I got my first comment, I agree that that is not too much but it was so nice that it compensated for the time without them. I can only ask you to comment on the story as much as possible.
I hope you enjoy chapter 4
Toni The Book Chapter 4
We were a pair again and I also invited her home again. Especially my mother was happy to see her again, also because that was proof that she had been right about us after all. From that moment on we divided our time together between her apartment and my parental house.
Especially in the beginning we had a lot of questions to each other. I wanted to know everything how she felt with her dick, whether she got spontaneous erections or woke up with a boner? Did she get butterflies in her stomach seeing special girls or special guys? I even asked her bluntly how she wanted to make love.
She answered everything as good as she could. She told me that since her hormones therapy, her dick had more or less shrunk but she was till able to get an erection. Upon my question whether she masturbated she blushed and said yes. She got me blushing however by telling me that that she always thought of me when she did it. She also said that normally when her dick was tucked in she did not have an erection. Butterflies in her belly she only got with men, never with other woman. On my question about love making she only told me that together we would find our favorite way. I from my side answered her questions also as truthfully as I could.
I still had a rather big circle of friends, old and new ones. Toni was again the most sexy and seductive girl in that group. Probably many of my friends secretly envied me because of her. Especially the old ones told me that they had known all the way that the separation would not last. Toni loved the group in which she could openly flirt with the boys without having to be afraid of consequences, as she would always leave with me at the end of the day. Also her contacts with the girls within this group were much freer and she loved the gossiping and girly sessions she had with them.
I also introduced her to Robert and she found out of course that we listened to music together on the evenings when I did not see her. She also learned about my growing obsession for music and my efforts to get into the music industry. In retrospect I guess that she felt a bit excluded by us. This was aggravated, as she did not have the money to buy a stereo system in order to participate in the club. Still she embraced my new taste for music readily. She confessed to me that Frank Sinatra was OK but she always had found herself to young for it. When she visited me at home she always wanted to hear my new records. Slowly she became my second partner to discuss music developments with.
We were just what we had promised to be: friends. Like mentioned, we did not see each other every day. Right from the beginning however she started to use all her talents to be a very seductive friend. Almost from the day of our reunion we got back to our kissing again. I hesitated to take the next moves and our roles had reversed now. I was now the one who wanted to keep his briefs on. My fear to touch her dick was stronger than my longing to stroke her hairless pubes. Another more subtle way of seduction was started a month after our reunion.
One Friday evening she told me mysteriously not to fetch her from the salon the next day. I normally did so, but now I should come directly to the apartment late in the afternoon. She wanted to cook for me and she needed the whole afternoon to prepare it. When I arrived that evening I was welcomed with Italian music. On the table was a choice of Italian food. The dinner was the beginning of a new mutual hobby. That evening she told me that during our separation she had continued to experiment. Many times she had prepared the food only to throw it away, as she did not want to eat it alone.
Now she participated however with vigor and dug deeply into the Vitello Tonnato, The Pepperoncini in Olio and she even had found Prociuto, which was served with melon. There was Mozzarella on tomatoes with leaves of basil, Salamis, Mortadella and a delicious Mellanzane alla Parmigianino. She had bought Soave white wine, as well as Chianti red wine. She even had thought of Grappa. It was the first occasion that I saw her a little bit drunk. After dinner I experienced a Toni, who was freer and as it seemed happier then ever. As they say that the love of males goes through their stomachs, she had again won a battle that evening.
I from my side started to provoke her and to observe her, probably driven by a subconscious urge to search for something masculine in her. I asked her to dress more in dresses. Especially the dress, she wore when I had seen her on the terrace with the alleged friend, was a favorite. I also asked her to wear more high heeled shoes. I went with her to a high brow classical concert in "The Doelen" in Rotterdam just to have a possibility to see her in a long evening dress. Upon seeing her in that dress I had that same impression as the first time I saw her: FLAWLESS.
At that occasion I also understood what it meant that she tucked her dick between her legs. The dress was like a second skin on her and every object under it would have been very, very visible. In her case however the dress flowed down an impeccable body, which at that time was still very slim. Later, when the good Italian food started to show, her body would become slightly fuller and as a matter of fact sexier. Altogether she played along with every wish I had. I had the impression that she secretly enjoyed it very much.
