Sky Pilot

I had my pants open and was just starting to pee when the younger woman appeared beside me. I tried to stop and put myself away but she just laughed.

"Go ahead and piss, I seen men piss before."

I shrugged and decided to, but no amount of effort would make the stream start, not with her standing there watching me.

Finally she realized and turned away. That worked, I finished up and looked at her, sitting there on a log. She had a cigarette in her hand, all she was wearing was a heavy sweater. She had that stretched way out and pulled down over her knees.

"Want a smoke?" She asked me.

"Sure." I took one, she leaned forward and lit it with her own, making a few quick puffs to get it glowing.

"Did Ma scare you today?" she asked me.

"Yes, she did, I didn't know what she was going to do with that gun."

"Don't worry about that, nobody wants to hurt you. We just want to get the crop out. They told us we get $50,000 when we deliver all of it."

"Dad wants to buy us one of them motor homes. They got beds that pull out and even a toilet. We can go anywhere then." She had a faraway look in her eyes.

I was thinking that from what I saw $50,000 wasn't very much. That crop had to be closer to tons, I was wondering how they planned to move it all with just the old truck.

I also wondered who the other "they" were?

I took a puff off the smoke, looked at her closely. The way she was sitting had her knees pulled up, I could see all the way to her crotch almost, in the dim light from the moon it looked like there was nothing under there. Again, she seemed to be completely unconcerned.

Even in the silly situation I found myself in it affected me, so I looked away and tried to control my thoughts.

"Your family wants to travel, then?" I asked, just to make some conversation.

"Naw, we want someplace to live, we been in these tents near a year now."

"Where are you from?" I was curious about the odd accent.

"We moved out here from Virginia, the mines shut down and Pa had no way to get any work." She seemed almost sad the way she said it.

"That's too bad." I said in passing.

"Probably not, Pa don't cough so much now and he isn't sick all the time."

"Who are the other two?" I asked.

"Ben and Jerry are my brothers, Ben got out of jail the day we left and Jerry keeps saying he wants to go see the world so I don't know what is going to happen." She had that same sad tone in her voice.

"Well, young people grow up and move on, you are pretty enough that you should be just fine." I smiled at her, not sure if she could even tell in the dim light but I tried anyway.

Her hand came up and swept back over her hair, right on cue at the compliment.

"You think so?"

"No doubt about that, of course you know how you affect men I am sure."

"Yea, Jerry pesters me sometimes but Ben don't so I sleep close to Ben." I had a pretty good idea what pestered meant, but I didn't ask.

"The Sun will be up an an hour or so." I said idly.

"Are you going back to bed?" She asked.

"No, I think I will stay up, it's nice out."

"OK. I will stay up too, you seem to be nice. You aren't going to try and run away, are you? That would make Pa real mad."

"No, I am fine. I have no place to be." I lied.

"Good. Just so Pa gets the motor home and we can head out. He will just let you go then so it won't be long. They been hauling for a week now."

Now I knew how they were getting the crop out. I had a feeling I didn't want to run into whoever they were taking it to, though.

We sat quietly for a long time, the sky started to get light when Ben came out.

"Build a fire, Sarah." He told her. She hopped up, went to the fireplace and started breaking limbs. I went over and gave her a hand, in short order we had a nice fire going. She went over to a nearby brush pile and lifted some limbs. There was a large box under there, she rummaged around and came out with some coffee which she made and set on the fire to boil.

The air soon filled with the smell of coffee, then the older man came out. He looked at me, then stretched, walked over and sat down.

"How long you been up?" He asked me.

"A couple of hours."

"You didn't give us no trouble yet, good." He said flatly, then he broke into a coughing fit.

"Damn dust." He said, catching his breath. Sarah brought him a cup of coffee, she handed me a cup too.

She sat down, a bit more coyly this time, and she gave me a big smile. The older man I knew only as Pa looked at her and then at me. He scowled but he didn't say anything.

"Maybe I can give you a hand moving the stuff?" I asked.

"Why would you want to do that?" He glared at me.

"It would speed things up, then I can get out of here."

