Sedona

Some believe that Sedona, Arizona, is like the Pyramids -- or is it Atlantis,? -- where celestial forces converge, or where ley lines become singularities -- whatever that means -- or maybe it has to do with the warp of time and space. Hard to say exactly. Very nonlinear.

Some say that extraterrestrials visit Sedona to breed with us. It's said to be very special, lasting hours. There are books about it, self-published, usually. Sometimes, though, the visitors from outer space -- or maybe some other point in time -- simply want to document how we perform our mating.

Kooky, but Sedona's a fun place, touristy, to be sure, but really pretty.

Aunt Bev couldn't have afforded Sedona property if she'd not sold her VW to protest petroleum dependency -- she's since rethought that one, as in Sedona, you need a 4-wheeler -- and bought fledgling Microsoft stock because she believed in small and soft things. IBM would be big and hard. In any case, she ended up not having to do her beadwork, though she still strings up chunks of sandstone, "Authentic Sedona," to counter the toxins tourists must deal with when they return home.

I'd chosen NAU -- that's Northern Arizona University, up in Flagstaff -- because it's nicer there than Tempe or Tucson, and wherever you study it, computer science is about keeping up with developments, not where you learn it. Holograms, the next big thing.

Aunt Bea's invitation for fall break provided an escape from dorm-life, a chance to catch up on family doings. Of all my aunts, she'd be the one who keeps up with everything.

I greeted her with a kiss to the cheek -- what aunts are known to expect -- but she'd have nothing so northern Europium. "A real one."

I hoped she didn't think I was rubbing with her hooks, but that's where my hand was. They say they're easy to undo if you squeeze the right way, but it's not the sort of thing you'd try on your aunt.

Her top was Indonesian, she said, from World Womencraft where they sell things from co-ops. Why she told me, I wasn't sure.

Once she'd updated me regarding her upcoming half-marathon -- it's about juices, she explained. She'd make me one, maybe kumquat -- we made a plan.

"Astrid's dying to meet you."

"Who'?"

"From Sister Circle. We have potlucks and everything. She's the one who picked the date."

"What date?"

"When to invite you. She's into celestial pairings."

I may have looked confused.

"You know, when your signs say to get together.".

As maybe I wasn't going to figure this one out, I didn't pursue it. With Aunt Bev, you don't always know what's happening.

***

Heading out to her gas-buzzer, Aunt Bev took my elbow, her breast against my arm difficult to ignore because of its size, especially after you've been checking her bra strap. It's even more difficult to ignore when it's not just your arm, but back and forth over it with each step.

Astrid's place was adorned with horseshoes and hubcaps. "The horseshoes are for magnetic energy," I'd been tipped off. "The hubcaps are for solar,"

"Ah, the Aries nephew," Astrid welcomed me, her embrace no less than I'd received from my aunt. "Virgo and Aries, the sublime harmonic."

I thought best not to have her explain.

"You two sit side by side," once we got inside. "No, closer. Hold hands, maybe. Great resonance," dangling before us what looked to be a geode in a string. "Trust your conjunctive emotions.".

I wasn't sure what that meant, but I guessed it was positive.

"That pot, there, Acoma," Astrid indicating a vase. "The design's like a barcode and only the old ones know how to read it. The kiva's all set," she went on, more to my aunt than to me. "The rug's been blessed and Cheyanne made us a Pachamama amulet for under it. I got some wheat sheaves. Organic. LeeAnne will fan sage. Sheryl's going to play flute."

Afterwards, Aunt Bev told me that Astrid used to be Irish, but that was before she discovered her Egyptian foremothers.

***

On the way home, we stopped at another of the Sister Circle, Colette, who likewise greeted me like a long-lost soulmate. Or maybe mate.

"How about some Ashwagandha?" which turned out to be tea, the box showing a pair of Hindu gods, arms around each other. They looked to be doing more than just hugging, actually

If I wanted some honey, she had some full of organic pollen.

I said thanks.

"Plus you two might want some ylang ylang."

"You bet,," agreed my aunt, explaining to me, "An essential oil," at which Colette produced a flask and dabbed the back of our necks.