One of my wishes was a photo session. I had bought a camera. Because the company I worked for dealt with photo equipment I could make numerous pictures of her. The processing and the blow-ups I could get for free at the company. After she got to know my boss he also made a session with her. He was a really good photographer and some of his pictures had real pin-up qualities. We made a photo book of it and we had one picture that I liked very much blown-up to real size. One of my hidden reasons for making the album was of course also the search for masculine details, which were not there.
My observations of her however draw me ever deeper in the pit that was called "loving Toni". Imagine her to walk back to you coming out of the bath room in a restaurant and upon making eye contact with you her whole face starts to shine. Or imagine to walk with her on a windy street were the wind played havoc with her skirts and the passers-by men as well as women looking at the scene with admiration. I more and more was convinced that there was nothing masculine to be discovered on Toni.
My observations also convinced me that she was even more beautiful than when we first met. Probably this was true because of her longer hair and the hormone therapy. The therapy was also the reason for her bigger breasts, not big but definitively bigger than almost two years before. Her whole body became ever more women-like to me. If indeed I was seeking for excuses to end something it did not work. Day after day I was steadily drawn deeper into her spell.
Altogether I was in a treadmill of feelings. I loved her but I still wondered whether it was OK to do so. She was definitely one of the most attractive women in all the places we visited together. She still was not doll-like or Playmate like. She was a rather laddy like person that could wind every male person around her finger. Every look of admiration and every positive remark from friends and colleagues gave me also a funny feeling. I was the only one, who knew that she was not what she appeared to be. Indivertibly I kept asking myself how they would react when they would know that. My confusion and uncertainty about us did not go away with the time.
Instead of accepting her and make love to her, I was ever more confused. It is strange what education, general rules of conduct and religious believes can do. In my case they created grave conflicts' in my mind when I met Toni, who was definitively out of the ordinary. I thought that I was modern and going with the time. I regarded myself as open-minded for everything. At least that's what I would have said when I would have been asked.
Of course we talked about it and Toni could understand very well what I was thinking. Because of her background, she herself had still problems to accept what she was. Again I blamed myself for seeing the whole matter only from my side. If I had such problems with what she was, how bad it must have been for her. As I had not yet talked to people with more liberal ideas, we decided to ask the Johnsons to help us.
The visit to the Johnsons was a very positive one, although I tried to provoke them. I asked them how they had accepted the sexuality of Marcel .Had they tried to change him? Mr. Johnson was very patient with me as he explained that they had indeed tried to reason with Marcel. Especially the first time, when they found out that he had sexual activities with a school friend, as early as when he was twelve. I had a déjà vu at that information.
They also said that they had hoped it would disappear when he would get older, but it didn't. When he started the affair with the teacher in Rotterdam, they knew that they had to accept it. Even at that time they sent him to doctors and psychiatrists with small hopes for betterments. They also told us that Toni had had a very positive influence on him. He was close to become a really wild boy and might even have been landed on the streets. We all found at the end of the evening that I had come a long way. Still I could not accept the situation unconditionally.
After they had heard from Toni that she had told me about Dr. Smith they proposed to make appointment with him. Before we left the Johnsons that night Mr. Johnson took me apart and told me that he had to thank me. Upon my bewildered look, he told me that at times he and his wife had been very afraid that Toni would commit suicide. When she met me, they had seen that her spirits grew. Especially when they had found out what had happened between the two of us later on, that fear was increased. Toni had started to cocoon herself. Now, with us being together again, he was sure that she would have a fair chance.
During the visit with Dr. Smith I was informed about the medical facts of the situation. I heard statistics on how many people were known transsexuals. He also gave me estimations on how many people were still in the underground. I heard from him that in the ancient times people like Toni were in high regards as they were seen as being blessed by the gods. Christianity changed this completely to the contrary. At the end he asked me whether I would fully accept Toni when she would have a gender surgery. As I knew that Toni was in no way ready for such a move I shook my head and surrendered.
The next weekend I found out that to masturbate alone is one thing, to have a girl do the job for you is completely different. We started in the shower. Our first shower together and it was unbelievably sensual to feel our wet bodies touching. At last I stroked her hairless abdomen which gave me an unbelievable strong erection. I desperately avoided touching her dick, but she teased mine readily without starting anything seriously.
