Epilogue 03

Author's note:

This is the first of two continuations of a very long story. It won't make sense to you if you haven't read all the rest. (I'm sorry, but the numbering of the epilogues is a little confusing. The part labeled "Epilogue 1" contained two sections of epilogue, and the part labeled "Epilogue 4" will as well.)

This was written for my own enjoyment only, with no thought of releasing it to others. After it grew and I thought about it some more, I changed my mind.

If you didn't like the previous parts, you're almost certain not to like this. In particular, if what you want from a story is detailed descriptions of sexual acts, you may as well just go on to something else.

Thank you to those few who bothered to read the earlier parts, especially those who sent me feedback encouraging me.

EPILOGUE 3: Not too long after

Shortly before Brian and Lynda got engaged, Scott received phone calls asking him to come back and play where they had during the honeymoon. Jim's invitation specifically included Martha. And the dance was on a Saturday, but Jim invited them to come Friday and stay both nights. After checking the calendar and asking Martha whether this would be too much stress—the dance was seven weeks ahead—he enthusiastically agreed.

He was honored but very embarrassed when he encountered some of the publicity. Even their own local paper had a little story about it, and he found a publicity poster on the internet. He was being given star billing. There was a photo of him playing with the band, and a closeup of him playing—obviously cropped from another of the whole band. The poster called it a "return engagement."

So he and Martha had everything ready, and they left work in the middle of the afternoon, took their suitcases and Scott's musical gear, and arrived at Jim's somewhat before dinner time. Jim wasn't even home from work yet. His wife, Darla, greeted them very warmly. Scott had seen her at the earlier dance, but hadn't connected her with Jim. He was pretty sure she'd always been dancing in another set, so that he hadn't ever actually interacted with her. It turned out that she and Martha had met during the dance, and then spent some time talking during the break, and hit it off immediately. Darla got them settled, not that much was needed, and went back to dinner preparations. Martha jumped in to help. Scott sat and took part in the conversation, helping out just a little from time to time. Mostly the women talked, but Scott did bring up the way the publicity made him sound like a big star.

"We really should wait until Jim's home to talk much about it," Darla told him. "But I think pretty much everyone who was there that night knows why they did it that way. The band sounded way, way better than usual that night. It was like you set them on fire. People are still talking about it."

Martha said, "Scott, I don't know this band, except that one night, but I've never heard you sound that good, any other time. Really."

They talked about lots of other things. At one point Darla said, "I know you'll be wanting to get back home Sunday, but we'd love to have you come to church with us and have lunch, if that would be OK."

Martha told her, "That would be wonderful. We were going to have to ask you about churches around, anyway." She mentioned where they'd gone the Sunday when they were there for their honeymoon, saying that it was fine but that they hadn't known what would work best this time.

And Scott said, a bit later, "I should probably warn you that Martha's pregnant." He had to stop talking for a while, while Darla dropped everything to hug her and offer excited congratulations. The women continued talking about this for a while as dinner preparations continued. Scott continued, "She hasn't had trouble with nausea so far, but I thought you ought to be aware of that possibility. And, well, she's usually the calm one, but lately she tends to get excited pretty easily. We have a very close friend who's always emotional, she cries at most anything, happy or sad, and Martha's still nothing like that, but we're both pretty excited. Actually, she's probably no worse than I am myself, most of the time."

Very soon after this point, Jim arrived home. After greetings and some general discussion, he sat down with Scott to go over the proposed set list, mostly to make sure Scott knew the tunes, but also to give him a chance to think about anything special he might want to try on them. It turned out that the whole band was planning to come over the next morning to rehearse, as they had a lot of ideas they wanted to try with Scott.

