Guyana Chronicles Ch. 02

Jade could feel Ellen's hand squeezing hers back and Ellen's pale body trying to relax. Jade lifted in her kneeling position bringing her head back over Ellen's and kissing along the redhead's jaw down to chin and then soft lips, laying her naked body over Ellen's, their arms, with hands held, folding into one another.

"You bit my neck; I can feel it." Jade whispered to her.

"It was just a little suck." Ellen responded.

"I have another idea." Jade smiled softly in the dark.

"I am starting to believe you always do." Ellen smiled back and touched Jade's face with her bandaged hand.

Jade gave Ellen's lips another soft lingering kiss as her left hand grasp Ellen's right knee and lifted it up and along Jade's body. Jade then slid her right knee over Ellen's other thigh and bought her knees high under and around Ellen's sides until their pelvises met. Ellen wrapped her right leg around Jade's waist as the two women gazed longingly to one another in the dark, just the shining light from the window creating breaks in the shadows for them.

The labia of the two lover's met in a kiss, Jade rolled her hips into Ellen's and could feel her lips dragging. Ellen's leg tighten more around Jade's body, her heel pressing into Jade's butt, pulling Jade closer to her. Jade tilted her pelvic so she rocked up and down along Ellen's lips as Ellen in turn lifted her hips and butt off the cushion to meet Jade's sensual bucking.

Jade leaned over Ellen more, their hands still woven, fingers interlaced, squeezing together as their bodies rocked in the dark on the cushions spread. The heat and friction between them was turning slick and wet as juices from their mashing pussies began to seep soaking over their intimate flesh and then drip off the curve of Ellen's butt cheeks and onto the towel. Jade felt a jolting strike in her core as her swelling clit found Ellen's pelvic edge, she bit her lower lip sharply and grinded down harder, feeling her body twitching as Ellen started to moan.

Ellen lifted her bandaged hand to Jade's breast as she leaned over, fingertips and nails grazing over the stiffened bud of Jade's small nipple. Their eyes locked together, pools of azure and sage in the darkened light, lost for moments in a private place of connection and bonding between the two women. Panting breaths and quaking moans echoing off the plaster walls, Jade could feel sweat breaking out over her back and along her thighs as they mashed into each other fervently.

Ellen's head tilted back, her body arching under Jade's, eyes closed, her compact breasts lifted as her moans turns into seductive whimpers. Jade could feel Ellen's body tighten, thighs, hips, stomach all becoming rigid. Jade slid her free fingers up over Ellen's body, to her cheek and then leaned to kiss Ellen's exposed neck, laying on top of her as they bucked wildly together, feeling the sweat and the wetness of their bodies blending into a mixture, heavy in their sexual scent.

The fingers of their clutched hands squeezed together as their bodies shuddered in a rippling quake that started in Ellen's core and shouted out to Jade's body. The intensity of pleasure pushed Jade's body to respond, her own core quaking as her back hitched and breathing halted, seeing nothing but feeling every twitch in Ellen's body.

The two laid there together, their bodies sweaty, slick and woven, recalling how to breath, lost in the warmth of their wrapped embrace, arms around each other and their beings curled. Jade's fingertips were drawing little circles on Ellen's hip as she slid her own fingertips down along Jade's spine below the scar that streaked across Jade's back. Breathing as one for a moment, they nearly drifted off peacefully.

Echoing in the joists overhead they could hear muffled sounds, footsteps on stairs and a voice that must have been loud.

"They are probably wondering where we are." Ellen spoke with a small stretch lifting her back in an arch.

Jade rolled in place, their two bodies shifting to share the cushion, she looked up in the dark at the ceiling.

"Yes, I'm sure we need to make an appearance." Jade was reluctant to leave their state of bliss but knew in her head there were things that needed to be done and appearances to keep.

They both started to lift up as if by some unspoken agreement. Ellen shifted, leaning back on her hands again as she watched Jade move in the low light, seeing the scar along her back again. She reached out and touched Jade's back who was reaching for Ellen's tossed clothes and turning to hand them to her.

"That was wonderful . . . you are wonderful" Ellen spoke and then corrected herself.

"I hope this will not make things odd." She added as Jade handed her, her clothes.

