Treetop Lovers

At eight o'clock on Monday morning, the bulldozers and other equipment and their operators and other crew members returned to where they had been the previous Friday. They were under contract to do a certain job, and would be there to do it, even if it was not feasible. Generally speaking, they liked having easy paydays, such as they had the previous week, but they would perform their jobs if they could.

Charlie and the others standing between the trees and the heavy machinery recognized a contingent of the campus police, because they were not wearing hard hats while the crews were. At a signal from the foreman, all the engines were stopped, and he and another man stepped forward. The newcomer was known to be in charge of the people who were supposedly on campus to protect students and other people. On that day, they expected to be performing the more distasteful parts of their jobs, which was enforcing the decrees of the president of the university. The two men stopped in front of Charlie and some other who were standing nearby, all of them holding their arms behind their backs.

"We're here to order you to halt this illegal occupation and leave, or to arrest you if you refuse," the head cop announced.

"This is not an illegal occupation, and we're not going to leave," Charlie calmly responded. "And how do you expect to arrest the students in the trees?" As he said that, he gestured with his head in the general direction of where he knew Patty was sitting and listening.

"We'll deal with them later. Do I understand you to refuse to obey the lawful order of a duly sworn peace officer?"

"Sworn peace officer, my ass. You're just a rent-a-cop. And this is the United States, not Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union."

"I can still place you under arrest, and that's what I'm doing. Charles Brown, you are hereby placed under arrest for trespassing and unlawful assembly. Are you coming along peacefully or will I need to use force?"

"I'm not going to resist arrest, but I'm not going peacefully either. You'll have to carry me to your little lockup."

"Very well. Have it your way." The rent-a-cop turned and waved to two of his men.

As they approached, Charlie sat on the ground and, when they heard the noise he made, all three campus cops stared at him. He had cuffs on both his wrists, and the chain fastened to them went around the tree behind him, while Patty sat on a limb looking down on the byplay below her. When they saw what Charlie did, the others doing ground duty as their part in protecting the park imitated his action, with the same effect. They were all chained to one of the trees, just as he was. The campus cops couldn't take anybody away without cutting down a tree, probably killing the woman in it and others in the area or on the ground, or chopping off someone's arm.

"Okay, Smartass. Where's the key to these cuffs?"

"I don't know. I know I don't have it." That was true, because the key to his manacles was in the possession of the person who would be replacing him the following morning. All the activists chained to the trees had the same kind of arrangement with the person who would be relieving them on Tuesday.

"You think you're smart, don't you? But you won't get away with this, Brown," the chief cop sneered. "We'll be back with hacksaws." He left hurriedly, as did his companions, leaving the protectors of the trees triumphant again.

Dozens of people had recorded the confrontation with video cameras, and Bill Hogan was there again, this time with a photographer, who had taken a score or more shots of Charlie and his companions. When interviewed by Hogan, the suddenly-famous young man repeated what he had said before: "We're here to protect this parkland, especially these wonderful old trees, for our benefit and that of the thousands of people who come here after us, and we won't give up."

Most of those watching the process applauded, except for the crews who had been ordered to destroy what Charlie was protecting. They wanted no trouble with anybody; they were just there to do a job, and the foreman and the crew members watched and listened stoically. Some of them had expected another impasse and brought books or newspapers to read, and some played cards. Once again, they had an easy work day, but a boring one, because neither the campus cops nor the university president put in another appearance.

Neither Charlie nor Patty was there on Tuesday, and nothing much happened anyhow. Either the head of the campus police had been unable to locate a hacksaw, which didn't seem likely, or he had decided against trying, which is also improbable. At three o'clock on Wednesday morning, Charlie and Patty and half the women who would climb up the trees and half the men and women who would be supporting from the ground returned to the green space and took up their positions. Once that transition had been accomplished and those who had been relieved had left, the other half of the large group arrived to relieve the rest of the climbers and supporters.

They were aware if all the replacement demonstrators appeared at the same time, minions of the administration might be able to waylay them and take away the keys to the manacles. Once they were able to do that, they would be able to haul the whole group of demonstrators to some kind of holding place. By replacing only half the group at once, any such attempt would be foiled. With so many people willing to put themselves on the line to protect the trees and the rest of the green space, there were always enough people high up in the limbs or chained to the trunks to prevent any destruction from occurring.

Wednesday turned out to be more eventful that Tuesday had been. He was not paranoid enough to believe the university president deliberately chose to make his attempts while Patty was up in the tree she had chosen to protect and he was chained to it, but it did seem that way. This time, the head of the campus did appear with the promised hacksaws, and he did try to attack the chains with them. His attempt failed miserably.

First, Charlie and the others had rented heavy duty logging chains made with extra strong links, and any ordinary hacksaw would take a long time to make an appreciable nick in one of them. Second, the chains were all top of the line equipment, made from the highest quality carbide steel and, even after a long time of hacking away, the saws could make only minor scratches on the links. Even so, given enough time, the chains could have been cut through with the tools being used, but they weren't given enough time. Every few minutes, about the time a noticeable mark would have been made, Charlie or whoever else's chain was being attacked, would yank on it, disrupting progress by dislodging the blade from whatever miniscule groove it might have made and requiring a new start. After hours of fruitless screeching of hacksaw blades, the campus cops gave up on this idea too.

