[adamu]

Saturday, August 2nd, 2076

Mighty effort though it was, Al kept his composure through the waiters' visit. Well, he'd tried to avoid the situation. What the ladies did on their own initiative had to remain their choice always.

But FDR on a pogo stick, they'd definitely hooked him on something here. Damned road to sexual hippiedom was what this was, and no doubt. And the other stuff floating around between them all - Al was no stranger to uncharted territory, but this, traveling with Alyce...and now young Grace...this was a blind leap into the void.

Well, it wouldn't be boring.

They talked for several hours, then, as Grace (and Al) ate. Alyce offered her a cigarette, which she politely declined. Al gave her about twenty-four hours before the Alyce Effect kicked in on that front, too.

As it got later and the girls' body language became, what? More feline, Al guessed. Yup, that was it. As it got later and the two of them started moving more and more like a couple of giant, cozy cats, he figured it was time to either get naked with them or risk being a third wheel. He finished off his beer and stood up.

"Another truly lovely episode in a truly lovely encounter, ladies." And then, knowing they'd both be emotionally and libidinously devastated by his departure, he decided to throw them a bone and ease his exit with a line or two of woman-talk.

"Ladies, the fuckin' cat's pajamas, that's what you two are. Cream in my damned coffee. Now don't take no genius ta see we got a right complexicated situation here, an' ol' Al won't pretend ta know what the next hour'll bring, much less how any of it plays out inna end. But I reckon I'm on firm ground sayin' we's all three here cuz we wants ta be, an' cuz we each of us wants the other two ta be. An' reckon we all trust each other ta look out fer each other, wherever our own individual paths may have ta lead us. 'Nuff said. G'night."

As Al stood smoking in his ice cold shower, he replayed his little speech in his head and congratulated himself on his compassion and sky-high EQ.

[adamu]

Saturday, August 2nd, 2076

The girls bid Al a good night with Alyce’s eyes letting him know that he is more than welcome to stay.  When he is in the other room, Grace leans over to Alyce and whispers, “What the frag did he just say?”
 
Alyce laughs.  “If you are a very, very lucky woman, you will learn to interpret what I call his Guthrieisms.  He has a way with words that I am sure is influenced by a mix of where he was raised and all of the places he has been in the world.  Loving him has allowed me to make sense of all of that.  He was saying that he likes you and that he is not sure where this will lead you, but for now, he accepts you as part of us.  If you want to be part of us, that is.”
 
Alyce turns her body to face Grace on the edge of the bed and puts a hand up to the other woman’s face.  “So do you?  Do you want to be part of us?”
 
Grace bites her lower lip as her mind wars with itself.  She nods and looks directly at Alyce.  “I….I am pretty sure that I have fallen for you.  Frag, it all seems so incomprehensible and…….and odd.  I feel so strange.  My guts are a bit tied in knots and just now and I do not know if I am saying the wrong things or the right.  How do you know and what am I doing to you and Al?”
 
Alyce brushes her hand across Grace’s face.  “First off, you cannot come between me and Al.  We love each other with a passion that cannot be weakened by someone else coming into the mix.  Yes, I said he loves me with a passion.  I can feel it every time he touches me and in every word he says to me.  I can feel him looking at me.  For some reason, there is something going on that keeps him from making the leap to my bed, but he will work through that in time, or he won’t and then neither of us will get to experience that level of joy.  But it does not mean that he loves me less.  I used to wonder about that.  He walked away from me just over eight years ago.  No word, no message, no nothing.  I was devastated.  But now I know that there is something bothering him and that he is trying to work through it.  And what is love if it is not giving him everything he needs to work through this problem?  So I give him time and encouragement.  I continue to let him know that my love is his no matter what he decides, and I continue to hope that he will one day decide that he can talk to me about what happened.”
 
“The second really important thing that you need to know is that the heart is boundless.  I love Al with everything I am, but that does not mean that I cannot love others as well.  I have my daughter, Gem, and her fiancee, Lydia……………..and I have you.”
 
Grace’s eyes get wide as saucers at that and she sucks in a quick breath.  “Me?  You can love me?”
 