She offered a towel to me to dry her off. I refused for the silly reason that I would have to touch her dick. After she toweled me dry, she had me lying on my back and started to use her hands on me. She knew of course perfectly what men liked. She put the pressure on in such ways that my cock head become sore, but ever more sensitive. Every time however when I was shortly before an orgasm she slowed down.
When it was obvious that I could not hold on much longer she took my dick in her mouth. Now she squeezed my cock head with her lips and tongue. When I came it was an explosion that I felt coming from all the most outer parts of my body. These incredible feelings became stronger and stronger during their journey to the center of my body, which was my penis. I went rigid, my whole body shivered as a first jet of cum shot out of my penis. An unbelievable erotic thing happened when this beautiful girl between my legs really started to suck. She swallowed the cum already there and from my next ejaculations right out of my penis. It seemed as if she drained me from all cum I was able to make in my life. I groaned and I heard myself call her name.
As soon as I felt that these orgasms subsided I felt her body touched mine all over again and I felt her lips on mine. I also felt a sticky, faintly sweet substance in my mouth and realized that I tasted and swallowed my own cum and I loved it.
After that evening her seduction efforts were even intensified. Talking about our first real sexual experience together, I had to admit of course that she was welcome to repeat that any time she wanted. For her however this was only the first beginning, the next step was anal sex with her. After hearing this I was afraid. Afraid of myself and her wish hung over me the whole week following.
Already on Tuesday I was so uneasy that I called Dr. Smith. After I told him who I was, I asked whether I could see him alone. I got an appointment for late Thursday evening, which was evidently after his normal consultation hours. When I came to his praxis, he showed me in. Asking what my problems were, I told him that I had problems in my relationship with Toni. I told him that I thought I loved her, but I seemed to be afraid of her at the same time. I loved to watch her and could do so for hours in a row. I also loved to kiss and be kissed but I had a strange restraint when it came to touching her and being touched.
He smiled at me with an understanding grin, patted me on the shoulder and indicated me to follow him. We went to the private part of the big house where he seated me in a kind of library. He asked me whether I would drink a Whiskey with him, which I accepted gladly because I felt very uneasy. When we were settled down next to each other in leather club chairs he started:
"Matt since your visit with Toni I have expected you to come with exactly the problems that you informed me about. As you certainly know there is no medicine that can solve this problem, so we can only hope to solve the problem by talking with each other. But let me start from my side at the beginning.
I met Toni when she was sixteen and at that time she was very much in need of help. During our first meeting she told me that she had more or less decided to commit suicide. Her friendship with Marcel Johnson and his family probably had saved her life, but she was still far away from the person that you met.
She came to me as a boy, an extremely skinny boy, with hair that was as long as possible in her family environment and of course with no Make-Up whatsoever. The Johnsons had told me about her problems, so my expectations were different from a situation where I had not been forewarned. When I saw her I was awestruck; I had never seen a 16 year old person that was as evidently wrongly dressed as Toni was. Also my studies in medicine had not prepared me for such possibilities. Our first meeting in the praxis was a short one in which I only took blood samples from her. Although I was sure what the outcome of the laboratory tests would be, I still wanted to have that medical confirmation.
Since that day however I was transfixed by her. Maybe I did fall in love with her a little bit. I told her to come back in one week .During that time I talked with the Johnsons about her and asked them to help me. During the meeting with them we made a kind of pact. We decided to help her as best as we could. It was a tricky situation as we planned to help a minor without consent of the parents. It also meant that I was not ale to give her any hormones until she was eighteen. That especially did hurt me as it was already known at that time that the earlier one started with such treatments the better it was.
Our second meeting proved to me that the pact with the Johnsons was just in time. Toni at that time was a very lonely person. She was unbelievable unsure of herself. She had even started to think of herself as some unworthy freak that did not have the right to exist. She told me in tears that she planned to commit suicide before school would be ended. I was able to talk her out of that, by assuring her that she may have been alone but that she was not unique. After the visit I knew that I had won a first battle but that she was far from saved.
