The Summer of '67: The Rock

An ambulance arrived; Eddie was checked and it was decided his extensive injuries required immediate care. He was loaded in the ambulance, cuffed, and accompanied to the hospital in Corpus Christi by the deputy. The two police officers continued their questioning until they were satisfied they understood what had happened.

They apologized to Barbara Ann that they had to retain her torn clothing as evidence, and asked her to get more clothes and then come to the police station to give a formal statement. She stalwartly declined, saying her face hurt, her head hurt, and she wanted time to recover, but she would come in at ten in the morning, to which they reluctantly agreed.

After the police officers left, the crowd that was milling in the parking lot, made up largely of Caelan's guests, surged toward them. Barbara Ann covered herself tightly in the blanket, but refused to be embarrassed by her state of dress or her attempted rape. She chatted with everyone just as if she was fully dressed and her face wasn't swollen around her left eye, which earned a lot of respect from the football players and the crowd at large.

Caelan stood beside her, speaking little; he let her and the three boys tell the tale, but his admiration for her courage grew as she unflinchingly and accurately recounted what happened. "You really told him you were going to 'pull his pitiful prick off and crush his balls'?" asked one of the female guests in disbelief. "I did, and I tried to! That's when he hit me in the face and knocked me back into the van."

The boys built Caelan's beating of the 'pitiful prick' into a blood-and-gore horror movie; he shook his head and said, "I don't care if you embellish out here, but be truthful if we end up in court. I hit him only enough to disable him so he couldn't harm the girl or me, right?"

They and the crowd hurrahed that, and Bob the Bouncer said, "I saw him before they hauled him off, and you are correct, Caelan. He was barely hurt...well, other than the two black eyes, a broken nose, broken ribs, and a couple of three or four lacerations that will require stitches that will leave scars!" The crowd roared!

After that, Bob urged everyone to go home and get some rest; that was all the excitement he could stand tonight, and the DJ was packing up early anyway because the crowd was outside.

Barbara Ann was unabashed in crawling in and sitting on Caelan's lap with her blanket held up so her bare ass was resting on his shorts. By the time they got to the beach shack, she had wiggled enough to cause Caelan a painful hard on. "Carry me!" she demanded like a pouty two-year old.

He knew she was trying to revert to last summer, before 'the mistake', in order to reestablish her position in his life, but she was just so damn cute and so damn brave! Stupid for playing with fire on the dance floor and for accompanying a rapist to the van, but damn cute and brave! He grinned at her, rolled his eyes, and carried her upstairs to his bed.

***When the morning comes creeping***

Caelan was sitting in his chair on the deck drinking coffee when Judy stumbled out and joined him. "You're up kind of early, after all the excitement. How is the tough guy?" "She's going to have shiner, which may very well cost 'pitiful prick' Eddie a year or so in jail, if I know Aunt Peggy. I made her keep ice on it for a while, but she's a terrible patient. I was soaking my hands in Epson salts while she was icing her face, but she kept grabbing my stuff with her free hand and telling me how horny it made her watching me beat the crap out of him.

I think she's sick. Who gets horny from watching two guys fight?"

Judy crooked her head to the side, exaggerated a shoulder shrug, and answered, "Pretty much every girl on the planet, when watching her hero beat up the bad guy who tried to hurt her, would be my guess. It makes me horny just thinking about it!" "You're all sick!" he replied with a smile and headshake, and sipped his coffee.

"Have you ever had a girl tell you she was turned on by watching you play football?" Judy asked. "There is something about powerful men jousting that appeals to the primitive in us, I think." "Well, we were up quite late. I have to wake her around nine because we need to make it to our appointment with the police. Which reminds me; I need to call her attorney."

The girls did wake her up at nine; lying in another giant wet spot, she remained curled up in a ball and protested that she needed to sleep! The cover being thrown off and a sip of ice water poured on her back brought her around; her face was swollen, the area around her eye was black and blue, and she said it hurt so bad! Paula and Judy fussed over her, ran the shower, and gave her aspirin.

When Danny and Marc saw her, they winced and told Caelan he should have beat Eddie's balls that color, and torn off an ear.

