Mojave Road

She looked at the instruction paper that sternly warned in red letters: "If there is any doubt about the quality of care of family members, staff nurses will take over and the full room rate instead of the self service rate will be applied for the entire hospital stay." The paper told her to get a plastic bowl with a smaller bowl, soap, a pair of latex gloves, a red towel for washing, and a white towel for drying. In bold letters it warned to check the water temperature carefully and twice, especially for unconscious patients.

Kate: "This is going to be a bit uncomfortable. Though, that's what friends are for, especially in a time of need."

David: "Don't worry, I am getting out today."

She snapped on the latex gloves. The powder puffed a little cloud into the air. She lifted the hospital sheet. David lay straight and naked. She lifted his first leg with and cradled it in her left arm, as she diligently wetted the red towel and swiped all around his leg. Then, she lathered with soap. Tiny bubble streaks formed. She wiped with the red towel. The bubble streaks went partially into the towel and partially stayed on his leg, getting pushed across the leg like snow by a snow plow. After the third wipe, she gave up on the last bubbles and finished them with the dry white towel.

When she moved higher, she paused. David's eyes peered down to her vacant hands. All he could see were his cheek bone.

David: "I can't see there. Do you mind giving me a hand with it?"

She lifted his penis between her two fingers and wiped the soapy wet red towel around the base.

David: "You know guys with foreskin, tend to collect stuff under there. Could you..."

She squeezed the tip of his dick in one hand, as she rolled down the foreskin. And, then pushed the red towel down his shaft. Then, she neatly rolled the foreskin back up, tugging on his penis. She placed his penis on the nest of hair around his balls. The penis fell lifeless to the side. She arranged it lying up towards his stomach instead. She looked at the member for a moment lovingly. Then, she bent over and stole a kiss. She blushed. She looked at David's face for a second, before she looked away. She saw the hospital hallway and quickly jumped to pull the curtain.

David: "Oh, Jesus. Well, it already happened."

As she rinsed out the towels in the small bathroom, she saw the doctor walking in with the chart. She came out.

David whispered: "Kate. Kate."

The doctor was deeply involved in studying the chart.

Kate: "Okay, I'll go."

David whispered intently: "No, Kate, please."

She saw the tent that had formed in the middle of the thin hospital sheet. The thing nearest to her hand was her leather jacket, which she dropped on James' loin.

Doctor: "Great news! You'll be fine in a couple of months. You don't need surgery or any of these straps. You can take it all off. And, the head nurse will see you with the discharge papers in about two hours."

As soon as the doctor was out o the room, Kate said: "Let's get your ass out of bed and have a little exercise walking down the ward."

David unsnapped all of the straps swiftly. He pulled on the restraints of the bed and lifted up his chest. He got the legs dangling down opposite to Kate. And, he slowly made a step forward. His hospital gown was hanging untied and wide apart over his back with his toned ass widely exposed. Kate saw the balls and penis dangling down from her vantage point of sitting in a chair.

Kate: "That ass does like fresh air!"

Kate's Job

"I told the sysadmin to re-install the mail server. An hour later the e-mail still didn't work, and I found out that instead of doing it, he had gone to another colleague. That colleague had re-installed the mail server for him. Even then, he was unable to follow the full instructions and re-initialize the certificates. I wrote him a note with the detailed steps. Then, I had to leave, because I was late for evening class. Oh, the instructor was so pointless today. Why did I even go? When I got home after ten, and logged into the company e-mail, I find an e-mail from him to the whole group. He had written that he had done all that he could and outbound e-mail was still not working. My boss was on the list as well and had replied that he should re-initialize the certificates. An hour later, an e-mail had come back saying that was all he needed to know to fix the problem. Arggh!"

Kate dug her head into James' chest as she held onto him and the tears were streaming down her red face. He held her for a while, then he gently peeled himself out.

James: "Kate, I have just the thing for you. Come with me."