Jade shook her head. "I think we both can handle this . . ." she thought on it for a moment, "so it is not a distraction to the others, if that makes sense?"

Ellen nodded, "Agreed."

Jade leaned to Ellen and they embraced, holding each other for a moment, then sharing a soft lingering kiss in the dark before they helped one another to stand. The two women got dressed, Jade slung her pack over her shoulder and then her towel. They both grabbed a cushion and left the shower room passing through the curtained doorway and returning the bolsters to the empty sofa.

Ellen then reached out and embraced Jade again. Jade's pack fell to the hard floor with a thud as the two women stood there locked in a clutch, clinging tight to each other, their breathing halted as tears streamed down both of their faces. It was an embrace of comfort and acknowledgement, a salve for past woes that was soothing for the both of them.

"Thank you." Jade whispered as they slowly loosened from their tight hold of each other.

"Oh we have to wash our faces now." Ellen attempted a joke and a smile.

Jade nodding and wiping a tear on Ellen's cheek, "we do, there is that faucet outside we can use."

The two women headed out into the front yard to rinse their faces in cool water from a faucet a bit from the main door and near a white honeysuckle bush that grew tall against the house. They then took turns sharing Jade's towel searching for dry patches on it to pat themselves with.

They then headed upstairs together, climbing the narrow path side by side, fingers touching, Ellen then stepped into the door on the second landing that headed into the dining room where most of the team was gathered, the members causing a ruckus playing a card game called Spoons. Slowly their hands drifted apart, each woman with an affectionate glance to the other and Jade continued up the stairs to the third story and the sleeping area to drop off her pack and hang up her towel. Ellen lingered in the doorway for a moment, watching Jade ascend.

Jade stepped into the large open bay room that served as the Women's dorm, there were four metal framed bunk beds aligned along three of the walls. Jade's bed was the lower bunk along the left wall against a window over the front yard, she liked being close to a window always. She set her pack down on the floor and then lifted her towel to her nose judging for herself if it smelled too much like sex. She decided to hang it out over the windowsill so that most of the towel dangled outside, thinking to herself the strong fragrance of the honeysuckle that was growing along this side of the house would be a good cover.

Jade started thinking about food and the emptiness she felt in her stomach, she never ate much during the day even when her days consisted of heavy labor on the work site. She was wondering what Mama Bean had cooked for dinner when she heard a squeaking of the upper bunk springs where the Canadian girl Sasha with a B slept. The squeaking was followed by a moan.

Jade stepped up on the lower bunk railing in her flat leather sandals and found the young blonde woman looking ill and feverish. Jade acted quickly dropping down and opening her aid kit that was lying on her bed, finding her thermometer and coming up again, placing it in Sasha with B's mouth.

"Under your tongue and hold it there, but no biting." Jade told her as she felt the young woman's forehead and neck.

Jade then jumped down again and found her hand towel and went to the bathroom to soak the towel in the cool water of the sink. The bathroom was small by modern Western standards, truly no more than a narrow water closet with cramped space for one dinky toilet and a small sink, a hand mirror was nailed into the wall over the sink hanging upside down. Jade had forgotten what American toilet paper felt like. As she glanced in the mirror while soaking the towel Jade could see a clear bruising bite mark on her neck.

Jade came back to the bunk frame and took another look at the young feverish blonde woman, studying her breathing and feeling her pulse at her throat before removing the thermometer and seeing how high her fever was. Jade did not live her life by clocks, never wore a watch and had trouble keeping schedules, but she could when she had to keep track of time in her head, so she knew precisely when to take the thermometer out.

Jade then tucked the damp cool hand towel across the woman's forehead and smiled to her.

"Am I okay? I don't feel well, I feel nauseous." She squeaked out.

"You are fine, how much water did you drink today?" Jade calmly questioned her.

"I drank so much water I felt like I was getting sick." Sasha with a B spoke weakly, her blue eyes were hazy and full of worry.

"You rest for now and I'll come and check on you very soon, and you are staying here tomorrow." Jade smiled calmly and set her hand on her shoulder, unhappy with the vague answer though.

"You're going to be fine, just rest for now, I'll be back soon." Jade placing stress on the last two words.

