A couple of hours later, Nikki and Helen went off to the kitchen while Simone and Annabelle retrieved their cases from the hallway and headed for their bedroom to face a wonderful surprise. It was tastefully painted in red with delicate white features and a large wooden wardrobe facing the bed. Various pictures adorned the wall that were right up their street, conveying a sense of peace. Instantly, they felt at home so it was only natural to pack their clothes and various belongings carefully away and show respect for their surroundings. Having had to rough it in some pretty dire hovels on tour, this was civilised and homelike by any standards. It was only when they'd finished that they noticed a newly polished acoustic guitar leaning in the corner.
"That's really kind of them," Annabelle said softly, overwhelmed by this little act of thoughtfulness. She sat on their bed and rested the body of the guitar on her knee, getting the feel of the instrument. It felt a little strange at first but she fiddled around it and swiftly tuned it to her specifications. She suddenly started playing around on a repeated sequence of chords that came out of nowhere.
"Where did you get that from?" Simone asked, turning her head to face her musical partner."Sounds good."
"It does," Annabelle said slowly and reflectively as she . It surprised her that she could dream up a melody like that, not knowing what had caused it. "I won't push it any further till we get a good night's sleep."
"Dinner's ready," Helen's carrying voice called brightly through the air. It reminded both women that they might want to eat something, as all the travelling had killed their appetites up till now. As they came back into the living room, four plates were set out with chili and rice with salad on a side plate in the middle and a jug of ice-cold water between them. The smell of it was marvellous
"How did you guys guess this is my favourite food?" Annabelle said with a big wide grin on her face.
"It's Nikki's as well. Come on, eat up," Helen replied cheerfully, waving them to their seats. This gesture had the exact same feel as Simone cooking for them back home.
The four of them sat down and the vague listless feeling that had lurked at the edges of Simone and Annabelle's consciousness was instantly dispelled by the taste of good cooking. This accentuated the lovely homelike feeling that they felt immersed in. They consciously avoided gobbling the food down as they might have done when on the run between one gig and the next. They took their time as a compliment to their friend's skills. When they were done and the washing machine was loaded up, the four women relaxed on the sofa and armchairs, Nikki pouring a glass of wine for all of them.
"This is the life. We're supposed to be artists who compose these great songs that express how we feel about the world around us and mean something to people and, sure, that's what we want to do but there are times when we need to chill out and get inspiration for ourselves," Simone said in her animated fashion, feeling great satisfaction as the ice-cold wine seeped through her system.."That's our way of thanking you for putting us up in our stay in England."
"Have you got any particular plans figured out of what you want to do with your time in England?" Helen asked. Simone shook her head as vague picture book images of England swam around in her mind but without the slightest idea of how to achieve them. Annabelle had resolved from the first to trust to fortune to come up with the goods.
"Father Harris once told me that 'Maybe the best thing to do is not try and figure it all out," Simone said in her slow and dreamy way.
"Wasn't he the only guy to know when you and Amanda ran off with wine from the rectory and didn't he know that you were falling for Annabelle even before you did?" questioned Helen That story struck a special chord with her as she wished she'd done something like that to her father who was a dour Presbyterian minister and to this day, couldn't get his head around her relationship with Nikki.
"The one and the same. We met up with him at Annabelle's graduation and he was really kind to both of us. He accepted us for who we are,"Simone replied, her hear warming at the immense kindness the man had shown them.
"That priest is one of the good guys and he knows what he's talking about,"Nikki replied softly. She sensed that he'd had to make a public stand and this impressed her greatly. His ideas chimed with her own outlook in life."There's a case for spontaneity- whenever Helen lets us."
"Oh come on, Nikki. When we go shopping, I don't cramp your style." Helen protested. The other two women grinned widely at seeing the two women start to verbally cross swords and watched the display of verbal gymnastics. It made for entertaining watching but at the same time, they could see how their very strong relationship resulted from a sparking of opposites in their personalities. It made for interesting pointers in how to conduct their own relationship.
"The four of us are really lucky in having a good woman by our sides. It hasn't always been that way with me,"Helen said abruptly. "I still can't understand how years ago, I actually asked that nonentity, Sean Parr to live with me, actually lived with him for a number of years and worse still, ended up being engaged to be married. At least I had the sense to finally back out."