He went over to the refrigerator, rummaged a bit around until he found a rolled up plastic bag. Then, he pulled her along to the balcony. She stood there leaning on one leg, holding her right elbow and wiping down some of her tears. Under a plastic chair, he found a paper bag of coal that was hiding a plastic tube beneath it with water in the bottom. He peeled some of the herb out of the plastic bag and stuck it into a nozzle at the top of the plastic tube. He clicked a lighter a few times and inhaled hard from the top of the glass tube, spreading his lips out inside to seal the hole.

James: "Try."

Kate: "How do I do it?"

James: "Just inhale."

The water in the tube bubbled as she inhaled.

Kate: "I don't feel anything. How am I supposed to do it?"

James: "Do it one more time."

The water blubbered again and then a coughing reflex over came her. James secured the pipe, while she bent over and away.

James: "You are going to get it good. Let's sit on the couch."

Kate: "I don't feel anything different."

James: "Just wait. What else has happened today?"

Kate: "Last time, my assistant had so many questions. So, I spent two hours to write it all down for her in detail, so that I wouldn't have to do it again. When I walked by her desk in the afternoon and asked, how things were going, she told me that something wasn't working. When I asked her, if she had looked at my troubleshooting step, would you believe it, she answered that she hadn't looked at my instructions, because they were so long. I showed her, the page with what she had to do. She just said 'oh' and I thought about, how she had wasted half day, when it should have already been done."

James: "That sucks."

Kate: "It really bugs me, but right now, I just don't care anymore."

She leaned a little more onto James and put her head on his chest. Her hair tingled his nose a little bit. He sniffed her shampoo. Then, he looked down at her feet on the glass coffee table. She was still wearing her high heels. The soles were made of basal that felt nice on the skin. A black skinny strap curved over her toe. Two other straps spiraled up in parallel around her ankle and connected on her calf. The arch of her foot was beautifully formed, the feet were a bit moist. She had purple toe nails with wet looking nail polish over it. Her little toes looked a bit chubby.

The sun light flooded the plus, seeping through the blinds, and the balcony door. Everything looked a bit oversaturated like in a movie. Kate was still leaning on James and James was still sitting slouched on the couch and sleeping. She asked, if she could drive. Then, she got her stuff and left. There were some food bars left over in the car, which she ate. The roads were still empty from the Saturday morning, as she made her way home.

Fat Man's Misery

Susie: "Food -- check"

Kate: "Karabiners and belay devices -- check"

James: "Rope -- check. Let's go."

The morning sun was about to break above the horizon. The landscape that was purely black, when they arrived last night, was no clear: Trees, red/white mountain faces. The chill air made their faces rosy and their nipples perky. Kate's bikini's bow tie stood over her shirt. It was yellow and green. Susie stood there with a large white helmet, which made her look a bit dopey. James was adjusting his black knee pads and gloves. Kate shifted her backpack and did little jumps in places.

Kate was the first to slide in between the rock wall sideway. Her butt rubbed against the even yet sandy surface. Her feet pressed firmly against the opposite rock wall. She looked up at the outside of the slot that was maybe twenty feet higher. She looked down at her backpack that was hanging from a rope down between her legs. It vaguely looked like a YouTube video, where an Indian man hangs heavy weights from his penis. The wall curved back and force as she followed it: "It is not that bad."

Next time Susie wanted to go ahead. Behind her were thirty minutes down a slot canyon. In front of her was a gaping hole and a little water fall of six feet. She tucked her helmet a little tighter. She bent her knees and stuck her butt out to get a look over it: "Where is the rope? (pause) No rope here? I can't do it. (pause) I want to go back. (pause) You go first."

Susie looked down to James and Kate, who were both wet from head to toe. Susie was holding onto the rock wall next to her, as the stream of water carried on falling into the water filled canyon belly beneath.

James: "You can do it. The water is pretty deep. It won't hurt you."

Kate: "Come on, we are here for you. Let go."

Susie started crying.

James: "Take a deep breath. Let's breathe together."

Susie: "Okay, I am coming."

Her body fell heavy into the water. She paddled towards the exit of the pool. Green algae sponges were floating in the water. She shrieked as she touched the first one.

