was just, um..., entranced by your costume."
	"Entranced, huh? Oh, well, you're supposed to be. These outfits do show a lot of cleavage, don't they?"  She glanced down her front.
	"Well, now that you call my attention to it..."
	"Oh, shut up," she said, "You'll just get me started laughing again." I helped her back up onto the cooler, where she sat recovering for a few moments. "Now," she said, "What about those drinks?"
	People were staring at us as we left my tent and wandered in search of Lodnar's tent. Some of the ladies were giggling as we passed, so it seemed reasonable that the tale had not only been told, it had likely been embellished a bit in each telling.
	"What do you think they heard?" I asked Mindy.
	"Something more than the truth, from the sound of them."
	"Seems likely. Do we do anything about it?"
	"What's to do? They'll believe what they want, right or wrong."
	I made a deal with Lodnar for a huge bottle of gin, then we dropped byMindy's tent for ice. A husky guy still half-dressed in armor was standing just inside the tentflap, facing the interior. I glanced at Mindy. Was this going to be an old, or a current, boyfriend?
	Mindy reached through the tentflap and slapped his armored leg to secure his attention. Her action reminded me of someone handling a horse in a stall. Mindy's tone was demanding as she asked, "Bryce, why the hell are you in our tent? Where's Diane?"
	"Diane told me that someone told her you were in trouble in some guy's tent. Is this the guy?" He sounded eager to do something, anything on her behalf.
	"Bryce, STAY," commanded Mindy. Bryce's eyes narrowed, but he didn't move. "I wasn't in trouble and it obviously wasn't this tent. This guy's a friend. Where's Diane?"
	"She's a feast volunteer," he replied sullenly, "She's busy at the tables."
	"Well, why don't you go tell her I don't need rescued. We'll go over there a little later."
	The guy glared at me as he pushed past me and left the tent, fairly stomping down the trail. I looked at Mindy, but she waved me off. "I wasn't too hard on him. He's been after Diane and/or me for a year, and he has a talent for being a real ass. He was about to try to heroically impress me just now, using you."
	"I gathered that. Mind telling me why you can order him around the way you did? He didn't like it, but he followed orders."
	"He knows I can take him, for one thing. He'd love for me to take  him, in another sense. Or Diane. He'd be happy with either of us. It'll never happen, though. Diane uses him as a choreboy at events, which just keeps his hopes up. That can make people mean when they've had enough of it, and he's already got a mean streak. I don't encourage him at all."
	"What an absolute cad," I said, grinning, "Maybe it's because you're both beautiful?"
	"She's very good looking. Did you pull that out of my head, too?"
	Cold and sharp, the first slug of gin-laced Coke raced to the bottom. It wasn't what I usually drink, but wasn't too bad, surprisingly enough. I reminded myself to be careful.
	"No," I said, "I didn't. It was a real, live guess."

Chapter Two

	We sipped gin and talked away the two hours or so before the feast was to start, probing each other now and then with things said or asked. Mindy spoke her mind without much hesitation. She also asked rather candid questions, I discovered.
	A couple of kids ran past the tent. "You have any of those?" asked Mindy, "You aren't extremely short, fat, or ugly," she said, "So why aren't you here with a wife or girlfriend?"
	"No kids. I got fixed back in 1971. I'm not married, I've only been back from Germany about a month, and I haven't met anyone else who really grabbed my attention." 
	Our cups were almost empty. I dosed each with ice and gin and poured in the Coke. Mindy looked as if she were making her mind up about something, then asked," 'Else'? That means I've managed to grab your attention?" It was a direct question without a hint of frivolity in her tone. I stopped pouring her new drink and looked up at her. Mindy's gaze was rock-steady as she waited for the answer.
	I looked in her eyes and said simply, "Yes, you have," then I finished pouring and capped the bottle. There was an awkward silence as we sipped our new drinks, so I tried to break it with, "And you? You're tall and beautiful. How have you evaded motherhood?"
	Her silence didn't break immediately. She regarded me thoughtfully another few moments before appearing to make up her mind yet again. There was a hint of nervousness about Mindy as she spoke. "I'm not ready for children in my life and I'm not exactly alone," she said, "Diane and I are very, uhm, close."
	I considered that. "Close enough that she has to approve of me?"
	Mindy made a wry grin. "You could definitely say that."
	"Lovers?" Mindy nodded. I asked, "And if she doesn't approve?"
	"I think she will," Mindy said with a small grin.
	I considered that for a moment. "I'm not looking for flattery, Mindy; I'm looking for an answer, here. Would Diane agree or approve because she liked me or because you wanted me enough to ask her?"
	"Either or both, probably. Would that matter?"
	"It would to me. I like you a lot, Mindy, but you've shown me how strong-willed and commanding you can be. I wouldn't want you to force Diane to allow me aboard your relationship." I could see anger forming in her face at my words, but it suddenly faded, replaced with a look of bemused amazement. 
	Mindy laughed. "I'm going to make her sit down before I tell her you said that."
	"I wasn't trying to be funny, Mindy."
	"Don't worry, you weren't," she said, then laughed again, "But her reaction will be. She doesn't think men like you exist."
	"Huh?" I'm sure I sounded real intelligent just about then.
	"Yeah," said Mindy, "Diane doesn't believe in men like you." She was really laughing, now. "Boy, will she be surprised. Look, I'll explain later, when I can breathe again."
	I smiled and nodded and sipped my gin, wondering if I really wanted into this, after all. Diane sounded like a woman bitter from her experiences, and my real interest was Mindy, anyway, but I had a feeling that it would be a 'both or neither' situation. We'd been sitting cross-legged, facing each other. I decided to stretch and just powered myself straight up to a standing position. Mindy rearranged her skirt a bit, then did the same, meeting my gaze.
	"Where to?" she asked, dusting herself off.
	I almost said, "Don't worry, I'm not trying to escape." Instead, common sense won out and I said, "Just loosening up."
	Mindy didn't seem to do things with the delicateness of most women. Small things had tipped me off that she was unusual, but then she did something specific. Her ice had lumped up in her glass, so she poured a little of the gin on her fingers, wiped her hand on the underside of her skirt, reached into her cup to grab the floating lump, and looked up at me as she squeezed it hard enough to shatter the ice-blob back into little bits. I wondered if it was her way of telling me not to try to escape.
	"Mindy," said an approaching woman, "You're gonna scare that poor boy if you haven't already." She was about as tall as Mindy and looked about 40, with long brown hair and a confident stride. She came to within two feet of me and stood looking at me.
	Mindy introduced us with, "Diane, meet Ed. Ed, Diane." She looked meaningfully at Diane and said, "I'd just love for us all to be friends."
	Diane stood near Mindy with her hands on her hips. Her left eyebrow raised slightly in mild surprise as she looked from Mindy to me. She didn't bother with archaic English when she said softly, "Is that so, now? What makes you so special, I wonder?"
	She extended her hand for a handshake, not a courtly kiss. As we touched, her eyes widened a bit and she looked briefly at our clasped hands. I felt a pushing sensation in my mind, and my eyes widened, too. I pushed back a little, grinning at her as I discovered in her touch a creature like me in at least one respect. After a moment Diane grinned back at me. We just stood there, holding hands and grinning silently at each other, for some seconds before Mindy passed a hand between us and said, "Hey! What's going on here, guys?"
	Diane let go of my hand, leaned over and kissed Mindy's cheek, and said, "Gotta run. Feast's on in a few minutes. Don't lose him."
	She then retrieved something from their tent and quickly strode back the way she'd come. Mindy looked somewhat confused. 
	I was still grinning as I took her hand to lead her toward the tables. "I think she likes me," I said. Mindy stopped us and stared at me for a moment.
	"I know she likes you," she said, "The question is why?. Diane's not fond of men in general; Ed. She just uses them now and then for free labor."
	I tried to get us moving again by stepping forward. "Maybe it was something I said."
	Mindy was irritated and unwilling to proceed. She poked me in the chest with a finger. "You didn't say one goddamned word to her. Not even one word, Ed. What's going on?"
	I faced her squarely and took both her hands in mine as I spoke. "Mindy, you trust Diane, but you've only known me a few hours. Could she be the one to tell you, please?"
	Mindy was glaring at me tight-lipped as something wasn't said. After a moment, she relented somewhat. We kept our voices low as we waited in line to wash up at the sinks.
	"Well, how about a hint, then? Maybe I can figure it out for myself."
	"Ok," I said, "She touched me. That's the hint."
	"Oh, Jesus. You're saying she can do stuff like that, too? I'm supposed to believe that?"
	"I'm saying Diane is probably better at it than I am, Mindy."
	"Why, because she's a woman? Oh, what the hell am I saying? I can't take all this psychic stuff seriously, Ed. I'm sorry, I just can't."
	"Ok. Not a problem for me, but if this is the first you've ever seen of it with Diane, you might want to at least talk to her about it."
	"I plan to ask her why she's playing along with you, at any rate."
	I looked at Mindy questioningly. "WHAT?!" she asked.
	"Think about it Mindy. She met me, I said nothing to her. She said nothing to me. We just shook  hands, and she was apparently very happy to meet me. YOU said she doesn't like men in general."
	Mindy didn't speak for a moment, then said flatly, "She doesn't."
	"But she liked me instantly, and that really bugs you. It almost makes you feel she's jumping your claim, which she isn't, and that's why you need to talk with her about all this."
	"How would YOU know what she's doing? Oh, hell, I forgot! You're a psychic!" Her whispered tone was sarcastic. She glared at me.
	"Something else, too," I said, "Real or imagined, you feel left out the same way you would if she and I had shared a private joke. We had a moment of discovery, but we weren't trying to exclude you."
	Mindy thought a moment and seemed to calm down. "Yeah, I know that," she said, "I don't really know why it upset me."
	"How about the fact that you're lovers?" I whispered to her, "I don't want to seem to be a threat of any kind to you on that level, either."
	She glanced sharply at me but said nothing. The line for trenchers and food was beginning to move. We tacitly agreed to shelve the conversation for the moment. Diane was serving the roast. As we appeared in front of her, she spoke softly, "I'll be free in about half an hour; if you eat slowly I can join you for dinner. Still got any gin?"
	I turned to show the bottle poking out of my shoulder bag. "Three-quarters full, still. We'll need more mixer, though."
	"No problem. I'll grab a bottle of something. Any preferences?"
	"Whatever," I said, "As long as it isn't 'diet' anything. We've been using Coke."
	"Ok. See you in a few, then." She winked at Mindy.
	We didn't speak as we loaded our trenchers and found seats at one of the big tables, nibbling at our food as people settled in around us. Just before the "King" and "Queen" took their seats, Diane showed up and squeezed in next to me. Mindy's eyes narrowed a bit at that.
	I took a moment to study Diane. Older than Mindy by almost a decade, but well-kept and vibrant, and she filled her dress well without over-filling it. Definitely a rather attractive woman, I decided. As my eyes returned to her face, I saw she had been watching me appraise her.
	"Well?" she asked.
	"If your brains match your looks, you really lucked out," I said.
	"Crudely said, but sufficient. I think you'll find they do," she said with a grin.
	Mindy nudged me in the ribs. The King and Queen had arrived and were being ostentatiously seated, so of course everybody else was expected to stand until their royal butts hit their portable thrones. In the course of the feast several songs were sung, parodies and skits were performed, and individuals contributing in some manner to the kingdom and this event were duly honored, which meant that the kitchen staff volunteers got a round of applause to go with the royal ribbon awards.
	Diane was called to receive her award, and again I saw that purposeful stride and the figure it carried across the court. Diane was a most admirable piece of work, literally, in the costume she'd made. The beadwork trim alone probably took a few days of spare time.
	When I turned to comment about the amount of work that went into Diane's outfit, I was looking into the face of a rather disgruntled Mindy. I realized she thought that I had just plain been eyeballing Diane, of course. "That's quite an outfit," I said, "It must represent a lot of hand-work and a hell of a lot of time." Damn, that sounded feeble.
	"Yes, it does," said Mindy. Nothing else. Stone face, tight-lipped, tense. She turned back to her plate and pushed her food around in silence. I watched her for a moment as I thought of what I wanted to say.
	"So I'm not allowed to find her attractive? That won't work for me, Mindy. I think you're both beautiful women, and after meeting her earlier, I was generally willing to go your way with this, even though you were the one I really wanted. Now I'm discovering that she isn't a stereotypical blind date, and that I look forward to pleasing her as well, and you don't like it. Why? I thought that was your plan."
	Mindy didn't look up from her plate. "It was," she said.
	Hell, I didn't know what to say that would fix things, so I said nothing. This felt like something the two women needed to hash out without me. As I handed Diane back into her seat at the bench, I remained standing and said I'd be back shortly, thumbing in the general direction of the portable toilets.
	Diane realized immediately that something wasn't right and nodded as she jauntily said, "Oh, goodie! Another prize ribbon from the royals. Whatever shall I spend it on? Oh, wait, that's right, they don't spend very well, do they? Ah, well, it IS the thought that counts, isn't it?" There were some nearby giggles, but not Mindy's.
	I looked at the lines by the toilets and said, "Looks as if I may have to go find a tree..." to cover whatever amount of time I chose to be away. I grabbed a fresh cup of Coke and stabbed a nice piece of the roast onto my "formal" dagger as I passed the serving tables. While standing in line, nibbling my roast, drinking my Coke, minding my own business, and waiting to see if I really needed to pee, after all, I was approached by a young, overweight woman who seemed rather fidgety. "You want to go ahead of me?" I offered, moving a bit to one side. 
	She seemed to fidget even harder, if that could be somehow possible, and stammered out the words, "Y-you know those...uh... women you're with over there?"
	I nodded. "Not well. I just met them this afternoon," I said, waiting for her revelation to manifest itself in due time.
	She bumbled about a bit, fingering a gold crucifix on her necklace, before finally, in an intense, unquiet whisper, saying, "They're known lesbians!"
	I thought a moment before replying, "They seem interested in me. Are you sure?"
	Thus encouraged, she whispered, "Yes! Everybody knows it!"
	It wasn't much of a whisper. A number of people standing nearby couldn't help but hear every word. I pretended to give this more thought, then said, in a normal voice, "But everybody else isn't taking the trouble to tell me about it. Only you. What's in it for you? Or do you just enjoy spreading the nastier gossip about other people?"
	Some guy standing a few feet away said. "She's a bluenosed busybody, MiLord, always either proselytizing or condemning someone else. It is her single claim to any sort of fame."
	The woman was turning a bright, angry shade of red as she tried to think of something scathing to say to him. I derailed her thoughts. "Never speak to me again and never say anything about ME that you can't prove in court," I said, "This kingdom's court or a real court of law, with lawyers and judges." When she began a retort, I stopped her. "Never has already started. Now get lost."
	The guy who'd called her a busybody spoke as she waddled away, "She's related in her mundane persona to one of the royals. She erroneously thinks that makes her part of the king's court and tries to throw her considerable unofficial weight around all the time. She may try to make trouble for you, sir."
	"We'll see. I'm going to tell a couple of people what she did and said so someone in some kind of authority here will know what really happened."
	"I'll mention the incident to the kingdom seneschal, then," he said, "The royals know about her penchant for malicious gossip; she'll be cautioned or she'll be asked to leave."
	We chatted as the line shortened. "One thing, though," he said before disappearing into one of the porta-potties, "Those ladies are very well-liked by most of us here. Do be careful in your actions, MiLord." His reverting back to archaic English was a way of informally speaking for the group in this matter. I assured him I'd behave.

Chapter Three

		The feast was in full swing when I arrived back at the table. By some form of compromise, I suppose, Mindy and Diane were now sitting together, leaving a gap for me next to Mindy instead of between the two. I took my seat without commenting about the re-arrangement. One of the comedy skits was underway; it was supposed to be about a lady who sought a boon of redress at the king's court. Baron-Somebody was announcing her plight to the feasters. The trick of it was that the players could be chosen from the audience at random or by the whim of the Baron.
	"MiLords and Ladies of the Court, please attend!" he bellowed, carefully emphasizing specific words, "The Lady Mindy petitions for the intercession of this Court in a matter she feels requires redress!"
	Mindy removed her overskirt before standing, revealing a similar skirt that was different only in that it had a long slit up each side.As she strode forth, her legs were revealed with each step, and long, lovely legs they were, indeed. She grinned wickedly back at me as she approached the throne. I glanced at Diane; she was grinning just as wickedly, enjoying the mock-goggle-eyed stares of the guests at Mindy.
	The king, pretending to be stupefied by the sight of her, managed to croak, "Please state the nature of the case!"
	The Baron said, "It is the statement of MiLady Mindy that that man (he pointed at me) has willfully damaged her dress! She seeks only just redress from this Court!"
	The crowd roared for my blood, of course. Two men-at-arms came to lift me from my seat and escort me to the center of the activities. I thought about what I might say on the way. They deposited me on my knees before Mindy and the court.
	"Well, Sir, are you a Knight or a knave?" thundered the Baron,"What have you to say in your defense?"
	"I am verily a knight, Sir!" I declared, "But a knight so smitten by the obvious charms of the icon of womanhood you see before you that I was unable to maintain my accustomed grace and dignity whilst in her presence! I fear that while I was in my cups..." - I held up the gin bottle as evidence - "I must have stepped on the hem of her skirt...!" I paused and added, "For which I'm most truly and abjectly apologetic, of course!"
	The crowd, also of course, wasn't buying it. They wanted her vengeance! Shouts of "Hang him!" and "Quarter him!" rang out. I made an effort to look appropriately remorseful and guilty, all the time sneaking rather obvious leering glances at the legs in front of me.
	Mindy, all the while, was displaying the evidence of my misdeed, her leg extended so that the skirt draped over only the very topmost of her thigh and left the entire rest of her leg uncovered. Leering for the show was easily accomplished. I'm sure the crowd thought it was real. I'm sure I thought it was real as well... that was a wonderful leg waving back and forth before me.
	"Well, Sir? Have you money to buy her a new skirt?" the Baron bellowed.
	"Nay, I have naught, Sir! The King's taxmen took all I had!" I whined, and in a spate of logic I added, "And, in order to get RE-dressed, wouldn't she have to get UN-dressed first? That cannot be proper conduct for a lady of such obvious grace and beauty, can it?"
	The crowd roared again. Hoots and howls and "Hang him! Quarter the knave!"
	"Now you INSULT the KING and try to confuse this esteemed Court with your CONVOLUTED THINKING?!" yelled the Baron, "Have you no shame at all?" He faced the crowd. "WHAT shall we do with such a man? It is obvious he has NO TRUE REMORSE for either his words or his deeds!"
	The crowd yelled various ideas of justice which included selling me into slavery, the guillotine, and slow dismemberment. This was allowed to continue for some moments before the Baron declared all of the crowd's suggestions inappropriately extreme. He asked Mindy, "What would YOU have us do with him, MiLady?"
	Mindy pretended to give the matter extensive consideration, all the while waggling her leg back and forth in front of me as she posed in deep thought. I let my gaze follow that leg back and forth, as expected. The Baron groaned at my obvious lack of moral fibre.
	"I wish to consult with my friend and advisor!" said Mindy, indicating Diane, who rose from the table and approached with measured stride, gazing at me as if seeing something yet to be identified. They huddled and whispered for a moment or two, then Diane also went through the motions of careful consideration of the problem. She suddenly snapped her fingers and exclaimed, "I've got it!"
	The crowd almost leaned forward in expectancy of her revelation.
	"He can be released in our custody to work off his debt!" She paused as she hauled up her skirt to pull her dagger out of it's thigh-sheath (also exposing a most fine leg) and began to clean her nails with it, "...and if he tries to escape, well... who wants his BOOTS..?"
	The crowd roared approval. The King smiled, the Queen smiled, the Baron smiled, and all seemed right with the world again with the thorny problem finally solved.
	"But my tent!" I cried, "My worldly possessions! I can't just leave them to the elements and plunderers!" I fell forward, wrapping myself around Mindy's leg as if in supplication.
	She shrugged said, "He's got a point, there. It really wouldn't be fair to let the rain rot his saddle and rust his armor, now would it? But we have such limited space!"
	"His saddle and armor can rest where a guest would ordinarily sleep," said Diane, brandishing the dagger near my face, "HE will sleep BETWEEN us, where we can better watch him and prevent his escape until he's paid his debt!"
	Yeah, well, you just know the crowd roared yet again with approval for Diane's plan. I was duly assigned to Diane and Mindy for the duration of the event upon my honor not to try to escape, then each of the ladies took one of my arms firmly to lead me back to the dining table. 	The Baron's last words on the matter were, "You had best acquit yourself with honor, Sir, and suffer your punishment gracefully!" I assured him I'd do my best as they required of me. The crowd roared about that, too. That crowd just liked to roar, I think.
	As we sat down, Diane pointed across the field. Following her gaze, I saw the woman who had approached me at the toilets. She was livid with rage and embarrassment as she stomped away from the proceedings underway for the next mock-injustice case. 
	"Huh," I said, "You mean all that was aimed at her? Damn!"
	"We had to improvise a bit from the original script," said Mindy, "I was supposed to have had a beef with a drunken dressmaker. You managed to play along with us very well."
	She pointed toward the throne, where I saw the guy I'd talked to by the toilets grin and give a slight wave back at us. He was standing behind the Queen's throne with a large book and a quill pen. "Well, he did say he'd talk to the seneschal about it..." I said.
	"He is the seneschal," said Diane, "He was probably in a hurry."
	We finished eating and watched the rest of the court's activities as darkness fell. Torches lit the campgrounds here and there as the court disbanded for the evening. People were finding their ways back to their tents and other activities around and about. Music made on handmade instruments came from all quarters, singing could be heard from several areas, and laughter wafted in the night air.
	As we began our own ambling path back to Mindy's tent, first one, then the other of the ladies slipped their hands in mine. I could feel the warm presence of each of them in the darkness between torchlights, and Mindy was humming a tune from one of the skits.
	"Still got that gin?" asked Diane, "I haven't had a drink yet."
	"Still have it," I said, "What about mixer?"
	She held up a 2-litre bottle of Coke. "Got the coldest new bottle."
	It was Texas, remember? Hot, even at night during summer. I mopped my face with a towel when we got back to their tent. We sat around the cooler, sipping and sighing as the drinks hit bottom in us. Half an hour later Mindy chucked her heavy skirt; her bare legs gleaming in the torchlight as she shimmied out of the untied top of her outfit. 
	"Aahh," she said, shaking out her damp underblouse.
	Diane had ducked deeper into the tent for a few moments and emerged  wearing what at first appeared to be a man's shirt. It wasn't; it was sort of similar, but had been tapered at the waist and was slightly longer than shirttails would have made it.
	I admired them both for some moments before I said, "Well, that leaves me to try to get comfortable. How far am I allowed to go?"
	Diane looked at Mindy, who said simply, "As far as you think proper, Ed. Or dare."
	I took off my shirt and towelled while I thought a moment. "Speaking of dares, then... I have a suggestion, ladies. Let's sit and sip and talk until the shower lines are shorter. Let's take some more time to get to know each other better, and then, if we're all for the idea at the time, we'll tell anyone who asks that we all got poison oak on us and hit the shower together. We can take our time and get extremely clean. What do you think?"
	We all looked back and forth at each other for a few moments, sipping and grinning.
	"I'm in," said Mindy. We looked rather expectantly at Diane.
	"Make it poison ivy instead of poison oak and you've got a deal," she said.
	We carried on for a while like schoolkids plotting something nefarious. As we refilled our glasses, Mindy suddenly asked me, "How come you haven't tried to kiss me, Ed?"
	In answer to her question I took her hand and kissed it, then softly kissed her lips. The salt tang of her skin and the scent of her hair was a thrill.
	"Mmm, you taste wonderful, Mindy. You smell wonderful, too. I'm sorry to have been slow, but I honestly wasn't sure where I stood until just a little while ago."
	"I can't smell wonderful," she said, "I'm a sweaty mess. You're forgiven, though. I can see where you might have been confused."
	I grinned at her. "Trust me on this, please," I said, "I'm a male human being and you smell absolutely wonderful, just like a hot, sweaty woman should smell. Gives me a tingle, ma'am."
	There was a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Diane fanning her shirt at me and smiling. She was unbuttoned to her navel. "And me? Do I give you a tingle too?"
	I leaned in close to her breasts and sniffed deeply. A strong, musky scent was there. I could see that she wore nothing under the shirt. "Oh, about the same, I guess... Delicious!"
	"Thank you, sir," said Diane, kissing me deeply.
	I hadn't thought I could manage more of a reaction, but I did. Mindy drew her fingernail down the front of my pants and said, "Oh, my, Diane! Look what you've done to him!"
	When I turned to face her, Mindy kissed me deeply, too. They laughed long and loudly when I raised my arms to the heavens as if in prayer and said to the sky, "I'm a lot less doubtful of my position, now. Thank You, Ma'am!"
	"Ma'am?!" laughed Diane.
	"Oh, yes," I said, "I know the secret of the universe, you know... A Goddess has taken over in heaven and from now on all truly good little boys will be occasionally double-teamed by gorgeous women!"
	"Oh, great! What about good little girls?" asked Mindy, "What do they get?"
	"Well, since a Goddess is in charge now, I'd say pretty much whatever they want. May I volunteer to try to fulfill your desires?"
	Diane laughed again, "Just as well that you do, since you can't try to escape, remember?"
	"Cool," I said, "Am I likely to survive?"
	"Can't say," Mindy said cryptically, "A few have. Most haven't."
	That got us all laughing again, which made us thirsty again, which led us to refilling our glasses again. I mixed and poured medium drinks.
	"I think he's trying to get us drunk," said Diane, "And have his way with us. What are we gonna do about that, Min?"
	"We could go ahead and get drunk," said Mindy, giggling.
	"Oh, no, no, no, wait just a moment, please, ladies," I protested, "You're supposed to get drunk and I'm supposed to have your way with you. I'm here to please!"
	Mindy had thought I was actually protesting at first. She giggled some more at being fooled. "I must be half-drunk already," she said.
	Diane's eyebrow arched high like Mr.Spock's. "I'd say so, you lus... lus... LUSH!" She shook her head. "Damn... me too, I think!"
	"Heh, heh," said Mindy parking herself on the cooler, "Lusty Lush. Sounds like the name of a boat, doesn't it? Or a CB handle. Heh, heh..." she said, "Breaker one-nine! This here's The one Lusty Lush lookin' for a Smokey report!" She then fell into a fit of laughter and fell backwards off the cooler onto her back, her calves resting on top of the box. "Oh, goddamn!" she said, "I already did this once today!" and laughed hysterically.
	Diane was laughing almost as hard. "Oh, put your legs down before you make this guy bounce you p-p-prematurely, Mindy!"
	Someone a short distance away yelled, "Is everything all right over there?" This sent both women and me into gales of laughter. Somebody at the other tent muttered, "Must be good stuff...", which only added to the volume of laughter in our tent.
	"I think he means you," Diane whispered to Mindy, "Good stuff!"
	"No,no,no,no," whispered Mindy, "He means you!"
	"US!", said Diane, "US!" said Mindy, then they whispered together in a gutteral chant, "US! US! US! US!"
	"Jeez," I said, "It sounds as if you've got me on the floor in here. I'm so embarrassed!"
	"You better not be embarrassed, stud," said Mindy, "You got us!" ...and the chant began again, "US! US! US! US!"
	It took some time for the laughter to die down. Diane made another round of drinks as Mindy coughed out the last few bits of laughter and appeared to quiet down, but then her giggles started again.
	"HeHeHeHeHeeeeeee....HeHeHeHeHeeeeeee...." She waved frantically as she said, "Oh-god-I-can't-stop-HeHeHeHeHeeeeeee...."
	Diane stared at her. "I don't believe I've ever seen her quite like this before," she said calmly, as if over a cup of tea. The giggles went on.
	"Any suggestions?" I asked, as if sharing that tea break with Diane.
	The giggles got worse, if anything.
	Diane gave me a deadly serious look and said, "There may only be one cure, Ed."
	Her meaningful gaze fell to my crotch.
	This sent Mindy into another round of outright laughter.
	"See?" Diane commented, "Those things have a lot of uses."
	Mindy cracked up completely, hysterically.
	"I've seen race horses like that," I said, "If you don't let up soon she's gonna start blowing blood like a 3rd-race pony..."
	Diane calmly looked at me and said, "Nah. She'll pass out first."