She probably did not tell you but from that time I see her at least one time per month. The therapy, if you can call it a therapy, especially in the beginning, was mainly to assure her that she was not crazy. That she was not a freak and that there were people who cared for her. Together with the Johnsons we decided to give her the possibility to dress as a girl from time to time. The results for me were a confirmation that we were doing the right thing, no matter what parents or other people might have thought. The inclusion of Melanie in that process was a risky one. In the end her help and obvious love for Toni were worth all the risks though.
The holiday was also a mutual idea and helped tremendously to steady her personality. We started with hormones as soon as I dared, which was about three months before her eighteenth birthday. Low doses because her body itself had already spontaneously started its own development towards womanhood. But with the hormones she became more beautiful as a woman by the month. Ask her for pictures that she has of the holidays and you will see the difference.
I did not like her decision to leave the university and together with the Johnsons I tried to convince her not to take that step. In the end we had to understand it and accepted it. Our contacts to Mr. Wouters, the owner of the hair salon in Delft, gave us the possibility to guarantee her a relatively soft landing. The job and the transition from boy to girl worked rather well. Our big problem was that she stayed alone, until you came on the scene.
At our first meeting after she met you, she was a different person. She glowed with optimism and I already though we had won the war. The biggest set back was of course when you stormed out after her outing. The day after your flight she came in crying and devastated. That week I saw her daily and after wards almost once week. During that time as I was afraid that she would do something stupid to herself. I invited her several times for dinner and I was impressed by the way she worked on passers by. She also invited me for Italian dinners, telling me that it was your mutual hobby. The last of these invitations was to celebrate the fact that you had written your letter. I knew intuitively that that was her chance.
Matt, on behalf of all people who know Toni for what she is, I thank you but I cannot give you a remedy to your problem. From a medical point of view Toni is a woman. Her body is one hundred percent that of a woman and a very beautiful woman at that. Her only defect is that appendix between her legs. I can tell you that the majority of men who have transsexuals as partners are one hundred percent hetero. Of course like always, there are exceptions to the rules.
My last advice to you is to accept her as she is. Talk openly with her about your problems. Experiment with all the ways of making love that you both can think of. I assure you that you will find the way best suited for both of you. I hope you can live up to this advice because in my opinion Toni deserves it."
We talked some more that evening, about Toni and how I had found back to her. I also talked about my love for music and my plans for the future. I got convinced that he had made no joke about his love of Toni. When I walked home that evening I decided that I had to give it a try. I would try to turn off my brains and let my feelings show the direction.
When I saw her the next weekend I told her about the visit. I also told her that I was ready to surrender. I also told her that she would have to accept it when I would not cooperate in everything she wanted. She looked me in the eyes told me that I would not back out. Still I had brought a bottle of Whiskey with me, to get myself in the mood.
I asked her also for the holiday pictures and although she was reluctant in the beginning she showed them to me. She had however no reason to be afraid of showing them. I saw a girl that looked tomboyish with short hair and almost no visible breasts, but she was undeniably Toni and also on the pictures strangely attractive. I told her that I would have fallen for her in Greece too.
Before we started our love making that evening she excused herself and after some time in the bathroom she came back naked. In my growing lust I had forgotten that I would not be able to fuck her that way with panties on that covered her own dick. But it was too late now to change my mind. I felt her up between her butts and massaged her anus to open up like she had told me to do. I avoided touching her ball sack that was visible between her legs and her fully erected dick. I also had a hairless dick but seeing that with another person made me horny without end. I had her stick her butt up to me and started to take her doggy style.
My cock which was carefully oiled by Toni was pushing at her star hole and I was met with considerable resistance. Only very slowly I got my cock head in. When it passed the star hole it snapped as if to imprison the head, it even hurt a little bit. Toni was moaning hoarsely telling me: "Yes Matt, give me more, give me more and make me a real woman." Because the cock head is the part of the penis with the biggest diameter the rest of the entrance was comparably easy. I felt so great, I had had fucked with several girlfriends before, but this hole was so narrow, so grabbing me and when I started to move in and out Toni moaned louder. The more sounds she made the more exited I became.
My movements that were prudently in the beginning became wilder and wilder. Toni intensified the movements by trashing around on the bed. My balls slapped against the bridge between her star hole and the base of her penis. After long gorgeous minutes an even more gorgeous orgasm followed.
