A Girl's Story Chapter 26
That fall began with us in high spirits; we had our apartment, I was expanding my cooking skills, and I was loving being a biker chick. It's when you are feeling on top of the world that the fall down is really devastating. This is fiction, of course, but it does mirror the events of my life when I was in college.
Part 26: Back to School, A Concert, Meeting an Old Acquaintance, and Some Really Terrible News
Since we weren't in the dorms we didn't have to deal with terrible "Team Building" activities that began each academic year. Lisa came with me to the picnic for Engineering Tech students and I went with her to parties for music and theater students. We even went with Sam and Tracey to a barbeque for agriculture students; I showed my enjoyment for the barbequed ribs by having sauce all over my face. We learned that Tracey's libido, like Sam's went up and down; and right now they were both in a down phase, at least where sex with us was concerned. They were sharing a dorm room this year and so we hoped they were getting plenty of pussy to eat at night. Amber had moved into a university-owned apartment with some other girls in the music program near the IWU campus and Clarissa was still living at home. We weren't sure what Holly's living situation was; we were concerned about her, she had a lot of stress in her life.
ISU had a series of "Welcome Back" events on the main quad and I was excited to see one of the bands that would be playing with Baking Powder Delinquents, the same band that had played at the youth center during our senior year in high school. Both of us had openly lusted for the band's bass player, Ronnie, but she had not wanted to get involved with us since at the time we were only 17.
We got there as the band was setting up; I could see Ronnie and I yelled out to her, jumping up and down and waving at her. I don't think she recognized me but when she saw Lisa's white hair shining in the afternoon soon (She looked so damn beautiful!) I could tell she remembered us. We went up to the stage and she came over to talk to us.
"Hi girls! It's good to see you two again. How have you been?"
Ronnie's hand felt very warm on my shoulder, "We're doing good. We're in our third year of school and we've got our own apartment now." Ronnie's dark eyes lit up when I told her about our apartment. I liked that look.
In the 2 ½ years since we had last seen her in the old Sears store Ronnie had accumulated an impressive collection of tattoos and Lisa was totally captivated by them. Ronnie saw her looking and she gave Lisa a wicked smile before pulling down her Pat Benetar t-shirt to show off the tattoo that looked like a spider web surrounding her bright pink nipple. I was certainly ready to fuck her right then and there and I was sure Lisa felt the same way.
The band's music was mostly in the style of classic punk but I could hear the influences of bands like X and Social Distortion in their music as well. Lisa was dressed her slutty gypsy dress from her time with Jehovah's Favorite Choir, while I was channeling Joan Jett; black jeans, white t-shirt and no bra and my Doc Marten's; I even let Lisa put some dark eye makeup on me. Lisa was happy to dance with me and twirl in her best sexy fashion but she was also content to watch me wade into the mosh pit on my own. It was a great afternoon.
We waited around after the show as the band packed up. I volunteered to help but I could see they very much had their own groove for set-up and tear-down and I didn't want to get in their way. After everything was loaded into their trailer Ronnie walked over to us, looking exceptionally predatory.
"Let's go to your place girls."
"Won't the rest of the band miss you?" Their drummer was also a girl but the rest of the band was guys and I was hoping she wouldn't want the entire band to join us.
Ronnie smiled and licked her lips, "I'm the band's resident slut, everyone is used to me hooking up with some cute girl, or girls, after a show. As long as I'm there tomorrow when we leave to go to Galesburg it's all good."
Back in the apartment Ronnie sat in my lap on the couch, biting at my neck as we watched Lisa strip with her favorite stripping song, "Hey Big Spender" form Sweet Charity playing on the stereo. Next was my turn and I went with my favorite, George Thorogood's "Born to be Bad". Ronnie went with a classic, Lita Ford's "Kiss Me Deadly." We were both mesmerized by Ronnie's lean body and her mass of tattoos. Her tits were smaller than Lisa's but nice and firm with pink nipples. She showed off her carefully trimmed bush and even bent over to show off her tight butthole. We got on the bed, having put down one of our moving blankets in anticipation of some wonderfully wet orgasms. I sat on Ronnie's face and Lisa pressed her face into Ronnie's bald pussy, eating at her wet sex and fingering her wonderfully tight butthole. I fell off Ronnie's pretty face, kicking wildly (I felt awful that I kicked her in the head but she liked it) in the grip of my orgasm. We switched places and I luxuriated in Ronnie's wet cunt, slurping loudly to get all her juices. We were all pretty loud and I was sure all our neighbors could hear us fucking each other like animals.