Chapter Four

	Mindy was blowing like a racehorse by the time she gained control of herself enough to stop laughing.
	I handed her her drink after she righted herself to a sitting position on the ground instead of the cooler box. She looked herself over and began dusting herself off.
	"Is it dark enough yet? Are the lines gone? I need that shower now. How the hell did all this dirt get in the tent?"
	I said, "I'm going to need a towel, so I'll have a look on my way. A few adults around probably won't matter, do you think?"
	Mindy managed a short giggle this time. "As long as they don't try to stop us or join us, I don't think I much care, Ed."
	"Hey, we can say we were drunk," said Diane, "The truth'll probably work."
	I made two stops on the way past the showers; one for my towel and one to see if any more gin could be had. It could. I traded my 3rd-string belt dagger for it and started back to the tent past the showers. Two people were there, and one left as I passed.
	I returned to the ladies with the news, parking the extra gin in my tent for later on the way. This was only Friday night of a long weekend, after all.
	They were ready when I returned. Each was wearing a beach towel and a smile. Someone had freshened the drinks, so we grabbed soaps and shampoos and our drinks and off we went, arm in arm. Diane whistled "We're Off To See The Wizard" and we started skipping.
	The showers were individual stalls, the walls of which began about a foot off the floor and ended at about six feet up. I tried both taps on the nearest one and discovered there appeared to be no hot water. We took seats on the benches usually used for waiting in line.
	"So we give it a few minutes," said Diane, "There are eight showers, so the water heater has to be big enough to keep up."
	"Not necessarily," said a voice on the other side of a stall wall.
	Mindy jumped to her feet, startled. Diane remained seated, sipping her drink and grinning at Mindy. I asked the voice, "Why not?"
	"Well, I don't know, exactly," said the voice, "But I've been here before a few times, and after a certain hour they must turn off the heater."
	"Is it that late already?" asked Mindy.
	"Don't know that, either," said the voice, "Probably. Gimme a minute to dry off."
	A minute later, out of the stall came none other than the King. He'd not only dried himself, he'd also "redressed" himself, crown and all.
	"Oh, I thought I recognized those voices. Having a good time, all?"
	Mindy began to giggle again and got a sharp look from Diane, who was now on her feet, according to custom. I rose to stand beside her.
	"A very good time," said Diane, wavering slightly, "The best possible, your royalness."
	The King looked us over and smiled. "Wonderful," he said, and left.
	We stood and sat for a while, hoping the water would warm up before we finished our drinks or finished waiting, whichever came first.
	I finally said, "Wish me luck, I'm going in."
	I entered the stall and turned on the hot water. It wasn't hot, but it wasn't cold, either. "I think it'll be okay, ladies," I said. I hung my towel on the back of the door and opened the soap. Anticipation of showering with Mindy and Diane already had me at attention.
	I was facing into the spray when they entered. Moving my head slightly to one side I could see Diane in the reflection of the chrome plate. She was reaching to see how the water was. I didn't see Mindy, but a moment later I felt her. Or rather, she felt me.
	She pressed close against me from behind. Her right hand closed around my dick and her left seemed to be everywhere as she slid it over my body.
	Diane was grinning as she eased into the spray.
	"Are you having fun yet?" she asked, just as Mindy's right hand squeezed.
	I managed a quick, "Oh, yes!" as nails trailed over my thighs.
	"Here's the deal," said Diane, placing herself directly in front of me, "Nothing anal. Otherwise, anyone does what they like with anyone else here. That ok with you, Ed?"
	"Good rule," I said as Mindy stroked me, "Excellent rule. I never had any interest in anal stuff anyway, Diane."
	"Oh, good, Mindy," said Diane, leaning around to give Mindy a quick kiss, "He managed to remember my name while you're doing that!"
	Mindy said nothing, but giggled and gave me another little squeeze.
	Diane reached up to cup my chin, then kissed me soundly, making my dick jump hard in Mindy's hand. Mindy giggled again.
	Diane said, "I'm very much in need of being thoroughly washed, Ed. It's been a very long, hot day, you know. Can you manage that while Mindy entertains herself?"
	I pulled her to me and kissed her as she had me.
	"If I fail, it will be because I died in the attempt," I said. She grinned at me.
	"Oh, gosh and golly," said Diane in mock surprise, "He can make a sentence while you're doing that, too, Mindy! We may have to keep this one!" Mindy squeezed me again.
	The rules of the game were obvious enough. I was to hold off as long as possible and still manage to wash Diane until she declared herself clean enough.
	I started at the top. Lathering shampoo into her hair, I rubbed her scalp as I washed her hair, being very thorough with both activities. Throughout it all, Diane stood grinning at me as Mindy rubbed all over me like a wet cat. I used my thoroughness of washing Diane as a means of staving off the impending results of what Mindy was doing to me. Now and then I pulled Diane to me and kissed her or lightly licked her lips to focus on something other than Mindy's activities for a moment. I washed, kissed, and talked to Diane as Mindy slowly stroked and licked me.
	It was nuts, but it was a wonderful game we played. I rubbed conditioner into Diane's hair and told her about my favourite castle in Germany, then about the horse I had as a kid, then about the time our boat hit a log and sank just off Sebastian Inlet, in Florida. And I kept washing. And I didn't come.
	I helped her get the creme rinse out of her hair and kissed her again before I grabbed the bar of soap and prepared to begin working my way down from her shoulders.
	"Diane, I may not win this game," I said, "But you're gonna know I played well."
	Instead of answering me, she put a hand on Mindy's head and said, "Can you believe he can still talk? Are you doing that right?"
	Mindy, as usual, said nothing. She couldn't. Her mouth was full of me.
	"She's doing it perfectly," I said, "And you won't distract me that easily, ma'am."
	Mindy finally spoke. She pulled me out of her mouth with a 'pop' and said, "This one's tough, isn't he?" Then she popped me back in and continued her labors.
	Diane's grin became a laugh. "We'll get him, Honey," she said, patting Mindy's hair.
	I set to work washing Diane's lovely neck, shoulders, and arms.
	"Has it occurred to you," I asked, "That I have only your best interests at heart by holding myself back?"
	Diane laughed. All Mindy could manage was a snickering chuckle. I began to wash Diane's breasts. Her nipples hardened long ago, but they seemed to get even stiffer as my hands passed over them repeatedly.
	"No, really," I said, "I wouldn't want to come before either of you did. I sort of figure I have a personal duty to see you through this."
	I bent to kiss each breast before me, then the shoulders above, then her lips, and said, "I'd really love to be the cause of your pleasures tonight."
	Diane's grin widened at my words. "Oh, you're doing fine, Ed. So far, anyway..."
	I shrugged as if I'd run out of arguments and continued gradually washing lower and lower until my fingers touched the top of her thighs. My hands had passed over Diane's bush several times, but this time I let my hand remain and search for a certain little button of flesh.
	"Good thing you're so gorgeously tall," I said, "I don't have to stoop at all to wash things of great importance. Like this..."
	Diane gasped as I touched it. Gradually her breathing changed and the grin began to crack as I massaged that magical little button hidden in the folds below. My fingers worked slowly, then quickly, then just lightly squeezed that little nubbin.
	Diane's fingers were twined in Mindy's hair, pulling her head back a bit.
	Mindy shook her head lightly and moaned, but Diane didn't relax her grip, and I didn't relax my massaging. Diane's belly involuntarily tensed several times, and I could sense that she was nearing climax. I pulled her to me and kissed her deeply as I worked my hand and fingers.
	"I'll come when you do, Diane," I whispered between soft kisses, "Come for me, please. I'll come when you do. You'll feel me with you, Diane."
	And very suddenly, she did. A dam burst inside her as she spasmed into orgasm. I kissed her hard and held her close and, as promised, I came with her.
	Mindy worked hard and fast to get all of it she could, then she quickly stood up and pushed herself between us, replacing my fingers with hers and my lips on Diane's with her own in a deep kiss. Diane's hands found Mindy's body in frantic, fluttery motions, then seemed to settle into quick rhythms of pleasure.
	Mindy suddenly had her own orgasm as the kiss lingered on, and that caused a fresh round of orgasms to rock Diane.
	I stepped in close, wondering how I could join them without somehow interrupting. I settled for turning off the water and putting an arm around each woman, caressing any part of them I could reach. When I lightly squeezed Mindy's bottom, she moaned softly, so I squeezed again, a little harder, and was rewarded with a few small spasms as she continued to come in slightly decreasing waves of pleasure.
	I simply continued rubbing, caressing, licking, and kissing whatever I could reach until both women and I had sunk to our knees beyond reach of the spray.
	After relaxing a moment or two (or three) I brought their drinks to them and retrieved my own. We sat sipping and sighing again.
	"Thank you," said Diane, waving her cup in my direction.
	"Oh, no problem," I said, "They were just right over there."
	Mindy laughed. Diane made an exasperated face.
	"That's not what I meant," said Diane.
	I smiled at her. "I know what you meant. Thank you, too. Both of you."
	Mindy grinned, took a big sip of her drink, threw her head back, and gargled expressively, which made Diane and me laugh.
	"I'm still very, very dirty," Mindy flatly stated.
	Diane looked Mindy over closely, turned to me and said, "It's hard to tell in this light, but I think she's right. You aren't finished, Ed."
	"Well, then, would you care to assist me?" I looked closely at Mindy, too. "You can hold her up while I clean her up."
	Diane grinned, "I don't think I'd mind at all, Ed."
	"Hey! Look at that!" said Mindy. I actually looked around quickly before I realized she was referring to me. "Why isn't it down?" she asked, "I know what I tasted. You came!" Her tone was almost accusatory.
	I looked down, then back at Mindy, and shrugged.
	"Could it be the company I'm keeping tonight?"
	Diane leaned over my lap. Her breasts were resting on my thigh as she peered at my dick more closely. It promptly swelled up a bit more at the attention.
	"Yup," she said, "I think that may be the reason."
	Mindy reached for me and squeezed me, and a little of the last session leaked out of the tip.
	She leaned in to lick it off and put the head of it in her mouth. Her tongue did a little dance around the crown and her hand stroked another few drops from me, then she released me and sat back up. Diane sat back up, too. They regarded me balefully.
	"Yeah," Mindy finally said, "This poor man's ALL excited about us."
	Diane looked thoughtful. "We can't leave it like that. He won't be able to get into his armor tomorrow."
	"Um," I tried to interrupt, "Why will I need armor tomorrow?"
	The ladies ignored my question, discussing matters as if I weren't there.
	"You don't think it would last till then, do you?" Diane looked concerned. "That would create a problem, wouldn't it?."
	"I'm not on any of the lists tomorrow," I said, "Why would I need my armor?"
	"I don't think we should leave it like that," said Mindy, then as an aside to me, "To fight, of course. They won't let you fight without armor."
	I looked at both of them for a moment. "You want me to fight Bryce?" I asked.
	Mindy and Diane just smiled as they shook their heads 'no'.
	"Then who?"
	Mindy smiled and reached for my dick, and as her hand wrapped around it, I suddenly knew who tomorrow's opponent would be. I looked sharply at Diane.
	"You're a fighter?" I asked her. She grinned at me.
	"That, too. I believe you've met my squire?" she nodded at Mindy. "By the way, that was a very quick reading. We may try something later."
	Mindy looked confused. "A quick what? You mean his guess? Try what later?"
	"He wasn't guessing, Honey," said Diane, "You touched him."
	Mindy released me as if stung, staring at me. "Alright, goddamn it. That's enough of this telepathy shit."
	She grabbed her drink, took a gulp, and shook off Diane's attempt to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.
	"I'm getting real tired of this real fast. First when I met you, then when you met Diane, then at the table - yeah, I caught the looks - and now this. Would you two like some time to yourselves?"
	Mindy got to her feet and stood over us. "I'm going to take a shower before I go back to the tent. You might want to move your drinks."
	She hung her towel on the door and turned the water on. Diane and I moved our drinks and towels and stood by the stall door for a moment wondering what to say to Mindy.
	Diane touched my arm to tell me to stay put and went over to her.
	"Honey, please don't be like this. We weren't trying to..."
	"Weren't trying?" Mindy cut in angrily, "You didn't have to try, Diane. He didn't have to try. You two are on your own goddamned wavelength."
	Diane glanced at me. I shrugged. I didn't know what the hell to say to her; nothing that wouldn't make things even worse, anyway.
	"Honey, I love you, you know that. Listen to me, please. Ed's a little different, that's all. I'm glad you found him..."
	Mindy glared as she cut in again, "No shit? I think I noticed that. Real glad."
	I wrapped my towel around me and slipped on my sneakers, unnoticed by either woman then made us fresh drinks and set them well out of the way. I said, "Thank you for a wonderful evening, but I think it's probably over now. I'll finish my shower in one of the other stalls and see you ladies tomorrow."
	They both turned to look at me. Mindy was glaring and Diane looked confused.
	I bowed slightly and said, "I meant that. Thank you both for your lovely company, but I've become a problem for you, so now I'm making myself disappear."
	Diane looked as if she was about to say something, but glanced at Mindy and didn't.
	In a rather flat tone, Mindy said, "You don't have to leave, Ed."
	"I hear the words, but I can't feel them, Mindy."
	I let myself out and followed the sidewalk around to the other stalls. I realized they had the soap, so I peeked into the other stalls, hoping someone had left theirs. No luck. I'd have to settle for a good rinse unless I wanted to go back to the ladies.
	Then I suddenly just felt tired. I sat down on the bench, leaned against the wall, and just stared out into the night for a while.
	A stall door closed too firmly. A moment later I saw Mindy and Diane walking back up the trail to the tents. It occurred to me some time later that they might have left the soap, but I didn't seem to have the energy or interest to give a damn, so I sipped and sat some more.
	Sometime later, still leaning back, eyes closed, I heard footsteps on the concrete, but they were on the other side of the enclosures. I hoped they wouldn't come around and interrupt my solitude, but it began to seem that they would.
	As the footsteps grew closer, I gathered my stuff and went into the first stall, where I sat back down on the inside bench. I put the gin and Coke bottles on the floor and stretched out on the bench, hands cushioning my head, and stared at the stars.
	"Ed." Diane called to me from the other side of the wall.
	"Yeah."
	"Can we talk?"
	"Not much to say, Diane. Mindy's pissed at me. I became the intruder I told her I didn't want to be. If she found us talking in the showers, she'd probably shoot us at this point."
	"She doesn't own a gun, Ed. May I come in?"
	After a pause, I said, "I guess so."
	Diane opened the door and stood in the doorway. She was still wearing the towel. As I swung my legs down, she tossed me the soap.
	"I thought you might need this."
	She didn't sit down, preferring instead to lean on the doorframe.
	"You've been sitting here all this time?" she asked, "We checked your tent and thought maybe you were just walking around."
	I didn't answer. I just stared into my drink and swirled the ice.
	"Look..," said Diane, but I didn't let her finish.
	"I just feel as if I've fucked up something really nice just by being me," I said, "And I don't know how to be anybody else. It isn't the first time something like this has happened and it won't be the last. Sooner or later I was going to wash up and get out of here, but I just didn't feel like moving yet. Couldn't sleep, anyway, at this point. I'll be ok, Diane, I just wanted some time to myself."
	Diane just looked at me for a moment, then asked, "Would you consider coming back to the tent with me?"
	I turned to stare at her. I was startled by the question. "Well, damn, I don't think so, Diane. That would create more problems between you, and I've caused enough trouble tonight."
	"You won't even consider it?" she seemed surprised.
	I stood up and faced her squarely, more than a little irritated with her. Diane backed up a pace closer to the door. I held my hands out and backed off a pace, too.
	"Listen up, Diane," I said, "I don't need to get laid badly enough to cause other people pain by it. Tonight stopped being fun when Mindy started hurting."
	We stood there staring at each other for a moment more before she nodded and backed out of the stall. I threw the soap at the wall in frustration, narrowly missing the shower head. It clattered across the floor and slid out of the stall under the door.
	"Well, shit," I said, sitting back down on the bench. I decided not to bother looking for the soap. I decided, in fact, to just toss everything in the car and wrap the weekend up two days early. I gathered up the gin and Coke again, stood wondering why I even bothered with that, then put it back down and pulled the door open.
	Mindy was standing in front of the door, about to knock, with the soap baggie dangling from her other hand. Diane stood behind her.
	"I heard everything," said Mindy, "I'm sorry I blew up."
	I just stood staring at her. Diane gave me a 'well, what are you going to do?' look over Mindy's shoulder. I looked at the soap.
	"Thanks," I said, "But I don't need it now. I'm going to fold up and get some things done around the house this weekend."
	I reached to hand Mindy the gin and the Coke to Diane and started to leave.
	Mindy became very upset. She quickly stepped in front of me and put a hand out to stop me. She looked as if she was about to cry.
	"If I stay, it could happen again. If I go, it can't," I said.
	"No," said Mindy, "It won't. I won't let it."
	Diane came around behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. I felt a big surge of emotion at her touch and wondered if it were hers or mine or ours combined. I could see Mindy react to me as I reacted to Diane's touch.
	"It already has, Mindy," I said, "I just saw it in your eyes."
	I also saw the beginnings of tears. Her frustration was visible as she tried to think of what to do. Finally she just stepped forward and put her arms around me, hugging me with her face against my shoulder.
	"NO," she said, "You CAN'T leave. This is all my fault, and I'm sorry, and I don't want you to go. Please stay with us."
	I felt Diane move again. She reached around me to hug us both.
	"Me, too," she said, "Don't go."
	It was a charged moment for all of us. Something clicked in me and I knew instantly that I couldn't leave, and something else happened. Mindy's head came up fast.
	"What?" Her eyes widened in surprise. Her mouth opened slightly.
	We looked at each other for a moment, then Mindy's amazed gaze transferred to Diane. I couldn't see Diane's face, but I felt her move. She stepped around behind Mindy. By then, I didn't have to see her face to know what she had in mind.
	Diane was no longer touching me, but I could still feel her emotions as if she were in firm contact. I let my surprised elation flow back to her through our unexpected conduit, Mindy, who gave a little "Oh!"
	Diane was almost bouncing with excitement.
	"She felt it! She can FEEL us!"
	Mindy had a slightly dazed look as I opened the stall door and herded everybody in. "This is a private matter," I said.

Chapter Five

	I set everything down on the bench inside and said, "Gimme your towels," as I tossed my own towel on the bench. My enthusiasm was obvious, of course. It was pointing at them.
	Mindy threw her towel in the general direction of the bench and gave a small laugh.
	"Well, I guess all is forgiven, then?"
	Diane snickered, tossing her towel at the pile.
	I pulled Mindy to me and then pulled Diane into place behind her.
	"Let's be sure of what we have  here," I said, "Remember the shower? The grand finale? Try to remember everything about it.Try to really relive that moment again."
	Mindy seemed confused, but Diane knew exactly what I was doing. We secured Mindy between us and embraced her thoroughly there. When she looked uncertainly up at me, I gave her a kiss and a smile. Diane did the same, but gently held their kiss.
	Mindy suddenly stiffened a little and let out a confused, questioning whimper. Seconds later I was reliving the experience within a collage of emotions and senses that were only partly my own. All that Diane had experienced seemed to flood into me as my own recollections of that moment went flowing back to her. A blending of our two collages seemed to occur within me that continued for some moments.
	The impact of it all made us both groan softly. It was virtually the same sound that we each made as we both seemed to relive both our own and each others' orgasms at precisely the same moment. As the sensations slowly faded, another presence seemed to appear between us like a bright spot on a glossy page. Mindy was there!
	She'd somehow managed to get a handle on what was happening and use the pathways we'd opened. This time the sensations were Mindy's alone, and she flooded us with her newly-found orgasmic brilliance.
	A new collage of images, impressions, emotions, and sensations seemed to fill us like a swift incoming tide, and this led to a resurgence of our own recollections, which washed over us as Mindy's had. This cycle of our merging remembrances triggering more remembrances continued until the three of us were breathless, exhausted, sweaty heaps on the floor of the shower.
	I hate to admit it, but I broke contact first. I had a ringing headache and I just couldn't take any more right then.
	Almost immediately the overwhelming rush of sensations began to fade to echoes, then to whispers. The headache didn't fade so quickly.
	Diane and Mindy remained together for another moment before they, too let go of each other and pulled a small distance apart.
	I'd always known that women somehow had orgasms of a much greater magnitude than mens', but had no way of truly knowing how much greater until that moment, and I'd just had a multiple dose of them. Some part of me felt lucky to have survived our shared experience, but another part of me was screaming for more.
	We sat staring at each other like three dazed survivors of a storm at sea.
	"Bad, bad headache," I said, rubbing my temples and the back of my neck, "I feel as if I'm having tomorrow's hangover tonight. We maybe overdid it some."
	"It feels," said Diane, also rubbing the back of her neck, "Like someone hit me."
	" 'As if'," I said, grinning at her, "Not 'like', but very much 'as if'."
	Diane rolled her eyes. "Jesus. We need an English lesson now?"
	Mindy laughed at us, then groaned in pain and held her head.
	"Well, that makes it unanimous," said Diane, "But it was great for a while, though, wasn't it? Where the hell did this headache come from?"
	"Hell's right, I think," said Mindy. Then she noticed something on her belly.
	"Diane, he squirted all over us!"
	Diane glanced at Mindy and herself.
	"More than once, I'd say. You've even got some in your hair, Min."
	I looked down at my slowly deflating self. Yup. I'd made quite a mess of all of us. "Good thing you brought the soap back, isn't it?" I asked.
	"I think we need to talk," said Mindy. She eased herself up and retrieved our drinks from the bench.
	"I think we need aspirin," said Diane, getting to her feet.
	"Let's get cleaned up," Mindy said, "And go find some food, too. We've all been drinking since dinner and now this..."
	I noticed none of us was standing too close to the others and mentioned this. The three of us regarded each other rather warily.
	"Maybe that's because none of us is ready for another round," said Diane, "I know I'm not." She rubbed her neck again.
	"Let's all just wash up and feed ourselves for now," she said.
	Mindy laughed softly, "Same here. Break time." She turned on the water and stepped under the spray. I tossed her the soap, then sat on the bench by Diane.
	When I freshened my drink, I didn't add any gin. Diane noticed, but quietly, only lifting an eyebrow. We sat silently for several minutes.
	"Headache's fading," said Diane, watching Mindy bathe.
	"Mine, too," I said. There was more silence for a few moments.
	"So what do you think caused it?" she asked.
	I gave her a smile. "Too much of a good thing, I guess. Too much, too fast, and everybody's first time. Simple overindulgence."
	"I figured that out on my own, genius. But it wasn't my first time, and it wasn't painful the last time."
	"But was it that intense the last time? Did it involve two other people you'd just had an intense experience with, a bottle of gin, and a day in the Texas heat?" I grinned at her.
	She thought a moment. "It was with another kid when I was about twelve. We were fooling around, experimenting with ourselves, and sort of fell into each other's minds in the middle of a kiss. Scared the hell out of him. Scared me at first, too, but as soon as I realized I was OK, I was ready to try it again. He wasn't."
	"My first time," I told her, "Was with a girl named Marcia. About the same thing happened under the same circumstances. It scared the hell out of her, too. She wouldn't even speak to me after that."
	I held out my hand to her. "Is that why we're sitting two feet apart, Diane? Care to see if it's safe to make contact?"
	Out of the corner of my eye I saw Mindy freeze as Diane reached for my hand. Her mouth opened, but she held her tongue as Diane's hand softly met mine.
	Diane had been focused on our hands; when nothing seemed to happen, she looked up at me with a smile. Mindy hurried over, appraised the situation, then cautiously added her own hand to the pile, ready to pull it back instantly.
	Diane placed her other hand on top of Mindy's. Mindy covered it with hers. I covered Mindy's with mine to make the hand sandwich complete. After some moments with no unusual flow of sensations other than relief, Diane freed her hands and suggested that we finally finish bathing and turn in for the night.
	Of course, it didn't happen that way. We took turns stepping into the spray, then handed the soap around a few times as we lathered up. The light glinting along the lines of their wet, soapy bodies evoked a natural and rather prominent response in me as I scrubbed Mindy's back. Diane was smiling as she handed Mindy the shampoo. Mindy, in turn, handed it over her shoulder to me. I noted the label.
	"No tears," I read. "They had us use this in our eyes in Vietnam."
	I washed her hair, all the while standing far enough back not to call Mindy's attention to my protrusion. Diane was trying to stifle her laughter as she washed Mindy's front.
	"I'll steady you, Honey. Time to rinse," said Diane, guiding Mindy's head down into the spray. She grinned at me and nodded once.
	My hands rested on Mindy's hips as I moved forward the few inches necessary to make contact, then quickly slid myself into her.
	"Oh! Of all the sneaky...! Ooohhh, it is kind of nice, though... "
	Diane sank to her knees before Mindy, taking Mindy's face in her hands as she spoke softly, "I didn't think you'd mind, Honey."
	Diane then kissed her deeply and freed a hand to reach between Mindy's legs. Mindy stiffened and groaned when Diane's questing fingers found her magic button. The contractions within her almost immobilized me for a moment. Once she had relaxed somewhat I resumed gently stroking within her. Between Diane's fingers and my dick, Mindy was soon at the very brink.
	She gripped Diane's shoulders. "Faster! Harder! Nowdammit!" she demanded.
	I obliged her instantly. We smacked wetly against each other perhaps another dozen strokes before Mindy moaned and her knees gave out.
	I stayed within her and helped lower her gently as she sank to knees, her head in Diane's lap and her arms around Diane's waist. My fingers replaced Diane's and Diane grinned broadly at me over Mindy's back as I continued my rapid pace.
	Mindy raised her face questingly and Diane kissed her and hugged her tightly as Mindy came hard in her arms and mine.
	As Mindy slumped in momentary exhaustion, I slowed and stopped, remaining unmoving within her to rest. Mindy leaned herself forward to lie flat, disengaging us in the process. My dick jumped a bit as the water spray hit it sharply. It jumped again when Diane reached out and wrapped her hand around it.
	"I think it likes me, too," she said, "I guess we can't just leave it like that, can we?"
	Mindy rolled on her back, giggling softly. "Can you remember what to do with one of those?"
	Diane made a face at her. "It hasn't been that long, sweetie."
	She turned herself around and wiggled her bottom at me. Mindy wore a look of mild astonishment as I positioned myself to enter Diane. I stopped at the very gates, nudging her slick labia slightly with the head of it. She stiffened slightly at it's touch there.
	"You won't mind if I take it easy, at least at first?" I asked, "I get the feeling this isn't the way things usually go for you, Diane."
	Diane looked back over her shoulder and said, "It's been six years, but I think I'll survive. Go ahead, Ed. Take it easy, but make it nice."
	Mindy moved to embrace Diane above her. Diane's face rose to meet Mindy's.
	I leaned forward to plant a caressing kiss on Diane's back and took a moment to slip my fingers between her legs, caressing there as well. I played with Diane's nubbin for a few moments, rubbing and teasing it, then let a finger slide into her to be sure she was ready. A second finger followed easily, and I knew it was time.
	I ran my hands over her shoulders and down her back, then reached around and under her to guide myself in. As the head of it disappeared into her she clamped herself around it and I heard her sharp intake of breath. I held myself still until until the moment of tenseness seemed to have passed, rubbing her back and thighs and kissing her a few times along her spine. I asked her again if she was sure she wanted me to do it. Diane's soft chuckle came back to me.
	"I feel like such a goddamned virgin!" she said. Her breathing was quick and shallow with nervousness. She was tremblingly tense. "But yes. I want this. Do it."
	"Maybe you do at that," I said. I decided to let her decide, if that makes any sense. "Diane, if you want me inside you, you'll have to make it happen yourself."
	She looked back over her shoulder at me in disbelief. So did Mindy.
	"Sorry," I said, "I know it isn't the macho thing to do, but as much as I want to be inside you, I want to know that you want it as much as I do."
	The two women just stared at me for a moment or two, then Diane lowered her head  and pushed herself gently onto me. I heard a slight gasping moan as inch after inch of me gradually disappeared into her until she stopped pushing.
	Diane was breathing as if she was slightly winded and she was trembling violently. Mindy's hands moved to caress and calm her and I followed suit, stroking Diane's back and shoulders and kissing her softly and lingeringly as I remained quite still within her.
	There was frantic, muffled laughter. It was Diane's. "I... I didn't think it would be so hard..." her head came up, "I mean, hard-difficult, not hard-hard... Oh, hell! I mean I didn't mean it isn't hard enough...!" There was a sobbing edge of hysteria to her voice.
	I'd about decided to withdraw and take a break from the whole thing when I heard a soft slap on Diane's shoulder and Mindy's soft voice urging, "Oh, shut up and fuck him, Diane! Just relax and fuck him and have a good time!"
	Mindy was crying softly as she grabbed Diane's face in her hands and kissed her long and hard. I heard Diane sob softly, too. One of her arms embraced Mindy and she sniffled briefly before sharply whispering something I couldn't quite make out.
	Mindy whispered, "Oh, Honey, I know you do. He does, too. Just try, okay?"
	I waited another moment for things to settle before I pushed the last couple of inches of me into her with a quick shove. I wanted to be told to get off and out or get busy.
	When I hit bottom in there, Diane screeched softly and squeezed Mindy hard enough to make her object out loud. Diane's breathing was ragged and she was trembling like a horse after a hard race. Then the real crying started, and that was enough for me.
	"Aw, to hell with this," I said, pulling out of Diane and sitting back on my heels.
	"I don't know what the hell we're doing here, but I know for a fact that it doesn't feel like a good time in progress, and I'd like us all to be friends later. I'll go get our drinks."
	With that, I went over to sit on the bench while I iced down some gin and coke.
	I didn't look at anyone else as I poured. I needed a moment to get over my being male having caused a woman so much discomfort. I figured they needed a few moments to themselves, too.
	They finally got up and rinsed themselves. I tossed them towels as they approached.
	I'd finished about half my drink before Diane and Mindy came over to stand in front of me. They took their drinks and said nothing for a while. Mindy sat on the end of the bench, but Diane remained standing.
	"I'm sorry for what happened," said Diane, "I tried to use you to get over something without warning you. It wasn't your fault."
	"Figured that," I said, "Forget it. Just be a friend to me, Diane."
	"I can't," said Diane. That got my attention.
	"Can't what? Can't just forget it or can't be a friend?"
	"Forget," she said, "Give me a minute." She took a long drink and rattled the ice around the cup for a moment or two, thinking.
	I looked at Mindy. She gave me a 'damned if I know' shrug.
	Diane finally spoke. "Years ago, a bad choice of men and some bad times that stayed with me, and now you've showed up. You're the good times, if I can get past the bad times. I've touched you, talked with you, felt your presence around me and inside me and I've felt what you and Mindy had as it happened. I've dreamed of having sex and affection like that again and couldn't bring myself to try. The men since and the risk of failure just didn't seem worth it."
	She paused, apparently waiting for me to say something, so I did.
	"Hold still," I said, standing up, then I kissed her. "Thank you."
	Diane looked confused. "Thanks for what?"
	"Choosing me for the try." I kissed her again, holding her close. There were tears on her face when we parted, so I kissed those away, too.
	Mindy cleared her throat. When she had our attention, she said, "This is all very touching, y'all, but if we're all feeling better now, what I want to know is... if you aren't going to use that thing, Diane, would you mind if I do?"
	Her hand closed around my dick, making it swell up immediately. Mindy pulled me to her and licked the length of it, ending with a kiss on the tip.
	"Mmm," she said, "Tastes like both of you. I like that."
	Diane rolled her eyes. "A regular little free spirit, isn't she?"
	Mindy sneered at the comment. "Well, Sweetie, if you can't take a big ol' lick on the other side of it," she said in an exaggerated Texas drawl, "I guess I probably am the only free spirit among the women in here."
	Diane looked at Mindy, then at me. She slowly sat on the end of the bench next to Mindy and stared at the spike of meat before her face.
	"Oh, go ahead! You want to! I can tell. Do it!" urged Mindy, looming close.
	"I... I..." Diane gulped nervously. Her eyes were wide.
	"Oh, you're such a wuss! Open your mouth and close your eyes, Diane!" Mindy chuckled, "And I hope he comes in your face!"
	Startled, Diane looked up at me. I smiled and shook my head 'no'. Diane glared at Mindy for a moment, then a determined look crossed her face.
	She leaned forward and licked it from the base to the tip, then slid her mouth over the head and down the shaft twice. "There," she said to Mindy. "I did it. Are you happy now?"
	Mindy was giggling. "Heheheheheeee! The question is: Are you happy about it?"
	Her runaway giggling threatened to break loose again.
	Diane and I stared at her. This didn't help. The giggles were getting worse, just as they had in the tent. With a big grin, Diane pulled Mindy onto her lap for a kiss. Mindy's legs had to straddle Diane's. Diane lay back on the bench, pulling Mindy with her, grinning all the while. "Nail her, Ed. Maybe it will cure these goddamned giggles."
	"Yes, Ma'am," I said, moving into position. Mindy's giggles continued unabated except for a slight rise in pitch as I slid into her and began stroking, but in a little while they turned into happy little moanings. Mindy was kissing Diane as she reached between us and pulled downward on my shaft gently.
	I understood her message and squeezed her bottom to let her know. Her fingers moved to touch Diane, tickling and teasing and readying her for the next step in Mindy's plan. When Mindy's fingers pulled on my shaft again, I carefuly got to my knees and let her guide it straight into Diane, where it slowly slid in right to the hilt.
	Diane stiffened and remained so, her eyes wide. Mindy quickly covered her face in a deep kiss, then a flurry of small kisses. Diane was staring up only at her when she stopped. Before she could speak, Mindy moved herself up along Diane's body until her bush was suspended over Diane's face. "Lick!" she commanded.
	Diane looked at me for a long moment as I continued gently posting my dick into her, then she looked up and pulled Mindy's bush down to her lips. Mindy flinched slightly at the first contact of Diane's tongue, then her hips began to move slightly. Before long, her legs were quivering as much from sensations as from strain.
	I decided to speak up. "Ladies," I said, "I have a suggestion to make about positions."
	"Make it quick," said Mindy. It was Diane's turn to giggle. I took this as a very good sign that things were going well enough.
	"Quick it is, Ma'am. Mindy on her back, Diane on her knees, doing what she's doing, and me doing this to Diane from behind. Easier. More comfortable."
	After a moment's thought (or resting?) Mindy lifted up, Diane slid out and turned around on her knees, and Mindy straddled the bench and lay back. I quickly folded a couple of towels for our knees. Diane giggled as she thanked me and called me 'very considerate'. As soon as Diane's face was back in Mindy's bush, I reentered her and began stroking again with one small change. I could now reach around and tickle Diane's pleasure nubbin.
	She gasped as my fingers found it and began to work in loose conjunction with my other efforts. I was truly, profoundly, absolutely enjoying pleasuring her, to a large degree because it was possible, after all. I felt priveleged to be the one she chose for her first attempt in years.
	The elements of Mindy's affection and distraction seemed to be working well for Diane. We'd been at it for several minutes without provoking any negative reactions similar to the last attempt, for which I was duly thankful.
	Mindy was making noises that indicated she was about to explode in Diane's face, and I was acutely aware of the effect this was having on Diane. One moment I was just poling happily along, and the next I could barely move within her at all as she gathered herself to match Mindy's nearness to completion.
	When the two women came at almost the same moment, the intensity of it all served to trigger my own orgasm. Diane became instantly aware of what was happening and responded by driving herself back onto me, seating me deeply within her. If anything, my spasming and spurting within her drove Diane a bit higher along in her own moment of ecstasy.
	I wrapped myself around her and kissed her shoulders as I came. She made some happy, self-satisfied little sounds and bounced a bit to tease the last of it out of me and into her.
	"I did it..." she said wonderingly. "I did it." A few moments later, she said, "Damn, Ed, I'm going to just hate having to kill you in tomorrow's tournaments." She giggled and bounced again.
	"Well, I should hope so," I said, "After all I've done for you ladies, it would be ungracious as hell of you not to feel some remorse for killing me."
	Mindy laughed. "We're going to have to take another damned shower! Do you think we'll get out of this place before we're wrinkled like prunes?"