The next step was to take her face to face. When she proposed it she was lying naked on the bed. Her hands cupping her boobs and her legs a little bit spread. I was standing in front of the bed and was in no way a match for this creature that must have been from another world, one of fables and fairy tales. This body seemed to be made for love even more than that of any normal woman. She could receive and give with a body that was 100% female. I was crowned with an erect hairless penis, which did not belong there, but which I had become to know as a centre of an almost unlimited lust.
After observing her for only seconds, I decided that I wanted to have everything of this creation of pure beauty. That meant that I also had to possess her dick. I kneeled before her and took her dick in my hands. I gently pulled the foreskin back and kissed her cock head with lips closed. Afterwards I circled her cock head with my tongue wetting it first with my saliva and soon tasting her precum. She gasped with surprise while I had my first real taste of Toni.
Everything was strange because somewhere deep inside me there was still a voice saying that it was unnatural. But I became horny and hot in a way that I had never experienced before. I slowly lowered my head on her until I swallowed all of her dick. My hands tickled her balls and I started to massage this rod with my tongue and teeth. Toni cried out for joy and lust and much sooner as I really wanted her body became rigid. I knew this was the body stiffness that came before an orgasm and then she exploded in my mouth.
I barely succeeded to swallow her first stream, when a second and a third hit me. I swallowed, I licked but could not avoid that some of this nectar was spilling out of my mouth. When her body slackened I crawled on top of her. We devoured the last of her cum together in an everlasting kiss that sealed our love in a very special way.
When we calmed down I was still not satisfied. I had decided that I wanted everything and that still left the position open that she proposed. I laid her on her back and searched her star hole with my dick. She laid her legs over my shoulder but when I told her to position them on both sides of me she got the idea. I entered her and with some gymnastics I was able to kiss her. From that moment on we had found our position. I came to a gorgeous orgasm that exploded through my body after a glorious long fuck. Rolling away from each other but instantly seeking each other again we laid panting and kissing. She whispered to me "Thank you for making me your woman at last."
The next time which was on Friday we talked about our sex experiences half whispering during dining out. We decided that tonight it was my turn. I was very aware that she fucking me was seen amongst homosexuals as losing virginity or deflowering, but I did not care. When we got home I was the one who wanted to get to business right away. She held me back, saying: "You ´may have noticed that I needed some time in the bath room to prepare before you enter me. This is something I learned from Marcel. There is nothing that turns one off more than having a dick full of veces after fucking someone. That is why we should wash you out before the act."
She took me by the hand to the bath room and showed how she inserted the shower tube (after removing the browse head) into her anus. After inserting water she went to the toilet and expelled the water. After she had done that approximately three times the water was clear and without any signs of veces. She had me copy this procedure. After that she oiled my anus before we returned to the bed room and started a long sensual foreplay.
That is how I lost my second virginity. When she had me laying down on my back in the end and started to push her dick past my star hole I must have been one of the hottest persons on the planet. I felt my star hole snap tighter as her cock head penetrated deeper. Subsequently I felt my anus being filled with a warm throbbing device that created havoc with my feelings. We trashed around on the bed threatening to destroy it completely until I stiffened and felt the same reaction with her. I felt a warm jet of cum washing my bowels as the water had done some half hour before. I only could utter a harsh dry muffled cry upon spilling my sperm. I had my first orgasm caused without direct involvement of touching or having touched my dick.
It is needless to say that after these nights of almost unlimited sex our relationship was really cemented. Although after this journey into the different ways of making love we did not start fucking each other at every opportunity. As I told you we both still had inhibitions and uncertainty about the "rightness" of it all. Next to that we loved to just hold and fondle each other. Only when we had loads of time and we could build an atmosphere of high sexuality we went further. Because of this special situation, our sex plays lasted and always went to almost complete exhaustion.
Because of the uncertainty that we both had, we decided that Toni should continue her visits with Dr. Smith and that I would accompany her. We both needed this platform to talk freely about us. Although the session became more irregular in time, they stayed important to both of us. Also helped by Dr. Smith our liaison became a very special one.
When I first met her she was a woman to me and I treated her like a woman. I did not ask questions about her make up and way of dressing. I did not want o know anything about her menstrual cycles but now I developed an almost insatiable curiosity. We absolutely had no secrets for each other. I could ask her to have me try on her panties. I could ask her to make up my face just for the fun of it. I could talk to her about body and facial hair. Upon my question why she had fallen in love with me she answered that that was maybe because I also had a certain measure of androgyny about me. I shaved my body and hated mustaches and beards. I was in no way a macho although I could help more in the household.
