The two women sat out on the front, feeling the soft breezes help chill them out as a wonderful feeling of achievement coursed through them, as if they were coming down off a lysergic acid trip without the chemicals. Normally, they would watch the sun settling down in its usual splendour of fiery colours shining in through the window. This time, heightened sensibilities demanded that they be out there with nature, watching the view below them .They looked down on the wide expanse of beach at high tide as the waves rolled in. Endlessly wide bars of golden red moved in from the ocean, edged with lines of black and ended their life with a sustained soothing sound that died away on the perfumed winds. An overpowering feeling of relief at the way their day had ended coloured their feelings.

"Hey Annabelle," Simone asked urgently, her soft voice edged with a hard touch of unbearable excitement."Pass me that writing pad of yours so I can write what I'm feeling. An idea's just hitting me."

Silently, Annabelle passed her the pad she'd been doodling on. Nothing had come to her mind so she thought that her lover's ideas unchained might be interesting. Simone started scribbling the following lines, her eyes wide open, her senses working overtime.

"Orange moonlight

up against the western sky

Soon we'll see all our troubles disappear

Underneath its watchful sky

made me dark wild eyes

Tonight

We'll watch the waves roll in

And flames go on by."

She laid the pad aside. She knew the music would come later.

An hour later when darkness had finally fallen, both women were chilling out delightfully as they lay curled up together on the sofa, all swathed in bath towels at the end of the day. They had showered together and the end of the day called out for some some fast and furious sex. Simone reached her naked arm towards a side table for a soothing mug of tea which she guessed where it was three-dimensionally located. She took a satisfied sip and placed it back again.

"Make sure you don't spill the tea on me. It could really spoil things between us," murmured Annabelle in a sleepy mischievous tone of voice as she snuggled up to her lover. It made Simone laugh only when she'd replaced the mug.

"I've been to many graduation ceremonies over the years but I never expected to find myself feeling so on edge. I've been so used to holding hands or putting my arm round you these last few weeks that I never expected to find nerve ends standing out like stalks that I couldn't touch you. We did our best to hold each other up but I'm so glad we can feel really normal again,"Simone said with a sustained feeling of profound relief, running her fingers along the shape of her shoulder and loosening her towel.

"I felt just as weird as you did and felt your weirdness coming off you in waves. I'm really, really glad you became Miss Bradley when we went for refreshments as you really centred me when I needed it. My head would have flown into orbit and exploded if you hadn't taken charge. I knew why you were doing it, of course,"Annabelle said earnestly with that half-smiling knowingness as she softly kissed her lover's lips that drew a soft reflective laugh from her. Of course, that astute dark-haired woman had nailed down the core of their experiences with her sure instinct.

"I felt it start coming over me as soon as we drove through the gates. Colins and Kirsten also helped and being outside in the open air with Father Harris was really therapeutic."

"He told both of us that we're really special, that we stood out from the rest. Do you think he was for real?" Annabelle asked with a quizzical expression on her face as her body moved ever so subtly against those shapely contours she knew and loved so much.

"He is," Simone said in slow clear tones as she pressed back softly in return, her fingers running along Annabelle's cheek. She loved the feel of these soft and tender moments that felt exquisite, something the best music and poetry only sketched at in one dimension which made their conversation follow its path at one interesting remove however valid it was. "He said that to me even when he knew that Amanda and I had stolen all that communion wine from the rectory. I think he even knew even before I did that I was falling in love with you yet he never tried to stop me. The Mother Immaculata would have done if she'd known."

The towel that had swathed Annabelle's body had gradually slipped down the length of her body as they were talking and it finally revealed a nipple grown diamond hard. Simone gave a faint gasp, slipped aside the towel that was wrapped round her head and slid down the sofa to softly savour the texture with her lips and tongue and luxuriate in the soft fresh feel of her senses and her lover's gentle fingers caressing her. This was the sort of heavenly evening that was the stuff of dreams.

Lazing around in bed the following morning gave them space to contemplate their future. The run up to the graduation ceremony had absorbed their combined energies in terms of what to do, how to figure out how they would best feel about themselves and how they would relate to all those they had known. Now they could relax with Annabelle's diploma nicely framed and occupying pride of place and Simone felt grateful that her handbag held Colins and Kirsten's contact details, knowing that changing fates had forged the start of a friendship that went beyond their past teacher student relationship.

"So what do we do today?" Annabelle said with that sense of excitement that showed in her sideways nudge of Simone's leg and her restlessness. Simone adored the way her partner's complex personality was unashamed and wise enough to openly reveal a childlike side to her and where she led, Simone was glad to follow.

"We'll have to take your graduation outfit back sometime …..." Simone said vaguely , noting the younger woman's crestfallen expression ,"...and I want to frame your graduation diploma and put it on display," and here Annabelle's mobile expression started to brighten,"...and there's the invitation to Chico's which represents our public coming out. We really have to plan for that," upon which Annabelle threw her arms delightedly round her lover and hugged her.

"What about playing music together first?"

Simone smiled cheerfully in agreement, drained the last of her morning cup of coffee and got out her guitar while Annabelle did the same. They had now evolved into a musical duo that could mesh their singing and playing into one just as their thoughts and feelings. They threw around the melody line between each other, sometimes making a stab at harmonies that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. Simone led off more confidently on her Walt Whitman/ Simone Bradley composition and smoothed out a few rough edges so that it flowed better. They ran through the songs they'd worked through and what they heard felt good. Annabelle fished out a sheet of paper where she'd scrawled down lyrics and chord changes from the couple of Tori Amos songs she'd learned and played them through. Simone studied the way her musical partner was playing the song and in her head, figured how her voice could be woven in and surprisingly quickly, a fuller sounding version of the songs evolved from nowhere. Finally, Simone produced her writing from last night and with a determined confidence that her lover openly admired, she started fiddling around on her guitar, playing a strange stop start series of chords and singing this haunting melody that was all her own and her words became a magical song lyric that was clearly based on their life together. The younger woman started picking out single string notes to accentuate the song and when Simone had finished, broke into enthusiastic applause which made Simone smile shyly and look down at her feet.

