Storiesonline.net ------- Alterist by Old Fart Copyright© 2009 by Old Fart ------- Description: It was simple - a week in the wilderness, travel from one place to another. And then all hell broke loose. #1 in The Cave in the Wilderness. Codes: mf rom rough ------- ------- Chapter 1 It's not uncommon for an old dog to take off and search out a place to die. I don't know if they don't want to burden their masters or if they just want to end their lives without anyone around. They may not be able to walk across the room with you there, but somehow they find the strength to make it to their final resting place, get as comfortable as they can and give up the ghost. This place reminded me of that. I was deep inside a cave, in a kind of alcove that had widened as I crawled toward the back, exploring. Think of a king size mattress, then add another three feet to the top and you've got an idea of how big the opening was. At the edge of the headboard was a pond. I had a stick I'd been using as a crutch and it didn't touch bottom. The wall I was leaning against seemed to continue into the water but I had no idea how far out the water went in the other direction. I was far enough inside that it was pitch black. I was also pretty sure that the frostbite on my left toes and half the foot had turned gangrenous and a two inch hole I had on my right thigh was infected so I wasn't enthusiastic about doing any more exploration. As I say, I'd found my place. The cave was a godsend. Winters in Montana are pretty raw. I figure it was somewhere between fifteen and twenty outside, not counting the rain that seemed hard enough to consider looking for an ark The first thing I noticed about the cave when I found it was the layer of sand on the floor. It went down about six inches before I hit rock. The next thing I noticed, as I dug into it with my hand was that it was warm. Thirty or forty degrees warmer than it had been outside. As I crawled inside, it smelled fresh. No animals had been in this cave for a long time, if ever. When I got to the alcove and the pond, I could feel warmth coming out of the wall and I could smell something that reminded me of our kitchen when Mom would get on one of her baking sprees. The whole experience of crawling in the cave was like coming into the kitchen in the winter and walking over to the stove to feel its heat. My name's Val Hendrix. I'm seventeen and I was starting shortstop on our school ball team last year and am pretty much a shoe-in for this year. I'm in pretty good shape. My whole life has been spent on a ranch in Montana. We raise horses and cattle as well as a few sheep, goats, pigs and the inevitable chickens. My mom and sister keep a garden where they grow veggies for our table. We aren't completely independent, but we raise a majority of our own food. Let's just say my sister Vicky didn't sprout tits at seven because of the hormones in the grocery store food. She's a couple of years younger than I am, by the way. She's 15 now, and even though she's my sister, I can attest there's nothing wrong with her tits. I'm not sure if I learned to shoot or ride first. I'd bagged a good half dozen coyotes before I started kindergarten. I don't know how many rabbits we've taken out when they thought they could get a free meal in Mom's garden. We've even caught a deer or two. Life on a ranch can be very unforgiving. One of the first things you learn is that it's them or us. And we did our best to make sure it wasn't us. The Palmer ranch is due east of us. Seven miles between houses, provided you skip the road and ride straight across. They raise horses and cattle. Mr. Palmer doesn't hold with wussy animals like sheep and pigs. As far as vegetables are concerned, if he can't get it from a can, he's not interested. He also has a son and a daughter. Jimmy is a year older than I am and was my best friend until my last year in junior high when he went off to high school. Bev is a year behind me and was always trying to hang around us when we were growing up. Sometimes we let her, sometimes we took off so that she couldn't find us and other times their mother forced Jimmy to watch over her. Over the last few years, she and Vicky have been best buds. I don't remember Mrs. Palmer real well. I think I remember her working in her own garden. She died when I was about seven. There was something going on with that; something that my parents didn't think a seven year old should hear. I wasn't allowed to ride over there for a while. I heard things when they didn't know I was around, something about a trial involving Mr. Palmer and some other man. I do know that Mr. Palmer turned mean after she died. You had to watch yourself around him to make sure he didn't blow up for no reason. He's still that way10 years later. Jimmy and I were inseparable when we were kids. The first one done with his chores would head over to the others house and help him finish up. Then we'd pal around. I remember thinking it was the end of the world when his father took him hunting one winter when I was eleven and I was left home for a week. The next year, my father took me out, starting a tradition that's continued to this year. The problems between us started when Jimmy went to high school while I still had a year left in junior high. He'd always been a little wild but then he went out for football and the team all just fed off each other. Most of the team thought they were gods and were due anything they wanted. Jimmy got busted for drinking a few times and was part of a group that went joyriding in the history teacher's new Lexus last Spring. The bunch of them were drinking that day and barely missed a head-on with an oak tree. There was spilled beer and vomit in the car when he finally got it back. The kids had to run a few extra laps at practice as punishment. Of course, it didn't hurt anything to have a football booster for a judge. I know I succumbed to peer pressure a few times before he went off to high school. The elementary and junior high schools were right next to each other, so there was never that separation until he had to go a completely different direction to get to school. But while we were together, there were several times he dared me to do something I knew I shouldn't be doing. I got the "If Jimmy wanted to jump off a bridge" lecture more than once. I saw him a few times my last junior high year. Most of the time he had one or more of his football buddies with him. I was strong enough to have gone out for football when I started high school but decided against it, primarily because of the asshole Jimmy had become. There was no doubt about it in my mind. Jimmy had definitely gone over to the dark side. We hadn't seen a lot of each other over the last four years. My father came to me at the end of the summer and told me about a course that was offered once a year. He pointed out that with the winters in Montana and the way the government was going, learning to live off the land could be valuable. The course consisted of a couple of four hour lectures and then a practical. Teams of two people from the class would be dropped off at the edge of the forest. They would have five days to go eighty miles in the wilderness. They could take anything they could carry, the only exception being no weapons other than a knife. Once they got started, they could make spears, bow and arrows or anything else. Guess who showed up for the first lecture? You guessed it. Jimmy Palmer. We were teamed up, much to my dismay. Our two lectures were on the first two Saturdays in December. The actual trip took place the week between Christmas and New Years. There were five teams; each had different starting and ending points. Mom drove us to the starting point on Sunday in her Suburban. It was about an hour and a half drive. Bev and Vicky were with us, talking about guys in the back seat the whole time. Jimmy and I were in the middle seat but we didn't talk about a whole lot other than what we brought with us. Mom pulled off the freeway into a rest area. This was our designated starting point. The girls got out and we got our backpacks on with their help. Mom brought out a couple of transponders and flipped the switches, turning them on. That was the signal that we were starting our trial. She clipped one on each of our backpacks. "OK, Boys," she said. "It's 1:18, Sunday afternoon." There was $200 for any team that made the 80 miles in less than five days. The winning team got the first prize of $500. The transponders were a big selling point on the course. We were allowed out on our own to fight nature because of them. Through the wonders of GPS technology, we could be spotted to within a meter of our location. If something happened, it would be a piece of cake to find us. No three day searches with a posse and a pack of dogs. They also made it difficult to cheat. Mom hugged both of us. She's big on hugs and can make us enjoy it no matter where we are. I could see Jimmy struggling with it but he let her go through with it. I swear, she could get away with hugging me and my date at the prom if she wanted to. You just can't say no to Mom. Vicky hugged me while Bev attempted to hug her brother, only to get pushed away after a second or so. She moved over to me and jumped at me, wrapping her arms and legs around me, squashing her body as close as she could, resting her head on my chest for a few seconds. Without thinking, I grabbed onto her to keep her from falling. "You better come back to me," she said, sniffling and swiping at her nose with the back of her mitten. Now, you've got to realize, this came totally out of the blue. Bev and I have had almost nothing to do with each other our whole lives. When we were younger, she was with Jimmy, even if I was right there with them. Nowadays, she was with Vicky all the time. We said Hi when we saw each other but that's about as far as it got. I mumbled "OK" and she let me go, running back to the car. I wasn't so far out of it that I didn't recognize there was a real woman under that parka, not the skinny little girl I always thought of when I thought of Bev. She turned and waved hesitantly, then got into the car. It was 100 yards from where we parked to the first trees of the forest that was going to be our home for the next week. Jimmy had taken off and was halfway there. I smiled and gave a quick wave at the faces looking at me from the car, then hustled to catch up. He slowed down enough so I could catch up but I was still a good fifty feet into the woods before I did. "Wait a minute, let me check out the map, will ya?" "Whatever." He sat down on a fallen tree. I reached back and pulled out my waterproof map and my compass. Just as I thought, the path we'd been taking was almost thirty degrees off. I pointed to the left. "We need to head in that direction." "Whatever you say, Columbus." As Jimmy talked about himself, which, by the way, is his favorite subject, I was glad he and I went our different ways back then. I matured on my own, without his influence. I had my share of girlfriends and I'm happy to say I treated every one of them with respect. We messed around and a very good friend and I gave our virginities to each other last summer. There have been others since but there have also been girls I didn't take all the way. Each girl was an individual to me, with feelings. I don't believe I forced anyone into doing something she didn't want to do and it makes me feel good to be able to say that. Jimmy, on the other hand, seemed to think that females were receptacles for his and the rest of the team's sperm. Once they'd fulfilled that function, they were discarded until the next time they were desired. And once they were used, they were always considered available, no matter how they felt about it. He referred to them as cunts or whores or bitches, never as girls or women. It was all bad but I think the story that pushed him beyond redemption as far as I was concerned was about a girl a year behind me in school. She was always trying to be popular but never quite making it. There were a lot of jokes made about her by the in crowd. Somehow she ended up in the football locker room with one of Jimmy's buddies. She was bent over, holding onto one of the benches while he fucked her from behind. Jimmy decided he was ready for some fun and stood in front of her, dropping his pants. He held his cock in front of her face. "OK," she said. "Just tell me when you're gonna come. Please?" "Yeah, sure, Baby," he told her as he stuck his cock in her mouth. Jimmy went on to explain how he and his buddy made it a game, his buddy slamming into her, pushing her forward, then Jimmy thrusting till she gagged and pulled away from him. He had two fists full of her hair so she couldn't get get completely away. He kept pushing harder and harder each time until he felt the blockage at the back of her mouth give way a little. By now he was almost ready to come and kept it up, pushing a little further each thrust. He put his hands behind her head, wrapped the fingers together and yanked her head towards him on his next thrust. As he felt her defenses give way and plunged down her throat, he said, "Here it comes, Bitch." They left her lying across the bench, a puddle of vomit in front of her and a combination of blood and semen leaking out of her. They headed out to smoke a joint and sent a trio of players in after her. What Jimmy didn't mention was that she never came back to school. I recall hearing rumors that she'd tried to kill herself around the time he was talking about. There were also rumors that her parents had sent her away to finish school somewhere else when she got out of the hospital. Jimmy didn't mention the suicide attempt or her leaving town. I doubt he was even aware of them. If he had been, he would have had some stupid remark about it being what the bitch deserved or something like that. His whole attitude while telling the story was one of amusement. Just another good time for Jimmy and his football buddies. We didn't have a lot to say to each other the rest of the afternoon. A half hour after his story, I figured it was time to set up camp. The forest consisted primarily of close together pine trees. The trunks ranged from 16" to four feet in diameter. Twice this afternoon we heard what sounded like a branch breaking, followed by a thunderclap and a loud thump as built up snow in the branches grew too heavy and came crashing down to the ground. The first was off in the distance but the second was less than a dozen yards away. A couple of good sized branches came down with the snow, making me glad it was over there and not where we were. The trees were so plush that the forest took on its own climate. Much of the snow that was falling never made it to the ground. There were areas where a gap in the trees allowed it to pile up and the collapsing masses created their own dunes and drifts. Other areas were covered in pine needles with the occasional cone thrown in. The sun, what little there was of it in the end of December, filtered through enough to provide some light but rarely any warmth. The trees, however, kept the winds out and acted as insulation, slightly reducing the biting cold that was outside. We had a couple of hours till sunset. I had no idea how long we'd have light. I told Jimmy I thought we should find a place to camp for the night and got his standard "Whatever." He didn't fight me on gathering firewood and actually did a decent job. We went in different directions and both had a good supply when we met back at the camp. We worked at getting our tents set up, then I got the fire going. I had enough freeze dried food to live off the whole week if I needed to. I also had some fishing line and an assortment of hooks as well as a net. There was a river a couple of miles to the south of us that more or less paralleled our route. I don't think it would be open enough to follow, at least not as easily as it was to walk where we were, but I wanted to check it out, get some fish and replenish my water supply. Funny how I was thinking me and mine now, instead of us and ours. Mom made me a great breakfast of eggs, bacon and pancakes and we stopped off for burgers a half hour or so before we got to the departure point. I'd eaten a couple of energy bars a couple of hours ago so one portion of freeze dried stew was plenty for me. Jimmy ate a couple of his. I had about half my canteen left and decided to use it for coffee in the morning, then get some snow for the next day. I'd made up my mind that I was going to check out the river. If Jimmy wanted to come with me, fine. If not, good riddance. Any thoughts of us working as a team, either to win a prize or even make it to the destination point were pretty much gone. If we got there together, it would be as two individuals. I took my camp shovel and toothbrush with me, found a place to squat, brushed my teeth and made my way back to the tent. I didn't see Jimmy when I got back so I stripped down and got into my Arctic sleeping bag. I was pretty wiped so it didn't take long to fall asleep at all. I was almost out when I recalled a time a few months ago when Bev was over at our place, hanging out with Vicky. I was going somewhere with Dad and was just getting in his pickup when the two of them came out of the barn, laughing about something. Bev looked at me and the sun caught her just right so that her eyes and teeth just sparkled, her hair lit up like liquid gold. She had a smile on her face, one that said she knew something that I didn't. I stumbled getting into the truck and by the time I paid attention to what the hell I was doing and got in, they had their arms around each other, their backs to me and were laughing about something, probably me. But that look she gave me when she looked up at me. That was the last thing I thought about before I fell asleep. ------- I got up before dawn. Jimmy was still sawing logs. I coaxed the fire back to life and used most of the water in my canteen to fill my two cup coffeepot, then went in search of snow with my one quart pot in hand. There weren't any massive piles so it was a matter of scooping up a partial handful or two, putting it in the pot and moving to the next place. I got back just in time to see Jimmy pour the last of the coffee in his mug. "Sorry, Bud," he said to me. He didn't look sorry. I almost lost it and called him an asshole right there. But we had almost a week to go and I didn't know how the judges would take it if we split up. And there was always the chance he go off on me. I didn't know him well enough to be sure he wouldn't. Since he had a half a foot and sixty pounds on me, I decided not to court trouble. I put my pot on a rock near the fire to melt, then went into my tent and ate my breakfast. Mom had given me some trail mix and a couple of biscuits on my way out the door yesterday. I came out of the tent just in time to see Jimmy pouring the water from my pot on the fire. He kicked some dirt over it and said, "Come on, Val. We need to get going." Shit. I had less than a cup of water in my canteen. I kept my mouth shut and broke camp. We headed in a general westerly direction and every once in a while I could feel the sun on my back. Not enough to heat me up, just enough to let me know it was there. Jimmy didn't say much. He may have realized he'd gone too far or it may have been something else. I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. A couple of hours into the hike we came upon a clearing. The sun felt good without all the trees in the way. I saw a stand of blueberry bushes off to the left and headed that way. "Where you goin'?" "Blueberries," I said, pointing. "Wuss food." "So, what are you going to do? Keep eating that freeze dried crap? Did you bring enough for the whole week?" "Don't you worry about me, Youngster. I've got it all under control." "Yeah, well, I'm gonna get me some of that wuss food." I pulled the map out of the backpack and spread it on the ground. I had my compass attached to a lanyard around my neck and pulled that out. We were doing pretty good. There was a mountain pretty close to the direction we were traveling and it was in the right direction. I put the map away and continued towards the berries. I ate enough to handle my appetite but not enough to give me the shits and filled up my pot. I was just fixing a plastic lid to it when I heard a gunshot. My first thought was that someone was hunting in the area, then I recognized it. God knows I'd heard that gun enough. Jimmy's father got him a replica Colt 45 for his twelfth birthday. He always wore his gun when we went out riding. He was always shooting cans or any other convenient target. He'd gotten a few snakes, too. "Jimmy?" I yelled. "Yeah?" He was over on the other side of the clearing. "You brought your six shooter?" "You just go ahead and eat those berries, Val." "Jimmy, you know the rules said no guns." "Fuck the rules. The only rule I give a fuck about is the one that says we've got to survive. There ain't no McDonald's out here and I ain't gonna eat no fuckin' berries and I'll be damned if I'm gonna build snares when all I need to do is point and click and my dinner drops right in front of me. Hey, that's pretty funny. Point and click. Look at me. I got my own internet out here in the woods." I was watching Jimmy as he was talking. The way he looked made me wonder about his sanity. As I made my way across the clearing, he headed on into the woods. Once I got to the end of the clearing, I heard him making noises about twenty feet in. I took care as I made my way over there. He was squatting down, starting a fire. Off to the left was a rabbit. Once he got the fire going, he got out his skinning knife and took care of the rabbit. He soon had it on a stick, over the fire. "You gonna want some of this?" he asked me. "Nah, I think I'll just stick to the rules. I'm sure I'll get enough to eat. There's a stream a mile of so south of here I'd like to hit this afternoon. Maybe get some fish." "Shit. You and your goddamn rules. You really are a wuss, you know that Val? Fuck, I shoulda known that forever. Anyone with a name like Valentino has to be a fuckin' wuss. Or a fag. You a fag, Valentino?" "Just because I don't want to cheat doesn't make me a fag. Look, Jimmy, I'm going to play it straight, just the way we were told to. I think we should stick together until it's over. But I don't think I'm going to want to have a hell of a lot to do with you after this is over." "Oh, be still my beating heart. What makes you think I'd want to have anything to do with you, you wuss? Shee-it. You know what your problem is? You're still back in fuckin' junior high school, that's what your problem is. You never fuckin' grew up. It's about time you got some balls. You want to go the rest of the week together, I'll live with it. But if you get in my way or you slow me up, all bets are off. The last thing I need is some fairy holding me back." He ate the rabbit like the animal he was and I took a drink of water. It was just about gone. I took another look at the map and realized that following the stream would put us fairly close to our destination. I couldn't tell from the map how difficult it would be to travel it without a raft. And I didn't want to put a raft in water that was just this side of freezing. "I'm going to head over to the stream. We may be able to follow it all the way." "Whatever," he said, kicking dirt over his campfire. He belched, took a piss on the smoking wood, belched again and wiped his hands on a patch of snow on the ground. "Well?" I headed back across the meadow towards the stream. We were about ten minutes into the woods when I heard a Bic lighter, then heard him sucking pot deep into his lungs. I knew he and his buddies used pot but I had no idea how he reacted when he was under its influence. And he had his gun. I kept going and heard the sound of running water. This wasn't any small stream. I exited the trees and saw what looked like a valley. I could see the land drop on our side and see it continue on the other. The water must be down there. It was. As I got to the edge, I looked down and saw a decent sized river flowing rapidly. There were chunks of ice in it, attesting to how cold it was. I looked in both directions and didn't see any easy way down to it, short of using a rope. Once I got down there, it didn't look like there would be anyplace to stand other than in the river. Even if there was, climbing back up a rope in this cold with gloves on was almost impossible. To make things worse, I could see a fish jump out of the water occasionally, tempting me to tempt fate. I sat up, took off my gloves, putting them in my lap, and dragged out my map. I just started looking for another source of water when I heard a whoop. Jimmy was running across the clearing as if he was going to jump over the edge. I saw his backpack on the ground back near the forest. I'd just gotten to my feet, spilling the gloves and the map on the ground when he jumped up and grabbed a horizontal branch. He started swinging back and forth like some demented gymnast. He'd just started forward again, releasing his grip, then getting a better one when I heard a crack. I could see the branch bent at an impossible angle, Jimmy coming up on his swing. Depending on when that branch broke through, he was either going to go completely over the edge or he was going to come down on his back, probably right at the edge of the cliff. He could break his back and end up in the water anyway. Or, he could end up in the water and probably break his back because of the fall. I was moving towards him. I didn't think about it; the body just snapped into action. Jimmy had finally realized what was happening and his eyes were impossibly large. He'd finally realized his immortality was a myth and he was scared. I jumped, going up at an angle, trying to cut him off. There went another crack and I saw the branch twisting as Jimmy let go. The branch fell to the ground, hanging by a thread as Jimmy continued toward the edge, feet first like an upside down and backward Superman. At the last second, I was able to reach up and grab his heels with my fingertips. I gave it everything I had and pushed. ------- Chapter 2 For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction. I think it was Isaac Newton that came up with that. Whoever it was, he was right. Nothing like proving it in the middle of winter over a raging river. There I was, playing hero, trying to save a stoned asshole from going over a cliff, thereby cleansing the gene pool. As soon as I pushed back on his feet, I