Chapter 9: The Listeners

Morning showed a light snow had fallen after the rain. Hitch had pulled back the heavy blankets to see his breath make cloudy trails in the cold air. His skin was chilled wherever it was not against Kieu-Linh's body, and he felt stiff and achy as he tried to move from where she was laying with her head on his chest. She stirred and shivered, then tried to ball up against him tighter to get warm.

"We should get inside and warm up by the fire."

Kieu-Linh resisted, groaning her disapproval. Hitch smiled in spite of himself, trying to pull out from under the sleepy teen. She used her arms to grab him. He managed to get a leg onto the porch, and she held on as he slowly stepped out. Kieu-Linh raised her head with a smile, stubbornly refusing to let him go. "Ok," Hitch said, "I'll drag you if I have to..."

"Uhh-uhh..." she countered, "I'm not going to let you."

"Next step and you'll go tumbling..."

He tried to move and felt the girl's hand quickly move to grasp his balls through his pants. He froze, saw the delight in her eyes. "Hey," he said, "you're not playing fair..."

She giggled, replied, "just like you taught me. 'Playing fair is the first rule you discard, ' you told me. I believe I've got you by the balls, James."

He laughed and tickled her sides, causing her to laugh and draw back her grasping hand. "Okay, okay," she squeaked between uncontrolled laughs, "I give ... You're gonna make me pee myself."

"I'll be inside, getting warm," Hitch replied, kissing her lips.

She was behind him quickly, the cold air convincing her that, without his warmth, she'd be more uncomfortable. The cabin was roasting by comparison. Even with the fire dwindled in the night, it still provided a radiant heat throughout. Miller and Kim-Ly had not arisen despite the dawn, and Diego and Catalina were sleeping soundly on the rug.

The blanket had fallen off to the side a bit, leaving Catalina's bare leg visible up to her mid-thigh. It seemed she had removed her pants at some point and was either nude or wearing panties. He saw Kieu-Linh glance there as well, and he turned and went to start a pot for coffee.

"She is very pretty," Kieu-Linh said in a whisper.

"Yes."

"Are you attracted to her?" the teen asked.

Hitch wondered if this was the old discussion surfacing, the one where she'd worried about him cheating on her with other women. "Linh..."

"I'm not asking if you're going to make love with her, I'm just ... curious if you find her attractive."

"I said that I did."

"Me too."

He turned and looked at her, Kieu-Linh still looking back at where the young couple lay near the fire. "Care to tell me what you're thinking?"

Kieu-Linh turned away a moment, then looked at Hitch. "Oh, nothing ... I just ... Nothing..."

He watched her a few seconds, and when she didn't continue, he let it drop. He had coffee ready as Kieu-Linh put on another pot and gathered oats and butter and honey. Catalina started to stir, and for a moment, her body shifted in a way which made it clear she was naked beneath the covering. The teen's dark bush rose thick and lovely from her mound. Kieu-Linh saw his eyes and followed them, staring at where Catalina was stretching, further pushing the blankets from her naked flesh.

Hitch saw Kieu-Linh smile quickly then look away, back at Hitch. Her eyes danced with amusement as she pressed a hand against where his penis had stirred automatically at the sight of Catalina's bared body. "You do think she's pretty. No touching ... promise me..."

"Kieu-Linh, you know I would never--"

"I know, I'm just teasing you." The girl looked back at Catalina, "can't blame you, I guess. She is very pretty..."

"Kieu-Linh--"

"Kidding, James." He knew that whatever she was thinking, she wasn't just teasing him. Kieu-Linh went back to stirring oats into the boiling water and Hitch saw Catalina's hurried movements as the mocha-skinned teen realized she'd been uncovered. Catalina's head flew back as she pulled the blanket over her lower half and her eyes looked at Hitch with embarrassment.

He nodded to her, said, "good morning," then he turned his back to the girl so that she might have some privacy to find her pants.

After a few minutes, Catalina and Diego were seated at the table, looking sheepish and sleepy. Hitch didn't mention the girl's exposure, instead offering them coffee while Kieu-Linh ladled out steaming bowls of oatmeal, honey, butter, and a few dried blueberries. "Sleep alright?" Kieu-Linh asked them.

Catalina nodded, "yeah. It's ... really warm next to the fire, even more than in the bed..." Her brown skin showed hints of being flushed. She shoveled a heaping spoonful of oatmeal into her mouth. "This is really good," she managed to say after swallowing.

