Musical Novel

Unless Thou Bless Me Chapter 17: Finale

Fantasy on the life of Johann Sebastian Bach

Readers are encouraged to read the entire novel, “Unless Thou Bless Me: A Fantasy of the Life of Johann Sebastian Bach. Each chapter contains links to the previous and following chapters. The link to the previous chapter of Unless Thou Bless Me, Chapter 16 is https://medium.com/new-literary-society/unless-thou-bless-me-chapter-16-return-to-arnstadt-14e9ccc0ec44. This is the final chapter.

The link to the first chapter of “Unless Thou Bless Me” is https://medium.com/new-literary-society/unless-thou-bless-me-chapter-1-ca8bdceba9b0.

Arnstadt, Germany 1706

“Do you, Johann Sebastian Bach, take this woman, Maria Barbara Bach, as your lawfully wedded wife, to love, honor and cherish unto death?”

“I do.”

“And do you, Maria Barbara Bach, take this man, Johann Sebastian Bach, to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love, honor and cherish unto death?”

“I do.”

The Rector of Dornheim stood back from them, and they turned to one another. Johann Sebastian produced the wedding ring.

He gave his vow: “I undertake a new life with you, knowing more plainly than ever my shortcomings and limitations as a man. I can’t promise you that my actions will always be right in your eyes or in God’s, or that the things I say won’t be full of errors.

“But I can tell you that I am as ready to commit myself to you without holding anything back, that I’ll strive to provide a loving home for you and the children that we will bring into the world…”

She extended her hand slightly, looking at him steadily, ecstatically in the eye.

“I too am ready to commit myself to you without reservation. I’ll gladly bear your children, and accept any difficulties that may beset you in the pursuit of your goals, which I value as if they were my own. I look forward with joy and confidence to the solution of any of the problems which mortal men and women face with one another.

They kissed, and he slipped the ring onto her finger.

“I’m ready, Johann Sebastian.”

He swallowed, though there was no saliva in his mouth. Maria Barbara’s head was out of the covers, that was all. Her body as yet was no more than an elongated lump under the bedclothes. He faltered with his buttons as he undressed.

She reached out and touched him on his back.

“Don’t be nervous, Love…I’m not. Not at all.”

He turned to her, looking a little lost. “I — I have this dryness in my throat, Maria…and I seem to be totally incompetent…”

“Don’t worry about competence, Johann. I love you. It will be fine…it will be wonderful.”

He got up from the bed, and with shaking fingers, fingers so sure and steady on the keyboard, he pulled off his clothes. Quickly he got under the blankets, but did not touch her body.

She reached over and pulled lightly on his arm. “Come closer, love…”

As he slid over, she moved under him, and with a profound gasp he lay down on her, feeling an unheard of sensation from this soft woman’s body beneath him. For several minutes, he couldn't move, could hardly breathe.

Then he touched her with his hand. He couldn't believe it. He had somehow to get used to the strangeness of it, the tremendous difference of it from his own in texture and form.

His hand felt her cheek, then her neck and collar, but stopped above her full soft breasts. Though he lay on them, he just couldn’t bring himself to touch them.

“Do you want to try to…”she started to ask.

“I don’t even know where to begin!” he blurted.

“Maybe I can help you,” she volunteered. Talking to married women was a limitless source of intimate information.

She reached down and took his erect, wide, long warmth lightly between two fingers.

“Wh-what are you doing to me?” Again he dry-swallowed.

Now she spread her legs apart, and readied herself to be penetrated, without expertise, yet with that characteristic self-assurance that she had shown on the very first day he ever met her, when she looked over Buxtehude’s cantata. She put his penis between her labia.

“Push forward now, love.”

He did so, into a vagina that was tight, yet warm and receptive. She made a little straining sound in her throat.

“Are you all right?” he asked anxiously.

“Yes…” She kissed him and closed her eyes.

He began to move around, clumsily and arbitrarily at first. His warmth increased in him, spread out from his genitals, up his back, up to the back of his head. He began to breath heavily.

“Oh, God…” he groaned, and came into his own.

For further reading of “Unless Thou Bless Me”:

The link to the first chapter of this novel is https://medium.com/new-literary-society/unless-thou-bless-me-chapter-1-ca8bdceba9b0.

© Kenneth LaPensee, 2025. All rights reserved.

New Literary Society