felt my arms move. Since I happened to be mid-air at the time, my whole body moved along with them. It was a 70 foot fall. I'd call it a cliff but it wasn't quite vertical. It was a very steep slope. Very steep. It's rather fascinating to take a fall like that. I don't know if it's evolution or something the first cave man was born with but there's a built-in imperative to save yourself, along with a mechanism to help do just that. I didn't waste the trip down to the river looking over my life. The time actually increased, expanding what was probably under two seconds at 32 feet per second per second into what seemed like several minutes. Time is relative. Einstein. I hit about a third of the way down. The surface was mostly dirt, though I could see some rocks in it, plus some sparse vegetation. It floated toward me, giving me plenty of time to plan my impact. I could feel the weight of my backpack, pushing me faster, though I know that was impossible. A tennis ball falls just as fast as a sack of sugar. I thought about my gloves, up at the top of the cliff now, doing me absolutely no good. I saw a weed, short tufts all around with some longer ones, up to five or six inches sticking out. I got my right hand into position to grab onto it, laying my left arm across my chest to reduce the impact when I hit. I thought about my down-filled parka, glad that it was cold enough for me to be wearing it, thinking about how it would cushion me when I slammed into the ground. There was an impulse to pull my head away, protecting my face from the fall. But if I did that, I wouldn't be able to see that weed. Right now, that weed was the only hope I had. I wasn't kidding myself about surviving in the raging river beneath me. I figured I had about one chance in a hundred that the weed would hold me. One chance I wouldn't have if I didn't go for it. It almost worked out perfect. I came down and my open hand was four or five inches above the weed. I slid down and grabbed it. I could actually feel it slow me down as my face came down and my right cheek scraped across the dirt and rocks. I was falling pretty fast when I came down and was carrying a lot of weight with that backpack on me. You add the two of those and come up with something. I know there's a scientific term for it but for now, I'll just call it oomph. At that speed, with my weight plus the backpack's, I just had too much oomph for that poor weed. I may have slowed down a fraction, but I sort of bounced and continued falling with a scraped up face and a good portion of that stupid weed in my hand. I could see I was going to hit again and this time there were several rocks that were sizable enough to cause some major hurt. Time was still slowed down and I was able to work my feet around so they were pointed toward the cliff. I kept them bent until I got close, then pushed off. I timed it right and did a good job of protecting my body from the dirt and rocks. It did nothing about protecting me from the icy water, though. I floated down on my back, looking up at the sky. What I could see of it, that is. It was really overcast. I didn't notice Jimmy so I don't know if he was up there or not. I could sense the water getting closer and closer. I was trying to figure out whether it would be better for me to be relaxed when I hit or tensed up. I was just about convinced I should relax and go with the flow when my body tensed up all on its own a split second before I hit the water. Talk about weird. It was like I was attached to my body by a bunji cord. No, more like I was wrapped around it and could expand. I felt myself hit, then it was like my body was pushing the water away from it, making a hole. That hole splashed out all around me like the biggest cannonball by the fattest kid you can imagine. I felt the backpack slam into me and that's when it felt like I bounced up so I became bigger than my body. I don't think I was out even a second before I slammed back. I was out of it; I felt dull, not there. That ended real quick when I went under and felt that freezing water on my face. Up till then, I'd been doing OK because of my parka and my jeans. As soon as my face went under, I started sputtering and tried to bend, getting my face out of the water. It didn't work, it was like I was being pulled deeper into the water. I struggled for a while until I realized that the backpack was probably dragging me down. I struggled, got my right arm free, then my left and I was able to get back to the surface. I even rolled over so I was right side up. I'd just taken a good, deep breath when I caught something white out of the corner of my eye. Then, my face smashed into a huge chunk of ice. And then, nothing. ------- I heard someone yelling at me. "Val. You promised. You said you'd come back to me. Come on. Wake up. Get out of that water." I hurt. Oh, God, I hurt so bad. It was like every bone in my body was broken. But the worst part was that I was being shaken. Like someone had strapped me into one of those shaker things they put paint cans in when they custom mix the paint to match the bedspread you got from Aunt Agnes. And I could hear the wire handle on the paint can banging against something, maybe five times a second. I wanted to yell for them to turn it off but I couldn't make my mouth work. I thought about Jimmy. He was probably laughing to himself about what a loser I was. Then I tried to figure out where I was. It sure didn't seem like heaven but hell couldn't be this cold. I thought about Limbo, but that was old news. What was it they announced about Limbo? "Sorry, we were just kidding for the past thousand years." Something like that. Where was I? And what was that damned shaking and that noise? Something rough and slimy hit me in the face. What the fuck? I took a chance and opened my eyes. I saw a cloudy sky and looked around. I was wedged up against a boulder and the shoreline of the river. The water was still flowing over me but it wasn't flowing at the tremendous rate it was farther out. I saw a fish jump over me, just missing the boulder. That must be what hit me in the face. I lifted my head up, then tried my arms one at a time, then my legs. Nothing extensive but I didn't think there were any major breaks. The first thing I should do was get out of the fuckin' river, I supposed. No. First, take a good drink of water, then get out. I bent my arms and pushed down on my hands, trying to lift my body. My right hand slipped off the rock it was on and my body twisted as I fell to the right. I went over the rest of the way and started to crawl out. When I got to the side, I took my drink of water. The river was about three feet lower than the shore line. I made my way over to a thick root that was going into the water. The dirt around it was gone, probably eroded at high tide or when the ice melted or whenever the water got higher. I just about wore myself out climbing out of the water and I rolled over on my back, trying to catch my breath and relax some. I looked over to the left and could see some light spots through the clouds. The sun was going down so that means that direction was west. Where the destination point was. No time for that today. It was getting dark. I had to get some wood, make a fire, put up my tent, get out of these wet clothes, get some food in my belly. FUCK! I had no tent, no food, no matches. I reached down to my side and felt the empty holder where my knife had been. I had nothing. I went to stand up and it was like I was being pulled back. After struggling for a while, it finally hit me that my down-filled parka was waterlogged. I worked my arms out of it and was able to sit up. I looked behind me and the parka looked like the Michelin guy. Only it was water, not air. My teeth were chattering like -- like one of those paint shaker things. That's what I'd felt in the water. Me shivering, my teeth chattering. I was basically freezing my ass off. I got to my knees, then tried to stand up. The first thing that happened is that my left foot collapsed and I ended up on my face. I had no feeling in the foot. I looked back at it and noticed for the first time that there was no boot on it. I quickly checked and found the boot on the right one. I was all set to start crawling, then thought better. The clothes I had on weren't going to do me any good. They were all soaked through. If I left them out, there was a chance that some of the water would drain off. Maybe out in the open like this, the early morning sun could do something. I started stripping. My shirt and my winter undershirt came off just fine. I bent my leg and looked at the foot. The toes looked all glassy, as did most of the foot. If I knew my symptoms, I had a hell of a case of frostbite. Well, there wasn't a lot I could do about it. I undid my boot and worked it off using my left heel. I was able to get the sock off without any trouble. The toes and the foot looked good. I checked out both hands, then felt and pinched my nose and my ears. It seemed that the left foot was the only casualty. I felt some pain in my right leg, the lower back of the thigh. I twisted around enough to see a rip with a stick, maybe an inch around sticking out about two and a half inches. The pants had turned burgundy around the rip. It went up a couple of inches but the blood had flowed downward about six or so. I grabbed hold of the stick the best I could and pulled it out. If a guy screams in the forest and nobody hears him, did he really scream? I heard it. Hell, I felt it. One good thing. Pulling off the clothes I had was enough to stop the shivering. Not that I was warm. It was probably somewhere in the low 20s. And I imagine there had been some chemical reaction in my body when I yanked that stick out of my leg that took my mind off being cold for a bit. I undid my jeans and was able to work them down and off. I looked at the wound where the stick had been and it was just seeping a little blood, not what I would call bleeding. I suppose the smart thing would have been to make my way back into the river and wash it out but I didn't have the energy to make the trip and was afraid that getting in that cold water would be worse for me than any gain I could get from it. I'd heard somewhere that urine is sterile when it comes out of the body. I had to pee and it was worth a try. It was better than nothing. I can't imagine a more inconvenient place to be wounded. It was about two inches above the inside of my knee. I had no trouble finding it with my fingers, but seeing much of it was difficult, to put it mildly. I twisted myself around and rested my cock on my leg, trying to aim it in the right direction. With the wound on the bottom of my leg, there was no way to hold it and point. I used two hands to guide the stream. I made a kind of a wall at the top of my thigh to make the stream go over the side, then used my other hand as a cup, to gather and hold the urine in the wound as long as I could. I did a good job, too good judging from the amount of stinging and pain. But I did wash it out and when I leaned over and checked it out, the seeping had stopped. At least for now. I rolled over and crawled into the woods on my hands and knees. It was eight to ten feet to get to the trees and I went in another fifteen feet. I don't know why, in fact I wasn't consciously aware of doing it but for some reason, I had my remaining hiking boot with me, on my right hand. I used it to rake pine needles and I soon had a pile a bit bigger than my body and about a foot and a half high in the center. I sat down in the middle of it, worked my legs underneath, covering them the best I could, then built myself a hole and ended up completely covered. I don't know how warm it really was but it felt like I was in my room under my comforter after being in that river. Tonight I needed to get some rest and some warmth. Tomorrow I'd figure out a way to get out of here before I froze to death. Suddenly my survival trek took on more meaning. For now, I slept. ------- "Watch me swing!" I looked up and there was Bev, swinging on a tire hanging down from a branch of the big oak tree behind her back porch. "I bet I can touch the sky!" She looked cute in her care bear tee shirt and her pink shorts, a few inches of her belly visible between them. She had white tennies with pink tassels on the shoelaces. She looked to be five years old. She also appeared to be showing off, hanging on with one hand and leaning back as far as she could. "Are your mom and dad OK with you swinging like that?" I asked her. She was twisting around as well as going back and forth. She let it untwist so she could look at me before she answered. "Daddy put the swing up here for me. Mommy just said to be careful." "So, where are they?" "They went into town. They won't be back till dinner." "What about Jimmy?" "He's out riding one of the new horses." "Well, OK, if you're sure." "I am." She kept swinging back and forth, pumping her body to make herself go higher and higher. I backed up a bit so she wouldn't hit me. "Betcha I can jump out as far out as you are." "Bev, I don't think that's a very good idea." "Why not? You're right there. You can catch me." "I don't know. What if I drop you?" "You won't." She started coming back in my direction as I called out "Beehhhvvv," and I saw her push off as she got to the top of the arc. Her attention suddenly shot down to her feet and I could see one of them was dragging on the inside of the tire. Instead of jumping toward me, she fell, almost straight down. I'm not sure how high up she was but I know it was way over my head. I ran as fast as I could, trying to save her. I could see the look on her face, a look of fear, an "Oh, shit, what have I done now" look as she tried to hold back the tears and reached out for me. Our fingers touched just before she hit. She landed on the ground and she slid. Her knees took a lot of punishment and so did her hands and her upper arms. Her face ground into the dirt, too, her right cheek. I felt so bad for her. She was trying to cry and her body was hiccuping at the same time. I knew enough to check and see if anything was broken, then I picked her up as gently as I could. She held on to me, her arms around my neck. "Oh, Val, I hurt," she sobbed as I carried her up the porch and into the kitchen. I sat her down on the counter next to the sink and yelled out for some help. "They're gone." "Oh, yeah. I forgot." "Help me, Val. Please." I thought about what my mother did when I scraped myself up. She was big on cleaning. Cleaning out the dirt and then putting something on it, like Bactine. "Can you stand up?" "I don't know. I don't think so." "OK. Tell you what. Let's see if we can get you up on the counter and I'll try and wash some of that dirt off you." "OK." We got her on the counter but it was a struggle. I was probably six at the time and she was a lot of weight for me to be carrying at that age. It's surprising that I was able to just pick her up and carry her up the steps and into the kitchen. I guess you do what you've got to do. "I'm going to need something to wash you off with. A washcloth or something." "In the hallway. The closet across from the bathroom." I ran over there. The closet had two doors that swung out. It was almost as tall as I was and had all kinds of shelves. I saw sheets and blankets and towels and ... there they were. I grabbed a few washcloths and a couple of towels, too. I got some warm water in the sink, taking care not to get it too hot. "Bev, I'll do the best I can not to hurt you." "I know. I trust you, Val." I got the cloth wet, then, as gently as I could, I patted one of her knees. I rested my left hand on her leg as I did it and she reached down and held onto it. I put the cloth into the water and wrung it out a couple of times. We could see the dirt I'd gotten from the knee mixing in with the clean water. Again, I did the same only this time I held my hand up for her to take. I don't know how long we were there but I worked on both knees, the other scrapes on her legs, her arms and finally her cheek. The water was almost black by now. "Bev, we got a lot of it but I can see there's more. I don't want to rub it but this just isn't getting it all. Maybe if we put you in the bathtub..." "OK. Help me get down." It was a struggle getting her off the counter. I finally pushed her into the cupboards and sort of slid her down. Once she was on the floor, she took a couple of tentative steps, then put her arm around my shoulders, using me as a crutch. When we got to the bathroom, she said, "Val, I've got to pee." "OK. I'll wait outside until you're done." "Val, I need help." I got her over to the toilet and helped her lower her shorts and sit down. I went over to the tub and started filling it. There was a box of bubble bath near the tub and I poured some of that in. She had me take off her clothes while she sat on the toilet. The socks and shoes were easy enough but getting her clothes off without irritating the scrapes was tough. Soon there was a naked girl in front of me. I'd seen Vicky plenty of times but this seemed different. Any improper thoughts evaporated as soon as she asked me to help her get up. We made it to the tub, then I helped her get in the water. I helped her with her face but she was able to reach everything else. She felt better as the hot water did its number and she bent her knees to reach them. I added hot water a couple of times as the tub cooled down. Finally, after about 20 minutes, she told me she had enough. I took out the stopper so the tub would drain and used a cup to rinse her off. She stood in the tub with one hand on my shoulder as I dried her off, taking care not to annoy her wounds. I helped her get over to the toilet and dropped the cover so she could sit on it. "Could you get my robe off my bed, please?" "Sure. Your room's on the same side as Jimmy's, right?" "Yeah, just past it." It was the first time I'd been in her room. Lots of pink, lots of stuffed animals. A Tigger bedspread, Pooh sheets and pillow cases. A pink robe had been tossed across the bottom of the bed. I was squatting on the floor in front of the toilet, her foot on my leg, spraying Bactine on her knee when her mom came to the door. I'm sure I would have seen everything Bev had to show if I looked up, but my attention was on helping my friend. Her mom watched us for a minute and smiled at me. "Thanks, Val. I'll take it from here." "OK. I didn't get the other knee or her face yet." "I'm sure I'll be fine. Thank you." I looked at Bev as I stood. "Take care. I hope you're better soon." "Thanks, Val." From the way she said it, I knew she was thanking me for more than the good wishes; she was thanking me for all I'd done for her. "It's OK. Take care. I'll see you." Her mother said, "Thank you, Val" as I walked out the door. "Anybody would have done the same thing," I said. "You'd be surprised," she said, then turned back to her daughter. Her mom and mine talked on the phone that night and I was made into some kind of hero. My parents both told me they were proud of me. That lasted till the next time I screwed up. ------- I woke up, surprised how vividly I recalled that dream. Of course, it was more a memory than a dream. But it was one I'd pretty much forgotten about. The one thing that kept nagging at me was how different the girl who jumped in my arms felt than the skinny five year old I nursed over a decade ago. ------- Chapter 3 As soon as I sat up, dumping pine needles all around me, I felt the cold. First things first, though. I had to pee. I took stock of my body. The right leg felt tight where I'd pulled out the stick. I'd have to take it easy on that so I didn't open up the wound. My left foot felt dead. I mean, it wasn't numb, it wasn't the normal feeling of no feeling, it wasn't asleep, there was more nothingness there. I rolled over and crawled to the nearest tree. There was a stick on the ground that looked like it would work as a crutch. It even had a bend at the top so I could rest it under my shoulder. I used it and the trunk to get to my knees, then I watered the ground. It seemed to go on forever. I stood up the rest of the way and hobbled out to where I'd laid out my clothes. The parka was still puffed up. Stupid thing probably wouldn't be dry until summer. My two shirts were stiff. I put them on and felt some moisture but it was a lot better than standing there bare-ass naked. My jeans were a lot wetter but that's to be expected. They take forever to dry in the dryer so I figured laying them out on a freezing night wasn't going to do the job. I had one sock and that went on over the dead foot. The toes looked almost petrified. Not good. I tied the shoelaces of my remaining boot together and slung it around my neck. I had no idea what I'd use it for but I'd already lost almost everything and decided I was going to keep whatever I could. I could get along without food but I knew I had almost no chance of surviving without water. I decided to follow the river. I might luck out and see some berries along the way. Plus, there was always the chance I'd get lucky and catch a fish or two. It was slow going with the crutch. I couldn't really put any weight on my left foot and that slowed me down considerably. After five miles or so, there was a real shore, almost a beach along the river. I struggled down the four foot slope and walked near the river. Sometimes the forest would come right up to the edge of the beach, others there were ten or fifteen feet of open space. It wasn't a white sand tropical beach by any means. There were lots of rocks, from skip along the water size up to mini boulders. They almost made it an obstacle course. Of course, before I got going, I spread out on one and took a good drink. Not as easy as it sounds. It's tough to get water from a river to your mouth with your hands. I tried putting my face in the water and drinking that way. For about a half a second. The water was colder than I remembered it being when I woke up. Probably because I had a chance to get acclimated to it after falling into it and being swept downstream who knows how many miles. I wasn't willing to put forth the effort to get used to it today. I did find a little pond that had been dug out somewhere along the line. I could see four or five fish swimming around in it and they looked tempting. Kind of a fish rest stop, I guess. I stood near the edge of it and took aim, then shoved my crutch into the water. It bent as soon as it hit the water, going in one direction while the fish went in the other. Have to take refraction into account, Val. OK, I could do that. I waited a few minutes and a few more came in out of the rapids. I saw one out a little further than my hands could reach, plenty close for me to get with the stick. I took the refraction into account and aimed a little far, then pushed the end of the stick in the water. The fish just leisurely swam away a couple of feet while my crutch hit a soft spot and went in half way. I ended up in the pond and was lucky to get out before I froze to death. I got up on the shore and sat down on a rock. The stupid boot had filled with water and was leaking on me so I reached behind my neck and pulled the shoelace up. I was all set to dump it when I realized there was a fish in there. Not huge, maybe half the size of my foot. But it was a fish and I was starving. Where I was, there was maybe five feet of shore, then a wall four feet high, then five or six feet of clearing before the trees started. I hobbled over to the wall and set the boot with the fish in it on the high ground, almost as far back as I could reach. Then I looked around and got a couple of decent rocks. One of them was kind of like a squashed football only the ends were more rounded. The other fit in my hand. I tried to dump the fish out onto the big rock so I could smash it with the one in my hand. No such luck. He did stay up on the high ground, though he was flopping around like crazy. I gave up on trying to grab him with my left hand and tried pounding him with the rock, instead. I hit the body and must have broken his spine because he wasn't jumping. He was still trying to get away, though. I held him down with the rock, then grabbed him by the tail and put him on the big rock. I pounded on his head a couple of times and he stopped moving. I went back near the river and sat down. I was able to get the head off after working on it for a while, then I got my hands down inside and opened it up. I scooped out all the guts and tossed it all into the river. I'm sure somebody in there had a good meal. I just wasn't that hungry. Yet. The backbone was accessible now and I eased it and a good portion of its skeleton out. That went in the river, then I rinsed off the two fillets, took a deep breath and bit into it. I've never had sushi so I don't know how this fish rated against the stuff they charge the big bucks for. The very thought of eating raw fish had made me a little ill when people would talk about it before. But I'll tell you, this stuff was great. I'm sure that the fact I was starving had a lot to do with it. I'll tell you one thing. You'll never have fish any fresher than what I had. I ate all I could, then tossed the tail into the water. I put my hands in the water and washed them off, then did what I could with my face. I hobbled back to the wall, got my boot and dipped it in the water. I made a hell of a better cup than my hands. