Chapter 4

There are a hundred little spots along the Grand River where people go down to the river to fish, or the high school kids get together for their beer and bong bashes. A guy I worked with owns one of them that is usually frequented by the kids. He was out of town for the next few weeks on a job and since it was the middle of the week, I knew there wouldn't be any kids there. I knew he wouldn't mind if I camped there.

"Sam, how would you like to camp out for real tonight?" I asked her.

"That's a great idea. Where would we go?"

I told her and told her we could try out our new camp stove and even some of the freeze dried meals we had bought locally. We already had everything packed, so we carried it all to the car and set out.

The place I wanted to camp was about a half mile from where we had to park the car, so it was even more realistic as we trekked in. Sam was thrilled when she saw the spot I had chosen.

I was a little upset about all of the debris the kids had left laying around. We spent almost half an hour picking up beer cans, plastic cups and empty cigarette packs. I was sure there were hundreds of used condoms off in the bushes, but we didn't go looking for them.

We set up our tent in a grassy area and found a nice spot for our camp stove. "Do you think it's warm enough to swim in the river?" Sam asked.

"Go down to the river and put your hand and wrist in the water, then you tell me," I said with a grin.

Sam left her arm in the water for less than a minute, then she stood up and started shaking the water off. "Nope, not warm enough for swimming," she said.

"I didn't think it would be. The weather has been unusually warm for April, but it is still April in Michigan. We'll probably have at least one more snow before spring."

"Chicago was just as bad," Sam said. "I had been thinking about hitchhiking south before next winter. I thought I was going to freeze my ass off this past winter."

I was glad she hadn't frozen her ass off and I was glad she hadn't hitchhiked south.

We took another hike in the afternoon. I had at least partially recuperated from this morning's hike, but we knocked off after about an hour.

We spent most of the afternoon just lying around and talking. Really we were just getting to know each other. I wasn't too surprised to learn that Sam had been a straight 'A' student before her mother came down with cancer. I asked if she had been a cheerleader.

"Cheerleaders are mostly dumb bimbos," Sam told me. "I never wanted to be thought of as a dumb bimbo, so I stayed away from that. I also stayed away from alcohol and drugs. Either of those can ruin your life."

"Okay, then were you in the popular clique?"

"No, I guess you could have considered me to be more of a nerd. People didn't make fun of me for it or anything, but I didn't fit in any of the other cliques or maybe I just didn't want to."

I told her about how I had started dating Missy in high school and how we had both been shy, nerdish people. I didn't tell her about the sexual side of mine and Missy's relationship, but I told her about everything else. She told me a lot about her mother and her step-father.

"Did you have a boyfriend before you had to run away?" I asked.

"No. I only had one date in my life, Ed. Mom wanted me to bring him to the house so she could meet him. Phil made an ass of himself when the boy came to the house. It embarrassed the hell out of me and the boy never asked me out again. When anyone else asked me out, I politely refused. I didn't want to go through that again."

"It must have been hard on you, Sam."

"I guess it was. Everyone at school thought I was a lesbian," she giggled.

"People can be cruel, Sam, especially young people."

"Yeah, I know. We never were rich and I never had the best clothes to wear. Kids made fun of me for that."

We fixed a freeze dried meal for dinner. Okay, so the flavor leaves a lot to be desired. It was edible though and filling. We talked a little about the possibility of getting Jim to ship a weeks worth of meals to different towns along the way, just in case we needed them. I knew we could have them mailed General Delivery. For some reason this seemed like cheating though.

We got everything cleaned up after dinner and were relaxing, when it started to rain. It wasn't a downpour or anything, but April rains in Michigan are very cold. We quickly retired to our tent.

We were both a little damp when we got in the tent, so we stripped off and after drying ourselves we got in our sleeping bags. We didn't zip them up and we laid on our sides, facing each other so we could talk.

I could clearly see one of Sam's beautiful breasts and I could catch glimpses of her pubic hair as we laid there. "Sam, for someone who hasn't even dated, you sure don't seem to mind showing off your naked body."

"Oh, I wouldn't show my body to just anyone, Ed. You're the only person I've been naked with since I hit puberty."

"Why don't you mind being naked in front of me?"

"There are several reasons, actually. The primary ones are that number one, I feel safe with you. The other is that I fell in love with you the third day I knew you."

"Jesus, Sam, I'm almost old enough to be your father."

"Bullshit! You're only eight years older than me. Besides, do you really think age makes any difference in how someone feels about someone else?"

"No, I really don't. The age difference doesn't change how I feel about you. The age difference will effect how I act on how I feel. You're a virgin, Sam. Whether you like it or not, I'm going to do everything in my power to see that you come back from this trip a virgin as well."

"Don't I have any say in that?"