I asked her why she had not searched for a macho, for a muscular big man that would have dominated her as the traditional male role required. She smiled at me and informed me that she had seen too many men like that in her early youth. She had developed a horror for the thought to become such a person. When she had found out that she was more female that men she had always felt herself attracted to the mellower men. I must have looked hurt at that remark but she explained that my love for music, Italian cuisine, wine and even my tastes in clothing could not exactly be seen as traditionally masculine Dutch.
Because I started to spend also the nights with her, we decided that we wanted to live together. We found an apartment in the old part of town in one of the so-called old "Patrician" houses that lined the canals. The apartment was under the roof and next to high ceilings; it also had two separate bedrooms of which used only one of course. Living together meant that my hi-fi equipment was now in our mutual apartment and Toni really started to develop a liking for my music. Now I had a second partner accompanying me in my journeys into the music.
After we moved into the new apartment one of the first guests was Toni's sister, Melanie. She was the elder of her two sisters and as already mentioned one year younger. Her visit had taken much longer than originally planned. After a two years study to become a teacher she had taken a year off and went as an Au Pair girl to England. Now, as she did not want to work as a teacher after all, she was ready to go to study in Amsterdam.
Toni had already told me that also after she had left the parental house they had had never broken contact. They had seen each other at least once a week, mostly on Wednesday when the hairdressers had their afternoon off. Even when she lived in England they had called each other regularly. From the beginning of our relation, Melanie had been informed about all details. Upon her return she was now dying for curiosity, how the man really looked that had made Toni happy.
When Melanie was introduced to me I grasped for breath. They could indeed have been twins. At the same moment the realization hit me like a hammer that she was a real, a generic girl. I had to swallow several times to digest that thought, which did not go unnoticed by Toni. The evening was like the homecoming both sisters had expected. To me it was clear that the two had indeed a very intimate relationship. From that moment on Melanie was part of our family. Also when she went to Amsterdam, she spent most of the weekends in Delft and with us..
That evening when she was gone I had a discussion with Toni. She asked me, whether I would choose Melanie if I was given the opportunity. I was at a loss as I could not answer the question right away. I told her that the similarity was incredible and that I would have fallen for Melanie indeed when I would have met her first. Upon that explanation from me her eyes that were lately always of the bright sparkling kind misted. I saw that sadness again that I knew so well from our beginnings. Those eyes were more seductive than everything she could do with her body and probably a reaction that she could not control.
My confession stood a little bit between us. It was clear though that although I really was in love with her, I was not blind. Deep within me I might also have had doubts, whether I was suited one hundred percent for monogamous life.
I know that Melanie never gave her reason to be afraid, at least not during our time in Delft. Melanie however was a big tease and liked to provoke her sister whenever possible. One of these provocations was her arrival for the weekend on Fridays. Reason for this was that she loved to accompany me to the White Elephant. Here she would be part of the small group that came to hear the new releases. Afterwards she would flirt and dance the night away with the steady group of student friends that was always present.
The job in the club lasted until 4 o'clock in the morning and we mostly did not leave the club before five. Sometimes when we had interesting discussions, mostly about music, we only came home at the time that Toni got up. So normally Melanie and I did not spent much time together on Saturdays, as we slept mostly until noon. The afternoon was used to get sober again. The evenings in the White Elephant normally had an alcohol density of 90%. I had a splendid relation with Melanie, although I never made advances. She was a very straight forwarded girl and from the beginning she told me to be really jealous of Toni that she had found me first.
Melanie had Robert take her out for one reason only; not to be the fifth wheel on the wagon when we went out on Saturday nights. To me she confessed that she was not attracted to Robert, a phenomena that I had noticed before. Women that were attracted to me were not attracted to Robert and vice versa.
Together with Robert we also intensified our efforts to find a job in this business. We had several interviews, together and some on our own that were mostly possible because of our contacts with retailers. The doors during these appointments stayed closed. Robert, who definitively had more feminine streaks than I, was automatically drawn into Toni's lure during that time. Until today he probably still can't explain this strange attraction from his side.