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. The sun had passed its zenith before I started messing with the fish. It had to be after 2:00. I got my crutch and started walking near the river. About a half hour later I saw some bushes up near the trees. I made my way up there and discovered that they were raspberries. I ate my fill, then put some in my boot for later. I was thirsty after eating and used my hands again since the boot was full. I was getting better or I wasn't as thirsty as before because it seemed a lot easier this time. I kept going. I'd been keeping an eye on the sky and it didn't look good. There were some dark clouds making their way towards me and the last thing I wanted was to be caught in a storm. I wanted to find a place other than the forest to spend the night. I came around a curve and saw a small mountain off in the distance. There were some dark areas that I was sure were caves. That became my goal. With a real sense of purpose, I headed that way, feeling good about myself. That's when I felt the first few drops of rain. A little over a half hour later I was at the base of the mountain. It was no Everest, but the nearest cave looked about 500 feet up. The rain was coming down hard and I was soaked. The mountain was mostly dirt, which was now mostly mud. Most of the climb was made on my knees. I don't know how long it took but there were a couple of times I felt like rolling up in a ball and letting the elements have their way with me. I had just slid thirty or forty feet on my belly in the mud. I was not looking forward to climbing it again when there was a flash of lightning. It was close enough that I could feel the sizzle in the air and the thunderclap that accompanied it was almost immediate. Shit! It must have been closer than I thought. It actually blinded me. All I could see was an image of what had been there at the moment of the flash. And what was there was an opening I hadn't seen before. Still blind, I felt my way over to it and I found my cave. Warm, comfortable, fresh smelling. My cave. The storm was long forgotten as I took off my wet clothes and explored deeper until I found my alcove and my pond. I smelled something rotting. I did some crawling around, trying to find it. Whatever it was was always behind me. I finally worked my frostbitten foot closer and realized that was the smell. The last step before death or amputation was gangrene. I reached back to the hole in my other leg. It felt hot. I knew it was infected. There was room to sit up and I ate my berries, naked, in the dark. They might be my last meal. I reconciled myself to making this alcove my final resting place. It was almost as if it was designed for me. I dipped my empty boot in the water and drank from it. The water was sweet and warm, better than any water I could remember. I rolled over and poured the rest on the hole in the back of my leg, then scooted closer and let my infected foot soak in the water. I could feel the hole in my leg doing something. It was almost as if it was sizzling, like when you pour peroxide on an open wound. It was too dark to see what was happening. Then my foot started burning, almost like I'd stuck it in acid. Good. Maybe it would burn the fucker off so it couldn't kill me. I didn't believe it but it was a nice thought. I woke up with a start. I was leaning back against the wall. My leg and foot didn't seem to be reacting to the water. What I'd give for Jimmy's Bic so I could check them out. I moved back into the alcove and lay down on my back. The sand made a good cushion and I said a quick prayer, begging for survival before I fell asleep. ------- I was sitting on my first horse with my first .22 rifle in my hands. Jimmy was sitting next to me. He had a rifle too but it was holstered next to his saddle. I shot and killed the rabbit nibbling away in Mom's garden. Bev was flying off the tire, her arms waving in the air, as if she was swimming or trying to catch hold of something, something to keep her from hitting the ground. "Help me, Val," she cried. She came out of the barn with my sister and she gave me that look and that smile. She wasn't skinny anymore. Then I stumbled and she and my sister wrapped their arms around each other and walked away, laughing. Dad and I were riding as our dog Henry herded the sheep back toward the corral. It was time for shearing. Mom brought in an apron full of vegetables from her garden. "Come on, you two. Time to get to work." Vicky and I hurried over to the sink to prepare them for dinner. Jimmy was laughing as he swung on the branch. It cracked and he started to go over the edge of the cliff. I jumped up and pushed him back and I went over instead. As I floated down toward the water, he shouted out "So long, Sucker. God, Val, you're such a wuss." Dad and I were in the barn, flinging hay off a flatbed for the livestock. Bev jumped in my arms and said, "You better come home to me." And then she kissed me and we merged together as one. "So, this is what it's like for your life to pass in front of you before you die?" I thought. ------- I was either blind or it was dark. I felt safe and warm. My hands were on top of each other on top of my stomach. I could feel the bare skin under me. I felt around a bit and found that I was completely naked. Damn, wouldn't that be a joke on all the fundamentalists if everybody was naked in heaven. Aunt Edith, the one who swore that nudity was sinful would shit. I might not be able to see but I could hear. Funny how I knew that because there wasn't anything to hear. It was completely quiet. I slapped my hand on my stomach and heard the sharp report. And then the small hint at an echo. I reached up to my face. I had hair on it. Not a couple of days' growth, more like when I decided to see what I'd look like in a beard and quit shaving during summer vacation. There was enough for me to grab and yank if I wanted. The thing that made me realize I was alive was how badly I had to pee. I rolled over and felt the sand underneath me. Ah, the cave. It was coming back to me now. I vaguely remembered deciding it was a decent place for me to die and sort of recalled a bunch of disjointed thoughts from my life. I quit it when the urge to pee hit me harder. For some reason, I didn't want to do it here. That was the kind of thing you did outside if you could. I got on my hands and knees and crawled in the direction of the outside. Any doubts about going the right way were handled as my alcove dead-ended and I had to crawl to my right six feet or so until the wall continued to head towards the entrance again. It started to lighten up. At first, I could get ideas of what was around me, like in a dark movie theater you've been sitting in for a while. Then it got a little brighter and brighter until I had to cover up my eyes for a minute while I got used to it. I saw the opening to the cave about fifteen feet in front of me and noticed my clothes laid out on the ground. I came to my jeans first and they felt warm and soft and dry. I came across my shirt a moment later and it was completely dry, too. I got to the entrance and used it to get up on both feet. I checked outside and the ground was dry. It had been mud the last time I was there. I saw a bush over to the left so I made my way over to it. I don't think there's any way I could pee for ten minutes but that's what it felt like. And it was strong. I felt like I could have knocked an eagle out of the sky if I aimed high enough. I was halfway back to the cave when I realized I didn't have my crutch and I seemed to be walking just fine. I looked down at my left foot and the whole thing, including the toes was nice and pink. I felt the back of my right leg. I could feel the remnants of a scab but there was no hole, no oozing, no heat. And no pain. I went back to my cave and sat down in the entrance. The hill I was on was a lot steeper than I'd realized. It had to be a 65 or 70 degree slope. And I'd just gone over to that bush and stood there peeing for however long it was without thinking about it. I looked around and noticed that everything was green. There was no snow anywhere. The air smelled clear and fresh, the sky was bright blue and there was a yellow sun shining down on me. I gauged the temperature to be somewhere in the low 50s. Definitely long sleeve weather yet I felt completely comfortable sitting there in my skin. My body was more muscular than it had been. I didn't look like a weight builder; I looked strong. I felt like I could pick up a bale of hay and throw it onto our trailer with little effort. I was no longer afraid of what would happen if I pissed Jimmy off. I knew I could take him if he attacked. And I realized how scared of the guy I'd been before. So, it was late December when I went to sleep. It had to be at least the end of February, probably the first part of March. How the hell had my body survived without eating for two or two and a half months? As soon as I thought that, I felt it in my gut. "God, what I'd give for Mom's Sunday lamb," I thought. I looked around. The hill wasn't as barren as I'd thought. Hell, I'd thought it was a mountain when I was on all fours in the rain. It was big, but I wouldn't call it a mountain. There were bushes here and there along with a few trees. There was one lying on the ground. It had obviously been struck by lightning. Somehow I knew it happened when that bolt temporarily blinded me, lighting up the cave that had been previously hidden. I heard a bleating sound and turned around. There, about 50 feet above me, stood a bighorn facing me. He had to be close to three hundred pounds. His horns curled around but the ends were facing forward and looked like they could do some serious damage. I looked at the ground and saw a rock just a little bigger than a baseball. I didn't even think. I ran over to it, picked it up off the ground, spun around and threw with all my might as if I was trying to catch a runner at first. I'd never thrown anything as hard as I threw that rock. I'd been there when they timed our star pitcher at 93 mph. This throw had to be over 120. The sheep just stood there watching as the rock came right at him, hitting him between the eyes. He stood there for a moment and then his legs went out from under him. I scrambled up the hill and could see he was still breathing. I grabbed him by the horns and twisted. I flipped him over onto his back while holding the horns upright, feeling an undeniable crunch as I broke its neck. I held onto one of the horns and dragged him down towards the cave. "Now, for something to cook him on," I mumbled. "I wish I had a way to start a fire." I gathered up dry pieces of wood from the fallen tree, setting them up as if I had a lighter or some matches. I went around lifting dead branches, trying to find a couple of sticks to rub together and came upon a rock that had been sheared off leaving an edge I could probably shave with. That would help skin the sheep and get some meat to cook if I could ever start the stupid fire. I tossed the rock on top of the sheep and went to the next branch. There was a flash of light and a loud crack and I was thrown to the ground. I think I was out for a few seconds. Everything looked dark, as if I was looking through heavy fog. My hearing felt muffled, too. I got up on my hands and knees and turned around in a circle. I saw a spot of light and focused on it. It started to take shape and I saw that it was the firewood I'd assembled. A bolt of lightning had hit it on a perfectly clear day without a cloud in the sky. I wasn't sure how lightning worked but I was fairly certain it wasn't like this. But I had a roaring fire going and I wasn't going to complain about it. I used my cutting rock to slice through the belly of the sheep, then discovered something else of mine that had grown while I slept. My fingernails were all out past my fingertips almost an inch and just sliced through the tissues that held the skin to the animal. I had the whole skin off within fifteen minutes. I had a leg of lamb roasting on the fire in half that time. I wasn't used to my strength. It wasn't like I had no control over it, in fact it was the opposite. I wanted to do something and my body just did it. Impossible things like throwing a rock at 120 mph, flipping over a full grown bighorn, dragging that same bighorn fifty feet and tearing off its leg. I decided that the head would make a nice trophy so I cut that off and put it in the cave. All without breaking a sweat. Speaking of breaking a sweat, I was feeling thirsty so I went inside the cave. The further back I got, the darker it got, until I had to feel my way back to my alcove by putting my hand on the wall. "Sure would be nice to be able to see back here," I thought to myself. I found my boot and felt my way over to the pond. I dipped the shoe and drank some of the sweet water. Something told me to top off my boot, so I did. It was easier to get out of the cave than it had been to get in. I was most of the way there when I realized I was able to distinguish the wall and the floor. I went outside and spread the lambskin on the ground, skin side up. I poured a little of the water on a corner and used my fingernails to scrape it. The excess came off and it immediately felt soft. Like it had been scraped and tanned by a pro. By the time I was done working with the skin, my dinner was cooked. Mom always makes gravy and serves it with mashed potatoes and a garden fresh vegetable or two. This lamb tasted better than any Sunday lamb I could remember. They say that hunger makes for the best appetite and I had a couple of months' worth of appetite built up. I noticed the temperature had dropped a good twenty degrees, so I put the skin around my shoulders. I don't know what was in that water but it made my lambskin soft and supple. I looked to the west and saw that the sun was not in sight and that the stars were out. I hadn't even noticed that it was dark. I took some wood into the cave and made a fire in there. I got some rocks and made an oven around the other hind leg and left it to cook overnight. Then I dragged what was left of the carcass down to the bottom of the hill. Let the scavengers go for it somewhere away from where I was sleeping. While I was down there I found a private place to take care of my bodily functions. My last act was to slice open both front legs and pull out a couple of veins that went almost the whole leg. I had a couple of extra pieces of lambskin I'd stripped from the two hind legs. I sat down near the fire, held them up to my feet and used a small stick to poke holes in them. I threaded the veins through the holes, making primitive shoelaces. Tomorrow I was going to do my best to get back to civilization and I was not going to do it barefoot. I went back to my alcove and could see almost as well as I could outside in the daytime. Something had definitely happened to my night vision. I drank my fill of water, washed my face and hands and lay down on my sheepskin. I rolled over onto my side and went to sleep. ------- Chapter 4 I woke a couple of hours before sunrise. There was no clock and I was way back in the cave but I instinctively knew what time it was. I washed my face and took a drink, then went up to the front of the cave. My meat looked good. A cup of coffee would be nice, but then, so would a fuck. You can't have everything. I went down the hill. Most of the carcass was missing, just a few bones scattered around. I hadn't heard anything but it looked like wolves to me. I pissed, decided I wasn't ready to shit yet and went back up to the cave. I was still seeing almost as well as I did in the light. I put on my Levi's jeans and shirt. I tossed the long john shirt onto the fire. It was a little ripe, even laying out in the fresh air for months. I put on my new lambskin boots, walked around the cave a bit in them, then got my lambskin. I folded it up and sat in it while I made a pig out of myself with the leg of lamb. I wasn't really making a pig of myself. My body seemed to know exactly what it needed. It had used a lot of energy while I was asleep. First, it had healed itself and then it had bulked up. The extra strength I now had didn't come out of thin air. Today I was going to be pushing my body pretty hard. I had a pretty good idea where I was in relation to the end of the wilderness run and I would have taken a couple of days to make the trek if I was still doing it with Jimmy. I knew I was faster and had a lot more endurance than either of us had and figured I could make it in a day. Not that I was planning on anybody waiting for me. But all the start and end points had at least a payphone available. Mine was supposed to be a truckstop so I knew there would be a lot more than a payphone. After I finished my meal for the day, I doused the fire, washed and drank out of my special pond for the last time and left the cave that had been home for a couple of months. I had my boot hanging from my neck, was wearing my sheepskin boots, had cut a hole in my big sheepskin to make a poncho out of it. I was carrying my sheep head. The thing was heavy and most of the weight was in the horns. Something told me to take it back in the cave and dip it in the pond so I did. I turned a little north of west and took off. The sun had not made its appearance when I left and didn't show up for another hour. By that time I was well into the forest, traveling on knowingness. I knew the direction to the pickup point and obstacles or detours weren't going to affect that knowingness. I wanted to eat up the miles and that's exactly what I did. I hit the mountain I'd been using as a landmark before the sun was all the way up and was around it and at the truckstop by 1:20. My first stop was at the cashier's booth for the gas station. I told the attendant that I'd been camping for a couple of weeks and was going to wash up and get something to eat while I was waiting for my ride and that I didn't think the ram's head would be welcome in the restaurant. He laughed and told me he'd watch it for me. He was due to get off at 4:00 but would tell his relief about it when she took over if I hadn't gotten it yet. I created quite a disturbance when I tried to call home. I asked a waitress if they had a payphone and she pointed to a sign in the back. I was on the way back there when I heard one of the other waitresses yell out, "Hey, isn't he that kid?" At that point, all hell broke loose. I admitted I had been out of it for a while but I was perfectly fine and I just wanted to get home and my bed and a good home cooked meal. I told them I was looking forward to a good cup of coffee and a couple of waitresses fell over themselves trying to get me some. I finally convinced them to let me call home and then I'd be happy to tell them anything they wanted to know. Alice was the one who recognized me and she made it her job to watch over me. She wouldn't let me call home collect, feeding quarters from her tips into the phone until the operator told me she had enough. The phone rang a couple of times and then I heard a meek "Hello?" "Hey, Sis. How ya' doin'?" It was silent for a few seconds then she screamed, "VAL??? It that you? Are you alive?" "Hey, hey, settle down. It's me. I'm fine. I just got here a little late but I'm waiting here at the truck stop for you guys to pick me up." She was laughing and crying at the same time. She sniffed and said, "What happened to you? Are you OK? Why didn't you call?" "Vick, it's OK. I'm fine. I can tell you all about it when I see you. Is Mom or Dad home?" "I'm sorry. It's just that ... I ... MOM! IT'S VAL!!! Hold on, Val, she's coming." I heard the receiver change hands, then Mom said,"Val? Is that you? Are you OK Honey?" "I'm fine, Mom. I could use a ride home." "Oh, God, Jimmy said ... we thought you were ... when we couldn't find you." "Mom, you're going to be surprised how good I look. I've bulked up a bit and I'm a lot stronger." "Oh, you. I don't care how skinny you are, just as long as you're all right." "I'm fine, Mom." "Oh, God, I can't believe it's you. Is there anything you need?" "Well, yeah, there are a few things." "Tell me, Honey." "Well, they're giving me coffee but I might want something to eat before you can get here. I could also use a shower and a toothbrush and some toothpaste. And the clothes I'm wearing are a bit old. I lost everything, Mom. I don't have any money." Alice grabbed me by the shoulder and said, "Don't worry about that, Sweetheart, you get whatever you need and we'll take care of it." "I don't feel right about that, Alice. We Hendrix's like to pay our own way." Mom heard me talking to Alice and said, "Give Alice the phone, Val." I handed the phone over and the two of them talked for a good five minutes. Alice fed more quarters to the phone a couple of times. Alice spent a good part of their time convincing Mom that I wasn't half dead. It surprised me when she said she had to look a couple of times at the picture of me they had because I sure didn't look like a seventeen year old. She said she would have guessed 25, easy. She finally said goodbye after promising to stick around to say hello to my family when they got here and gave me back the phone. "Hi." "Hi, Val. It's all arranged. You get whatever you need and they'll keep track of it and put it on my credit card when we get there. Your dad went into town and he's not due back for another half hour but I'm going to call him when we hang up and try to get him here quicker. You're probably three and a half hours from here so we probably won't get there much before six. We'll plan on eating there and then driving home but don't you go starving yourself because you think you have to eat with us. Oh, Val, I'm so glad you're OK. We really thought you were..." "Yeah, Mom. I know. I'm sorry I put you all through all that. Mom, I was wondering if I could ask a favor." "Anything, Baby. What is it?" "Uh, I'd like to see Bev. Do you think you could bring her with you when you come?" She laughed. "Oh, is that all? Honey, she'd probably kill me if I didn't. We'll see you in a bit. And Val?" "What, Mom?" "You go easy on Alice. She's half in love with you. You don't want to go breaking her heart, now." She hung up, so I did, too. A ton of quarters dropped into the coin box. Alice sat me down in a booth and insisted on feeding me. We finally decided on a Spanish omelet with lots of cheese on it. She filled my coffee and told me how everyone had gone crazy when neither of us showed up by our due date. She saw my folks and my sisters when we were supposed to arrive and my mom and dad had each been up there many times. They'd sent a team in after Jimmy because his transponder was still working. He was stoned and started shooting at his rescuers and they had to pretend to leave, then track him until he fell asleep and they could overpower him. At first he said I took off in the night, then that I told him I didn't want to hike with him and went off on my own. The closest to the truth he came was when he said I built a raft and the last he saw of me was when the raft broke up in the rapids and I was swept away. They'd had helicopters and search crews out looking for me for well over a month. My picture was all over the place in case I finally showed up somewhere. "That reminds me," I told her. I think I was in sort of a coma or hibernation for a couple of months. I have no idea what date it is." "Oh, Sweetie, it's April 9th. Easter was just last Sunday. Today's Wednesday." That made it three and a half months I'd been out of it, not the two or a little more I'd thought. The omelet was great. It came with two slices of toast, cut into four pieces with butter on them. I had a couple of pieces with grape jelly on them and then pushed the plate into the middle of the table. "What's wrong, Val? Do you want something else?" "No, I'm fine. I'm actually full. I had a leg of lamb for dinner last night and another for breakfast. I may be ready for something more when my folks come to pick me up." "Where did you get lamb?" I lifted up my sheep skin. "Off this guy," I said. "But, ... they told us you didn't have any weapons." "No, I didn't. I took this guy out with a rock, then I broke his neck." She looked at me a little strange but didn't say anything. "Hey, Alice. Mom said you'd front me for a shower and some clean clothes and stuff." "Yeah, sure. Whatever you need. We have a sample pack we sell the truckers that has a mini bar of soap, and single use portions of shampoo and conditioner. We just ask that you throw the bottles in the bucket near the showers so we can refill them. I can also get you a small tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush." "That sounds good, but it's been a while since I got clean. How about double shampoo and conditioner and can I get a regular size bar of Zest?" "Sure, no problem." "OK. I'll also need a new shirt, some jeans and some underwear." "We can get you some shoes and socks too, Val." "You know, I kind of like my homemade shoes. They'll get me home, no problem." She went with me into the gift shop they had and piled clothes in my arms, then got a bag and put the toiletries in it. "I appreciate this, Alice. I hate to run off but my body's not used to eating and I need to spend some quality time in the bathroom." "Are you going to need something to read in there?" "Nah, I'm sure I'll be fine. I'll come see you when I'm done." I had a new pair of Levi's and a Pendleton shirt, I was clean for the first time in months and I felt great. There was a sheriff waiting for me an hour later when I got back to the coffee shop. Alice brought over a cup of coffee and a hat with the name of the truck stop and a Gulf Oil emblem, since Gulf was the brand they sold. She got her purse and ran her brush through my hair before she let me put it on. "OK, Sheriff, you can talk to him now," she said as she left. The sheriff wanted to know how I'd become separated from Jimmy. "He was clowning around, swinging on a branch that broke. I didn't think, I just jumped up and kept him from going over the edge into the water. I think I saved him but his momentum pushed me over." "That's fine, but I don't see what the problem was. Why didn't you just get out?" "It was quite a fall. I figure we were about 70 feet up. I hit the slope once on the way down, then I slammed into the water and then I don't remember anything till I woke up down the river somewhere." "Hmmm. That's not what he said. So there was no way he could have helped you?" "Not unless he dove 70 feet into the water. And then he'd probably be just as bad off as I was." "And you're sure it was an accident? He didn't push you into the water?" "I'm sure. What's this all about, Sheriff?" "He's been acting real suspicious. He gave us several stories about what happened and none of them matched what you told me. To be honest, I'm surprised to find you alive. We've been trying to gather enough evidence to try your friend for murder." "Well Sheriff, first of all, he's not my friend. Jimmy and I used to be best friends until he went to high school a year before I did. He got involved with the football team and they've got kind of a cult going. They pretty much do what they want, whenever they want and if anybody gets hurt, that's too bad. As far as I can tell, the only thing anybody holds them responsible for is what they do on the field. We haven't had a lot to do with each other over the past four years. We kind of got thrown together on this wilderness trek and I found out some more about him and I'm convinced I don't want to have anything to do with him. But I know he didn't try to kill me. Can you try him for stupid? Or inconsiderate?" He chuckled. "Fraid not. Are you 100% certain? He didn't pull that stunt so he could push you over