We were all laying on the bed, catching our breath, "You ever wrestle Ronnie?"
"You mean like a on TV?"
"Yeah, it's been one of my serious turn-ons since the 6th grade."
"No, but I'll give it a try."
We put down a couple more moving blankets and we went at it. Ronnie grabbed my brown bush and I was working her nipples pretty hard. We were both still really wet and I knew we were both close to orgasm. I managed to pick Ronnie up and throw her down on the floor and then I got down on the floor behind her, my boobs mashed into her back. I wrapped my legs around her, squeezing her with my thick (and now fairly muscular) legs. What pushed our black-haired friend right over the edge was me getting her a chokehold.
Lisa's expression was what could only be described as "hungry." She grabbed Ronnie's black hair, turning her to have out purple dildo right in her face. "You ready for this Ronnie?"
She grabbed Lisa's white ponytail, pulling hard on it. "I want you to fuck me like a fucking whore, you sadistic bitch!"
Ronnie got down on all fours and Lisa slid the dildo up into her pussy. Grabbing Ronnie's narrow hips, she plunged the dildo into her wonderful pink cunt with one smooth motion. Ronnie's dark eyes went wide and she moaned with pleasure as Lisa pounded the dildo into Ronnie's delightfully wet pussy. I was on the floor under her, sinking my teeth into her firm tits and sucking on her pink nipples; Ronnie was feverishly rubbing my clit as she got closer to her orgasm. Finally, with a low moan, she collapsed down onto me, her hard nipples in my face.
I could hear Lisa's voice, she was way beyond Mean Girl and all the way to Elf Queen Sex Goddess, "Are you ready to take it in the ass Ronnie?"
"Oh fuck yes! Fuck my fucking slut asshole you nasty elf-bitch!" Ronnie had quite the dirty vocabulary.
I was looking right into Ronnie's pretty eyes as Lisa slid the well-lubed dildo into her tight little butthole. Ronnie grabbed my tits, sinking her fingers in deep, and moaned as the purple dildo was buried in her tight butt. Her orgasm (we learned a new word from her that evening, "assgasm") was even stronger than when she was fucked in her pussy. Ronnie was exhausted and so were we.
I put on a t-shirt and panties and looked for something for us to eat, I knew Lisa would be ravenously hungry after sex that good and I was guessing Ronnie was hungry too. I had gotten better at stir-frying, I had decided I needed to shop for a wok, and we had the ingredients to make Michelle's mom's Angry Ginger Chicken and so about an hour later Lisa and our new friend were shoveling in spicy Thai food (I had a healthy amount myself).
I looked over the carnage on the table, "You girls get enough to eat?" Ronnie's massive burp reminded of me of my brother's and my sister's reaction to my cooking.
Lisa put her hand on Ronnie's pale thigh, "You want to come to karaoke night with us?"
"Sure, but I need to go back to my motel first and put on some different clothes." She was still wearing what she had performed in."
"I'll give a ride over to the motel and then we can come back and get Lisa, assuming you are good with being on the back of my motorcycle."
Ronnie's dark eyes were wide, "You have a motorcycle? That is so fucking cool!"
The band was staying at a motel out on old highway 66; Ronnie was massaging my tits the entire ride there, which I loved. She went in, changed into black jeans and a t-shirt, and came back out. I cued up "Do You Wanna Touch?" and we sang along (very loudly) on our way back to our apartment. Ronnie thought The Mersey Ferry was a really cool place and she enjoyed comparing tattoos with Tina, the very butch owner. Ronnie was really impressed with Lisa's singing talents; she patted my butt in appreciation after my performance of "Celluloid Heroes."
