Mojave Road

Kate: "You gave me the OJ yesterday. I might have been a bit dehydrated."

David: "It is not just a one time thing. The girl before her said something similar. I think, when my ma came home, she always shooed me away, because she didn't like to be overwhelmed. My dad was either at work or behind a closed door in his wood working room."

Kate: "Are you saying that your parents weren't there for you?"

David: "Maybe, they were. Though, I wish I'd remember it more. All I remember is lying in the ER after the pedals of my bicycle fell off. The doctor yelled at them for not maintaining my bike better."

Kate: "Aren't you a bit rough on your parents?"

David stepped gently on the gas again. Yep, the tires were spinning. He put the reverse in. The tires were able to dig themselves out backwards. He backed up the mound behind them, settled in drive again, switched on the low four wheel gear, accelerated swiftly, and strode through the sand pit.

David: "I mean, it is a big problem. It just slips me to remember to take care of someone else. I think a lot of people avoid me a bit, because of it."

Kate: "Did you try therapy? Psychologists are there for that."

David: "You think so?"

Kate: "Obviously, you have some serious issues from the way that you behaved yesterday. And, maybe your parents did fuck you up. I don't know you enough."

David: "Do you know someone good?"

Kate: "Of course not. Do you think I'm a whack job that needs that?"

David: "I don't feel very good about you suggesting therapy to me in one sentence and then talking down about it. It is kind of an insult that you fling here."

Kate: "You are feeling mighty sensitive today. Let me call your friend to tell him that you have PMS."

David: "Why are you fighting? We have been at it since yesterday?"

Kate: "You are weird. Can't you be friendly, put on some music, tell me something about your job? I am here to relax."

David: "What do you want to listen to? We got trance, Buddha Bar, Stephanie Pompougnac..."

Kate: "Let me look... 'George is On'"

Radio: "No stopping for nicotine."

Chapter 6

Rotten and rusted engine parts, seats und unrecognizable rubbish piled in front of the relic bus like vomited out of the bus innards. The spirit of the hippie decade was still present. Probably, a happy hippie herd had come out to this remote desert to get high on drugs and love and left the bus behind. A few bullets holes marked a younger generation of rednecks passing their time with beer instead of weed and shooting bullets instead of cum.

The sun of high noon was brooding over the two. The local insects made a high pitched hypnotic sound that sounded like an alert tone of a sci-fi movie. Kate was gnawing on an apple. David was peeling an orange into a plastic bag. David said "Hey, bitch" with a warm smile. Kate laughed back: "Hey cocksucker."

David: "You know, how eating orange after brushing your teeth tastes totally yucky. The aftertaste just doesn't mix."

Kate: "Oh, yeah!"

David: "You should try some orange with the after taste of your apple." He licked his lips and moved them close to hers and waited.

She went for a sloppy kiss. Her lips went around his lips. She sucked a little bit and then slid her lip in between his lips, where his tongue had been waiting. He embraced her, while extending his hands holding the dripping orange away from her clothes. Her hands instinctively went up his back under his t-shirt. He dropped the orange and the bag to wipe his hands on his surfer shorts and gently parked them under her t-shirt to wait, if she would reject his advance.

His hands moved further up to feel her bra. Her bra had a smooth seam running around the bottom. He passed over her bra to feel the soft and smooth textile. She straddled him with her legs and he felt emboldened to slid his fingers under her bra to explore the delicate skin of her boob and go further to feel her nipples.

They went on in a trance for a bit without moving to the next stage. Kate broke the embrace, backed up a little bit and gently bit his erect member through his shorts. He smiled. She waved him to get back to the Jeep and drive on.

Chapter 7

David: "Don't worry, I'll get that for you."

Kate: "You know the dinner that you made was quite tasty. You should have cooked earlier on our trip already."

David started unzipping the Jeep bag to get the bio degradable dish soap and sponge. This time, he remembered to leave the zipper open, until he was done.

David: "Kate, I'd like to ask you for a favor. Could you help me learn to take care of people. I mean, just tell me what to do, so I at least know, what I should do."

Kate: "So you are my slave?"

David: "Not like that!"

Kate: "You could start by washing my jeans that you peed on."

David: "Allright, but I better get some more of those kisses."

Kate: "Shut up slave."

