Chapter 9: Launching Pad

19 December 2015

I had to laugh at myself. I was standing in the Hilo Airport staring at the Zen garden that was supposed to bring peace and tranquility. Instead, I was dancing from foot to foot in impatience. I should have stayed in the restaurant another hour, but my computer had run out of juice. I’d been sitting there since three in the afternoon and it was eight now. I went into the bar—the only ‘service’ available at the Hilo airport—and ordered a soda. Once she got here, I still had to drive us safely 35 miles to the cabin.

My ku’uipo. My sweetheart.

They announced her flight arrival at 9:05 and I waited at the foot of the escalator until Alice ran to my arms.

“Ari!” That was all she managed to get out before our lips were smashed together. I’m sure others who saw us thought I was meeting my granddaughter, but that kiss had to convince them otherwise.

“I’ve missed you like crazy,” I said. I held my arm around her waist and picked up her bag. I draped the lei that I’d been holding so tightly I was afraid the flowers were squashed around her neck.

“It’s warm! It’s so freaking cold in Montana. I bought a big heavy coat at Goodwill for five bucks and wore it to the airport. I pitched it in a garbage can when I changed planes at LAX.”

“What are you going to do when you go back?”

“Oh, shit!” We laughed and got to the car just before the rain started.

“We get wonderful weather for part of the day, but we also get a lot of rain in December. We’re on the rainy side of the island,” I said.

“We’ll have to cuddle in bed a lot to stay warm and dry,” she laughed.

“You don’t know the half of it,” I said.

A Long Time Ago: Stormy Weather

The hazard of riding a bicycle across the country was weather. I was riding in the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college, so at least I didn’t have to worry about snow. Everything else was on the table. The thing about weather is that it is always at its worst when you are unprepared.

I was in North Central Pennsylvania following U.S. Highway 6. It’s hilly. And windy. I was thankful to make it to the top of a long climb and see the descent before me. In spite of a headwind, I let it rip down the slope and picked up speed steadily. I had a little clicker odometer on the front fork that turned a notch each time the wheel did. I was going fast enough that it caught and flew off the bike. I wasn’t going to slow up to retrieve it. It was like flying.

There was still a lot of hill to go when the bike started to seize up. It was getting harder and harder to pedal. I looked down to make sure I didn’t have a flat. I shifted down I couldn’t believe I was slowing as I continued to pedal hard downhill. I was in first gear when a carload of screaming kids went sailing past in the other direction and someone threw a Coke bottle at me! It hit the handle bars and glanced off. This was long before the days that safety equipment like bicycle helmets was in use. At least by me. A better aim and I’d have been in bad shape. I coasted to a stop. How can I coast to a stop going downhill? I stepped off the bike and knelt to check the wheels. They spun freely.

I dug in my pack for my spray can of WD40 and sprayed the chain and rear sprocket. I followed a time-honored tradition. If should move and doesn’t, use WD40. If it shouldn’t move and does, use duct tape. I carried both with me. As I was working, I glanced back the way I’d come and did a double-take. I’d been pedaling uphill for a good three-quarters of a mile. A steep hill. Yet ahead it still looked downhill. An optical illusion. I pushed my bike another half mile before I reached the next summit.

A mailman turned off a side road and stopped at a mailbox ahead of me. I passed him. He pulled away and passed me, then pulled in a hundred yards ahead at the next box. I passed him. One minute later he passed me. I waved when I passed him again. He pulled alongside me a couple minutes later and started talking to me. Back then, the guys just used a regular car and he rode in the passenger seat while steering with his left hand.

“Been biking far?”

“About a thousand miles when my odometer flew off a few miles ago,” I said.

“Where you headed?”

“The ocean.”

“Here. This might help.” He handed me a five-dollar bill.

“Thank you! It’s been a hard day.”

“I know where I’m going to sleep tonight.” He sped up past me and turned onto another side road. I really needed that touch of humanity.

I didn’t know where I’d sleep that night. I labored to the top of another hill and saw a sign for the Eastern Continental Divide. There was a State Park there and I turned in to find a place in the picnic grounds to spread my sleeping bag for the night. I didn’t have a tent, having depended on finding shelter at various farms along the way. I managed to gather a little firewood and start a fire big enough to heat water in my coffee pot. I’d been carrying a few packs of dried camp rations since I started the trip but had not had to use them in the three weeks I’d been out. I saw an old VW Beetle next to a tent a few dozen yards away, but there was no sign of anyone around. It was getting damned cold and as soon as I’d rinsed my pot and cup, I crawled into my sleeping bag.