"Can't wait for the ceremony to get to know him better," Colette told my aunt.

Bach in the car, Aunt Bev assured me that Colette, even with her metabolic imbalance, could still do yoga.

***

"Come on out," my aunt called from the porch after the sun went down. "Full moon."

The stars were diamonds, another reason that tourists like Sedona.

"That there's you. Aries," pointing at a constellation that I didn't recognize to be one. "The ram. I'm a Virgo, a maiden," indicating her own cosmic real estate. "We're Aunt maiden and nephew rain."

Standing behind her made it natural to hold her ribs and the way she leaned back made me end up further around. She'd taken off her bra, it just being us, and pulled up my hands as she told about a goddess who swoops down in her sky chariot and scoops up a boy who's looking at the stars.

"Know about minor planets?" as she raised her arm to point towards a different sector of the heavens. "Dakota says between Saturn and Uranus are Chariklo and her nephew Chiron

"Right," as if I knew that.

"There's a lot of mating going on around here, too," she went on, me missing the connection, but moving further upward, "Star -- she's in Sister Circle, too -- works at the Best Western and says half the guests miss the breakfast bar, and the ones that make there it half the time aren't with who they checked in with. Like 'What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas,' except here, we're not tacky," her her nipples like pebbles, her shoulders beginning to rotate, one, then the other.

"Yeah, using my finger to judge the size of the protrusions. NAU's major in geology -- the Grand Canyon and all -- and I'd learned how the size of the stones tells things about flood flows. Well OK, and maybe they were fun to rub.

"Could be the Gaia fields, the energy, you think?"

"Maybe," though I'd not heard of such things in thermodynamics, but that's not my field.

There was no way she didn't know what I was doing, but why was she letting me?

When she rose on her tiptoes, her hip now more against me, I feared she'd feel what I'd rather she'd not, but squirming away didn't buy me much space.

"Imagine us up there in the sky, spinning around the sun," she pondered as she rear-ended back into me.

"It would be cold," fearing I might be in trouble.

"That's why Chariklo and Chiron mate, to keep warm, It's so fun imagining what's up there," ending it as if nothing more than star-gazing had just occurred.

***

Aunt Bev disappeared to shower, a few minutes later calling for me to bring the vitamin soap. "Pass it over," once I found it, her having no idea how much I could see through the water on the glass. "Want me to do your back?" from the other side. "There's enough hot water."

I said I was fine.

Back in the front room, Aunt Bev gave me a goodnight kiss even more than the one upon arrival. "Been awhile since I got a good goodnight one," she laughed."Sleep tight, my little minor planet."

***

I was apprehensive coming down for breakfast. Nothing had happened last night, but Aunt Bev may have had second thoughts about it and I could be Flagstaff-bound before I knew it.

I was met, however, by a kiss.

"I remembered some more of the star story after I was in bed, but you were probably already asleep," she told me.

"I was awake for a while."

"Shoot! You could have joined me and we'd have pretended to see the stars. Way more comfy than out there on the porch and I could have told you the story then."

"Yeah," not sure how to answer.

"Collette's honey for your cereal," she pointed out.

***

Aunt Bev wanted me to see the vista from up the hill behind her place. We'd make it a picnic

"That's Cathedral Rock." her chest nudging my elbow in the direction, what appeared to be her method of steerage. "They say there's a tunnel to Agartha, but the government dynamited it."

"To where?".

"Marisol has a map. You can travel to Monterey Bay by submarine when kidnap us for procreative purposes," her steerage indicating a slight change in direction.

"Or maybe they take a guy back to Babylon to sleep with the queen," correcting our heading. "They fiddle with history, but only for noble purposes."

Any picnic includes a snooze, her rule. For a pillow, she'd her hat, one of those ones like Katherine Hepburn. For me, I could use her middle, "A bit soft, me a little out of shape, but I'm working on it," but before closing her eyes. showing me the illustrated pebble Dakota had given her for my visit. It did look artsy, I guess, as it showed two people.