Alyce leans forward and gives Grace a soft kiss.  “Yes, dear Grace, I can love you.  There is room in my heart for you and I offer my love to you free of any obligation to accept or discard it or to feel the same way.  Are you alright with that?”
 
Grace pales.  “Alright?  I…..I really don’t know.  It terrifies me, in a way.  And it terrifies me that I think I feel the same way about you.  I have never felt like this before, with anyone, and I had thought I was in love with both of the guys that I was with.  Everything is so strange and different.”
 
“Yes, but is it a good strange and different or a bad strange and different?”
 
Grace does not hesitate in her response.  “Oh, definitely a good strange and different.  But it is still strange and different and I was brought up to be a good girl.  That sex between two women is wrong, that flaunting my naked body where strangers could see it is wrong, and that having feelings for a man who is obviously claimed by another woman is wrong.  In effect, I am certainly going straight to hell when I die.”
 
Alyce gently kisses Grace’s eyes and lips.  “So do you want me to stop doing this?”
 
Grace’s breathing is getting shorter.  “Noooooo.  No.”
 
Alyce moves a hand to the other woman’s bare breast and fondles it, causing Grace to pant and moan softly.  “Or should I stop this?”
 
Grace can barely breathe and cannot talk so she just shakes her head.  Alyce moves her other hand to caress Grace’s upper thigh.  “Or this?”
 
Grace opens her eyes and they are on fire with her desire for Alyce.  All doubts flee into the darkness as she cups one of Alyce’s breasts.  “Frag no.  Don’t stop any of it.  If I am going to hell, I will make sure that I do it right and have as much fun as I can.”
 
She lowers her face to Alyce’s and the two women kiss deeply, then she pulls back a couple of inches.  “What about Al?  Is this wrong?”
 
Alyce shakes her head.  “No.  Al is fine with this.  He knows that no matter who I sleep with, or however many I sleep with, that I love him.  I will always be in love with Al Guthrie, and nothing can possibly change that.  And he knows that.  I also know that he wants like hell to be with us right now, making love to us.  He is in his shower and I can tell be the way his breathing changed that he is taking the coldest shower possible in an attempt to control the elephant.  I have felt how hard he gets with desire and I have detected the differences in his heart beat and breathing when he sees me naked.  And now that applies to you as well.  He is attracted to your body as he is to mine.”
 
Grace nods and closes the gap between them a bit.  “OK.  Wait…..did you say 'how many you sleep with'?”
 
Alyce laughs and nods as she finishes closing the gap.  “That is a story for later.  Now, lets take advantage of the time we have.”
 
Voices cease, but the two are hardly silent as they make love to each other.  Finally spent, they curl up together and Grace places a hand on Alyce’s face.  “Thank you, Alyce, for everything.”  Then, just before falling asleep, she adds, “Would it be alright if I were to love Al just a bit?”
 
She thinks she hears a soft chuckle from Alyce.  “Grace, dear, you may love him as much as your heart can let you.  Let him come up with a Guthrieism for that.  He might swallow one of his fags.”
 
Both girls laugh a bit at the thought then fall deeply asleep.  So it is that when Al wakes, he hears nothing from the other room except soft breathing.  He walks through the connecting door to find the women wrapped up in each other, with a sheet covering their lower legs and nothing else.  Alyce has her left leg tossed up over Grace, who is on her back with an arm around Alyce.

[adamu]

Sunday, August 3rd, 2076

The train was stopped, of course. Because they were in Bristol now for the next forty-eight. Another sharply sunny day with the promise of an amazing night.

Apparently not as amazing a night as these two had had, but there were other pleasures to be had in this world. Al congratulated himself for his appreciation of higher pleasures. Like psychobilly.

He'd always been into alternative country, mostly, but just in the last months since returning to the UK he'd gotten turned on to psychobilly. He'd always like rockabilly well enough, but there was something about these kids in their crazy get-ups that struck an uncharacteristic chord with him - he figured their outlandish shows were a reflection of, well, enough of all that artsy-fartsy thinking. He liked it. And apparently Grace the cello player liked it too. Weird world.