And froze.

The wind had been a problem all day, but it picked up after the sun went down. I was perched on the East Continental Divide and was only about twenty miles south of the North Continental Divide. The wind blew from every direction at once!

And then the rain started.

I wasn’t totally asleep. Who could sleep in this? I scrambled out of my sleeping bag and tucked it under one arm as I ran for a picnic shelter. Fuck! My hoodie was soaked and I pulled it off, only to get blasted by the cold wind. I quickly got my sleeping bag laid out on the cold concrete floor of the shelter. This was going to be miserable. I grabbed my towel out of my pack and scrubbed at my hair. There was a flash of lightning followed by a crash of thunder almost immediately. That was close!

And a scream.

I looked over in time to see the little tent by the VW collapse in two pieces. Someone was trying to get out of it. So much for dry clothes. I ran to the tent.

“Are you okay? Do you need help?”

“Yes! Help! I’m all tangled up.”

I set about pulling the pieces of the tent away so the girl could struggle out. She was wearing a long nightshirt that clung to her skin in the drenching rain. I ran around the tent pulling out the two stakes that hadn’t already given way and dragged the whole thing with me under the picnic shelter. It wasn’t raining directly on us any longer, but occasionally a gust of wind blew water half way across the little area. I pulled the tent in far enough that I could put a picnic table on it to hold it down so it wouldn’t fly away. Then I ran to rescue my own sleeping bag before the wind picked it up.

“Do you have anything dry?” I asked as I handed her my towel.

“I’m not going back out there.”

“You might be warmer in your car.” She looked up at me and stepped away.

“You don’t know much about VWs, do you? I could run the engine all night and it would still be warmer out here naked.” I pulled my t-shirt off as she tossed me my towel and stripped out of her own night shirt.

“Uh ... I don’t have anything to give you.”

“I’m freezing. Is your sleeping bag dry?”

“Yeah. I had it covered and got it under the shelter.” I pulled my jeans off. My underwear was only damp. “You can share it if you want, but I’m a guy.”

“I’d rather be raped than freeze to death.”

“I won’t rape you.”

“Then let’s get in that bag. Please! I’m really cold.”

I spread the bag under a picnic table for added shelter. I’d already laid my bike on its side so it wouldn’t blow over. We wrestled ourselves under the table and into the bag. It was a tight fit. She clung to me and shivered. I couldn’t tell how cold she was because my skin was like ice. The noise picked up and a hailstone bounced across the floor.

My companion ... My naked companion scooted farther down in the bag and buried her head against me, shaking and sobbing. I didn’t even know her name. In fact, I had no idea what she looked like. It was dark as pitch out. But where our damp skin touched, we began to gradually warm up.

I know I eventually slept because I woke up to gray light and quiet. And a bundle of girl in my arms. I didn’t move, even though the floor was hard. I wasn’t. I was too exhausted to respond even to the naked flesh in my arms.

“I’m Joanna,” she whispered, her face still tight against my chest.

“I’m Ari.”

“I just thought we should know each other’s names since we’re sleeping naked together.”

“Yeah. I usually like to know who I’m sleeping with,” I chuckled.

“I don’t want to move.”

“We don’t have to. Let’s stay warm a little longer.”

“I’m naked next to a boy. You aren’t even making a pass at me,” she said. She sounded like she didn’t believe it.

“Joanna, I’m aware of every inch of your bare skin that is pressed against mine. But I’m not a rapist. We needed each other to keep from freezing. I’m not going to make a pass at you.”

“I wish boys like you were real.”

“Um...” She gripped me more tightly and we both managed to get some more sleep.

Eventually, nature called. It had become almost toasty in the sleeping bag. Before I’d originally laid down last night, I’d stuffed a t-shirt, jeans, and my camp shoes at the bottom of the bag. I squirmed around trying to reach them.

“What are you doing?” she asked. She sounded a little panicked. I’d tried not to disturb her, but it was a tight fit in the sleeping bag.