During the first summer holiday season after we were reunited, when we did not yet live together, we had stayed at home. During our second summer holidays I wanted to go abroad. Toni at first was very reluctant. She refused flatly to go to a travel agency and book a holiday there, because they would see her passport. For the same reason she did not want to go to a hotel and she was very strict with her refusals. At the end I proposed to go to Bergamo.
When I asked Leonard whether we could stay with him, he was in doubt. He and Ele still lived in a rather small apartment but he said he would think of a solution. After a day he called back and told me that we would stay with Nicola and his wife. I started to object and told him that that had never been my intention. He told me though that there was no discussion possible. We went by airplane, which was a first time for both of us. During the flight she could dress in a kind of uni-sex outfit that had become popular. Her hair could be in a pony tail and she could go without make up. At last she gave in and agreed. She was very nervous during the voyage however but it went by without the slightest incident.
On Linate (the airport of Milan) she changed into something slightly more feminine. After she had also fixed her make-up, she was ready to meet the part of my family that she had not met until then. Leonard and a pregnant Ele were waiting at the gate and they welcomed her like a sister. Their attitude broke all the ice that may have existed on the part of Toni.
Toni and Italy was something else. Toni fell instantly in love with the country and the country fell instantly in love with Toni. I was only a bystander and one who fell from one surprise into the other. In Holland she always attracted some glances, some rather stealthy from men who were accompanied by their women. In Italy however there was open admiration even from Leonardo. I even teased him about it, telling him that he had become a real Italian:
We headed for Bergamo and were greeted by Nicola's wife Maria as her husband was still at work. We arrived at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and she told us to go to our room and rest a little while, before we would come down for dinner. When it was time to go down Toni surprised me with the way she looked. Although her make up was decent as always, I noticed some subtle differences. The highlights in her face, like the high jaw bones, the eyes and her lips were definitively more accentuated than usual.
She wore a light dress with a colorful red flower design that came halfway down to her knees. Her legs were bare and she had put on open high heeled shoes. Although she had no black hair it was so dark that she looked like an Italian fashion model ready for the photo shoot. When she entered the living room all talk ceased. After a short moment of silence Nicola jumped to his feet, got to her and embraced her. After that he turned to me and asked whether we had been together at the time when he had made the USA offer. I told him that we had known each other, but had come together some months later. He grinned broadly, indicating that he understood everything now.
As it was August the family also had a lot of free time on their hands. Italy normally closes down around the middle of August and Nicola took over. He showed Toni everything of interest in a radius of 100 KM around Bergamo. Most of the time he seemed to forget that I was also present. It was funny how he really showed her off to friends and neighbors. It goes without saying that he was delighted when she showed some knowledge of the Italian language that was unknown to me.
Nicola, Toni and food were pure poetry. As soon as he found out that she loved to cook Italian food they were a kitchen pair. Nobody else was allowed in the kitchen for three days. The dinners they served were so opulent that I was unable to make real love to Toni afterwards. On the fourth days the whole family went together to a restaurant. Probably Nicola had talked to the owner and the cook because even there they conquered the kitchen. Now Toni got her first professional instructions about the secrets of Italian cooking.
For the weekend Nicola announced that we would accompany him and his wife for a visit to Tuscany. He told us that if we thought the food was good in the North of Italy, we would be in for a big surprise. According to him the best Italian kitchen was the Tuscan kitchen. Toni however panicked; away from Bergamo? Going to a hotel where she had to show Anton's passport and she could not change there as she had done after the flight from Holland. Before she could feign a mortal illness the situation was saved, when Nicola informed us that we would stay with friends. They lived in a big old farm house in the hills that surround Florence and had plenty of rooms for all of us.
During the drive southwards he lectured us that at that time the wine culture in Italy was rapidly changing. Until then it was a cooperative centered production in which all wines were blended into low quality table wines. Now the individual vineyards started to produce their own wines. New rules were introduced to guarantee the purity of the wine. First to arrive was the DOC qualification. It was given to unblended wines made from one kind of grape and coming from one vineyard. Afterwards the IGT qualification was introduced for blended wines.