Jade replaced her thermometer in her kit, grabbed her large bottle of isopropyl alcohol and small bag of cotton balls. She was wearing one of her dark cami tops and a long wrap skirt in a flower print that came to her ankles along with leather thong sandals. She then made her way downstairs to the dining area where the ruckus around a game of Spoons was ongoing. She set down the bottle of alcohol and bag of cotton balls on the table where the team was playing their game. Ellen was already in the middle of the action and making the most noise Jade noted before heading off to the kitchen.

The isopropyl was an experiment of Jade's, a way of dealing with mosquito bites the team was suffering from. Nearly all of the team members were suffering from bites and bug juice was only so affective at keeping the mosquitos away. The bites could be quite nasty and cause an overwhelming desire to scratch them for they itched like crazy. Jade's working hypothesis was the drying effect of the isopropyl could help relieve the desire to scratch which made the bite and the itching worse. It worked for most people but the effect was temporary and there was need to reapply, especially in the evenings when the "little booger" mosquitos tended to feast.

Jade strolled into the kitchen where Mama Bean was sitting at her own little table with a friend of hers that helped with the cooking for the team, the team members took turns washing all the dishes. Mama Bean was reading to her friend Cece from a small bible and explaining some point of a parable Jade did not know.

Mama looked up from her studies over her John Lennon style reading glasses looking at Jade. "I was just about to send those men to go searching for you."

Jade smirked at the welcome banter, "like I need some man to take care of me, Mama."

"Oh child, what am I going to do with you? You must've all the men folk up there in America falling over you, don't you?" Mama continued the often attempted enquiry into Jade's love life. A small frown came over her face though as she stared at the obvious mark on Jade's neck.

"They do well enough tripping over themselves without any help from me." Jade smiled coyly and came over and gave Mama Bean a hug.

All three women laughed.

"There's still food on the stove for late comers." Mama told Jade.

Jade strolled over to the stove, lifted the metal lids and looked in the large pots, one still had some cooked mashed plantains in it while the other was fuller with some sort of stewed meat the smell of which struck Jade as a bit rough and gamey. She knew the Guyanese women were creative with their meat selection at times which included road kills and lots of spices.

Jade grabbed a plate that was slightly chipped and ladled some from both pots onto her plate, then grabbed a fork that had seen better days.

"Oh Mama, if I could borrow some sugar I appreciate it." Jade looked back over her shoulder.

"Someone have a sweet tooth?" Mama looked over her glasses again.

Jade shook her head no as she turned around holding her plate in her right hand as she stabbed at the stewed meat with the fork in her left.

"I need to brew some sweet tea for someone, they are feeling ill, the Canadians are not use to the lovely weather you'll have down here. I need to do it tonight and I'll buy you some more tomorrow at the market and anything else you need."

"Child you are busy enough mother-henning your group there and you are all so busy doing that good work that you do dear. God Bless you all and Mama Bean can do her own shopping." The warm hearted motherly figure informed Jade.

"And I know how to make sweet tea." Mama continued, "how much do you need?"

"About a gallon would be nice to have." Jade swallowed a fork full of stewed meat and then spoke, covering her mouth with her hand.

"You go sit and eat, Lord knows you don't eat enough Jade, all skin and bones."

Mama Bean got up and politely swept Jade from her kitchen with a brushing motion of her large arms, Mama did not like anyone in her kitchen poking around when she was busy working; leaving Jade to wander back out into the dining room where she sat at an empty rocky table and commenced to taking her eating more seriously.

After a few moments, another hand of the card game ended and Ellen came over with that smooth sway to her hips and sat down in an empty seat next to Jade who raised an eyebrow to Ellen while sticking some mashed plantains in her mouth. Ellen had a bit of a repulsed look on her face.

"You can eat that?" She asked Jade in a quiet voice as the redhead glared at the stewed meat on Jade's plate.

"It's not my first rodeo with roadkill." Jade smirked into almost a giggle.

Ellen started looking a little more pale than normal for herself, "I really did not need to know that."

She then lightly kicked at Jade leg under the table then left her foot along Jade's before added quietly with a glance to the kitchen, "mostly everyone had a hard time trying to eat that and they are talking of going out to get some food."

Jade nodded and smiled as she took a bite of the stewed meat, then covered her mouth with her hand.