David: "C'mon, I am being vulnerable."

Kate: "C'mon, I am trying to have fun or do you want me to give you some clinical instruction?"

David sighed and went for her backpack of clothes. There was a cute multi-colored striped panty folded on the side. At least the trip had some benefits. He reached down in the bag to grab the plastic bag of dirty laundry. His fingers felt the square plastic with a soft ring inside, condoms. Yeah, the plastic bag did reek a bit of heavy yellow morning urine that had been allowed to brew over through a hot day. He got a jug of water and washed it down a bit.

Kate: "Next you could put some lotion on my feet. The dry dust of this region is pretty bad on feet and dries them out."

He placed a half clean towel on his lap, grabbed for the jug of water next to him, and splashed it on her bare foot. The layer of light brown dust rinsed of. He dried her foot, particularly in between her toes. It was a lovely foot with a nice arc. The toes looked plumb and juicy. Her toe nails were painted in a glossy green with a yellow line diagonally across them. They smelled quite clean and fresh. He took the lotion that had been balancing on her thigh. It made the feet nice and moist. She asked for a roll of clean socks from her bag of clothes. He greeted the condoms in passing and rolled her socks up her refreshed feet.

Kate: "You know, the ride was kind of rough and shaking today. Would you mind giving my neck a rub? You'd get an A+ in care taking?"

He swallowed his objection for being taken advantage, because he liked to get his hands on her body. She was sitting on a round white rock in front of the tent. He moved around her back. He placed his fingers on her clavicle and worked his thumbs into the back of her neck. Then he rolled her upper arms like plaido snakes between his flat hands. She sighed deeply and asked him to continue in the tent, so that she could lie down and fully enjoy his gift. He worked his fists down her back in compressions as she went limp like a ragdoll.

In a very cozy hushed voice, with barely opening her eyes, turning a bit around to him, she told him to put it in. He was dumbfounded at first. When she told him that there were condoms in his back, he was sure that he had heard her right. He got up right away to get the condoms and was back without missing a beat.

He hugged her butt with his chest, while both arms crawled under her body, to search for the jeans button and zipper. Then, he slid his hands around the top of her waste to feel the skin that had been stuck to the jeans, and was now sensitive to his touch. Then, he slid her jeans down to her mid hamstring. He pulled on the condom, while feeling it nice and snuck. The snuckness made him a bit harder. He played with the her vulva a bit, moving the dickhead up and down her vulva from the clitoris to the entrance of her vagina. He adjusted his hands to cup her boobs and he went in with a gently forceful swiftness. The Kama Sutra says that the boy has to be hurt a little bit.

She said that her vagina had been turned or something like that and it made her a lot more pleasurable to receive a man from behind. He humped her, while his mouth sunk into her neck, byting, suckling, licking with the tongue, like a dog that wrapped his jaw around an arm. He tried to work as much skin of her body as possible.

She was laying there, pushing her butt up and into him, moaning softly. He warned that he was close to coming. She kept on moaning. He came. She urged him to go on. Her moans drove him nuts and he kept going, no matter, if he had a limp dick or not. He couldn't quite feel his dick that well. He kept going like it was a once in a lifetime chance.

She arched her butt up and got on her knees. He kept going at it. He was sweating a bit. He realized that she liked humping and took up the pace. She kept moaning. He kept humping. He loved it. She got on her feet with her face down on the ground in a quasi downward dog. He stayed on top of her hugging her, sweating, humping, spurred on by her moans and nastiness of the situation.

She came. He came. They lay down. He used a tissue paper to dispose the used rubber. They fell asleep in a deep sleep. They woke up, when the stars were up and went back to last nights sleeping position. He looked at her for a moment and gave her a good night kiss on her shoulder and followed her into dream land.

Chapter 8

Kate rolled onto David's sight. David wrapped his arm around her, pulling her in close.

Kate: "My dad's in the hospital."

David: "Wow, what happened."

Kate: "He likes to joke that he doesn't have a problem with alcohol, only without. He was drunk recently and smashed in a mirror. Apparently, he couldn't stand his own face. One of the glass pieces went deep into his flesh and caused an infection. His going into surgery on Monday and may get his hand amputated. It's not the first time that something happened because of his alcohol habit."

David: "I am sorry to hear that. Can I do something to make you feel better?"