Chapter Six

	Halfway back to the camping area we were accosted by the chubby little woman who had tried to 'warn' me about Mindy and Diane at the portapotties. She trundled to a stop directly in our path, glaring at us and waving a rather large, cheap-looking gold cross.
	"You will burn in Hell for your transgressions!" she intoned.
	"Well," said Diane, "How very sweet of you to let us know."
	"Yeah, sweet," said Mindy, "And how very typical of you not to mind your own goddamned business. Now shut up and get away from us."
	"I saw everything!" the woman hissed at us, "I heard everything! I know what you were doing! I'm going to report you and have you thrown out of here! People like you..."
	Mindy interrupted her ranting. "People like us? You sneak around and spy on us and threaten to report us as if it were any of your business and then say 'people like us'? You sick bitch!"
	As Mindy surged forward, Diane was quick to stop her charge.
	"No, Honey, that's just what she wants."
	"Right," I said, "No violence, ladies." I turned to the woman and told her in quiet tones, "People like us just party hard. People like you like to fuck with people like us."
	I stepped to within a foot or so of the woman and took hold of her cross to keep her from backing away, then spoke softly to her.
	"A small, happy group of half-naked people could suddenly be standing around you and someone would put a big bottle of gin in your hands and someone else would take a few quick pictures. Copies would be sent to your friends, your family, and church..."
	"Nobody'd believe it," she said. She didn't sound convinced of her own words.
	"Try putting a red dot or two on a chicken and tossing it back in the barnyard. The others peck at the stains until there's real blood. That's when they get serious. They become like feathered sharks. They'll chase that chicken to exhaustion, peck it to death, and then they'll tear it apart. Sounds like a typical church group to me."
	When I released the cross she just stood there staring at me. Mindy and Diane were grinning as they approached, gin bottle held high. Mindy pretended to be taking pictures with an invisible camera. The woman started to back away from us and tripped. I caught her arm and managed to keep her from landing on her ass as hard as she might have.
	A bright flash of fear lept to me through our contact. I pulled my hand back quickly and fought the urge to wipe my hand on my towel. "Look," I said to her, "If you'll leave us alone, we'll leave you alone. Do you think you could agree to that?"
	By this time Mindy and Diane stood close by me. She just stared up at us without a word, apparently on the edge of panic.
	"Let's just go," said Mindy, "This brainless twit is about to pee herself in fear, and she'd probably blame that on us, too."
	I retrieved the woman's cross from where it had fallen on the ground and tried to hand it to her. She wouldn't reach for it, so I tossed it on her lap. She kept staring at me.
	I suddenly felt something near us that hadn't been quite so noticeable before and looked around. "We have company," I said, turning to face up the path.
	"I don't see anything," said Mindy, staring hard into the darkness.
	"That's good," came a man's voice from up ahead. "It means I can keep my stealth merit badge a while longer."
	Out of the darkness ambled the shape of a man with a staff. It was the seneschal; the guy from the portapotty incident. He waved as he approached.
	Mindy started to say something, but Diane shushed her. The guy walked up to us and extended a hand to the woman on the ground. After a moment, she took it and pulled herself up. Nobody said anything for a few moments as he looked us over, leaning on the top of his staff. When the woman began to speak, he cut her off.
	He said quietly, "You need to pack your things and leave in the morning."
	"B-but, what about them?" she wailed, "They were..."
	"They were playing together. They were bothering nobody. You have been bothering them, and what you were doing is illegal, so don't push it. I saw you sneaking around the baths and I saw you accost them here on the path. You leave first thing in the morning."
	First she seemed shocked, then she became angry.
	"They threatened me! He knocked me down!"
	"I saw the whole thing. I heard the whole thing. They offered to join you in a group photo. You tripped and fell on your ass and now you're lying to me. You're leaving in the morning."
	She got to her feet and said, "You can't do this to me! My brother is the King!"
	"Feel free to check with him, but be ready to leave in the morning."
	The woman glared at him, then us, then stamped away toward the tents. The seneschal turned to us, particularly facing me. "How did you know I was out there?" he asked.
	"The same training, probably. I was Army. What were you?"
	"Marines," he said, "It never goes away, does it?"
	He then bowed to the ladies and me and continued down the path. We watched him go for a few moments before Mindy spoke. "Will chickens really do that?"
	"They will," said Diane, "So will people, and that woman knows it. She's done her share of pecking at other peoples' stains."
	"And of trying to ruin other peoples' evenings, I bet," said Mindy.
	"It'll take more than a chubby prig to ruin an evening with you two," I said.
	We discussed sleeping arrangements and decided it was just too warm a night to try to cram all three of us into one tent. I kissed them goodnight at my tent and watched them walk away down the path for a few moments before sitting on my cooler.
	"Are you going to just stand out there indefinitely?" I asked the darkness, "Or would you like some thermos-bottle coffee?"
	"No coffee," said the approaching form, "I was just passing by on rounds. I was about to offer you my flashlight so you could get settled in."
	"Don't need it, but thanks. And you couldn't have made it around the whole campsite without running. What's on your mind?"
	I poured coffee as he entered the tent and found a place to sit.
	"Name's John," he said, "First Marines, '66 and '70."
	"Ed," I said, "Army, '67 to '70."
	"I was a grunt. The Marines didn't need much else then."
	"I was a medic," I said, "Between wounded, I was a grunt, too. You're sitting on some Dr.Pepper. Want one?"
	He seemed to have to think about that for a moment. "Thanks," he said, moving to retrieve a can from the cooler.
	Neither of us spoke for a while. We just sat gazing through the tentscreen at the encampment, thinking our own thoughts.
	John broke the silence. "Does it ever bother you much?"
	"In particular? You mean the war itself, the way it was here in the States when we returned, or the way people who don't know shit about Vietnam talk about it more than we do?"
	He laughed, "Yeah, that."
	"Nope. If there's any blame, it belongs to America as a whole. They voted the bastards into office, let them run wild, ignored the obvious until things were out of control, and were goddamned slow to stop it. They sent their children off to war and didn't like what came back, but rather than take responsibility for things and try to help us, they simply fear and shun us."
	John sipped his drink before replying, "Jesus. You really believe all that?"
	"Damned straight I do. We were teenagers given two official choices. Service or prison. The unofficial choice was Canada, if you didn't care about never being able to come back home the way the laws were then. They made the rules, forced us into the game, then bet our lives like poker chips. They lost the war and lots of us in the process. We weren't in charge of a goddamned thing except maybe surviving a year in Vietnam any fucking way we could."
	Some time later, John extended his hand to me, thumb up. I clasped it briefly.
	"Well," he said, "You do boil it down, don't you? I guess I'll get back to work, now. I guess I don't really know why I stopped by, anyway."
	"Yeah, you do. You just don't know what to call it. I don't either, really, because none of the labels fit us Nam vets very well."
	John laughed. "Yeah, they don't. We're mostly a bunch of loners."
	"Have to be," I said, "The others don't understand."
	"Some do, sort of," he said, "But damned few, and only the ones who've been through something just as bad in some way."
	I grinned as he retrieved his seneschal staff outside the tent and laid it on his shoulder. I had a feeling he used to rest his rifle on the same shoulder the same way.
	"Happy hunting," I said, tossing a salute.
	He grinned back. "Night work here isn't as hard on the nerves."
	John ambled off down the path and I flopped back on my bedroll to try to find some sleep before sunup.
	Saturday started warmly enough. I awoke sweating in my tent about an hour after dawn, disoriented as hell and still slightly buzzed from all the gin the night before. I briefly wondered if I'd been dreaming about showering with two women, then realized I hadn't.
	A look outside showed me people moving about and a cloudless sky. The lines for the buffet breakfast were already long, so I opened a can of chicken soup from my bag, poured it into myself, and used my thermos of yesterday's coffee as a chaser.
	With the edge off my hunger and thirst, I headed for the toilet and showers to get cleaned up before I ran into Mindy and Diane. A woman named Bethany Anne, as Lady Whosis of Wherever (never did very well remembering medieval-persona names), was also in line for the toilets. She was taking some aspirin as I walked up and offered me some, which I gladly accepted, washing them down with my last gulp of coffee.
	"Big night?" she asked. She wasn't grinning too hugely, at least.
	"Uh, huh. Eventful," I said.
	She nodded as she put her aspirin back in her bag. She seemed fumbly, and that didn't fit in with what little I'd seen of her. After a lengthy silence, she turned to face me.
	"Is it true," she asked, "That you knocked Lady (whosis) down?"
	"No," I said, "She tripped. John was there. He saw it all, heard it all."
	"Good. There's some talk..."
	"There's always talk after something awkward happens."
	Beth laughed. "Something awkward... That's a good way to put it."
	I gave her a brief run-down of the encounter as we waited in line. It never hurts to have your side of things told. As I finished, a man was striding toward us. He looked rather agitated as he halted in front of us and tossed an armored glove on the ground.
	"I challenge you, sir, on behalf of Lady (whosis)," he stated loudly.
	I looked at the guy and asked, "If I give you a dollar will you go play somewhere else?".
	Beth said tiredly, "He's her boyfriend or something."
	The guy seemed shocked that she wasn't speaking 'in persona', using the requisite courtly 'thee & thou' form of English.
	"Yeah, well, he can come back after breakfast and we'll talk," I said.
	"No, Sir Knight!" bellowed the bozo. "I challenge you here and now as a matter of honor! And we will settle this after breakfast, not talk about it!"
	"Look," I said, "There's no honor involved. Talk to the seneschal first. He was there."
	"I don't need to talk to anybody," he yelled, finally breaking persona himself, "Beckie told me what happened! You just be out there later or everyone will know you're a coward!"
	"The field isn't for personal issues," said Beth, "This is a matter for the court."
	"He challenged me here so it would look bad if we didn't fight," I said, "So we'll do it his way." I turned to the bozo and said, "Ten a.m. will do just fine. See ya. Bye. Go."
	Sir Macho spun on his heel and stiffly marched back the way he'd come.
	"This is supposed to be fun," said Beth in flat tones, "Make believe."
	"Yeah, I know. And he knows that, too. But he has to have it his way. I'm just going along with his program, here. She probably told him a pack of crap. He has to take her side or he loses her, so he has to do something about it. At least this way we aren't duking it out in a parking lot and nobody's likely to go to jail or get really hurt from it."
	Beth studied me for a moment. "That doesn't make it right," she said.
	"Sorry 'bout that," I said, "But he engineered this. If I say 'no' - rules or not - a goodly number of people here will take a dim view of an unanswered challenge. Better a little supervised pretend mayhem to settle matters and maybe put it to rest."
	"If they let you fight," said Beth, "The court may object."
	"Somehow, I don't think they will. She'll see to that if she hasn't already."
	They didn't. We were called to the King's tent to discuss things. Sir Whosis was still in a snit and launched a tirade about how his lady had been mistreated by all for some time and how I was just the latest and worst offender. She was standing behind him with a smug grin.
	The King asked if I had anything to say. I looked at my opponent and just said, "Let's do it and get it over with. Maybe afterwards we can really settle this mess."
	Mindy and Diane came over as the interview was ending and stood together near me. My accuser started to say something to them, but I tapped his shoulder. Well, I actually sort of thumped on his shoulder with the heel of my hand hard enough to rock him back a pace.
	"You don't talk to these ladies and you don't talk to me until this fight you wanted is over. Go get suited up and get your ass out on the field."
	After a moment's hesitation, the guy again spun on his heel and marched away.
	"Beth told us," said Mindy, "What's going on?"
	As we walked to my tent, I told them about matters.
	"He's going to be in full armor with sword and shield, and I'm going to have my shortsword and small shield. No serious armor; just a good helmet. This isn't a sanctioned fight, so I can wear whatthehellever I want. All the usual legal strike zones apply. No low shots."
	Diane and Mindy were frankly unthrilled at that, so I explained.
	"I don't like him. I don't like her. Fighting won't end this hostility or her bullshit meddling, so I want them both gone. She's leaving by royal decree. He won't be able to stay when she goes without pissing her off. This fight is just their last shot at us. When he loses he won't be able to show his face in these gatherings for a while, even without her on his sleeve."
	"Don't you mean IF he loses?" asked Mindy.
	Diane answered for me. "No, Ed doesn't mean if, Min. He means when. This whole thing could turn vicious, Ed. It won't be a mock battle."
	"I expect it already has," I said, "That's why we're doing it."
	Sir Whosis was eager. He was already on the field, making last-minute adjustments to his armor. I waved at him as we passed, then went to take a leak, dither around in my tent, talk to a couple of people about the upcoming evening's festivities, and generally take my time about getting back out there.
	My opponent was wearing about eighty pounds of poorly-ventilated homemade armor and was standing in the hot Texas sun, so I let these factors weigh on him for a while.
	After close to half an hour or so of stalling, I strapped on my helmet and shield and ambled out to meet him with my rattan 'sword' over my shoulder.
	The rules of engagement, which boiled down to a list of places not to hit each other, were read aloud by the King's Master-at-Arms, who then signalled the start of the match. The assembling crowd cheered us on, of course.
	Sir Whosis trundled forward. I stepped back a pace as he swung at my helmet and deflected his blow up and over my head. I didn't bother striking back. Instead, I waited for his backswing to circle back around low and deflected it into the ground. His sword bent slightly on impact, testifying to the force he was putting into his blows against an unarmored opponent. The crowd reacted to this with a disapproving muttering.
	He swore and tried a shield rush while taking another chop at my helmet. I ducked and sidestepped, merely getting out of his way without striking a blow and deflecting his sword.
	Sir Whosis was off-balance as he tried to cover himself with his shield and tripped in his haste to turn in order to keep me in front of him. As he fell heavily, the M-A dropped his staff to signal a halt of fighting until he had struggled back to his feet again.
	Sir Whosis was pissed, now. Hot, sweaty, frustrated, and just plain pissed off.
	As soon as the staff was raised, he came at me like a veritable windmill. I let him flail away, blocking and deflecting and avoiding his strikes, making no move to strike back, no matter how tempting the openings were that he provided. He was beginning to breathe hard.
	The crowd behaved as crowds may be expected to behave.
	Shouts of "Hit him back!" and "This isn't a dance!" rang out.
	The battle, such as it was, continued with another round of his flailing attempts to hit me. I still made no move to strike him and generally just kept him from hitting me as his rage grew. He tripped again and fell to one knee. I stepped in very close, very quickly to help him back up.
	As expected, my offer of assistance enraged him further, and he swung hard at me as he heaved himself to his feet. He missed me thoroughly and very nearly fell again in the attempt.
	Half the crowd booed about the swipe at my chivalrous offer of assistance as the other half laughed. I judged it about time to provide him another way to be a fool.
	"You're not accomplishing a damned thing out here," I told him, just loudly enough to be heard by the crowd, "Not justifying anything. Let's get a beer and forget this."
	"Why don't you just shut the fuck up?" he yelled back. A number of the crowd didn't appear to care for his language or his bad tempered reply. If he'd had supporters, he was losing them.
	"Your girlfriend couldn't leave us alone. She kept messing with people, and it finally got her tossed. Why fight about that? Why not just go with her and be done with it?"
	He charged at me, his shield held high, with his sword up for a hearty swing at my head. I let him make the swing, ducked under it to the left, and put both arms into my first swing at him. 	Even with the padding inside it, his helmet rang with the impact. I almost expected to see a dent. The force of the blow added to his momentum and knocked him flat on his face. 
	The Master-at-Arms dropped his staff to halt proceedings and asked, "Do you accept that blow as final, Sir?"
	The crowd chuckled and cheered. The question was just procedure. Everyone knew it was a good hit, a death blow, but the rules said that the recipient had to acknowledge the blow.
	Sir Whosis didn't answer. Instead, he got to his hands and knees and reached for his shield. I could feel his burst of hatred before, with a loud cry of effort, he threw his shield at me like a huge frisbee, an act that would forever alienate him from that group.
	It's hard to throw a five-foot tall, three-foot wide chunk of three-quarter-inch plywood at someone from a kneeling position. I easily stepped well aside from it's path and just stood there as the Master-at-Arms stepped between us.
	The M-A was trying to remain in persona even as he contained his own anger. "The staff was down, yet you attempted to strike. I order you in the name of the King to leave this field of honor, never to return, for it seems you possess no honor," he said to Sir Whosis.
	"If he comes at me," I said, "I'll handle it. Just get out of the way. He seems to have lost his rulebook, and you don't need to get hurt."
	The Master-at-Arms turned angrily to face me. "This field is my domain, sir. I disapproved of this match, and I'll thank you to keep your advice..." A brutal shove interrupted his words and sent him careening to the edge of the field. Sir Whosis was on his feet again. He kicked the staff away in the same direction, then launched a running attack on me with his sword.
	He no longer cared about strike zones. I blocked one blow aimed at my knees and drove the pommel of my own sword hard into his faceplate in return. It barely slowed him down. He had his sword in both hands as he swung hard at my face.
	I didn't try to block it. I got completely away from it, ducking under the swing. Expecting me to straighten back up, he was already pulling the sword into a backswing blow. I didn't straighten up. Instead, I mule-kicked hard upward at his chestplate while he was still extended in the swing. He was already on the edge of his balance. The kick was hard enough to rattle his armor loudly and send him over that edge to topple backward.
	He was still twisting with momentum from his attempted blow when he fell and he slammed into the ground sideways damned hard without any further help from me.
	I moved in quickly to batter his gloved hands with my sword, knocking his sword out of his grip and some distance away. He didn't even look to see where it had fallen, he just rolled away, got back to his feet, and charged at me with his armored fists. I tossed my sword at his legs to slow him down and prepared to let his attacks continue to run him ragged.
	Well, that's it, then, I thought, I guess he's not going to be reasonable after all...
	He tried to punch me. I don't block punches unless I have to. It's always better not to be where the punch lands, so he hit only air. I grabbed his extended arm and gave it a twist, then shoved him to help him along. He hit the ground again, got up, and then he charged again.
	This time I side-kicked as he went by, connecting hard with his helmet. He went down again, he got up again, and he charged at me again. He was breathing hard and making a keening sound of rage as he came at me and missed yet another strike at my face.
	I re-studied the situation. He was much bigger than me, maybe weighing about 200, and he was armored, so I wasn't really hurting him much. On the other hand, the extra weight of the armor was slowly killing him in the heat. I decided to just stay clear of his efforts and let him wear himself down as he continued his attacks.
	His charges had become quick shufflings in my direction. Now and then I placed a kick or a shove to keep his interest up and keep him moving, but when he finally just stood there, trying to breathe and stay upright, I waited to see if he'd finally call a halt to the whole mess.
	He didn't want to stop. He tried to come at me one more time, shambling forward like a mortally-wounded bear, when he just ran out of steam and stopped, then dropped to his knees a few feet from me. He remained upright as he fumbled at his helmet straps for a moment, then he toppled forward and landed hard in the dirt.
	Expecting a sneak attack, I approached cautiously. There was no movement of his armor, not even from breathing. I kicked lightly at his arm and his side. Still nothing. They were limp as dishrags. I straddled his back to make myself hard to reach and touched the back of his neck under the edge of his helmet. Clammy skin. Further around his neck, I found his racing pulse.
	"Heatstroke!" I shouted.
	Medical people and others rushed over as I got off him. Someone cut his helmet straps and removed it before several of them quickly dragged him to the shade of the first aid tent.
	I followed them after retrieving my sword and tossing his onto his shield, which had been dragged to one side of the field. Someone gave me a Coke as I sat down on a cooler.
	He must have been in pretty bad shape. Several minutes later someone ran to the phone outside the park maintenance building. Some time after that an ambulance and a cop arrived. When the ambulance had taken Sir Whosis away and all necessary notes had been taken, I asked for a copy of the police report. The cop tore off the second copy for me.
	Mindy and Diane were sitting with me after things had settled down.
	The cop was wandering around talking with people about the event, evidently fascinated with the costumes, equipment, and activities.
	"Why did you need a copy of the police report?" asked Mindy.
	"Did he seem to be the type to let this go?" I asked her, "I want to know where to find him if I have to. His girlfriend, too. They're both nuts."
	John joined us after showing the cop around a bit. "That cop won't be leaving until Melvin is stablized at the hospital," he said.
	"Melvin?" repeated Mindy, "His real name is Melvin?"
	John glanced at her, but otherwise ignored her incredulity. "His heart stopped again in the ambulance. They had to shock him."
	"Again? You mean he actually died?" asked Mindy, "And he could die again?"
	"He did and he could," said John, nodding, "Heatstroke can kill. They had to give him CPR until the ambulance arrived. One of the medics gave him a shot and he seemed to be doing a little better, then he took another nosedive in the ambulance and they had to zap him."
	There wasn't much to say to that. I folded the report and stood up.
	"I'm gonna get a shower and lunch, then get flat for a while," I said.
	John nodded, but Mindy seemed shocked. I waited for the words I could see forming.
	"He may die, and that's all you can think about?! A shower?!" she yelled at me.
	There were more words like those. Trust that someone's always going to be incredulous if you aren't properly stunned by events. Diane placed a hand on her arm to try to calm her.
	I replied, "Yup. Whether I stay here or go to jail, I need a shower. And lunch. There's nothing I can do about anything, so I'll just wait and see, like everyone else."
	Nobody had anything else to say for the moment, so I went to tell the cop the same thing, pointing out my tent for him. He walked with me to my tent, waited while I grabbed a towel, soap, and some non-medieval clothing, then accompanied me to the showers, where he sat on the bench outside near the stall door.