“Sorry. I was trying to get my camp shoes and jeans out of the bottom of the bag.”

“You had dry clothes and made me sleep naked?”

“What? I didn’t think about them. If I’d put them on, you’d have been colder. If you’d put them on I’d have frozen. I wasn’t thinking very well last night. I just wanted to get warm,” I said. She sounded hostile.

“Yeah. You’re right. Sorry.” She squirmed out of the sleeping bag and hit her head on the picnic table. “Ouch!” She rolled across the cement one direction as I went the other. We stood and looked at each other.

She had short brown hair, a round face and a body that had several extra pounds. It’s a wonder we both managed to wedge into the bag. She just stood there for a few seconds and then turned to start gathering her things. I managed to get my clothes out of the sleeping bag and dressed.

“You have clothes in your car, don’t you?” I asked.

“Yeah. Oh. Yeah. I didn’t turn you on at all, did I?”

“It wasn’t you,” I said. “I was really too cold and tired to get turned on. I’m sorry.”

“God! I’m so stupid. I didn’t want you to get turned on. I was tired and cold, too. But now I’m standing naked in front of you and ... I’m a little disappointed. I know I’m not pretty, but I thought at least my bare breasts would have an effect. I’ll go get dressed now.” She walked to her car in just her panties and opened the front to find clothes. Sure. Now I was getting a rise.

There was a lot of downed wood after the storm, but no way I’d get a fire started. I packed my bike and helped Joanna salvage as much of her tent as we could. Her sleeping bag weighed about fifty pounds with the amount of water soaking it.

“Where are you headed?” I asked.

“Oregon. If I make it. Thought I’d see the country on my way to college. I think I’ll go back to Scranton. What a way to start a trip.”

“I’m headed the other direction. Hoping there isn’t another storm today.”

“Where to?”

“The Monopoly tour. Thought I’d hit the Boardwalk in Atlantic City and then go south to Ventnor and Marven Gardens.”

“And that’s the end?”

“I hope not. I have to get back to Indiana. I’ve never been to Philadelphia or Gettysburg.”

“You’re just riding your bike to the Atlantic and back?”

“Yeah. Sounds dumb, doesn’t it? After last night, I mean.”

We finished our packing and wished each other well.

“Ari? Um ... I’ve never ... Uh ... Never slept with a boy before. It wasn’t what I expected.”

“It was unusual circumstances. But, just so you know, as uncomfortable as it was, I liked it. A lot.”

“Really? But...”

“Believe me, it was the circumstances, not the company. I’m not willing to spend another night on that cold cement or I’d invite you to stay.”

She rushed at me and I caught her as she kissed me long and hard. I could tell she wasn’t very experienced at it, but she was enthusiastic and I responded. She rubbed herself against me and I know she could feel me harden.

“It’s true,” she whispered. “I really hope there are boys like you in Oregon. Thank you, Ari.” She got in her little VW and drove west. I coasted on the bike as I hit the Eastern slope of the Divide.

Back to Alice

“Ari? Honey? Is something wrong?”

We were cuddled together on the cabin’s futon bed with the sound of rain on the roof. I’d rushed her home and we only got a little wet running into the house. She got a lot wetter when I pointed her to the toilet out back. She came back in, stripping her clothes off as soon as she hit the shelter of the porch. Now the rain was easing up enough that the coqui frogs were overtaking the noise of the rain. I held her in my arms, inhaling the fresh scent of her damp hair.

“I’m just loving holding you in my arms, sweetheart. I must have been daydreaming.”

“You don’t have to daydream. I’m really here. Don’t you want me?”

“Want you? Yes, I want you. I’ve been dreaming of having you in my arms again for four months.”

“But you’re not ... um...” She lightly fondled my limp dick. Fuck! I wasn’t hard! I wasn’t even thinking about being hard. And having her touch me wasn’t remedying the situation.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It ... I don’t know what the problem is.”

“Did you find someone else, Ari?” Her voice was very small and muffled by my shoulder.

“No. No! I haven’t...” I stopped to think. “Um ... I told you about cuddling with Lehani,” I said. “That’s all there’s been. I enjoy it, but I haven’t gotten much of a rise with her. She’s the only one I’ve been close to since ... since I was last with you. I guess I ... I don’t think I’ve even masturbated since ... Oh, God!”