A tear ran down her face.

Kate: "It is so hard to deal with this. One day he is friendly. The next day he yells at me. He ends up at the doctors and a weak later an empty vodka bottle is in the trash. I want to be his friend. He smiles at me. I smile again and he tells me that I did something wrong. I can't take his yelling. He yells at me, until I ran away crying."

Kate broke out into uncontrollable sobbing. David embraced and held her body with a dazed face. She fell asleep a while later. He smelled her hair. It smelled a bit like a kind of spice. It was a bit dirty and unkempt from the roughing in the desert. Her breath was deep and even, like a child. The morning sun greeted the tent. The air that streamed in still had the unique feel of desert morning air. Kate became a special word.

They spent the rest of the day crossing Pyramid Lake. Then, they got stuck in pit with deep and loose sand right after it. They aired down the tires until they Jeep moved again. She took over the steering wheel and had a heck of a lot fun crossing the OHV area with dunes. There was a water crossing as well. And, a railway dam, where they chases along a freight train. Eventually, they ended up in the Afton Canyon camp site after a nice day.

Chapter 9

Kate put her hand on David's thigh.

Kate: "You are a great guy. Sex was good. I like you. I just don't have any romantic feelings for you. Let's be friends."

David: "This morning, when I held you in my arm, I didn't want it to stop. I felt so complete. My job is so hard. And, I felt like I was in that sanctuary, where I'd get respite. I had been looking for a long time to feel like that."

Kate: "Please, don't make it hard. Let's be friends."

David: "We are locked in. That barbed wire goes as far as I can see. Our tank has been on empty for 6 miles. Those were six miles in gas guzzling 4WD low through heavy and deep sand. I don't think we can make it back. Did you see that old SUV with removed tires and smashed windshield stuck out there?"

The freeway with the trucks moving was in plain sight. He took a knife and was able to pry the barbed wire open, so that they could make it out. After crossing rail road tracks again, they made it on the freeway. They were both busy dreaming about what they would do as soon as they'd get back.

Opaque

A salad fork scratched over an appetizer plate. The plob of piercing it was missing.

Kate: "The last piece of salad just won't want to come on."

Susie: "It's probably not the last piece of salad. I noticed a lot was pushed to the edge of my plate."

Kate hesitated and then reached for the plate. She felt the cool liquid that passed for the dressing and found the pile of salad. Then, she searched for the napkin in her lap with the other hand and wiped the dressing on it.

Kate: "You were right. So, how is your class going?"

Susie: "It's alright. People are nice."

A waiter touched Kate's shoulder to signal her that he was going to take the plate away. Kate leaned forward to smell the freshly delivered chicken. Suddenly, she jerked and duck. A knife fell to the ground. The metal on concrete sound stopped the discussions on the nearby tables.

Susie: "What happened?"

Kate: "Oh, I still got those twitches in the dark."

Kate: "Didn't you work on a presentation for class last time and couldn't join us on the desert trip because of it?"

Susie: "Oh, that, the teacher went over time and it was canceled."

Kate: "That must have been disappointing. You could have come with us."

Susie: "It's alright. It wasn't a good presentation anyway."

Kate carefully felt her way along the chicken with her fork, until she came to the end of it. She moved the fork a little bit back and with ever gentle thrusts sawed down the chicken. After a byte, she asked Susie: "How is the chicken."

Dinners at the next table cloncked glasses on the table, utensils were making their tapping sounds.

Kate: "Are you crying?"

A napkin moved in Susie's direction. Susie: "No"

Kate: "I feel very bad about the other day, when I forgot to give you a ride to the doctor. Especially, when James got the call of your..."

Susie: "I already told you that I got a cab and you already offered to pay for this dinner to make up. And, it was an accident with a knife. I was cooking. I'm not a psycho."

Kate: "You are not a psycho. Maybe, you want to talk. At least, you could have made me pay by ordering some wine on my expense."

Susie: "I am not desperate to have someone to cry my shoulder out on about my sucky life."

Kate's hand padded on the appetizer rolls, then on Susie's glass of water to finally find Susie's lap.

Susie: "I probably have all kinds of food leftover there. You don't want to touch me."

Kate's hand went back into her own territory.

Susie: "I need help."

Kate: "What's been bothering you?"