Chapter Seven

	I was dried and dressing when I heard voices outside the stall. Diane was speaking to the cop, but I didn't hear Mindy with her.
	"If you're going to be here for lunch, just drop a donation in the jug on the table near the paper plates. If you're arresting Ed, I want to talk with him before you leave."
	The cop replied, "I can't say what'll happen, but if he wuz under arrest he'd be on the way to the county jail, Ma'am. You his wife?"
	"No," said Diane, "He's a friend."
	"Well, that really don't matter much, I guess. I don't know any more than anybody else yet. I got orders to stick around a while, is all."
	I walked out of the stall and kissed Diane lightly before I said, "He's here because it's easier than having to send someone to pick me up here or at home later."
	"Was that supposed to be funny?" asked Diane.
	"No, it wasn't. I live in Dallas County. This is Tarrant County. They can't arrest me at present, but if I go home and the situation changes, the Grand Prairie cops would have to do the honors, then the Grapevine cops would have to go there to get me, and then there'd be an extra pile of paperwork. It's easier to leave Officer...(I looked at his nametag)...Wills here for a while."
	Officer Wills was kind of staring at me, but he nodded. "Yeah, I think that's about the size of it," he said. "I get to hang around a while and see what this shindig is all about."
	"For now, anyway," I said. I looked around. "Where's Mindy?"
	Diane took my arm and we began walking toward my tent to drop off my bath stuff and costume on the way to lunch. Officer Wills fell in with us a few paces behind.
	"She's in our tent," said Diane, with no further explanation, "You don't seem very worried about your immediate future, Ed."
	"No, I'm not. I treated a lot of heatstrokes in jungles. This one's being treated in a hospital, and even if he does die, I didn't kill him. He killed himself out there."
	"Are you sure other people will see it that way?"
	"I have about 150 witnesses who saw dumbshit kill himself, if it comes to that."
	Diane fell silent for a few paces, then asked, "What about those who think you have a rather callous attitude about the whole thing?"
	We were at the tent. I tossed my stuff in and said, "If you mean yourself or Mindy, I'll try to explain. I don't much care what anybody else thinks."
	"You - don't - care..?" Diane tugged my arm to make me face her. To say she didn't look happy would have been an understatement.
	I just looked at her for a moment, then said, "Look, Diane, I'm tired. I've just been through a fight, and I've been through this sort of aftermath before. It probably won't matter what I say, so maybe I shouldn't bother trying to explain why the possibility that an obnoxious dickhead may have killed himself by trying to hurt me doesn't particularly upset me. I don't need the rubber stamp of public opinion to validate the way I feel about things."
	Her gaze turned to a glare. "And are Mindy and I are included in that 'public'?"
	I met her eyes. "Only if you hold me responsible for dumbshit's self-induced heatstroke."
	"Oh, I see! Your opinion is the only one that counts, right?"
	I looked at Officer Wills and back at Diane. "About this, yes. Either way, you can all go home when it's over. I'm the only one who may have to endure the legal system, Diane. If he dies, they'll have to charge me with murder. That's the law. It will then be up to a grand jury to decide whether or not the case is worth a trial, and that decision alone could take a few weeks, during which time I'd be in jail or out on bond pending trial. Right now, that's the only reason I want to see the dickhead live through this. Otherwise, I wouldn't give a rat's ass about him."
	Diane glared at me for a moment, then spun on her heel and marched away.
	I turned to Wills. "Your guys have about an hour to decide whether to charge me with something while I pack up," I told him, "Then I'm either going to your air conditioned offices or I'm going home. This event stopped being fun some time ago."
	"I can see how you might feel that way," said Wills. "Let me try to find out what's going on." As I started packing, he moved away a little to use his walkie-talkie radio.
	Over the next half-hour or so I packed my stuff and hauled it to my car. Officer Wills even pitched in to help carry some of it. I suppose he thought it looked better than just walking along empty-handed every time I made a trip to the car. Maybe he really wanted to be helpful. Finally there was nothing but the tent in it's bag and a cooler. John was waiting for us at the car.
	"You might want to stick around until evening," he said.
	"John, if I wanted to stick around, I wouldn't be leaving."
	I found room in the trunk for the tent and made space on the back seat for the cooler.
	John said, "You'll miss the awards ceremonies."
	I gave him an unimpressed look. "I've seen 'em before, John."
	"But you're in this one, Ed."
	"I've been in 'em before, too, John. You saw me out there."
	John gave me an exasperated look and said, "Well, all right, dammit, you're the reason for this one. It'll be held with or without you, so you might as well be there."
	I gave his exasperated look back to him and fished us up some Dr.Peppers from the cooler. "John, why not just have 'em mail the fancy little ribbon or whatever it is this time? My morning hasn't gone well. Sir Asshole nearly killed himself trying to hurt me. I still may be arrested because of what the dumbshit did to himself. Mindy and Diane are pissed at me because I'm apparently not properly fucking mortified and remorseful over a situation I didn't create. I'm hot, tired, and all packed, and I'm ready to go sit with a book in some cool air."
	John placed himself to lean against the driver's door and said, "But this will be special. Your award will be for 'Meritorious Restraint', can you believe that? They just made it up, and just for you. It's to be presented during dinner."
	I rolled the words around once. "Meritorious Restraint? What the hell is that? Because I only hit him once with my sword?"
	John laughed. "Yeah, that and you probably could have pounded him senseless while he was trying to pound you, but you didn't."
	"He was already senseless, John. Pounding on him wouldn't have accomplished much."
	"That's another reason for the award, Ed. The King wants to use the occasion to make a statement banning challenges like that one from future events."
	"He doesn't need me for that and I don't want to set up camp again."
	John levered himself off the door, finally showing frustration. "So what, goddamnit? Use my tent if you need one. Being the seneschal means I don't see much of it anyway."
	I hesitated. I mean I really hesitated. The cool air, the book... and, of course, the waiting to see if I was going to be busted, after all...I looked at Wills, who shrugged indifferently. Without orders to detain me, it was my call. I looked at John, who simply waited for my response. It would also mean a chance to talk with Mindy and Diane again... and maybe fix things some?
	Something bumped my leg. I looked down to see a big orange cat sitting on my foot.
	The cat sounded off at me, "Yaaah!", then sat looking up expectantly.
	John laughed and said, "That's Penelope. She's the Royal Cat."
	"They bring her to events? Why is she sitting on my foot?"
	"That's her trick to get attention. It seems to work."
	"That it does." I reached to ruffle her chin, then picked her up so I could move to sit on the tree-shaded hood of my car.
	"Penelope likes to ride on shoulders," said John, "She can be a good conversation piece." He was grinning at me.
	"You mean I should wear Penelope and wander over near Mindy and Diane? That thought had already crossed my little mind, John."
	Wills laughed. "Might work."
	I draped Penelope over my shoulders and headed for the tents. Along the way we encountered many who knew Penelope. They stopped to pat her or say hello, which she usually answered with a "Yaaah!", which seemed to be her answer to everything.
	I saw no Mindy as we approached. Diane saw Penelope and said, "Some mighty hunter you are. That won't go far at the feast table."
	"This is Penelope," I said, "She isn't on the menu tonight."
	"Yaaah!" said Penelope, as if agreeing with me.
	Diane chuckled and came over to pet Penelope. "Well, she certainly looks happy up there. You must have a smooth gait. How did you come to be wearing a cat, Ed?"
	"Actually, I'm trying to overcome some cold shoulders with a fur piece."
	Diane just looked at me for a moment. "Jesus. Did you rehearse that line?"
	"Nope. It's exactly what I'm doing and it just came out that way. Penelope is the bait. You're supposed to say, 'Oh, how cute!' and forget about this morning."
	A moment passed as I reached up to ruffle Penelope's ears. "So... Is it working?"
	"Maybe a little. 'Oh, how-very-cute'," she said, as if reading from a childrens' book.
	"Well, that's close enough for me, even if it lacked sincerity."
	"There's nothing for me to forget, Ed. Things happened. You don't share Mindy's views of them. My view is simple; none of it matters a damn to me."
	"Then why did you stomp off and leave me a while ago?"
	She looked me in the eye and said, "It mattered then. Not now. Shut up while you're ahead."
	John chuckled and Wills was grinning. Diane reached to scritch Penelope again.
	"Not good enough, Diane. You were pretty pissed at me when you walked away. Why isn't the same issue important now?"
	"Because you're right. But your attitude bothered me. It still does."
	Suddenly I felt tired, tired of all of it. I sat on Diane's cooler and patted Penelope and said nothing. The cop, Wills, was a short distance away, politely pretending not to hear us. John wasn't pretending at all. He snorted and stepped right into the discussion.
	John said, "Ed's the only one who will have to deal with cops and with what happened out there. None of the rest of us have to do any more than tell what we saw. We did NOT see Ed take advantage of the moment to beat the shit out of Sir Shithead when he had a perfect excuse to do so. We did NOT see Ed do one damned thing except avoid getting hit. We DID see Ed try to end the fight more than once."
	Diane was silently gazing at John as he spoke. Her gaze remained on him after his speech.
	I said, "Thanks, John, but don't. You'll just put yourself in the same place as me with people. If they can't or won't understand, to hell with it. Maybe it's just time for me to go."
	That said, I decided to haul Penelope over to her royal owners and let them know I didn't plan to be around for the awards later. I rose to my feet and replaced Penelope on my shoulders. It was an awkward moment as I faced Diane.
	I ended up saying, "Thanks for last night, Diane, and thank Mindy for me, too." Then I left.
	My entourage, Wills, was apparently engrossed in conversation with a young lady dressed as a courtly maiden. I was halfway to the King's tent when he caught up with me. After wrapping Penelope around someone else's neck and saying goodbye, I was about to take my leave when a female voice nearby calmly and authoritatively stated, "Stop him. He's trying to escape."
	The King waved his hand and 4 huge guys in armor surrounded me, swords ready. Two took my arms. Wills was so startled that he had his hand on his gun, but Diane's hand fell on his as she whispered in his ear and he relaxed somewhat. Mindy stepped forward from the crowd.
	"This man was given to us so he could work off his debt," she declared, "He has yet two days to fulfill his indenturement to us properly."
	I was boxed in. Most of the onlookers had no idea what had been going on with us and they expected me to play along good-naturedly. Without an excellent excuse to leave, I'd look like an asshole if I left right then. To them, this whole thing was an innuendo-style game.
	If I left, I'd be remembered at future events every bit as well - or poorly - as Melvin.
	I looked at John, on the edge of the crowd. He grinned and waved slightly. Diane was smiling, but it seemed tentative. Mindy was standing with hands on hips, waiting for a response. She had a "whatcha gonna do now?" expression on her face.
	After all the day's bullshit, I actually thought of saying to hell with it and opting for the air conditioned apartment and a good book. Looking around at the grinning crowd of hot, sweaty people awaiting my answer, I still almost said to hell with it. Then I saw that the look in Mindy's eyes had changed to concern, as had Diane's. They were really afraid I'd leave.
	I looked at the King and nodded. He waved his hand again and the guards released me.
	Mindy and Diane each took one of my arms and led me back to their tent. Officer Wills tagged along, talking to the young lady who had re-attached herself to him enroute.
	Mindy, Diane, and I said nothing on the way back to their tent. The silence continued as Mindy poured us a round of Cokes. We sat sipping until there came a "Yaahh!" from the doorway.
	Penelope sat just inside the tentflap, looking at me expectantly.
	Diane laughed, "She must think you're a good ride, Ed."
	That comment made Mindy laugh. I picked up Penelope and arranged her on my lap. She promptly set about re-arranging herself, then settled in.
	"It appears I've been chosen," I said, patting Penelope.
	Mindy leaned across to tap me on the shoulder.
	"You were chosen yesterday, too," she said, "We just hit a bump in the road today."
	Diane nodded agreement. "Let's just forget this morning, Ed."
	"Fine by me. Do I need to know why?"
	Diane and Mindy looked at each other and back at me.
	"You're the same person as yesterday," said Diane, "You're the same person we partied with. You're the same guy who was worried that Mindy was upset because of you and who refused to come back to the tent with me for fear of hurting her even more. We just had a clash of opinions, Ed. This whole situation will go away if we let it."
	"You don't think we'll have another clash?"
	"I'm sure of it," said Diane. "But John told us a little about what you've seen and how you've formed some of your views."
	"Yeah," said Mindy, "He said that you've already met too many Melvins along the line and that this one was probably our first really bad one. He was right."
	"Well, almost," said Diane, "But the other nutcase was a spacey rottweiler, not a person. It would attack things or people for no apparent reason and keep it up till it collapsed. When it attacked a cop one day, he shot it."
	I asked, "And how did most people feel when the dog was gone?"
	Diane grinned slightly. "Well, relieved, really. Even the owner, sort of."
	"Why is it so hard to admit you can feel that way about a person, too?"
	"It was at first," said Mindy. "Very hard. It isn't so hard now."
	"Yeah," said Diane, "We talked around. A lot of people here feel about the same as you. Poor Melvin, goodbye, good riddance."
	"Nothing like public opinion," I said, "Especially when it agrees with you."
	After I retrieved my costuming and cooler from my car, we spent the rest of the day drifting around the encampment, visiting among other attendees and shopping among the vendors of various faux-medieval items.
	When events such as archery and axe-and-knife throwing were about to start, Diane and I signed up. Archery came first on the list of events.
	I strung my 50-pound-pull Shakespeare Wonderbow as Diane strung her 35-pound Black Hawk. My bow stands 46" tall while Diane's stood 67" tall.
	Mindy appeared skeptical.
	"You any good at this, Ed?" asked Mindy, "Diane is. She's very good, in fact."
	She sounded rather smug about Diane's prowess with her bow.
	"Can she hit a cigarette pack at 25 paces with reasonable frequency and without special sighting toys on the bow, MiLady?"
	"Are you saying you can? Why so heavy a bow?"
	"Question one: Yes. I used to be able to do just that, but don't worry too much. I'm out of practice these days. Question two: It's the only bow I own."
	"How come hers is so much bigger than yours?" Mindy grinned.
	I grinned back at her. "Innuendo before a match? That doesn't work on me. Hers is bigger because she's compensating for something, of course."
	Diane's head came up quickly at that comment. "Compensating for what, pray tell?" she asked, gazing steadily at me. I matched her gaze.
	"Recoil," I said, grinning. "The jarring movement of the bow isn't so sharp."
	"Good answer," said Diane, "It saved your butt, anyway. What's the prize?"
	"I don't know," said Mindy, "Probably another ribbon."
	"That and a plaque," I said, strapping on my quiver of arrows.
	"Just what I needed," said Diane, "Another damned ribbon and plaque to hang it on. Don't they ever come up with anything new?"
	"Ha," I said, "I know bravado when I hear it. Another waste of time. You should be thinking up an after-match excuse instead."
	"We'll see," said Diane, flexing her bow and stepping to the far-left position on the firing line. I took a position on her right, getting there just ahead of a guy who'd wanted to stand next to her. The guy unhappily took the next position down.
	"What was that about?" asked Diane in a whisper.
	"Simple," I told her, "Watching you do anything is distracting. Watching you stand tall, stretch, flex, and all that might be too much for my easily-distracted male ability to concentrate. Can't risk it. I can't see you if I'm standing over here."
	"Oh, you poor little thing," said Diane, laughing. "You're not serious?"
	"I'm standing over here, aren't I? I don't want to try to shoot with my tongue hanging out to get caught in the bowstring. By the way, did I tell you you're beautiful?"
	"You did, and thank you, sir." Diane shook her head. "I can't believe this."
	"Believe it. Watch how the others watch you as you pull your bow. You're the only woman shooter, and you're too good-looking."
	Practice was called and we were all allowed six arrows to warm up. The bug I planted in Diane's ear worked. I saw her eyes travelling from man to man down the firing line as she tried to guage how they reacted. Her arrows were off the mark a bit, but it was obvious that she knew fairly well how to use a bow. She was good enough, in fact, that I hoped her slight distraction with the others would continue throughout the match.

Chapter Eight

	The contest was to be three rounds of six arrows each and a tie-breaker round if necessary. Red paper silhouettes of apples were placed on the targets' centers. When the flag went down, everybody began to shoot. Most of the shooters finished fairly quickly, if not accurately, and stood watching the others fire their last arrows. Most of the eyes were on Diane, as I predicted, and she noted this, as I suggested. She was blushing slightly from the attention as she fired her last two arrows.
	As we neared the targets to retrieve our arrows, I noted that all of hers were all on the target face within six inches or so of the center and that one had hit the apple. My arrows were about the same, and I, too, only had one hit in the apple. Another guy down the line had a hit, as well. On the way back, Diane and I smiled at each other but said nothing.
	Mindy greeted us with, "You both got one!" She bounced excitedly back and forth between us for a moment and planted a quick kiss on the cheek on each of us before bouncing back behind the line.
	It had been close to a year since I'd used my bow. I was therefore duly surprised when three of my arrows hit some part of the apple in round two. Diane managed two hits well into the apple and one that clipped the edge. It counted, being more in the apple than not. A yell from down the line announced that someone else had also scored three hits.
	"Did he get any others last round?" I asked as we started back. "If not, we're still at par."
	"Don't know," said Diane, "If he's still in next round, I guess he did."
	"You have to try harder," I said, "He wasn't distracted enough."
	"Geez. You want me to take off my blouse or something?"
	"That would probably work. Your call, though. How bad do you want a win?"
	Diane grinned at me. "You'd love to see me do something like that, wouldn't you?"
	"Yes, Ma'am. Definitely." I grinned back at her.
	"Won't happen," she said, "But think about it while you shoot, okay?"
	Round three. The flag went up, the flag went down, and the shooting started. I was feeling better with the bow after a dozen shots. Four of my arrows hit the apple.
	Diane was still shooting as I grounded my bow. I watched her carefully sink her last two shots into her apple, but I couldn't tell how well her previous shots had gone until we went to retrieve arrows. As we neared the targets, I saw that two more of hers had pierced her apple's edge, as before; more in than out. Scoring announced that Diane and I and one other guy had tied.
	The eliminated shooters left the firing line as we prepared to shoot tie-breaker rounds. By this time Mindy was almost frantic with excitement, dashing out to give us each another kiss and bouncing and clapping on the sidelines. Mindy had so much of herself in motion that I was beginning to wonder if she was trying to distract me, but then I realized that Diane was also having a lot of trouble keeping her eyes off Mindy.
	Diane glanced at me. "Mindy's pretty excited, isn't she?"
	"Mindy's pretty when she isn't excited, too," I said, "You ready?"
	"Let's do it."
	The flag went up, then down, and I ignored everything but the apple. The score was again four hits each. For some reason, there was a cheer from the watching crowd. Diane and I looked around to see who or what was being cheered.
	It was the scorekeeper, who was holding up something we could only see edgewise.
	"New targets!" he announced, turning them so we could see them, "The apples have been four inches in diameter. They will now be TWO inches in diameter."
	He looked over at us and continued with a grin, "And there WILL be a winner SOON, I hope, because this event is beginning to use time from other events."
	The flag descended. We shot. Each of us got two good hits. The crowd simultaneously laughed and groaned. The scorekeeper approached us waving a rule book.
	"This round," he said, "Only THREE arrows each. Best of three."
	I heard someone bet five dollars on me. Someone else covered it. There were more small bets. Mindy was bouncing and laughing with excitement.
	Some woman behind us yelled, "Get 'im, MiLady! Get 'im!"
	The flag fell again. We shot our three arrows each and began again the hike to the targets. One hit each, well into the apple on both targets. The scorekeeper pulled out a ruler as we approached and began to measure the distance from the centers of the apples to the arrows. He made his notes, then waved to the crowd to come view the targets themselves.
	"I want witnesses for this," he said, "There's less than one-quarter-inch difference in your favor, sir. I'm sorry, MiLady, but it seems he's won."
	Shouts of "Too close! Shoot again!" and the like came from the crowd. I looked at the ladies. Diane was smiling, but Mindy was one of those calling for another shot.
	"What do you want to do?" I asked Diane.
	"Whatever you want to do. I don't care, Ed. It's been fun."
	John appeared. "We need to fill a space of time around the feasting," he said, "Why don't I present the matter to the King and Queen? We can have a winner or a tie, as you wish."
	"A tie suits me fine," I said, "A little breeze and some luck could account for a quarter-inch or less. I was hoping for a clean hit or miss score."
	Mindy said, "YEAH! Wind! Luck! A TIE!"
	Diane just shrugged and grinned. "Whatever."
	I pulled a quarter out and handed it to Mindy. "Toss it. Heads we shoot again, tails we call it a tie. Good enough?" Diane nodded. The scorekeeper nodded.
	Mindy tossed the coin. It landed tails-up.
	"You happy with this?" I asked Diane.
	"Guess so, if you are."
	"It beats having both of us try to throw the match to end the contest next round."
	Diane laughed. "Yeah. Right. Lets's call it a tie, then."
	Some of the crowd wanted us to shoot again while some were happy with the milestone of equality we'd reached. We watched the crowd move on to the axe-throwing event, which was starting late.
	"One more arrow?" asked Diane, looking at the targets.
	I nodded agreement. Mindy started bouncing again as she realized what we were up to. Each of us let fly one arrow at the same target.
	There was a clacking noise as the arrows smacked against each other at the target. When we were closer, we could see that mine had gone a tad low and hers had gone a tad high, but both were about a quarter-inch from center. The arrows rested against each other at about their middles, slightly crossing each other..
	We heard Mindy murmur, "Wow!" behind us.
	"Wow, indeed," said John. He waved and left to follow the crowd.
	"That's it," said Diane, "Enough archery. All we can prove now is who will get tired enough to miss first." I just nodded agreement.
	We dropped our gear at our tents and made some drinks. Officer Wills, who had been missing for some time, dropped by to tell me that he'd been called in and I hadn't, so it looked as if things would be okay after all. I thanked him and we watched him amble back to his car with the lady who'd caught his attention earlier.
	"He'll be back after work, betcha," said Mindy.
	"No bet," I said, "She's been working on him all this time."
	"Working on him?" asked Diane. She handed me a drink.
	"Hey, don't play innocent with me, lady. It's been like watching a nature show. They've been signalling to each other like a couple of peacocks."
	Diane laughed. "Yeah, they have. Good. Something nice may come of this morning."
	"It already has. We're back together. Thank you, ladies."
	"Don't sweat it. We couldn't let you escape," said Mindy.
	She pulled the cooler closer to us and sat down.
	"Well, thanks, then, to both of you for preventing my escape."
	We grinned at each other and made a silent toast, bumping our plastic cups together and sipping in silence for a little while.
	"Oh, yeah," said Diane suddenly, "I just remembered... Mindy, did you get with John?"
	Mindy looked blank for a second, then, "Oh! Yes! I did, but John said to check with Ed first because of all the crap this morning."
	"Ok," said Diane, turning to me, "So let's check with Ed. We were scheduled to fight today, but the lists are closed for the day, now. Want to reschedule it for tomorrow?"
	I thought about it. "If you promise not to pull a Melvin on me and go crazy."
	"Not my style," she said, grinning. "I'll go set it up, then."
	Diane left to find the Master-at-arms. Mindy seemed surprised and puzzled.
	"What?" I asked her, struggling to get my sweat-soaked shirt off.
	"She just up and left. She didn't even ask if we wanted to go with her."
	"Maybe she wanted to give us some time alone."
	We sat in moderately awkward silence for some moments before Mindy cleared her throat to softly ask a startling question.
	"Are you more interested in Diane than me, Ed?"
	I thought about it a moment and smiled at her. "No. I much prefer to consider you a team."
	"But she's the one who shoots a bow and fights on the field and made me listen to John, and you've been spending a lot of time with her today."
	"You weren't being available at the time, Mindy, and Diane was a lot less upset."
	"That's all? You're sure?"
	"As far as I'm concerned. I'd bet Diane would say about the same."
	"What about all that... that Vulcan mind-meld stuff? I don't have it like she does."
	"Apparently you do, to some degree. At least you did when we were in contact in the showers. Work on it some. Surprise yourself."
	Except for laughter from antics at the King's court, there was quiet for several moments, then Cindy extended her right hand.
	"Show me," she said.
	I took her hand between mine. "No guarantees," I said. She nodded.
	I spent a couple of moments gathering memories. They always seem to work best, probably because you don't even have them if they don't mean something to you. They're a combination of all that all of your senses received and they're etched in your brain like a recording.
	Mindy sat with her eyes closed tightly. I waited. When a questioning look passed her face and her eyelids began to flutter open, I tried to "send" her some of memories of the shower, memories of what I'd seen, from my angle of view, particularly those of Diane's face.
	Mindy looked slightly puzzled for a moment, then her eyes flew open in shock. She  stared at me for a moment, moving her lips as if to say something, but nothing came out. The moment of startlement elongated into several more as we sat holding hands. I closely watched her reactions as I continued feeding glimpses of sight, sound, and sensation through our connection.
	Some women have handled this private phenomenon well. Others haven't. Mindy did. Her eyes closed again and she added her other hand to our connection. It made no difference to anything but her posture on the cooler, as far as I could tell. I logged that bit of data for future reference: any touch at all appeared to be enough.
	Diane had returned. I had an awareness of her near the tent door, but I didn't want to interrupt Mindy's experiences of the moment. Mindy's legs began moving as she squirmed on her seat and her face acquired a rather dreamy expression. Diane moved out of my peripheral vision. I was aware of her sitting down behind me just before the palm of her hand came to rest on my bare back. It was a shock.
	Have you ever played with magnets? Maybe put a nail on one and used another magnet to make it sway around, then let it make contact? The nail acts as an extension of their fields of attraction, binding the two magnets together. I became that nail.
	Diane settled into matters for a moment, then it became another sensory event like the one in the shower. The ladies were feeding each other through their conduit. Me. Sensations passed back and forth through me for a moment strongly enough to overshadow my own efforts. I seemed to get a grip on them after a time and blended them, then I began to add my own again. Both women reacted strongly to that additional flavoring.
	A startled, "HUH!" came out of Mindy, and then low moans came from both women. Mindy doubled over slightly, an element of strain showing in her face and throat.
	Her breathing became rapid and the pulse in her throat was pounding visibly hard.
	I realized I had to do something quickly, so I grabbed my shirt and stuffed some of it into the front of my pants, surrounding myself down there.
	There was a motion in the doorway of the tent. John stood there, staring at the strange happenings within. I tried to break free, but Mindy's two-handed grip on my hand was too strong, and I'd made very little progress toward breaking the link when the ladies suddenly orgasmed together as if they'd had only one mind between them.
	Identical, simultaneous groanings of pleasure erupted from both women. Mindy slid limply off the cooler to kneel on the ground. I could feel the same happening behind me to Diane. Only the distracting sight of John standing in the doorway prevented me from joining them in that orgasmic bliss, I think. Both ladies were lying on the tent floor when I looked back.
	John was transfixed as if having a vision, staring open-mouthed at the three of us. He seemed to shake himself free for a moment to look around outside, then almost fell into the tent as he tripped over the splashguard while trying to shut the opaque doorflaps. He climbed aboard Mindy's vacated cooler seat and stared silently at me.
	I gave him a weak grin while pulling my shirt out of my pants and said, "Bet you thought you'd seen just about everything, huh, John?"
	John eyed us as if we might well all be Martians and growled, "You'd better goddamned well hope they're going to be all right."
	Mindy's giggle became a soft laugh as she released my hand. "We're fine, John," she said.
	When I looked at Diane, she was smiling and nodding with her eyes still closed.
	I said, "John, I feel so used..."
	The ladies cracked up laughing. Perfect. The expression on John's face told me he was no longer concerned, but that he was still more than a little confused.
	I grinned and offered him a drink. He nodded.
	"Damn," laughed Diane, "This feels like the time my parents caught me behind the barn with..., Oh, hell! I forgot his name..."
	Handing John his drink, I stated gravely, "Such is my power over women that I make them forget all other men, John."
	This started another round of feminine laughter. Even John was smiling.
	Mindy sat up and slapped my leg. "What absolute bullshit! You sound like the villain one of those old movies, Ed."
	"Oh, I don't know about that," said Diane with a chuckle, "I still can't remember who the hell was behind the barn with me that time."
	"It'll come back to you," said Mindy, reaching for her drink, "Does anybody have a headache this time? I don't."
	None of us had headaches. John had returned to looking mystified. "Headaches?" he asked.
	Diane found her drink and sat on the ground near Mindy. I freshened all the drinks to provide us a few moments to gather ourselves.
	"Is anyone going to tell me what the hell I just saw?" asked John.
	Mindy and Diane looked at each other, then at me. I realized that I'd been elected. John realized it, too. His attention turned to me.
	"First, a question, John. What do you think you saw?"
	"I'm still trying to figure that out," said John.
	I waited, saying nothing. John realized I wasn't going to proceed without hearing his thoughts on the matter.
	"Ok," he said. "Forget it. I heard... well, I thought someone was hurt or sick, but you're all ok, so just forget it."
	As he rose to leave, Diane reached to tap his knee and repeated my question.
	"What do you think you saw, John?"
	I gave her a 'what are you doing?' look. She shook her head at me slightly, so I said nothing. John slowly sat back down and looked at each of us in turn.
	"Well,... I'm not sure, Diane, but I thought I saw all three of you, uh... having sex without really having sex...?"
	Diane's answer was short and definite. "Exactly that, John."
	There was silence in the tent for long moments until Mindy stood up and impatiently said, "Oh, hell, let's just tell him if we're going to."
	"I'll do it," said Diane. "John, you saw something unusual here. How do you handle unusual things? You'll either believe us or you'll just think we're nuts, won't you? But it won't matter?"
	John smiled. "It won't matter. Nuts or not, I like you."
	Diane smiled back at him and said, "Ok, then. Ed was touching her, I was touching him, and we were sharing some very nice memories together."
	She looked at Mindy and me. "Does that about cover it, guys?"
	"Does for me," I said.
	"You wrapped it right up," said Mindy.
	"Oh, yeah," said John, "That you did, Diane. You even strangled it with the ribbon. C'mon, now! I know what I saw!"
	"Exactly," said Diane, "You DO know what you saw. And now that you've admitted it, you might even believe what we tell you."
	"Uhm, Diane," said Mindy, "Why tell anyone anything?"
	Diane looked directly at John as she spoke. "John saw it. Us. It was odd enough that he might become wary of us. The way he feels could rub off on others at these events."
	John made as if to protest. She raised a hand to stop him.
	"No, John. You'd think of us differently and people notice things like that. Ed, what did you get when you touched him when you handed him his drink? Anything at all?"
	"Wasn't really trying," I said. John glanced at me warily. "Relax, John. She just wants to know if I sensed anything."
	Diane said, "Try it again, Ed. You managed to reach Mindy or help me reach her. After several years of being with her, I never knew she was reachable at all."
	John continued to eye me rather warily. I sighed.
	"I'd rather just tell him, Diane. You never know what you're going to find in there. I only scanned Mindy very lightly because she appealed to me. John doesn't, and he's been... Well, shouldn't you should be asking him if it's okay first?"
	John suddenly stood up. "It isn't," he said abruptly. He put his drink on the cooler and stepped outside the tent, then turned to face us. "We'll be fine, all of us. Friends at a distance."