"Me too," shuddered Simone."I used to go out with a guy called Michael, a teacher at a neighbouring school before I met Annabelle and she showed me the light. It really makes a difference, I can tell you."
"Hmm," Nikki said meditatively as her long fingers suspended her wine glass in her hand."I can see there are advantages in men having never been my flavour but it's not the easiest thing to find a woman straight off that you want to dedicate the rest of you life to. When you're a teenager, you can get easily distracted. It didn't make for stability when I got caught out with the first woman I ever slept with and got expelled from boarding school as I think I mentioned. It was young love and I'd never forgotten the discovery of feelings inside me, of freshness, of seeing the world with new eyes."
The last words jolted through Annabelle. It brought back an unbearably vivid memory of lying on her back against the crook of a solid tree looking upwards into the brilliant blue sky at the poems that illuminated her soul. She could hear them so clearly being spoken in those soft gentle tones from somewhere within the breeze as it ruffled her hair. Everything she told her made absolute sense. It brought back to life, to think and feel after Marilyn had been cruelly torn away from her leaving nothing but the Buddhist prayer beads that she'd insisted on wearing.
"I lost my first love, Marilyn when her parents took her off to Europe. One day I talked to her on the telephone as usual, the next day, number disconnected. My mother told me it was all for the best. I cried for weeks afterwards but of course she didn't know how I fell apart inside. I developed a very hard shell to protect myself with," Annabelle said in passionate tones."When I was a bit older and finally found the love of my life, I could let myself feel my feelings again. When Simone was arrested after the end of year dance, I promised to myself that I'd be stronger this time and nothing would ever keep us apart. I finally set out one day in Simone's car that I stole out of the car park at St Theresa's."
After they'd landed back on earth after that casual aside,both Helen and Nikki viewed the younger woman with the utmost tenderness and affection. They'd been there before. Their warm, glowing eyes validated everything she felt. These wise women knew everything. Tears pricked Simone's eyes as she heard herself described.
As the evening wore on, the growing darkness was shut out by the curtains and the four women gradually worked their way through the bottles of white wine. They were getting pleasantly drunk together. The soft lights cast pleasant shadows in the corners of the room while light rain pattered against the window pane. It was a pleasant sound while they were indoors and under shelter .
"Hey, what time is it likely to be in California?" Annabelle asked out of the blue. Simone gazed blankly without speaking. The alcohol had dulled her responses in figuring out what her lover was getting at.
"I mean, if we phone Diane and Erin, it won't be some insane hour," she clarified.
"I think it will be daytime, eleven in the morning to be precise. You go and phone her," Helen said in confident tones. Simone thought to herself muzzily, I'll be damned that this attractive woman worked this out.
Annabelle got out her mobile and clicked on the buttons to contact Erin. It seemed amazing that all their travelling in a jet miles over land and water could be reversed by a few clicks on her cellphone. She heard the phone ring at the other end of the line which wasn't answered immediately. She judged it was lying besides their bed where she she'd carelessly left it when she'd taken her lover to bed. She had a pretty fair idea of her physical appetites for her lover which she could certainly relate to. Finally, the call was picked up and the voice coming down the line was clearly catching her breath. Annabelle grinned mischievously to herself as she spoke in her carefree tones.
"Hey, Erin. Thought we'd phone you and Diane to see how you're doing and give you happy thoughts from London England." Loud laughter greeted her.
"You sure know how to time it, Annabelle. A minute earlier and I would have been too tongue-tied to speak," Erin replied, her naked arm having reached a her lover's waist across the bed and fumbling for the phone on the floor. She mildly cursed herself as she'd left herself wide open to her friend's sharp wit. It didn't matter as this morning was beautiful with morning sunrays slanting in across the dishevelled state of their room, bathing it in lyric splendour.
"Going down on each other I guess,"Annabelle said bluntly, knowing that her friend down the other end of the phone was very tolerant of her ways. Her three friends in the same room grinned from out of the subdued lighting in the living room.
"How did you guess?" Annabelle could sense the self-satisfied tones of her good friend.
Erin laughed wickedly as her cheek lay against Diane's thigh.
"Oh wow, Erin. You're on the phone at a moment like this. Like how much do you want to pack into your life," sighed Diane as she lay back in a state of post coital bliss. The soft voice above Erin's head sounded so good when combined with her view of her lover which presented such an enchanting perspective on life. In Erin's ear, her good friend rattled out their experiences of the flight over and the pleasure of hanging out with their friends.