the edge?" "No, there's no way he could have done that. He had no way of knowing I'd stop him or that it would push me over the edge. He could just has easily gone over with me. Besides, Jimmy's not smart enough to think up something like that." Once that was cleared up, he wanted to know where I'd been for three and a half months. I told him I found a cave and was able to get out of the weather. I didn't mention the frostbite or the stick in my leg. My memory got real hazy when he wanted to know exactly where my cave was. I told him I knew I was exhausted after being washed downstream and hiking with no boots and I just fell asleep. I had no idea why I slept for so long but I didn't seem to be harmed by it. He asked about the sheep and I told him I was a shortstop and was used to throwing guys out at first. I had a lucky throw and the thing fell weird and broke its neck. I lucked out and a fallen tree caught on fire when it got struck by lightning and I had a sharp rock I was able to hack the legs and head off with. "You know, we raise our own sheep out at our ranch, Sheriff. I know how to skin and butcher a sheep." I could tell he wasn't very convinced but there wasn't a hell of a lot he could do with me. I was healthy and I did have the head and the skin. It wasn't a crime to not know exactly where I'd been holed up for the last three months. I could also tell he was pissed off that he couldn't do anything with Jimmy. If he could have gotten away with hanging him, I think it would have made his day. After the sheriff left, I wandered around the place. In addition to the coffee shop where I first came in, there was a building that housed a big video game room and five or six fast food joints. Why a guy who'd been driving a truck for 14 hours would want a Big Mac was way beyond me. I'd sure spend the extra to go into the cafe and have a cooked meal and a waitress who could make conversation instead of asking if I wanted fries with my order. Alice tried to load me up with quarters for the video games when I told her I was going exploring but I turned her down. Somehow they just didn't seem very exciting after what I'd gone through over the last few months. I went outside and decided to go over to the gas station to check on my ram's head. It was after 4:00 so the guy I'd talked to should be gone. He was and his relief was spectacular. She certainly did something for that Gulf shirt she was wearing. Don't get me wrong; she wasn't huge. But her breasts made themselves known so there was no doubt it was a woman in that shirt. She had a natural beauty. The kind that most women spend hours in front of the mirror trying to achieve and never get near. I'll bet she took a shower and ran a brush through her hair and she was ready for work. When she smiled at me, my only thought was I bet she was a dynamite kisser. "Hi," I said. "My name's Val. I left the head of a ram I captured with the guy who was here earlier and I wanted to make sure it wasn't in the way." She smiled at me and said, "No, it's fine. He told me you were waiting for a ride and to just leave it in the corner over there." She turned halfway around and pointed. Which really strained her shirt. "Well, OK, then. Thanks. I guess I'll see you later when I come to take it off your hands." I started to walk away only to hear "Val?" I turned back. "Yes?" "I'm sorry. My name's Karen. You can come in and check it out if you want." "Oh. OK." She held the door open for me and I squeezed by her. I had no reason to check my ram head but it made a plausible reason for me to be there. I went back to the corner and knelt down to check it out. I noticed that the underside, the part where I'd hacked the head off the body, seemed sealed. I could still tell that it was real flesh and blood but it wasn't oozing or smelly. It was like it had been preserved, like a corpse on display before burial. Without the phony smile, of course. It had to be the water in my pond. I went to stand up only to bump into Karen. "I'm sorry." She held onto me as if I'd knocked her off balance. "That's OK. Is everything all right?" "Fine." "That's good. I don't think you're supposed to be here." She wasn't pushing me out the door. Her hands were on my shoulders and she was pulling herself as close to me as she could. "If anybody says anything, we can just tell them I'm an inspector from Corporate," I said. "What?" "The hat. It has the name of the truck stop and the Gulf symbol." "Oh." She slid her hands down my back and somehow got even closer and then her lips were on mine. Whatever's better than dynamite, that's the kind of kisser Karen was. And it wasn't just her lips. The woman kissed with her whole body, pressing and grinding her front into me while her hands roamed all over my back and my butt. M y hands weren't idle. I'd worked them around her and one was buried in her hair while the other was wrapped around an ass cheek. "Are you going to fill 'er up?" We broke apart and looked at the window. There stood Bev with a shit-eating grin on her face. "Bev!" I said, honestly happy to see her. "This is Karen. She's been taking care of something for me until you guys came." "What's that? Your tonsils?" She was still grinning so I just smiled back at her and shook my head. She turned to Karen and said, "Thanks for taking care of him. I can take over now." Just like her mother, over a decade ago. ------- Chapter 5 I picked up my ram head and started to leave. Karen handed me a gas card app with her name and number written on it. "Text me." "OK." I put my empty arm around her and pulled her into me and gave her a kiss. It wasn't as hot as our other kiss was but it would do. "Thanks. I'll see you." I put the card in my back pocket. As the door closed behind me, I heard her mumble "I wish." I went down the two steps to the ground and Bev grabbed onto my shirt and pulled me into her. She laid a kiss on me that let me know she was changing our relationship. Kind of like staking a claim on me, I guess. I stood back and took a good look at her. She stood about 5'6" and her brown hair fell just past her shoulders. Her eyes were somewhere between brown and hazel and there was a speck of yellow in each one. They sparkled as she looked back at me. She was wearing a light tan suede coat. The top two buttons were undone and the other two were fastened. It was lined in fleece, not unlike my parka. She had a Levi blue shirt under the coat. Her jeans were well broken in and were so tight they probably held her shape when she took them off. It was a very nice shape. A pair of brown, sharp toed boots rounded it all out. "Do you like what you see?" she said as I finished and looked back up at her. "Yes, Ma'am." "Good. I'm sick of trying to get you to look at me." I had not been aware of any effort in that direction but I decided it would not be in my best interest to tell her that. Instead, I put my empty hand behind her head and pulled her closer for a kiss. She moaned as we kissed, then smiled at me and said, "Good Boy." She grabbed my hand and said, "Come on, Val. They're going to think I got lost, too." "You know, technically I wasn't lost," I told her as she led me across the parking lot. "Right. You just spent an extra three and a half months on the scenic route." I just squeezed her hand and said, "Whatever." "Oh, God. Now you sound like my brother. Please don't tell me he dragged you over to the dark side." "Nope. In fact, spending a couple of days with him after being apart for four years actually made me more certain in my convictions of what's right and what is wrong." "That's good. One of these days that boy's gonna end up in prison. Unless somebody kills him first." I glanced over at her. She was perfectly serious. And what she said did make sense. Good old look at the bright side, give em another chance Val. That and a nickel will get you in the river every time. "So, aren't you going to ask me what happened?" "No. Four of us came up to get you and all four of us are going to want to know. I can wait a few minutes till we're all together." She led me over to the Suburban and opened up the back door. "What?" She looked at the ram's head in my hand. "Are you going to take that thing in to dinner with us?" "Sorry," I said as I laid it on the floor. We went through the outside door into the entry way to the coffee shop. Alice started to come over then stopped in her tracks and turned around like she'd been spun. Bev bumped into me and said, "You better take care of her." We opened the second door and went in. Mom, Dad and Vicky were in the third booth. Alice was over at the fourth booth and had her back to us. I could see her shaking and was surprised that she wasn't spilling coffee all over the place. I stood next to my family's booth and everybody slid out. Mom was the first one to hug me. It was like I'd returned from the dead, which, come to think of it, she may have been thinking. She stood back and looked at me and said, "You weren't kidding. You did bulk up." Vicky was next. I picked her up and swung her around. She couldn't decide whether she loved it or was embarrassed. I squeezed tight and she squeezed back, her face buried in my chest. Dad held out his hand. I took it and pulled him into me and the two of us hugged each other, right there, in front of God and everybody. Everyone moved back into the booth and I held up a finger for them to wait. Alice was still over at the next table, her back towards us. She stood up and I put one arm around her shoulder while putting my other hand around the one she had the coffee pot in. I could feel her tense up even more. "I'd love some coffee," I said, turning her around and walking her over to the table. I kept my hand on hers as she poured me a cup of coffee, then I took the pot out of her hand and pushed her into the booth. She had no choice but to sit down. "This is Alice, everyone. She took me under her wing this afternoon and if it wasn't for her I'd still be starving, half naked and smelling like a goat." She laughed and said, "It wasn't that bad." I said, "This is my mother Maria, my father Burt, my sister Vicky and this is Bev. Bev is an orphan girl who spends most of her time at my house plotting things with my sister." I poured a cup of coffee for Alice and left them to straighten each other out while I took the coffee pot back to the serving station. I'd been introduced to Walt, the manager, soon after I arrived. "Walt," I said, "Alice isn't in any shape to take care of her tables right now. She's going to sit with us for a while and she can take care of our orders." He just smiled and said, "OK." The three women were talking a mile a minute when I got back. Dad looked bored. To listen to Alice, you would think I dragged myself into the coffee shop using my last ounce of strength and that she patched me up and put me together. I let them talk. There had been a large space next to Bev when I got back so I took the hint and was sitting next to her. I took her hand in mine and she just squeezed back and smiled at me. "Excuse, me, I said. Are you guys ever going to order?" Alice looked at me and said, "They already did, Hon. It should be ready real soon." "Well, I'd like something, too. Considering how I was starving and almost dead just a few hours ago." "That's OK. Wait till I get everyone's food and then I'll get you a menu." I was all set to complain when Walt came over and put a huge plate with an even huger piece of prime rib in front on me. I could see the waves of heat rising from it. Then he put down a smaller plate with mashed potatoes and gravy plus some Brussels sprouts. There was a small bowl with fresh horseradish on the veggie plate. The other two waitresses who were working brought over everyone else's food, including a plate for Alice. Mary, the other waitress who'd been there when I arrived came back with a couple of fresh Cokes for the girls and the coffee pot for the rest of us. I don't know if they grew their own potatoes but I have no doubt about the Brussels sprouts. They tasted just like the ones out of Mom's garden. I ate about half of everything, then I put my knife and fork down on the rib plate and sat back. "Are you OK, Val?" my mother said. "I've never seen you leave a good piece of beef uneaten." "I'm fine, Mom. I think my stomach shrank over the last few months. I'll put it in a doggie bag and I'll have it tomorrow." Everybody ate the rest of their dinners. Alice excused herself after a bit and told me she'd get something for my leftovers. She was back shortly and wrapped everything for me. She left us to go back to waiting tables. Mom had been looking at me since I didn't finish my food, obviously a little worried. She'd whispered something to Dad but he just patted her on the hand. He didn't look worried. When everyone was finished, Alice came over with some more boxes. Both Vicky and Bev had food left over. I said, "Well, I don't know about anybody else but I could use some dessert. I'd love a chocolate shake." The girls shared a banana split while Mom and Dad each ordered a piece of pie. It was funny to see Mom relax more and more as I finished my milkshake. I gave Alice a quick kiss and thanked her for helping me out and for the hat. Once they heard that, Vicky and Bev had to check out the gift shop before we left. Both had hats like mine in different colors when we left. As we were walking out to the car, Dad asked, "So, what's with the rug, Val?" I pulled up a corner of the sheepskin and said, "This?" "Yeah." "Found it near where I was sleeping when I woke up." "You mean someone just left it?" "Not quite. I had to take it from him." Dad was opening up the back of the Suburban and Mom scowled at me. "Val!" she said, shaming me for stealing the sheepskin. I reached in and pulled out the head. "I took this from him, too. Along with a couple of hind legs." Dad lifted it up and looked at the bottom. "Somebody worked on this," he said. "Looks like they did a good job." "I did." "What?" "I said 'I did.' Twenty eight hours ago this was a living, breathing bighorn sheep. I killed it, skinned it, cut off its head, cut off its hind legs, ate one of them for dinner last night and the other for breakfast this morning. I made these boots out of the fleece from the hind legs. The shoelaces are veins I pulled out of his front legs." I grabbed the skin and turned over the corner so they could see the inside. "Look at that. You aren't going to find a better job of tanning a sheepskin than that. Yet I did it myself yesterday in about fifteen minutes. "Look," I said. "There are some things that happened to me after I left Jimmy that are pretty hard to believe. But if you don't believe them, then you have to believe I'm dead. I didn't want to talk about them in the coffee shop because I didn't want the word to get around. There's a sheriff who talked to me today who's disappointed because I didn't give him a reason for arresting Jimmy. He was all set to try him for murder and then I showed up and spoiled his fun. And I'm not going to talk about it on the way home. Some weird stuff happened and I don't want to take responsibility for anyone driving off the road. We can talk about it tomorrow, at home, after we've all had a good night's sleep. I know I'm certainly looking forward to sleeping in my own bed." Mom said, "Well I certainly don't know what happened but something certainly did. I can't remember the last time I heard you say more than two words. Are you certain you're my son?" "I'm your son, Mom. But there have been some changes." "I can see that. Eww!" she said, looking at the ram's head and making a face. "Will you please put that thing away?" Dad said, "I think he was abducted by aliens." Vicky's eyes got real big and she said, "Really?" He smacked her on the butt. "No, not really." I put the head back where I got it, then went up to the side door. Mom and Dad sat up front while I sat in the middle seat between the girls. We were hardly out of the parking lot before the two of them fell asleep, each one leaning on me. The alien theory wasn't really that far-fetched. One thing that had been bothering me since I woke up was if I was asleep all that time, how did I get by without peeing or taking a shit? Surely I would have smelled something when I woke if I had. I lasted a mile or two more before I joined the girls in dreamland. It was coming up on 11 when we got home. I made a conscious decision that Bev was going to spend the night in my bed. I didn't say anything to anybody. We went in the house and put our food in the refrigerator, then everyone started making going to bed noises. Dad gave me another hug and said goodnight, then Mom hugged me again as if she wasn't sure I was real. "Goodnight, you two, don't stay up too late," she said, just before she gave Bev a quick hug and a kiss. Vicky hugged us both and told us she'd see us in the morning. I told Vicky to go ahead and use the bathroom first. I sat on the couch and Bev sat down next to me. I put my arm around her and she snuggled up to me. "I suppose I don't have anything to say about this," I said. "Nope." "How long has this been going on?" "A long time. Ever since you became my hero when I fell off the swing." "That long, huh? As I recall, you didn't actually fall. More like tripped when you were showing off and your feet got tangled." "Whatever. You were still my hero. That was the day I decided you were the only one for me and one day we were going to get married." "I see. What if I want to marry somebody else?" "Then I guess you'll end up with two wives." "That would be fun." "If you're sure you're man enough." "If I'm not, I guess the two of you will have to keep each other busy." She snuggled in a bit closer. "You're right. That would be fun." I heard the bathroom door open, then a loud whisper, "It's all yours," from Vicky. "Come on," Bev said, getting up off the couch. "Our turn." We went in the bathroom. I was getting ready to brush my teeth when Bev dropped her jeans and sat down on the toilet. Just like so many years ago, she emptied her bladder. Only this time I couldn't run to the tub to keep from being embarrassed. I figured she was going to do what she was going to do no matter what I said so I might as well get used to it. She wiped and flushed, then said "Grab on," and held up a leg for me to pull off her boot. I took off both of them, then yanked off her jeans. She pulled up her panties, stood up and put the jeans on the toilet seat. She came up to me and patted me on the head, then kissed my cheek. She reached over and got her toothbrush from the holder. I hadn't been kidding when I said she spent all her time with my sister. They probably spent five or six days here for every one at her house. She had her toothbrush, shampoo, brush and a lot of her clothes over here. She followed me into my room and shut the door. The two of us undressed, throwing our clothes on the chair in my room. When I got down to my underpants, she said, "You aren't going to need those," as she unclasped her bra, releasing her perfect breasts. She tossed it on the chair, then took off her panties. She put her hands on her hips, smiled, then twisted her body one way and her head the other. "You like?" "Very much." "Good. Tonight you can touch but that's all. I'm tired and I need my sleep." My parents got rid of the bunk beds and bought queen size beds for Vicky and me a couple of Christmases ago so there was plenty of room. I suppose Bev was used to sleeping with Vick in hers. I doubt either of them would sleep on the floor five or six nights a week. We climbed into bed and I turned off the light. Bev rolled over and we kissed, then she rolled over the other way and I snuggled up to her back. I put my arm over her waist and she took my hand and placed it on a breast. She fell asleep pretty quick, making cute noises while she slept. I felt tired too. Pretty weird, considering I'd slept full time for the past three and a half months. You'd think I could go a night or two without getting tired. I even fell asleep on the way home. I was just about gone when I heard the door open and close, then somebody lifted up the covers and snuggled up to me. A naked someone with nipples that bored into my back. ------- Chapter 6 I woke up a couple of hours before dawn. This could become a habit, I thought to myself. I noticed that I was still able to see in the dark. Something like a cat's enhanced night vision, I guess, and it looked like it was here to stay. I shouldn't have to describe my position. I'm sure that any 17 year old male who'd slept the night with an unfamiliar female would wake up in this position. My right hand was exactly where Bev had placed it. One or both of us had squirmed back and forth and my piss hard-on was wrapped up like a hot dog in a bun. Oh, but what buns. I was home. I also had a little more than that lucky 17 year old male. There was an arm resting on my upper hip and a second female body was plastered to my back. There's a reason they call it a piss hard-on. I needed to get up and relieve myself and I could think of no way to do so without waking one or both of them. I quietly said, "Excuse me girls," twisted around and sat up. That got moans from both of them. I knew what Moses must have felt like when he got to the far shore of the Red Sea when I got out of bed and the two of them flowed together. They wrapped themselves around each other and I couldn't have fit a toothpick between them. The "hard-on" part was a bit more extensive than normal. I finally gave up after standing over the toilet for five minutes and jumped in the shower. I'd finally softened enough to empty the tanks (which had been really full) and was washing my hair when I heard the shower door open. I felt a kiss on my shoulder, then a couple of soapy hands reached around me and started rubbing my chest. A couple of pointed nipples dug into my back as this was happening. I enjoyed it as the hands worked down my body until they had my manhood. It's a good thing I pissed before she came in the shower because there was no way I was going to get anything yellow out of it now. I heard the door open again and a few seconds later there was a new pair of hands working on the body behind me. As it became soapy and the hands moved lower, it mashed against me and redistributed the soap. The combination of the bullet-sharp nipples and the smooth soap made for an unusual tactile sensation. "God, this feels bitchen," I heard from behind me. Like I said. I felt the soapy hands behind me rubbing on my ass, then my cheeks were forced apart and the inside was thoroughly cleaned. When a finger was shoved up inside, I couldn't hold off any longer and my cock shot its load all over the front of the shower. The three of us finished washing each other. I got to shampoo two beautiful women. If you've never washed a woman's hair and treated it as a privilege, not a chore, you have something miraculous in store. Like a massage, it will get her purring in your hands like nothing else. And from my viewpoint, there's nothing like running my fingers through a soapy head of hair. The three of us dried each other off. One of them had thought ahead and brought in three oversize, fluffy towels. Talk about luxury. Both girls looked happier than a dog who's just discovered he could reach his own prick when I had to go and spoil the whole thing. "So, Vick," I said, "What's up with you coming into my bed and now the shower?" The smile was instantly gone like she'd been slapped. Bev took one look at her and spun around. She jabbed two fingers into my chest, pushing me back a step. She continued jabbing me and pushing me further back, emphasizing each third word or so. "What the hell is wrong with you? Jesus, Val, you can be such an asshole. Did you ever stop to think I might not be the only one who thinks you're a hero? For Christ's sake, you've been missing for over three months, the only one who knows anything is my brother and he thinks you're probably dead and then you show up all of a sudden. How can you say something like that to her?" I looked over Bev's shoulder and I felt like shit. There was my little sister, looking like a little girl who'd been abandoned in the rain. Tears were streaming down her face and her unkempt, still wet hair added to the picture. I went over to her and wrapped my arms around her. She lifted hers tentatively and raised them up to my side. "I'm sorry, Vick. I wasn't thinking. Some stuff happened in there and I went through a bunch of changes but I guess I'm still the clueless dork I've always been." It must have been the right thing to say because she wrapped her arms around me and held me tight. She then stood up on her toes and kissed me. Not a little sisterly kiss, either. She practically did everything you can do with a kiss without sticking her tongue down my throat. To say it changed my viewpoint about my kid sister is to put it mildly. After what seemed like a couple of minutes, Bev snapped her towel at my butt and said, "Come on, you two. Get a room." The girls went into Vicky's room, which makes sense because that's where all of Bev's clothes were. I got some briefs out of my dresser and put them on. They felt a little tight. I took them out and found the stuff I'd bought at the truck stop. There were two pair left in the three pack I bought and I put one on. Much better. I noticed they were a 36 and the stuff in my drawer was all 34s. The jeans in my closet were no better. I couldn't button them and when I looked down, I noticed the legs ended a couple of inches above my ankles. The same thing happened when I put on my favorite shirt. Tight across the shoulders, sleeves too short, trying to button it up felt like I had a beer gut. I gave up and put on the new stuff I'd gotten yesterday. The worst of all was my boots. I had a pair I'd gotten for Christmas that must have set my folks back over five hundred bucks. I couldn't even get my feet into them. Thank God I hadn't worn them yet. I should be able to swap them out for a pair that would fit. I put on my new lambswool slippers / boots / moccasins. Whatever. While I was struggling with clothes, I did a lot of thinking. I'd thought a lot yesterday while walking from the cave to the truck stop but now I had some new data to add to the mix. By the time I got to the truck stop, I was pretty sure that if I thought of something that would help me survive, it would happen. Finding the cave in the first place, having the bighorn show up, lightning striking and lighting the firewood. They were all solutions to things I'd thought about, even if it was just a passing thought. But