"Lisa, you could join our band anytime you want to; you have an incredible voice. Someday I want to see you on stage; I'm sure you totally kicked ass as Sandy in Grease." She looked over at me, "You're a total cutie Cindy and I love how much you enjoy singing, but you should definitely stick with electricity." I had to giggle at that one, I was always clear that Lisa had the performing talent in our partnership, I was definitely backstage crew. We dropped Ronnie back at her motel, she promised to let us know the next time the band would be anywhere close to us.
I was in the student center, having spent a frightening amount of money on books, looking over the assorted posters for clubs, bands, and other assorted stuff. I saw the announcement for the science fiction club as well as the Queer Students Coalition (maybe I could take Carrie there when she came to visit) but one poster caught my eye. On October 1 Bruce Springsteen was coming to do a show in the auditorium. Me and Lisa would definitely go and I was sure Amber would want to come too (and maybe fuck later).
I was working on a new spaghetti sauce (mushrooms instead of meat) when there was a knock on the door. Fortunately, I had a t-shirt and panties on so I just had to quickly pull on some shorts.
I opened the door and I was promptly mauled by Amber, it seemed that she had missed us. She pushed me down onto the couch, I managed to kick the door closed, and we spent some time rubbing boobs and tongue wrestling before finally coming up for air.
"It's good to see you again sweetie."
"I missed you two so much! Where's Lisa?"
"She is teaching her last afternoon dance class before school starts, she should be home in about an hour."
"She told me you got a motorcycle, you have to show it to me!"
I laughed, "O.K., O.K., let me put some jeans on; I can't go riding in just my panties." Amber laughed and smacked my butt as I went into the bedroom. I grabbed Lisa's helmet for Amber and we went down the back stairs. Amber looked Bill over carefully, I think she knew some things about motorcycles. She asked me some really detailed questions about the motor and the drivetrain, Amber showing off her inner bike-nerd was so hot!
"This is so fucking cool! You've got a really nice-looking bike here."
We got on and Amber clamped her hands onto my tits, I hadn't bothered with a bra, and off we went. I took her up the old highway and, because I knew she would love it, I played "Born to Run" on the cassette player. Amber sang along at the top of her lungs while distracting me by pinching my hard nipples.
Back at the apartment we went back up the stairs, Amber was pretty much dragging me up there, but I pulled her instead through the head shop's back door. The staff didn't care that Lisa and used that door, especially if we were bringing in food, but I was there to show Amber the bulletin board with all the band announcements. She took one look at the Springsteen poster and began to jump up and down with excitement, making her nice boobs bounce around in a really wonderful way.
"Tell me you two are going!"
"We are and we'll get you a ticket too."
"Get me two, maybe I can find a date."
"You got it sweetie. Now, you still want to fuck?"
Now she did drag me (quite willingly) into the apartment and had my jeans off while I was still in the kitchen. She pushed me down on the bed, pulled my panties off and began rubbing her hard, dark brown nipple on my clit while pinching my nipple with her free hand. We rolled back and forth on the bed, gradually stripping each other. When Lisa got home I was sitting on Amber's face and pumping my fingers in and out of her pussy. Lisa slithered out of her tights (she looked so damn sexy in them) and went to work on Amber's pussy while I kept grinding my sex on our pretty friend's mouth.
Lisa and I switched places so Lisa cold get her pussy eaten and I could rub my wet pussy on Amber's while Lisa and I wrestled with our tongues. I didn't kick too hard but Lisa, having missed her old roommate, almost drowned Amber. We spent some time laying on the bed, adding another moving blanket to the pile of laundry, catching our breath.
Amber had her head across Lisa's lap, her black hair still wet from Lisa's firehose orgasm, "I feel better now, I've only had my vibrator to keep me company since May."
Lisa stroked her hair, "No cute girls in Wisconsin?"
Amber did her best pout (it made her look a lot like Ellie), "Not in Manitowoc; no acceptable guys either. I may try to stay here in town next summer so I can fuck you two and get some decent food too."
I sighed, "You're the last true romantic Amber."
I was expecting Petra and Maris, two girls who worked in the flower shop, to come up; they loved my spaghetti and for them we needed to put on real clothes. Lisa had picked up some Italian bread and Shelly had bought some decent wine for us so when the girls came up the stairs, they did bring a pretty flower arrangement, we were ready to eat. We talked about our summers and I shared Cherie's news, all the girls agreed that me and Lisa would make very good queer aunts.