He looked at me with suspicion, but then he nodded.

"Yea, if you want to. We will get a bite to eat and then do some work." He looked at Sarah who instantly hopped up and went over to fire. She got out some pans and then went to the box, got what looked like pancake flour. She mixed that up with water that was sitting in a bucket, I thought about that and then decided to not worry about it. The heat would sterilize it, I guessed.

"Put the damned brush back!" He yelled at Sarah. She quickly went and placed the limbs over the box to cover it up, so it couldn't be seen from the air, I guessed.

I doubted it could be seen anyway, I had spotted nothing when I came in at the field, but we were at least a mile from there anyway.

Breakfast consisted of pancakes with Corn mixed in, it actually tasted pretty good. Jerry came out shortly afterwards, Sally did too. I was glad to see no shotgun.

Then all of the men loaded up in the truck and we took off down a long dirt road. We came out at the field, I looked around for my airplane but didn't see it. Ben and Jerry started cutting plants, they clipped off the buds and put them in sacks. Now I knew where the flour sacks the women's clothes were made of come from. That was also a surprise, I hadn't seen cloth sacks for years, and I wondered where they came from. There was a big pile of them, too.

It was afternoon when the truck was loaded, I worked right alongside them. We drove back down the dirt road to the camp. They dropped Ben and me off and the two of them drove away. I looked around for the women and didn't see them.

It was about an hour later when they came walking down a side trail, they both looked much better. They had obviously bathed somewhere so I knew there was a creek or river nearby. Just then the other two came back with the truck.

Sarah went over and started cooking dinner, more meat and more Corn. But I was hungry, and again it was good. I was wishing that Jerry hadn't downed all my whiskey, though.

Like the night before, as it got dark the older man and Sally got up to go to the tent.

"We will probably finish up tomorrow, then we get paid and you can go. Thanks for helping us."

That seemed really odd to me, I had been brought in at gunpoint, then fed, and thanked for helping? These were just people in hard times, I decided.

I watched them walk away to the tent. Funny but even in the crazy situation I was in I was finding them all to be nice simple people. Just hard times and trying to make it. Of course what they were doing meant jail terms if they were caught but I had a feeling that none of them paid much attention to any laws.

I wandered over to the second tent, opened the flap. Sarah was there but Ben wasn't. I hesitated, she sat there with the covers pulled up.

"You can come in." She said. I nodded, went to the other mattress.

"Where did Ben and Jerry go?" I asked.

"They went down to the river to catch some fish, they use the pitchfork and get some big ones."

"Fish?" I thought about that, probably the fish I was trying to protect in my job. That was almost worth a laugh.

"Yes, they get them pretty easy in the dark when the moon is out. They just wait by the shallow spots and jab them when they come by."

"What do they look like?" I asked her.

"They are kinda red looking with a big bump on their back, they taste good too. We will cook some tomorrow if they get them."

Great. Mountain men out spearing humpbacks, I would have some stories to tell if I ever got out of this situation. I stepped over and lay down on the other mattress, my back to her.

"So where are you going when we are done?" She persisted. I rolled over, now she was sitting there with the blankets at her waist, bare breasted again. I couldn't help but feel a little reaction to the sight.

"I will just try to find my way out, I guess." I tried to not look her up and down but failed miserably. She seemed to arch her back when I looked at her, and she smiled.

"Do you think I am pretty?" She asked.

"Well, yes, I do. But I am an old man."

"You ain't so old, and you seem nice and strong."

I just nodded at that, not sure of what to say. This seemed to be completely surreal to me.

"I was thinking maybe you needed some loving? I washed up real good today." She slipped out from under the covers, she was completely naked. There was a huge mass of black hair between her legs. She scooted across to the mattress I was on.

"Ben and Jerry won't be back for hours." She said, her voice taking on a husky tone.

"What about your Mom and Dad? They are right there."

"They will be busy." She giggled. She reached out and touched me, then scooted over even closer. I wasn't used to having a nude woman anywhere near me, certainly not one that looked to be maybe 20 at the most. Sure, I had a few friends I had met in my travels and once in a long while we got together, but most of the time I was by myself in my real life.