They sat down at the table a very few minutes later, when Darla told them dinner was ready. Jim prayed and they passed the food around and talked as they ate. Scott eventually did bring up the issue of the publicity poster. Jim confirmed what Darla had said. "Maybe you didn't hear it, but if you always sound that good I hope you're getting paid pretty well at home. We like to think we're pretty good—" Darla chimed in, "They are!" "—but we all heard the difference, and we sure heard about it from the dancers afterward. They offered us a lot more money for tomorrow if we'd get you back, and this time it's all going to you. I mean, they offered us more, and tomorrow is when we arranged with you. But people are still talking about that dance. Especially 'Long-Tailed Tabby Stalkin' Through the Tall Grass', of course, but it wasn't just that one tune, not at all." After a moment, he added, "Part of it was that you pumped us up, too. We played better than usual even when you were down dancing. At any rate, we're all looking forward to tomorrow night."

"I hope I don't let you all down, then. I wasn't aware of playing any better than usual, but when we were talking with Darla earlier, Martha said I did. Maybe it was being on our honeymoon. But we'll see what happens, I guess.

"As far as pay, back home I mean, I usually get whatever the regular band folks kick in for me. They're trying to make part of their living off it, and they have to get together and practice regularly, all that stuff. I just play for fun, and they're kind enough to ask me to sit in whenever I come to dance. Once in a while I fill in when someone can't make it, and then I get whatever the normal share is, of course. But I'm really happy to play once in a while when I can and when I feel like it, and not to have the responsibility of being a regular in a band."

Around 10:30 Saturday morning, the band met in Jim and Darla's living room. Scott found that they did have a lot of ideas for doing things with tunes, most of which he liked a lot. He had a few ideas of his own. For the first tune, since they'd billed him as the star of the show, he suggested a different start, featuring him. He gave four potatoes, and began playing, with piano and bass just hitting and holding chords on the first beats of the phrases, with pickups where appropriate, through the first A part, then block chords each beat and the fiddle adding on the second A, and then with the B part normal rhythm with the accented off-beats. On the B part, Scott also switched to playing harmony against Duane's fiddle, more or less paralleling, first lower, then higher. They ran through it twice to make sure everyone could pick up the rhythm at the start just from Scott, and everyone thought it would kick thing off with a bang. Simple and easy, well suited to the specific tune.

It turned out that Bill, the piano player, also played harmonica and whistle. Scott asked whether anyone had a guitar, and Jim did. So for a couple of tunes, Scott played guitar with Jim's bass as the rhythm section. Duane got on his phone and arranged for someone to bring a little bit better guitar that evening, one that could plug in directly.

They tried out a few more ideas, and everyone seemed satisfied. Darla fed them all lunch, and Duane and Bill left. Martha went to lie down for an hour, and Scott sat and just talked with Jim and Darla, and then read their newspaper and lay down for a few minutes himself. They had an early supper and all headed off to the dance.

When Martha tried to pay her admission, the woman taking money said, "You're Scott's wife, right? You don't pay. It's wonderful that you're here." This sometimes happened at home, too, when Scott was playing. But she wasn't ready for the number of people who came up to her to tell her how glad they were that she and Scott had been able to come.

The band warmed up and did sound checks with different configurations. Whoever brought the guitar had also thoughtfully provided a stand for it, which Scott just hadn't considered. When he played guitar, he was used to bringing his own stand unless he knew the venue had one sitting around.

Then there was a beginner lesson time. Martha helped with this. Scott remembered that she had done that the other time, as well. He fondly remembered the first time he'd taken her and Lynda to a contradance, when they'd been early enough—because he was playing with the band—that they'd gotten some extra instruction time. Now she was helping teach beginners.

As it got closer to the start of the dance, he was startled to see that the hall was packed, with too many people to all dance at once. They squeezed the sets down a little, but there were still almost a dozen people standing around watching. He even saw a few dancers from his own town.

The caller looked at the band, and then said, "OK, now, with the music," and Scott started in.

He paid close attention to the dancers as the evening went on. Again, it seemed to him that this band was unusually good to play with, but that he himself wasn't doing anything much beyond his usual. But the dancers were clearly having an unusually good time. Eventually, the band played a waltz as the break began, and then he went off for snacks himself.

