A rash of song inspired stories, has persuaded Girl Friday
WMM(CE) to run a Festival of Song Inspired stories. This is
my entry. The song is from the album Brain Salad Surgery
from Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Unlike my previous story (see
below) we had to make the song explicit. I set myself the
task of using the lyrics in the story itself - it seemed
like a good idea at the time, now it seems merely
masochistic! Let me know what you think.

Note: In this plain text _italics_ are indicated in the way
that I have just demonstrated. For example the first line of
the story is in italics.

Still … You Turn Me On
By Arty

_"Do you want to be an angel?"_

"No!" Penny stuck her tongue out at me and giggled as I
responded in kind. The teacher sighed. Every year it was the
same, persuading teenagers to behave sensibly during the
annual school Christmas production. This year we were going
to perform a Nativity Play.

"Have you cast Mary yet?" I was cast as Joseph and I would
like nothing better than having Penny playing Mary opposite
me, not to mention all that extra rehearsal time! The
teacher looked at me and shook her head at my obvious
clowning. Miss Mellor was nice though - for a teacher that
is.

_"Do you want to be a star?"_

The question caught Penny by surprise; she recovered well
though.

"Are you serious? I can be Mary?"

"If it will keep you two from disrupting the rehearsals."

I had the good grace to look sheepish, we never kept our
attraction for each other a secret, but in Drama Club we let
ourselves go, using every opportunity to indulge ourselves.
It hadn't always been like that; Penny grinned and looked at
me speculatively.

"Look you two, Mary and Joseph are an unmarried couple, and
Mary was most definitely a virgin!"

"Yes Miss." Penny looked downcast, the wink she gave me,
however, belied her apparent docility.

Miss Mellor was not deceived and glared at her; her mouth
was twitching though, so the effect was muted. Giving us up
as a lost cause, she turned to the rest of the group and
proceeded to complete the casting. Once the rehearsal
schedules were drawn up the Drama Club drifted off in twos
and threes.

_"Do you want to play some magic on my guitar?"_ I whispered
in Penny's ear. She giggled.

"I thought it was a trombone?" Said she, emphasizing the
final syllable with a lascivious leer. The lust in her voice
sent a shiver down my spine. Once more I thanked my lucky
stars that Penny and I had hooked up. We'd been friends
forever before we discovered that our attraction was much
more than merely platonic.

-oOo-

_"Do you want to be a poet?"_

I looked up from my latest magnum opus to see the speaker.
Penny moved behind me and began reading over my shoulder.
Hurriedly I covered the poem that I'd been working on. Too
late.

_"Do you want to be my string?
You could be anything.
Do you want to be the lover of another?
Undercover? You could even be the man on the moon."_ Penny
intoned the lines. "Very profound what's it about?"

"It's just something I'm working on."

"Come on, we'll be late for Drama Club."

I collected my papers, stuffed them in my bag and followed
her out of the library. Drama Club was our favourite
activity.

"Okay get into pairs, boy and girl, for this exercise." Miss
Mellor looked around as we paired up. Penny and I were an
obvious pair and eventually everyone had someone that they
were comfortable with. "I want you to take some time and
work up an improvisation based on the following premise: one
of you has an unrequited love for the other; something has
happened, I'll let you decide what, that has persuaded you
to 'bite the bullet' and make your feelings known."

Now this was interesting. I could see several people looking
embarrassed at the possibilities presented by this exercise,
and then it hit me - I was in love with Penny! I mean I knew
I loved her, but as a friend. Now that the seed had been
planted I knew that what I felt for her was more, much more
than just platonic. I turned to Penny and saw her with new
eyes; she blushed at my frank appraisal.

"Look if you'll be the object of my desire, I'll be the
unrequited lover."

Penny smiled. "Do you want to rehearse or shall we just wing
it?"

I made a decision, "Let's just see where the mood takes us
shall we?"

"You're on."

We waited as several couples portrayed various stages of
embarrassment ranging from slight to paralysed with fear and
then it was our turn.

_"Do you want to be the player?"_ Penny smiled at me as I
started to circle around her. _"Do you want to be the
string?"_

"I just want to be me. What do you want Tony?"