"She says to keep this in your front pocket," slipping it into mine. What she might have felt under my pocket, I hoped she hadn't, but she was following her friend's instructions

As another's midriff only works as a pillow if you lie on your side, to not be seen as staring up at her boobs, I faced the other way, my arm across her legs. I thought she was awakening when she rolled out a knee, but I let her return to sleep before I let my wrist move up.

After that, I dozed a little myself, in and out of a dream about being in my underpants.

When I awoke, Aunt Bev's hand was again in my pocket. You can neither control what you dream, nor how it leaves you. When she opened her eyes, she asked if I'd also had a dream, which I didn't directly answer.

How about a kiss? she insisted, a sweet one like this morning, and I'd no choice, her arms around my back. How our legs ended up as they did, I'm not sure.

"What's great about this place," she reflected after her thigh removed itself,"ss how the karma and dreams work synergistically."

Between her hand in my pocket and her leg between mine, maybe she'd recognized something, I wondered, but in a place like this, it's difficult to will alternative histories.

***

"Time for some rays," she announced after we'd rested up, steering me to the deck. "In our underwear if we want," pulling off her blouse and stepping out of her shorts. "Whoops!" tugging her bra upward. "Anyway, we're family. Ten minutes on our stomachs and ten on our backs," snapping her panties to start the countdown.

I'd little choice but to roll on my back when the time came and tried to adjust my underpants, but I'm not sure it did much good.

"We could do another round with lotion," she suggested when our time was up. "I've got some 80," only then noticing what of her breast was still showing.

"Whoops!," this time fixing it.

***

By the time we'd finished dinner, the temperature was dropping. "Ready for the sauna?"

"Sure."

"We were in the tub when I babysat, right?"

Maybe, but the tub was a eons ago.

Seeing my hesitation. "We'll wear underpants."

Aunt Bev steamed up the chamber, but it wasn't as if the haze hid much.

"It's Native American," scraping a wooden blade down my arm, then my back, then my chest.

"Uh, right."

"And now me." passing the blade.

I also wasn't sure how much of her she intended, but once I'd done her arms and back, she made clear that the rest was also part of the job. It wasn't as if I was myself actually touching her; it was just the blade, me more than cautious around her nipples.

But what you can't control in such a situation is yourself, wet underpants not doing much to hide it.

"Sorry," I managed.

"That? It's common in saunas. Anyway, it's just me."

***

Out of the sauna, it was cold in our pajamas.

"We should make ourselves 98.6,," my aunt decided, and without adieu, tugged me to her room and pulled back the quilt. "Good you're here," pulling me in with her.

"Sedona's quite the place," trying to turn the other way for obvious reasons.

"Sedona? I mean here in bed. Astrid says that Egyptian nephews were favored by their aunts. There are pictures in the pyramids," reaching around me where she shouldn't.

"Don't." I tried, hoping what she was touching she'd not think to be indicating otherwise.

"You've never done it, right?"

"Done what?"

"You know tantric union with your girlfriend."

"Not really. I don't even have one."

"Perfect! What Colette says makes it totally vatic. A young boy with his mother, but I'm sure also with his aunt," as she undressed me, then herself, and climbed above, one knee high, the other low, lined herself up and came back down.

It wasn't as though I didn't realize what was happening, but I'd been under the impression that the male would play more of a role in its orchestration.

"Celestial," she explained, maybe assuming I'd a grasp on "terrestrial." On the other hand, maybe in her circle, "terrestrial: meant Amazonian, but that had the aspect of being one-breasted to better shoot arrows. In any case, it wasn't much up to me.

Maybe though, there was something to it, as maybe she was exerting mind control. Otherwise I'd not have lasted as long as I did. At the end, however, I wasn't sure if she had any framework at all in which to place her frenetic ups and downs, and for sure I had no illusions of anything but squirting into her.

My aunt seemed more than pleased with her orgasm, pointing to a piece of sandstone on the table. "See how it turned more pink? It's going to be a girl," then to a whitish crystal beside it, "That one does video,"

"A video?"

"Sister Circle wants a few takes to get to know you before the ceremony."

"What ceremony?"

"Tomorrow in the kiva. Fertilization. There's a women-owned ourfilt in LA that markets the videos of creating new life. Marisol's a doula//midwife. She's got a license."

Sedona's indeed a special place.