Chapter 6: A Hiking We Shall Go

True to her word Cindy called Henry a few days later, fortunately for Henry his Mother was out of the house. Cindy excitedly told Henry that she is now legal to date, with a few requirements, no car dating, no alone dating, there were a few others, but nothing big.

The car thing was not an issue, he didn’t have his license, yet. He had a permit, but when he got his license it would be next to impossible to borrow his Mother’s car. Heck he had to beg to get his permit.

The more difficult rule was the alone dating. How were they going to seriously date with people around them, there are things that they would want to talk about in private, and having people there all the time was just a pain in the ass.

But, if that was what it took, that is what it took, so Henry and Cindy followed the rules, well, for the most part. Henry wasn’t sure about ALL of the rules, Cindy had not told him all of them, and when he did ask she would smile and say don’t worry about it.

So it was that over the next few weeks Henry and Cindy, with her friends, found an agreed upon routine of hanging out at the mall, or taking walks in the woods, or going to Dairy Queen, or any combination of the three. Alex hung out with them when he could, he was having a rough summer with his Mom’s parents move to Florida and the breakup with his girlfriend.

After a couple weeks of legalized dating, Henry met Cindy and Jennifer at Dairy Queen and headed to the woods. Off they walked, talking of nothing important about nothing in particular, you know, meaningless conversation. When they arrived at intersection of the main street before the entrance to the forest preserves Jennifer said to Cindy, “Okay, I’ll be waiting back at Dairy Queen.”

“Uh, I guess we’re flying solo?” asked Henry.

“Yeah. Jennifer is starting to feel like a third wheel, especially on our walks. So she decided to walk this far and take off. She said she would meet us later at Dairy Queen.”

“What about the rules?” asked Henry.

“I think we can bend them a little. Don’t you?” she asked softly.

“Yeah. I mean I can trust me. Just not sure I can trust you!” he laughed.

She hit him in the arm and laughed with him.

Henry and Cindy walked through the parking lot and onto the access trail that led to the main trail. The trails were broad and made of compacted crushed stone, making it easy to walk on and wide enough for a vehicle. On either side of the trail was a three to five foot wide section of dirt or grass acting as a buffer between the trail and the forest.

The crushed stone trails within the preserve were composed of an outer trail, following the edge of the preserve, and three intersecting trails meandering through the interior. Within the preserve were two small lakes, four creeks, five open grassy fields, and several bridges.

Between the trails were dozens of smaller paths made bare over time by hikers seeking a less pristine way through the woods. The main attraction for these smaller trails was that these paths provided access to some of the remotest portions of the preserve, and if you moved off some of these trails they afforded a fair amount of privacy. Of course there were drawbacks to these remote trails, the plethora of mosquitoes, the hard to see poison ivy, and the wild creatures of the forest, raccoons, opossums, squirrels, dear, foxes, and wolves, most of which stayed clear of the hikers.

When they got to the main trail Henry took the southern route, which led to the boat launch on the river and one of the busiest places in the preserve. But just past the boat launch under some maple trees near the river was a nice place to sit back relax and talk, something the two liked to do.

Halfway to the river Henry recalled a path that he and Alex would occasionally take while running. The entrance of path was on the far end of a clearing that the main trail cut through, far enough away that it could not been seen easily from main trail.

There were several great things about the trail, it was easy to get to once you knew where it started, it was easy to navigate with the exception of small section, and when the trail ran parallel to the creek there were several boulders that provided some privacy.

Knowing that she would love it Henry said, “Hey, let’s go this way” as he turned off the trail to follow the edge of the tree line.

“Where are you taking me Henry?” she asked with some concern.

“You’ll see.”

“Uhm, you do realize that Jennifer knows that I am with you, right?”

He laughed, “You have nothing to worry about. I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”

They made their way staying just inside the trees, the height of the grass was such that it did not allow you to see the ground making walking through it difficult, as well as not seeing the snake that through Cindy into a screaming fit.