Chapter Nine

	Mindy stood gaping as John walked away from the tent. Diane simply poured the remainder of his gin and cola into hers and sat down on the cooler. I took the opportunity to lie flat, arranging the tops of my boots across each other as a pillow. Nobody spoke for a while.
	Mindy broke the silence with, "Friends at a distance, huh? How the hell do you do that? Wave now and then? What's the point?"
	I said, "Friends at a distance are the only kind of friends John has had for a long time, Mindy. Don't let it bother you too much."
	Mindy just looked at me uncomprehendingly. I elaborated a bit.
	"John and I have been some of the same places and done some of the same things and the experiences may have affected him differently than me. When you get close to people, sooner or later they want to know you better. That can mean explaining why you wake up in a cold sweat sometimes or snap awake thinking you're somewhere else because a sound or a smell influenced your dreams. When you don't want to talk, people will push you to 'talk it out'. When you do try to talk something out, they don't have the stomach to hear what's bothering you."
	Diane said, "You seem to know a lot about these things, Ed."
	"Yup. Wanna hear about the aftermath of a mortar attack? All you have to do is ask me why I hit the floor when a refrigerator compressor kicks on or off with a thumping sound that resembles too closely the thump of a mortar firing. Or ask me why I stop and listen sometimes while other people move on around me. I just heard something that didn't seem to belong there. Some sounds, like closing the bolt of a rifle or the spoon flying off a grenade, are hard to replicate in the civilian world. When something does nearly replicate them, some of us react... uhm... in rather uncivilian ways."
	"So?" asked Mindy, "What's the big deal? Some people jump out of their skins for less reason than that, don't they?"
	"Oh, yeah. Sure they do. And then everybody has a laugh and it's forgotten. But you have to realize the aftermath of a grenade explosion or sniper fire is probably what locked a sound's recognition in his - and my - brain. We don't come down laughing. We may come down shaking with adrenaline or may not come down immediately at all."
	"Well, okay, Ed. I can understand those examples, but what do they have to do with what we were doing? And how is it that you weren't affected the same way he was? You seem able to talk about it. He doesn't."
	I chuckled at that. "Oh, wow, Mindy.Do you want the long story or the short one?"
	Diane interrupted Mindy's answer. "Your choice, Ed."
	I looked at her for a moment. She had a serious expression.
	Mindy noticed that and suddenly lost her impatience, echoing, "Yeah, Ed. Your choice."
	"Okay, then... John had an idea of what we were doing. You said, and I quote, 'we were sharing some very nice memories together'. He believed, or at least half-believed you, even at that point." I sipped and formed my next words to them.
	"But John keeps certain of his memories locked up, taking no chances that they break out and run loose. The idea that someone might be able to bypass his control and 'get' to his memories by touching him instantly turned him off."
	Mindy looked puzzled. "But we don't want..."
	Diane interrupted her again. "That doesn't matter. Ed said you never know what you'll find. It's true. I shook hands with a guy once who was absolutely broadcasting a desire to hurt someone. It was so strong I almost became sick from it. He was smiling the whole time."
	"Eeewww," said Mindy, rubbing the goosebumps off her arms.
	"Some have little secrets," I said, "Some have deep, dark secrets. Some feel guilty for stupid little reasons. Others feel guilty for doing things they had to do to survive."
	"Like what?" asked Mindy, "If you had to, you had to."
	"That's easy to say when you're here. You had to be there to know."
	We'd all had some booze. Maybe that's why what happened next happened.
	Mindy said, "Bullshit" and for some reason that ticked me off to the max just then. It was as if she was calling everything I was trying to tell her 'bullshit'. I offered her a ride through some of my pet nightmares to prove the point to her.
	"Put your money where your mouth is," I told her.
	Diane rolled her eyes and started to speak.
	I said, "No, Diane. It's important."
	I guess my tone convinced her. Diane said, "If she does, I do, too."
	"Your choice. Welcome aboard, ladies." I took a drink, set my glass down, and held out my hands to them. Mindy was realizing she'd made an error from which she couldn't retreat.
	She hesitantly took my hand. Diane took the other. I dropped us into 24 March, 1968.

***
	Goddamned gnats thick as a fog. Sun beating down. Walking all goddamned day out here and haven't seen shit. Less than two klicks to go. We can actually see the firebase now and then when the wind blows the elephant grass just so. Tucker takes point and Davis takes the drag. Break's over. I hoist my medikit and rifle and move out in the middle of the column.
	In two days of following a tip, we haven't seen people, tripwires, or anygoddamnthing but vegetation, mud, bugs, leeches, snakes, and a blurry trail ahead as sweat ran in our eyes.
	Before the Tet offensive, we wouldn't have been sent on this chickenshit walk in the woods. Now the brass was jumpy. Tucker holds a hand up and we stop. It's a fucking wire!
	We feel almost vindicated in our efforts by having found at least something, anything, that would indicate an enemy has been in the neighborhood sometime in the recent past. Tucker is following the wire left and Martin's following to the right. I set my pack down across from Taylor and kneel by it. A shot of water and a salt pill and I'm putting my canteen back in it's bag when I hear it, maybe because my head is tilted just right. Something metal clicked against something made of wood. None of our equipment was made of wood.
	I grab Hollister, the closest one to me, and pull him flat as I drop and yell, all at once. Automatic fire rakes the grass around us, hits something metal, hits something else that isn't metal. Taylor is holding his chest and gurgling at us.
	I hear someone eject an empty magazine not far away into the bush and point to direct fire as I back toward Taylor with my kit. Three guys, Taylor included, fire in that direction. Taylor's pissed and scared. He empties his weapon right over my head and fumbles one-handed for another magazine from his belt. Looking down makes him see what's happened to him.
	Can't tell if they hit anything as I crawl to Taylor and pull his shirt open. There's a hole like a fat pencil would make in the front, a hole the size of a fist in his back, involving the left lung and everything for four inches around the hole. Taylor isn't gurgling now. He's not breathing at all.
	Taylor almost smiles and mouths the words "Thanks, anyway" with a dumb, apologetic grin, closes his eyes, and cries himself to final sleep. I wipe his tears away quickly. It's useless, but it needs done. More firing. Jackson is yelling as he gets up and charges the bush with Moran.
	Jackson and Moran drag in a body. The guy's weapon was an AK-47 with a wooden stock. Black pajamas, hard-corps VC. The wire was a gag to get us to stop in his AO. He knew we'd have to check it out. Nothing on it, just a wire between two sticks.
	Moran looks at Taylor for a long moment, then turns back to the VC. He puts the muzzle of his 16 in the dead guy's mouth and fires repeatedly. He's crying and doesn't seem to know or care. It's hard to make friends in a place like this and it's harder to lose them.
	He fires again, then Jackson puts his hand on the M-16's stock and softly says something I can't hear. After a moment, Moran nods and walks toward where he dropped his gear. He hunkers there with his back to us and doesn't look at Taylor again.
	I call Jackson over to watch as I dump Taylor's pockets and put the stuff into his pack except for his cigarettes and a paperback book that I gave him a few days ago. Jackson takes charge of Taylor's pack and rifle.
	Moran doesn't smoke, so I toss the cigs to Jackson, then take the book to Moran and hold it out to him. After a moment he nods and takes it. He knows that I understand, that we all understand. It's a nothing sort of gesture, but it makes contact through his grief for a moment and he knows we all share the loss with him.
	We call it in, clear a 'zone, and Jackson pops smoke for Taylor's pickup. Once the chopper's gone we continue on what's left of our mission. Not far from the firebase wire is a shanty village, hastily thrown together by Viets who do odd jobs in and around the base. Some of the people nod and smile at us, others offer us only sullen glares.
	We all freeze at a sudden flurry of motion. A kid, maybe ten years old, comes tearing around the corner of a hut and Moran's rifle levels at the kid's chest. Jackson's quick. He again places his hand on the weapon, this time blocking the sights, even though Moran is aiming from the hip. It seems to take Moran a long time to agree not to shoot, but he finally lowers the weapon. The kid was so scared he wet himself. Moran looks at him as if seeing a cockroach that's just managed to get out of reach.
	"See you later, kid," he says before moving on.
	There is no doubt in my mind that if the kid had been only a few years older, Moran would have shot him and Jackson probably wouldn't have intervened. It would have been written up as a regrettable accident. Too bad, so sad. Fuck it. Don't mean nothin'. One less Cong.
	Two weeks later, in a jeep in downtown Saigon, I'm detailed to pick up a new captain at TSN airbase and we're taking a detour for a little fun on the way back. The late afternoon crowds are still amazing to me. People everydamnwhere, streets crowded elbow to elbow. Nuns are herding schoolchildren across the boulevard in front of us.
	Jackson points to the right and back of us a bit, yelling, "Get down!"
	Where he's pointing, a grinning mixed-blood kid about four or five years old is approaching quickly with a big smile and a paper bag clutched in his hands. A woman is frantically pushing her way back into the crowd, which appears to be trying to dissolve completely in our vicinity. Jackson puts a round dead center in her back that slams her forward and she collapses.
	The new captain is still in the jeep. Jackson tries to pull him out, but he frantically resists, demanding to know what the hell is going on and why we're shooting. The kid's maybe ten feet from the jeep, now. I try to see only the bag and not his face as I quickly shoot twice, then duck down behind the jeep. The captain sees me shoot and screams, "Are you fucking crazy..?!"
	Explosion. Deafening 'BANG', sharp and concise, not like in the movies at all. No whizzing of shrapnel, either. That's movie bullshit, too. You don't hear the stuff when you're that close.
	Ears still ringing, pain in my ankle. I look down and see a little blood, but the tire took most of the hit. Some of the side of my boot is fucked up, but I'm not seriously hurt. Then the captain falls over on me and rolls out of the jeep. The left side of him is unmarked, but the right side speckled with hits. Need a new captain. Fuck it, he'd have died anyway 'cause he was too goddamned slow to live. I stand up and look around us.
	My two shots mattered not at all. The kid practically disappeared in the blast, but he left one thing behind of himself. I can still see every goddamned detail of his confused, frightened expresson as I aimed and fired. Maybe I was even the one the whore pointed to when she told him his real Daddy was in our jeep. The captain and I were the only white guys.
	Even if it would start, the jeep has three flat tires. An Air Force bus is coming down the street. They'll have a radio and we can...

***
	Mindy broke connection and lay back on the tent floor, sobbing. Diane sat bolt upright, shaking, but holding her own against the visions. I gave them a moment to regroup.
	"Now you see what John may be keeping to himself. Things very like that. Things high school can't prepare you for and stuff the military doesn't tell you can happen. Stuff nobody has the stomach to hear about when you come back, so it sits bottled up on your mental shelves. All John may really need is for someone to tell him that whatever happened wasn't his fault, but that may have to come from someone he feels is qualified to say it."
	"You're obviously qualified," said Diane in an odd, shaky tone.
	"Maybe. That isn't up to me to decide for him. If his problem is one of assumed guilt, he can never accept absolution from anyone but himself."
	Mindy sat up and asked, "How can you be sure his problem is guilt?"
	"Because damned near anything else can be rationalized away if you refuse to accept responsibility for it, even something that maybe really was your doing."
	Diane said, "That's essentially true, Min. Sociopaths do it all the time."
	Mindy actually pointed her finger at me.
	"So how is it you're not hiding stuff? Are you sociopathic? You shot that kid, didn't you?"
	"I did. A hooker got rid of an unwanted kid by telling him his father was in that jeep. She gave him a 'gift' for his father and a push. That kid was scheduled to die the day he was born, long before I went in the Army. The Cong only let him live to use him as a delivery system."
	"He's right about that," said John's voice from somewhere to Mindy's left.
	Mindy jumped up so fast she banged her head on a tent pole. She gripped her head and screamed softly, shrilly, "Would you PLEASE-FUCKING-ANNOUNCE-YOURSELF next time, John? Knock or fart or something? Just stop fucking sneaking up on us? PLEASE?"
	Diane giggled, but agreed. "Yes, please do that little thing for us, will you, John? We are just civilians, you know, and one of us seems to spook easily." Mindy glared at her.
	"I think not so much so now," said John. "I know what you seem to be doing with each other. I can guess what kinds of things Ed showed you, if you're talking about him shooting kids."
	I nodded agreement. That was enough for the moment.
	John smiled slightly. "Well, I guess that takes the edge off anything I could tell you, doesn't it? Telling any woman something like that... Look, I just came to apologize for walking out."
	I waved the incident away wordlessly.
	Mindy said, "It's okay, John," and Diane said, "Forget it happened," but it should be noted that John remained outside the tent. He made no move to join us inside.
	"John," said Diane, "You can come in if you want. Promise, no touching."
	You could have seen the wheels turning in his head as he came to a decision. After a moment, he stepped into the tent, standing just inside the doorflaps. I kicked the cooler over to him.
	"Grab a drink and have a seat, John. We'll behave."
	"Yeah, but only if we have to," amended Mindy with a grin.
	"Check it out, John," I said, "Two minutes ago she was crying. Civilians are a little more resilient than you thought, aren't they?"
	"Well, by god, that one seems to be, anyway," said John. He took a cup of ice from Diane. I noticed he pinched the lip between thumb and finger rather than wrap his hand around it while hers was on it.
	"Something, John," I said, to snag his attention. "A quick, casual touch won't do it. There has to be intent. An effort to make contact."
	He nodded, then added some gin to his Coke. "Okay."
	"And it doesn't work with everyone," said Diane.
	John nodded again. We'd all found places to sit. I was between Mindy and Diane on the floor, knee to knee with both of them. Mindy's left arm rested on my thigh and Diane's right hand rested on my arm. John remained on the cooler, regarding us thoughtfully.
	"It's simple, Ed. I thought I'd come to terms with most things, but now I really doubt it. You're here for half a day and two women literally take possession of you. I'm at every event as a member of the King's Court, meeting and greeting everydamnbody, and I've never had any more than a lightweight weekend thing that ended with the event. I've spent the last hour asking myself why. Now I'm here to ask all of you the same question."
	"It might be better to ask them first." I nodded to each side of me.

Chapter Ten

	After a moment, John said, "All right. I'll do that. Mindy and Diane... why?"
	Mindy was first to comment. "You're the seneschal. Eyes and ears of the King. Member of the court. A title, more than a person, to most of us. Someone who watches over us and watches us at the same time."
	"Distant," said Diane, "Involved, but distant. You've been involved in everything, but not really part of anything. Like a cop."
	"Yeah," said Mindy, "Always on duty. Always busy."
	Diane said, "I won't dance with the words, John. When you got laid, it was because a woman wanted to see if she could be more important to you than whatever else you had going. When you didn't let her become that, or at least believe she had, she dropped you and looked elsewhere. Women don't like losing, but if it's another woman, they can at least understand to some degree. Nobody wants to compete against ghosts. You always lose when it's a ghost."
	John impressed me a bit right about then. He kept his mouth shut and listened as Mindy picked up where Diane stopped.
	"Sometimes it's a woman, the one who got away. Some great, lost love. Other times it's something else, but only emotionally crippled women look for emotionally crippled men. They think they can fix them. Nurses are bad about hooking up with perpetual losers, for instance. They need to be needed so they construct a perpetually needy lifestyle with a damaged or deficient man."
	John stiffened slightly. "So you think I'm needy and deficient?"
	"Are you?" asked Mindy, "You're here about why you can't find a relationship, aren't you? That doesn't make you deficient, but it maybe means you're a little out of adjustment."
	Diane clamped a hand on Mindy's arm and interjected, "What she means is...You're asking us, and we're just telling you what we THINK, isn't-that-right-Mindy?"
	Mindy said, "Yeah. What we think, John. You're hurting me, Diane."
	"I should have slugged you. We aren't trying to smash him, we're trying to help him. Try thinking as you speak, if not before."
	"Oh, yes, Mother dear! He's an ex-Marine! He's not delicate, Diane."
	"Wrong," I said. "There's no such thing as an ex-Marine and everybody has delicate spots. You're stomping on his right now. So am I, for that matter, just by saying anything about it. Shit. It must be this gin. John, why not just trust us on one point... we don't want to hurt you, but we might hurt you anyway."
	"I've been hurt," said John, "I've been hurt by people who really wanted to hurt me. I'll get by, Ed. I'm trying to turn things around, here."
	Diane seemed lost in thought. I nudged her.
	She snapped to and said, "Somebody who's been there. Tag, Ed. You're it."
	"No, Diane. John's it. He doesn't need me rummaging around in his head. My answers won't necessarily work on his questions."
	Diane gave me a steady gaze and said, "That's just it, though. John's questions aren't the same as yours, and he doesn't need answers yet. He needs the right questions."
	Her statement rattled around in my head for a few minutes as we made another round of drinks. Finally I shook my head. "No."
	Mindy barfed up a quick, "Why not?" She seemed offended that I wouldn't at least try to help John somehow. Diane again placed a hand on Mindy's arm to quiet her.
	"Same question," she said.
	"Ask John," I said, "He's ready to leave again before anyone touches him. Do you two think I'm some kind of magic pill? When the questions aren't there, neither are the answers. If they are there and being selectively ignored, what the hell can I do?"
	To John, I said, "Look, guy. I don't know what locked you and I don't pretend to have all the keys. But if you're tight about something that happened during Vietnam, just remember that WE had to fight that war before we were old enough to vote against it. The game was rigged from the start for all of us. If you did something that may have helped you get home in one piece, all you did was beat the house at it's own game."
	John sat silent for a little while, then asked, "All's fair, then? Do you really believe that, Ed? There are things that can't be filed and forgotten."
	"Bullshit, John. If you didn't have a conscience, you wouldn't be worth knowing, but don't let it martyrize you unless you have a definite reason for wanting to be a martyr. If you fucked up, fine. If you did something drastic, fine. If you didn't do something and think you should have, well, that's fine, too. You can't go back and fix things, but you can and should be willing to warn others about what can happen to them. That's teaching."
	John said softly, "I never said it happened during the war."
	Mindy began, "Then what..?"
	"Ten years after the war. I was a cop for a little over a year. Interrupted a break-in. The guy shot my partner, shot at me, ran out of ammo, dropped his gun, and raised his hands. I just decided not to accept his surrender. Shot him cold. DJ, my partner, tried to cover, saying it was getting dark and he figured I thought the guy was about to shoot again. I went along with that, but it was totally bullshit. I just shot the guy."
	"So what's the problem?" asked Diane, "Only his lawyer will miss him. He shot. You shot. You were just a little late. If you'd shot him before he dropped the gun, it wouldn't have mattered, right?"
	John gave Diane a wry grin. "Well, there's a little more to it than that, but, yeah, that's more or less the way it works."
	"Your partner survived?" asked Diane. John nodded. "Well, what if he hadn't, then, or what if you hadn't shot the guy? Would he have gotten out of jail later?"
	"Years from now, probably."
	"Had he been in jail before?"
	John nodded again. "Lots of times. He..."
	Diane interrupted. "So jail wasn't likely to fix him. He'd have been out doing the same thing years down the road, right?"
	John held up a hand. "I've been through all this with other people," he said, "You're going to say it's better this way, that he can't get out later and shoot someone else."
	"Well, I'd have said MAYBE he'd shoot someone else. You left that word out, so I'd say you believe he would have, right?"
	I said, "I think she got you, John. Are you hung up on the rules of engagement or the results of the engagement? If all you need is someone to say it's okay, consider it said."
	John just sat there for a bit, sipping his drink, then he stood up. "Well, thanks anyway. I guess I'll be on my way now."
	Diane gazed steadily at him as she said, "You won't hear a better answer than that, John. There isn't one."
	"I know that," he said, "Believe me, I really know that. Thanks, anyway."
	Mindy started to get up, saying, "But..."
	John held out both hands in a 'stop' gesture. "No, I just need more time, I guess. Thanks for the drink and talk, but I have to go."
	John was some distance from the tent before Diane spoke.
	"More time won't be enough, will it?"
	"Not by itself," I said. "He has his own set of rules and he broke one. He'll be in his self-imposed exile until he can get past it on his own."
	A rather morose atmosphere settled in the tent. I refilled our drinks and was about to sit back down when somebody announced herself.
	Penelope's loud "Yaaahh!" filled the tent. I lifted the flap to let her in. She hopped over the splashguard and strolled over to sit between Mindy and Diane, who immediately began talking to her and petting her.
	I felt around us a bit and said, "Thanks, John. That'll help the mood some."
	Mindy looked around. "John's back? Where is he?"
	A smiling John stepped from behind a tree and said, "Saw she wasn't busy and thought she'd be useful around here." He waved and said, "See ya," and ambled off again.
	"You know what gets me?" asked Mindy, "They can both do that."
	"Do what?" asked Diane. Penelope was clambering into her lap.
	"Know when people are around. Just know it."
	"Umm...yeah, probably. How do you guys do that, Ed?"
	"You want the mystical, magical explanation or the most likely one?"
	Diane said, "I'll take one, she'll take the other. You choose who gets which version."
	"Okay. You become attuned. It becomes second nature, and you don't know if you've seen some small thing or heard something or what, but it translates in your head into someone being nearby, maybe in a given direction from you."
	"But how did you know exactly which tree he was behind?" asked Mindy.
	"Dunno. Just did. That's the mystical, magical part."
	"Smartass. Mindy, next shower you bring the scrub brush."
	"Kewl. And the lye soap. We'll teach him to diddle with us."
	I sat on the cooler and tried to use reason with them.
	"If you damage me I won't be able to work off my debt, ladies."
	"He's got a point," said Diane.
	"Yeah, but at least it isn't on his head."
	A shouted, "Hear Ye, Hear Ye!" rang out, followed by someone announcing that the evening feasting would commence in less than an hour. We grabbed towels and headed for the sinks to clean up a bit before dinner.
	Penelope followed along until she decided walking was too much trouble and let out a yell.
	I slung her on my shoulders like a cheap fur stole and we were on our way again.
	A rather ornately-dressed woman greeted us near the buffet tables. I simply nodded to the Queen, since I couldn't make a proper bow without putting her cat down.
	"Ho, MiLord, I see you're in fine company this eve!" She ruffled Penelope's chin, then said, "And how nice for you! You've found a pair of lovely wenches to attend you!"
	"I beg your pardon, MiLady," said Mindy, "But, as you must well know because you were sitting on the throne at that very moment, this rogue is in our custody by word of the King. WE brought HIM to be fed, and HE is attending US."
	"Ah. Yes. Quite right. Well, then, is he behaving himself? Laboring on behalf of his debt and honor? Acquitting himself well as required?"
	Diane smiled at her - cattily, I guess you could call it - and said, "Oh, yes, indeed! He is performing very well for us, thank you."
	It should be noted here that this organization's kings and queens need not be married to hold their respective offices. It's common, but not required. This King and Queen weren't married and had each achieved their titles by other means.
	This particular Queen looked like a slightly heftier version of Sandahl Bergman, which was good, but was well-known for throwing her rank around, which was not so good.
	She rather blatantly eyed me up and down as if appraising a possible purchase. Mindy and Diane were not amused. The Queen pretended not to notice this and walked around me once, letting her hand trail from Penelope across the back of my neck to rest on my shoulder.
	"I wonder if," she almost whispered the words, "You'd perhaps like to become a Queen's consort? There are many advantages."
	Mindy was angry enough to tell her off. Diane put a hand on her arm.
	I looked at Mindy and shook my head slightly, then turned to the Queen and said, "Perhaps they'll send me to you as a gift when they're finished with me. If there's anything left of me to send, of course. I've found these two to be very demanding, so far."
	The Queen smiled. She really was quite beautiful, even though she lacked even a rudimentary amount of bonafide niceness at that moment.
	Her smile was like that of a crocodile as she ran her fingers down my arm and said, "Yes, of course. You do belong to them for the moment by Royal decree, don't you?"
	"I do. And with all the respect due your office, I'd say you only want me because they have me. I might not perform as well under such circumstances as you offer, Madam."
	Her gaze narrowed. "What circumstances might those be, MiLord?"
	"Oh, well," I said, "As much as you look like one of my favorite movie women, I'd always worry that you were out and about trying to acquire yet another of someone else's toys, for instance, and also always wonder if the toys you appropriated were truly healthy. Such worries about job security and health would affect my, uhm, performance on your behalf, I think."
	I was glad there were other people nearby as the Queen glared daggers at me. Remaining in courtly mode was becoming difficult for all of us, so I set Penelope down and patted her.
	When I looked up, the Queen was already a dozen feet away and striding fast toward her throne. Penelope made no move to follow her, choosing instead to try to mooch something from the servers at the tables. A 'serving wench' who didn't know Penelope was near her feet was greatly startled by a loud "Yaahh!". Penelope dove upon the slice of roast beef she dropped.
	"That bitch!" said Mindy, "She tried to hijack you, Ed!"
	"Yeah, I know," I said, "I was there when it happened."
	Diane grinned. "You all but called the Queen a trollop, Ed."
	I smiled at them. "You don't think I was too vague about it?"
	Mindy laughed. "Oh, no, no, not at all. She got the message, all right."
	The Queen was back on her throne, glaring our direction. I put an arm each around Mindy and Diane and said, "I would dearly love to kiss you both, Ladies. Dare we do such a thing together, in full view of the public and the throne?"
	Mindy loved the idea. She was grinning so hard I thought it must almost hurt.
	Diane cast a glance to make sure the Queen was watching and kissed me very, very warmly indeed. Mindy politely waited until she was finished, then took her turn, just as warmly. When we came up for air, there was a smattering of applause from nearby tables. I didn't know if they were applauding our kisses or our gesture to the Queen. Maybe some were applauding both? 
	Each lady took one of my arms and we proceeded to the dinner lines. A few moments later, I felt someone standing very still a few feet behind us. In a dinner line, you expect someone to be behind you if you aren't last in line, but in this case the stillness behind me was deafening. Diane noticed, then Mindy.
	I whispered, "On three, say hello to John."
	In unison, we all said, "Hello, John!" and turned around.
	He was grinning. "Helluva show for the Queen," he said.
	"It was a heartfelt gesture," said Diane.
	"Yeah," said Mindy. "She tried to steal Ed away from us, John."
	John laughed. "She didn't see your brand on his butt? Gee, the price of fame, huh? Maybe I shouldn't be seen with you guys. I'm a political appointee."
	"Too late for that," said Mindy, "We've been the center of attention for the last ten minutes, John. I overheard some woman describing events to a latecomer a few minutes ago."
	John laughed again. "The grapevine flourishes when the fertilizer is applied liberally, and you can bet it will be in this case."
	John advised us about what to expect during the awards ceremony. My award would be for "Meritorious Restraint on the Field of Honor", accompanied by the King's speech banning such personal battles from the medieval organization's future events.
	He also said that my duel with Melvin seemed to have been what sparked the Queen's interest in me. "Women," said John, "They preach peace and lust for warriors."
	"Men," said Diane, "Tend to generalize rather pompously from a single incident."
	"Oooh, I think she got you, John," said Mindy.
	"Just a scratch. No blood, no score. Later, people. Lots to do still."
	We filled our plates and found seats at a table. Mindy sat on my left and Diane on my right. While this arrangement could have been expected anyway, it seemed to now have the feel of being guarded.
	Mindy nudged me. "Does it feel as if everyone's watching us?"
	Diane whispered, "It only feels that way because they are."
	That made us laugh, which naturally drew even more attention. Some people nodded when we made eye contact and a few even winked, but most others let surreptitious glances suffice.
	During the meal, various people were called up to receive various awards. After it had been some time since the last awarding, and I was beginning to think I'd been let off that particular hook, my name was called.
	Mindy giggled and Diane patted my shoulder.
	"Sorry, Ed. They didn't forget," she said, grinning at me.
	As I stood before the King, he did something unusual. He rose from his seat and came around the table, taking the ribbon from the pillow on which it rested. He then raised it high and held it there for some moments as the crowd quieted.
	"This award," he said, "Is for Meritorious Restraint on the Field of Honor. This award is new and this is the first time anyone has ever received it. I created it today and now present it both to honor one man and for the purpose of addressing an issue."
	He put the award ribbon back on the pillow and said, "First, I will address the issue. A man nearly died on our playground today. Hell, he did die, twice, but if he had died permanently, it is unlikely that we'd ever be able to host any more functions at this campground and most others. There might have been lawsuits and there would have been a lot of bad press, as well."
	He paused to let that soak in, then continued, "It is for these and other reasons that I, your King, now decree that anyone discovered to be settling personal matters by combat during any of the events in this kingdom will be summarily barred from all further combat-related events in this kingdom. That means both or all participants will be barred from all future competitions and there will be no exceptions to this ruling."
	He paused again, then said, "Now to the award itself."
	He went on to describe the manner in which I'd earned it (by not pounding Melvin and possibly killing him myself) then placed it around my neck.
	As the crowd applauded, the King said, "Sorry if my announcement took any of the thrill out of things for you, but it had to be said."
	"Oh, I guess I'm probably sufficiently thrilled," I said.
	"Hey, you're getting a one-of-a-kind award." He grinned. "I won't do this one again."
	I grinned back and waited until he was again seated before leaving. The Queen was gazing steadily at me. She lifted her meat dagger and rather indelicately licked the steak juice off each side of it, then smiled sweetly at me as she fingertipped a driblet from the corner of her lips.
	I glanced back at Mindy and Diane. Mindy had risen half out of her seat and Diane had grabbed her arm to keep her from going any farther.
	The Queen leaned across the table and said in a low voice, "Why not come by my tent this evening so we can discuss other awards?"
	She punctuated her question by apparently finding a missed bit of juice on her dagger. She ran a finger over it to pick it up, then put the finger in her mouth, smiling around it as her gaze slowly trailed upward from the region of my belt buckle to my face. Her display was not unnoticed, but nobody else at the royal table was going to admit having witnessed anything out of the ordinary. It occurred to me as well that it may not have been unusual behaviour for her.
	I said, "I am most flattered, but I have a couple of excellent reasons for respectfully declining your kind offer. Perhaps another time if you still feel I'm deserving of such awards? Thank you both for your attentions this evening, Your Majesties." I then returned to my seat.

