Chapter 36

Earth time: 9:30 PM Monday, April 25, 2033 EDT (19 hours, 58 minutes to Path closing)

Mark was lying in his boyhood bedroom, surprised but somehow happy his old bed was still there. There was no illumination. The clouds outside the window were pitch black. He was in a light doze, and he dimly knew he probably wouldn't get any real sleep. He became aware of his bedroom door opening and closing, and then a warm body climbed into his bed and pressed against him.

"Hi Va'an," he whispered.

"Hi Mark... I see you're not asleep."

Mark reached over and caressed the small of Va'an's back. "I can't imagine I'll get much sleep tonight... Did you make the final rounds?"

Va'an kissed Mark before replying. "Yes. Anuhea will keep watch overnight. Most of the others are trying and failing to relax, the rest are getting sexy with their partners..."

Mark returned the kiss. "Ha! Really?"

"Tal and Lois are making love in Lois's bedroom, Kiana and Kahoku in one of the rooms downstairs." Va'an's hand began to caress Mark's body, lightly gliding over his stomach and ribs. "Both pairs are being very discrete..."

Mark sighed with the pleasure of the gentle caresses. "I guess I'm not surprised..."

"No. Our fears drive us to each other... It is the correct response..."

"Yeah..."

Va'an hand curled into the soft hairs on Mark's stomach. They both said nothing for a while. Then Va'an leaned over in the darkness and licked Mark's ear. "So, this was your bedroom as a boy, huh?"

"Yeah. Coming in through the window tonight... It brought back such a flood of memories. Growing up here with my parents and siblings, installing the secret window- door when my parents were in Europe, all the board games I used to play in here with Leon... When Kara was pregnant with Mahi, she and I lay down here for a while, trying to figure out what to do... What a day that was... so long ago..."

"Ever have any girlfriends up here? Besides Kara I mean..."

"No... Wait! Yes. Once..."

"Ha! Was this the girl who masturbated you after her birthday party?"

"Wow... Did I tell you about that?"

"Didn't you? Wait! Maybe it was Kara..."

"Yeah, maybe..." Mark smiled and kissed Va'an again, running his hand across the nipples of her breasts. Va'an kissed him back, and then lightly pinched his nipples. Mark sighed. "No, it wasn't that girl. The one up here was much nicer. Her name was Jennifer Diaz."

"Ha! My dear husband, I'm all ears! Hispanic?"

"Yeah. We didn't get too sexy with each other. Well, not by Earth standards. By Aina standards, I committed to her. I petted the undersides of her breasts. But I knew nothing of Aina at the time. This was more than three months before I had even found the Blue Spirit tunnel... We were both seniors in high school..."

"Was she pretty?"

"Jennifer? Oh yes, very pretty. Inside and out. She had a very sweet personality, a quick mind, and a heart that was loyal and true..."

"My goodness! Why didn't you pursue you?"

"Right after our date, her former boyfriend asked her to come back to him, and she did. Guy by the name of Steve Roper. Why didn't I compete for her? I don't know exactly... It was so long ago..."

"Tell me?"

Mark sighed and smiled in the darkness. "... Okay."

"Wait! Don't just tell me. Live the memory. Close your eyes. Imagine your body and your mind in the places as you speak."

"Ha! Close my eyes? It's pitch black in here already!"

Va'an's hand caressed down the length of his stomach and lightly traced the outline of his penis and sac. She whispered playfully, "You know my ways of rewarding obedience..."

"Ha! Indeed I do... Okay, my eyes are closed."

"Good! Now think and imagine. You are so excited. Jennifer and you are going on a date! Your heart beats fast when you think of her, she's so pretty! What time of the year is it now, how old are you?"

Mark sighed and breathed in the fragrances of the spring blossoms of West Virginia. "It's the same time as now, late April. I enjoyed the air so much, all the sweet flowers... I can smell them now. This is just like the smell when I dated Jennifer. I was... I am eighteen-years old now..."

"That's right, you're eighteen-years old, right now, and she's so pretty..."

"A beautiful girl, almost as tall as I am... Long legs... athletic... hair down to her butt when she doesn't put it up... a cheerleader for our high-school football team. Jennifer loved tinkering with electronics. She had her own Ham radio license, built her own sets from scratch. Let's see, what else? She was dating Steve Roper, the quarterback. Tough guy, militant type, a bully really... Super fast reflexes, the best... Won us a lot of games..."

"The girl Mark, the girl! I have long hair... Imagine my hair flowing down to my butt... Jennifer's long hair, flowing down to her butt. She builds her own radios, she's so smart! And her long legs, she's so pretty..."

"Sweet too. Jennifer was so sweet, loyal to Steve even though he bossed her around. Then in March, Steve got interested in another girl and ditched Jennifer... She was quiet about it, but I could see she was hurt... Jennifer was a few months younger than I was. She turned eighteen in April. I asked her if she'd like another birthday present. I asked her if she had ever tried caving..."

Mark sighed, feeling himself being drawn into his memories. "She said no at first, said cramped places made her uneasy. But then I suggested I had just the thing..."

"Crawl down that pit?!" Jennifer looked mortified as they finished their hike into the box canyon. "That?! That tiny hole? Mark, you must be joking!"

"Trust me! This is Tub cave! Tub cave is the best! You really have to see it to believe it." Mark smiled at his date. He couldn't get over how beautiful she looked in her caving gear. "You do have to crawl through the aperture, but it gets huge right after that. The ceiling is twenty feet high, over an area bigger than a football field! It's the biggest cave in the canyon, maybe the biggest single chamber in West Virginia! You do know what a football field looks like, right?"

"Ha!" laughed Jennifer, and she looked at Mark and smiled, and Mark smiled back. A few minutes later they were crawling through the cave entrance. "Mark! This helmet light is really smelly!"

"Yeah. It's a carbine torch. The carbide does smell a bit when it burns."

"Why don't we just use flashlights?"

"We could. A lot of people do. This is more traditional. I prefer it over batteries." Mark wiggled through the last part, and then turned to help Jennifer. "It's more rugged. We do have flashlights as back-up, candles and matches too. Here! You can stand up now."

Jennifer stood up and gasped as her light faintly illuminated the immense cavern before her. "Mark! This is incredible!"

"Yeah, isn't it? I'll walk you around. There's a lot of really great limestone formations to see. Turn around. See the light from the entrance? It'll always be visible from where we're going. You're completely safe. Even if we lost all our lights and back-ups, which we won't, we could always just see the entrance and crawl out of here. One thing to remember, the floor here is damp mud, a super fine silt. Incredibly slippery! It's like walking on oil over smooth glass. Keep your weight directly above your feet. So... let's go!"