Somehow that all seemed to be a long ways away right now. I reached for her with a groan, she slipped right into my arms. Her hands fumbled at my jeans, she tugged them down and found my erection.

"Boy you got a nice fat one!" She said, a trace of excitement in her voice. She wrapped both hands around my erection like she had just found a new toy. I reached out and fondled her breast, then I buried my face against them. I felt my couple of days growth of whiskers rub against her skin. Then I worried about my breath and the fact that I hadn't bathed for some time.

That was silly of course, and she didn't seem to mind. We played with each other for quite some time, then she lay back and opened her legs. I could see her clearly even though the light was fading. She was damp, her lips were large and engorged. I leaned down and licked her with the flat of my tongue, she tasted salty.

My better judgement told me not to but I slipped up, rested my body against hers. Then I reached down, spread her open and pressed myself against her wetness. Then we were jamming ourselves against each other like animals, she lifted her hips wildly with each thrust. I felt myself building until I lost control, pressing as deeply as I could as I exploded. She seemed to be right with me, her body going rigid as she spasmed.

We lay like that for several minutes, then concerned about Jerry and Ben coming back I disengaged and moved away.

"That was pretty good!" She said, then she moved over to the other mattress. I watched as she tugged the blanket up around her body, then looking over at me she smiled and closed her eyes.

I slept the sleep of the dead, waking up after the Sun came up. I climbed out to find Sally cutting up some fish, sure enough they were humpback Salmon. In short order she had some slabs of meat cooking, I thought about it when she handed me a plateful but then decided what the hell. I even had a second helping.

Right now I felt a little bit more endangered than the fish might be, to be honest.

Later we went up to the field, that was a repeat of the day before. Harvest and cut the plants, bag them up and load them on the truck. I was becoming used to all of this, the outside world was fading in my mind. The Sun was hot and I was sweating, finally everything was loaded.

There was just a few sparse plants left, I realized that whatever was to happen would be soon. The crop was damp so it had to be delivered quickly, whoever was coming for it had to move it someplace to dry out.

I got my answer that afternoon.

Two men arrived, they didn't look like nice people to me. They took one look at me and demanded to know who the hell I was.

"He crashed his airplane in the field." Ben told the darker hispanic looking man. They walked away out of earshot, there was quite a discussion. They kept looking my way, I just sat there.

Finally they came back, the other man told Ben that they would be back in an hour with the money, and then to take me someplace and drop me off, clear out of the camp. Ben nodded, sat down to wait.

I had a feeling that no one was going to be coming back. By nightfall it was obvious I was right.

"Maybe they got tied up, they will be here in the morning." The older man said.

"We might as well get some sleep."

I got up and went to the tent, I was mostly wanting to get out of here. I just didn't like the way things were going. Sarah was there already but with everyone around I knew nothing was going to happen. I just curled up and went to sleep. I woke up again in the middle of the night, slipped up and over Jerry who lay there snoring again. I went outside to take a leak, then sat down on one of the logs. I was thinking I should just take off, they would be so concerned about the money and everything that I doubted they would head out after me. I was just about to get up and go for it when Sarah appeared. She sat down on the log beside me.

"They ain't coming back, are they?"

"No, I doubt it very much."

"Damn bastards!" She said. Then she leaned her head on my shoulder.

I started to reach out and put my arm around her, I never got that far. Some men appeared out of the trees, there was a lot of yelling. I knew what it was, I just sat there, careful not to move. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the old man appear at the flap of the tent, then he ducked back. I opened my mouth to yell "No!" at him but it was too late, he appeared again holding the shotgun.

He never got it cocked, there was a hail of gunfire and he went down. I realized he was dead before he hit the ground. Sarah jumped up but I grabbed her and pulled her back, just as Ben appeared out of the other tent. He put his arms up when confronted, he hadn't yet realized what had happened. The men surrounded him, one put him in handcuffs just as another grabbed my arm and twisted it behind me. Another man handcuffed Sarah. They were dragging us away when I saw Jerry, also handcuffed. We were loaded in a van, the door slammed shut and off we went.