The aspirin helped, the shower helped more, and the coffee brought back a smile, albeit a one-sided smile that evoked "Ouch!" She sent Paula back to the condominium for an appropriate dress, and she had eaten a bowl of Cream of Wheat and talked to Peggy's attorney before she slipped into the dress.

She wanted to sit in Caelan's lap on the way to the police station, even though they were the only ones in the car, but he convinced her that, given their destination and purpose, was a bad idea. "Besides, you need to hold the bag of frozen peas on your face!" he reminded her. She pouted, but complied, and he considered how cute she looked without makeup and with a swollen face and discolored eye.

The attorney met with both of them in a small conference room before they were again questioned and asked to give statements, but did not interrupt while they did. Afterward, he said they did a great job, told Caelan not to worry about an assault charge, and told Barbara Ann that she had better call her parents within the next few hours or they were going to fly in from California to take care of her.

"That was a fun call," she remarked sarcastically to her crew, after calling her parents from Caelan's phone. "How many ways can you say 'don't come, I'm fine'? Did I stutter or something?" "They just love you and worry about you!" Judy chided. "Give them a break." "Yes, and be glad Aunt Peggy is in Europe, or you know she would be here with us...or demanding we come to her!" Paula exclaimed.

"Here's a hand towel wrapped around ice; hold it on for twenty minutes, then we will sit in the sun for twenty, then ice again, and so goes your day, Wonder Woman," Caelan directed. "We're having seafood and sausage gumbo, so you won't have to chew much. Later we'll make it into the salt waters, which always help me heal."

"You don't really think I'm going to sit up here while your friends frolic on the beach, do you? I'll take the towel and use ice from the beer chest, but I'm going to spend the day on the beach learning all kinds of things about you! Your friends love to spill the dirt!" Caelan shook his head, looked at Judy and Paula, and complained, "See what I mean? She's a terrible patient!"

They giggled, and Judy said, "She just wants you to apply suntan lotion on her every hour!" Caelan snorted, "I'll be up here, making gumbo; she will have to get one of the others to rub her up!" "Well, that changes things! I'll stay up here and you can take care of me until you get the gumbo cooked; then we can go to the beach and you can rub me up!" "Ha! You insatiable little bunny; I'll burn the gumbo while you try to kill me in bed, AGAIN! Maybe you should go to the beach for a while!"

She pouted again, but gave a sneaky grin and wink to Judy. "I guess I'll go down there with all those hunky football players since you have to cook. SURELY at least one of them will be willing to make sure I don't get sunburned!"

"I'm adding 'manipulative' to your 'insatiable little bunny' appellation; or maybe it should be 'manipulative little shit!"

"You know you love me anyway," she replied, wrapping her arms around and hugging him tightly.

"Let's get dressed!" she told Judy and Paula, "and this time no granny suits! We need to outshine those other sluts today!" "So I stay here and cook while you frolic on the beach wearing floss, and seduce all my teammates?" "That's your choice, big boy! I'll let you spread a little lotion too, if you are nice to me!"

They weren't floss, but no granny could wear their bikinis! They would stop traffic on the way, if there were any, but the declivity between Barbara Ann's body, the right side of her face, and the swollen, discolored left side, was startling. The entire crew abandoned whatever they were doing to come talk to the disfigured little sexpot and she savored the attention while holding the ice-filled towel on the swelling.

Caelan watched from the kitchen as he cut up the ingredients, then from the cooking pit as he heated the concoction and added ingredients at the right time.

What he saw was certainly innocent enough, but there was something disquieting about watching her surrounded by boys... well, and girls, but the boys' attention was what disturbed him. 'You promised yourself, dumbass! Keep it friendly. We're just fuck buddies; let her have her fun.'

Yet, something about that didn't ring true; he knew what it was in the back of his mind, but refused to acknowledge it for fear it would grow.

He did notice that she would, from time to time, look toward the house. Was this preening, posing, and flirting all to make him jealous? Was she checking the house to make sure he was watching, or was it to make sure he wasn't? There were two ways to view this, as well as last night's body-to-body dancing with Eddie; both could be efforts to make him jealous, or both could be her wanting to cheat again. He didn't trust her enough to go with the 'jealous' motivation, so he just stayed quiet and watched.