He was hungry, but wanted to eat with the girls. So he sat down at their table, lit the day's first smoke, took out his cards, and practiced the Invisible Flight until they stirred.

[adamu]

Sunday, August 3rd, 2076

Alyce’s drone lets her know that someone has just walked into her room and she wakes enough to see that it is Al.  She smiles at him as she stretches.  “Good morning, Al.  I have apparently overslept.”

She moves down the bed to place her head just below Grace’s waist and licks her there, causing the woman to suck in air and sit up.  Alyce gives her a naughty smile and slides off the bed, headed for the bathroom, touching Al’s shoulder as she passes him.  Grace sticks her tongue out at Alyce’s back then sits up and stretches.  “I guess I am second in the bathroom today.  Say what is that, another card trick?”

She moves to sit closer to the table, putting her elbows on it and leaning towards Al, letting her pert breasts sway a bit.  She watches him closely, and smiles at him.  “I know that I might only be along for the ride for the next forty-eight hours, but I have something I need to say to you. I spoke to Alyce about it a bit last night, and she said that I need to have the courage to tell you myself so here it is.  I know that you are in love with Alyce and she loves you beyond anything……….well, I am not good at saying this, but she loves you a lot.”

She pauses and blushes a pretty red.  She nervously reaches out for Alyce’s pack of Lucky Strikes on the table and taps one out of the pack, lighting it with the old Zippo next to it and taking a few drags.  The action seems to give her a bit of courage and she continues.  “I was wondering if it would be alright if I was in love with you, too?”  She holds up a hand.  “You don’t have to return it, you know, and could even tell me to go sod off, if you were of a mind to.”  Here her chin gets a bit defiant.  “But I won’t change my mind.”  She may be a bit defiant, but her chin moves a bit as if she were almost expecting to be turned down.

[adamu]

Sunday, August 3rd, 2076

Al gathered up the cards, shuffled them several times, then pushed the deck at Grace as the sound of a steady stream came from Alyce through the open bathroom door.

Grace looked at Al, got the unspoken message, a bit chagrined that he was apparently ignoring her speech, and shuffled the cards herself. It was a different deck than he'd used the night before. Instead of nude Asian girls in crassly pornographic poses, the card faces were adorned with vintage cars. He nodded at her to shuffle again, and she did. And again. Then he took the cards back and shuffled them himself once more. In the bathroom, the shower started. It lent them a sense of privacy, even though Al knew that Alyce was listening to every word. Grace would get used to that. With one smooth motion of his hand, he fanned the cards out in a long, perfectly even arc, face down. Then with one fingertip flipped the one on the end and they all turned over, retaining their formation. And Grace saw that the whole deck was arranged in sequence, from ace of spades on down to two of hearts, a joker at each end.

But before she could express her amazement, he was speaking. "Sure wouldn't expect ya ta change yer mind 'bout somethin' neither you nor any member o' yer sex can help. It were bound ta happen, no point in layin' blame nowhere. Ta know me is ta...well, you know how it goes. Fer some folks, like ol' Al, the adage happens ta be true. Thing that separates you from all the other women meets me is, in yer case, reckon I'm partial ta you too." He gave her a friendly wink. "Spend a little more time with me, an' well, ya still won't be able to help how ya feel, but ya might start ta unnerstand it ain't necessarily a good thing."

[Mercy Merchant]

Sunday, August 3rd, 2076


Grace nods, not quite knowing how she should be taking this and feeling a bit lost.  At this moment, Alyce emerges from the bathroom and announces that it is free and Grace hurries in.  Alyce finishes toweling off and places the towel on a rack in the bathroom before coming out to stand next to Al.  She rubs a hand against his face and leans over to kiss the top of his head.  "I am glad that she found the courage to tell you.  She would have rattled the words off without hesitation if she was not being honest or perhaps just after our money, but I heard the hesitation and a bit of fear came out.  I am pretty sure that she is legit, Al, so you now have too lost souls pining away for you."  As they hear the shower turn on, she adds, "Here, move sideways."