We settled back into our school routines: morning sex (most mornings), get out of bed, shower sex (when there was time), go to class, come home, eat dinner, couch sex, go to bed (with more sex); we fucked a lot and it was glorious. When the weather was nice we would ride our bikes to class, in ugly weather we had to allow time to catch the bus. Lisa would have choir practice at the church and rehearsals for student productions; I would go to the science fiction club meetings, Lisa would often bring me to the Gay Students Alliance meetings and I would bring her to the Queer Students Coalition meetings too. We definitely had a groove.
Amber was living in a university-owned apartment off campus with three other girls. She had her own room but there wasn't a lot of privacy, which meant that sex with Amber was at our place; we really enjoyed that. Sam and Tracey had gotten a room together in the same tower we had lived in before; we saw them most Sunday nights, mostly for food but sometimes for sex too. Clarissa and Holly had drifted apart, they were still good friends but Clarissa had met a guy named Zack and so she was mostly fucking him now. We were fine with the two of them not being interested in a four-way but we were determined to find a girlfriend for Holly. Holly was still in the dorm for at least this semester so we were still seeing her most Sunday nights. We had seen her naked enough to notice that while she was still in really good shape (she worked out almost every day) she was also bulking up some as well (in a really sexy way).
It was one of these Sunday nights, Sam was with us too (Tracey was studying for a test but Sam would bring her leftovers), as we sat at the table we had gotten from Lisa's parents that we could see Holly wanted to say something.
Her voice was pretty quiet, "I did it."
I looked at her, "Did what?"
"I came out to the cheer squad. The girls on the squad this year seem kinder than the past two years so I went for broke and told them I'm gay."
I could feel Lisa's warm hand clamped on my thigh under the table, "How did they take it sweetie?"
"Mattie, the team captain, looked at me for a moment, smiled at me, and said, `Cool.' That was it. One of the other girls, Sofie, patted me on the back and told me, `Who you want to love has nothing to do with your contributions to the team, you're still damn good and we accept you,' here she looked at the other girls, `Or at least we can keep our opinions about your private life to ourselves.'"
Sam's smile was a little hungry and I thought I saw her admiring Holly's firm muscles, "I'm happy for you Holly. I'm glad your teammates accepted you."
"I'm just happy none of them quit the team on the spot." Holly licked her lips and I wondered if there was some spark between her and Sam.
Lisa ran her arm along Holly's arm (I noticed her giving it a squeeze), "What's your next move?"
"The next time Mom brings up me not having a boyfriend I'm going to tell her. I think my financial aid is safe for now and I can access the money my grandparents saved up for me all on my own so now I know I can finish school. I'm going to try to move out of the dorm at the end of this semester."
I was happy for Holly, her mom had made her life miserable in so many ways and seeing Holly coming out as a strong, independent woman made me feel good.
Now Holly was blushing a little and she looked over at Sam and just blurted it out, "Sam, I'd love to wrestle you naked."
Oh wow! This was a something I had not expected but I was certainly ready to watch. Lisa was right there with me, she grabbed my pussy through me jeans; I'm sure she was getting wet too.
I got up and got two moving blankets from the clean pile (we spent a fair amount of time at the laundromat down the street washing them) and spread them on the floor. Sam and Holly were both stripping and seeing them both naked drove home to me that they were both real Amazons. Sam was at least six inches taller than Holly but Holly had amazing muscle definition. Both girls faced off, their hair tied back in ponytails; Lisa and I were naked on the couch fingering each other's pussy. Watching our two strong friends go at it was close enough to my fantasy of seeing actual professional wrestlers fighting naked and I was already close to an orgasm.