Once to the trail things got easy as the trail wasn’t difficult to navigate, at least until you came to the creek, then it became difficult in spots, especially if had rained in the last few days. But if you watched where you were running it wasn’t that bad. Unfortunately for Henry he found out the hard way the first time through with Alex when he slipped and fell, sliding down the slick trail into the river. Once Alex stopped laughing, he helped Henry back to his feet. So he wasn’t as sure-footed as a cat.

So, as they made their way down the trail Henry told Cindy the story of his first run down the trail, and that was it, as this trail became their path of choice.

Within a short time they made it to the boulders along the creek. Henry climbed up on top and held out his hand to Cindy saying, “Here, take my hand and climb up.”

Cindy took it and carefully climbed up, she was not quite agile as Henry, which actually spoke volumes.

Henry looked around and asked, “It’s a great place, isn’t it?”

Cindy wasn’t sure what to say. She liked hiking and jogging on the main trail very much, but she was NOT fond of walking on the smaller, weaving trail that they were on, nor was she particularly fond of the boulders and the, messiness, of nature that she found herself standing in. She was not one for the great outdoors.

But, it was peaceful and secluded.

“It’s nice.”

After surveying the area the two sat next to each other and talked, tentatively, about the future as they were coming into their Junior year and would begin to plan for furthering their education. Brief talks before had elicited wants and desires to move out of state and to experience life on their own.

Cindy spoke first as she was just beginning to bring her plans together for college. She talked of her relationship with her Aunt Loraine, her Mom’s sister, and how close they were. Aunt Loraine lived in Tempe Arizona, where Arizona State University is, her Aunt offered her free room and board if she wanted to go to ASU, which Cindy gladly accepted. But, it also was to get away from her father. Since she had started seeing Henry he had become distrustful of her. The once quiet and tranquil household has become, for Cindy, a tense and, to some extent, a fearful home.

Henry sat and listened, albeit half-heartedly, to Cindy as she excitedly went over her plans. He knew he should have listened, but his mind went to his plans. Henry had few ideas of what to do after High School, each plan focused on extricating himself from his Mother. The first was to go out of state to attend college where he could be on his own and away from his overbearing mother. The problem with going away, or more to the point getting away, would be his mother’s rejection of any school he selected, and though it was his life it was of no consequence to her, nor did he believe his Dad would get involved.

The second of his ideas was to join the armed forces, specifically the Navy. Though he was not particularly fond of this choice it did afford him several benefits that made the others didn’t. First, there was no way that he could be deployed in Chicago. Second, he would get four weeks’ vacation a year of which he would spend most of it anywhere but home, and what was left over would be maybe a week that he would devote to be at home. With any luck he would be stationed in San Diego, a four-hour plane ride, or Hawaii a ten-hour plane ride. Third, he could make a career of the Navy spending most, if not all, of his time away from home. And if he decided to leave the Navy after his enlistment expired he could be eligible tuition reimbursement for college. This was the best part, as he wouldn’t be beholding to his Mother for financial support.

His third idea was joining the foreign relief group supported by his Mother’s Church, which visited under-developed countries around the world and helped with building schools, churches, medical clinics, good will types of things. It wasn’t the perfect solution, being that he would be in an impoverished area, he wouldn’t be making any money, or furthering his career goals. But he would be away from home. And the best part in this plan was his Mother couldn’t stop him without facing the wrath of the Church.

But a new thought came to him. Henry turned his head to Cindy and watched as she spoke. She was so, animated and excited, did she even think of him? Did she take him into account when she made her decision? He wasn’t interested in going to ASU. What if he wanted to go to, Florida State like his Dad? Fun in the Sun, not Fun in the Desert.

And then the little light bulb went on in his head. Florida State. Oh My God he screamed to himself! He now knew where he wanted to go! To FSU! There was no way his could Mother say no! No matter how she felt about Henry going away to college she would be hard pressed to stop him from going to FSU as she was well aware of how his Dad talked about his college days. That was it, he had a place to go!