Usually, at dance breaks Scott said hi to many dancers he knew, getting a lot of compliments on his own playing and the band's music, but the compliments sounded a little routine. Here, people he didn't know kept coming up to him and gushing a little. Now, this band was very good, and a lot of fun to play with, but he really didn't feel that he was playing all that well. But, obviously, something was clicking. He made a mental note to ask some of the dancers who were from his town about it, people whom he knew and who heard him play all the time, sometime. He did wonder why they'd driven an hour or two for this dance. He would have plenty of chances to ask Martha about his playing as well, of course.

He grabbed some snacks and went to sit with Martha and Darla. Martha had saved him a chair. The room was really packed. Darla introduced him to several other dancers who were there, and they all told him what a wonderful time they were having. Many of the comments involved the tunes the band had worked on that morning, special twists to add excitement, but a lot were more general, and a lot also covered tunes he wasn't aware of doing anything special for. He was happy to make his excuses and head off, first to the bathroom, by the snack tables to grab a few more bites, and then back to adjust his tuning and prepare for the rest of the evening.

After another waltz to get the dancers back upstairs and onto the floor, they played a set ending with "Long-Tailed Tabby Stalkin' Through the Tall Grass", played much as it had been the time before, and the dancers' reaction was as enthusiastic if not more so. The caller introduced the band, naming each member, and saying a bit extra about Scott. He reminded those who had been there that Scott's previous appearance had been impromptu, when he'd been in town on his honeymoon, and then introduced Martha. She got her own set of cheers and applause. When the caller mentioned that this would likely be Scott's last chance to come that far for a while, because they were expecting, the applause and cheers were even more enthusiastic.

Martha's eyes were sparkling and her face was radiant, and she asked for the mic. She said what a memorable experience the previous occasion had been, kind of crowning a wonderful week. There were cheers and comments at that. She said how much she was enjoying that evening, too. She thanked the band for inviting Scott, saying "dragooning" might be a better description, and saying what a joy playing with this band was for him. She thanked Jim and Darla for putting them up, too. Their spare room didn't have amenities to compare with the resort's honeymoon suite, she said, but the welcome they were receiving was far greater. She thanked everyone for the welcome she and Scott were receiving. She was definitely dripping a few tears as she handed the mic back.

Some people had left with the break, but the hall was still full, even crowded. Scott was pretty surprised, looking out over the dancers as they prepared to dance again.

The next dance was one where Bill played whistle, lead and harmony of the sort Scott had been doing on mandolin, and Scott played guitar. Bill did a super job, as he had on a couple of sets before the break. Scott realized that this was kind of a special opportunity, since the band normally wouldn't want to be without the piano for very many sets. He knew they wanted to feature him, but Bill was good enough that he should get more chances at the spotlight. Bill's piano work was also outstanding, but where a listener might recognize that, dancers were mostly responding to the rhythm and melody.

He'd arranged with the band and with Martha to dance the next one, so he made his way down to the floor. It was somewhat unusual in contemporary terms, being proper—meaning only that it began with lines of men and of women, facing their partners across the set. This had once been the norm, but nowadays it's much more common for every other couple to switch, so that the lines alternate man-woman-man-woman. Scott tended to prefer the older format. He hadn't been familiar with this dance, and hadn't really looked at the caller's notes which Duane had brought out when they rehearsed, so it was pure chance that he was dancing on a proper dance. As he and Martha progressed down the set, a couple of the times they swung, he pushed them around a bit faster, so as to go around an extra time or two in the allotted interval. He might have done it more, but he reflected that while Martha hadn't suffered so far from morning sickness, it probably wasn't wise to add extra risk of nausea.

Since he was being paid, and in fact better paid than he'd ever been before, and since the band was only a trio, Scott didn't feel he could take time off to dance more than once. Besides, much as he enjoyed contradancing, playing was even more of a joy. He and Duane traded off on melody several times. Duane's approach to harmony was a little different from his, and he loved hearing him do it.

