Buzz's voice was even more strident than usual, no doubt because of the amount of bourbon he had consumed. My sister Sandie and I could hear him loud and clear through the thin walls.
His conversation with his female companion was becoming more and more sexually explicit. "Soon as you finish that drink girl, you can suck me until I get really hard then I'll fuck your brains out."
The woman's giggle sounded tipsy too. "Whoa Mr Cool Cat, do you reckon you're up to it?"
"Oh I'm bloody well up to it alright," he bragged, "you'll be walking with crutches for a week!"
Sandie looked at me with tears in her eyes and pressed her hands to her ears. "Steve, I can't stand it. I can hear them almost as loud in your room as I could in mine."
"Don't let it bother you so much Sis," I tried to calm her, "we'll turn the TV on and drown them out."
We sat on the single bed and watched mindless infomercial and reality programs. Sandie looked delectable in a pink tank-top and white cotton panties. Nothing under the top; I could see the shape of her nipples and her big tits swayed whenever she moved. With me in just my boxers I had trouble concealing the partial boner that swaying induced. The thought of what was happening in the next room didn't help matters either.
Way after midnight I clicked the remote to turn the TV off and yawned. "Alright Sis, it's all quiet now. You can go back to your own room."
"No way Steven," she shook her head, "I'm not going back there. I'm staying right here in your room."
"Then I'll sleep in your room." I suggested.
"No! I don't want to be alone." Sandie said. "I know it's silly, but I'm frightened. Things are not how they're meant to be."
* * * * * *
About two hours before we'd arrived at an hotel in a little country town. It was after eleven at night and the publican was grumpy about our late arrival.
"Two singles and a double, that's all I've got left," he snapped. "Take it or leave it."
"Keep your shirt on." Grandpa Buzz fired back. "We'll take'em. Oh, and I'll have a bottle of Jack Daniels too."
The publican looked like he was about to argue, but he thought better of it.
"Heads you two kids get the double room, tails it's Julie, and me." Buzz called, spinning the coin high as we stood in the passageway outside the rooms. His erection made a sizable bulge, easy for me to see in his tight jeans.
Tails it was, as I knew it would be. Grandpa Buzz could make what appeared to be an honest coin toss turn out any way he wanted it to.
"Probably for the best anyway," the lecherous old rogue said, managing to keep a straight face. "You young'uns will get some badly needed rest with a room each."
I bit my tongue and started moving my bag and our guitars into the single room I had 'won' in the toss. I wouldn't have minded sharing the double bed with sexy looking MILF Julie, though that was never on offer. And the idea of sleeping in the same bed as my pretty sister was exciting too, since it supposedly was an option, but that was never going to happen either, with Buzz doing the coin toss. Sandie, head down and cheeks pink, didn't look at anyone. She hurriedly grabbed her overnight bag and rushed into her single room, which was next to Buzz and Julie's double.
My room was down the hallway, around a corner. I showered then made a cup of tea, then wearing only my boxers, I sat at the tiny desk-come-table to unwind while I contemplated the way the unexpected situation had evolved.
* * * * * *
Two days previously Grandpa Buzz, Sandie and I had set off from Melbourne. Buzz had driven us the 1000 km (600 miles) to the Western District Country Music Festival in his Toyota Land Cruiser. That sort of thing was a regular part of our lives and we were fortunate to have a professional musician like Grandpa Buzz mentor us from a very young age. Early in his career, he had made a name for himself and sired a musical dynasty, then he had a major falling out with most of his progeny, but I don't know what caused that rift. I've heard whispers that we have cousins and such who are fairly big in the Australian Country Music scene, but I have no idea who they are and the subject is strictly off-limits.
Soon after our arrival at the festival, we three had, by previous arrangement, played a set on the main stage there, plus a couple of walk-up gigs in local clubs. (A walk-up gig is an impromptu concert where a lot of artists perform a couple of songs each.) I have to say that nineteen-year-old Sandie was the star of our little trio. The crowd loved her. She was a pretty girl with reddish hair the colour of our Aussie desert sand, hence her nickname. In her teen years she had developed a curvy body and an amazing singing voice. Her rhythm guitar work was none too shabby either. I'm a year her junior, played bass and sang some harmonies. Grandpa Buzz was a whiz on lead guitar and was also our coach and manager.
All that part was normal; what differed on this occasion was that backstage at one of the walk-ups, Buzz initiated an animated conversation with a hippie-type woman folk-singer I'd never seen before. Her grumpy guitarist-partner got jealous and had elected to punish her by refusing to play for her, so Buzz took his place on stage. She had a great voice and Buzz put his heart and soul into his accompaniment. They received a standing ovation and I got the impression that Sandie was a jealous as well. Later, while we were watching the rest of the concert, the woman had a fight with her small-minded man and he drove off, leaving her bruised-cheeked and stranded. Sandie and I saw her go crying to Buzz. He hugged her, seated her at a vacant table and bought her a drink.
Several drinks later, Buzz and the woman came arm-in-arm to the table where Sandie and I sat.
Looking uncharacteristically embarrassed he made stumbling introductions. "Sandie, Steven, Julie here is in desperate need of a lift back to Melbourne, and I thought, er, seeing that we have, ah, a connection..."
"Backing her for two songs is not much of a connection." Sandie interrupted peevishly. "We don't know her from a bar of soap."
Buzz flushed. "You say that, but I..."
"There won't be enough room with all our..." I butted in, keen to support Sandie.
"Shut your mouths! Both of you!" Grandpa Buzz shouted, cutting me off. "I don't owe you any explanations! It's my say-so! She's coming with us! End of fuckin' story!"
We set off on the first leg of our journey home, Sandie and me silently resentful in the back seat, Buzz and Julie in the front, chatting quietly about performers and venues, some I'd heard of, some not.
So that's how we four ended up at the hotel.
* * * * *