"You win this round, Brown," the head of the hacksaw contingent barked in Charlie's face. "But we're not giving up. We'll be back and drag you all off to jail where you belong," he yelled at Charlie, who said nothing, but continued to smile peacefully.

He and his men left, to derisive laughter and cheers for the protectors of the park, for virtually all the people who had watched the debacle were opposed to the destruction of the old trees and the peaceful green space. The local newspaper had thrown its suppport behind the climb-in, and their editorials and news items mocked the attempts of the university to destroy what had taken Nature a century to build. Most students and townspeople and most people throughout the state, even football fans, who read of the demonstration were in favor of it, and admired the protectors of the parkland, especially Charlie, who was widely considered to be its leader.

One person, in particular, admired Charlie, and that was Patty. She had been fond of him, with his tall, athletic form and his handsome face for a long time, which was one of the reasons why they were friends with benefits, but she had come to see him in a different light. The way he had stood up to the foreman of the work crew and even the president of the university and how he had made the campus police look like Keystone Kops had earned her admiration. They always had a lot of fun in bed, although not since the climb-in started, and she hoped they would take their relationship to a new and closer level once the issue was decided. That was her opinion, and she wondered if Charlie would be receptive to a permanent arrangement between them.

He was feeling much the same way about her. He had been attracted to her pretty face and sexy body ever since meeting her, as well as her intelligence and sense of humor. Her enjoyment of sex with him was frosting on the cake, but he was seeing her in an even better light, after what they had been through over the last few days. She was a person who would stand for something and put herself on the line for the greater good. He was thinking of her as a woman he would like to have at his side for better or for worse, and however else it went, and he wondered whether or not her opinion of him had changed.

At three o'clock on Thursday morning, after their replacements had taken over their posts and he had pocketed the key to the cuffs keeping the other man in position, they walked to her dormitory. Although she wished the rules could be changed, at least for that night, he was not allowed in that female-only domain, and her roommate would have looked askance at a guest that late at night anyhow. They stood together on the porch, looking in each other's eyes and thinking of what they wanted to say but not saying it.

They would see each other that afternoon, but probably as part of a big crowd of other people, and at three o'clock the following morning, they would be back to their labor of love protecting the parkland from those who would despoil it. All they could do then was to embrace each other more closely than they ever had and kiss more deeply than ever, before Charlie left and went to his own dormitory.

They did meet in the Student Union that afternoon, to read the latest editorials and news stories about their climb-in and to gain more determination through hob-knobbing with their fellow activists. They sat at a long table, and their fellows looked and wondered why their chairs were so close together, since the table was not crowded. They spent the rest of the day together, enjoying each other's company, until three o'clock on Friday morning. That would be the last day of the demonstration, no matter what happened at the hearing, and they were both thinking about their own future.

When the time arrived for them to take up their positions, the woman in their tree tossed down the rope ladder and Patty climbed up. Charlie watched her, admiring her very shapely ass and thinking of what they hadn't done for the last week. The woman who had been in the treetop, for what she knew would be the last time, greeted her replacement affectionately and climbed down, but decided to wait for some others to join her before leaving. One of them would be the man replaced by Charlie, who had just unlocked the cuffs and handed over the key for safekeeping. The man relieved of duty prepared to lock the wrists of his successor in place, but was stopped from doing so.

"Don't lock the cuffs yet," Charlie asked him. "I have to take care of something first. I can slip the hasp into place without using the key after I get done."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. Just take off. This is the last day of the climb-in, and I wouldn't let anything go wrong this late in the game."

"Okay." He was anxious to leave anyhow, because he was also thinking about the woman who had just climbed out of the tree he had been protecting, and how that shared experience might lead to sharing more carnal adventures.

Charlie watched the man he replaced and the other activists as they took their departures, leaving him and Patty and the group who would be spending that day offering to sacrifice life and limb to keep the demolition crew at bay. Before doing that, however, he wanted to speak to the woman who had been so much on his mind. He stood at the base of the tree and called up to her.

"Patty, throw down the ladder. I want to climb up to join you."

She was surprised and looked down at him from her tall perch. "Shouldn't you be chained to the tree?"

"I will be, but I want to talk to you first."

She wanted to talk to him too, and had a sudden thought of what the subject of their conversation might be. As important as the trees and the green space were to her, there was something else that meant more, and that was what she wanted to talk about. Patty threw down the loose end of the rope ladder and watched as Charlie climbed up to join her. It was long enough to extend to the ground from the place she had chosen to spend most of her time, which was a junction of branches where a major limb curved out to be almost parallel with the ground before curving back up again. Two other sturdy branches extended out and up from either side, so her perch resembled a trident. She could lean back against the limb and feel like she imagined a baseball would feel in a first baseman's mitt.