For the last contra of the evening, Duane asked him to do what they'd done for the opener, leading off with minimalist backup, and adding more notes—and more intensity—as the tune went along. They hadn't rehearsed it that way, but it seemed like a good tune for this, so that's how they did it. Then, at the end of the set, Scott somehow managed to communicate with Jim and Bill, and they did the same on that tune, the next to the last time through. On the second B part they just hit the chords and cut for the first four measures, leaving Duane playing by himself each time, then on the last four measures hitting just the downbeats, harder and harder. They really drove the rhythm on the last time through. They all cut off short at the end, and after a heartbeat or two the dancers just exploded. Scott wished he'd thought of this during the rehearsal—he had really been worried about doing this off the cuff with no prior discussion at all—but it couldn't have gone better if they had rehearsed it.

The final waltz was something of an anticlimax, but maybe a third of the dancers waltzed to it.

Scott had been a little surprised that Jim's and Darla's house had a second bathroom, but he was glad of it in the morning. There was no need to get to church extra early, but they were all going for Sunday School, so morning still felt like it was waiting to pounce on them too early. Martha took a shower before bed, so she was dressed and ready to help Darla get breakfast while Scott showered and shaved. Jim wore a beard, and whatever trimming he did was done some other time when he wasn't in a hurry. They did get to church in good time, in any case. Scott was somewhat surprised to find that a few other people in Jim and Darla's class had been at the dance, so their reputation preceded them.

They enjoyed the service. The music wasn't really to Scott's taste, but he was used to that, and it was a luxury for him to be able to give undivided attention to what he was singing. The sermon was expository and strong, with sharply pointed application. Much as he appreciated and approved of Pastor Bob's preaching, by now Scott knew his main themes, so hearing another pastor's preaching was a blessing in itself.

Darla fed them a simple lunch, and they talked as they ate, not feeling hurried. At one point, Martha said, "Normally, after you've made us so much at home all weekend, I'd urge you to come and stay with us if you have any reason to be over our way. I'd—we both would love to have you, but you know we're heading into new territory, for us, and I don't know what we'll be able to manage, or when. But if you are heading our way, please, really, do at least call and see whether we can put you up. We enjoyed the dance tremendously—Scott will be walking on air for a week at least!—but being your guests has been even better." She brought out a loaf of homemade banana bread, and said, "I hope you'll enjoy this and think of us. If I'd known you better beforehand, I would have added something spiritual as well. But this is to say thank you, anyway." She was a bit choked up, by the end. But, again, pregnancy seemed to be having this effect on Martha.

Scott put in, "Don't hold your breath, but we may be able to get you all to come and play for a dance sometime. We'd need to cover some of your costs, beyond normal pay. I'm sure people could be found to put you all up, so that motel bills and restaurant food wouldn't come into it. I'll sure talk to some people, but I doubt that would go anywhere. But a number of regular dancers from our area were here, and I saw their reactions last night. I don't think I'll have any problem getting them to put in some strong words, too. I don't know whether they just sometimes dance here, or have connections with people here, or saw that notice in our paper and decided to come, but they were whistling and stomping with everyone else at the end, there."

They did get off well before mid-afternoon. As they drove, they discussed the dance and the band. Scott said, "They really are good. And if they were a quartet they'd have more depth, so I was a good fit. I could play backup and give Bill a chance to strut on whistle, and he really is good on harmonica too, and on mandolin I could fancy things up but also give Duane a chance to really cut loose just by taking the melody. But I'm sure there are plenty of folks right around here who could do all that. I'm thankful that they asked me, and paid us, but they really don't need me."

Martha said, "Scott! If I didn't know you so well, I really would think you were playing dumb. I do know you aren't willing to do that." Scott started to interrupt, and she just cut him off. "Yes, you can do it—for about one minute, just to tease someone, and even though you try to keep a straight face you can't keep that goofy grin off of you. That's different. You're too uncomfortable being dishonest, even a little, and it's one of the bazillion reasons I love you so much. But in this case, it means you really are

being

dumb! I was there. I've never heard you play so well, yourself. I can only think that back home you're too comfortable knowing how you all do everything. Yes, you improvise, but in predictable ways. Here, you tried whatever you happened to think of, and it almost always worked, and usually way beyond anything predictable. And it inspired the band to go beyond their usual limits, too, both times you've played with them.