Instead of cooking the rice separately, Caelan dumped it into the rich mixture with about 20 minutes of cook time remaining. He walked onto the deck, whistled, and then signaled everyone to come up. They arrived in an amorphous mass, and he instructed them to get a bowl and spoon, a Dr. Pepper or beer from the refrigerator in the shed, and find somewhere to sit and eat. He chatted with each as he ladled the gumbo into the bowls, treating Barbara Ann no differently. She looked miffed, but gave him half of a killer smile, which had to hurt, and asked where he was going to sit and eat. They proceeded to climb into the bed of his pickup and sit on the sidewalls.

He thought she looked more delicious in her tiny bikini and mesh cover up than the gumbo, which earned praise from the diners, including the teammate from Thibodaux, down in Acadia. Caelan leaned over close to her and said, "Your little bikini turns me on so much I think I'll keep you up here." She snuggled a little closer and countered, "Or we can start on the beach and end up in your bed later." "Nah, let's start up here, where I've got a paper bag I can put over your head." She looked at him in disbelief, saw the smirk, and tried to push him off the rail. "You bastard!"

Nevertheless, she got it: the beautiful girl, lusted after by all, always a top one-percenter, was, right now, not; thanks to Eddie. 'I'm going to sic Aunt Peggy on him -- she has no conscience! She WILL pull his dick off!"

Caelan hugged her to keep her from hitting him and trying to push him off the pickup, laughing as he did. In a moment, she joined him in laughter, then looked up, showing him the disfigured side of her face. "Didn't you promise we'd go get in the healing salt water after lunch?" He jumped down, disposed of their waste, then lifted her off the pickup bed and started carrying her toward the beach. "I'll carry you down to the water and toss you in; will that help?"

"No, you will carry me down there, set me gently on my feet on the wet sand, and then escort me into the water, where you will gently bathe my poor, battered face, and make me well again." He laughed at her, called her a spoiled brat, and then did exactly what she dictated.

After her refreshing saltwater spa, she reclined on her lounger and asked Caelan to protect her delicate skin by applying lotion to it. He rolled his eyes, brought her a towel full of ice, and said he's apply lotion when she applied the ice. He developed quite an audience as he exhibited his expertise in lotion application, largely due to the sighs and mmmm's and other approving responses of the recipient. Barbara Ann loved what he was doing, but noticed that he was much more reserved than he had been when he and Th...he whose name shall never be spoken...did her together, and wondered why.

His chore completed, Caelan took her towel and ice, told her to get 20 minutes of sun on her face, and then get more ice on it; the waves were up, and he was going surfing! She stuck out her tongue at him, but he just laughed, ran down and grabbed his board, and paddled out into the rather nice-for-Texas surf.

A few of the football players without female escorts stuck around the camp, being solicitous and lightly flirting with her. They were quick to bring her more ice in the towel, and offered to help her with the suntan lotion if she needed it. Since she was turning onto her front side to tan her backside, she took them up on the offer.

They were enthusiastic, and the three sets of hands were good enough to give her a tingle, but they were certainly not in Caelan's league. Still, it was nice being flirted with, catered to, and fondled by three good-looking, muscular young men, and she made a bit of a production out of their efforts with her coordinated sound effects. She had to giggle when she peeped out from under the towel and saw their hard cocks.

She congratulated herself. 'My face may not be up to standard, but it appears my body is!'

Caelan returned to check on her, drank a beer with his teammates, told them to take good care of her, and went back to the surf. She was disappointed, but Barbara Ann continued to play with the eager boys, who continued to respond enthusiastically. The lotion application on the front side resulted in three very hard cocks and a very wet pussy, but boundaries established by the tiny bikini were observed.

Caelan came back and sat with the group surrounding Barbara Ann for a while, drinking beer and talking. He excused himself to go start preparing the supper meal, and was quickly joined by four volunteers; two teammates and their girlfriends. Barbara Ann volunteered too, but he told her to stay there to rest and ice. He told his roommates to stay with the larger crowd at the beach because the five of them had it covered.

The big pot of beans had been cooking all afternoon, so they focused on cutting up tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and peppers, while Caelan made guacamole of the big sack of Mexico avocados.