it wasn't just survival. I thought about how Karen would kiss and the next thing I knew she was sucking my face like we'd been going out forever. Last night I'd decided that Bev was going to sleep in my bed. On the surface, it looked like that had caused exactly what I decided to come about. But, there was a lot of stuff beneath the surface that I hadn't been aware of. Partly because I was a typical clueless male and had evidently been missing signs since that incident with the tire but also because I'd been gone for the last three months. For all I knew, Bev could have gotten so scared when everyone thought I was dead that she let it be known that she didn't care what anybody thought, if I ever came out of that forest she was moving in with me. That sounds so like the Bev I'd just become aware of. I remembered the way Mom laughed when I asked her if she could bring Bev when she came to get me. And then Vicky pushed herself into the mix. Lord knows, that isn't something I thought of, wished for or decided. I still got the creepies when I thought about the kiss my full blood sister had laid on me. Visions of three headed babies with hair on their hands came into mind when I took it further in my mind. Which could just be typical adolescent wishful thinking on my part. Although she did stick her finger up my ass in the shower. My trouble was I was trying to put everything that happened in a neat little box and tie a ribbon around it. That wasn't going to happen. This was all new. I was going to have to play with it, experiment. And hopefully not get overconfident about what it could and couldn't do. Picture jumping out of an airplane, waiting for a parachute to materialize that never does. I thought about my favorite breakfast and walked out of the room. ------- Mom had the waffle iron out. Mom never made waffles during the week and it was a rare Sunday when she made them. Too much hassle to make and the iron was a bitch to clean, according to her. Having to rearrange her counter to fit the stupid thing and deciding which appliance to unplug just added to the hassle. I'd thought about waffles, trying to find the limit; the wish that wouldn't work. "Waffles, huh?" I said as I came into the kitchen. "I know how much you like them, Val." "I know how big a hassle it is to make them, Mom." "Hey, it's not every day your son shows up after being lost for three and a half months." She looked like she was getting ready to cry, then sniffed and straightened up. "Looks like we're going to have to get you some new clothes," she said. "You've really filled out, Val, and none of it's fat. You look like you're a lot stronger." "Well, I wouldn't bet against me in a cow tipping contest." "Your sense of humor has changed. Sometimes it's like you're not the same person." "I've gone through some changes, Mom, but I'm still your son." I took her in my arms and hugged her. She wrapped her arms around me and rested her head on my upper chest, just below my shoulder. She sniffed, then raised herself and kissed me. Not quite like Vicky had but not quite motherly, either. She backed off after a few seconds and flushed. She waved her hand in front of her face and said, "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me." The girls came in and walked up to me, one on each side, their arms around my waist, their hands meeting in the back. "We think it's pheromones, Mom," Vicky said. "He's really turned into a hunk, hasn't he?" Mom was still fanning herself. "He's really turned into something." Dad walked into the kitchen and Mom said, "We were just talking about the changes in our son. Do you have any desire to kiss him?" He looked almost offended and said, "No." "Woo Hoo!" shouted Vicky. "More for us women!" Dad looked at her with raised eyebrow. We all sat down and had a good breakfast. It felt good to sit in my kitchen with a good cup of coffee. And the waffles were a real bonus. I had mine with homemade butter (with cows out in the back yard, you think we'd use margarine?) and maple syrup, as did Mom and Dad. The girls got a large jar of strawberry jam out of the fridge and they used almost half of it up between them. Mom noticed that I only ate a couple of them but seemed to take it better than last night. The girls rinsed off the dishes and stacked them in the dishwasher. Bev cleaned off the waffle iron and put it away. Dad handed his coffee cup to Vicky and said, "OK, Val. It's time." "OK, I said. You want to do it here or in the living room?" Mom said, "Lets go in the living room where it's more comfortable." The girls got Cokes, Mom and I refilled our coffees. We sat down in the living room and I told them everything that had happened, from the moment Jimmy took off ahead of me at the rest stop till Mom kissed me in the kitchen. I didn't leave anything out. We broke for lunch around 2 and it was dark when I finished. When I was done, Dad said, "Well, I hope you cleaned the cum off the tile in the shower. That stuff's a bitch to get off once it dries." Mom slapped him on the shoulder and said, "Oh, Burt!" It seemed to put things in perspective. Whatever you called what had happened to me, I was still the son who went off on a wilderness hike during Christmas vacation. We had leftovers for dinner. I had almost as much prime rib and veggies as I'd had the night before so I was set. Mom warmed up pot roast and the remains of a casserole for everyone else. The girls had a little left that they'd brought home so they finished that, as well. Most of the day had been spent with me telling what had happened. Nobody wanted to interrupt and after a while they were too shocked at what had happened to say much. Dad finally spoke up. "Assuming this is all true, there are some ramifications here that I don't think anyone has looked at." I just looked at him and said, "Oh?" "First, there has to be some kind of causation here. I don't believe you stumbled into a cave, drank some magic water, went into hibernation for three months, healed a couple of things, either of which should have killed you, became strong enough to flip a 300 pound ram and gained the ability to make things happen by just thinking about it. I don't care if you call it a god or the fates or aliens. Something had to start all this. "Another thing. Have you taken a look at how you're affecting time?" "I don't understand." "Look at it. You wished for something to eat and a bighorn shows up a minute later. Did it just materialize or was it already moving toward that spot before you thought of it? Take a look at Bev, here. She staked her claim on you the moment Jimmy told us you got carried away by the river. There was no doubt she was going in with you last night. Then you decided last night that she was going to stay with you. What if it was your decision last night that started everything happening back before New Years?" "That's getting too weird for me," I said. "Another thing. If you'd been in a hospital in a coma for that long, they'd have to put you on an IV or you'd be dead within a few weeks. And there would be wastes of some kind. You know they'd have you on a catheter. Even with the IV feeding, you would lose close to a quarter of your weight. And you'd have to learn to walk all over again. There's no way you'd be able to pick up a rock and throw it 120 mph and then flip over that sheep when you woke up. And then you made a two day walk in half a day. Like I said, I don't know if it's a god or aliens. Either way, I'm classing it as a miracle." Bev hugged me. "My miracle," she said. "Have you figured out what you're going to do with it?" ------- Chapter 7 I think I jumped back an inch or two when she said that. It hit me like someone had splashed cold water in my face. I hadn't given a thought to how I was going to use these new powers of mine other than to get whatever I happened to desire at the time. True, some of that desire was things that made the difference between life and death, but getting Karen to swap spit with me wasn't exactly what you would call noble. I thought about the line from the first Spiderman film — with power comes responsibility or something like that. Lord knows I had power. Somehow, putting on tights and flying through the air at night, combating evil didn't fit my view of myself. But there had to be a bit more to life than pulling women into my arms. "I just figured I'd get myself a harem," I joked. She bopped me on the head. "Why not just fuck em once and throw em away, like my brother?" she said. "Wrong answer, I guess?" "You guess right." I looked over at my parents. They both had grins a mile wide. "What?" I said. Dad looked at Mom and said, "I think we were both a little worried that you might get carried away with these new abilities of yours," he said. Mom continued, "I don't think we have to worry about that with Bev around." I grunted something, pretending it bothered me. Deep down, I knew they were right. "So you two think I should keep her, then," I said. I got punched in the shoulder and Bev said, "You better!" I took her hand and kissed it. Good move, if I say so myself. "Speaking of you better," she said, "Did you ever text Karen?" "No, I didn't think it was important." That earned me another punch in the shoulder. These wrong answers were starting to hurt. "Val, you can't just leave her hanging like that. She'll probably cum if she gets a text from you. If she doesn't, it will be like you're treating her the way Jimmy treats his women." "I don't want to do that," I said. "You should do something for Alice, too." "Like what?" "I don't know. Something to let her know you appreciate her. Send her a card if you can find one that's not too sappy. Find one that says 'For a Special Friend' or something like that and is blank inside. Then write something sincere, thanking her for taking care of you." Vicky said, "Shoot, you keep doing this and you'll end up with your harem after all." Bev said, "That's OK, Vick. We all know he's going to, it's just a matter of treating them right, not going out and collecting them." "Well I don't know about anyone else, I said, "But all this talking has tired me out. I think I'm going to go to bed. Tomorrow I need to go get some clothes, in case anyone wants to go with me." Both Bev and Vicky said they were going. "Mom, I tried my new boots on and they don't fit now. I didn't get a chance to wear them after you gave them to me so I need to exchange them if I can." "OK, Honey. I think I can find the receipt." "If you can't, I've got the credit card statement" Dad said. "He can take a copy of that to the boot store." "Can I borrow something to drive tomorrow? I don't think the cops will let me take the two of them on my Honda. They frown about three people on a bike." Mom said, "We'll discuss it and figure out something." "I wish I had something bigger. It looks like I'm going to need it." Bev took Vicky's hand, then she grabbed mine. "Come on, you guys. It's time for bed," she said. ------- Friday morning was a repeat of Thursday. I woke up firmly wedged in Bev's butt cheeks with a tit in my hand. I felt my sister's tits in my back and her muff against my butt. She'd worked her hand down between Bev and me and was cupping the front part of my balls and her thumb was around the base of my cock. I got up, they groaned, they fell upon each other. After standing in front of the toilet for five minutes, I gave up and went into the shower. A couple of minutes later I was un-stiff enough to pee. Nobody came in the help me in the shower this time. I was able to get in and out quickly but I was a little disappointed. Hell. A lot disappointed. Those two were spoiling me. The house was unlit. I can't say it was dark because I could see everything just fine. It was 4:30 when I went into the kitchen and I made coffee. When it was ready I poured myself a cup. Nobody was up yet so I decided to go check out the animals. I hadn't taken the time to see them since I'd come back. I grabbed a couple of apples and a few carrots. There were a couple of new foals. It was Spring and Spring means babies. I went up to one of them, a black and white filly. She was real friendly, coming right up to the railing. I reached in and scratched the top of her head, then behind an ear. She shook her head and snorted, then leaned in for more. I took out one of the carrots and I immediately had a friend for life. Mama came over to make sure wasn't harming her baby and I greeted her before giving her an apple. She let me know I'd be welcome any time as long as I came with gifts. When they were satisfied I went over to the other stall with a baby. This one was also a filly but she was mostly brown. Her front feet had white stockings and there was a white blaze on her nose. Her tail had six or eight strands of white and the rest was brown. The carrot and apple were just as popular here. I had one more apple and that went to Buster. Buster had been my horse when I started riding. He was retired now and spent his days in the pasture when it wasn't too cold. He was still one beautiful animal. He seemed to smile when he saw me and he nuzzled me before taking the apple I had out for him. I went over to the hen house. There were plenty of chicks, but then, there are always plenty of chicks. I went around and harvested the eggs. Might as well do a little work while I was out here. I made one more stop before I went back in. Mom's garden. For some reason, that symbolized home to me more than anything else. Part of my job had been to protect it for as long back as I could remember. Rabbits were a big nuisance and lord knows I'd shot my share of them. A couple of times a season Mom would order me and Vicky out to the garden and we'd weed for four or five hours. But it had paid back countless times for what little work we put into it. It was starting to come back in. I could see some tomato plants and some peppers and some beans. There were the inevitable squash. No vegetables yet, it was too early for that, but I knew the plants from years of seeing them. I leaned over and pulled a couple of weeds, then picked up the bowl of eggs and went into the kitchen. Mom was sitting at the table with her cup of coffee. "Good morning. Oh, thank you," she said when she saw the eggs. "Might as well. I was out there and didn't have anything pressing to do." I poured myself a new cup and kissed her before I sat down. "How did you sleep?" she said. "Pretty good. I've noticed I don't seem to need as much sleep these days. I'm tired at night but I wake up early and have no desire to go back to sleep." "You sure don't sound like my son." I shook. "Mom, I have to tell you, that freaks me out. I'm still the same Val I've always been. I can't help it if things are a little different. Let me ask you this? How different was I this last fall from when I started first grade?" She snorted. "Come on, Val. There's no comparison." "So do you think aliens did something with your son between kindergarten and last year?" "Of course not. You grew, you matured. Things change." "Are you the same as when you married Dad?" "In some ways. But no, I see what you're saying." "Mom, I'll be the first to admit, I've had a lot to get used to since I woke up two days ago. But I'm still the same guy that went to sleep before New Years. I don't know why I changed. I just know I did and I have to live with it. I'm not going to change back and it's not all perfect, you know. Sometimes it's like I have to learn to walk all over again. If I do the wrong thing, there are consequences. And if I really do the wrong thing, those consequences can be pretty bad. I'm glad I have you and Dad and the girls to keep me in line." "Val, I haven't told you this. I haven't even told your father. After a month or so, I accepted that you were dead. Not that you might be dead; I gave up on ever seeing you again and decided I needed to put you aside and get on with my life. It was a shock hearing you on the phone the other day. And then when I saw you and how strong you are and how you've grown, it was like ... I don't know. How could I give up on you so easily? Like I didn't have any faith in you, like I didn't love you. I'm having a hard time forgiving myself." The tears were flowing and had been while she was telling me this. I went over to her side of the table and put my arm around her. She hugged me and leaned against my chest, her hair up against my chin. I didn't say anything, I just held her. She sat up and sniffed. A Kleenex magically appeared and she blew her nose and dabbed at her eyes and her nose, sniffing some more. "You must think I'm awful. Do you think you can ever forgive me?" I chuckled and squeezed her which got a look of disapproval from her. "Don't be stupid, Mom. There's nothing for me to forgive. You know how I said Jimmy kept calling me a wimp when I was talking to you guys yesterday?" She nodded and sniffed again. "Well, he wasn't that far off. You know, I didn't realize until I bulked up how much I've been afraid of him. My whole life he was bigger, older. He got to go hunting a year before I did, he carried around a six gun. I was always following him and doing things I knew were wrong because I was scared of his reaction. I've always gone with the flow. I've never been assertive. It's no wonder you thought somebody like that wasn't going to make it. Mom, I was out there. I know how cold it was. By all rights, I should have died from my foot or my leg or both in that cave and maybe somebody would have found my bones twenty years from now. People who knew what they were doing searched all over the place for a month and they gave up on me. How can you blame yourself for doing the same thing? I love you Mom and I'll always love you. So knock off this stupid blaming yourself for trying to survive a terrible situation. I know how bad I'd feel if you or Dad died and I know it's a lot worse when a child dies. I'm just glad you didn't break down and end up drinking or on drugs." "Well, I still don't feel right." "Well, get over it. I'm alive, you're alive, I love you, you love me. So knock it off before I have to take you over my knee." "You wouldn't!" "Don't push your luck." She hugged me again, then she gave me another one of her un-motherly kisses. "Should we come back later?" Mom jumped back as the two girls laughed. "Maybe we'll let you join in," I said. Mom turned red and bent down, paying an exceptional amount of attention to her coffee. "I got the eggs," I said, "So you two can get busy making breakfast." ''Vicky pulled Bev close to her, then they both saluted while she said, "Aye, Aye, Sir." "I have no qualms about spanking you two, you know." They got busy preparing breakfast. I poured more coffee for Mom and me and made a new pot. The girls thought coffee was gross. That's fine. More for me. Dad came in after it was ready and poured himself a cup. I'd moved back to my original position and he sat down next to Mom. "Val got the eggs this morning," Mom told him. "Uh, Oh. Manuel's going to think there's something wrong with the chickens." "How's he doing?" I asked. "Fine. He shows up every morning and evening, does his chores and takes off. Wouldn't know he's around except the chores are all done. I've seen the oldest son with him helping out with the milking a few times." Manuel had just shown up one day last fall. He called my father El Patron and convinced him early that he was too important to be saddled with milking the cows and gathering the eggs. We had a caretaker's shack at the back of the ranch and Manuel, his wife Margarita and three young children lived back there. He got all the eggs and milk they could handle, had full access to the meat freezer on the porch and whatever veggies he wanted when they were in season. Margarita helped where she could. She helped Mom can a shitload of stuff last fall. They got a portion of that and could come back for more if they ran out. Dad also slipped him a few bucks and made sure the propane tank was filled. "He's going to help out with the shearing in a couple of weeks." "I forgot about that. Nothing like looking out the window and seeing a bunch of naked sheep running around. "I was out at the barn earlier, feeding carrots to the new fillies. They came out nice." "Yeah, that black and white is going to be something." "She came right up to me, no sign of fear. When I pulled out a carrot, she became my friend for life. I didn't make it out back. How are we doing on sheep and calves?" "Oh, we had a good spring. Something like 37 calves and a dozen sheep. All doing great. We're getting a good size herd. Got about five kids, too." "Gonna have to get Manuel some help." "Maybe. We'll see. He seems to be able to handle whatever gets thrown at him. And he's starting to use the boy, too." Bev brought over a pile of plates and Vicky was right behind her with a big skillet of eggs. They were scrambled with pieces of tomato, pepper and bacon mixed in. Mom froze gallons of the peppers and tomatoes when the season was over so we always had them. By the time they got cooked with the eggs, it was hard to tell the difference from fresh. As soon as Vicky made her rounds with the eggs, Bev came over with bacon. Vick was back with a plate piled high with toast. Not Wonder Bread thrown in one of those things with the slots. Mom was always making bread. These were slices that were a little over an inch thick, slathered with butter and toasted in the oven. One of our pieces was worth all four you got at Denny's. And the taste was a hundred times better. Shortly after 8:00 the phone rang. Vicky answered it, then held it out. "Val, it's for you." I went over to the phone and said, "Hello?" "Is this Val Hendrix?" the man asked me. "Yes, it is. What can I do for you?" "This is Jim Perkins. I'm the senior administrator of the Montana Wilderness Project." That was the group that put on the training and our five day hike in the woods. "What can I do for you?" "Well, I was hoping you could help us out. I'd like to stop by and talk to you." "I guess I could do that. When?" "Would a half an hour be all right?" "Well, we're just finishing up breakfast. I suppose that would be OK. I do have some things I was going to do today. How long is this going to take?" "Not long. Maybe a half hour, 45 minutes." "OK. I'll see you around 8:30 and I'll let you take till 9:30 if you need it. Do you need directions?" "No, I know where you live. And thank you for doing this, Val." "No problem. See you in a half hour, Mr. Perkins." Dad was the first to say what everyone was thinking. "Who was that?" "That was Mr. Perkins. He's some big mucky-muck with the Wilderness Project." "What does he want?" "Didn't say. He did sound nervous, though. He was very relieved when I told him he could come over." "Probably afraid you're going to sue," said Bev. "Hmm. I didn't think of that. Could be." Vicky said, "We could be rich." I looked at her. "Vicky, I'm better off than I was when I went in there." "They don't have to know that," she said. "Yeah, but I do. And I have to look in the mirror and shave every morning." She laughed and said, "Looks like you forgot that this morning." I laughed too. I still had the beard I'd grown since December. Somehow, shaving it off hadn't come up with all the other stuff going on. I drank the rest of my coffee and got up. "Excuse me, I need to get ready for my interview." I went into the bathroom, did my thing and got cleaned up. Mom and Dad were talking to someone in the living room when I came out. Dad introduced me to Mr. Perkins and we shook hands. "You look well," he said. "I feel well. What can I do for you?" "Please, can we sit down?" We all sat and he started. "I'll be honest with you. You know that there's no way we planned on one of our projects being lost for over three months. Even though you were on your own, we still sent you into the wilderness and have to assume the ultimate responsibility. This has the potential of shutting us down and we don't want that." "You still haven't told me. What can I do for you?" "We need to put some positive spin on things. Let's face it, you came out and you seem to be doing OK. You are OK, aren't you? No permanent damage or anything?" "No, no permanent damage. I'll need to get some new clothes but I can live with that." "OK. Here's what we were thinking. We could interview you and get your story in the local paper. Put out the word and maybe get you on the TV news. Play it up as an adventure, just an unfortunate set of circumstances but it all worked out OK. Maybe hint that the classroom training helped you survive. You were sent into the wilderness to survive for a week and you survived for over three months. You get the idea. We also came up with a special prize for beating the odds." "What's that?" "A Ford F-150, four wheel drive." "Brand new? Free and clear?" "Of course. And we'll even pay for your shopping spree. Say up to $1000?" "Can you give us a couple of minutes?" "Of course. I'll wait outside for you. Come out when you're ready." He went out the door and I looked around. Bev and Vicky had come out of the kitchen. "Did you hear him, Bev?" I said. "Yeah. We were listening from the kitchen." "Now why doesn't that surprise me?" At least they both had enough class to blush. "So my question is, is there anything wrong with doing what he wants?" Vicky said, "They're going to get you a new truck and new clothes." "I got that. I have no problem with what they're doing and I can understand why they want to. But am I going to do anything unethical if I go along with them?" Dad said, "If you do what they ask, are you going to lie?" "Not really. No. Look, I told you all what happened yesterday. Not once did I say this happened or that happened because of what I learned in the classes. But I used it. They pounded into us that we needed to find a landmark that we could use to guide us to the end point. I found a mountain the first day and kept my eyes on it all the time I was out there. When I woke up and took off, that's the first thing I looked for. When I got to it, I walked around it and there was the truck stop. They talked about finding shelter. That's why I thought to sleep in a pile of pine needles. They talked about covering yourself with leaves or even snow to keep warm at night. The only thing I had was pine needles and they did a hell of a job. And when I spotted what looked like caves, I headed in that direction. And we all know I wouldn't be alive if I hadn't." "So, do you feel they'll be buying some phony story?" my dad said. "No. I don't really need the stuff they're giving me but I'm not going to turn it down. If they came to me and told me they