"No. Look, Sam. I'll hold you, I'll kiss you, and maybe even pet you, but I will not make love to you."

"I can live with that, at least for the time being. I don't know if I'm ready to make love yet anyway."

"Good. Now, is there anything else I should know before we try to get some sleep?" I knew I shouldn't have asked that question as soon as it was out of my mouth.

"Well... Do you know why I wanted the sleeping bags we got?"

"No."

"Because they zip together to make one large sleeping bag."

"Oh, God," I groaned.

Seven days to go before we catch a plane to take us to Eastport, Maine. One week. We still had a few small things that had been ordered, but hadn't come in as yet. Other than that, we didn't have a lot we had to do before we left, except to get ourselves in better shape for hiking.

We fixed another freeze dried meal and then went on a three hour hike. We had walked a total of four hours yesterday and I wanted to make it five or six today. After breakfast, we packed up our camp, picked up our trash, then drove up Route 131 to where it crosses the Grand River. We parked in the Mr. Fables parking lot and started walking east on West River Drive. This later becomes Cannonsburg Road. Roads that change names really bug me. At one time I did a lot of bicycle riding out this way, so I pretty much knew the mile points, but I used our GPS anyway to let us know how far we walked.

When we had gone four and a half miles, we turned and started back. By the time we reached the car I was dragging. We went into Fables and had one of their franchise named burgers and fries before we drove home. I really love their Mr. Fabulous burger. It's the only one I know of that has chopped green olives on it.

We vegged out for a while, then Sam asked it we shouldn't be packing what was going into storage, which was basically everything. I drove down to the U-Haul dealer and bought a dozen boxes. I figured that was more than I was going to need.

We didn't work hard at it, but we did spend a couple of hours getting things into boxes. We used clothing, towels, and linen as padding for breakable things like dishes. We just kept out enough of everything to use until the movers came. In the afternoon, we repeated our walk of this morning.

Okay, so after we got back from our second walk of the day, we were wiped out. I think every muscle in my body was aching as I waited for Sam to get out of the shower. When I finally got in, the hot water cascading down my body did seem to help.

I dried myself and slipped on a robe, then went in to see what Sam was doing in the kitchen. I found that she had fixed us two monstrous Chef's Salads. They really hit the spot. We took them into the living room and turned on the TV while we ate.

Sam sat down on the couch and patted a spot beside her, so I sat there too. "You know," Sam said, "I think the food I missed the most while I was on the street was salads and other fresh vegetables. I had all the leftover burgers I could want from the fast food restaurants. It was the veggies that I couldn't find."

"I've never had to live like that, Sam, and I hope I never do."

"It's not something I'd like to go back to either," Sam said. "It was better than getting raped though."

"Amen to that. Do you really think he would have raped you?"

"I'm sure of it. The last few days before I ran away, he'd pinch my tit or my butt any chance he got. He left bruises on my left tit that were there for over a week. He kept calling me his sexy little piece or his little cum slut. I didn't even know what a cum slut was at the time."

"I'm so sorry that happened to you, Sam. It's a wonder you aren't afraid of all men."

"I was, to a certain extent, until I met you. There was just something about you that I thought I could trust."

After we finished our salads, Sam snuggled in close, so I put my arm around her. She sighed and snuggled even tighter. We sat that way until time to go to bed.

Six more days until we leave. We were up and moving early. We ended up taking a hike with our packs weighted until they were equivalent to what they would be when we started our cross country trek. We decided to do nine miles round trip again with the heavier packs.

We figured what we had on us this morning was equivalent to what we'd be carrying on the trek including seven days of freeze dried food. It was a little harder to carry than yesterday, but not something we couldn't do. We were extremely tired when we got back to the car though.

When we got back to the apartment, we both collapsed on the sofa. We sat there with our butts near the edge of the seat and the back of the sofa supporting our heads. Our feet were on the coffee table.

"My mother used to yell at me for laying like this when I was a little kid," Sam giggled.

"Ungh... If I had the energy, I'd go in and flop on the bed," I said.

"When you lured me out of my comfortable home in the park, you didn't tell me you were going to torture me."

"You're the one who wanted to come along on the trek," I argued.

"Yeah, but I figured that since you're the man you'd carry everything. I figured that since I am the fair maiden, you'd pull me along behind you on a wagon."

"Dream on, Alice," I said. "Wonderland is waiting for you. I'm going to go take a shower while I can still move."

I managed to get to my feet and Sam said, "No fair. I'm a girl. I should get the first shower."

"I don't see you moving your girlish ass in that direction," I teased.

Sam just groaned as I headed for the bathroom. I stripped off and got the water running hot enough to sterilize surgical instruments, then eased myself into the flow. I was still just letting the water flow over me when Sam stepped into the shower with me.