Summer Canyon

*******

We were both realist's and knew we both had to finish our education Chia was doing her degree soon and I went back to college to finish my degree in American history at the weekends we both headed back to Summer Canyon to fuck each other's brains out and for Chia to continue with the wedding arrangements. Since I was an orphan I asked Chukka's father to be my best man and much to my relief he agreed.

The one dark cloud as I saw it was Matchet, I knew soon things would come to a head, even though Chia told me not to worry it didn't stop me doing just that. I was in town on an errand when a car pulled up alongside me, as I walked it followed when I stopped it did. Looking inside the car and seeing the driver. Now realizing, that day was here I got in. Matchet drove in silence for almost the entire journey back.

"Summer Canyon is a beautiful place, to us it has been our home and our protection; the canyon can feel the difference between those that are its friend and those that are its enemies."

We both knew Matchet wasn't talking about the canyon. The fact he spoke to me and broke with tradition reinforced that idea, he meant to say more but I interrupted him. Living with Chukka for so long had given me such an insight into his people and I knew I had to stand up to Matchet if Chia and I had any chance of a life together.

"Chia has my heart elder. I would stand in front of a freight train to prevent her from any pain she may have as a consequence of my actions."

Matchet stopped outside the council of elders lodge and I left to return to Chia. It took her half a day to find out Matchet had brought me back from town and she wanted to know why I didn't tell her. Steeling myself to answer, simply saying that it was just a car ride home. Chia looked at me so intensely then I thought she was going to say more, instead shrugging her shoulders and again talked about the details of the wedding.

The juggling act that soon became our studies and plans for the wedding consumed our lives. Chia gained her degree with honors and I was grateful my own course ran a little later than hers so I was at her award ceremony. She bounced around and laughed the whole time, her scroll never left her fingertips at all that day and when we got home we set about mounting it in a frame and hung it on the wall before we went to bed.

A week later it was my turn and with Chia by my side I was the proudest man alive that day. My own professor took me aside after the ceremony and offered me a job to assist him and continue my studies, the sound of Chia screeching in my ear gave me a clue that she would like me to accept the job. We married a month later and in my heart I knew it was a draw as to who was the happiest of us that day.

It was Chia's decision to move onto campus, I knew what a wrench for her but she insisted that her place was by my side. We still took every opportunity to return home and it was my home as well as Chia's, other than college I had never found a place I felt so relaxed in. We both took time to explore Summer Canyon and as I later found out Chia's passion for outdoor sex.

As for the council of elders, we still paid our respects and I still felt uneasy around Matchet. Maybe one day I would figure it out but would that be before his rise to the leadership of the council of elders. As Chia tells me, all that is in other people's hands.

Between her and my professor I got pushed, shoved and occasionally kicked into obtaining my Masters. The college faculty bowed to pressure from my professor and they allowed me to support him in class and field trips and on occasion I gave lessons myself. It was only after doing a job I loved for the last six years did I finally find out why.

My professor was heading for early retirement and he told me he had watched me from the day I walked through the doors. Between my wife, my professor and the faculty I had been out-numbered and out-maneuvered.

*******

My course on American history and the popularity it gained with the students earned me my tenure and notoriety as the youngest professor in the College's esteemed history. There was still the odd student who thought they could use sex as a means to pass the course, but that changed when they spotted my wife around campus or when I brought her in on one of my lectures, I of course still bowed to her vast knowledge of the Native American Indian and the sex for favors predators either knuckled down or requested a change of course.

Life couldn't have been better for me, a lecturer in a college that I was once a student, teaching a course that meant so much to me and as the course progressed I watched in awe as the students would always seem to raise to every challenge and although field trips were a logistical nightmare were always enjoyed and the college even cultivated them, with my wife seeming to be the middle ground between her tribe and the council of elders and the college when it came to organizing the trips.

Had I noticed the storm clouds on the horizon? In a world where I truly believed I was the luckiest man alive then the answer to that would have been no. I loved my wife with all my heart and would stand in front of a freight train for her. But even I wasn't immune to the fact that Chia seemed to be in turmoil and try as I might I simply couldn't get her to tell me what was wrong. So I was left to wonder, had she or someone in the tribe finally found out my secret?

*******

I had arrived back at the house exhausted from a week of lecturing. My master plan although rather transparent had served me well so far. Order in for both of us and feet up to watch a dvd. Then over the weekend find Chia's to do list, as soon as I walked into the house all thoughts of doing any of that stopped. The look on Chia's face was enough for me, her dark eyes where always the most difficult to read, her forehead creased in deep thought and the agitation within her came to the fore.

There was no point in talking to her. She would never tell me what the problem was. I just hugged her and like a well oiled machine leapt into action backing the car up to the garage and started loading the camping equipment. Chia came out to the garage to see what I was doing, hugged me, reminded me she loved me and left to grab her hiking equipment, the new spring in her step proving to me that I was doing the right thing.