I broke down crying. I knew since when. It was in Oregon before I wrote that fucking scene. I kept pounding out words in the story. I kept finding more and more pain to write about and less sex. Even my readers were getting bored with Living Next Door to Heaven. And every day was bringing me closer to the moment that chapter would post.

It didn’t help that I was down on the Oregon coast when I wrote the chapter, just a day before a crazed maniac let loose with a spray of bullets that killed ten students on a campus just south of where I was camped. And I wrote it in fiction, releasing all my rage through Brian who used superhuman powers to kill the fucking gunman. But it didn’t stop the fact that ten died. It didn’t stop three deaths in my story. It didn’t bring Samantha back.

It took a while before I got all that out. It took Alice kissing my almost bald head, petting my back, and whispering soft words.

“You haven’t had a woman since the last time we were together in August?” Alice asked. “I thought you were being coy in your letters. I didn’t think you were denying yourself comfort.”

“I’m a pretty terrible old man,” I said. “I assuage my distress by inflicting it on everyone else.”

“At least I know it’s not me,” she giggled. “I was beginning to doubt the ability of my twenty-one-year-old tits to turn a guy on. I’m too young to retire.”

“Sweet Alice, there is absolutely nothing wrong with your pretty tits.” I kissed the nearest one and she held my head to her breast as I gave a suck and then gradually began to nurse on her.

“Let me hold you, baby,” she whispered. “Go to sleep sucking on my little nip. Everything will be better in the morning.”

The sun woke us in the morning. I had planned to wake her early and take her the few hundred yards down to the cliff to watch it rise over the ocean, but that would have to wait. I didn’t suck on her all night, but we held each other, taking up only about half of the three-quarter width bed.

I shifted a little and Alice moaned. She opened her eyes a little and smiled at me. Then she shifted and I felt that exquisite sensation.

“So nice,” she whispered. “How do we do it, Ari? How do we just slide together without any effort? I love feeling you in me.”

“It’s so ... intense,” I gasped. “Honey, I ... I don’t think...”

“Come in me, Ari. I’ve been dreaming of this.”

It took only a couple of gentle squeezes from Alice’s muscles to set me off. I hadn’t come in over three months. The release was fast and the shrinkage even faster. I flopped out of Alice long before she’d climaxed. She sighed. I pulled her around so that I could get my face between her legs.

“You don’t have to, Ari,” she moaned as I took the first tastes of our combined juices. “Oh! How can you ... after ... Oh!”

I’m not particularly fond of tasting my own come, but I would do anything to please and pleasure Alice. She produced so much of her own juices that it watered down my slimy mess and more ran down her crack onto the bed than entered my mouth. I focused on her nub and used the come to lubricate my finger as I probed her ass. I just wanted Alice to know she was loved. It took only a few minutes before that wave of pleasure crashed over her and she wailed out her orgasm. I held her, kissing my way back up her body, licking her nipples lightly, and nuzzling against her neck.

“I love you, Alice,” I whispered. “I will do anything for you.”

“Mmm. Will you make coffee?” I nipped at her earlobe and rolled out of bed.

“Your wish is my command.” I set the water on to boil and put coffee in the French press. Then I scampered outside to relieve myself, peeing off into the bushes. Alice came onto the back porch looking cautiously around before she continued into the yard. She kept checking whether anyone could see.

“Seriously? You pee in the yard?”

“Lehani’s orders. Not supposed to have too much liquid in the composting toilet. And no paper. There’s a basket for paper in the outhouse.” I left her to squat as I went in to pour the water over the grounds.

“You really live in paradise here,” she sighed when she came into the house.

“If you keep bug spray around. Those little ones really bite. And most of the time it seems like they attack the ankles. If you get bitten, and you will, use this cortisone cream. It takes the sting right out.” I poured our coffee and got fruit and yogurt out of the refrigerator.

“Mmm. So, every time you bite me, I should use some of this?”

“That’s up to you. I don’t want to get it in my mouth, so it acts as a repellent, too.” I set my cup down and bent to kiss her again. We finished our coffee and fruit and Alice sniffed.

“I need a shower.” Right on cue, a cloud passed over and we heard a light hiss of rain begin. The sun was still shining brightly, so I didn’t think we were going to get a downpour. I grabbed her hand and led her out the door. “It’s raining!” she complained.