We were all shocked with Holly actually picked Sam up and slammed her down onto our makeshift mat. Holly rolled Sam onto her belly and grabbed under her chin, pulling Sam up into a camel clutch, her firm breasts quivering. Sam tried to get free but we could see Holly's firm muscles straining and Sam had to tap out. I didn't see Sam slap the floor, I was writhing on the floor in the grips of a mighty orgasm. I crawled over to Sam and grabbed her light brown hair, pushing her pretty face into my pussy. Lisa was fingering Sam's pussy from behind while kissing Holly at the same time. I was already having thoughts of Sam and Holly fighting Lee, that would be an Amazon lesbian sex battle, and of Holly and Carrie fucking each other. We finished with Holly and Sam sitting side by side on the couch kissing each other while Lisa licked Holly's pussy and I devoured Sam's pussy. It was a wonderful evening and it was the happiest I had ever seen Holly.
In mid-September Shelly invited us to ride with her and some other women to a motorcycle show in the town of Pontiac. We remembered Pontiac, we had passed through there with the band and I had been there once when I was a little girl to see the steam tractors. It had cooled off some, so we weren't roasting in our riding gear. Lisa now had a nice black leather jacket (a gift from Rita and Jan for her 20th birthday) and I had my Aunt Carla's old jacket. Shelly was a total biker-girl sex goddess with her black leather riding suit and her bright red hair (she did admit to dying it some to goose up the color). I was getting photos of the bikes and one advantage of being girls (and some of us being really cute) was that the owners would often let Lisa sit on the bike and pose, I just had to promise to send them prints of the photos. Shelly was almost orgasmically excited to see a 1948 Vincent Black Lighting, the same model Rollie Free rode in breaking the 150 mph record on the salt at Bonneville. I got many pictures of her on the bike, including one where she partially unzipped her suit to show she wasn't wearing anything under it. Rebecca loved that one, her comment to me (stolen from Richard Thompson) was, "Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme". Shelly was looking forward to some rough sex when they got home and we wished we could join them.
It was on the morning of the first of October I got a call from a guy in the QSC. He worked for the campus newspaper and he was going to be interviewing Bruce Springsteen and the band prior to the concert. The photographer who was supposed to accompany him had gotten sick and he, remembering my photos of Lisa and our friends, thought I would make a decent substitute; he would get film for me, I just needed to meet him at the student center. He was O.K. with me bringing Lisa and Amber along and so after my last class I went to get Lisa. We picked up Amber but didn't tell her what was going on. As you might guess Dear Reader, when we went backstage and she came face to face with the entire E Street band she began to babble as badly as I had when I met Joan Jett at the state fair when I was 15. Bruce was wonderfully gracious to us and I got lots of photos, even one of Amber with Bruce and another one with her true idol, Clarence Clemons. He towered over all us girls, they didn't call him The Big Man for nothing.
The concert was amazing, opening with "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (which I loved) and it lasted several hours, Springsteen has always put on a great show. Amber was practically giddy the entire time, singing along with every song.
Back at the apartment we practically tore each other's clothes off. Amber had her sights set on me and, to my great delight, she challenged me to a catfight; Lisa sat on the couch fingering her pussy, she enjoyed watching me fight more than she liked actually participating. I lunged at Amber, going right for her long, black hair and not holding back. Pulling her nude body backward I drove my fist into her stretched-out belly before grabbing the black hair of her bush. She grabbed at my tits, twisting my nipples; I got knocked back when she drove her knee up into my belly. I managed to sweep her legs out from under her and I dropped my big, naked body down on top of her. We struggled on the floor, both of us leaking juice from our pussys. I got on top of her, bouncing my big ass on her belly, my hand covering her mouth and nose. The lack of air resulting in her tapping out quickly. I rubbed my wet pussy into Amber's lovely face, climaxing loudly and violently which resulted in Amber getting nailed by my heel right into her pussy, she was in the grips of her own powerful orgasm and didn't seem to notice.
Lisa had our dildo ready to go and went to work on her old roommates' sexy body, fucking her pussy and ass without mercy until Amber collapsed into a quivering heap. Once she had caught her breath I got between Amber's brown legs and teased her wet cunt with my tongue until she was seized by yet another wonderful, leg-shaking orgasm. We would have loved for Amber to spend the night but she needed to get home to be ready for class in the morning.
I once heard that if everything seems to be going well that only means you don't know what the hell is going on. It was in early October when that statement hit me right between the eyes. My project management class was just getting over and I was grabbing my stuff to head home when my phone rang; this freaked me out because the Caller ID wasn't for anyone I knew.