_"Let me tell you something, it just don't mean a thing."_ I
stopped in front of her and reached for her hands, I stared
deep into her eyes; you could hear a proverbial pin drop, so
silent were the rest of the group. _"You see it really
doesn't matter when you're buried in disguise by the dark
glass on your eyes, though your flesh has crystallised."_ I
leaned closer and lowered my voice, _"Still … you turn me
on."_

Her eyes opened wide as she realised what I was about to do
next. I closed my eyes just as our lips touched. I felt her
moan into my mouth as my tongue began a tentative
exploration of her lips, her mouth opened wide as she
invaded mine. Now it was my turn to groan as she pressed her
body against mine. I released her hands so that I could pull
her closer and she did likewise. So close were we that I
could feel the points of her nipples against my chest. Lack
of oxygen made us break our kiss.

_"Do you want to be the pillow where I lay my head?"_ I
stage whispered into her ear.

"Yes."

_"Do you want to be the feathers lying in my bed?"_

"Yes"

_"Do you want to be a colour cover magazine; create a
scene."_ We kissed again.

"I've loved you forever, I can't hold it in anymore; it's
driving me crazy; please tell me that I'm not alone."

Her eyes blazed and the smile that she gave me was blinding
in its intensity.

"You're not alone."

That seemed a reasonable place to stop the improv. I held
onto her hand and pulled us into an impromptu bow. The rest
of the group erupted into applause and Miss Mellor looked at
us appraisingly. We were the last pair to go so we sat down
together, Penny sat on my lap as if it were the most natural
thing in the world and Miss Mellor started to read the notes
that she had made on everyone's performances. Penny and I
cuddled and tuned her out; this was all so new and it was
all that I could do not to carry her off.

"Now we come to Penny and Tony." We were jerked from our
reverie, "I'd like to say that it was, on the face of it, a
truly outstanding performance." She paused for dramatic
effect; it was Drama Club after all. "But it wasn't a
performance was it?" This drew gasps from everyone except
Penny and me.

"No, I realised as you were giving us the premise to the
improvisation that I was in love with Penny, so I took it
and ran with it." I looked at Penny and smiled at the
adoration that I saw there. "God knows what would have
happened if she hadn't felt the same way about me."

"Oh for Christ's sake Tony! You two have been in love for
the last six months, you've just been too stupid to realise
it!" This came from Alison, one of the more outspoken
members of our group. The rest chimed in with expressions of
agreement. I was shocked to see that Miss Mellor was one of
them. Penny looked at her accusingly.

"You set us up?"

"You might think that; I couldn't possibly comment."

Everyone laughed. Since anything else would have been an
anticlimax, the group broke up and we went our separate
ways. Miss Mellor admonished us to encourage the rest of the
school to audition for the Nativity Play that we were doing
this year. A collective groan was all the reply that she
got.

-oOo-

_"Every day a little sadder, A little madder,"_ I hummed
Pooh-bear-like to myself. We were painting the flats with a
dark blue paint that was supposed to be the night sky.
_"Someone get me a ladder."_ I'd painted as high as I could
go and there was about three feet still to paint.

"Here you go." Andy carried the stepladder that he had been
using to adjust one of the backdrops. I climbed up and
carried on painting the sky. Penny was working on the other
side of the flat. She was painting a street scene, her side
would be used for the trip through Bethlehem where we would
search for somewhere to stay, and my side would be for the
scene where the Angels appear to the Shepherds and for
scenes with the Thee Wise Men.

Later when it was dry Penny and I would have great fun
fixing tin-foil stars to the 'sky'. Miss Mellor came by and
watched me painting for a moment.

"I don't want any identifiable constellations."

I grimaced. "You ain't no fun. No more." I moaned in my best
KFC accent.

"I want them concentrating on the action on the stage. Not
trying to identify Orion or The Plough!"

"Yes Miss Mellor."

"Now that wasn't so bad was it?"

Penny giggled from the other side. I muttered dire threats
under my breath and carried on painting.

-oOo-

Penny and I were in the throes of passion. The rest of her
family weren't due back for an hour or two and our minds
turned to sex, as they were wont to do nowadays. The
alteration in our relationship wasn't the surprise to them
as it was to us. My mother, in particular, was unutterably
smug. But it did mean that since we were already in the
habit of spending almost all of our time together we didn't
have to sneak around. No car seats for us! Well we did do it
a few times, just to see what all the fuss was about, but
neither of us was too impressed and we decided to leave
car-sex to the realms of fiction where it belonged. Beds -
OK, settee - OK, floors - hard but OK and we would wait for
the weather to warm up before we tried the joys of al-fresco
lovemaking! Both of had eyed up the swings and the climbing
frame in the children's area of the local park - we'd burst
out laughing when we'd looked at each other and realised
that we'd both been thinking about the same thing.