"It's Annabelle and Simone, honey. It's evening over in England so they're getting drunk with Helen and Nikki,"Erin explained helpfully. That sounded a good enough explanation to Diane.
"Who's leading who astray?" chuckled Diane softly as she started to take an interest beyond her exquisite feelings of well being that Erin's ministrations had induced in her.
"Why don't you talk to them?"Erin replied suddenly."I'll pass you the phone."
The tall, long haired woman blinked the dazzling sunlight out of her eyes and felt the solid object placed in her hand. A familiar voice sounded in her ear, just as if she were walking up their street past the pizza-store on their street corner.
"You sure sound like you're having a great time. Bring us back a souvenir of London, however corny," Diane said in response to Annabelle's rapid fire conversation.
"We'll do it. We haven't figured out where we're going yet."
"Oh yes we will- or at least Nikki and Helen will do it for us. They're so organised, it's scary," broke in Simone, her growing impatience to be part of the conversation taking charge while Helen and Nikki burst into laughter."We've been advised to check out this art gallery of per-Raphaelite paintings."
This went way past Diane's understanding so she groped blindly for some standard purpose words to deploy. Helen and Nikki's laughter sounded nice and friendly in the background.
"I'm sure you'll have a fun time of it," Diane replied softly.
Nikki and Helen had been listening to the conversation and had been conscious for some time that Diane and Erin had hung back from social contact. They finally realised that while they were experienced musicians, the two women could be shy where they were concerned. Even if she and Helen didn't put on airs and graces, it was the way they were perceived that mattered. It prompted Nikki to cut through this situation and take over the phone which Simone's quick understanding would be sure to go along with. Seeing the way the conversation was expanding, Helen had a quiet whispered confab in Nikki's ear who nodded in agreement.
"Nikki'll phone back on your number so we'll split the cost of the call between us. It'll cost a fortune otherwise,"she said to Annabelle who smiled gratefully at their friends' thoughtfulness. Others would have gabbled on regardless.
"Hey Diane, nice to talk to you at last- even though we're halfway across the world."
Nikki's droll humour making an immediate connection straightaway as she phoned on her cellphone. It took the fair-haired woman totally by surprise as she and Erin had only seen Nikki and Helen as they stood at the back of the bar watching them hold forth on prison reform and the following week, they'd been somewhere in the audience at their first ever gig. She'd never come up close to them the way their band mates had done. She finally found her voice and adjusted to the situation.
"Hey, great to talk to you at last. Sorry we didn't take the chance when you were in California. Stupid though it sounds we felt kind of intimidated."
"It doesn't matter if whatever reason we didn't get together earlier on. It happens, you know. The main thing is we can do it it now."
All at once, Diane knew that this charming Englishwoman accepted her and Erin for who they were and she dug this woman's sophisticated style. She started chattering away for a while until she suddenly thought that Erin ought to be woven into the conversation.
"Hey Erin, want to talk to Nikki? They're looking after Simone and Annabelle just fine and guess what, they've lent them a spare guitar,"Diane explained to Erin. The smaller woman's heart was immediately won over by this ultimate display of thoughtfulness. Pretty soon, she was also rattling away to Nikki who shared a common upfront style.
Finally, the wine made Helen more physically demonstrative and she got up from her armchair, placed her glass on the side and wound herself round Nikki, kissing her on her neck and making her conscious that she needed to deal with matters nearby as well as halfway across the globe. Erin too was conscious that it was her turn to receive as well as to give.
"I always thought you and Simone are the intellectual ones and Nikki and Helen were your friends," Erin finally said as a parting message to Annabelle, feeling really happy inside."I'm glad that Diane and I got pushed into talking to them. They're cool and I know you'll have a great time hanging out with them in London."
"Hey Erin, don't beat yourself down. Your only problem is that you and Diane don't know how sharp you are. We want to hear your next song when we get back- promise," came the soft and tender reply down the phone, so spiritually close to her.
"Hiya Erin. Hiya Diane. Great to catch up with you guys," called out Helen loudly into the phone a few inches away. Both women half a world away thought dazedly that the accent was the sexiest thing they ever heard or was it their consciousness of Erin's desires by the way she moved? The conversation that spanned two continents which had created new friendships was finally wound up on a happy note for them all.