Chapter Eleven

	There was a polite round of applause as I left the the royal table and walked back to my seat. Mindy and Diane stood up to applaud, which led a few other people to believe they should, too. Others saw them standing and also stood to applaud, although some were obviously wondering why I was receiving a standing ovation.
	By the time I had arrived at my seat, almost everyone was standing and applauding. I could see that Mindy was enraged, but containing herself. Diane looked irritated, too, but managed a smile as I approached. "Better take a bow," she said, indicating the crowd.
	I turned to the crowd and bowed, then turned to the royals and bowed again. As I straightened, Mindy took one of my arms and Diane took the other. Both were gazing steadily at the Queen, ignoring all else, and continued to do so after the applause had dwindled and most of the crowd had again sat down.
	As I think of it now, I can easily envision the three of us standing alone, facing the Queen as if presenting a united front. The moment became two, then three before we finally sat down. I have no idea what the crowd thought of this behaviour, but the Queen's feelings were obvious enough. She abruptly rose and left the table, trailing consternation in her wake. There were other matters of Court ahead, and nobody knew quite what to do.
	The King called John to his side and they spoke briefly, then John announced that the Queen was indisposed and that he, the seneschal, would be presiding on her behalf by order of the King. The usual array of skits and performances followed as we finished dinner.
	Mindy and Diane managed to remain in courtly mode well enough, handling conversations and various repartees with other diners around us, but I could feel the sublimated possessive anger radiating from both of them, and freely I confess... I was most very flattered by it. On the way back to the tent, Diane had a question for me.
	"What if we hadn't been here to keep you out of her clutches, Ed?"
	I asked, "What's your real question, Diane?"
	"You heard me. Let's say everything else happened the same, but we hadn't met. How would you have reacted to her without us?"
	"Honest answers only, like 'em or not, huh? I'd have probably taken her offer. She's a good looking woman and obviously has some experience. Why ask that?"
	"Just curious. What about her personality?"
	"I didn't notice one, Diane. She probably has a few faces she wears for various occasions, but without you two to keep my head clear I wouldn't have seen the one we saw today until she was ready to move on to some other momentary hero."
	Diane laughed. "I'm trying to envision you befuddled, Ed. Can you help me with it?"
	Mindy asked, "So she didn't particularly impress you? The Queen?"
	"Very good looking, but vain, spoiled, and shallow. Good enough?"
	Diane looked at Mindy. "It is for me," she said, "Somebody here was worried that all the attention might go to your head."
	"Somebody thought I wasn't perfectly happy being with her and her friend? Oh, I'm hurt. No, wait! I'm crushed! No, it's worse than that, even! I'm profoundly devastated by somebody's lack of faith in me."
	Mindy said, "Oh, fuck you, you smartass. You haven't been devastated by anything since I was in diapers. Maybe since before that."
	I put my forearm to my forehead and wailed, "And now she calls me an 'old smartass'! Thank goodness there are two of them! Maybe the other one will treat me kindlier?"
	I put a hand to Diane's face and asked, "What was your name again, Sweetie?"
	Diane gave me a saccharin-sweet smile and said, "We can always say you tried to escape."
	"Right," said Mindy, "He tried to escape. How much for his boots?"
	"Ha! I'm worth more to you alive as a means of poking the Queen, ladies."
	Mindy dissolved into laughter. Diane said, "Only for the moment, sir. For the moment... And think about what you just said, will you? Poking the Queen, indeed."
	We decided to tour "merchant's row." Need a new sword, helmet, or chainmail? Armor or leatherwork? Costuming? Jewelry for your lady? Somewhere in the collage of tents and tables at one of those events you'll find something to suit your needs, wants, and desires.
	I saw a familiar face in particular at one of the jewelry vendors' tables. It was officer Wills, in a borrowed medieval tunic over his jeans and boots. Nearby was the lady who'd attached herself to him, apparently the owner of the booth.
	We chatted with them as we looked over her merchandise.
	Small, silver dragonflies caught my eye. They were castings, but had been customized and were well-finished. Diane and Mindy were looking over items in a tray on another table, so I took that moment to set something up with Wills. I handed him three of the dragonflies and picked out three matching necklaces for them. I whispered, "Put them in boxes, individually wrapped, please, and try to look as if you aren't doing it specifically for me."
	Wills nodded and smiled, then asked, "Do you  mind if I work a bit while we talk? Some things have to be wrapped and ready to go soon."
	He wrapped the dragonflies and wrote up the sale. I slipped him the money and he passed the packages to me. His lady had noticed the unusual activity. Wills held up the ticket and put a finger to his lips. She understood immediately and nodded slightly.
	Mindy was interested in their daggers, but seemed unable to settle on one, even after consulting Diane, who said, "It's too big, Mindy. You'd need both hands to use it." Diane called me over to look at it. I hefted it and said I could probably hit a one-inch dot with it. She took it in her hand again and hefted it herself. "Not for me," she said.
	Mindy called me to look at some dragonfly pendants. I said, "Kind of expensive, aren't they?"
	We moved on. It was becoming darkish as we reached their tent. Parties were getting underway at various tents around us. Music and laughter and someone telling bardic stories could be heard, and people were lighting the torches along the pathways. We decided to let darkness fall completely and rest a bit before joining those who wandered among the campsites sampling drinks and music.
	As the ladies got out of their costumes and into a pair of oversized shirts, I went back to my car for a change of clothes and a toilet kit, then sought out John's tent, leaving him a note that said, "Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll be sleeping elsewhere tonight."
	Mindy and Diane were lying on their sleeping bags, talking quietly, when I returned. I said hello as I came within their range of perception. They waved me in and I tossed my bag on the floor between them as I reached for the cooler. The space between their bags had been about six inches earlier, but was now just wide enough for a third sleeping bag.
	"Anybody want a Coke or a gin mix?" I asked. Both opted for a gin mix. I made three and joined them on the floor, kissing each of them as I handed them their drinks. "What is it that makes a woman look so cute in a man's shirt?" I asked.
	Diane answered my question as if lecturing a class.
	"It's usually too big, which lends us that childlike effect. Also, the legs are bare, and the shirttails make a man wonder if there's anything on her under the shirt."
	"Damn, Diane!" said Mindy, "Why don't you just tell him ALL of our secrets?"
	She grinned at me and deliberately uncrossed and recrossed her legs, and yes, my eyes did try to quickly peek under the shirttail. Mindy's grin got bigger. "Sucker," she said.
	I grinned back. "Yeah, yeah. As if those legs weren't enough by themselves."
	I laid myself out between them and sighed as I relaxed.
	"You tired?" asked Diane.
	"Does it show?" I asked.
	"Same here," said Diane, "There's a good breeze and I'm thinking I belong right here for a while. Mindy? How're you doing?"
	"Sounds good to me," said Mindy. "It's been a long day and some of the parties will go all night. They'll be there when we look for them."
	We spent the next hour or so lounging and talking as the evening cooled the world around us by what seemed only a very few degrees. At one point Mindy commented that there was something unusual about us.
	Diane and I laughed, and Diane asked, "Are you just noticing that?"
	Mindy laughed too, then said, "No, I mean we fit together. We aren't having to work at it, it just is. We're like old friends or the Musketeers or something, and it's only been two days. Don't either of you think that's a little unusual?"
	Diane and I agreed that it was, but Diane amended her agreement with, "But it feels too nice to take a chance of messing it up by trying to figure out how it works. I'm not so fond of men in general that I can expect to run right out and find a replacement for this one."
	There was more feminine laughter in the tent.
	"I don't think we should take this thing apart to see how it works, either," I said, "Because when we put it back together there may be bolts left over. It might not run as well then."
	Mindy said, "I know what you mean. My uncle thought he was a mechanic, but when he tinkered with something, it almost always stopped working."
	"I have an idea," I said, "What about doing something to commemorate our, uhm... Togetherness? That isn't a dirty joke, ladies. I just don't have a better word at present."
	"I thought we'd already done that," said Mindy, grinning.
	"Now, THAT was a dirty joke," said Diane.
	"Yup," said Mindy, "I liked the way we commemorated things last night."
	Diane said, "We didn't commemorate last night. We initiated."
	"Yeah. Kewl. Whatever," said Mindy, "It was fun!"
	Diane rolled her eyes and turned back to me. "What did you have in mind? A ceremony?"
	"Not unless you want one. I just had these," I produced the three boxes, "For you. Us."
	"OOohhh! Prezzies!" said Mindy, sitting up and smiling hugely.
	Diane gave her a look of sufferage. I handed each of them a wrapped box and waited.
	Mindy shredded her way to the box and then hesitated briefly before opening it.
	"Oh, I like it!" she said, lifting her dragonfly on it's chain out of the box.
	Diane opened hers with more decorum. She cracked the little box open and peeked inside, then opened it fully and gracefully lifted out her dragonfly.
	"These are nice, Ed. When did you... oh, when you talked to Wills, right? This was the work." She smiled, "Cute. I had no idea you were up to anything over there."
	I opened my own as they compared theirs and held it up.
	"Now we're commemorating, Mindy. Someone said, 'Should I die tomorrow, at least I will have known you.' That's pretty much how I feel, ladies."
	Mindy just stared at me wide-eyed for a moment. Her lower lip quivered and her hand moved to her mouth. Diane started fishing in her bag.
	"Now you've done it, Ed. She's going to cry."
	She handed Mindy a tissue and used another to dab at Mindy's face like a mother.
	"No, I'm not," sniffled Mindy, wiping her eyes and nose.
	I took her dragonfly and put it around her neck, then did the same for Diane. Diane then took mine and put it on me, her face close to mine as she reached to close the clasp in back. She looked into my eyes for a moment before kissing me.
	"Thank you from both of us," she said.
	Mindy leaned over to kiss me and said, "Yeah. Thanks, Ed."
	Diane said, "Everybody hold still for a second." She reached in her bag again and produced a box about a foot long, holding it out to me. "We had the same general idea," she said.
	I opened the box to find the dagger that Diane had told Mindy was "too big". It had a double-edged, stainless steel blade, brass pommel and guards, a rosewood grip, and a black leather sheath. I found the balance point near the guards immediately.
	"I like it," I said with a grin, "It fits my hand. Thank you, ladies. I traded my other dagger for our gin last night."
	"We know," said Mindy. "We wanted to get you something and this was the first thing we thought of."
	"Well, you made a good choice. It's big enough without being clunky or awkward. Very nice to hold." I leaned to kiss each of them again. "You know," I said, "Barring the time I survived a car crash on a Saturday, I don't believe I've ever had a better weekend."
	"Such flattery," said Diane, grinning.
	"Yup. All you can stand, whenever you need some."
	With the gift-giving over, we again lay back to enjoy the breeze and relax.
	Mindy was holding her dragonfly above her face, twisting and turning it to catch the torchlights. Diane and I became fascinated with watching her. Somewhere along the line, Mindy became aware that she had an audience and froze. "What?" she asked.
	"Oh, nothing," I said, "Just watching you."
	"Same here," said a smiling Diane, "Just watching."
	Mindy gave us a dubious gaze and went back to examining her dragonfly.
	I nudged Diane and gave her a questioning look. She nodded, not having to be told that we were going to pounce on Mindy. A few wiggles and some scooting later, we were in position to pounce. Without taking her eyes off her dragonfly, Mindy said, "I know what you two are up to. It isn't quite the same without the surprise attack."
	Diane and I froze, caught at the very moment of pouncing. She looked at me, I looked at her, and we decided to pounce anyway. Mindy had no chance. We tickled her, kissed her, and generally blatantly groped our willing victim until we were all laughing so hard we had to stop for breath. Diane passed the gin and Coke around.
	"A question," she said, "How much interest do we have in anything but each other? Do we care what's going on anywhere else tonight?"
	"Not me," I said, "I'm fine right here."
	"Me, too," said Mindy. "I'm not bored at all."
	"Well, then, what say we scrap plans for wandering the camp?"
	"Done," I said. Mindy agreed.
	"About three miles back along 127," said Diane, "Toward Ft. Worth, there's a motel. Air conditioning, no bugs, all that. Nothing we've signed up for starts here until around noon tomorrow. I think we can probably get back here in time."
	Mindy grabbed her bag and started putting essentials in it.
	"I'll find John and tell him to expect us tomorrow," I said.
	We didn't even bother to change.
	The locals knew a bunch of nuts periodically held some kind of event nearby, so half an hour later we were entering the lobby of the motel, still dressed in medieval costumes. The desk clerk didn't bat an eye when we asked for only one room and an extra set of towels. She even tossed in an extra soap and shampoo without being asked and smiled slightly at me as she handed them across the counter. All we'd brought, other than toiletry items, amounted to a cooler and tomorrow's costumes, so in no time we were sprawled out on the beds to bask in the cool air.
	"This is cheating, you know," said Mindy, "We're supposed to be out there suffering along with everybody else."
	"You want some fries with that guilt complex?" asked Diane. "Some therapy, maybe?"
	"Sure," said Mindy, "As long as it involves gin."
	"I'm sure it will," said Diane, "When one of us feels like getting up. Damn, this air conditioning feels good. What's the big deal about camping out, anyway? We could commute from here for the next events, right?"
	"If the others find out," I said, "It will be considered sacrilege or something."
	"Right now, that's okay with me," said Mindy, "Let them feed the bugs and sweat if they want to. I want a real shower and a cool room."
	"Amen, sister," said Diane, "With an ice machine nearby."
	"Wimps," I said, "I'm surrounded by wimps. This one wants air conditioning and that one wants an ice machine."
	Diane rose up on one arm. "Yeah, and you kicked in a third of the room, Macho Man, so tell us why you did it."
	"Simply a matter of chivalry," I said. "I thought you might need assistance."
	That statement caused a round of hooting laughter.
	Mindy tossed an ice cube at me, rolling off the bed in her fit of hilarity.
	"Ha! Chivalry? Call it what it is, Ed! You LUST for US! You're here 'cause WE'RE here! You NEED us!"
	"Well, there is a certain attraction..." I said, "But NEED..?"
	Diane said, "Try giving it another name that fits as well, Ed."
	I thought a minute. "Can't," I said, "You got me."
	"Damn right," said Mindy, peering into her cup.
	Diane was startled. "Are you drunk, Min? Already?"
	Mindy looked up, apparently every bit as startled.
	"Drunk? Hell, no! I found something in my drink! Check it out!"
	She tossed a dripping something at Diane, who recoiled in automatic horror.
	It was another ice cube. Diane stared at it a moment, then swept it off the bed and glared at Mindy, who was giggling hysterically. Diane glanced over at me. I nodded. We pounced. I had my hands full of girlflesh for several long moments as the two of us poked, prodded, and tickled Mindy into an expanded state of hysteria.
	"Are you gonna throw any more ice cubes?" asked Diane.
	"No! No,no,no,no,no! Promise! Promise!" yelled Mindy, laughing so hard she could barely get the words out.
	"You believe her?" Diane asked. I was recovering from laughter, too, almost sliding off the bed, hanging onto Mindy's left thigh.
	I recognized the treasure in my hands and took a long lick of Mindy's inner thigh. "No," I said, licking my lips. "Sure don't." Diane grinned.
	"He doesn't believe you, dearie. I don't either." Diane's lick started at Mindy's shoulder and ended at her ear. Mindy squeaked as Diane's tongue invaded there.
	"Let's just have our way with her and call it even," I said, "I'll nose around a bit down here while you handle the other end, okay?"
	Mindy squeaked and giggled again as I nuzzled deeply between her legs.
	I rubbed the bridge of my nose against her nubbin and said (in a muffled tone, of course), "Hey! I think I've found something!"
	"Bet you have," said Diane, "I'll keep her busy while you work."
	I couldn't see what Diane did while my nose was teasing Mindy's magic button, but suddenly Mindy ceased all struggles and her hips rose to meet my tongue's caresses.
	I peeked over her belly once and saw Diane kissing her deeply.
	I worked Mindy's panties off her, and as soon as my lips again touched her, Mindy's legs wrapped around my head and shoulders.
	I said, "I think she's got me, Diane."
	Diane smilingly looked down at me and said, "Poor baby. Suffer gracefully, Ed."

Chapter Twelve

	There are times when being in a hurry is improper. This was one of those times.
	We had gin, Coke, air conditioning, soft beds, privacy, and each other. It was time to go slow and soak every possible erg of pleasure out of the occasion, and I said so.
	"Ladies," I said, momentarily removing my face from Mindy's bush, "I'm not in a hurry and I don't want to be. I want to stretch every moment just like this," I reached to slightly pop Diane's pantytop, "And I want to make you both ecstatically happy forever or maybe even longer."
	"Commendable," said a grinning Diane, "You're doing a fine job and your enthusiasm is noted. Now get back to work, there."
	"Yeah," said Mindy, "Back to work." She giggled. "There."
	"Ah, that's just it," I said, "I think I may be a little too focused, here. There are two of you, you know. I should be trying to do something for both of you, and I was just going to suggest that it would be a good idea to lose all these clothes before too long."
	"Nooo! Do me now, Ed!" moaned Mindy, "We can get naked later."
	"Well, gee, it seemed like a good idea..." I began.
	Mindy sat bolt upright and grabbed my head. She wrapped her legs tighter around my neck and looked me in the eyes rather forcefully.
	"Finish-munching-me-off, dammit! You started this!"
	Diane laughed. "You've created a monster, Ed."
	I would have said, "No shit!", but Mindy pulled my face back into her crotch and beat me to it. "No shit! Now get busy!"
	So I did. Once she felt my tongue, Mindy let herself fall back flat. I nibbled, licked, sucked, and generally ravaged her magical button and the surrounding area, all the while admiring her legs with my hands. Now and then I got a glimpse of Diane. Once she was opening Mindy's blouse as she kissed her. Another time her face neared mine as she licked her way up and down Mindy's breasts and belly. I took a moment to kiss her as she hovered in my vicinity. Diane gave me a conspiratorial grin and kissed me back, then continued along Mindy's thighs. With the two of us working on her, Mindy didn't last long at all.
	So much for my speech about not hurrying, I thought, as Mindy's thighs and belly began to quiver. I used my thumb for a few moments as I trailed my lips and tongue back and forth along her inner thighs. Mindy's quivering became uncontrollable spasming as Diane took Mindy's nipple in her mouth and sucked on it. I quickly dove back in and attacked Mindy's nubbin with my tongue. Mindy screeched softly at the shock of my return.
	Her hips bucked as she sought best possible contact and her hands found their way to the back of my head. Mindy was taking no chances. She clutched me to her firmly. She was going to make sure I stayed right in there to the last. Diane's hands were everywhere on Mindy that mine weren't, sliding and squeezing and stroking her. I could hear Diane whispering between kisses and licks, "Come for us, baby. Give us your best, honey. Give us your very best."
	I loved it. The feel of her was a wonder to my touch, the smell of her permeated my senses, and I could feel her nearing release. I took a firm grasp on her thighs and bore down with my tongue. Mindy began to come hard with a sobbing moan of pleasure. She bucked and thrashed a bit and arched her back as she pulled me into herself.
	Her moan became a loud, "Hhhaaaahhh!" that seemed to go on a long time, but I could only barely hear her. She had a scissors grip on my head that covered my ears and threatened to squash me between her thighs. It was absolutely, ecstatically wonderful. I loved every moment of being imprisoned in such a manner for such a good reason.
	It wasn't much longer before Mindy had truly had enough. She slowly let her legs fall away from my shoulders and wincingly moved to break our contact. As we all relaxed from our efforts, I freshened our drinks.
	"Don't get too comfortable," said Diane. I finished pouring and looked at her. She leaned forward and kissed me. "I'm next," she said.
	Diane was grinning and Mindy managed a respectable smile, even in her depleted state. Diane reached in her cup for an ice cube, but I gave her a "Naw, let's not" sort of look, and after a glance at Mindy, she dropped the ice cube back.
	Opinion: A moment like Mindy's shouldn't be disturbed. There aren't enough of them in anyone's life. Always wait till it's over...
	But after several moments, Mindy asked, "Why's everybody so quiet?"
	I pointed at Diane's cup and said, "NOW you can do it."
	Mindy asked, "Do wha-AAAAHHHH?!"
	Diane had carefully placed the ice cube in Mindy's belly button. As Mindy sat bolt upright, the ice slid down between her legs. After a certain amount of noise and furor ensued, threats and promises were made concerning a repeat of being iced. With a bit of tickling and some kissing, everybody settled down for another attempt at relaxation. It didn't last long.
	Mindy and Diane had flopped back on the bed again. I was sitting on the floor by the bed and Diane's legs were nearby, so I sort of followed my inclinations. In a conversational tone, Diane said, "Mindy, Ed has his hands on my legs. Now he's licking my thigh. I think he's going to be moving upward soon."
	"What are you going to do about it, Diane?"
	"I'm going to pretend I haven't noticed anything," said Diane. "Maybe he won't realize it's a trap until it's too late."
	Mindy giggled. "Good plan. Need any help?"
	"Oh, no, I think I can handle it. I'll just lie here and think of god and country and stare at the ceiling until he's in too deep."
	Diane's turn of words made Mindy laugh. She rolled off the bed and dropped to her knees behind me. When I glanced at her she kissed me and began undoing my belt. I went back to work on Diane as Mindy continued to undress me, sliding my hands, tongue, and lips slowly up and down her legs, savoring every inch of them.
	"Stand up," said Mindy, "Diane can wait a second."
	When I did so, she removed my pants and said, "I thought you wore undies. Huh, silly me."
	Mindy was reaching for my object of her desires as I said, "Can't wear undies. Jungle rot." Her hand stopped only inches from it's goal.
	"Ha! Gotcha," I said, "And it would be too late for you, anyway, sweetie."
	She slapped my bare leg with one hand and grabbed me with the other."Taste test!" she said, and popped me into her mouth.
	Diane sat up and shimmied out of her costume and undies. She sat for a moment on the edge of the bed watching Mindy work, then said in mock irritation, "You had your turn, Min. Gimme that." Diane grabbed my hand and pulled me down on the bed, forcibly disconnecting me from  Mindy's lips. "It's my turn and you let her get away with that, Ed," said Diane.
	"She was so happy to see it I just didn't have the heart..."
	Diane wrapped her hand around it and squeezed, looking at me menacingly.
	"MY turn. Right?"
	"Your turn," I said, "Right. Where would you like me to start, ma'am?"
	"Oh, Mindy, you ruined him. Now he needs instructions."
	"No sweat," said Mindy, diving to the bed on Diane's other side. "I'll show him where and what to do, how's that?"
	"That should work. He's fairly bright, you know. Ready when you are!"
	"Just follow me, Ed!" said Mindy. I gave her a small salute and the game began.
	Mindy kissed Diane, then I did. She proceeded to kiss and nibble on her side of Diane while I copied her actions on mine. It didn't take long for the whole scene to turn into a gigglefest for the two of them, particularly when Mindy and I began a running contest to see who could produce more goosebumps on various parts of Diane's anatomy.
	After I produced a particularly effective response along Diane's arm and shoulder, Mindy blurted, "No fair, Ed! You got the good side!"
	"No, he didn't. I don't have a good side," Diane responded defensively.
	As she realized what she'd said, she reddened a bit and said, "Well, that didn't come out right, did it? But you know what I mean!"
	"Of course we do, Diane," I said soothingly, patting her shoulder and kissing her right nipple. All of your sides are good ones."
	"That's right, Sweetie," stated Mindy, patting the other shoulder, "ALL your sides. Every single, little one of them."
	"Oh, shut up and get back to work, both of you."
	"Hey, Mindy," I whispered, "She thinks we're working here."
	"Good," she whispered back, "Don't tell her any different and maybe she'll respect us in the morning for a change."
	"Don't count on that," said Diane. "You talk when you should be working. But do a good job and I may buy you a breakfast."
	"Would a particularly good job get us a lunch, too?" I asked.
	Diane laughed. "Certainly, sir... as long as I'm your lunch."
	"Deal!" said Mindy and I at amost the same time.
	Things progressed well, I'd say. Mindy and I were pretty thorough and we didn't hurry our attentions, even when Diane began to pull at me. Her right hand was still wrapped around my dick. Throughout our tender treatment of Diane were occasional squeezes that had told me when something one or both of us had done had worked particularly well. Mindy noticed the pulling and moved out of the way.
	I moved up and over Diane and lay flat on my back. She looked at me rather blankly for a second, then thought she realized what I wanted her to do and moved to take me in her mouth. 	As she licked and kissed me, I said, "That wasn't quite what I had in mind, Diane, but you don't have to stop right away."
	Mindy giggled softly. I looked at her grinning face questioningly. "I've just never seen Diane so friendly with a man before," she said.
	Diane let me slide out of her mouth and said, "Ed's different."
	It was a declaration, not a casual statement. Diane swung her leg over me and moved into position above my hips. She caught my eyes and held our mutual gaze as she slowly lowered herself onto me. "I've always preferred to be on top," she said.
	"That's fine with me," I said, grinning. "I do a lot less work this way. It feels more like giving than taking, somehow, too."
	Mindy was giving us a few moments to get settled. "I dunno," she said, "It looks as if Diane's a real taker, Ed. Take and take and take..." She was repeating the word as Diane moved herself up and down on me. When Diane glared at her she giggled, and it set off giggles in Diane, as well, which added some unusual sensations to our activities.
	"You bimbo," laughed Diane, "Either let us fuck in peace or get up here and find something constructive to do."
	Mindy slid in next to me and cheerfully replied, "Oh, I think I'll just watch for a while." She kissed me lightly and asked, "Having a good time, Ed? Can I get you anything?"
	Diane and I had to laugh again, then Diane resumed her motions and seemed to generally tune out everything but what she was doing. Mindy reached to trail her fingernails down Diane's arm, leaving goosebumps rising in their wake. She did the same on Diane's leg, to no avail, so she left her hand on Diane's upper-inner thigh and simply moved her nails in delicate circles for a little while. I saw no outward reaction, but suddenly it became much wetter inside Diane. I smiled and nodded slightly to Mindy. She smiled back knowingly.
	Diane placed both her hands behind her and rested them on my thighs in order to brace herself as she moved to make best use of our connection. Mindy took the opportunity to make a connection of her own. Her fingertips probed and found Diane's pleasure nubbin and began to make slow, tight little circles there.
	"You see, Ed," said Mindy, "Women have so many pleasure points inside and out that it's just plain damned difficult to get to them all with only two hands. May I take this opportunity to demonstrate a few?"
	Her tone was that of a concerned instructor, but she was grinning like the village idiot. I grinned back and said, "Oh, please do."
	Mindy continued to work Diane's nubbin as her other hand travelled slowly upward. "You have to keep a light touch, see? Just a light touch, sliding over the victim's skin..." Diane giggled softly. "As I was saying," said Mindy, "A light, sliding touch. Stop now and then to caress, like this..." she demonstrated a gentle fondling of Diane's breast and then flicked her thumb across the nipple, "And use small, surprising moves like that, and this, and this..." she continued rubbing the nipple with the ball of her thumb, "To achieve maximum response from the vic.. uh, subject." Diane giggled again.
	"Y'see," said Mindy, "Men can only do so much. They don't know all the secret little spots and usually don't have enough patience or interest to even make a decent, uhm... STAB at things." I took that as a hint and pushed upward hard as Diane was lowering herself.
	Diane's mouth and eyes flew open and her breath came in little gaspings as she held herself very still for a moment. When she resumed posting on me, her movements were somewhat quicker than before.
	"See?" Mindy continued her lecture, "I think she'll be getting close pretty quickly now. What we want to do is surprise her with a little BUMP now and then."
	I took the hint again. Diane stopped completely this time, frozen as I probed the depths of her. She looked rather glassily at us and then looked down at Mindy's hand disappearing between us. Mindy did something quick with her fingers and Diane gasped for breath.
	Diane let herself fall slightly forward and rested her hands on my shoulders. She lowered herself enough for a kiss from each of us before she began moving again. Mindy moved to kneel behind her and reached to grasp and fondle Diane's breasts, shoulders, and arms as Diane pumped herself onto my dick in quick, short strokes. Diane's fingers went to her button.
	I placed my hands on Diane's tightly-drawn thighs and met her deeper strokes with upward thrusts. When Diane hit bottom, she'd let her air out with little noises of effort. I was so  fascinated with her climb to completion that I nearly forgot about my own. Grasping, kneading motions suddenly began occurring within Diane.
	She pumped faster and harder and became so wet inside that I could barely feel our contact for a moment. I guess it must have seemed about the same for her. She became somewhat frantic, pumping hard and fast. Her frenzy seemed to flip a switch in me. I felt that familiar tingling in my legs and the extra bit of swelling that signalled that I was about to come. Diane's eyes flew open and stared into mine. She knew it, too.
	Her hands left my shoulders and grasped my face as she pounded onto me. She seemed to be demanding me to come with her. I complied wholeheartedly and absolutely involuntarily, if you can believe that. Diane commanded my orgasm into being and then slammed herself onto me a few more times to bring about her own. She groaned and seated herself onto me as deeply as possible and moved her feet a bit more to the sides to allow herself to rest completely on my hips, forcing me as deeply into herself as possible.
	Mindy had long ago moved her hands away. She had got off my legs and was now sitting on the side of the bed, staring at Diane in a rather awestruck fashion. I barely had time to notice this when I felt the rush and began throbbing and jetting into Diane. She ground herself down onto me, let her head fall back, and let forth a groan of satisfaction that I could feel from within her as much as hear.
	After a moment, I heard Mindy softly say, "Woooow!"
	Diane arched herself and bucked a little, then seemed to go limp. She sagged forward and rested first on her elbows, then flat on my chest.
	I kissed her ear and her cheek and softly said, "Thank you, miLady."
	Diane's head came up enough to glance at my face. I saw a mix of satisfaction and wonderment in hers. "Thank me? Ha. Thank you."
	"You did all the work. I just supplied the gadget. Thank you."
	Diane chuckled. I was still inside her, and it made my dick buck again as I released yet another spurt into her. She said, "Ooohhh..." and let her head fall onto the pillow again.
	I said to Mindy, "Helping a woman feel this good is what makes being a man worthwhile, Mindy. Otherwise, that thing's mostly just in the way down there."
	Both ladies managed a laugh, and Mindy said, "Well, damn. I guess you should know, Ed. I almost wish I had one of those."
	"You can have this one," I said, "But later, please. I think Diane pretty much used this one up for now. I may need a few minutes..."
	Diane snickered and giggled into the pillow. Mindy laughed outright.
	"I just hope she didn't break it. Maybe we ought to have a look at it?"
	"NO. It isn't broken, Min," mumbled Diane, "Trust me."
	"Guess I'll have to," said a grinning Mindy, "Since you won't let me see it."
	Diane's silent laughter jiggled the bed and eventually squeezed me out of her. Mindy, of course, remarked that it looked rather beaten up, if not actually broken. Diane laughed again and rolled off me.
	"Someday," I said, "This event will be one of my nicer memories."
	"You're gonna put us in your memoirs?" asked Mindy.
	"I'll probably have to. At this rate, I may not have any other useable memories by then. Memories of you two may overshadow all else that ever happened to me."
	"I think I like that," said Diane, "Being the only thing a man can remember of his life. Well, one of just two things, anyway."
	"Huh," said Mindy, "You mean I don't get top billing? I found him."
	"Oh, yeah, you did, didn't you? Ok, then, your name can go on top."
	"Thank you. I was about to call my lawyer about it."
	"Um," I said, "I was going to list you in alphabetical order, but on the same line in the credits. Would that do?"
	"Guess so," said Mindy, "Sounds fair enough."
	"Well, if that's the best you can do..." said Diane. She kissed my shoulder and smiled.