Of course you can only spend so much time in bed and we had
always enjoyed our debates - or rows - as our families
called them. Our current disagreement was about whether it
was better to be a creative or a producer. I was getting
poetic about it again.

_"Do you want to be the singer?"_ I paused for dramatic
effect, _"Do you want to be the song?"_

_"Let me tell you something"_ Penny poked me in the chest
for emphasis, _"you just couldn't be more wrong."_

I love it when she gets mad, her eyes flash and she gets
flushed like she does when she comes - and of course kissing
and making up is just so much fun.

"You're beautiful when you're angry."

"You're annoying when you play Devil's Advocate."

"Yeah but you love me anyway."

Penny sniffed and turned from me in exaggerated disdain.
This was my cue. I started to tickle her. Before long I had
her helpless beneath me, until then I had been concentrating
on tickling her to maximum effect, now I looked her in the
face and was immediately lost; the fire in her eyes took my
breath away.

-oOo-

It was Monday, the Dress Rehearsal had been a disaster; the
problem with doing a nativity play is that everyone is
convinced they already know everything they need to know as
the story is so familiar. As a result everyone had a rude
awakening as this translated into missed cues, forgotten
lines and generally slapdash stagecraft. Our first
performance was Friday. We were not a happy bunch as we
gathered for the post rehearsal meeting.

Surprisingly Miss Mellor was not too displeased.

"Now you know why the Dress Rehearsal was scheduled so
early. Right people you've had your wakeup call; we have two
more days to get it right." She looked at each of us in
turn. "The real Dress Rehearsal is Thursday."

We all groaned, we'd been suckered with the oldest trick in
the book. But the lesson was well aimed and we took it to
heart.

-oOo-

I looked round the edge of the proscenium arch and peered at
the assembled crowds. The house lights were up as the last
few stragglers made their way to their seats.

"Looks like a full house."

Around me the black-clad stagehands stood quietly and the
air of expectancy crackled around me. Okay this was just
your standard no-frills nativity play, but the thrill of the
impending performance was intoxicating and then I started to
feel sick.

_"You see I really have to tell you that it all gets so
intense."_ Penny whispered in my ear. _"From my experience
it just doesn't seem to make sense."_

I turned, grateful for the distraction; stage fright is no
picnic, but I knew from bitter experience if I wasn't
feeling frightened before I went on then the performance was
lousy.

"Thanks."

Before I could say anything Miss Mellor arrived.

"Go back to the dressing rooms and stop upsetting my stage
manager!" The smile took the sting from the words. Grumbling
we did as we were told.

-oOo-

The applause was tumultuous, stamping feet and the odd
"Bravo". This was our sixth or seventh curtain call, I
wasn't sure and the applause didn't seem to be dying down
any.

"Last time." Miss Mellor shouted above the noise. We all
gathered for the final curtain call.

-oOo-

Later, as we rested I turned to Penny and stared at her in
wonderment. How could anyone so wonderful, so gorgeous and
so right, be satisfied with me?

"Why me?" I asked her.

Penny turned to me, "Still … you turn me on."

--Fin--

Note: The phrases in _italics_ are the lines of the song:

Still … You Turn Me On
Greg Lake

Do you want to be an angel,
Do you want to be a star,
Do you want to play some magic on my guitar?
Do you want to be a poet,
Do you want to be my string?
You could be anything.
Do you want to be the lover of another
Undercover? You could even be the man on the moon.

Do you want to be the player,
Do you want to be the string?
Let me tell you something,
It just don't mean a thing.
You see it really doesn't matter
when you're buried in disguise
by the dark glass on your eyes,
though your flesh has crystallised;
Still … you turn me on.

Do you want to be the pillow where I lay my head,
Do you want to be the feathers lying in my bed?
Do you want to be a colour cover magazine;
create a scene.
Every day a little sadder,
A little madder,
Someone get me a ladder.

Do you want to be the singer,
Do you want to be the song?
Let me tell you something
you just couldn't be more wrong.
You see I really have to tell you
that it all gets so intense.
From my experience
It just doesn't seem to make sense,
Still … you turn me on.