were in trouble and wanted me to help them out, I probably would have done it for free. It's not their fault that something happened. If I was on a road rally and got hit by some drunk, it wouldn't be the fault of the guys who sponsored it. It's just bad luck. Some of the things they taught me helped me out there. I wasn't consciously going, ' Let's see, the first week we talked about covering yourself up, ' I just did it, like I was on autopilot or something." Bev said, "They taught you so well you didn't even have to think about it." "Yeah." Dad said, "I don't see any problem. Just don't let them talk you into saying anything that isn't true." I took Bev's hand. "You want to come out with me?" "Why? You're just going to tell him you'll do it, aren't you?" "I'll bet you a chocolate shake he's got a reporter out there with him and he'll want to do the interview right now." "OK. You're on." We went outside. Mr. Perkins and another man were sitting in a Lincoln Navigator. It had a trailer attached to it with a brand new F-150 on it. "Told you," I said to Bev. ------- Chapter 8 Both men got out of the Navigator. The other guy looked familiar. Perkins came up to me first and took my hand in both of his, holding on while he said, "What did you decide?" "I'll be happy to do what you ask. I reserve the right not to lie about anything." He pumped my hand. "I wouldn't have it any other way." He let go and held out his had to the other man. "This is Rob Andrews. He writes for the Gazette." Andrews held out his hand and shook mine. He held up a small tape recorder and said "Do you mind?" I shook my head and then he said, "I remember you. I did a short interview with you when the baseball team made the playoffs." "Yeah, I thought you looked familiar. Too bad we lost the first game." "Maybe this year," he said. "We'll see. We lost some good guys when they graduated last year." "Well, you aren't doing too bad this year. Four and one, isn't it?" "Sorry, Mr. Andrews, I have no idea. I haven't been paying a whole lot of attention to sports this year." "Oh, shit, I'm sorry. You've missed the whole season, haven't you? How does that make you feel?" Just that fast and he was in interview mode. We sat on the porch swing and just talked for over an hour. It was close to ten when he ended off. Somehow, when Perkins gave me the keys for the pickup, it didn't bother me that they'd taken a half hour more than I promised. The interview went well. I didn't mention powers or special water and my memory was still hazy when it came to exactly where the cave was. I also didn't point out that I'd bulked up and was stronger than I'd ever been. If people noticed I was bigger, there wasn't a lot I could do about it. But I wasn't about to point it out and get questioned to death about it. Frostbite, gangrene and infected legs didn't get mentioned, either. Once Bev gave her last name, it didn't take long for him to figure out that she was Jimmy's sister. "How's your brother taking all this? How was he when it seemed Val wasn't coming back and how did he react when Val showed up all of a sudden?" "My brother's an asshole. He was pissed off that they took his gun away from him and I don't think he gave a damn that Val was lost and maybe dead. I haven't talked to him since Val got back, so I have no idea how he feels about that. Probably nervous." "Why do you say that?" "If he hadn't been stoned and acting like a damned fool, Val wouldn't have ended up in the river. It's my brother's fault that Val was lost for all that time." I looked at her and said, "Don't hold back, Bev. Tell him how you really feel." She stuck her tongue out at me and our two guests laughed. That was pretty much it for the interview. I got the keys and Perkins took the chains off the truck so I could back it off the trailer. It had 2.3 miles on the odometer when I started it up. There was a CD changer, six speaker stereo and it had that new car smell. Four wheel drive, heavy duty heater, tow package, A/C, power windows. I could live with this. I got out of my new truck, we all shook hands and Perkins gave me a cell phone number. "You have them call me when you get to the cash register and I'll give them a credit card number. You're going today, right?" "As soon as I can get two girls ready. Shouldn't be too long since it's shopping." He laughed and shook my hand again. "Thanks, again, Val. You really pulled my ass out of the fire. "You're welcome. I didn't say anything that wasn't true. I hadn't thought about it before you called, but I wouldn't have done as well in there without the training I got from your classes. I might not have made it out." Andrews had his tape recorder out. "That's going in the story," he said. "You can count on it." They drove off. As soon as they turned around and started down the driveway, Vicky was out the door like a tornado. "HA HA," she said, then held her fist up. Bev hit fists with her. "What?" I said. "Don't you remember?" Vicky said. "What you said about a ride?" "No." "You asked Mom and Dad if you could use one of their vehicles. You said your bike wouldn't work for all three of us. Then you said 'I wish I had something bigger.' Well, you got your wish," she said, pointing at the new truck. "OK. So why the fists?" "Because we knew something was going to happen the moment you said it last night," Bev said as she squeezed me. "You don't know how hard it was to keep quiet when you told us about Mr. Perkins and his 'Special Prize.'" "Well, I want to take it out and see what it will do. Are you ready to go?" Bev said, "I have to go potty. Then we can leave." "I can help you with that," I said. "Don't be gross." ------- The truck was great. It had a bench seat that was split 2/3 of the way towards me for getting in the back. The back was more suitable to a dog than a person as far as I could tell. Bev sat in the middle, as close to me as she could get while letting me drive and Vick rode shotgun. Nobody thought to bring any CDs so we were stuck with the radio. Both of them switched stations but it was like they had it all worked out beforehand, like it was choreographed. Nobody said anything when the other changed the station; there was no animosity. We pulled into the mall lot and I parked in the back half of one of the parking rows. There were empty spaces on either side of me. I knew it wasn't going to stay pristine forever, but there's not reason to park near the front, where idiots will wait a half hour for a space. People who pull that shit don't care if they ding a car while getting out of theirs. I'm a simple guy. I wear Levi's and T shirts. Levi's and winter shirts like Pendletons. Levi's and sweatshirts. I got two 3-packs of briefs since I already had three pair from the truck stop. What does a guy need with more than nine pairs of shorts? We swapped the boots for a pair that fit me and got a pair of work boots for kicking around in plus a decent pair of running shoes. A 12-pack of socks. I was ready to quit when I had a little over $400 worth. Bev wouldn't let me. She dragged me into a store and had me try on a leather bomber's jacket, fur lined. It felt fantastic and the girls seemed to like the way it looked. That almost doubled the total and I was all set to say No when Bev told me I needed a coat or a jacket and we had up to $1000 to spend. "I bet there were times in the forest that you would have killed for a jacket like this." I bought the jacket. Vicky told me she was going to buy me a present for my new truck and took me into a music store. She looked around, then came back with a Barry Manilow CD and one by Barbra Streisand. "Which one?" she said. They both had a good laugh at my reaction and then she pulled out a Red Hot Chili Peppers and U-2. I didn't even have to choose because Bev said she'd get the one Vicky didn't. We didn't want to go home right away so I took them over to Dairy Queen. It was still Easter Vacation so there were a lot of kids there. I got a lot of Ooohs about my truck and my being lost forever was a big topic. I don't know how many people asked what I was going to do about school. I hadn't given it any thought. Nobody had any comments about Bev and Vicky being with me. And they made it very obvious that they were both with me, the way they hung all over me. Once we got home, the girls got busy. They laid all the new clothes out on my bed and started cutting off tags and labels. A load of jeans went in the washer, then they got a couple of trash bags and started emptying out my closet. Each of them came down the hall with a full trash bag. Bev had my sheepskin over her arm, too. "I'll put these in your truck and we can take them down to Goodwill." "Whoa, wait a minute there, Little Girl." "What?" "Where do you think you're going with my sheepskin?" "Val, it smells. I got you a nice new jacket. You don't need this any longer." I noticed something white sticking out the top of Vicky's bag. I dug out my home made boots. Vicky did look embarrassed, I'll give her that. Bev just looked stubborn. "I suppose the head will be next," I said. "You can keep it," she told me. "Out in the barn." I grabbed the skin and held onto it along with the boots. "First of all," I said, "These do Not stink. Second, they remind me of the fact that they helped keep me alive. I'd probably be dead if I didn't find the bighorn they came from. Third, they are a reminder of how powerful I became and they also remind me how dangerous I could be if I don't keep myself in check. The two of you will be given to Goodwill or put out in the garage before any of these are if I have anything to do about it. And you might as well know, this is a spanking offense." I looked Bev in the eye and she looked down. "Don't think you can get away with getting rid of any of this stuff while I'm not looking or you won't be able to walk for a week. And if you think I'm kidding, try me!" Bev looked up and put her hands on her hips. "Real nice, Mr. Smart Ass. Just so you know, you just spoiled any chance you had of getting lucky!" "As opposed to all the other times I've gotten lucky since we got together?" I shouted as I slammed the front door, got in my truck and drove off. ------- OK, I admit it, I overreacted. And now I was in a place that was hard to get out of if I didn't want to seem like a total wuss. Dammit, I wasn't going to allow them to completely pussy whip me. A guy's gotta have some dignity. Gravel shot out from the back tires and I turned onto the road that passes our driveway. Our address is actually on that road, even though the house is ¾ of a mile away from it. A couple of miles later I came to the four way stop. I was all set to turn left when I took a closer look at the car that was coming down the road from the right. It was going too fast to stop at the stop sign. It was also straddling the line between lanes by about a foot. A fucking huge Mercedes came barreling through the intersection at close to 80. It was driven by a woman. In the short time I saw her, I noticed she had a fur coat and her hair was all piled on top of her head like she just left a half day appointment at the spa. As she blew through the stop sign, she seemed to be concentrating on nothing but her cell phone. She was actually shaking it when she whizzed by, then she brought it back and I could see her head bouncing up and down as if she was emphasizing whatever she was saying with it as she drove away. "God damn thing should turn into a snake," I thought as she disappeared down the road. I turned left and headed after her at a reasonable speed. The Mercedes was off the the side of the road a mile and a half down. There was still a big cloud of dust where she'd gone off and she was outside, bent over, looking through the window. Her hair was in disarray and her fur coat was kind of crooked on her. I pulled over and got out. "Are you OK?" I shouted. "My phone. It. It turned..." "I saw you talking on it as you tore through the stop sign down the road." She looked at me for the first time. "Fuck You!" she shouted at me. I didn't say anything, just got back in the car. "Her seatbelts should turn into snakes, too" I thought as I drove off. I didn't consciously drive anywhere, I just drove. It was a nice day and I cranked up the stereo and rolled the windows down, letting the wind rush through. I was just plain pissed off for the first half hour or so. It's a good thing nobody came along to piss me off because I might have blown them off the road. I didn't know if I was powerful enough to do something like that and I didn't want to find out. Then I started feeling sorry for myself. I made myself into a real victim. Who the hell was Bev to just insert herself in my life like that. I hardly knew her; there's no way she could know me. Pushing her way into my bed, telling me what to do, hitting me on the arm or the head when she doesn't like something. God, what a bitch. And then she has the nerve to get rid of my sheepskin and tell me I can keep the head if I put it out in the barn. Jeez. I was better off without her. The tank was getting low so I pulled off for gas. I drove up the the pump and went to the cashier to pay for my gas. "Hi, Val." I looked up. It was Karen. "Hey," I said, "What are you doing here?" "What am I doing here? I work here." I looked around. I was at the Gulf station at the truck stop. "Shit, I'm sorry Karen. I was just out driving and I ended up here." She closed her eyes a bit and looked at me. "Girl problems, huh?" "Uhh, I just have a lot I need to think about." "I see. Cramping your style a bit? Forcing you to do stuff you don't want? Am I getting close?" "Yeah, you're real close. What did she do, call you?" "No. I did get a real interesting text, though." She held up her phone. "Let me see." "Who the hell do you think you are? This is private communication. Protected by the Declaration of Independence or something." "How did she know to text you?" "I don't know. Maybe she texted everybody she could think of. Or maybe she's so in love with you that she knows what you're going to do before you do it. Maybe she thought I'd come if I got a text from your phone." "Sorry about that. I was going to today and then this guy from the paper came and then they gave me this truck, then shopping, then Bev..." "Oh, you poor, poor baby. Too busy to text the poor little girl in the gas station. You should take another look at that girlfriend of yours, Val. You could learn to care about people the way she does." "I'm sorry, Karen. Is there any way I can make it up to you?" "We'll see on Sunday." "What's Sunday?" "The four of us are going on a picnic." "All that from a text message." "No. I said she didn't call me. I never said I didn't call her." "I see. Well, I guess I should fill up and then head on home." I gave her $60 and went over to my truck. I went back to the booth for my change. After she'd given it to me, I said, "See you Sunday, I guess." She pretended to pout. "Don't I even get one little kiss?" "Sure," I said, going to the door. It was a kiss. Actually it wasn't just one. And there's no way you could call it little. As I left the booth, she stopped my by putting a hand on my shoulder. "Val." "What, Karen?" "Don't forget Alice. Go in the coffee shop and get a cup of coffee." "Thanks. I will." ------- Alice was thrilled to see me. Once she found out my food intake for the day was breakfast and ice cream and that's it, she insisted on feeding me. By the time I left, I was stuffed. The drive home was a lot nicer than the one there. At least I saw something this time. I realized that my night vision wasn't distance sensitive. I could see as far at night as I could during the day. Which ended about 20 minutes after I left the truck stop. It wasn't that late when I got home but for some reason, my parents and my sister were already in bed. For the first night since I got back, Vicky was sleeping in her own room. Bev was quiet, sitting on the couch, waiting for me. She was wearing shorts and a T shirt. She asked if I was hungry and seemed disappointed that I wouldn't let her make me something to eat. I let her get me some milk. I tried to apologize to her a couple of times but she put a finger to my lips and shushed me each time. I finally told her I was going to bed and asked her if she wanted to come. "If you want me," she said. "Of course I do, Bev. Look, Bev,..." She shut me up again and took my hand. I led her into the room. "Val, I need you to do something for me." There was a tear traveling down her cheek and she pulled back when I went to wipe it off with my thumb. "What?" "I need you to sit down on the bed." I sat, then said, "Now what?" She didn't say anything. She stood a little to my right and pulled her shorts down and off. She wasn't wearing panties. She took a breath and lay across my lap, her beautiful cheeks pointing up. "I was a bad girl today and I want you to spank me. Then, if you can, I want you to forgive me." "Bev, don't..." "PLEASE, VAL. Please. I need you to do this." I lifted my hand and let it fall to her butt. I'd never seen it like this. It was perfect. I saw immediately what people meant when they talked about a heart-shaped ass. There wasn't a blemish on it and it was pure white, except for a very faint darker area slanted across the bottom part, still left from last summer's bathing suit. I caressed it, feeling the warmth and the softness of her. "Please, Val." I gave her a light swat. "Val, please. I need you to really spank me." I hit her harder, and harder and harder, each time urged on by her. She was shouting at me, telling me to hit her harder and to make her butt red and to make it so she couldn't sit down and I hit her so hard my hand hurt. In between, she was sobbing and her hot tears were soaking the legs of my Levi's. It got so I couldn't see her because of my own tears. I'd finally had enough and I yanked her up by her shoulders, stood up and pushed her onto the bed on her stomach. She was out of it, mumbling "Harder, Harder, make it hurt so you can forgive me," still sobbing, still crying. I shook her. "Now you listen to me," I said. "I don't want to hear any more from you. I'm not going to forgive you because there's nothing to forgive. You did nothing wrong. We had a disagreement about something. People who care for each other do it all the time. I would appreciate it if you'd consult with me about things like that but it's no reason for you to make me beat you up. Now you stay there and don't move. I'll be right back." I went into the bathroom and looked in the medicine chest. There was a tube of medicated ointment. I took it and went back in the room. "Val, I..." "SHUT UP! I don't want to hear it. Now stay still. I've had this stuff for scrapes and if it's anything like those, this is going to hurt like hell. After a couple of minutes you won't notice it and your butt will stop hurting real soon." I put a gob of it in one palm and rubbed them both together. It felt cool on my unbroken skin. It was tricky stuff that way. Her butt was in bad shape. It was cherry red and I could feel the heat from over an inch away. Well, it had to be done. "Hold on, here it comes." I put one palm on each cheek and let them sit there. After a couple of seconds, she jerked and sucked in a deep breath. I massaged the white cream into her tortured skin, where it got absorbed. I could actually see it turning more flesh colored as it soaked in. She squirmed and sucked air but she never tried to roll over or cover it up. I rubbed lightly long after it was gone. She finally said, "That feels better. Thank you." I helped her to her feet, then moved the covers out of the way so she could lay down on the sheet. Once she was flat on her stomach, I turned her head so she was facing me at the side of the bed. The tears were still flowing but she'd stopped sobbing. "Bev, I want you to listen to me. Do you hear me?" "Yes, Val." "DON'T YOU EVER MAKE ME DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT TO YOU AGAIN. DO YOU HEAR ME?" She sighed, "Yes Val." "Now, you go to sleep and get some rest. You should be a lot better in the morning." "Yes, Val. Whatever you say, Val. I love you, Val." I mussed up her hair. "I love you too, Bev. More than you know" "More than I knew," I mumbled to myself. She sighed again, her whole body relaxed and she started to breath evenly as she fell asleep. ------- Chapter 9 I woke up early again but it was different this time. I had my usual morning wood but it wasn't buried in Bev's butt. There was something suckling on it like a baby on a milk filled tit. I lay back and enjoyed the sensations, then I felt the bed shift on my right and something soft was lapping at my balls. I relaxed and let it happen; I felt the tingles and Vicky said, "They're tightening up," and I started pushing. Bev grabbed onto the exposed part of my cock and moved her whole head up and down with me, sucking and licking as I held her head and I started coming in her mouth. It was less than a mouthful because my cock was taking up some space and she didn't swallow until I was completely drained. She didn't lose any and she seemed mighty proud of herself when she moved back above the covers. I pulled her to me to kiss her and she resisted, covering her mouth. I moved her hand out of the way and kissed her despite her protests. When I continued and didn't complain, she joined in. When we were finished, I rolled over and kissed Vicky. Unlike her cohort, she was enthusiastic from the start. "How's your butt?" I asked Bev. "It's fine." Now, I may be clueless about most things but I'm not stupid. When a female says something is fine, it can mean one of two things. Either it really is fine or it's bothering her and she's pretty sure she'll get past whatever it is without dying and she doesn't want you making a big fuss out of it. She knows you'll want to fix it when the only thing she's interested in is discussing it. The problem is, if it's the second one and you buy it and then things get a little worse with whatever it is, you're insensitive all of a sudden. Of course, at that point, she's more likely to snap at you for no reason than to tell you how she feels, much less what the real problem is. I rolled her over and checked for myself. There was no redness, so that was good. I put my cheek on it and slid it around. Still smooth. I kissed it and it gave a little so there was still good elasticity. Holding it open with both hands, I licked from low to high, feeling the change in texture and the slight give as my tongue brushed across the crinkled hole. Her intake of breath and the way her whole body tensed when I passed it proved that her reflexes were not impaired. I moved her legs apart and a whole new area came to view. Being fairly certain there was no permanent damage from last night in the area I'd just checked, I started to explore it. Gently brushing a finger along the newly exposed area elicited a squeak from the opposite end. Repetition of the action brought about two things. First, there was seeming confusion as the area withdrew from my finger at one point, only to seemingly seek it out at another. It also created what I can only describe as a 'blossoming effect.' The area seemed to get fuller, and then, like a single cell, split. The two halves grew larger and took on color, not unlike coral. There was an enticing odor as the whole area wept or leaked. This odor was compelling. I moved my body down the bed, partially on the floor, and rolled her over onto her back, making sure her legs were apart, granting me access. I leaned closer and smelled from this side which prompted me to explore the area with my tongue. The taste was even more enticing than the odor. Repeated licking accelerated the blossoming and the whole area seemed to open up. An area towards the bottom seemed to draw me, though access seemed to be limited due to a flap of skin with just a small hole in it. After more licking, I came across something at the other end, a little nub. Attention to that caused more reaction than anything so far, including a couple of hands tugging at my hair and then an attempt to crush my head with her thighs. I got surprisingly similar reactions when I repeated the last part of the experiment with my sister. ------- It was close to nine when we got to the kitchen. Mom and Dad were sat at the table, drinking their after-breakfast coffee. Both seemed in good humor when they saw us, big smiles on their faces. Dad mentioned something about noises and thin walls. Mom had made plenty of hashbrowns and the girls warmed them up while cooking eggs and bacon. I poured ketchup and a little Tabasco sauce on mine and mixed it all together. Mmmm! Mom gave me a newspaper and said, "Well, you're famous, Val." The girls plastered themselves to my sides as I opened it up. The Gazette isn't one of those large newspapers they have in New York or Washington, DC. The only politics that gets mentioned is when we have elections for mayor or the school board. If someone's cow shows up missing, the story's more likely than not to make the front page. The whole thing's 8 pages, one of which is reserved for the feed and tack store's ad. There were four stories on the front page of this edition. "Local Man Shows Up After Being Lost For Over Three Months" was splayed across the top of the page. There were pictures of me in my sheepskin and boots, holding onto the ram's head. Another showed my arm around Bev as Mr. Perkins handed me the keys of my new truck. That one was a little phony because we'd posed for it after he gave me the keys and I backed it off the trailer. That much deception I could live with. There was a story warning everyone that Easter vacation was coming to an end and that school started the following Monday and another one telling how local ranchers were glad Spring was coming early this year and talked about all the new stock that had been born. There was also a short article about troopers finding a hysterical woman on the side of the highway who swore that her cell phone and seat belts had turned into snakes. She had been admitted to a hospital for observation. Mom pointed out that the woman was found not too long after I disappeared yesterday. Everyone remarked what a coincidence it was that such a strange thing should happen when I was pissed off and out by myself for a ride. I just said it was just more proof that cell phones could be dangerous. Our phone started ringing around 9:30. When Vicky told me it was for me, Mom asked her who it was. It was someone from Channel 52, wanting to set up an interview. Mom told Vicky to take a message. I'm glad she did. We got seven more