She guides Al's legs so that he is facing into the room then sits on his lap, placing her arms around his neck and her head against his chest.  Sighing, she says, "I am so glad that you are in my life, Al."

After a minute she says, "So, eat in the dining car, order in, or eat out on the town.  Oh, and I did some checking and this psychobilly music usually has kids in odd clothing.  Do we need to find something to wear for tonight?"

[adamu]

Sunday, August 3rd, 2076

Al loved being in this compartment.

Having Alyce across his lap was indescribable. And indescribably painful.

He knew where he wanted to eat breakfast, but couldn't say anything. The fact that Alyce had asked something else without waiting for his reply made it easy to simply not answer the first question and skip ahead to the second..

"Yeah, folk do git a bit fancy. You two can wear whatever strikes yer fancy I reckon. Though there's a lotta goth in psychobilly fashion, so you could prob'ly jist wear what ya always do in London, be jist fine. But ain't as though they's no rules to it. Me, my ever'day attire is already painstakin'ly selected ta be appropriate ta any social gatherin'."

[Mercy Merchant]

Sunday, August 3rd, 2076


Alyce laughs.  "Goth still means a shopping trip.  I did not bring much of that with me.  Mostly just sundresses and a bathing suit.  I bought some shorts in Falmouth, but nothing really that would look like I belonged in that sort of club.  No, I think Grace and I will have to go try on some new clothes.  You can come along and let us model for you.  And you did not answer the question about breakfast.  Where do you wish to eat?"

[adamu]

Sunday, August 3rd, 2076

Dammit, had she sensed his attempt at a turnaround? Trying the Alyce Effect on him, too?

Grace had stepped out of the bathroom now, toweling off.

"Reckon we let young Grace decide...where ya wanna breakfast, li'l darlin'?"

She had just picked up her dress from the day before, but let it drop back to the floor.

"Well, here in the room, I guess," she answered smiling coyly, a glint in her eye.

[Mercy Merchant]

Sunday, August 3rd, 2076


Alyce smiles.  "You heard the girl, Al.  Order us up some breakfast while we brush our teeth and discuss our shopping excursion?"

Grace smiles.  "Shopping?  What are we shopping for?"

"Clothes, dear.  We cannot go to this concert tonight in either our sundresses or naked.  Although, to be honest, some of the things I have sen indicate that there is a chance that what some of these people wear will come off during the night."

Grace laughs and nods.  "Some yes.  I have been to a few of this sort of concert and there are some people who shuck their clothing and even some sex off against the side wall.  After all, some of the tunes are very sexually suggestive and some people are just unable to resist the suggestion."

Alyce nods.  "So I saw in the articles I read."  She turns to Al.  "What do you think, Al.  Do you want your women to take their clothes off tonight?  It might make a difference in what we get at the shops.  I am completely comfortable with keeping everything on, so I leave that up to you, if it makes a difference in any way."

[adamu]

Sunday, August 3rd, 2076

Al started to say that whether they took their clothes off was not exactly his decision. Yeah, he liked calling the shots, but only when he was sure it was - at least on some level - kosher with the woman. And of course with Alyce anything was kosher.

But now Grace was here...

Then he thought about their little experiment last night, her reaction to it, and now her own giddy initiation of what looked like a repeat.

He looked at her as they both waited for his answer. She was biting her lip again, that crooked, conflicted smile.

"Reckon any clothes is too many clothes, far as you two is concerned. Let that be the theme, an' you two decide the particulars. If young Grace is ready ta graduate from private train compartment ta wild psychobilly show...well, reckon we'll be there ta keep 'er safe."

[Mercy Merchant]

Sunday, August 3rd, 2076


Grace's smile falters a bit.  "That is a bigger step than I am sure I want to take yet.  Maybe just a bit risque, perhaps?  Without taking everything off for a large crowd?"

Alyce smiles and gets up off Al's lap to hug Grace.  "You don't have to do anything you are not comfortable with.  And don't let me lead you to places you do not want to go yet.  My lifestyle is not for everyone and is not to be entered into lightly.  We can talk more about that later.  And I think that breakfast is coming down the corridor."