"That song is called 'Tonight.' I guess it sounds OK," she said tentatively.

"That's really amazing. I love it," Annabelle said, her eyes glowing and proud to be present when this little masterpiece fell out of the sky from nowhere.

"You know, we've got quite a repertoire of songs worked out," Simone said joyfully, her spirits buoyed up. Annabelle made no answer, her lips slightly parted as she rested her guitar on her knee. She looked as if she were on the point of saying something but the words didn't come. The fair-haired woman felt so happy that she carried onto the next song that came to her mind, Annabelle's love song to her which the younger woman joined in with her tinkling notes and slightly husky, lower pitched harmonised voice with perfect ease. Their playing felt so comfortable and easy that a thought popped into Simone's mind from nowhere, begging to be vocalised.

"Do you really think we could make a living out of this?" Simone suddenly asked with her questioning gaze. The younger woman said nothing but her starry eyed gaze searched into far horizons. Simone could sense the Annabelle's ambitions which she'd kept secret from her while they'd both laboured to get Simone's guitar playing up to scratch at what had seemed as a private hobby for the past week or so.

"That's what I was thinking. We can get somewhere. I have a feeling about it," Annabelle said with an abstracted look on her face. Her evident seriousness gave Simone a touch of emotional vertigo at the thought of playing on stage and for others.

"What makes you feel so sure? I mean it's a tremendous compliment to me seeing as I hadn't touched a guitar since my teens during a long ago summer."

"There's lots of reasons," answered Annabelle confidently as she returned to the present and looked at her fellow musician directly in the eye and spoke with a real intensity of feeling.." Most musicians take time to get into the rhythms and the feel but you've made that jump really quickly. It's as if you really knew all along how to play guitar and sing only you needed me to remind you. I haven't played with anyone who could pick it up that quickly and your singing is really gorgeous. I know you'll write really great songs. We're a natural duo."

"You know we're not enough on our own. All the music, even easy listening has some sort of rhythm behind it. I know that much," pursued Simone.

"You're right. We need bass and drums minimum and we're going to have to go semi-electric or else a rhythm section would drown us out. That's why I'm thinking of this evening. That's what I'm hoping will turn up and in the meantime, we'll practice to get good enough so they'll want us."

There it was, right out in the open. The vision Annabelle painted both scared and attracted her. Wasn't that the very same feeling she had when the faint stirrings rose up inside her at a time when she had a passionless relationship with Michael and the sheer predictability of her life threatened to overwhelm her? Having gone for the extremely high risk alternative of giving her heart to Annabelle, a student in her care, had given her priceless emotional riches so why not become a professional musician? Simone started to fiddle with where her cross had once hung, a nervous gesture not lost on Annabelle.

"But these things need to be fixed up?" questioned Simone with a furrowed brow,

"I heard from Cat's brother how they got their group together. You'd be surprised at how much accidents causes groups . Besides, didn't Father Harris tell you one to try not to figure things out. That's how the best things happen. Trust me," Annabelle said eagerly, laying her guitar and and jiggling her leg excitedly.

Simone figured out that the way she had told Cat's brother how her song should be played at the end of year party indicated her previous experience in bands and that she knew what she was talking about. That and the younger woman's obvious confidence in her persuaded Simone to give in gracefully.

Nikki was standing on the sidewalk, staring open-mouthed at the tram as it clattered down the classic San Francisco scene of the main street descending by stages down to the waterfront.

"I can't believe I'm really standing here," she said for the hundredth time as she willed her eyes to keep as a permanent record the sights, smells and feelings of this historic spot.

"Just how many photos do I have to take of you standing at various places along this street? Don't I get a look in and be photographed?" Helen declared with pronounced emphasis."I suppose the next thing you'll want to do is to move out here permanently. Will the American government really want to welcome residents like us to spread our trouble-making tendencies?.'Give us your poor tired huddled masses etc etc' but make damn sure they aren't lesbian subversives."

"Don't worry darling. I do love the English climate, a nice cup of tea, the city of London, even English weather and talking about it," Nikki retorted with a wicked grin on her face

"I'm greatly reassured," joked Helen..

"It's strange here. People are much more open and friendly and my accent really does open doors. I know I can't be like them as I have a British reserve. On the other hand, if you get an uptight American, he's really uptight. It's the contrast that gets me," Nikki said in a more reflective mood.

"Has this trip been what you expected and hoped for? Will we really have to pay a fortune in excess baggage charge?" Helen asked pointedly.

Nikki grinned. On top of the books she'd brought with her, she'd found specialist book shops which were to her taste- and Helen's even though she'd conveniently forgotten the fact. She'd been like a kid in a candy store and they'd bought clothes and make-up out here.

"Wonder what this meeting at Chico's will be like? Somehow a lot of my hopes and fears are bound up with it, the closer it gets. I know we're not a million miles from Hollywood. I just want to be treated as normal in the right way."

"You mean women we can relate to emotionally as friends, a meal for the senses?" counter questioned Helen softly.

Nikki's grin testified to the picture Helen's words conjured up that was more expressive than the mere words had spelled out. She knew what thoughts her lover had understood.