requests over the next hour. One of them was even from Salt Lake City. I had no idea what to do and Dad suggested I call Mr. Perkins and let him know what was going on and what my concerns were. I called Perkins. He was in a good mood. Evidently, response to the article had been good and he'd had inquiries about the next training sessions. He was ecstatic about the number of TV stations that wanted to talk to me until I told him I was not interested in spending the rest of my shortened Easter vacation in front of a camera and an assortment of news bimbos. I stressed the word 'shortened' and I think he got it. He had me put Vicky on the phone and she gave him all the numbers of the people who had called. He asked if I was going to be around and I gave him until noon, after that I said, I wasn't guaranteeing anything. He was as good as his word and was back with me by 11:20. He had talked to the people involved and had gotten an agreement that I would be interviewed by one newscaster and they would share the film. That meant one interview. They could do it at my house at 12:30 if that was OK with me. I asked who was going to do the interview and he said Monica Belmont. "She's a little, uh, forceful, don't you think?" "She'll be fine. Plus she'll add credibility to the interview." "OK. I'll be here." Monica Belmont wasn't on every night. She did special reports, Criminal Watch or some such thing. She routed out the bad guys and cornered them in front of the camera. I have no idea how she managed to do it. You'd think they would be smart enough to avoid her. She was tough. I've seen her bring a slumlord, a guy who would screw his own mother, almost to tears. A van pulled in about 12:15. It had KTYH / 74 on the side and a big screw with a satellite dish on the top. Monica Belmont knocked on the front door and I answered it. She introduced herself, her producer and her cameraman. The cameraman was busy taking shots of the front of the house, the barn, out towards the fields. She told him to make sure he got a shot of the truck. Monica Belmont is a classic news lady type. She wants to be known as a serious newscaster, not just another pretty face, but works hard to make sure the pretty face is there, just the same. From what I've heard, you take your life in your hands if you point it out to her. Especially if you use a word like 'fake.' Case in point. Her breasts were impossibly large and looked like they had been drawn with the help of a compass. You know, the thing with the point and the pencil we made circles with in second grade. Anyway, she was wearing what I call a Mexican waitress blouse, one of those things with an elastic top that came halfway down her store bought breasts. Let's face it. The woman was rude. She was the story as far as she was concerned and I was just another prop, like the truck or the barn. Both the producer and cameraman were bored and fed up with her, it was easy to see. I stood my ground and didn't let her push me into anything I didn't want. At one point she made some stupid rambling statement, trying to present her point of view while pretending it was a question and I just asked her if she was there. Startled the hell out of her and she answered no. I then thanked her not to put words in my mouth and told what really happened. I could see her getting more and more frustrated. I had become a quarry to her. She wanted to catch me at something and she didn't care what. She finally decided I was hiding something and started pushing about where the cave was located. I decided that was enough and thought about her having a wardrobe malfunction. Only I thought of it as her tits falling out. Fall out they did. She didn't realize it and went on with her question, poking her finger at me as if accusing me. They were so full of silicone they hardly moved. I swear, they were so perfectly round they could have been shaped with a cookie cutter. It certainly perked up the producer and the cameraman. He was making good use of his zoom lens. She finally realized what was happening when she finished her accusation and I just looked at her, then dropped my view to her tits and grinned. She actually brought her hands to them to hitch them up and show more cleavage before she realized she was exposed. She covered herself and proceeded to chew out the cameraman for continuing the shoot and the producer for not telling her anything. They both made comments about her being unwilling to pay for full-time help and that's what she got for hiring independents. She got extremely mad when the cameraman mentioned that it would go over big on You Tube. When the producer said he should sell it and he'd probably make more than he'd ever get working for her, she lost it and started throwing shoes at them. I just let myself inside and closed the door. The parts of the interview that finally made it to the TV were very civil. Evidently, the cameraman had control over what he turned over to them. I never heard anything further about the tittie shots. ------- Dinner was great until Bev brought up the question I'd started to dread. "So, Val, have you thought any more about how you're going to use your gifts? What have you done lately?" "Uh, I taught a woman about the dangers of using your cell phone while driving and I put a TV reporter in her place." "Uhhhhh Huhh. I see." I was really going to have to work on that. ------- "Where's Vick tonight?" I said. "She's sleeping in her own room tonight. It's just you and me tonight." "I hope you're not planning on getting spanked again." "No. I had something a little more pleasant in mind." She dove at me, pinning me to the bed, then attacked my mouth with hers. She kissed my lips, then moved to other parts of my face, my chest, my stomach and then my cock. I twisted her around so I could return the favor. Her mouth was like butter and her pussy was like honey. The more I licked, the more she moved. She finally rolled off me, stood up and lay down again, on her back, her head next to mine. "I'm ready, Val. Make me yours." I wasn't a virgin but I wasn't all that experienced, either. Any doubts I may have had disappeared when I saw the desire in her eyes. I moved my hand between her legs and she said, "I'm ready. Just do it." I got between her legs, took what was now an iron bar in my hand and dipped it back and forth in her moisture. Seating it at her entrance I said, "This may hurt. Let me know if you want me to stop." It was over before either of us knew it. She winced, then she held on tighter. I was in about a third of the way and I just waited. "Go." I backed off a bit, then pushed. Each time, a little more would go in. I finally bottomed out and she gave a little laugh of relief. She lifted her legs and wrapped them around the small of my back and I felt her open up a little more and I sank in another inch or so. She tightened her arms and legs and I stayed there, my body plastered to hers, my cock in as far as it could go. Which was actually pretty far. My muscles and fingernails weren't the only things that grew while I was asleep. Her legs were still tight and she started rocking on her butt, pulling back slightly then pushing forward. There wasn't much I could do because of the way her legs were latched onto me. "I've wanted this forever, you know. It's just that it's scary before you do it the first time." "I know. It was a rotten thing for me to say the other day." "No, I deserved it. And I needed a push. All I can say is, I'm just glad it's finally happened. Now, make me yours." It makes a difference when you love the woman you're having sex with. I know we play games with ourselves and pretend it's the real thing, but you can't know what it's like until it really is. I found out where the name 'snatch' came from. It was like she wasn't going to let me go. She felt like a smooth, silky, hot glove, massaging me every time I moved in and out. Every instinct told me to speed up, to go for the pleasure, to feed this woman my seed as soon as possible. It took all my will power to take it slow and bring her up to speed. It wasn't long before she was urging me to go faster and to push harder and to empty myself in her. I still held back until she started panting and gripping tighter with her arms, legs and pussy. When she locked up and the whites of her eyes showed, accompanied by a moan that shook the walls, I let myself go. It was like it's never been before and I thought we'd need a mop before it was all over. I went to move so I wouldn't crush her but she wouldn't allow me. "No, not yet," she said, holding me tight. She kissed me, then pulled her head back and sucked in air. She eventually let me roll over onto my back, following me, her leg across mine, her cheek against my chest, her arm over my stomach, holding onto my side as if the prevent me from getting away. It was different from snuggling up to her back while she held my hand over her tit. That let me into her space. Tonight, we were one. ------- Chapter 10 Bev was still lying on me when I woke up at 4:30. I eased out from underneath her and went into the bathroom. I emptied the snake, then brushed my teeth. Then it was into the shower. Last night it had felt right to go to sleep with Bev in my arms right after we finished making love. I was looking forward to a shower, though. Making love is like eating chicken. You get it all over your fingers and it's messy. My plan was to take a warm washcloth back to the bedroom with me when I was done here and clean up my lover as best I could. She had other ideas. I'd just rinsed off my pubic area when the door opened and I had company. "Good morning," I said, still facing the shower. "Ummm, Good morning," she answered, leaning up against me, her cheek against my back and her arms around me. "How did you sleep?" "Like I was in heaven." "Are you sore today?" "Just a little. I should be just fine by tonight." I turned around and kissed her. While I was doing that, I wished that her pain would ease up so she could hardly feel it. After a few minutes, we caught our breath and I moved her up under the shower. As the pink tinged water flowed off her, she said, "Ewww." "What?" I said. "I know this can't be the first time you've seen blood in the shower. It's perfectly natural." "I guess. It just doesn't feel right." We took turns washing each other and I got to do her hair again. I don't think I'll ever get tired of that. She wanted to give me a blowjob but I told her I had other plans. We dried each other off and went across the hall to my bedroom. "You know, you really should move some of your clothes into my closet, Bev." That must have been the right thing to say because it got me attacked. She jumped me and pushed me to the bed, kissing me until neither of us could take it any more. "Lie there and relax," I said. "I want to do some exploring." I kissed her again, a little less urgent this time. Using my lips, tongue and fingers, I cataloged the sensitive areas of her body. She had them all over. I was amazed at how many were above the neck. I believe I could bring her to orgasm by just kissing those areas I could reach while she was fully dressed. It would be an interesting experiment some time when we went to a movie. Or, if I wanted to be mean, when the whole family was gathered together, like watching a football game on Thanksgiving. Her ears were particularly sensitive. The insides were ticklish, whether I gently blew or used my tongue. Sucking softly on an ear lobe got almost the same reaction I'd gotten from sucking on her clit. I moved her hair out of the way and ran my tongue all the way from under the lobe to the top of her ear, at the back, right where it met her skull. She shivered, squealed and said, "What did you do?" as she brought her hand up to cover it. I got giggles as I kissed her eyelids and eyebrows but there was little reaction from her cheeks. She didn't like me sucking on her nose and that got me an "Ewww" and a light swat. An inch and a half down from her earlobe, just below her jaw got an "Oh, God," and goosebumps on both arms, from shoulder to wrist. She could not keep her body still when I did that, squirming uncontrollably. I had to wrap my arms around her and kiss her to get her settled down again. "Is the pain from last night any better?" I asked her. She had to move around a bit to see. "Yeah, it's almost gone. I can just feel a little twinge when I move." "Good." "Did you do that?" "Uh huh." "You couldn't get rid of it completely?" "I'm sure I could have. I thought you'd be happier to have a little reminder of it for a day or so." Once more I came up with the right thing because she rolled me over onto my back and attacked me again. It took a good five minutes for her to get it out of her system enough for me to continue my exploration. Her collarbone was another sensitive spot and she dug her chin into it as soon as I started kissing it. I moved down to her breasts. What can I say? She's 16 years old. Maybe, in another ten years and after a child or two, they'll be a bit larger. They'll never be more perfect than they are right now. They sit up high on her chest. Like little cones, they point up with no sag. I can cover them with my hands, but I feel the diamond tips digging into them when I do. She has nipples a little smaller around than my pinkie and aureola the size of quarters that get their own goosebumps when she's excited. Bev says it isn't so much that they're sensitive, it's that they're like little amplifiers when I pay them attention. She feels it throughout her whole body and she has to hold onto me. She tried to explain it to me but couldn't put it into words. The closest she could come was fear that she would explode if she didn't hold me. It's not that she doesn't want the attention to them, in fact, she whimpered when I moved on. The way she describes it, it's almost as if it feels too good to bear. Her belly button is the most ticklish part of her body. Anything more than a quick swipe with my tongue is painful. Once I moved down from her stomach, I could tell what she was expecting me to do next. She opened her legs and relaxed, ready to be ravished. I had different ideas and by the time she realized it, I had her right foot in my hands. Her feet are lovely but they were a disappointment in the erogenous arena. Taking her toes in my mouth didn't do much other than make her laugh. I did get some interesting reactions when I swiped the bottom of the foot with my tongue, but once again, it was because it tickled. I enjoyed licking my way up her lower legs but it didn't do a whole lot for her. That is, until I happened to lick the back part of her knee. That just about brought her off the bed with a "God, what are you doing to me?" Anything over a little was too much; it actually turned from pleasure to pain. Both knees were equally sensitive, as were the insides of her elbows to a lesser degree. I turned her over and worked on her back. I got some reaction when I nuzzled her lower spine, but what really got to her was when I started to massage her. She sunk into the mattress and directed me around her back for about ten minutes. We never got to her pussy. My sister banged on the door and yelled that breakfast was ready and Mom wanted us both in the kitchen. Bev was very relaxed from her massage and if she was disappointed, I didn't see it. I did have to drag her off the bed to get dressed. I promised her that we'd continue with this later and she told me it would be her turn. When we finally went out into the hall, Vicky was waiting for us and shuffled both of us into her room. She and Bev had a conversation that consisted mostly of smiles, eyes lighting up and giggles, punctuated by an "Oh, My God!" from Vicky, then dancing, hugging and kissing by the two of them. When it was over, an exuberant Vicky grabbed me by the ears and laid one on me that had me reeling. "I can hardly wait for my turn," she said, opening the door and skipping towards the kitchen. That answered any lingering questions I might still have about how far my sister was planning on taking this. I had Bev's hand in mine and looked at her. She smiled back and said, "It's going to happen. You might as well get used to it." I shook my head as we followed my sister's path at a more sedate pace. But I had a smile on my face. There were four of us for breakfast, Mom, the girls and me. "Where's Dad this morning?" I asked. "He and Manuel are working on repairing fences," Mom said. "Maybe I'll head on out and help after breakfast. It's been a long time since I did any work around here and even longer since I was on a horse." It was true. Once I got my bike, I was on that all the time and when Manuel showed up, there was nothing to help out with. Buster was getting too old to ride and I just hadn't bothered breaking in a new horse. The girls decided they'd come with me and see what they could do. "Don't forget, we've got a picnic tomorrow," said Vicky. "Are you guys cooking?" I asked. "Yeah. We'll have plenty of time when we get back. I figured we'd fry up a couple of chickens and make some of Mom's potato salad." "Sounds good." Mom had a recipe for potato salad that was killer. Dad's mother showed it to her when they first got married and now it had been passed down to Vicky. Grandma made a big deal about it remaining in the family. "Are you going to show Bev how to make it?" I asked Vicky. "Already have," she answered. "You have to marry her now." The girls each had their favorite horses and had been riding them for years. I needed a horse I could call my own. As much time as Bev and Vicky spent on horseback, I knew I wasn't going to be able to get away with not riding like I had this past year. Besides, I missed it. We'd picked up some new breeding stock last fall and one of them was a big chestnut stallion. He'd seemed intimidating before my wilderness trek and I hadn't paid much attention to him. He was running around the corral in back of the barn, his head up in the air, showing off to everyone who would look. I thought he'd look good under me and went over to the corral. He came over towards me to check me out, staying at least ten feet away. I held out an apple and he came within five feet, snorted, then continued on his way. He'd run out, swing around in a circle, then come as close to me as he dared. The next time he came towards me, I said, "What's the matter? You afraid of me or the apple?" He slowed a bit, checked me out, shook his head and took off again. While he was making his next circle, I slid between the rails and was about three feet inside the corral when he came by. I just stood there with the apple held out and he stopped a couple of feet away. I held it out and said, "It's alright, Boy. I'm not going to hurt you." He seemed to think about it for a few seconds, then he snorted and came over to me. I held the apple and he took it out of my hand. I moved the hand he'd just emptied up to scratch his nose and his ear. I brought up my other hand and just let it rest on his back. I could feel the raw power of the animal under my hand and I knew I could control it. He looked at me and I knew he felt something, too. We were made for each other. Now. Before my changes, he probably would have killed me. I looked him in the eye and said, "I'll be back in a couple of minutes and we'll go riding." He snorted and took off again. I went into the barn to get some tack. "Are you taking Cinnamon out?" Bev asked me. "Is that the new stallion?" "Well, he's not that new. He sired one of the new fillies." "The brown one with the white on it?" "Yeah." "Well, he's new to me. I haven't had much to do with the horses this last year and I was gone for a few months." "We know that," she said, sticking her tongue out at me. We took the gear over to the corral and put it all on the top rail. I went in and clucked a couple of times. Cinnamon came right over to me. I put the bridle on him, then looped it around the top rail to keep him there while I got his saddle on him. I mounted up and leaned over to get the bridle. He was raring to go. Both girls were on their horses and Bev unhitched the gate so we could get out. There are some cars that are just designed to get tickets. It's almost impossible to keep them under the speed limit. That's what Cinnamon was like. There was a power plant inside him that wasn't satisfied unless it was let loose. After fighting to hold him down so I could stay with the girls, I finally said, "Sorry, Guys, but he needs to run. I'll see you later." I clucked and dug my heels in and he took off. Like a muscle car, he was fast but smooth. I could feel the sheer joy as he let his legs take us as fast as he could go. We have a standard way of doing the fences. We load up a pickup with rolls of fence, posts, wire for repairs and such. We start out with the fence on the back side of the barn, then head towards the back of the property and follow it all the way around. It was about a half mile behind the barn and the other side of the property was about 12 miles the other way. We'd probably ridden a quarter of a mile as a group when Cinnamon and I took off. I angled us up a bit and we were running next to the fence before I knew it. After about five minutes, I saw the pickup, then saw Dad, Manuel and his oldest son over near the fence. I pulled up and got off Cinnamon, cautioning him not to take off. I got my leather work gloves out of my saddlebag. "You're just in time," said Dad. "Juan and I were having a tough time stretching out this fence while Manuel gets the posts started." Manuel worked with the others while I did the post setting. This was the first real muscle work I'd done since I got back and I was surprised how much easier it was. We were tying the new section to the old with bailing wire when my ladies rode up. Vicky left her mount and took off in the truck with Bev following her. She stopped a couple of hundred yards up and the two of them pulled off what was needed up there. Dad rode Vicky's mare and Juan rode on the back of Manuel's horse. By the time we got there, the girls were heading up to the next place that needed work. We did that the rest of the morning, the girls laying out the parts we'd need and the men doing the repair work. It was close to lunch time when we got to the shack Manuel and his family were living in. Mom had sent some food with the girls and they and Margarita made lunch while Dad and I took the pickup back and loaded all the leftover parts up. Lunch was ready by the time we got back. We finished the near side and the whole length along the back. That left the far side. Dad and Manuel could work on that tomorrow and during the week and we'd have both days next weekend if we needed it. The weekend after that was going to be a long one because of the sheep sheering. Mom put a couple of chickens in to soak when we got home and the girls plucked them while I helped Dad with the fence materials and the horses. The feathers went in a big burlap bag in the barn. You never knew when you were going to need feathers for a mattress or a new pillow. Cinnamon had insisted on another run on the way home. I didn't mind it but I knew I was going to have to let him know we couldn't do it all the time. There were going to be times that I was going to want to ride with one or both of the girls and that didn't mean leaving them behind in a cloud of dust. I guess what it boiled down to was I was going to have to take him out on his own and run him ragged some times, then take him out with one or both of the girls on others. Like Bev, he'd decided I was the one and I was going to have to act accordingly. After dinner, Bev made potato salad while Vicky fried up the chickens. I got my fingers slapped a couple of times by each of them. There's nothing like fresh chicken in the frying pan and that potato salad is almost as tempting as chocolate chip cookie dough. They finally sent me out to the living room with orders not to come back. I was on the couch, flipping through the channels when Bev came out and sat down next to me. We kissed for a couple of minutes, then she said, "I'm going to take off tonight and go next door." "You mean home?" "Val, I consider this my home. I have to make an appearance over there once in a while, but I sure don't look forward to it." "Do you need anything from me?" "No, I've got my car here. I'll be back tomorrow around ten, then we can leave for the picnic. You just take care of Vicky. She's real nervous, so don't do anything you'll be sorry about." "I'll take good care of her." Vicky came in and the two of them hugged and giggled. I got more than a few glances. When they were done, Bev held her hand out to me and I walked her outside to her car. "I mean it, she said. She loves the dickens out of you but she's scared you don't care for her." "She's wrong. Don't worry, you just take care of yourself." We kissed each other, she got in the car, rolled down the window and kissed me again, then she drove off. I went back in the house and Vicky was sitting in the rocker over by the fireplace. No fire, nervous rocking, chewing on a thumbnail. I sat down on the couch and patted the cushion next to me. She jumped up and ran over, then sat down, leaving at least a foot and a half between us. I just lifted my arm and said, "Come 'ere, Vick." She smiled and scooted over to me. She worked her arm back between me and the cushions and buried her face in my chest. I wrapped my arm around her and kissed the top of her head. Her hair smelled like apricots. She started to shake and I brought my other arm up. We just sat there, Vicky shaking and me holding onto her. I squeezed a bit more when I felt the moisture on my chest. It took a couple of minutes before she looked up at me. "I'm sorry, Val. I'm just so scared." I kissed the tears on her cheeks, quietly shushing her, telling her it was all right. She settled down and lay her head against my chest again. A couple of minutes later she was relaxed, then she slept. Mom came in to say goodnight. "Are you OK with this, Val?" "I don't know, Mom. I mean, I know whatever happens will be what she wants because I refuse to use my powers on her. She said she was scared so I'm trying to figure out what to do tonight. Do I put her back in her own bed or take in with me?" "What's she doing right now, Val?" "Now? She's sleeping on my chest." "There's your answer. Just be gentle with her and you'll do fine." "Thanks. Night, Mom." She smiled and touched the side of my face. "Good night, Son." She reached down to Vicky. "And you too, Daughter." I took Mom's hand and pulled her down to me and kissed her. And then I took my