Kieu-Linh was glancing back towards the bedroom, a small, concerned look on her face. Hitch watched as she walked back and peered inside. He saw her stand there a moment before she came back to the table, a smile on her face. He looked at her questioningly. "They need a bit..."

Hitch laughed quietly, assuming that Miller and Kim-Ly were being intimate. "What say we all bundle up and see about getting some things done. Do you two feel up to joining us today?"

Diego nodded emphatically, "yes, I want to help."

Catalina agreed, using her finger to get the last of the oatmeal out of the bowl. "I'll do whatever I can."

Hitch led them out of the cabin after wrapping himself in his field jacket and grabbing his field pack and two rifles. "I'd like to hunt before the day gets much brighter, this snow will make game easier to track. Diego, would you like to join me?"

"Sure ... I've ... I've never hunted before ... like ... with a gun?"

"Yep, rifles."

"O-okay ... I've never used one..."

"This is a good time to learn." He looked at the boy's lover. "I'd offer you the same, Catalina, but I worry about you being pregnant and being around gunfire. Don't want you becoming stressed. It can be very loud and, if you're not used to it, a bit agitating."

She stared back at him a few seconds, "I remember when they shot my parents. It was ... frightening ... but I want to learn. But maybe you're right."

"I'll teach you, but let's wait for now. Plus, it will be easier to teach you one at a time."

"I'll take Catalina down to check on the cows," Kieu-Linh suggested.

Hitch kissed his lover and, as was his constant habit, ensured his sidearm was in place at his hip. He nodded towards Diego, and led them off to the west where Miller had shown him a small creek down the ridge which often attracted the deer.

"I just want you to watch and listen, Diego. Your rifle's not even loaded. I want you to get a feel of it in your hands, and pay attention to what I tell you."

"Yes, Sir."

Hitch showed him first how to move quietly, how to position each step, to scout the ground in order to avoid the most noisy spots, those covered in twigs or crunchy leaves. In the snow, it was made easier since deliberate steps on the coating of frozen ground tended to have an even, predictable noise level.

He led by example as they descended through the pines, elms, and hickory growing tall overhead, blocking out most of the clouded light above. Hitch always loved being deep in the woods like that. It was almost an orgasmic feeling to slip slowly into the twilight under canopy. Each of his senses came alive, every motion, every sound drawing his notice. Even when he'd hunted men instead of beasts, he'd experienced that immersion in his surroundings. He much preferred hunting beasts. They didn't shoot back.

They crept and stopped, listening, then moved again before pausing once more. The woods were a steady, low hiss of clicks and pops and the occasional scattering of little feet moving across frozen ground or through the foliage. Bird calls were largely crows and jays. It was almost an hour before Hitch spotted tracks, but as he told Diego, "raccoons. Not our prey today, but they can be eaten in a pinch. Gamey."

They moved on to the west and found the creek running strongly from the night's precipitation. There were still parts of the surface frozen in ragged sheets. Hitch knelt down along the wet shore just above where the creek had washed through over the years to create a steep bank the height of a grown man. He moved upstream in order to keep the wind, what little made it through the foliage, blowing against his frontside. Deer could be skittish, and they smelled men who were careless in their body odors, fragrances, and the direction the wind moved.

The creek came from the north before flowing from the west above. The banks were uneven in places, sometimes low as if a natural ramp had formed there. Hitch found deer tracks near one such spot, and he followed it back to the east, fresh scat a few hundred meters along.

They crested a lesser ridge settled down a hundred meters from the larger one, a shallow saddle in between. Hitch crouched as he stopped Diego, pointing silently to where two does had stopped beside a big patch of short grasses which had marble-sized balls of purple flowers somehow poking through the thin snow cover. The deer were nibbling hungrily.

Hitch whispered very carefully, "the shot you make depends on how the deer is facing. From the side, like this, I can't get to the spot I know works best for me when they are looking away, high up on the neck. With their sides to us, that's a tough shot. So, watch where I shoot the one to the left."

Hitch drew his eye to the scope and waited until the doe raised its head, listening. He fired and before his target was dead on the ground, the second deer had burst through the foliage and out of sight.

