To The Wild Country Ch. 02

There are times I fear I lose myself

I don't know who I am

I get caught up in the struggle and the strain . . .

The lyrics spoke of disenchantment with the trappings of modern life and yearning to reconnect with the elemental truths found only in nature. Although John was singing about Alaska, the theme was universal and held special meaning for Megan; in the wild country was where she wanted to be.

In sweet soprano she sang the verses and raised her voice in crescendo with the final chorus:

To the mountains, I can rest there

To the rivers, I will be strong

To the forest, I'll find peace there

To the wild country, where I belong

To the wild country, I belong

As the song wound down and the instrumental coda played, Nature Girl looked at me and smiled. And yes, she kept smiling and made no effort to hide her braces.

Until we began the drive home, I hadn't realized how tired I was. A week of trekking in the mountains, physical frolic at the lake, and late night campfire revelry had taken its toll. Upbeat conversation mitigated the fatigue -for a while. The girls felt tired too; once we left the gravel Forest Service road and were cruising along the smooth paved highway, they settled back and became quiet. Her eyes shut, Megan was still tuned into the soft music but her energy level was flagging. Seen in the rearview mirror, Kelly gazed out the window at the pine-covered mountainsides sliding past. And to my utter amazement, Tina was inert; slumped down in her seat, her head propped on a pillow against the window, she was sound asleep.

* * * *

Early Monday morning, I stopped by the forestry lab on campus to get my assignment for the week. All of Richard's students were there, seated at long tables waiting for class to begin. How wonderful for those kids to have spent a week in the wild with their friends, learning, laughing and skinny-dipping, and now to carry that camaraderie back into the classroom. I gained an insight of how they must have felt; all were bright-eyed and talkative, their mannerisms, animated. I scanned the girls, one to the next to the next, conjuring images of their dripping wet, naked bodies. I pride myself on having a good memory. For each girl, I could recall the most intimate details of her anatomy. For only a short time was I able to indulge these recollections before I had to turn away and get to work.

At a computer terminal, I navigated to the proper place in the program and located my assignment, but couldn't get it to print. Loudly, I complained, "Print the damn assignment HAL!"

Megan came over and stood beside me. "Having trouble?"

"Yeah, a little."

When she leaned over my keyboard, her bounteous breasts nearly spilled out of her lavender camisole. Beautifully bare, completely covered or any stage in between, whenever I beheld their loveliness I uttered a silent prayer of thanksgiving for being male. Megan encountered no difficulty; a few keystrokes and the printer came to life.

"Just takes a woman's touch," she offered.

"You saying the computer's male?"

"Gotta be. It's stubborn!"

Maybe the computer was male and began working because it beheld the same heavenly vision as I.

"Where ya goin' this week," Megan wanted to know.

I read the printout. "Well looky there! It's not far from Vulcan!"

"You lucky dog!"

"Yeah, it's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it."

"That's what you always say."

"It's the truth."

"Well, have fun!" Megan twirled on her toes and returned to the table where she sat talking with Tina.

My work went smoothly and by Wednesday evening I had finished the inspections, allowing me to spend all day Thursday at Vulcan. The place was the same but the ambiance was far different than the previous week when I had drowned in the ocean of fecund female flesh. Now, my only fellow soakers were a suited middle-age couple and their yappy schnauzer. All of them, the dog included, were accepting of my nakedness and the portly woman was pleasantly conversant while I sat on the log dam above the waterline exhibiting my asset. Even big gals enjoy ogling a naked man.

Friday morning in the forestry lab, Megan once again performed digital magic and got HAL to function flawlessly while helping enter the voluminous pine bark beetle data. She printed my next, and final, assignment, a mere two miles downriver from Atlanta Hot Springs. Was Richard intentionally giving me assignments in areas near choice hot springs? So it seemed. Love that guy!

* * * *

Tap, tap, tappety tap . . .

Friday morning, Megan sat at the computer terminal beside mine, her slender fingers flying over the keyboard. Even though she didn't have classes because summer school was over, she graciously agreed to meet me in the forestry lab one last time to help enter the pine bark beetle data into the IBM mainframe. And there was plenty of data from the plethora of trees I inspected. Her fiery red hair pulled back in a bushy ponytail, and wearing a multihued floral blouse and navy gabardine shorts just above the knee, she looked more fetching than ever.

When at last all of the data had been entered I turned to her and said, "Well, that's it. My job's over."

Megan looked me in the eye. "The best summer job in the world!"

"It sure was! That's why I'm coming back next summer and do it again. You gonna help me then?"

"Sure. If Rich'll let me."

"I'll make sure he does!" She beamed a wide smile and didn't draw her lips together. In my company, no longer was she embarrassed about her braces. We talked awhile longer but eventually, a pregnant pause ensued; there wasn't much left to say. Finally, Megan said, "Well, you take care and I'll see you next summer."

"You too. I'll see ya."

We rose to our feet. Unexpectedly, Megan stepped close and hugged me. I received her and wrapped my arms around her back. Her bounteous breasts pressed firmly against my chest. She kissed me lightly on the lips, the kind of affectionate touch shared between friends upon parting.

"Until next summer," she said. "Bye."

"Bye."

Megan turned and walked away. Smiling, she glanced back over her shoulder and waved. I waved and kept watching until she passed through the door and vanished from view. Although Nature Girl was gone, her shimmering aura remained suspended in time and space; her beautiful body, her sensitive soul, and her eyes, those warm, gentle, expressive eyes, bluer than a summer sky.

* * * *

The following year, I didn't return to Idaho to reprise 'The best summer job in the world.' Fate intervened and life took me in another direction. I wondered how it might have been if I had returned. Would Megan have been there and eager to help? Would she have accompanied me on another assignment? Would the week-long class field trip have been just as awesome? Would close ties between us have possibly led in personal directions?

The years flowed past like a sweet singing river on its journey from the mountains to the sea. Often, I thought of Megan, and wondered how her forestry career was going, if she was happy with her chosen path. If I knew Megan, and I believed I did, she was working for the Forest Service, planting trees and nurturing Mother Earth. And during her private time she and her life mate would visit hot springs, taking the waters the way nature intended. Easily, I could envision her there: neck-deep and smiling. She had a lovely smile.

Her vocation and avocation, and indeed her entire life, would be lived somewhere way, way out there beyond civilization. And her home, a small cabin I wanted to believe, would have a timeless view from the front porch: the evergreen forest, a sweet singing river, and in the distance, towering peaks. Megan wouldn't reside anywhere else; in the mountains is where she wanted to be. In the forest is where she found peace. She belonged to the wild country.