His silence was interrupted by Cindy asking about what his plans were. Quietly he said, “Anywhere but here. Anywhere.”

He put his arm around her and pulled her close. He understood the desire to get away, it was one of his top priorities. Yet he couldn’t help but feel that with both of them moving away from home, that they would also move away from each other.

A week after their walk alone in the woods, Henry completed his chores and attempted a quiet exit of his home, trying desperately to avoid his Mother, and the thousand and one questions that would follow if she caught him.

It wasn’t easy getting around his Mother, she watched him tirelessly. And if she did catch him, he would tell her that he was going to hang out with Alex.

Unfortunately his Mother was leery of Alex. At first, she thought Alex was on drugs and would turn Henry into a drug addict. When that didn’t pan out, she said he was gay, and would turn Henry into a homosexual. It got to a point where whenever his Mother started up on Alex he would just shake his head and, if possible, walk away. In any case, he couldn’t tell his Mother where he was going or who he was going to see.

In any case he was glad that his Mother didn’t know about Cindy. He shuttered at the thought of what she would say about her if she found out about Cindy. And what he would say to defend her, if he did at all.

He left the house, thankfully without getting caught. He knew he would later pay for leaving without saying goodbye, but for now he pushed it out of his mind as he made his way to Cindy’s, wearing a stupid silly grin.

The afternoon was hot and muggy, broken up at times by a breeze that blew softly. It didn’t change the discomfort of the summer’s mugginess, but it was refreshing, a brief respite to the day. To Henry, it mattered not. He had been looking forward to meeting up with Cindy since last they were together.

When he arrived at Cindy’s he found her on the front porch sitting and talking with Jennifer. He should be disappointed, he should be angry, but he shrugged it off, no reason to get mad at Cindy, it wasn’t her fault that her Parents were anal retentive on allowing their daughter to date. Well, date in private. And so it was for the two dating teens, accompanied walks in the woods, accompanied trips to Dairy Queen, accompanied dates to the movies, no privacy.

As it was with the last time they ventured out, as a threesome ugh, they headed towards the woods. When they came upon the first street corner Jennifer turned left heading towards Dairy Queen as Henry and Cindy went straight. With a smile Henry thought life is good.

A few blocks later and they were into the woods, following the same path they had taken before, eventually taking the trail leading to the boulders, which, in time, became their place.

Sitting within the confines of the boulders the two, awkwardly, snuggled up against each other. Though they had been together for a couple of years, they still felt, awkward, a little unfamiliar. Both feared that the other would do something that the other was not comfortable with.

The fear of moving into the realms of sexual maturity had caused Henry to freeze. His mind was racing with feelings and emotions he was trying to understand, as his sexual attraction to the girl he loved ... Wait. Loved? It wasn’t the first time that he had those thoughts, of love and lust, all mixed up and jumbled together for Cindy. But it was the first time he had those thoughts with her in his arms.

As these thoughts went through his head, it became clear that the fear he is experiencing is not of love and lust alone, but of what they represent. No longer was he just a boy, but a young man. He was not seeing a girl, he was in a relationship. And as he sat there, holding onto her it was clear that a change had taken place in him, and how he saw Cindy.

Cindy, sensing a change in Henry looked to him. His expression was of strength and tranquility as he gazed into the forest. She felt his energy flow into her and spread throughout her, causing a spark that triggered her sexuality as if someone had flipped a light switch.

She put her head back onto his shoulder and gently moved her hand onto his chest, letting it rest there, feeling his chest rise and fall as he breathed, feeling the beating of his heart on her finger tips. She felt herself becoming aroused.

She closed her eyes tightly as she tried to understand how a simple look could have this kind of effect on her. What was happening to her? Was it love or lust that she felt? Or were they the same thing? Did it really matter?