The weekend was fabulous, Tuscany was fabulous and Florence advanced instantly to one of our favorite cities. The food and wines were like from another planet. I already had tried Fiorentina steaks during my former visits and had told Toni about it. Now we ate them right in the middle of the Canina region. Here we saw the white cows from which this meat originated. Nicola made sure that the meat we ate that evening was the best and from the reaction of Toni I could see that she was impressed.
Maria and I mostly walked behind those two, as Nicola seemed to have only eyes for Toni. I excused myself to Maria but she told me that that was not necessary as she also liked Toni very much. Nicola was just acting like any full blooded Italian man would act with a beautiful woman. But I got along splendidly with Maria, who herself was also a very beautiful woman. The holidays were a success and after we got back to Holland, Italy remained constantly on our minds.
The following years we did not holiday very much as work and other obligations were prohibiting it. On top of that Toni continued to refuse traveling that included too much passport showing. The reason for not returning to Italy was also that we did not want to overburden the family.
A year after my reunion with Toni Robert got his chance to get into the music business. He was helped a little bit by the nearness that the dealer he worked for, had with the companies. He was hired by a company based in Rotterdam. He made a big secret of it and I was taken aback when I only heard of it later from a third party. Our friendship got a dent and was never again as good as it had once been. One of the reasons I turned away rather easily was Toni of course.
The period of time in which that happened was musically without precedence. After the first efforts of the English groups the second wave was mind boggling. From the American side there was still no real answer but The Beach Boys started the next generation of rock albums with Pet Sounds. But the answer from the UK arrived when Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band of the Beatles was released. The Stones denounced one of their best albums being Their Satanic Majesties Request. At that time they probably did not understand themselves what they had created.
The Beach Boys continued their development after Pet Sounds and released the first song of their next album being Good Vibrations. Their new album would become the most talked about album in history with Smile but it would never be finished. Jimi Hendrix even made Eric Clapton look like a beginner. Still Eric was a must for all guitar lovers as were his successors in the Yardbirds. Firstly Jeff Beck and after that Jimmy Page who started Led Zeppelin. The latter group not really needed development as they were a finished product from their beginning and all these acts were only the top of the iceberg.
Toni, although not exactly sharing my obsession for music, had her preferences and all records bought were judged during mutual listening sessions. Those sessions were frequently augmented by visiting friends. It was a time in which many of the mega stars of today were born. I still remember our first listening to the Doors and Love. In 1968 the scene really exploded when the Americans finally found their answer to the English invasion after the Monterey Pop Festival. Now every week we found new treasures. We discovered Vanilla Fudge and the Iron Butterfly, we were awed by The Electric Flag and Blood Sweat and Tears. The Steve Miller Band with Boz Scaggs amongst its members released their first albums. Without any publicity The Band appeared on the scene.
Just to give an idea about the sheer number of goodies here some further examples. Big Brother And The Holding Company with Janis Joplin, Canned Heat, Mamas And Papas, James Taylor, Neil Young , Randy Newman, The Quikcksilver Messenger Service and Spirit from America. But also England was not sitting idle Deep Purple, my all time favorite Family, Fleetwood Mac, Procul Harum and Traffic appeared. Some of them literally from nowhere and all these acts were only the top of the iceberg. Only to try to name all the surprises during that time is sheer impossible.
Two of the groups emerging at that time that did not become mega acts have to be mentioned here however. The first one is Family the English group around Roger Chapman and Charlie Whitney. Their albums were mind boggling from the beginning. Multi instrumental including violin and horns in combination with streaks of Far Eastern and Middle Eastern music. They also had impressions from English and American Folk music in their music. They were also masters of frequent rhythm changes and were praised by every fellow musician and the music press. In America it was Spirit a group around Randy California and his drumming stepfather Ed Cassidy that was known rightly as a musician's favorite. Especially their first two albums are a must for every serious collector.
Toni knew what records I had and sometimes brought home records by artists that I had overseen. We both loved to go to concerts. We attended concerts by Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention with my boss and his wife. During the concert I had the idea that Mr. Zappa and my boss had a special private show going on about an American television program called Captain Fantastic. We saw The Who in a relatively moderate concert in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, moderate as no guitars were smashed in that one. The Beach Boys again in a concert teaming up with Paul Revere & the Raiders for a European tour. Every time John Mayall was in the country we usually went to see him.
To be continued. Your comments are eagerly awaited at: mailtomatt@ymail.com