We would park the car by the elders lodge pay our respects and leave with our packs, arriving at the small clearing, me sweating with the effort as usual, also casting my eye jealously towards Chia. That damn woman has never broken into a sweat on one of these walks in all the time I've known her. We had visited this spot several times and although neither of us admitted it we classed this as our favorite. It was a little clearing about the size of half a basket ball court that overlooked a small falls about two hundred yards across the canyon. We reached there somewhere around midday, the sun although hot was still not at its highest yet.

In my head I could almost anticipate Chia's next move, she dropped her pack and stood watching the falls for a moment. I could have screamed into her ear and she wouldn't have heard me. The amount of times we had been here I had gotten used to it. Chia told me once it was her way of getting back in touch with nature again. The beliefs of her tribe left me in no doubt that it was wise not to tease her over it.

Simply using the time to pull my own pack off, pull the tent out and set it up, when Chia came to help with setting the inside of the tent and zipping the two single sleeping bags together. It was then another of her rituals would start.

Sitting crossed legged at the entrance to the tent, I watched as Chia would take one more walk towards the edge of the clearing, look out towards the falls. It was then I would lose her totally, her native tongue and her sense of belonging to the Canyon would take hold now. I had once made the near fatal mistake of trying to record what she was doing. Chia must have sensed it because she stopped. Her head turned her eyes blazed pure hatred at me.

Feeling like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. I did the only thing that self preservation would allow me to do. I lay the tape recorder on the ground picked up a rock and dropped it on the recorder. Chia would finish whatever it was she said to Mother Earth. Yes, I got that much from her once before she realized her slip and simply moved to another topic. Then she would simply remove her clothes and stay naked for the entire time we were in the clearing, the only time that ever changed was when Chia wore moccasin's.

Every morning Chia would walk naked down the hill a ways were her family would bring fresh supplies and leave them at an arranged spot. It left us both free to be at ease, Chia more so as her body seemed to wash off the toils of campus life within a day. The Canyon re-generated her. Yet as the years rolled onwards I knew that this day was looming, and thought myself lucky that I had the company of the most stunning woman to roam this planet as my wife for ten of those years.

But the draw of the Canyon and her people is ingrained in her and ten years of marriage to me is but a blink of an eye to all that history and tradition. I was losing my wife and there was nothing I could do about it. That tradition and this beautiful place we both called home I felt was calling to her and love her as deeply as I do, my heart understood Chia did not have the strength of will to resist it.

I knew that the sins of my past would catch up with me now. Keeping this sin, no curse for those ten years, recklessly thinking it was an advantage to me and then becoming trapped as I realized what I had done on the spur of the moment would now be my undoing. We stayed in the clearing for the whole weekend, Chia now back to herself, or rather the veneer that kept her calm had returned.

My time was running out, and I knew what a drowning man felt in those last moments before his mind resigned itself to its inevitable end, the love I had for my wife simply wasn't enough. It was wrong to put this off any longer, Chia had given me ten years of her life and I loved her every single day of those years. With a resigned feeling in the pit of my stomach, I knew it was time to face the elders.

We walked back to the car. I could almost feel my pace slowing, reluctant to the bitter end to admit to myself I had to do this. I had no right to have ever gotten involved but I had and I loved this woman so much as a result. Chia watched me put the camping equipment back into the car before she followed me into the elders lodge to again pay our respects before leaving.

Pulling a chair into the center of the room and sitting Chia onto it, her reaction was one of shock, this was forbidden for a woman to be seated while I stood and Chia had always acted as my translator and as such she should be standing when talking to the elders. Holding her shoulder I now faced the elders, my heart beat loudly in my ears more so when one of the elders looked directly at Chia and she in turn fidgeted in the seat unable to stand because I gently held her to the seat.

"Please elders, I wish my voice to be heard." I paused.

The shock in the room was total, Chia stiffened and realized I had spoken in her native tongue and quickly realized that for ten years I had listened and understood every detail of every conversation between us in this room. Her hands went to her face. Before I was able to say anything more I heard Chia gently cry into her hands, between sobs came the words.

"Please... no, what have we done?"

I had to continue, my courage would soon leave me, grateful that the half light of the room now hid the misting of my eyes.

"Elders, when I came here at Chukka's request I understood little of what was planned for me. I decided to hold my own council until I did understand, by then it was too late to change anything. If indeed anything could have been changed."

I swallowed, desperate to keep talking and finding the right words. Chukka had found it funny teaching me his native tongue, first he taught me swear words and as I became adept at mastering those words he moved onto sentences and basic structure of sentences. I was an eager student and sensing this caused him to enjoy teaching me.

"I knew of the tradition of promising the children at a young age. I never knew that Chia was to marry Chukka a week after graduation. My friend never told me that saving his life that night passed that responsibility to me, he never told me of such a gift."

The whole room stayed so very quiet. The one elder that I feared the most just sat and waited, biding his time.

"The day of Chukka funeral you the elders reminded Chia of her obligation to Chukka and to me and what that implied. Again I sat and said nothing."

Chia had stopped crying, I couldn't look at her I needed to focus on the elders. To stop now would disrespect them and also let the fear of what I was doing engulf me.

"Elders I ask this of you. Chia has spent ten years doing her duty and honoring that burden of obligation that came with it. She married me and for the last ten years I have spent every waking moment loving her as best I could. But that love is slowly killing her."