Chapter Thirteen

	Diane took a long gulp of her drink and said, "Tell me something, Ed. How is it you're so cool with all this? It's same kind of thing that broke up my first marriage, even though it began as my ex's idea."
	"I'm not like your ex," I said, "No tinytown hangups, no bigtown kinks. I take the path that appeals to me and watch where I put my feet. Sounds like your ex wanted to be the king of a castle with you as his vassal, right?"
	Diane gave me a wry grin and nodded, "That's about it, I think."
	"So he had what he wanted for a while and it bored him, and he tried to liven things up by adding a player, but things livened up a little too much for him, right? You enjoyed it too much. He tried to control what didn't need controlled, failed, and he got ugly, right?"
	Diane stared quietly at me for a moment, sipping her drink again. "Yeah, that's pretty much what happened," she said, "Disturbingly close, when you describe it so well in so few words."
	"It isn't a new phenomenon, Diane. Happens all the time, every day, somewhere out there. I'm cool with this because it wasn't invented. It already existed and it found me while it was following it's own path. We've found each other interesting, so we'll share the path while it suits us. Control is unnecessary and would probably be harmful."
	"Just interesting?" asked Mindy. She sat up to look at me.
	"There's nothing wrong with being interesting, and how much more could anyone rightly expect to be to someone else in only two days, Mindy? Don't look for problems."
	Mindy just stared at me, mouth open.
	Diane patted Mindy's leg and said, "Two days, Min. He's right, that isn't much time." She then gave me a rather hard look. "Was that last line really necessary?"
	"She asked. I won't build anything on sand, Diane. Sex is fine and caring is nice, but two days and some warm, fuzzy feelings is a beginning, not an established lifestyle."
	Diane was glaring at me, but said nothing. Mindy looked miffed.
	"I told you I don't like bullshit, ladies. We're together because we have discovered something very special among ourselves. We. Us. The 'we' that we are now is unlike any relationship that any of us has ever had, and it's only vaguely similar to something I've had only once in my life. Please never assume I'm trivializing anything about it and never ask me a question if you don't want an answer that is the concise truth to the best of my knowledge."
	I sat still, sipping my drink and waiting. Diane seemed to be weighing her thoughts. After a moment, she asked, "Who was she?"
	"Who was who?" asked Mindy.
	"My ex-wife," I said.
	"Ah. So." Diane sipped her drink and stared at me.
	"Ah, so, WHAT?" asked Mindy, "Did I miss something?"
	"Maybe. Ed's being very careful with us, Mindy. He doesn't want us to get any wrong ideas whatsoever until he knows us much better." Diane sipped her drink and smiled slightly before continuing, "After all, it's only been two days."
	If anything, Mindy was even more confused. "What the HELL are you people talking about? What wrong ideas?"
	Diane said, "You used the word 'relationship'. Did you mean to?"
	"Yes," I said,  "That's what it is, or is on the road to becoming."
	"Hey!" Mindy said, "How about letting me in on this?"
	Diane grinned. "What do you think, Ed? Should we?"
	"Yeah, why not? She'll just get pissed if we don't."
	Diane said, "Ed thinks we've formed a relationship, Min. Do you?"
	Mindy still had a "what the hell?" look on her face as she considered the question. Her answer was a surprise. "I know I sometimes appear to be a dumb blonde, but I'd probably define it as a companionship. It's really still too early to call it a relationship."
	"Damn," said Diane with a grin, "When you look at her, it's so easy to forget she has a degree in English."
	"Especially dressed like that," I said. "Very distracting."
	"Suffer," said Mindy, smiling and striking a preening pose.
	"She isn't just cute and fluffy," said Diane, "But she fakes it so well I sometimes forget there's a brain in there somewhere."
	Mindy gave her a haughty glance, shook her head, and swept her hair back with both hands in a gloriously beautiful gesture that squared her shoulders, raised her arms and breasts, and tilted her head back a bit.
	"There is most definitely a brain," said Mindy, watching my reaction. I couldn't take my eyes off her. Neither could Diane, sitting on her other side.
	"Huh," said Diane, reaching to smack Mindy's bottom. "Cute, fluffy, smart, and just maybe a little vain?" Mindy grinned and danced away just before the attempt landed.
	"She's quick, too," added Diane.
	Diane took another sip of her drink and looked thoughtfully at me.
	"At least you care," she said, "And even if you aren't really looking for a lifetime romance, you aren't just looking to get laid. You try hard to please us. Thank you for that, Ed."
	She seemed to be thinking out loud. I didn't interrupt her by saying anything. I swung my legs off the bed and stood up to get refills.
	Mindy whistled, saying, "Ooo, nice butt!"
	I stopped and looked back at her in the mirror over the sink. She was grinning at me.
	I glanced at Diane. She was letting her eyes travel down my back.
	"I'm beginning to think I may be the only one with more on my mind than getting laid," I said, grinning when Diane's eyes found my face.
	As I was mixing us new drinks, Mindy came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my chest, plastering herself against my back. She told me to just go about what I was doing, so I did, sort of. Her hands travelled lightly over my shoulders and arms and her breasts were pressing into my back. She pressed her lips against the nape of my neck and then breathed warmly on the spot. I had to move the cups away from the edge of the sink to avoid knocking them over as I began to stand out in front. Mindy peeked around and saw the effect of her standing snuggle. She reached for it.
	"Here, let me help you with that," she said, taking a firm grip on it, "Can't let you spill our drinks while you make them. Ok, go ahead."
	I looked in the mirror at her and grinned. She grinned back, then took a long lick on my shoulder. My dick bucked in her hand, making her giggle. 
	"God, you're so easy," she teased.
	I finished making the drinks and backed a pace away from the sink. Mindy let go of me and leaned past me to reach for hers. I had deliberately filled it right to the brim. She leaned far over to sip a little off the top before picking it up. Diane was grinning back at me in the mirror as I stepped behind Mindy and put my hands on her hips as my dick nudged her labia. Mindy froze there, eyes wide in surprise as she realized she'd been had and was being had some more. I nudged her again and slid myself into her.
	"Speaking of easy..." I said.
	Diane thought it was hilarious. She was sitting on the bed laughing and pointing at Mindy. Mindy made a face at her, then looked up at me in the mirror. "That was sneaky, Ed."
	"Should I stop?"
	"No, no. I didn't say to stop. It feels pretty good this way."
	"Touches things differently. Good thing you're tall."
	"Mmm. Damn sure is. Thanks for being sneaky sometimes."
	"My pleasure, MiLady. Thank you for being tall."
	"You two are so polite," said Diane.
	She smiled as she pulled a chair up next to us, retrieved her drink, and sat down. Her eyes travelled all over us as she sipped her drink and watched us for a while.
	"I wish I had my sketch pad," said Diane. "A beautiful woman and a good-looking man making love in front of a mirror. Artists pray for this sort of inspiration."
	There was no hint of humor in her voice. She was making a stark observation.
	I was stroking slowly, savoring every moment of sensation. "I'd be happy to pose like this with Mindy again sometime," I said. Mindy giggled.
	"I have mixed feelings about this position," said Mindy, "It feels sooo good, but I feel like such a broodmare. I'm getting it from behind like that mare at my friend's ranch."
	"Maybe that's one of the reasons it feels so good," said Diane, "You can pretend it's anybody back there and just concentrate on the how good it feels."
	"Uhmmm... I don't have to pretend anything... it feels gooood, Diane."
	"Well, thank you, Ma'am," I said, "I'm most very happy to be of service."
	"It's a different kind of good this way," said Mindy. "It's a warm and full feeling with these special little tingles way deep inside. It even makes my breasts feel warm and full."
	Diane chuckled. "Brings out the mother in you, huh? Your nipples look like thimbles, Min. You must really be getting off on this."
	Mindy glanced at her breasts in the mirror. "Wow! You're right. Just LOOK at them! They're huge! And my lips! Look at my lips!" Her lips were as swollen as her nipples.
	I grinned and pushed hard to the very bottom of her as she stared at herself. Mindy's eyes and mouth opened a bit more and her breath came in a rush. "My...god...!" she said as I stroked hard into her, "It's... probably a good... thing you've been... fixed, Ed!"
	Diane laughed and asked, "Are you feeling rather receptive right now, Min?"
	Mindy's eyes were a little glassy as she turned to look at Diane incredulously.
	"Yuh...Yuh...YES!" she said, "Yes! I've NEVER felt like this, Diane!"
	"Sure you have, honey," chuckled Diane, "It's just hard to remember stuff when your mind's going blank on you." She grinned up at me and lifted her glass at me. "Good work, my man. Pop her top. Make her think she's been fucking fertilized."
	I grinned back. "Do or die, Ma'am. Do or die."
	"Words to live by. How are you holding up, sir?"
	"Fine, I think. Wanna see?"
	"NO!" exclaimed Mindy, "NO! She does NOT want to see. Don't you DARE take that thing out of me!" Her right hand flailed back to slap my hip. "You WILL NOT stop now!"
	I stopped long enough to shrug. "Sorry, Diane. I have my orders."
	Diane was laughing so hard she slipped off the chair.
	Mindy's tone was firm. "Ok, you clowns! Diane, leave him alone! Ed, quit fucking around and ...! I mean..."
	"Yes, MiLady, I believe I know what you mean. I'll get back to work now."
	Diane was still laughing as she poured Mindy's drink into her cup and took it over to the bed. "Ok," she said, waving to us, "I'm out of the way now. Go to it, y'all."
	Mindy was glaring, but she was grinning. "All right, then. Stay there, Diane. Quietly." She looked up at me in the mirror, wiggled her hips, and said, "Well?"
	"Oh! Yes! Certainly, Ma'am! Sorry!" I said, resuming my efforts.
	"Fucking clown," muttered Mindy.
	"Yes, Ma'am," I said, "Thank you, Ma'am."
	Mindy giggled as she moved with my slow, deep thrustings. The giggles died quickly, replaced by soft groans of pleasure. I trailed my fingers down her back and let them find their way around to the front, caressing her breasts and trailing downward. Mindy gave me a little gasp when I found her button. I stroked deeply and slowly as I fondled the little beast in it's nest. Mindy's pleasure was becoming more audible every moment.
	She changed her stance just a little and took a grip on the edge of the sink. "I would... like it... harder... and faster... please," she whispered to me.
	I said nothing as I straightened myself and matched her stance and changed my pace to begin driving hard into her. Mindy's mouth fell open and her eyes flew wide before they closed tightly as she braced against my thrusts. In the mirror, I saw Diane watching us intently. There was soon a flood of wetness within Mindy. She exclaimed softly, "NOW, ED! DO IT NOW!"
	"I'm not ready, but I'll try."
	"You HAVE to!" came her hoarse whisper, "You have to do it NOW!"
	Diane came rushing over. She seemed to be looking for some way to help. Finally she just put her hands on my arm and kissed my shoulder.
"Please, Ed," Diane whispered, "She wants you to come with her. She needs you to come in her. It would mean so much to her. I know how she feels. Try."
	Mindy began to moan. "Nooowww...?!"
	I looked rather helplessly at Diane. She seemed almost as desperate as Mindy. Her hands suddenly flew to the backs of my neck and Mindy's and I felt her channelling our sensations with her own. A vivid flash of kissing her as I came lit up within me.
	I drove deep into Mindy a final time and grabbed the back of Diane's neck, pulling her face to me. I kissed her long and hard and orgasmed into Mindy in a series of huge gushings that actually hurt a little.
	Mindy let out her breath in a sobbing sound that seemed to echo, filling the room for long seconds. The cold water faucet handle came off in her grip when she slammed back and stiffened herself against me to keep me deep inside her. Diane moved behind me on her knees, reached around me and grabbed Mindy's hips. She held me firmly against Mindy, immobilizing me as she rested her face against the small of my back in a loving hug.
	After a few moments, a trembling Mindy allowed herself to sag forward and I slid slowly out of her. She let the plastic tap handle fall rattlingly into the sink and continued sliding downward onto her knees, resting her head on her arm on the counter. I heard a little sound behind me.
	Diane was staring down at herself. There was a darkening spot spreading on the carpet beneath her. "Oh, my..." she said in a small voice.
	She looked up at Mindy wonderingly, then at me. "I came, too," she said, "It was as if I was Mindy and you came in me, Ed..."
	I knelt and kissed Diane. "Thank you. I couldn't make it happen for her right then."
	Mindy was moving again. She scooted slowly over and kissed Diane, speaking softly.
	"Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much, Diane." They hugged each other tightly.
	We stayed on the floor for some time, holding each other and saying nothing as we recovered ourselves. I couldn't reach my drink, which is what finally impelled me to get up. I retrieved Diane's cup and just evened out what was in all of them rather than make new drinks, then handed the ladies theirs.
	"Now THIS is how camping should be done," said Diane.
	"Yeah," said Mindy, "All the conveniences. A.C., ice, beds, no bugs, a restaurant nearby, and good room service." She kissed my thigh. "Real good room service."
	"Um..." said Diane, "Yeah, well, when you put it like that, I guess we aren't really camping, then. Oh, well. This was still a great idea." She patted my leg and held her hand out for help getting up. I assisted both ladies to their feet.
	Diane went to the bed and propped herself sitting up against the headboard. "I've been wondering something, Ed," she said, "How is it a guy like you is an EX-husband? Right now that doesn't make a goddamned bit of sense. How did you meet her? Why did you split? Was she crazy, or were you? What the hell happened?"
	Mindy sprawled herself out on the bed next to Diane. "Wait a minute, Diane! That's pretty personal. He may not want to talk about her."
	"He doesn't, really," I said, "But Diane really needs to know now."
	Mindy rolled to look at Diane and me. "Now? Why now?"
	"Because he's almost too good to be true," said Diane. "Smart, capable, sensitive, thoughtful, a good lay, etcetera. Why did she let him go and why is he still loose?"
	"In other words," I said, "What's wrong with this picture?"
	"You got it," said Diane. "I suddenly just need to know."
	I thought about where to start and asked, "Want me to just tell you or would you rather try to link into it while I tell you?"
	Mindy shook her head. "One history link was enough for today, thanks. No more for me."
	Diane gave a shrug and said, "Yeah, me too. Just tell us, Ed."
	I nodded and started in December, 1967.

****
	I was home on a months' leave before reporting to Ft. Lewis to catch my Army-issue flight to Vietnam in early January. It was a Friday night and I was in uniform, cruising a few clubs in Ft. Worth. I was barely eighteen, but I could buy Cokes and add to them on the sly. Rock music, light shows, and all the usual sixties-art decor you've seen in movies were everywhere.
	After bumping around in the Electric Circus for an hour or so, I decided to check out the then-famous Cellar Club. The Cellar Club didn't seem very different from the Electric Circus, really. Same blacklight decor.
	I bought a Coke and dosed it with rum, looked for a table and saw none open, then found a place to lean on the wall and watch the crowd for a while. Miniskirts were everywhere.
	There was a blonde who looked to be in her mid-twenties sitting alone at a table near the steps to the empty bandstand. I watched her turn down several offers to dance in fifteen minutes or so, but one big guy in a cowboy hat didn't seem to want to take 'no' for an answer. I could see he was being difficult, so I decided to take a chance that she had some intelligence to go with her looks and walked up to the table.
	"Sorry I'm late!" I yelled over the noise. The guy looked up at me and missed the "who the hell are you?" look on the blonde's face. It passed quickly into a small smile and a nod.
	I sat down and asked, "Who's your friend, here?"
	"He's not a friend. He's been bugging me to dance," she yelled back.
	The guy looked at me, then at her, then walked away.
	I grabbed a napkin, said, "Just a minute," and began writing: 'Women like you don't sit alone. Figured you're waiting for someone. Saw him bothering you. I'll leave if you want or wait with you.' I passed the napkin to her and waited as she read it. She looked at me, then around the bar then leaned toward me.
	"Yes," she yelled, "Please stay. I seem to be a half an hour early."
	You have to realize I've been hooked on Ingrid Bergman since age twelve or so. This woman looked a lot like a blonde version of her, smelled wonderful, and had a voice that sounded lovely even when she was yelling over a band.
	"How old are you?" she asked.
	"I'm drinking a rum and Coke," I said.
	She looked skeptical. "I did, too, when I was your age," she laughed.
	I grinned at her and shrugged. "I'm being sent to a war," I said, "As far as I'm concerned, that makes me old enough for anything I want to do."
	"I see," she said, sitting back in her chair. She regarded me thoughtfully for some time.
	I didn't push matters or try to conduct a conversation over the noise. I didn't ask her to dance, either. That might only have made the others start trying again, and she obviously hadn't felt like dancing before. I just did what I said I'd do. I sat there keeping the wolves away as we waited for her company to arrive.
	A man and a woman came into the bar and looked around. The woman pointed at our table and they headed our way. I looked at the blonde and she nodded, so I got up to seat the woman. She looked at me oddly, but accepted the gesture. The man simply sat down on the next chair over. They gave me a questioning look, but the band was playing too loud to introduce people, and I wasn't sure it was even necessary. I figured I was just a temporary deterrent. I glanced around the table and then at the blonde, getting her attention with a small wave. I held up my cup as she leaned over to hear me.
	"I'm going to the bar for a coke refill. I can ferry drinks back to the table for everybody or I can disappear, whichever you prefer."
	"I'll talk to my friends," she said. "But I think you're going to be staying." She and the other woman conferred, spoke to the other guy, and then left for the bathroom. The guy handed me a ten and told me what to order at the bar. I returned with the drinks and waited. This time I didn't put rum in my coke. I wanted to be able to think if necessary.
	When the women came back, the guy rose as I did to seat his woman as I seated the blonde and grinned at me as he slid her chair forward. The blonde caught the grin and seemed to wonder for a second what it was about, then realized the other guy had suddenly acquired an extra dose of manners. She gave me a small, knowing smile as I sat down next to her.
	There wasn't much table chatter due to the music. The newcomers got up and danced a few sets, then returned to the table. The brunette leaned over and said something to her guy and then the blonde, then the blonde said to me, "Come outside with us."
	Once outside, the blonde told me her name and we all introduced ourselves. The ladies had decided that the bar wasn't suitable for the evening and named a restaurant nearby.
	"I'm visiting my sister for a while," said the blonde. "Tonight I learned that I'll probably need an escort now and then. Want the job?"
	She was five-ten or so, well constructed, well-dressed, and didn't have a southern accent. She looked a bit like Ingrid Bergman and her voice was like soft music and she smelled wonderful. I looked into her blue eyes for a moment.
	"I'm yours," I answered instantly. I didn't say, "Forever, if possible."
	She smiled. It was one of those knowing smiles. She'd heard the "Forever, if possible" concealed in my words and my voice.

*****
	I wrapped up my story with, "Dinner that night, dinner the next. Sunday at a park and dinner and a movie. She didn't seem to mind that I was seven years younger. Together almost every night and every free day until my leave was over. In 1970 she joined the Army. I married her hoping to be with her forever. Her growing alcohol problem drowned that dream. She started drinking hard and became a vicious drunk. She returned from Europe in 1972. I stayed there."
	After a moment, Diane said, "You still love her. I can hear it, Ed. I can feel it in you."
	"That may be, but if I am, it's in a three-decade-long remission," I said. "And the love would be for who she used to be, not who she became."
	"Remission is for cancer, not love," said Mindy.
	Diane got up and headed for the bathroom. She paused at the door and said hoarsely,
	"No, not always, Min. Sometimes it's exactly like that."
	Mindy patted the bed. When I joined her there, she snuggled close to me and softly said, "I didn't like the ending."
	"I didn't, either." I pulled her hair back from her face and let my fingers trace her jawline. "Believe me, I didn't, either," I said.
	After a moment, Mindy said, "I think Diane's crying in there."
	"I know. I'm sorry about causing it, Mindy."
	"I don't think you caused it," she said, "Not exactly, anyway. She went through something like that with her first husband."
	"Figured that. I'm still sorry I made her cry."
	After a while, Diane came out and washed her face at the side sink before joining us. When she'd settled in on my other side, I kissed her softly and whispered, "Sorry, Diane."
	She snuggled in a little closer. "Not your fault, Ed."
	"I think I'm gonna take a nap," mumbled Mindy.
	"It's about eleven," said Diane, "We could just crash."
	I pulled the covers over us and turned out the lights. "We could do that."
	We kissed each other goodnight and settled in. I was just on the edge of sleep when the phone rang. It rang again as I was reaching for it, thoroughly waking everybody.
	"Hello?"
	A woman's slurred voice said, "I wanna talk ta Alan."
	"No Alan here."
	"Dammit, don't give me that shit! Get Alan on tha phone right now!"
	"Wrong room," I said, and hung up. The phone rang again almost immediately.
	After demonstrating a wide range of invective, the woman demanded Alan again. Mindy giggled. The woman heard her and screamed that Alan, the sunnuvabitch, had better not be in that house when she got there. Then there was a sudden silence on the phone.
	"Waitaminnit. Did you say 'room'?" she asked in a small voice.
	"Yeah. ROOM. This is a motel. I'm not Alan and Alan isn't here."
	I heard a muted "Oh, Jesus!" just before her phone clattered into it's cradle.
	Diane took the receiver from me and hung it up without comment.
	"I'm not sleepy now," said a grinning Mindy.
	Diane laughed into her pillow. "Poor Alan..."
	I said, "Snacks. Coffee. There's a Waffle House a block away."
	"I can't go out like this," said Mindy. We stared at her. She noticed.
	"I don't mean naked!" she said, "I mean I need a shower!"