Grace looks at Alyce with a question then turns to look at the door as someone knocks at it.  She is momentarily froze with uncertainty and then it is too late, as Alyce walks the few steps to the door and opens it for the stewards to enter.  There is a short pause as the three young men stare for a moment at the beautiful woman holding the door for them and the other beautiful woman standing in the room.  The men move into the cabin and begin setting up the meal on the table.  This time the women are not sitting on the bed and the small room becomes a bit crowded and there is some "unintentional" brushing and touching.  Alyce plays along as if it were a natural thing, but Grace, despite her apparent willingness, is a bit slow to respond.  Nothing really overt happens, but there is a lot of staring.  The girls had been seated before, and parts of the body had been mostly concealed by the table edge and closed legs, neither of which is the case now and the men get full views.

There is only so much delay that can be built into setting up the breakfast and the men eventually have to leave the cabin.  As they walk down the corridor, they are talking among themselves and Alyce can easily pick up the conversation, which she sends on to the 'links of the others. 

"Holy drek, you guys did you get a full look at the new girl?  I would shag her in an instant."

"You idiot, I would do them both if I had the chance.  Too bad they are already his."

"Yeah.  Way too bad, and I would also shag both.  They are way hot."

"OK, OK.  I would do both of them.  You guys did not let me finish before."

The conversation ends as the three young men walked around the corner of the corridor.  Alyce grins and looks over at a blushing Grace.  "You will have to face that sort of thing if you are going to display yourself for others to see."

Grace nods.  "I guess so.  It was fun, but aren't you even a little upset about how they talked about us?"

"Heavens no!  I rather liked it, even though I have no intention of shagging any of them.  But it is nice to know that my body can still attract men like that.  So, let's eat."

[adamu]

Sunday, August 3rd, 2076

After breakfast the three headed for the famed if unimaginatively named Bristol Shopping Quarter. It had an open-air mail at its core, surrounded by increasinly less corporate institutions - farmers markets and antique vendors, and further out the real hippy, counter-culture traders. Whatever the women might have been thinking about wearing - and Al couldn't wait to find out what they chose (Grace's flustered 'maybe just a little bit' risque' ringing in his ears), and how powerful the Alyce Effect would be.

With no particular sightseeing in mind, the ladies really made a shop of it - besides clothes for that evening, they bought other things Grace needed, although it seemed to Al that they were buying considerably more than two days' worth. He chalked it up to Alyce's boundless generousity and bottomless credstick.

They ate a late lunch on the pier - a wonderful fresh seafood place - and when they'd finished eating, the shopping was done and they still had hours to kill. Not in any  hurry to be anywhere in particular, thoughts of naps back at the train or a long walk around town both crossed Al's mind. Neither, however, was anything he was married to, so he just sat and smoked and waited for anyone else to have an idea.

[Mercy Merchant]

Sunday, August 3rd, 2076


Alyce and Grace are shopped out by lunch time.  Alyce has had everything shipped to the train, including a suitcase for herself and another for Grace.  Grace had been reluctant to accept any of the clothes, but Alyce had insisted, saying that she would need something for the school term.and convinced her to just accept it.  The three have just finished a magnificent seafood lunch and are sitting, fell and satisfied, on the restaurant terrace, smoking cigarettes and watching the people go by.  Finally, Alyce stubs out her cigarette and stands.  "Come on.  We are here to see the sights, right.  I have this great guidebook for Bristol in my head so how about a nice walking tour?

Grace follows suit and both women stand looking at Al.

[adamu]

Sunday, August 3rd, 2076

Alyce's sightseeing data was pretty good, and they chose a route they could walk at an easy pace over the course of the afternoon. Bristol's sights, while not exactly ancient wonders of the world, were interesting enough - a lot of nautical stuff. The weather was perfect and watching the colorful locals proved as fascinating as the sights. But by the time they were hungry for a late dinner, they were all very ready to sit down for a break.

Al mused, "Well, ladies, we can eat out an' git a break from the train cuisine, or we can just eat in the room - git more of a breather that way afore a hard night o' fun. Six o' one, half dozen o' the other I reckon. Either way, we'll head back to the compartments later so's ya can git changed."