When the mix of mesquite and oak had burned down to coals under the big grill, Caelan started the beef, followed a few minutes later by the onions and peppers. When the first batch was about ready, he told his helpers to round up the others. He had a big stack of flour tortillas wrapped in foil warming on the side of the grill.

"What kind of meat is this and why are they wrapping it in the flour tortilla?" asked one of the city boys as he worked through the serving line. Caelan answered, "Fajitas is what we call them in south Texas. In central Texas I have to ask for skirt steak, or if they don't have any, flank steak. Flavorful, aren't they? Why wrapped in flour tortillas? That's the way we eat them! Add grilled veges, tomatoes and lettuce, and top with guacamole, some beans on the side, and you have a meal."

The fajita feast ended with everyone claiming they had a new favorite food. Each disposed of his or her own waste in the lined barrel, and Caelan cleaned the grill by building a small but hot fire of mesquite limbs. After it burned down, he used a wire brush to get the ash off the grill.

The dishes and utensils had been washed as they prepared the meal, so it only took a few minutes to wash the few remaining items.

The guys had made a fire pit on the beach, and had rounded up dry driftwood from along the base of the dunes to make a fire. Twenty-four of the original crew remained, not counting Caelan and his five 'roommates', and all were going home tomorrow. It was a convivial crowd, which happened to include a couple of guitar pickers and a bunch of good singers who knew the words to about a million songs. The beer was icy, the sunset glorious, the sound of the waves tranquil, and the stars mesmerizing.

Caelan sat in the sand with his legs spread and a wiggling, singing woman sitting between them. She insisted he 'keep her warm' by wrapping his arms around her, even though it was at least 85 degrees. He tried to cover her injuries with an ice pack; she refused, but rolled her cold beer bottle over the area from time to time.

Barbara Ann had the voice of an angel, but got the words all wrong; Caelan had the gravelly voice of a Johnny Cash, but knew all the words. Not that it mattered; while not quite melodious, the group sang with enthusiasm and appreciation for the words and music. Lots of folk songs and western songs were mixed in among the country and rock.

The upbeat mood lasted for hours, until one of the young men, fresh from a breakup with his long-time girlfriend, requested Are You Lonesome Tonight. Ballad after ballad was sung, as couples mellowed by the beer, comradery, and late hour, began to cuddle and hold one another.

It was late and getting pretty drunk out when Caelan, a poet at heart and a huge fan of Rod McKuen, was convinced to 'sing' Stanyon Street. That ended the party. The crowd said their good nights and goodbyes before dispersing rather quickly. Danny tossed another log on the fire; the six gathered around and Marc told the girls, "He knows practically all of Rod McKuen's works. Have you heard Glen Yarbrough sing McKuen's poems? We have, and it was enlightening and depressing at the same time. What would you like to hear?"

"I'm not familiar with McKuen or Yarbrough; are you?" Paula asked of Judy and Barbara Ann. Neither was, so Marc told Caelan to start with Brownstone, and keep going. The girls sat a little straighter and were more interested then, encouraging him to continue. His recitation of JimJann left them complaining THAT should not be the ending!

"Okay, big man, time to sing the poems we heard so often last fall," Danny said challengingly. "Start with Day Song."

The speckled morning, moving into day now
I stand at the window half-dressed
watching the snow melt as quickly as it falls.

A hundred blank windows
in the building going up across the street
look back at me.
My expression is as empty as theirs,
as the long, slow business
of learning how to live alone begins again.

"Oh, my god, Calen; that is so depressing! Why would you sing something like that instead of...." Judy began, before fading off and looking at her friend, who was staring at the sand.

"Now the other one!" Danny demanded.

Caelan sang it quietly, like Yarbrough and McKuen do, but you could feel the sorrow when he recited, And the others -- the ones who promise everything, then go away. Barbara Ann gasped, but looked up from the sand and watched him as he finished Channing Way, and began Channing Way 2:
I should have told you
that love is more than being warm in bed.
More than individuals seeking an accomplice.
Even more than wanting to share.

I could have said
that love at best is giving what you need to get.

But it was raining, and we had no place to go,
and riding through the streets in a cab
I remembered
that words are only necessary after love has gone.