Once inside, I was sorry I hadn’t visited this place sooner. This place had all sorts of outlandish clothes for just about every occasion, from safari hats (“pith helmets”) to thickly insulated parkas.
I found myself instantly drawn to the aviator section, and was admiring a pilot’s helmet with goggles that looked like it came straight out of World War I. The sign said it was made from genuine calf’s leather.
As I attempted to take the helmet into my hands for a closer look, Kristen stopped me.
“That might be fun, Oogie, but I came here for a purpose.” Kristen had a dark brown hat in her hand. “Here, try this.”
I looked at the hat with dismay. It looked a bit like something that would be worn by the depression-era thugs that Chicago was famous for. Upon further urging by Kristen, I put it on. It was very tight.
“Hmm, let’s try a quarter inch wider.”
Lynette fetched another hat that looked identical.
I put on the second hat, and it fit much nicer.
Both Lynette and Kristen shook their heads when they looked at me with the hat on. “Nope, definitely not a fedora.”
The two girls had me try on more than a few hats. The derby looked too much like Lou Costello, the cowboy hat made me look like I was a kid playing dress up, and a top hat made me look like a magician. I liked the stetson, but both Kristen and Lynette didn’t like it. Finally, the two girls found another hat that appealed to me. It was black and, as soon as I put it on, I looked in the mirror and smiled.
“Hey! I like this one!”
Kristen sighed. “It figures. He likes the porkpie.”
The “porkpie” was a darker and smaller hat, and had a folded ring around the top of the hat. The material was very soft.
Lynette gave me a closer look. “With a mustache, he’d look like a jazz musician.”
Actually, I think that’s what I liked about this particular hat!
“Is this your present, dearest?” I asked my Goddess.
“Do you really like it? We can buy a couple and it could be like, your trademark.”
I didn’t think I could walk around the school wearing this hat, but it might make in impression during jazz band.
“Yes. This whole place is great! Look at those hats over there with the corks on the brim!”
“Those are brush hats,” Kristen said, smiling. “The corks are to keep the mosquitoes and other bugs from landing on your face.”
“Cool! Let’s get that one!”
Kristen shook her head. “Oogie’s right. There are worse hats than the porkpie!”
We spent about an hour in the store, although we only purchased a couple of the porkpie hats.
From the mall, it was a quick ride to Vaughn’s. Since we already had supper, I was curious until the manager met us. “Kristen, Lynette, and Jim! We’ve been expecting you!”
In the dining room was a larger table than our normal one. My parents and Merry were already sitting there.
As soon as we got to the table, a waitress came out with a birthday cake, and the entire staff starting singing the birthday song. They were quickly accompanied by nearly the entire dining room!
I blew out the candles, and the cake was cut.
I gave all the females at the table a kiss and a hug. The cake was devil’s food with dark chocolate icing. Even Merry had a slice—and this was the first time since she decided to become a cheerleader that I ever saw her eat dessert!
The waitress brought us some iced teas, and we sat around the restaurant, gossiping with my family.
“How does it feel to be seventeen?” Merry asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t feel that much older, Shortcake.”
“I remember when you were first learning the piano,” Mom said.
I sighed. My mother sometimes waxed nostalgic. I tried to deflect this. “Speaking of the piano, Mom… I know you love Chopin, right?”
My mother smiled a bit. “Yes. He’s one of my favorite composers.”
“Do you remember Amy Grant, the girl who played the piano in the jazz band last year?”
My mother nodded. “Cute girl,” she said. “She seemed very shy when we went to see you after the Christmas performance.”
“She’s going to be featured doing an adaptation of Chopin’s Prelude in C Minor during the talent show in a few weeks.”
“Really?”
“She loves classical music, but we’re also teaching her jazz and rock riffs. Roy Fennel will be accompanying her.”
Merry smiled at this.
My mother looked confused. “Isn’t Roy a singer?”
“He’s in the chorus,” I answered. “He’s pretty talented, musically. I taught him to read music back in junior high. Don’t you remember?”
Mom nodded. “He wasn’t that good on the piano back then. Has he improved?”
“Why don’t you tell me after the show?”
It was all that Merry could do not to laugh at my mother’s confusion. Somehow, Mom thought that Roy would be doing a piano duet with Amy, but I had said nothing of the sort.
That night, after Kristen and Lynette went to bed, I went down to my studio ostensibly to play and record, but in reality to consider my options with Sherry.
I needed to somehow get rid of Sherry’s need for me to take her virginity. At the same time, I didn’t really want to make love with Sherry. After all, she still might have a crush on me. I didn’t feel any romantic attraction toward her, and I knew that going to bed with Sherry would just be taking advantage of her.
Sherry was a real friend to Kristen and me, as well as to Lynette. I owed her something for that loyalty, even if it didn’t mean taking her to bed.
I felt that I was indirectly responsible for Sherry’s situation. I didn’t make the wish that currently had her bound to me, but I was the person who destroyed Tim Hawking’s tickets, which was apparently why I was now the target of her need.
Earlier that afternoon, I had given up any thought of using the tickets to fix Sherry’s problem. After all, one ticket couldn’t cancel the effects of another one.
Actually, I reasoned, that might not be the case!
I was able to keep Sherry from having to orally service me daily until my birthday by extending the wish so that playing with herself would achieve the same end. That had the effect of canceling her original compulsion.
I wished that I had talked more to Sherry earlier. She said she felt it bad, but I never asked her what she was feeling. Was it the need to fuck me, or the need to blow me?
The idea of extending a wish rather than canceling it came from my idea of having Kristen eat a chocolate covered peanut instead of having to blow me. Now that I was thinking about it, Kristen had a difficult time staying away from me for very long; she could stave off her need with the confection, but at the same time, her need for me seemed to continue to build up over time. Almost every time that Kristen and I would make love, her sucking my cock would be a part of it.
Was this what Sherry was feeling earlier? If so, then any idea of extending her need to fuck me would only work for so long until her need for me to do so would overpower anything else within her. I might turn Sherry into a walking time bomb!
Still, something inside me told me that I might be able to fix Sherry’s problem somehow with the tickets.
The only question was how.
More than a few ideas came into my head, but all of them had problems. I needed to find one that would satisfy Sherry’s needs, but be fair to her emotions at the same time.
I woke up after three thirty in the morning when I fell off the piano bench. I didn’t realize that I fell asleep, and I realized that at this hour, there was nothing else I could do.