sister, one of the four people in this world I could say I really loved and carried her down the hall to my bedroom. ------- Chapter 11 Vicky woke up, of course. I don't know how Rock Hudson got a drunk Doris Day from the living room to the bedroom, getting her out of an evening gown and into a flowing nightgown without seeing anything or waking her up. I don't think Vicky was fully awake at any time and it didn't take long at all for her to fall back asleep when she was back in bed. She seemed to enjoy it when I maneuvered her arms and legs so I could take off her clothes. Vicky wasn't wearing a luxurious nightgown when I was done getting her ready for bed. Even though she was dead to the world, she slithered up to my back as soon as I got in bed. At some point during the night, I thought I heard the phone. It stopped ringing and I fell back into my deep sleep. I don't think I ever really woke up. I did wake up earlier than normal, though. I had my normal morning wood and Vicky was on top of me, trying to force me into her. She was dry and it hurt me so I know it had to be bad for her. I opened my eyes and I could see her straining, along with the frustration on her face. She avoided my hands as I tried to hold her, continuing to try to push me into her, almost a reverse rape. When I shouted her name and told her to stop it, I finally got her attention. This time she let me reach up to her and pull her down on top of me. I held her close, one hand on her back, the other fiddling with her hair. "Vick, is this really how you want your first time to be?" She sniffed. "I don't know, Val. I felt bad about last night and it was sticking up under the covers and I decided to do it." "With no thought about how I felt?" I could feel her body tense up on top of mine. "What do you mean?" "Vicky, how would you feel if you were suddenly awake and I was on top of you, forcing myself inside you, rubbing you raw. And on top of that, your breath smelled like something died." "Is my breath bad?" "Probably. I know mine is. Dammit, Vick, I want our first time together to be almost perfect. No man wants to be woken up like that." "You liked it when Bev and I woke you up." "That was different. Your mouths were both wet. And you did it slowly, gently, so I could get used to it. This time you were insistent, forceful; you didn't seem to care how I felt, you just wanted to get me inside of you. It hurt me so I can only imagine how bad it hurt you." "It's supposed to hurt the first time." "Not like that, it isn't. I know your body can produce moisture. I had you nice and juicy the other day. You were flowing like a river." "Stop it. That's gross." "The hell it is. You'd better get used to it. The other day when I went down on you, you left a puddle on the bed. What do you think that was? I'll tell you what it was. Your body was ready for sex. You were excited and your pussy was juicing up because it wanted cock. And you know why? Because I love you and I was making love to you. I find it beautiful. But not gross." "Really?" "Yes, really." "Can we try it again?" "Only if you'll let me brush my teeth and clean up a bit. And then we spend the time it takes to make you ready. I don't want you looking back at our first time and thinking how bad it was." "OK. I need to brush my teeth, too." "Good, you go first." She left to use the bathroom and I lay back and thought about last night and this morning. She was obviously confused, scared one moment and desperate the next. I resolved to take it easy with her and make damn sure she was ready before I actually penetrated her. She opened the door and stood in the doorway. Her face was white as a sheet and she was staring at a point a couple of feet above me. "Vicky. What's wrong?" "You need to get up, Val. Bev's here. She's in the kitchen. It's not good." I didn't get a chance to do or say anything before she slid into the hallway, pulling the door closed after her. She reminded me of someone who had been hypnotized. Or drugged. I threw on a pair of jeans and headed towards the kitchen. Mom and Dad were blocking the hallway. Dad lifted his arms and put his hands on my upper arms. It took every ounce of willpower not to react and push past him. Then Mom had both her hands on my face, her eyes pleading with me. "Val," my father said, "I need you to promise you'll listen to Bev and then you won't do anything before you've had a chance to talk it out and think about it." "Where is she? What's wrong?" "VAL! You need to promise." I looked at the two of them. They looked miserable, fear all over both of their faces. Were they that afraid of me? Never in my life had they come to me like this, so desperate for me to do something. Or not do something. I relaxed and took a deep breath. "I promise." Dad looked into my eyes and I could see the relief on his face. I think we'd both realized just how powerful I'd become and how weak he was in comparison. If I hadn't wanted to listen to him, there was nothing he would have been able to do about it. I grabbed a hand from each of them and put them together, then I kissed their overlapping fingers. "I promise. Whatever it is, we'll talk before I do anything." I went into the kitchen. It was four o'clock in the fucking morning and she had sunglasses on. She was sitting at the table and she looked small, like she was all pulled into herself. She looked up at me every few seconds but her attention was primarily on the table. "Take them off, Bev." She hesitated, then she lifted her right hand and pulled the sunglasses away, putting them on the table. She looked at me almost defiantly when she pulled them off but couldn't hold it and watched the glasses as she lowered them to the table. Her left eye was half shut. There was discoloration all around it with the majority underneath. She was going to have quite a shiner. I held my hands up and she ran over to me, wrapping her arms around me, holding me close. "Bev, who did this to you?" She glanced over at my parents and I saw my dad nod slightly. "Jimmy." "Has he done anything like this to you before?" "He's tried but I've always been faster than him." I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You know I want to kill him right now." All four of them looked like they were going to say something and I held up a hand. "That's my first reaction. But I promised my parents I wouldn't do anything without thinking and talking about it and I'm promising you the same thing. What I want is to find out what happened and I don't feel like doing it while standing here in the kitchen. I want to go out to the living room and talk about this. Do you have any coffee going, Mom?" "Five minutes." "OK. I'd like a cup, please." I scooped Bev up and carried her out to the living room. I sat her down on the couch, then sat next to her. A couple of seconds later she was practically in my lap and Vicky was sitting on the other side of her, leaning against her. "OK. Tell me what happened." "Well, he got home. He'd been drinking and I could smell weed, too. I think some girl turned him down and for some reason he wasn't able to force her. He came in the kitchen while I was there and he said I could take care of him. I tried to talk him out of it but he wouldn't listen. He ripped my shirt and was pawing my bra when I slapped him. That's when he punched my eye and knocked me to the ground. He came after me while I was down and I scratched his face. The left side of his face has four deep scratches that go all the way down his face. He backed off me and I was able to kick him. Then he was too busy holding onto his balls to bother with me. By the time he was able to move, I had a shotgun pointed at his belly and had already called 911." "What was your father doing while all this was happening?" "He was drunk half out of his mind, like usual. He came in when I had Jimmy on the floor with the shotgun on him and called me a slut like my mother and came after me. I broke his nose with the shotgun barrel. They were both on the kitchen floor when the cops came to the door. They took us all to the hospital and patched them up and took pictures of me and scraped under my nails." "So, is your eye the only thing he..." "No. When he was on top of me he mauled my tits pretty bad. I've got some bruises that the doctor said will be real colorful over the next few days." "Did he do anything else to you?" "No. That's when I scratched the hell out of him and kicked him in the nuts. The police lady that talked to me told me I was lucky he grabbed my tits. With just the eye, it would be assault. But since he grabbed my tits and there's clear evidence of it, it becomes sexual assault. If he's convicted of it, he'll have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life." "Are you OK?" "I'm sore. But I'm not raped and I'm not damaged like a lot of the women he harms. And I've got you so I'm not afraid of him anymore." "Anymore. How long have you been afraid of him?" "Shit. Years. Since I got tits. As long as I can remember, he's always made comments, pinched my tits or my butt when he has a chance. I learned to stay away from him. That's part of the reason I spend so much time over here. Of course, now I'll be living here full time." I know I looked confused. Dad said, "That's one of the things we did when we went to the hospital. We're Bev's temporary guardians. And sometime during the next week, a caseworker will come out and inspect the household and we'll fill out the paperwork for permanent guardianship." "Why didn't you take me to the hospital with you?" "Because we didn't know how well you had this thing of yours under control," Dad said. "Plus, they wouldn't have let you see her anyway. You would have been frustrated out in the waiting room and I for one wasn't willing to be responsible for that," said Mom. "OK. I understand why I wasn't invited to the hospital and I even agree with most of it. I don't want there to be a next time, but if there is, I hope by then I'll have been able to show that I can be trusted." "You're doing pretty good so far," said Dad. "Thanks. I've thought about what I want to do about Jimmy. I've got my mind pretty well made up so it's going to take some really good arguments to make me change my mind. "First, if he even thinks of hurting you or any other female in any way, he'll shit all over himself. The same thing if he comes within ten feet of you, Bev. This is for the rest of his life. Is that acceptable?" Mom and Dad were smiling. Bev said, "I love it." "Good. The other thing is the justice system. I could see him walking with little or no penalty. And then I'd have to hurt him and I don't really want to. What I want is for him to make a full confession of all the women he's mistreated. And then I want him to plead guilty for all of them with no deals. He can put in the time he's earned. Hopefully by the time he gets out, he'll have figured out why he's always shitting all over himself and he'll behave." Dad said, "That's good. We just need to make sure he has been read his rights before he confesses so they can't throw it out for any reason. Have you thought about what to do if they don't want to prosecute him on all the charges?" "We'll know about that before it's too late. I'm sure I can wish something for the District Attorney that will change his mind and prevent him from letting other criminals off in the future. If he finds himself vomiting any time he tries to let some bad guy off with a reduced sentence, that should make him change his mind." The family agreed that I'd come up with some workable solutions. I'm sure Mom and Dad were happy I hadn't decided to burn Jimmy or have him struck by lightning or something like that. I liked my solutions better. By the time he was done with all this, he'd know he'd been punished and why. A dispassionate bullet to the back of the head is too quick. Give me cruel and unusual any time. "So, the next thing on the agenda is healing that eye and your breasts," I said. Mom said, "Not a good idea. If she shows up in gym class on Monday and there's nothing wrong with her, it's going to look too weird. You know the story of what he did to her is going to make the rounds. She needs to look the part." "Sorry, Bev. Mom's right, you know." "It's OK. I'll live." Vicky said, "Why not take care of the pain and leave the bruises?" "Huh?" "Stop her from hurting but let her have a black eye and some bruised tits for a few days." "Yeah. I could do that. I could even make the bruises a bit more colorful to make sure people remember them." "Val. No. The bruises I've got are bad enough. We both know it wouldn't be right to make it look like he hurt me more than he did." "Yeah, I know." Mom and Dad went to bed. The phone call I'd heard was just after 1:00 and they'd been awake since then. Bev had never gotten to bed and Vicky and I both got cut short. Vicky and Bev argued over which one of them was going to sleep in Vicky's bed. Vicky thought she should so I could comfort Bev and Bev thought Vicky and I needed alone time together. We compromised and they both slept in my bed. That's right, I said slept. I was nothing more than a warm pillow for the two of them. And I loved it. ------- Chapter 12 It was just after ten when Bev shook me to wake me up. I was instantly alert but she held me down with an arm on my shoulder. "It's OK. Just time to get up." "I thought you'd want to sleep in later than this." "I'm fine. We've got a picnic to go to. I already called Karen and told her we'd be late and she's fine with it." "Bev, we should call the picnic off. I mean, it not that long since you were attacked." "I'm not going to let Jimmy ruin my day or my life or anything else. Besides, I don't hurt anywhere, thanks to you. I've already told Karen about my eye so there's nothing to hide from anyone." Once again, I learned that when a female has her mind made up about something, the most pro survival thing to do is go with the flow. You'd think I'd remember that. It's been proven to me so many times. We did our bathroom stuff and were on the road by 11. The girls were both asleep by 11:15. Shortly after two, we pulled into the rest stop. Karen and Alice were sitting in Karen's VW Beetle. I would never buy a bright yellow car like that but it seemed to fit Karen. Bev and Vicky seemed to like it, the way they oooed and ahhhed after hugging both Karen and Alice. Alice came over to me and kissed me. There was a lot of potential in that kiss but I didn't want to take our relationship there. The woman was almost ten years older than me and had treated me more like a child than a friend or lover. I broke it off as smoothly as possible. "So, are you ready to go on a picnic, Alice?" "I've been looking forward to it." "The girls fried a couple of fresh chickens and made some of my family's potato salad with homemade mayo." "I didn't think anybody did that anymore." "Oh, sure. It's just egg yolks, some olive oil, a little vinegar, a spice or two and throw it in the blender. Using fresh eggs makes the difference." "You keep saying fresh. How do you know?" "Alice, we raise our own chickens. I know the eggs are fresh because I had to move a chicken out of the way to get them and they were still warm. And Mom killed the chickens yesterday afternoon." "You kill them yourself?" "Sure, Alice. Where do you think that prime rib you served me comes from? The only difference is instead of taking it off a truck, we get it out in the back yard." "You mean you kill it and cut it up?" "We have. Most of the time we get someone to butcher it for part of the animal in trade. We have a guy living on the ranch right now who's pretty good at that." Karen came up to us and said, "Excuse me," then proceeded to plant one on me. It was the usual Karen kiss and lasted until both of us were having trouble standing. My girls and I used the facilities while Alice and Karen got some drinks for the road and then we took off, following Karen. She pulled off on a gravel road after a few miles, then stopped to open a cattle gate. Once we were through, Vicky jumped out and closed it. We drove up a dirt road to the top of a hill, then pulled over. The place we stopped was beautiful. There was a view of the edge of the forest I'd spent so much time in if you looked to the east. Over to the south was a large plain with trees at the far end. There was a stream meandering through the open plain. All the spring flowers were in bloom and it was breathtaking. I lay on the blanket with my head on Bev's lap. All four girls took turns feeding me. Alice had brought two kinds of olives, some pickles and cut up veggies with a creamy dip. Karen had crackers and four different kinds of cheese. And we had our chicken and potato salad. Karen had gone out on a date Friday night and was pretty sure this guy was the one. She also said she'd given it some thought and decided that she wasn't into sharing. Alice was still having a tough time with the idea that we raised and killed our own food. She served the stuff for a living but it bothered her that we got ours from our own property instead of a piece of Styrofoam covered in Saran Wrap. She did enjoy the chicken, though, after some initial hesitation. It was a relaxing afternoon. I told some of the things I found out about Jimmy on our trek and Bev told some stories about him. Some of the stories she told made me realize the football team had done little, if anything, to corrupt him. It was like they were ready made for him. All three of us were disappointed that we couldn't tell the girls about the punishments we'd put in place for him. But I wasn't about to let them know my secret, especially Alice. It would remain a secret until she started serving her next customer. My interviews were a big hit, especially the accident Monica Belmont had when her tits fell free of her blouse. Alice found it hard to believe she was hated by her producer and camera man and insisted I was mistaken or there was something wrong with the two of them. I just told her to give me a call if she ever served her and tell me if she felt the same. Then I decided Monica was going to stop at the truck stop, eat at Alice's station, be a bitch and not tip anything. Cruel? Maybe a little. Cheating? Sure. But it probably wouldn't make a difference in her behavior. The key was getting her to actually stop and eat at a place I'm sure she would feel was beneath her. I discovered that I didn't have a lot in common with these people. Karen was a girl I'd tricked into kissing me. We both enjoyed it and it was pleasing on the physical level but there was no real spark there. It was a relief when she said she wasn't into sharing. I had no doubt that Bev and Vicky would stay in touch; they'd been talking nonstop since we got here. I'd text her once in a while but that's about as much contact as I could see in the future. Alice was a real problem. She was a nice lady and she did help me out when I got back to civilization. A lot of her help had been pushed on me, whether I wanted it or not. She sat there, giving me quarters to feed the pay phone when I could have called collect just as easy. It was nice to be able to change clothes and get clean before the family got there but I would have survived if I had to wait for them. Mom could have given the credit card number to the manager over the phone instead of waiting till she got there, too. Alice was like the Aunt you only see on holidays who has to tell everyone some embarrassing thing you did when you were three, pretending to think you were cute but really making you look like an idiot so she'll get the spotlight. After Alice told how she had to get me a cup of coffee the third or fourth time, it got old. What was I supposed to do, just go over and take it? I ended up wishing she would find someone local that she could be happy with. Vicky wanted to sit next to me on the way home. She was quiet for most of the trip, obviously struggling to get up the courage to say whatever it was she wanted to say. She finally did. "Val, you know how Karen said she didn't want to share?" "Yeah." "Well, I've decided I feel the same way." "Oh. Does that mean you're going to take Bev back for yourself?" She turned red. "No. I mean ... It's just that I'm your sister and you're my brother and I'm not that old and you've got Bev and..." She looked over at Bev. "I'm sorry, I just can't do stuff like that with my brother." The tears started pouring down her face and it was hard to tell which one of us she was afraid of hurting the most. I pulled over to the side of the highway and held her. Bev's arms came around from the other side. She quieted down and I told her that she'd always be my sister and I loved her and didn't love anyone else in the world the same way. And if she ever got lonely and just wanted to share our bed, that was fine, too. Bev told her she didn't know how it got this crazy and couldn't remember how it started but all Vicky had to do if she wasn't happy was to say something. Vicky relaxed and we continued our drive home. It was close to nine when we got home. Mom had a shepherd's pie and warmed that up for us. I guess there are all kinds of ways to make it but what she does is take all the leftovers from a lamb dinner and cover them with the mashed potatoes. She makes it in a casserole dish and bakes it in the over till the potatoes are good and brown. It was filled with ground lamb, cauliflower and broccoli and Mom's lamb gravy. I guess shepherds have been making something like this on their wood stoves for centuries. It's good rib sticking food. Pour some more of Mom's lamb gravy on a plate of that, mix it all together and you know you've eaten something. We invited Vicky to sleep in our room and she said she'd rather not. Neither of us pushed it but that didn't keep the two of them from saying goodbye in the hallway as if they never expected to see each other again. We got into bed and Bev ended up snuggled against me, her cheek on my chest. "Are you ready for school tomorrow?" she asked me. "As ready as I'll ever be." "What are you going to do if they want to keep you back?" "That's not going to happen. If I have to make myself learn faster, that's what I'll do." "You might need to do that. You missed over three months." "Could you handle me if I was smart?" "Oh, I don't know. You seem pretty smart to me." "I like this," I said. "What? That I think you're smart?" "No. That we can just lie here in each others arms and talk like this." She squeezed me. "I agree. You know we won't be able to do this for a few days." "Why not?" "Because we're going to get a visit from a social worker to check out the family." "I hope she comes tomorrow afternoon." She hit me on the stomach. "That's cheating." "No it's not. There's no reason for her to come here after we're in bed." "Yeah, I guess." "There's no way you should complain to me about cheating, anyway." "What are you talking about?" "The way Jimmy just happened to find you out in the kitchen when he got home. And how you just happened to have a shotgun hidden somewhere you could get to it quickly." "You're crazy." "I don't think so. You've been able to avoid him successfully for years and now all of a sudden he not only catches you, he's able to get his hands on you and leave marks. You set him up." "Maybe a little bit." "A little bit. What was it you told me about him? He was going to end up in jail or dead? I'm just glad you settled for jail." "I'm just glad I won't have to worry about him anymore." "What about your father?" "He's nowhere near as bad as my brother is." "How do you think Jimmy's going to jail is going to affect him?" "I don't know. He hasn't been the same since he killed my mother." "Whoa. Wait a minute. He killed your mother?" "Sure. I thought you knew." "All I knew was there was something that happened that nobody wanted me to know about. They were afraid of how it would affect me, I guess. I know there was some other guy involved but that's all I know." "Well, I was young and I'm sure some of what my aunt told me was modified for my young ears. Here's what I was told. My father was convinced that my mother was having an affair. He found her talking to some guy who sold clothes door to door. He saw some nightgowns on the chair and went crazy and somehow Mom ended up falling and hitting her head on the table in front of the couch. She was in the hospital for two days and then she died. My father also roughed up the salesman but he was able to hit my father with the fireplace shovel and knock him out. He called for an ambulance and the sheriff. "There was a trial and my father went to jail for six months for manslaughter. As far as I know, the salesman or whatever he was wasn't charged with anything. My father doesn't talk about it except when he's exceptionally drunk and then he starts going off on my mother, calling her a no good cheating whore. I remember him swearing it was an accident back when it happened. I also heard some adults talking when they thought I couldn't hear them. Something about Mom waking up in the hospital and being afraid of my father." "You know, I really liked your mom. Maybe we should find out what really happened," I said. She looked up at me. "I don't see what difference it would make. He's still been an asshole since it happened, never satisfied, hell, not even acknowledging I was alive half the time. In the end, it doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference whether she was cheating on him or just trying to get some clothes that would excite him, whether he meant to push her or she fell. The bottom line is he's not someone I want around and with what happened last night I don't have to worry about it any more." "Well, I think I may just come up with something that guarantees he won't bother you." "I know you will, Val. And I know there's not a thing I could do to stop you if that's what I wanted. Just do me a favor and keep it to yourself. I don't want to know about it." "I can do that." I decided that he'd just feel uncomfortable and remember he had something else he needed to do any time he started to say or do anything negative to Bev. If I needed to make it any tougher down the road, I could always do so. I wasn't sure if I could make a wish go away or have lesser consequences. Why use a hammer when a little tap of the fingers will do? Bev was curled up on me, sleeping. I bent down, kissed her on the top of her head and wished we could live happily ever after. She had a smile on her face so I knew it was working. ------- The End ------- Posted: 2009-10-19 Last Modified: 2009-11-27 / 08:06:01 pm ------- http://storiesonline.net/ -------