I looked around, Sally wasn't there. My mind flashed back to the hail of gunfire, I realized she had been inside the tent.

That gave me a sick feeling.

There was a full day of questions, I explained what had happened. Nobody seemed to believe me but they found my damaged airplane shoved under the brush. I got my phone call and they soom figured out who I was. How I ended up over 100 miles North of my planned route was beyond me.

But they let me go. Like I had worried about, Sally was in the tent and got caught in the hail of bullets. I thought about Sarah and her two brothers, I felt sad.

Simple people on the fringes of life, they allowed themselves to get caught up in something that was bigger than they could handle.

The police had been onto the operation for some time. Then there was the report of my plane not arriving, so they started looking. They had intercepted the two men who had come in for the last load, stupidly they were just driving down the highway with a huge load of pot in the back. I assumed that was why they never came back but then I would have expected them not to anyway.

I sat in the Sheriff's office, Sarah sat there, her face drawn and sad looking as he explained what had happened. The Sheriff was an older man, he looked exactly like what one would think a Sheriff should look like.

He also kept looking at Sarah, I spotted his interest. He told her she was free to go, too, she wasn't going to be charged.

"I got me no place to go." She said, her eyes downcast.

"We can perhaps give you a hand with that for awhile." He told her with a smile.

I sighed, thinking of the brief moment we had in the tent. I could just bet he would look after her, all right.

I rented a car and drove down to the coast. Back to my life, meetings, dealing with all of the issues involved in my work. One TV station wanted to interview me, the story made quite a fuss.

I declined that.

I bought a new airplane a couple of months later, a sweet Cherokee 180. I liked it but I did miss my old tri-pacer. It was almost like an old friend. It was just left there, in the brush. I sent a crew up to remove the engine and all of the fluids, let them salvage what they could. I was talking to one of the men from the salvage crew, asked him what had happened.

"Mice." He laughed. "Wires chewed up, shorted things out."

I wasn't sure about that.

"That doesn't explain the compass." I said.

He just shrugged.

"Vibration, maybe, who knows?"

I even read the goverment report that they do on all airplane mishaps, it read "engine failure." and that was about it.

It was about 4 years later, my week as a captive of drug dealers in the woods was a long gone memory. I was back in Boise, as I walked out of a meeting I looked around. One of those beautiful sunny days, I hailed a cab and headed for the airport. The trip I had planned was that same direct route to the coast. I had made it several times now in the Cherokee.

The cab pulled up to a stop sign, I looked out the window and a beautiful woman was standing there, waiting for the light. It hit me suddenly.

"Stop!" I told the driver. I hopped out and went up to the woman, sure now as I got closer.

"Sarah?" I asked.

"Dan?" Well, I'll be darned. How are you?"

"Fine, come on, let's go get some coffee." I looked her up and down. She was well dressed, het makeup perfect. The clothes she wore were expensive.

"I can't, Dan. I am meeting with some lawyers in a few minutes." She smiled at me.

"Lawyers?" I was curious. She was well dressed, the accent was mostly gone.

"Yes, some legal things. My husband, he was the Sheriff." She saw the surprise on my face and smiled.

"Was?"

"Yes, he passed away a month ago. There is an insurance policy and property, things like that."

"You married the Sheriff?" I managed to not laugh at that.

"Well, you did tell me I was pretty, so I used that." She grinned, then laughed.

"OK, swell. I am glad to see you doing well. You look...beautiful!" I told her.

She did, too. I turned back towards the taxi, the driver was sitting there looking irritated.

"Dan? Wait a minute! Here, call me when you get back here." She handed me a card.

"I never forgot you. You was good!" For a second her voice slipped back into that odd accent. Then she smiled. I nodded, climbed back into my taxi. She lifted her hand and waved as we drove away.

She was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

I looked down at the card, all it said was "Sarah Miller" and a phone number.

I thought about it, I was now nearly 60 years old, she was perhaps 25? That Sheriff had been at least 10 years older than me, and she married him?

What the hell.

I was thinking that maybe I should call her.

Just maybe.