“You said you wanted a shower.” I led her down the little jungle path to where the shower hung from a tree. I turned the water on to warm up before we stepped under it and pulled her to me. We could feel the cool splashes of rainwater on our skin at the same time as the warm shower water. I got her hair wet and began to work shampoo into it.

“I love this feeling. It’s much better than a nudist park.” We’d been to the Magic Circle at Quartzite and to my favorite park in the Oregon.

“Why?”

“They’d frown on us playing with each other in a park. Here, I feel totally comfortable with your hands on my breasts and mine stroking your cock.” She did have her soapy hands on my cock as I held her against me and made sure I’d thoroughly washed her front. She leaned back just far enough that we were out of the direct stream of the shower and began to massage my cock with her butt cheeks. I wasn’t jumping to full erection, but I enjoyed the sensations. She didn’t push it and we rinsed off. The rain had stopped, but we didn’t bring towels down to the shower with us, so we walked back to the deck wet and naked. I grabbed the towels off the line and began drying her.

“Aloha!” a voice sounded from the front driveway.

“Oh, my God! Company!” Alice screeched as she snatched the towel from me and wrapped it around herself.

“Aloha, Lehani,” I called. “Come meet my ku’uipo.” Alice looked me up and down and noticed I didn’t snatch a towel for myself. Lehani rounded the corner of the house and saw us.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt anything,” she said.

“Just grabbing a shower in the rain,” I said.

“I got caught in it a mile from here,” Lehani said. She reached behind herself, unfastened her bikini top and set it and a box on the railing. “Towel?” I handed her mine.

“Lehani, this is Alice. Alice, my landlady.” Lehani tossed the towel back at me and turned to the box she’d brought. She presented Alice with a beautiful lei.

“Aloha kākou,” she said, putting the lei around Alice’s neck and kissing her on the cheek. Alice let out a deep breath I think she’d been holding ever since Lehani arrived. With the breath, her towel fell to the ground. Lehani stood back looking at her. “Nani, u’i, maika’i. You are beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Alice said. “You are beautiful, too.”

“For an old woman. No wonder Ari doesn’t get aroused by me!”

“I think that will change,” Alice whispered conspiratorially. I certainly had enough inspiration in front of me. Lehani with her dimples and firm round breasts; long tall Alice with the mounds I loved so much. I made another pot of coffee and we sat with smaller cups as Lehani brought the news of the day.

“There is drumming this afternoon down at the beach,” she said.

“There’s drumming down there every Sunday afternoon,” I said.

“Ah, but today is the mid-winter celebration. There are drummers coming from all over the island.” That perked up my interest. I love drum music and often went down to the beach on Sunday afternoon. It didn’t hurt that it was the only nude beach in Hawaii and was only a mile from my front door.

I fixed a more substantial lunch while Alice and Lehani chatted on the front deck, neither of them at all concerned with their state of undress, even though they were visible from the street if anyone drove to the dead end.

We walked to the beach. If we’d driven, I’d still have had to park half a mile away. Cars lined both sides of the narrow road, almost sliding off into the ditches. We could hear the drumming as we approached the cliff.

It’s a steep path down from the roadway to the beach. I strapped my daypack on and wore my heavily treaded sandals. Alice wore tennis shoes. I couldn’t believe that Lehani just wore flipflops and scampered down like a goat. Practice, I guess. Once we were down, Alice was jumping all over everyplace.

“The sand is black! The sand is black!” she squealed.

“It’s grittier and sharper than white beach sand, too,” I reminded her as she pulled off her shoes. Lehani said she’d be back in a little bit and ran to greet people all over the beach. There were a lot of hugs and kisses, and a few naked bodies being squeezed. She seemed to know all of the 150 or so people on the beach. Alice and I found a spot that was high enough that the tide wouldn’t splash us and spread our blanket out. As soon as I stripped out of my clothes, Alice got naked.

I can just never get enough of seeing her naked. I started to lie down on the blanket, but she grabbed my hand.

“Come on! We have to play in the ocean!” I followed her bouncing buns down to the water just in time to see a good-sized wave crash near enough to soak her up to her tits. “Ahhh!” she screamed. She turned and ran back toward me. “It’s cold!”