"Hello?"
"Is this Cindy?"
"Yeah, who is this?"
"This is Bella, I'm a friend of Cherie's. We stood next to each other at her wedding."
"O.K., I remember now." Based on the tone of Bella's voice I knew this wasn't a social call so I got right to the point, "What's wrong?"
"Cherie started bleeding at work today. The paramedics are loading her into the ambulance now. I've been trying to reach her family and you were the first person to answer the phone."
I thought I was going to cry, puke, and piss myself all at the same time. My voice was shaking, "Is it the baby?"
I could tell Bella was crying, "Yes, I think it is. Can you call your family and let them know? I'll keep trying to reach Rob, he's at a conference in Las Vegas right now."
"I'll do that; and Lisa and I will come up tonight. Can you tell Cherie we will be there as soon as we can?"
"I'll try Cindy."
"O.K. call me if anything changes."
The next hour was a whirlwind. I called Mom, I could tell she just fell to the floor right there in the middle of her office, sobbing; she recovered enough to tell me that she would tell Dad and Janet. I called Granddad, who also started crying (that set me to crying again too) and Aunt Carla. Carla told me she would call Ginny and Paula and that she and Granddad would come to Rockford as well as soon as they could.
I grabbed some clothes from the apartment for me and Lisa plus the necessary things like toothbrushes. I saw Pru on my way back down to the Jeep and I told her what was going on; she promised to keep an eye on our apartment and my bike. She gave me a big hug and I did make a mess of her Clash t-shirt; she held on to me anyway, rubbing my back.
I was waiting at the door when Lisa's acting class got out. I watched her turn pale when she saw my face; she knew something was wrong, badly wrong.
"What is it babe?"
"I got a call from Cherie's friend Bella; the paramedics are taking her to the hospital."
Lisa covered her mouth with her hands (this time it wasn't cute) and voice was very quiet, "Is it the baby?"
"They think so." Lisa collapsed against me, sobbing, and I was all but wailing myself.
Lisa's friend Abigail saw us and came over to see what was wrong. I told her and now her pretty brown eyes were filled with tears too.
"Is there anything I can do?"
Lisa looked at her, "Can you tell Dr. Mitchell I won't be in class tomorrow, you can tell her why too."
"I will. I'll asked Grandfather to add Cherie to our prayer list on Sunday." That small gesture meant a lot to Lisa, she gave Abigail a tight hug.
Abigail hugged me too, her hug got a lot tighter when I managed to whisper between sobs, "I was really looking forward to being an aunt you know."
"I know that you will be a wonderful aunt someday," Abigail kissed me on the cheek, which felt very nice.
I drove up the highway to Rockford at a higher than legal speed. We didn't talk much, whenever we tried we just started to cry again. Lisa did call the rector of her church, he assured her Cherie and Rob (as well as the rest of the family) would be on the prayer list on Sunday. That gave Lisa a little more peace and that helped me stay centered too.
We got to the hospital and, after telling the duty nurse who I was (and letting her believe that Lisa was my sister) we got to go back and see Cherie. She looked awful. We just sat there, each of us holding one of her hands. We didn't talk about the obvious, there would be time for that later. While we were sitting there waiting for the doctor to return Cherie stopped talking and her eyes fluttered and rolled back in her head. Looking down at the bed I saw a growing bloodstain on the sheets and at that moment it sounded as though all the machines in her room began to beep all at once. Several nurses hurried in and we got out of their way, holding each other tight. The team wheeled her out, pretty much running. We just stood there, holding on to each other; all we knew was something really bad was happening. A young nurse, she looked to be about our age, came in and gave us both a hug.
"They're taking your sister-in-law to surgery, they have to stop the bleeding and they need to do that fast."
My voice was a whisper, "The baby?"
There were tears on the nurse's pretty face, and she just shook her head. That broke it for me; I just collapsed down to my knees, moaning over and over, "I know I would have made a good aunt." Lisa told me later it was one of the most heartbreaking things that she had ever seen. The nurse, her name was Kim, helped me to my feet and led us to the surgical waiting room and she brought us some water too.