"So team leader, you are making a decision to take the team to a bar tonight, just so happens they serve food as well."

Ellen nodded as she understood what Jade was saying.

"Are you going to come too?" Ellen asked looking down at the half eaten food on Jade's plate.

Jade smiled wickedly enjoying the momentary upper hand on humor with Ellen as she debated if to crack a joke or not. Her foot was pushing back against Ellen's under the table.

Ellen seemed to guess what was in Jade mind, "it's good to see you laugh."

Jade put down her fork and looked sincerely to Ellen, "thanks for that compliment and for before."

Jade looked over at the table where most of the rest of the team was sitting and playing their game and knew this was not the place for a serious conversation between her and Ellen.

"I am coming, with you." Jade paused her words for affect.

Then she continued, "but I need a half hour, there is something I have to do first, Basha, Sasha with B is suffering from some heat stress, and tending to her comes first."

"Basil." Ellen used the young Canadian woman's name correctly.

"She wasn't looking well at the end of the day and said she was going to lie down, she said she was worried about getting sick from the mosquitos biting her." Ellen added.

"She is not handling the heat well, so she is resting and staying home tomorrow, and I should go tend to her now, give me a few minutes before anyone else comes upstairs." Jade spoke in a direct way that she tended to at times.

Jade reached for Ellen's left hand and squeezed it gently and leaned close to her and whispered, "by the way you are sexy as hell."

Jade then got up from the table and left her plate of half-eaten food there and walked out of the dining room and headed back up the stairs to check on Basil. The signs Basil's body displayed before were still all there so Jade opened up her aid kit again and pulled out the bag of saline solution and the IV kit she kept for emergencies. It was the only one she had and she felt now was the right time to use it.

She was debating the choice the whole time she was eating and now cursing herself in her head for even waiting. Cursing herself for not being more aware and missing that Basil was sick. Fuck J, you can't be that cautious, she screamed at herself on the inside.

Medical care was not widely available in Guyana and it was a long way to a clinic if it was even open. Many of the people associated with the NGO and the work project relied on Jade and her talents for tending to small injuries and her advice. Some of the locals believed she had to be the descendant of a priestess.

She went to the open closet along the wall near the door where some clothes of team members were hanging and grabbed a wire hanger, setting the blouse that was hanging on it on a shelf above. She then fashioned the wire hanger into a long hook and placed it in her teeth, set the saline bag and IV kit on the upper bunk, kicked her sandals off and lifted herself up gracefully with a leap from the lower railing of the bed frame.

Standing on the upper bunk over Basil, Jade wrapped the hanger hook carefully around the curtain rod of the window. Basil was still in a hazy way staring at Jade standing over her. Jade then grabbed the other items, hooking the saline bag on the hanger and carefully fitting the adaptive end of IV line into bag.

Basil watched as Jade opened the bag and ran the line to make sure there was no air in it. Jade then, lifted her long skirt some and kneeled down over Basil straddling the young woman's thighs. She explained to Basil that she was suffering from a heat illness and that Jade needed to give her an IV to help her, that it was just Saline and that she would soon be feeling better.

Basil weakly asked if Jade had done this before and Jade replied with a smile that she had a few times for sure. Jade went through the process of tying off Basil left arm and finding a suitable vein on the thin woman. It was something Jade had done many times before, working with needles and IVs, growing up on a ranch with all those many miles of just empty land surrounding them, things she learned from her grandparents.

Jade did not force the vein puncture, just presented the needle and let the pressure, the skin and the vein do the work. Jade slid the needle in deep enough after the puncture, then taped the needle against Basil's arm and opened the line; double checking her work before she slipped off the end of the bed and down to the floor.

Jade, knowing she had a little bit of time while the cool saline drip flowed into Basil's arm, told Basil she would be right back. Jade slipped her sandals back on and slowly climbed down the narrow stairs to the first floor, the large room with the old sofas was dark except for the outside lamp lights shining through open windows. A bit of a breeze was coming in now from the ocean, a wave of honeysuckle wafted in the still muggy air. Jade sat down on the sofa she borrowed the cushions from earlier, sinking into new memories, running her fingers over the worn material and thinking she could smell the scent of Ellen.