Chia made to stand I held her to the seat, I needed to keep talking, just grateful that Chia's duty, a duty that was instilled in her from birth kept her from trying to interrupt me. Matchet the one elder I feared now leaned forward in his chair, his eyes bored deep into me, a small smile on his lips.

"Her love of her family and Summer Canyon grows stronger while her duty to be my wife is forcing her to be sick, a sickness of despair and of hopelessness at her situation."

I took a deep breath. It was now or never too many times I had lost the nerve to say what needed to be said. In my mind I thanked Chukka for the patience in teaching me his native tongue even though it was forbidden, and also for the wonderful gift of the woman promised to him since birth.

"Chia has met her obligation to me in the ten years we have been married, I hope you can all find it in your hearts to release her from her duty and let her rejoin her family and her love of Summer Canyon."

The silence in the room lasted for a few more minutes. Matchet looked at my hand on Chia's shoulder and I removed it. My cheeks flushed and I felt like an errant school boy waiting for the head of the school to administer an overdue punishment. Deep in my heart I knew I was doing the right thing for Chia. Watching her spirit die day by day was also killing me, it simply wasn't fair that we should continue this. Chia had to be free of her obligation to me and the elders were the only ones who could do this and not bring shame on her. That was my one great fear, I couldn't allow that.

We all watched as Matchet stood and walked to the center of the room. I stood up straight, although in his sixties there wasn't an ounce of body fat on him. This man now stood two feet from me his eyes bored deep into me; I met his stare as best I could.

Matchet now seemed to revel in the knowledge that I knew his native language as he spoke just three words directly to me. "Leave. Go home."

Chia stood, Matchet looked at her, and a cold chill crept down my spine.

"You will stay."

In desperation my gaze went to the leader of the council of elders, he nodded and embracing my wife one last time I left. Neither of us had spoken to each other the entire time we had been in the chamber. The drive back to college was more difficult than my soul could bare and at one stage needing to pull over to the side of the road so I could be sick. Not even man enough to go home I went to my office and just sat, I sat through what was left of the evening and watching the sun come up over the campus grounds, any other time that sight would have filled me with such joy.

Now I couldn't feel anything. Had I done the right thing? For Chia, yes, and I would stand by that decision until the day I died. Did it feel like my heart had been ripped from my body? Yes, she was my true love but Chia was also like a caged animal and that wasn't fair. Our trips back to Summer Canyon and her family showed me where she belonged, she never noticed her face light up when she went home, the smile that would never leave her face as we walked parts of the Canyon was beyond anything that she had shown me in this last year of our marriage, and truth be known I felt a little cheated because of it.

The bounce in her step as she would greet family members and stop for ages to talk, momentarily forgetting I was there and suddenly giving out a squeal and hugging my arm as she was reminded showed me where her heart was. Chia had willingly given me her body and soul, her tribe and Summer Canyon had her heart and for ten years I had tried to make her whole again, showing her every day I loved her and meaning all three words.

I had loved her from the day I descended the stairs of the hotel those ten years ago and see her stood in the middle of the foyer. Chia had my heart and I simply could not stand back any longer knowing what I did and let this continue. One of us in this relationship had to have at least some semblance of happiness and I always knew who that was going to be, I couldn't live with myself if it was any other way.

Going back to the house a couple of times only to pick up clothes and returning to my office was so painful for me. Everything reminded me of Chia and all those happy times we had together. It had been a week since I had left her with the council of elders hoping every waking moment that they had listened to my plea and everyday waiting for that knock on my door that would tell me I had been served. It was late one evening when the phone rang on my desk.

"Come home we need to talk." Then the phone went dead.

The shock of that phone call left me holding the receiver in my hand staring at it for what felt like an eternity. My whole being torn between wanting to leap for joy and running home, wrapping her in my arms and never letting her go again to wonder that she had returned after what I had done to her for the last ten years. I walked home simply because I didn't trust myself to drive. Chia was sat on her favorite seat on the porch waiting for me as though the whole of last week had never happened.

As I approached she smiled, my heart started to melt. My one great fear now was I simply didn't know if I had it in me to send her back to her tribe. We both sat at the kitchen table and for some time Chia just looked at me.

"I don't deserve you, you know that don't you?" she spoke softly.

Now I was confused, but I held my own council.

"What you think you know isn't what you should know."

This whole conversation was already weird and getting weirder by the minute, but Chia hadn't said what she wanted to say yet, silence seemed to be my only option for the moment.

"Chukka and I were promised to each other. The night you saved him he called me and cried, that was the first time I had ever known my man to cry, it was also the first time he had ever talked about you"

By now a lump had grown in my throat, I couldn't talk even if I had wanted to.

"As you can imagine Chukka's death hit me hard and it was the councils wish that I be your guide. It wasn't until after I met you I found out it was also Chukka's wish that I be your guide."

Her eyes misted and Chia picked up a tissue and wiped her eyes.

"The elders told me that Chukka had foreseen his death. Even with that knowledge he was thinking of me, the elders told me that they had talked to Chukka a great deal just before his death and had granted all of his wishes. I was to be promised to you."