Chapter 3

Except over the Christmas break, Emily had not been home since arriving on campus. People in her part of the world tended to think of a hundred mile trip as a journey of a lifetime. Well, maybe not quite that extreme. Still, they didn’t travel easily. Emily had taken a bus home for Christmas and again rode the Greyhound back for the new year. She had repeated the ride when school ended for the summer.

When she arrived back home her family was, of course, glad to see her. Her friends from high school still acted as they previously had as did others in the area. Yet somehow things seemed a little different. It wasn’t exactly that Emily didn’t feel that she belonged here any more. Not exactly that, but something along those lines. She still loved the area, the town and the people, her friends. But somehow they didn’t seem quite the same. She realized that it was she who had changed and not the others. Or maybe she hadn’t actually changed but what had been hidden deeply inside her had now blossomed and the real Emily was showing through.

Whatever the reason, it now seemed to Emily that her real world was somewhere else. Back on the campus or even somewhere beyond that. That is, until the first evening she climbed to her hilltop and sat beneath the old maple, looking out over the distant hills and valleys. Here she still seemed at home. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, drinking in the sounds and smells of the summer evening and let the peace of this magic place wash over and through her. Yes, this was still her favorite place in the whole world.

Emily passed the summer days easily. She fell back into her routine of chores around the house and farm and, like the several years before, spent time in study and reading, much of it under the old maple. She knew that many of those she had met at school would be working at summer jobs. It wasn’t that Emily didn’t work. There was plenty of work around the home but in this area there were very few actual paying jobs. Her scholarships and grants provided enough for her to get by and her tastes in expensive things were quite limited, so she wasn’t driven to see how much money she could make. Besides her family could definitely use her help around the place.

She still found time for a little study and for reading. Emily was still the same romantic she had always been and often lost herself in novels, the classic English romances as well as some more contemporary ones she was able to find at the small local library. Twice she went out with a boy from her high school, but that was all. Perhaps without any conscious thought on the matter she was still looking for a man to match her fictional heros.

Not dating did mean that she missed the more frequent opportunities for erotic activities that college life had provided. Emily had a strong sex drive even if she never thought of it in exactly those terms. She had learned long ago to partly satisfy her urges on her own and the outdoors around her home had provided the privacy to do so. It wasn’t unusual for the old maple to be witness to her quiet moans and cries as she relieved some of her tension with gently moving fingers.

In mid July John came home for two weeks of leave. The evening before he was expected to arrive, Emily had climbed the hill to sit beneath the old tree and watch the day turn to dusk and then night. Suddenly she heard someone come up the path and turned to find John, smiling and coming towards her.

“I didn’t think you were getting here until tomorrow!” Emily exclaimed.

“I didn’t expect to but when you travel space-A no schedule is absolute. On leave I can catch any available flight but I have low priority if there is official travel. I was lucky and caught an earlier flight out of Japan. Space available is nice - and free- but I have to allow extra time, just in case.”