"It's a small target, and one I only try with a scope, but if you have it, it's a kill shot if you hit your mark." They walked up to the deer and Hitch had to admire the deadly accuracy of his aim which sent the bullet through the brain, killing it instantly. "Without a scope, from the side, you aim here," he said, crouching down to point along the rib cage. "Heart and lungs will kill, too, but sometimes you have to follow them a while before it happens."

Hitch looked up to see that Diego looked agitated. He was staring at the carcass with his mouth open, eyes wide. Hitch couldn't be sure if excitement or the cold had the youth trembling. "You okay?"

"Y-yeah, yeah ... I've just ... never been that close to a gun before. Kinda scared me. Made me think of..."

"I'm sorry," Hitch said, understanding Diego's mindset, "you're thinking of your parents..."

"Yes..."

"Listen," he said, putting his hand on the young man's shoulder, "you'll never forget that. Accept that fact. It will always be with you, and it's always going to hurt. I won't tell you to get over it because that's not how it works. But I will say that you have a young woman to support, a child on the way, and it's going to be difficult to remember those horrible memories, but you have to be able to put the present ahead of the past. We'll need to hunt to survive, and there might be times when the rest of us aren't able. You need to find a way to compartmentalize your pain. Don't forget it, don't be ashamed for what it brings out, but don't let it control you. You're a good man, Diego, and I can see you care for Catalina like a good man should. Stay focused on what it takes to keep her safe and well-fed."

Diego swallowed and Hitch saw him straighten slightly. "I understand. I'll do anything for Catalina..."

"I can see that. Now," Hitch said, looking back at the deer, "I'll show you how to field dress one of these beauties."

"Mexico," Diego replied, answering Hitch's question about Catalina's heritage while trailing a bit behind. "Both her parents were born in Texas, but all her grandparents were Mexican."

"Was just curious. She's a beautiful young woman. I see how she loves you."

"Sometimes I can't believe it, really," Diego said quietly, "like ... how'd I get to have her? She's all I've got that's worth anything ... Her and our child..."

"What about you, where were your parents from?"

"Arizona, but I only really knew Mobile. My mom's family is Dominican, my dad's is from Atlanta." Hitch had already assumed the young man had mixed heritage. "Don't really know much beyond that. What about you?"

"My parents were from Wyoming and Oklahoma. My mom's mom was from South Africa, other than that, probably just a typical mutt heritage of European ancestors."

"What about Kieu-Linh and her mom?"

"Kim-Ly's parents are from Vietnam," Hitch replied, shifting the deer higher onto his shoulders.

Diego was quiet a while, then asked, "you really don't believe in God..." He said it as more of a statement than a question.

"I don't."

"And you don't believe in sin?"

"Not in the religious sense, no."

"In what sense, then?" Diego asked.

"Well," Hitch said, taking a swallow of water from his canteen, "in the sense that something's wrong as civilization defines it, as humanity defines harm or greed. I suppose you could say someone sins when they commit a harm against others, but I don't believe they go to hell as a result. I don't believe there's a hell to go to."

"So, if there's no God, no sin, why be good?"

Hitch turned back to him a moment, and replied, "if there was no God ... if you didn't believe in God ... would you hurt Catalina?"

"No, of course not!" The young man nearly shouted.

"So, are you kind to her and treat her well because you fear what God would do if you did not?"

"No..." Diego said more carefully, "I ... love her."

"So you made a good moral decision, and it didn't take the fear or possible judgement of a deity to do it."

Diego shook his head, "no, but God is the one who created all things, including my ability to love. It is His direction that I follow to act as I do. How could it not be a moral decision He has made for me."

"So you had no free will to do otherwise?"

"I ... what do you mean?"

"Could you have chosen to ignore God's will and harm Catalina? To not love her?"

Diego thought a moment. "I don't know."

"If you had no choice, then there is no moral action you can take, you are a puppet acting on behalf of another, without a say. If you had a choice, then it was you alone who holds credit for it. The choice is where it rests. If you made it, if you could have chosen otherwise, you don't need to invoke God for it."

"But is His inspiration that drives men to do good things."

"And ill..."

Diego didn't respond immediately. "So ... you're saying that ... if I have a choice ... then God isn't causing my actions, even if He is the inspiration..."

"Essentially."

"Hmm..."

"Try to envision a scenario where you are placed in a bubble, one which God doesn't know exists. Would you have treated Catalina any differently? Would you love her still?"

"I don't know ... I hope so."