Charlie joined Patty and shinnied along the limb to lean forward and greet her with a kiss. He was from a rural area, had climbed many trees as a boy, and recognized her perch as being as safe and stable as one would be able to find. He also knew anybody staying in such a place for very long would have to be careful to avoid getting careless, but he didn't care very much about that just then. There was something on his mind he had to tell her, and he thought of it as being important enough to risk a fall.

"What's on your mind," she asked. "Are you sure you're not going to fall from here?"

"I'm sure. I've climbed a lot of trees in my life."

Charlie had been planning what he was going to say, but had forgotten what it was once the time came to say it. Like many sincere young men, he had trouble expressing his personal feelings, especially when what he wanted to say was a profession of love. No moonlight pierced the leaves, so it was too dark to see Patty, which made it easier, but he knew she was there. It was quiet, that late at night, but the breeze rustling through the leaves would keep their words private, because none of the women in nearby trees would be able to hear what was said. He stuttered a bit, and started to speak.

"Patty, we've been through a lot these last few days, but I think it was worth it."

"So do I. However things come out later today, I feel good about what we're all doing here. But, did you climb all the way up here to tell me that?"

"No. I came up here to tell you that I love you." He blurted it out with no fancy similes or flowery words. Feeling as if a weight had been lifted from him by his unadorned statement, he was able to say more.

"I mean, these last few days, I have come to see you as somebody really special. We've always liked each other, and have had sex together a lot, and called it making love, but we both knew we were just having fun. Now, I want to make love with you, and really mean it when we call it that."

"Well, I feel the same way about you, and I have ever since I heard you telling Pigskin Pete where to get off. I mean I love you too." She thought about the last thing he had said. "Do you mean you want to have sex -- make love -- right here and right now?"

Charlie thought about that, and plunged ahead, rather recklessly but not as recklessly as what was being discussed. "Yeah. Sure. Why not? It'll be safe enough as long as we get into the right position."

It was Patty's turn to think about that. She had been up in the tree for a long enough time to feel quite comfortable, even safe in the place where she was semi-reclining. The tree would let neither her nor Charlie fall, to her way of thinking. She was aware that was not logical; trees are not sentient, but she couldn't help thinking this one was somehow aware what they had been doing for it and its neighbors over the last week, and would let no harm come to either of them.

Frequently, while pleasuring one another in bed, she had gotten on top, and Patty believed that would be the best position to use the first time they really made love. She also couldn't help thinking how the top of the tree that was responsible for getting her and Charlie together was the perfect place for this first time.

"Okay. You get up here where I am now, after I get out of your way. Lie on your back and pull your pants down. You don't have to take them all the way off."

Patty carefully turned around and climbed higher up on the main limb, while Charlie moved up to where she had been. As Patty had been doing, he leaned against the limb with his legs straddling it while holding himself in a stable position by bracing his hands against the branches on the sides. Once he knew how he wanted to position himself, he unbuckled and unzipped his pants and pulled them and his jockey shorts down to mid-thigh. His horniness and the thought of what he and his new-found love were about to do had aroused him, and his cock was sticking up like another branch of the tree.

After climbing higher, Patty removed her jeans and shoes and panties and left them wedged tightly between branches in another junction she found. Naked below the waist, she started back down to where she knew Charlie was waiting. The spring breeze felt cool on the bare skin of her ass and legs, but her pussy was hot with her desire. For the same reason as her man's cock was hard, she was starting to lubricate and, as she climbed back down over him, he smelled her juices, which made him even more aroused. When Patty stopped, she was in the same place on the limb as Charlie had been when he professed his love for her.

Although he was as hard as any of the branches surrounding them, and her pussy was actually starting to drip, she thought they needed more lubrication before beginning what they both wanted so much to do. Patty moved up closer, took his cock between her lips and stroked it a few times. This was something she loved doing, just as Charlie loved eating her pussy, and they expected to do more of both in a future, but in a bed they would be permanently sharing. This would have to be after the court's decision was announced in a few hours. They had no condom, but she was on the pill and they were sure neither of them had any kind of disease to worry about. They were also not worried about falling because, while it might not have been logical, they were both confident their friend, the tree, would not allow such a thing to happen.

When she thought his cock was wet enough, Patty climbed higher, until she was straddling Charlie, with her hands braced against the branches growing up and out from what they were starting to think of as their limb. He held his cock in place with one hand, while placing the other on her hip to guide her as she lowered her pussy, until contact was made. Before penetration could begin, he rubbed the head in the wetness that was pleasing his nostrils so much, until it was wet enough that she could easily impale herself while he held it upright for her.

"Now," he whispered. "Right here."

With both hands leaning on the branches to the sides of the limb and trusting Charlie to guide her safely, Patty lowered her body until she felt the end of his cock pressing against the place they both wanted it. He wiggled it slightly, and the tip wedged into her wet pussy, evoking a happy sigh from both young people. She stayed like that for a few more seconds, letting her love channel adjust itself to the hard, new presence before letting her body descend again. His rigid shaft burrowed more deeply into her pussy, and they expressed their joy even more loudly.