The next plunge followed immediately. This one was 20 feet down the canyon. A tree was 25 feet back. A rope ran from there to Kate's harness, as she walked across the edge of the plunge and leaned out to reach the far side, where bolt had been injected into the rock. James threw her the second rope to attach to the bolt. Then, he walked back to the tree to remove the knot and spool up the rope. Susie sat on a rock quietly and observed them.

Kate tugged on the rope down the sheer drop off to move it into a better place. James leaned over to check her work.

Kate: "When I was in third grade, there was this girl in the school yard. She always cheated with the rope jumping. When she won against me, I punched her in the nose. I was so mad that all I wanted to do was go after her. A teacher broke us up."

James: "When I was in fifth grade, the teacher came and started writing a sentence on the blackboard. The sentence kept continuing into one side sentence after the next. It was something like 'the person who had done x, when y had happened to x, who blabla'. I started laughing without holding back. About two lines before the sentence would have filled the whole board, a phrase seemed familiar to me. With a shock, I realized that I had written that sentence during the last language exam. I had a strong desire to disappear into thin air, when the teacher made that an example out of it. He added that an actual student had written that sentence during the last exam! I was so embarrassed."

Kate: "The rope is ready to rappel. I believe the honors are yours this time."

During lunch time, their clothes were soaked with cold water. And, the air was getting hot from the lack of air movement in the narrow canyon and the rocks hitting up in the sun. James stepped from the shade into a sunny spot and back before settling in the shade on the floor. Susie gave him his food in a water proof zip loc back and started to munch her own zip locked back. Kate finished rolling up the rope and arrived shortly later at the picnic spot. She got her Ziploc back and stared at it for a while.

There was some sand on the bottom. Her sandwich was rather soggy. The pickle floated in the water that filled half of the bag. Perhaps, the chocolate bar was still salvageable. Then she studied her lunch again in opposite order. Susie looked over at her: "Ooops. Did that bag come undone during the trip?" Susie looked at her sandwich that consisted of a last byte: "You could have the rest of my sandwich." James threw his chocolate bar at Kate.

They packed up and waded through the next part of the canyon.

Susie to James: "Do you think, we'll meet other people here?"

James: "Last time that I checked, we were the only ones with a permit for today."

Susie walked a bit ahead of them and found an angled plunge. She sat her pack down on a rock. Then, she took of her top, placed it into the water and watched, how it slowly floated towards the plunge. Then it speed up down the plunge and started going in circles where the water dropped into the pond below. She pulled her bikini top over her had and let it follow. Her bikini top started to roll up as she pushed it down her thigh, over her knees, and got a bit stuck around the boots. Both followed down the path as they watched her clothes like children's paper ships. Kate and James stopped and observed her.

Next, she put down her naked and pale butt and slid down the plunge with a cheer of happiness. She let herself drift feet ahead through the pond beneath. Her knees and breast poked out of the shallow water. Finally, she found a place under a tiny side canyon that drizzled water onto her face and body from high above. She lay there with her arms stretched out. Her gaze went motionless up to where the drops and sunlight came down into the canyon from. Her knees were slightly bent. Her belly with thin and had seen a bit of exercise to show the side contour of her abs. Her boobs had become flatter as they were lying flat on her chest.

James: "I may have tugged away another food bar. Let's take a rest and let her have her fun."

James heard a sheep bleating next to him. When he turned around, he found a small frog. The round belly of the frog enlarged and another sheep bleating sounded. The frog was of sand paper color with darker spots. The fingers and toes were white with round suction cups at the end of them. He knocked his elbow into Kate's rib. Before she could find the frog in between all the rocks, a plop sounded announcing that the frog had jumped down into the pond.

James: "They are called canyon tree frogs, even though they spend rarely any time in trees."

Eventually, the slot canyon joined with a wider canyon. The track turned into a hike through water. Tourists joined them with wide brimmed hats and jeans. A mother tried to walk her head to toe wet sun away from her by holding his hand out. Two young girls had wet t-shirts clinging to them.

Susie stopped walking: "James, how many more last turns must we walk before the car?"

James: "I could carry you for a bit."

Kate took James' backpack and strapped it to her chest. As James picked her up, she added: "I am so frubbly for you."