“It’s the Pacific Ocean,” I said. “And it’s December.”

“But we’re in Hawaii!” she complained. In spite of the temperature, she dragged me down into the water and wasn’t satisfied until my balls shrank up inside. A very naked Lehani was waiting for us on the blanket when got back and tossed us a towel. We took turns drying each other and got distracted a few times kissing.

This is a public beach that is clothing optional. It isn’t a nudist park. There are no particular rules other than not being a nuisance. Unwelcome advances are almost unheard of. On the other hand, welcome advances aren’t uncommon. No one was going to throw us off the beach for making out. I was sure that the motions under a large towel not far from us indicated a lot more than making out.

The drums were just getting warmed up. There must have been thirty of them surrounding a fire. I wasn’t sure how they got some of the larger ones down the cliff, or how they planned to get them back. A large canvas canopy tied to a couple of poles and trees sheltered them in case of rain. The rhythms were intoxicating and occasionally a guitar or flute joined the mix. By the time we’d been on the beach half an hour, we were up and dancing. I could make this my solstice celebration with no difficulty, even though it technically wasn’t until the next evening.

There was a lot of skin contact as we danced closer to the fire and the crowd became denser. Some of it was accidental. Lehani seemed to be fine with what appeared to be a random guy embracing her from behind and dancing with his pelvis against her butt. Alice was a little more reserved and quickly shifted in front of me. She had no difficulty, though, when Lehani wedged herself between us and gyrated against Alice. And me. There were definitely some hula moves being practiced against my groin. I was happy to be responding, at least a little.

“After sleeping with you naked, I was beginning to believe this thing was broke,” Lehani giggled.

“Just resting up,” I said. Alice grinned and rolled her eyes.

“You’ll get a crack at it,” she said. “But this week I want Ari to myself. Why don’t you plan to spend next weekend with us?” It was quickly agreed and sealed with a kiss. For each of us.

A little after four, people started to leave the beach.

“It’s hard to make the climb at night,” Lehani said. “Some will stay down here for the night and keep the fire going. Most people will go up to the park and keep the drums going until someone complains around ten.”

We dressed and climbed up to go home. Once we got there, Lehani grabbed her bike from under the shelter of the cabin.

“Still no light on this stupid bike,” she said. “I want to get it home before dark. See you later!”

“How can you sleep through this?” Alice exclaimed. “I’ll be dead by morning.”

I turned in her arms and kissed her again. We’d made love for a long time. Sometimes people complain that my stories don’t have any real sex in them because there is not description of a cock going into a pussy. But making love can take hours before that culminating event. For us, it had involved a long time cuddled in a beanbag chair with a blanket covering all our exposed skin so we wouldn’t be eaten by the bugs. We sprayed our ankles and lit a coil repellent on the front deck as we listened to the drums from a distance until they were silenced.

We kissed. We fondled. We talked. Eventually we went to bed and that instant of coitus occurred. I’d gotten Alice off a couple times, so once she had me in bed and hard, she mounted and rode me until I came. Then we collapsed on the bed. I had dozed off when Alice made her exclamation of the noise.

I speculate that the sound of the coqui frogs outside the cabin could be measured in decibels. The last time I’d heard anything that loud, it was attached to a jet airplane. But after nearly two months in the jungle, they were mere background noise to me.

“Would you like earplugs, sweetie?” I asked. “They do help, even though they won’t block out everything. That one right outside the screen seems determined to get fucked tonight.” We laughed and I retrieved the plugs. The noise the previous night had not been so intense because of the rain, and the frogs pretty much close the bar at around one. She wedged the foam plugs into her ears and nodded. I moved my lips without saying anything. She immediately pulled one plug out.

“What? I couldn’t hear what you said.” I repeated the ruse and she punched me lightly in the shoulder.

“I said, I love you,” I repeated aloud. “You lift clouds of darkness from my soul.” We kissed, and with her earplugs back in place, settled down to sleep.

“Ari, I’m so sorry,” Alice whispered. Her face was hot against my chest as we sat in front of our little solstice fire looking out over the ocean Monday evening. We could no longer really see it, but it crashed against the rocks below us. It would be another hour before the fire was just coals and we’d walk back to the cabin. The night was chilly and we’d decided to wait until we reached the cabin to complete our own special little part of the ritual.