"I do, as well. Love only means something if it comes unbidden and from within. No one else, not even a God, can make it meaningful by forcing you to feel it. Don't disrespect your feelings for Catalina by giving responsibility and credit to God. Own those emotions, and I think you'll find that the result is something more powerful than you realize now."

Hitch demonstrated how to cut the deer and ready it for aging or smoking. He knew it would take a lot of patience and practice, but he had Diego do a few simple cuts before he was done, and the young man looked proud of himself.

The others were working on collecting manure from the lower field, so Hitch and Diego washed up and started getting an evening meal ready. Hitch got some dough ready to bake, and had Diego putting together a pot to boil slowly over a low fire for a few hours.

Kieu-Linh and Catalina came back to the cabin filthy, waving from outside. Hitch walked to the porch and grinned. Kieu-Linh was covered in brown muck, though Catalina much less so. "Going to clean up," his young lover proclaimed, "will you bring towels and soap?"

"Of course. Your parents on the way back up?"

"In a bit."

"I'll be down shortly."

The girls headed towards the spring, and Hitch went in to get towels. Diego was staring longingly out the window, watching his lover disappear through the trees. Hitch said, "hey, what say we finish up here and let the stew boil a while, head down to be with our women?"

"I'd like that."

The young women were already in the water, close to the passing creek, scrubbing their arms. Hitch tossed Kieu-Linh the soap and without a thought, removed his clothing. It was much lighter than when they'd bathed together before, and he saw Catalina's eyes dart towards his genitals before she looked away, pretending she'd seen nothing. Hitch climbed into the water and smiled at Kieu-Linh.

Diego hesitated a moment before undressing beside the spring and quickly stepping in. Hitch saw that the young man's penis was somewhat hard, and he seemed to have a long, dark shaft.

The girls shared the soap until they were satisfied they were finally clean, then Hitch and Diego used it quickly to remove the soil from the day's hunt. Kieu-Linh came up to offer her assistance, and Hitch grinned as she 'accidentally' brushed his groin several times, giggling.

She whispered in Hitch's ear, "I want to make love..."

Hitch cautioned her, "maybe when we're alone, we don't want to make them uncomfortable. They're rather shy, you know..."

"I know ... I just ... I want to touch you all over ... I want to be touched right now..."

Hitch let her body convince him to give in. They moved away from the others to the far side of the spring and began to kiss. He closed his eyes and sank into his lover, her knee moving us along his side, her fur brushing his hard cock. "Mmm..." she purred into his mouth.

He brought her other leg up, and like they had done several times before, Kieu-Linh's young, tight vagina slipped over his penis under the water. She started to ride him, moaning quietly, her arms wrapped around his neck, her nipples hard over her no-longer puffy breasts. Hitch opened his eyes and glanced past where Kieu-Linh's wet hair brushed over her shoulder.

Two sets of eyes were turned their way, the young couple side-by-side, arms moving under the water. "They're watching us," he whispered.

Kieu-Linh shuddered and moaned louder, clearly turned on by being watched. Her body moved faster, rose higher, riding him now, grinding her clit against his groin. She started to cum, crying out, his arms straining to hold her against him.

He was nearing release and could see that Catalina was shuddering. He couldn't tell if Diego was touching her or if she touched herself. At the last second, he pulled Kieu-Linh off of his cock and stood, on the edge, resisting his pending ejaculation. She breathed heavily a moment, then said, "put it in my butt..."

Hitch's cock found her tight anus quickly as he lowered her, his dick swollen and leaking freely. The slippery spring water made it easy to push inside her ass. Kieu-Linh cried out in slight discomfort, but didn't pull off, moving down steadily, her butthole opening just enough to let him inside.

Hitch groaned as her hot, velvety insides burned into his flesh. "Gonna cum..." he whispered. Semen surged from him as his stomach tightened and his balls drew up, sperm splashing into Kieu-Linh's rectum, the sixteen-year old flinching slightly with each pulse up his shaft. He emptied his seed into her bowels and felt raw and sore when she slowly pulled away and sank down, his penis slipping free under the water. Kieu-Linh squatted and washed away the sticky cream he'd left in her ass.

Hitch saw that Catalina and Diego were still again, looking slightly away, no longer staring at them. Kieu-Linh slid out of the water and walked along the edge back to their clothing. Hitch followed behind after wiping away the slickness on his dick from Kieu-Linh's bowels.