Susie's glass clicked as it left the table. Susie gurgled on it. Finally, the glass clicked a little harder as it came back down.

Susie: "Life is just stressful. For example, all these cars at the Whole Foods intersection at rush hour."

Kate: "Yes, that intersection can be quite dangerous. There are a lot of people gutter sniping as the cops call it, overtaking left turning cars on the road. That can cause a lot of accidents. It is good to be cautious there."

Susie: "No way is overtaking on the right illegal. You haven't read the California driver's handbook in a while. You forget to signal half the time."

Kate felt for the water jar, which she thought was left of her plate and five inches towards the center of the table.

Kate: "Is your chicken still not here?"

Susie: "I'm not hungry anyway."

Kate: "If you would kill yourself, we'd all be very sad, James and David as well."

Susie: "Really? Why?"

Kate: "How could you even ask! You are a special person."

Susie: "That's what I thought as special as all the other billion assholes."

Kate: "You are funny. You are always well prepared."

Susie: "When did someone laugh at my joke? And, being prepared is what is expected of everyone."

Kate: "David thinks that you are cute."

Susie: "He doesn't even look at me. He is only talking to me, because he wants to get it going on with you."

Kate: "Well, last weekend, I made pretty clear that I didn't want more then friendship."

Susie: "Why? He is one of those hot guys."

Kate: "We just don't have the right chemistry."

Waiter: "I hope you enjoyed dinner. Let me have your hand to guide you out."

Kate: "Her chicken didn't come."

Waiter: "Oh really?"

Susie: "Don't worry about it."

Waiter: "Okay"

Waiter: "I'll get your right hand and put it on her shoulder. Then, I'll get your hand and put it on my shoulder. You probably want to close your eyes. The light can be a bit blinding."

The group of three walked out in single file. Kate and Susie stood there blinking their eyes, while the blind waiter handed the cashier the check and excused himself again for the problem with the order.

Inner Tubing Down the Kern

David hugged the pillow that he was lying on. The hot sleeping bag had been pushed down to his feet with the pile of their belongings. There was shoddily washed pot that still had a bit of rice left over from last night. The pee bottle was half filled from the night. The hiking boots were still wet from crossing over the creek into Limestone, their camp site. Their swimming trunks had been placed on top of the pile of useful things like a water purifier and a still unused roll of toilet paper. The less useful things had been stuffed into a side pocket, which was full of James' trinkets from the Burning Man festival. Actually, the whole tent was still covered in the Playa dust from there. It had its dry, caustic smell that provided good dreams.

Eventually, the relentless morning sun had pushed the two out of the tent: 95 degrees in the shade, a lot more inside of the tent. The open air and slight wind was refreshing them once they stepped out. They mutually agreed that food bars constitutes the breakfast that exuded the maximum permissible amount of effort. And, they hopped into the inner tubes with their trunks.

The water quickly lost its cold after the waves in the river doused them head over. James held onto David's arm just before a narrow chute plunged him down three feet. The chute water stream hit the pond, it pushed underground and pulled the water with it, creating an up current that kept them stuck. They waved hard with both arms, until David got out and pushed his tube and James clinging onto it forward.

David let the way backwards. His tube suddenly dipped down and up on a wave. James steadied him at the last moment from capsizing. The Kern River widened for a bit and slowed down. They kicked back and looked up at the still snow capped high mountains of the Sierra Nevada.

James looked over to David. David's arm had little pearls of water hesitating around raised hairs with slight goose bumps. Once in a while, one would roll down and take all the other droplets in its path with it. The sun shone on the arm and had in previous weeks already tanned it. The shoulder clearly showed the deltoids bulging over the shoulder and converging down the arm to the middle outside of the upper arm. His hands had long fingers with refined contours.

James: "Have you ever wondered, how an old man at the Promenade or a bullying rental car guy would have sex? Have you ever wondered, how they would enjoy it? If they would open up a bit more in the depth of their sexual activity?"

David: "Hey, you are a deep thinker today!"

James: "Sometimes, there is a moment, when I look at another guy and I feel drawn to him. I want to touch his skin to feel, what it feels like. I want to make him come and observe in the moment of the loss of control just what his face would express."

David: "You are feeling awfully queer today!"

James: "Hey, you know, I pleasure myself dreaming about Kate."