Chapter Fourteen

	"It's already almost midnight," I said, "You ladies go first. If I shower with you it will be one or two a.m. before we get out of here."
	Diane said, "Not to worry, we'll manage without you and there'll be other showers."
	Mindy kissed me and smiled back at me as they entered the bathroom and I felt that some firm decision about me had been reached between them.
	A lot of people use those medieval weekends to meet others and have brief "arrangements". Some people came hundreds of miles to these events, and when the event was over, so was the involvement. We hadn't discussed what would happen after the weekend, but I had a feeling I'd be involved well beyond medieval events.
	My fate as it related to Mindy and Diane had seemingly been decided. All that remained were the details, apparently, and I wondered how they'd explain me to their friends. I had twelve years on Mindy and several on Diane. I put that question out of my mind as I unbagged a clean shirt and a pair of pants and transferred pocket stuff.
	When the ladies came out, I went in. I emerged to find them dressed and ready to go. Both were wearing jeans and blouses and carried no purse. I liked that, for some obscure reason. Neither of them appeared to be wearing any makeup. I liked that, too, and said so.
	"Beautiful without the paint and powder," I said, "And bold enough to prove it in public. I'm happy to be in your company, ladies."
	At the restaurant, Diane wanted to pay. It seemed important to her, so I was about to agree without too much protesting when she reached in her back pocket and dropped a brochure on the table. "Mindy, do you need a condo?" she asked. Mindy shook her head. "What about you, Ed?" She didn't wait for my answer. She grabbed the brochure back and repocketed it, saying, "Right. Big decision. Take your time. Now I can call this a sales pitch and write it off."
	Mindy grinned at me. "She's written off most of this weekend, so far."
	"You saw the brochure. I asked if you wanted a condo. It counts."
	We ordered light breakfasts and talked as we waited.
	"So where are we in this?" asked Diane, "Is it a relationship yet?"
	"I'd say so," I said. "We've had some relations, after all."
	"Technically it's still a companionship," said Mindy, "But I'd rather call it a relationship, too. I just like the sound of it better. All in favor?"
	Diane and I voted 'aye' with raised hands.
	"Then it's unanimous," said Mindy, "It's officially a relationship."
	The waitress overheard us and eyed us briefly as she realized I wasn't with just one of the ladies. Mindy giggled and Diane smiled. The waitress looked at me rather disapprovingly.
	Mindy said, "She wouldn't feel that way if she'd just had what I had."
	The waitress overheard that, too, and turned away quickly, blushing. Diane rolled her eyes and lightly swatted Mindy's shoulder. Both were giggling like schoolgirls.
	"What about tomorrow's fight?" I asked, "What time?"
	"Around ten," said Mindy. "Best slot I could get."
	"Coolest part of the day," I said, "Simmer time in summertime."
	"Simmer? Oh, like a stove," said Mindy, "Okay. Got it."
	"Full gear or light kit?" I asked.
	Diane smiled. "We can choose weapons. You can, actually, since I'm the challenger. Got a preference? Light or heavy?"
	"Not at the moment. I'm a little tired right now. Damn, lady! Weren't you at all intimidated by my performance with Melvin?"
	Diane grinned at me. "Nope."
	Mindy laughed. "Diane doesn't intimidate easily."
	"I see that. Okay, then, plan on using light armor and short swords."
	"Oh, good choice," said Diane, still grinning.
	"I was afraid it might be," I said, grinning back.
	"It wouldn't matter against Diane, Ed," said Mindy.
	"Yeah, I was afraid of that, too. Thanks a bunch, Mindy. All I need to hear now is that you two have been conspiring to wear me down with your feminine wiles."
	I received silent, almost-innocent, 'Who? Us?' looks from both of them.
	"Oh, great. I've been suckered. Drained. Depleted." Head down, I held out my wrists for slashing. Diane drew her table knife across them, then both ladies burst out laughing.
	"We'll see," I said. "I recharge quickly."
	Mindy nudged Diane and whispered loudly, "Think we oughta bang him again, just to be sure? He was able to walk over here on his own."
	"Nah. Look at him. He's already on his last legs."
	"Cute, ladies. Seems to me we were all in about the same condition half an hour ago. I think your plan of conquest may be flawed."
	Mindy looked at Diane questioningly. "It worked on all the other guys."
	"They were pushovers. This guy could be a problem."
	"We could tie him up. You'd win by default if he didn't show up."
	"Nah. He has a friend in the King's court. Won't work if he talks."
	"If he looks too good in the morning we can say he tried to escape!" said Mindy brightly, clapping her hands together. "The King's guards can soften him up for you!"
	"I like that one. Save it as plan 'B'," said Diane.
	They were still grinning at me when the food arrived.
	"It's like dining with a pair of mantises," I said, "I'm glad there's some food between us. It'll keep you busy for a few seconds if I have to run for my life."
	As we left a while later the waitress watched the two giggling ladies leave and stared at me for a moment after handing me Diane's change. I met her eyes and saw something beyond hostility in them before they dropped to glance at my jeans, then she turned to close the register.
	"Y'all come back now," she said. It was that after-purchase response you hear everywhere in Texas, but it was delivered in low tones. I looked up from Diane's change and saw her staring in to my face again. Her hard gaze belied her words. At first I thought she disapproved of us wholeheartedly, but she added, "My name's Cheryl." Her gaze never softened as she spoke.
	It was an offer of sorts. I looked her over and nodded approvingly so she'd know I thought she was attractive and said, "I'm Ed. But those ladies own me for now, Cheryl. Maybe when they let me go I could come back here and say hello?"
	She looked at Mindy and Diane in the parking lot and nodded. "I respect a man who won't even think about cheating on his woman... Uh, women. You're with 'em both? I mean..."
	I answered her flatly. "Yes, ma'am."
	She took another hard look at me and said, "It's against everything I know's right to be with two women at one time, Ed."
	"Right isn't something someone else decides for us unless we let them, Cheryl. People don't all wear the same size and color clothes and likewise they should think as much about what will make them happy when their clothes are off. I please these ladies and they please me. Can you really ask for more than that between men and women?"
	After a moment, she asked, "You mean that, don't you? It ain't just some kind of line?"
	"I do mean it, Cheryl, and it would make a truly lousy line."
	She laughed. "Yeah, it would, 'specially with them two girls standing in plain sight."
	I gave her a little wave and said, "Maybe later, then."
	She smiled and said, "I won't count on it, but okay. Maybe later."
	I handed Diane her change in the parking lot. Mindy wanted to know what kept me.
	"The waitress said that being with two women was against everything she knows to be right."
	"Did she?" asked Mindy. "How the hell would she know?"
	Diane said, "For her, it would be right. She wouldn't want to share a man."
	"But why did she feel the need to say anything to Ed?"
	Diane laughed. "Because a man with two women must have something special, right, Ed?"
	I said, "I prefer to let you and Mindy decide that."
	Diane gave me a laughing glance. Mindy looked shocked. "You mean she tried...?"
	"No," I said. "She didn't try anything. She was just curious."
	Mindy's tone was almost a growl. "She'd better not get too curious."
	Diane and I looked at her in moderate amazement.
	"Well?" asked Mindy. "When have any of us ever had things better? No vacancies, right?"
	"Right, ma'am," I said. "Don't hit me 'cause other women think I'm cute."
	Diane giggled. "Yeah. Don't hit him. I'll do that tomorrow."
	Morning came too soon, of course, but we had another light breakfast and headed back to the campgrounds, arriving around nine. John greeted us and confirmed our battlefield appointment at ten, then moved off to locate someone else on the list. I excused myself to prepare. As I was checking straps and padding, John returned.
	"Want to hear about your opponent?" he asked.
	"Shoot. What's her best?"
	"She's fast like you wouldn't believe with a light sword. You probably won't even see the one that gets you, so keep her at a distance. Make her reach for you. She'll work your shield arm to death with high low combinations and try to tire you."
	"Got it. Anything else?"
	"Yeah. I need to know that you can lose to a woman gracefully."
	I just stopped messing with the buckles and looked at him. He looked back impassively.
	"Thanks for the confidence, John. Gimme a Dr.Pepper out of that cooler you're sitting on and I'll forgive your lapse, there. Where did that question come from?"
	He handed me a can and said, "I think that if she can beat you, you'll probably accept it as well as you would if your opponent was a man. I just need to be sure, and so does the King. Some guys haven't handled losing to her well at all."
	"You saw me fight and shoot yesterday, John. If she wins, she will have earned it."
	"Okay, then. Good enough, Ed. Gotta go. Later."
	Mindy was approaching. "John's been handing out tips?" she asked.
	"John was satisfying himself that I could lose gracefully to a woman. Apparently some of the others have had a problem in that area."
	"Yeah, they have. That's kind of why I dropped by, too."
	I tried to look stricken. "Not to wish me luck?"
	Mindy smiled. "No, not even that. Sorry, Ed. I'm Diane's squire, not yours."
	"Ok, then. You get the same question I asked John. What do you think? If she wins, how do you think I'll take it?"
	After a long gaze at me, she said, "It's a side of you I don't know yet. Give me a hint."
	"How about I give you the same answer I gave John? I'm competent enough. If Diane wins, she will have earned it with sweat and bruises like anyone else."
	She said softly, "Don't be pissed, Ed. I just wanted to be sure, and I didn't know how else to ask but to just come right out and ask."
	I grinned at her. "I'm not upset that you asked. She's your friend. You needed to know."
	Mindy smiled, kissed me, and left. I finished arming and headed for the battlefield. Diane approached to walk with me. I looked at her armor and full-face helmet (the only kind allowed) and asked, "How do I know it's really you in there and not a ringer?"
	"It's me," she said, "Trust me."
	"I'm gonna make you work for it, you know."
	"They all say that," said Diane.
	We took our positions. After announcing who was inside each helmet, the Master at Arms held his staff between us and asked if we were ready, then the staff was lifted and the match began. Diane quickly circled to her right a bit, looking for an opening. I circled with her, maintaining enough distance that she'd have to step in to strike.
	My foot hit a lump of dirt sideways and I stumbled for just half a second as I stepped over and beyond the obstacle. I didn't look down when I stumbled. I didn't think I looked away from Diane for even a split-second, but I didn't see her sword coming at my head until the last possible instant, either. I barely got my shield up in time to deflect it, and the blow was powerful enough to have counted as a kill if it had hit my helmet.
	I yelled, "Jesus, Diane! Did you learn that move from a rattlesnake or a cobra?!"
	She laughed softly and said, "You're quick, Ed. I should have had you then."
	"If you should have had me, you would have had me."
	"Next time, Ed."
	"We'll see, Diane."
	I stepped and swung to work her shield down a bit at the same time. She caught my sword on her shield edge, as expected, but a good, solid hit didn't happen. Diane twisted slightly and fed the power of my swing back at me in a loud, slamming blow that rocked my own shield and made my arm tingle. I decided immediately to try overload her confidence and hope she'd get careless. "Damn, lady! Is that a rattan stick or a baseball bat?"
	She chuckled. "That felt gooood, Ed."
	"You're grinning so hard I can feel it over here, Diane."
	She feinted low and came in high in a circular swing. I caught it on the edge of my shield and sent it past me as her shield slammed into mine with her weight behind it, ramming me back a pace. Diane's sword was already heading for my helmet again like an angry wasp.
	I blocked upward with my own sword as her shield slammed into mine again.
	Okay, I thought, She's not a prom queen pretending to be a fighter. She really knows her shit out here and she's aggressive as hell.
	I stepped inside her circling and let one fly straight at her middle, watching for her sword to appear out of nowhere as I swung. Diane didn't disappoint me. She managed to get her shield in place just in time. Even as my blow rattled her shield and armor and set her back a pace, I had to deflect hers shot at my helmet. It slammed my shield, but only tapped my helmet in passing.
	"Hold!" shouted the M-A, dropping his staff. We stopped and waited.
	"Do you count that blow a kill, sir?" he asked loudly for the crowd's benefit.
	"I do not."
	"Do you concur, MiLady?"
	"I do. Too light."
	The M-A lifted his staff clear and said, "Continue!"
	Diane was wound up tight. Her sword was making quick, tiny circles behind her head as she kept it constantly in preparation for a swing at me. She was whistling something in short bursts that I could almost recognize. I realized she was using the whistling to control her breathing and would likely coincide her strikes to the music in her head.
	I heard Mindy's voice cheering her on, but didn't dare risk a look. Diane continued to circle in a quick, lithe shuffle, feinting with her shield and looking for an opening. A tartan kilt in the crowd helped me attach a name to her musical whistling in my mind.
	It was a version of a bagpipe tune called "When the Battle's O'er", and as soon as I recognized it, I joined her in whistling the last eight bars. That startled her into momentary silence and I attacked while I hoped she was distracted.
	We must have traded a couple of dozen quick blows, shield slams, and a flurry of assorted other aggressive tactics before my sword finally made contact with her helmet. It was just a touch, as hers had been. The M-A called a halt and questioned us, then let us continue.
	Diane laughed. "Guess we didn't wear you down quite enough, huh?"
	"Guess not. Wonderful try, though. You both gave it your all."
	Diane giggled. It sounded strange, under the circumstances. None of my opponents had ever giggled before. "Good taste in music, Ed. Can you handle 'Farewell to Gibraltar'?"
	"Try me. I don't know all the names, but I'll bet I know the pipings."
	"Okay," she said, "See if you can follow it."
	Instead of whistling, she came in fast and low and tried to get behind my shield with a thrust. I parried it away desperately and carried the sword through into an overhead swing to try for a shot at her helmet again. Diane deflected it faster than anyone I'd ever seen on the field.
	Another quick flurry of feints and dodges, sword blows, and shield-slams later, we had both failed to connect beyond either shields or blocking swords, but the crowd seemed very well impressed with our efforts. There was a collage of hoots, howls, laughs, and sounds of amazement from the onlookers.
	Breathing hard and sweating hard, we circled each other trying to find some way past the other's guard in another quick series of feints and various attempted assaults. After another ten minutes or so, which is an unusually long while for a match to continue, I finally managed to score a legal hit on Diane's thigh armor, but I couldn't jump back and cover fast enough to avoid her reciprocation as her sword came in from the side at warp speed.
	Her sword landed hard on my own thigh armor almost simultaneously with my own strike on hers. The M-A called another halt to confirm hits. In this sort of mock battle, a leg hit means you've been technically crippled and must either withdraw by conceding the battle or continue the fight as if the injury was real.
	"Will either contestant yield?" bellowed the M-A.
	We replied, "NO!" almost simultaneously.
	The M-A lifted his staff and almost tiredly said, "So be it. Con-tinue..."
	"You hit hard for a girl," I said. Diane giggled again.
	"Been told that," she said, feinting and striking at my other leg in a downward slash intended to get behind my shield. She didn't quite succeed. My shield barely covered my leg in time.
	I returned her attempt with a deliberate strike at her shield that carried a lot of my weight behind it. It rocked Diane so hard she couldn't swing her sword at me with any accuracy, but I can't say that either the sound or fury unnerved her. Oh, no, not at all.
	As she straightened, her shield moved. I knew she was trying to get some feeling back into her arm before I struck again, so I didn't let up. Two more such hard poundings had managed to move me completely to her left so that she had to pivot to keep her back covered. I was gathering for another such sword-slam when Diane dove forward, shield up, sword extended, in a move designed to "run me through". If the tip of her sword got me I was finished.
	I had to drop and roll to one side to avoid her thrust, and when I looked up, Diane had rolled onto her knees and her sword appeared to be descending at something approximating light-speed at my helmeted face.
	Very slick. A very, very good move. It was either one of the best-executed dueling moves I'd ever encountered or Diane had an absolute gift for adaptation. With no time to block, I did the only thing I could. I thrust my own sword up behind her shield and pushed it into her armored midriff hard enough to lift her off the ground in a desperate attempt to shove her attack just far enough away, just enough to let it miss my helmet. It was almost enough, but not quite.
	My sword snapped under the strain of lifting her and Diane's sword slammed across my faceplate with deafening finality. I heard and felt her sword splintering against my helmet as it blotted out the glaring Texas sun and felt extremely glad that my helmet had been resting on the ground when Diane's sword landed. It would have rattled my world otherwise.
	We both died, of course.
	The M-A came over and dropped his staff, looked us over for real injuries, asked if we each acknowledged the other's killing blow (just a technicality...we did), and then pronounced us "mutually deceased due to misadventures with armaments."
	The crowd cheered like maniacs. Live or die, win or lose, it doesn't matter. If you last more than ten seconds on a battlefield, a medieval re-enactment crowd will cheer about it.
	Mindy cheered right along with them for a bit, then she detatched herself and scampered over to hunker beside us. "You're both all right?"
	"Ow," I said, "I can still see that sword coming down."
	"Good," said Diane, "I think you dented my ribcage."
	"Well," said Mindy, "It's too bad you killed each other and all, but you both put on a real good show of not winning. It's been called a draw."
	I pulled my helmet off and grinned, "At least I got her first."
	John hunkered next to Mindy. "Sorry, hero, but you didn't manage to stop the blow that killed you, so it's a tie. Them's the rules."
	"Oh, I know that, John. I'm just happy and somewhat amazed that I got her first."
	Diane took her helmet off and sat back on the grass. "Me too. Amazed, that is. Okay," she said, "Can we get back on the lists today for a tie-breaker?"
	John showed us his lists. "Nope. We have twenty-eight fights scheduled between now and dinnertime. Lists are closed unless someone cancels, and you know how likely that is."
	"Can you pencil us in, just in case?" I asked.
	John tossed his royal clipboard between us. "Got seven of those now," he said, "But if you want to be number eight..?"
	Diane and I looked at each other.
	"Next time," she said.
	"Next time," I agreed.
	We all helped each other up and moved off the field so the next guys on the list could pummel each other under the hot Texas sun. John went back to work with his clipboard and lists and we headed for the tent to recuperate. Along the way Diane and I received numerous compliments for everything but common sense.
	"Diane, tell me why we did that, will you?" I asked. "We're really going to be feeling it tomorrow, you know."
	Mindy was making drinks as Diane and I carefully flattened out on our sleeping bags.
	"We'll be feeling it most of next week, Ed. We had to. That's really all there is to it."
	"We? You had to, Diane. I distinctly remember you challenging me."
	"All right, then, I had to."
	"Uh, huh. And...?"
	"And what? I had to do it, that's all."
	Mindy handed us our drinks. "I'd love to think you two brave warriors were fighting over me, of course, but that wasn't exactly the case, was it?"
	"Sorry, Min," said Diane.
	"Huh. I wonder..," I said.
	"What do you mean by that?" asked Diane. Her eyes narrowed.
	"Who else did you challenge or fight this weekend?" I asked.
	"You were the only one who seemed worth it," said Diane.
	"Well, thanks ever so much, but you can put that stuff back in the bull, ma'am."
	Mindy giggled. Diane gave me a wry grin. "I had to find out something, Ed."
	After a moment of waiting for her to continue, I asked, "And..?"
	"And I found out," she stated flatly, "That's all you get."
	I looked at Mindy. "She hits hard for a girl," I said. Mindy grinned.
	I looked at Diane and said, "She hits hard for most guys, too."
	Diane smiled. "I've tried to live up to my name," she said.
	"You've succeeded. Did you realize we were out there for almost twenty minutes? Most matches last about five or less."
	"Mostly much less," agreed Diane, grinning at me.
	Mindy said, "When you two hero-types have finished reminiscing old battles and complimenting each other you can go get cleaned up for lunch. It's almost eleven."
	"Yes, Mother," said Diane.
	Neither of us made any immediate attempt to get up. I looked at Diane, half-out of her armor and sprawled flat to let some air hit her bare skin, just as I was. I rolled over and elbow-walked my way to where my face was directly over hers. She cracked an eyelid and squinted at me.
	"Hi," I said, "Just looking."
	"Looking at what?"
	"You."
	"Why?"
	"Now that was a dumb question, Diane. You're beautiful. Why the hell else?"
	Mindy snickered. Diane's glance flicked to her, then back to me.
	"I'm a hot, tired, soggy mess. Get real."
	"I'm lying on top of my real. You look and smell delicious."
	Diane's hand slid under me and her eyes opened wider.
	"You aren't kidding, are you? Me like this turns you on?"
	"The proof is in your hand. Now I want a kiss."
	Mindy laughed softly behind me.
	"You must be nuts, Ed..." She looked into my face. "Oh, well, then. Kiss me."
	I did. It was a long and lingering kiss, and when it ended I let my lips trail across her cheek to her throat, tasting her salt tang and breathing in the scent of her. I licked her throat lightly, then licked my lips and said, "And now I would like somewhat more than just a kiss."
	Diane looked at me as if I were truly crazy and said, "Oh, come on, now, Ed...!"
	Mindy said, "He means it. I can tell. If you say yes, I'll drop all the tent walls for you, but I won't even think about staying in here. It's gonna get hot as hell."
	I kissed Diane lightly and whispered, "Say yes!"
	Diane squeezed the object in her hand and said, "So I'm nuts, too. Yes."
	Mindy giggled softly and muttered, "Animals."
	She stepped outside and began to untie the wall-stays. I began untying Diane's remaining armor. She lay still as I peeled it off her.
	"I can not for the life of me believe this," she said, "I've never looked worse in my life, and you have a hard-on for me."
	"And how do I look to you?" I asked, sliding her underwear off, "Hot, sweaty, all that. But you said yes, didn't you? You aren't doing this just to please me, are you?"
	I touched her center and felt the slick wetness of her readiness beginning. "No," I said, answering my own question, "You aren't. You wouldn't do this for that  reason, and if I ever suggested seriously that you would, you'd likely break my legs in some ladylike manner."
	Diane giggled. "Thank you, I think. I'm sure you meant that as a compliment."
	I kissed her again and spent a few moments massaging her intimately before I had to pull my hand away to remove the rest of her armor. Diane sat up and helped me get my own armor off. 	As the last piece fell away, she looked at me and touched my face. I looked into her eyes. I felt she wanted to say something, but she didn't say it just then. I pulled her onto my lap. Diane wrapped her legs around my hips, positioned herself,  and let herself sink slowly down onto me. 	I wrapped her in a great hug and kissed her again. There were tears on her cheek when our kiss ended. I lightly kissed them away, saying nothing and smiling at her as I licked my salty lips.
	She giggled softly. "I don't know why I'm crying," she said.
	"If you're happy, tears don't matter. Are you happy?"
	"Yes," said Diane, "I'm happy."
	"Thank you. That pleases me more than I can say, Diane." I kissed my way from her lips to her shoulder and back again. "I don't care if we come," I said, "I just needed some time like this with you. Wrapped around you, deep inside you, kissing you, holding you, talking with you. That's all I really wanted. You think that's strange?"
	Diane laughed softly and kissed me. "No, Ed. No, I don't. At the moment, I can't."
	"You don't mind the heat?"
	"Maybe later. Right now, this feels wonderful."
	I ran my hands over her back, her shoulders, her arms and legs, and I kissed or tasted her now and then as I explored. When she leaned back slightly, I spent some time drawing circles in the slick sweat on her breasts. Diane smiled slightly.
	"I really like this, Ed," she said, "I'm feeling good inside and out."
	"Rock back and forth a little," I said, "Just a little. It gets better."
	She tried it. Her lips formed a little 'o' as the changing angles rubbed me against the walls within her. "Very nice," she whispered, then, "V-very nice!"
	Diane continued her small rocking motions with a slightly quicker pace and moaned a little "Ooohhh..." One of her hands slipped between us to add sensation as she rocked herself. 
	Soon Diane was getting close, which triggered the beginnings of my own orgasm. As my dick swelled a little larger and touched just a little deeper, Diane realized what she was causing within me. Her eyes opened and she gazed steadily at me as she neared her goal.
	"Yours for mine," I whispered. "It's as if I become part of you. For a moment I blend with you, and I do love that moment, Diane. When it happens, I want to be kissing you."
	She suddenly pulled her hand away and wrapped herself around my shoulders so she could pull herself up a bit. She let herself down quickly, but smoothly, then did it again a few times, dropping herself onto me a little harder each time until suddenly it was upon her and washing over her. Diane froze and hugged me hard and kissed me deeply, and her kiss released me.
	I surged within her, wrapped just as tightly around her, and jetted into her. Diane moaned slightly and sucked in her breath, letting it back out in sharp little hissings as she rode me. I continued to buck within her for what seemed a long time.
	It took a few moments to pull ourselves together, but we had to. In the semidarkness of the walled tent, it was probably all of 115 degrees by then. We found our towels and dried ourselves enough to get back into our clothes so we could get out of there. As soon as we had managed to get the tent zipper open, we dove outside into the relative coolness of a midsummer's day in Texas and lay gasping like a pair of fish on the ground.
	Mindy was talking softly with John a few paces away. She turned to us and said with a grin, "There are easier ways to commit suicide."
	John was smiling, but he held himself from commenting.
	"Water," I managed the word with difficulty. Diane merely nodded agreement.
	Mindy ducked into the tent and dragged the cooler outside rather than stay in there to open it. We practically dove into it for a couple of drinks, guzzled them down, then opened a couple more. Diane grabbed some ice and let it melt onto her face and neck.
	Mindy giggled and knelt near Diane. "Was it worth it?" she asked.
	Diane looked at her for a long moment and then pulled Mindy close by her shirt front, nodding vigorously. "Yes," she whispered, then she reached for more ice.
	"You aren't just saying that to con me into trying it?"
	Diane nodded vigorously again. "No," she whispered.
	John came closer. "You two look like hell," he said, "Ok, Mindy, they've survived. I'll be off now." He saluted us and walked off.
	Diane looked incredulously at Mindy, who said, "I didn't call him. He just dropped by. We were keeping people from coming too close to the tent."
	"We were quiet about it," said Diane, "What's the big deal?"
	Mindy laughed. "Right. You may have thought you were quiet about it."
	"Oh." Diane blushed. I may have reddened a bit, too.
	Mindy wrinkled her nose and laughed again. "You guys need a shower BAD," she said, "I'll open the tent to cool while you're gone."
	"That sounded like a strong hint to me," I said.
	"It sure did," said Diane. "It sounded like a good idea, too."
	We cleaned up, had lunch, and spent the rest of the day circulating. After the evening feasting we decided not to join the overall crowd in leaving the campsite. Instead, we packed and loaded our stuff, then sat talking with a few other late-goers at the picnic tables near the washrooms. John found us again. "Take a look," he said, extending his clipboard. Our names were first on the lists of combatants for the next event in October.
	As the stream of cars became a trickle, then dwindled even further, we sat in the gathering dark and discussed our immediate futures. Diane had received a recent promotion of sorts from general sales to sales of specific property offerings. She would be attending functions on a different level and preferred not to pull her escorts from the men she knew within her company. Both John and I would be considered 'on tap' for whatever occasions might require a date.
	Mindy was an artist who marketed her own works. This didn't require an escort, but she attended a number of conventions during the year, and some of them were in neighboring states. I was to be her companion and assistant during these events.
	On the home front, it was a simple matter of finding time to be together, working around all the usual scheduling impediments like work and other commitments. John ran a warehouse complex and had a pretty regular schedule that he could alter as needed.
	Even after the incident that had caused me to return to Texas was over, my reserve, or standby, commitment with a specific government agency would put me in the position of receiving a moderate check every month as a retainer of sorts as long as I was generally available to them. Scheduling free time mostly wasn't going to be a problem for me, either.
	It worked out that we wouldn't be under each other's feet, and we'd be able to retain and preserve the specialness of our companionships. Mindy and I became a couple for a while, including Diane whenever she cared to be included, but we were just a couple, not a triad.
	Diane said that she preferred "being frequently occasional" and having the choice of being with either or both of us instead of becoming a fixture to either of us.
	At first I couldn't understand Diane's reluctance, but her reasons became clearer later. John became moderately involved with us and came to regard Diane with something much more than simple attraction, but it took him a full year to finally propose to her. She refused his offer, but with good reason. Diane didn't want to become his or anyone else's burden later.
	That's when John and I were finally informed of Diane's cancer. John's response was to become utterly devoted to Diane, and when her condition worsened, he put most of his stuff in storage and moved in with them to help care for her. Diane became John's entire world, and after Diane's death, John left a note to Mindy and me and just disappeared.
	The note said: "Back when I can handle things. Don't worry about me."
	Mindy was frantic about John's disappearance. She was convinced John would end up a suicide. I told her that John's chances of turning suicidal would have been higher if he'd stayed because the house was still full of Diane. Things settled into a routine of sorts, but there was something undefinable missing between us, and the lack of Diane's lubricating influence became apparent as frictions occurred between us more frequently.
	Mindy and I had our worst argument ever soon after that. She was worried sick about John and thought I wasn't properly devastated about either Diane's death or John's departure. We broke up, but remained in contact due to my investment in producing some of her artwork in limited-edition lithographs and watercolor prints.
	A little more than six months passed before I received a call from John.
	He was in a homeless shelter in Tucson, Arizona, and he wanted me to sell one of his guns for money enough to return to Dallas. I was on call to the Dallas Feds or I'd have gone to pick him up myself. When I called Mindy to tell her about John, she suggested that she should go pick him up in Tucson since I couldn't.
	I got the gun out of storage and bought it myself at a bit more than a dealer would have paid for it. I told Mindy to tell John it should be considered a loan and sent her on her way to Tucson before I called John back to tell him his money was "on the way by special courier."
	John stayed with me a few weeks as he reorganized his world, but he eventually moved in with Mindy. The outcome was almost predictable. Two people severely damaged by the same disaster do have something in common, after all, and these two people found a way to share a ghost that might otherwise have kept either of them from ever finding happiness again.
	I'm just a long-distance friend these days, but Mindy called last year to ask me if I'd come back to Dallas from Florida for their wedding. She said that she and John wanted someone they both knew "qualified" for the position of best man. I didn't know how to take that at first, but she clarified things quickly. The wedding coincided with a medievalist event.
	"Bring your armor," said Mindy, "A certain Lady Angela wants to meet you."

-- End MINDY --
	If you're curious about what I'm doing now, what I look like, or anything else, go here:
http://abintrapress. tripod.com
or
http://www.wiccaworks.com