We were sitting there when Granddad and Aunt Carla came in. We slid apart and Grandad say between us, hugging us both. About an hour later Mom and Dad came in, they looked truly awful. We all just sat there, no one saying anything. I had never wanted my bottle of rum so much in all of my short life.
It seemed like we had been there for days, even though it had only been about four hours, when the surgeon finally came out. We all stood up; Carla had it together a bit better than the rest of us so she took the lead. The doctor told us they had stopped the bleeding and that Cherie should be O.K. Carla asked the big question that we all were thinking and when he told us that she had lost the baby me, Lisa, and Mom dissolved back into tears again. He told us we would be able to see Cherie in about an hour or two, once she woke up fully. Dad lead everyone down to the cafeteria to get something to eat but as we were going Lisa saw the sign pointing to the chapel, and so she pulled me that way.
As we were making our way through the endless corridors I noticed a short woman in black coming toward us. I guess it was obvious to her that we were emotional wrecks; she introduced herself as the one of the hospital chaplains and told us she was a deacon in the Episcopal church. She led us into the chapel and sat us down on one of the pews, handing each of us a box of tissues (she was a quite perceptive woman). We just sat there for a while and after some time had passed, she and Lisa knelt and prayed for a while. I knelt as well but I didn't know what to say. Deacon Laurel (that was her name) put her hand on my back and assured me quietly that was O.K., "He hears you none the less." When we left the chapel Lisa was calmer, and that went a long way toward anchoring me.
Dad had helped Rob find a flight home from Las Vegas, he would arrive at O'Hare early in the morning and the plan was for me and Lisa to go get him while Mom and Dad stayed with Cherie. After they got to see her Carla and Granddad went back to his house in Aurora. Lisa and I then went into her room after Carla and Granddad left (they would only let two of us in at a time); Cherie locked her blue eyes on us and told us firmly "We aren't giving up. You girls will get your chance to be the cool queer aunts." We tried, unsuccessfully, not to start crying again.
We left very early in the morning to get to O'Hare to pick up Rob, we dropped him off at the hospital and went to their house to feed the cats and manage all the phone calls and visitors. Lisa, because she needed to do something, kept track of who came by the house in a notebook. There were people from Cherie's and Rob's offices, folks from their motorcycle club, and many of their friends. I was particularly moved when Elliot, their neighbor, along with Reverend Dan (who had officiated at their wedding) pulled up in a Rockford fire truck. I started to cry again when Elliot told me that I had inspired Cherie to take up cooking and she often brought food to the firehouse (it was just two blocks away). Weepy Lesbian Girl was at center stage now. It was also noted by lots of people that there was still no contact from Cherie's family (Rob had called them), that made me quite angry when I thought about it for very long.
Cherie got to come home on Sunday and I made spaghetti for everyone. I made a lot but Mom, being Mom, was still worried we would not have enough. We had enough for three times as many people and so the firehouse crew got to have spaghetti too. Lisa and I went back home Sunday night, it was hard to think about life just going on with the people around us not knowing our pain and grief, but that it one of the hard truths you learn as you become an adult.
Cherie was at home for several weeks recovering and she called us pretty often just to have someone to talk to. She was really moved by the number of cards she received and these stories brought out Weepy Lesbian Girl every time. We went up to visit her and Rob before she went back to work and she showed us the laundry basket filled with cards that had arrived. There was one from the staff at Uncle Enzo's (the head shop), one from the girls at the flower shop downstairs, one from my union local, a very nice card from the students in Lisa's music theory class, one from the staff at the community theater where Lisa had been in the cast for 1776, lots from people at Lisa's church and also quite a few from Abigail's church. Then there were the two that completely broke us: one from the children's choir at the church and one from Lisa's beginning dance class hoping that "Miss Lisa's sister felt better soon." We were collectively a sloppy mess.
Cherie's miscarriage was devastating to my whole family but I think (apart from Cherie and Rob obviously) it hit me and my grandfather the hardest. Every year on that day Lisa takes me to church, sometimes Cherie joins us, as we remember the niece (or nephew) that we never got to meet. It still hurts. I love hearing from you (caatingcindy@yahoo.com) and please consider a donation to Nifty (https://donate.nifty.org)