The Forest Service contract required me to be up in the Sierra for six months straight. I suppose I could have driven four hours up and four hours back every day, but the thought of that drive for six months had me looking for any other option. Unfortunately, where I was going, there weren't handy hotels. So, I got on the Internet and started praying. My prayers were answered by a Bed and Breakfast ad in a little town just twenty miles from where our base was going to be set up.

I called immediately, hoping they would have rooms available during that time. When I told the woman on the phone, a Mrs. Williams, I wanted a room for six months, she asked me, "Are you sure?"

I laughed and explained why. She was more than happy to let me a room for this time. I gathered that her remote B and B didn't get all that much traffic, not surprising since the only way in or out was a county road and the road wasn't a way to anywhere. With lodging secured, I started arranging for all of the equipment we would need and making sure it could be delivered where we would need it.

Three months later, I drove up to Mrs. Williams place. The snow was just melting at this elevation. We expected to be able to move our equipment into our base camp within a week. I was scouting ahead to make sure everything was ready.

The Williams house looked like a typical mountain house: ranch style, but with a steep pitched metal roof to help shed the snow in winter. Her house was right off the road and the drive had recently been cleared of snow and ice, a good sign. I had hit a few patches of ice on the shady parts of the county road, always good for keeping you awake when the wheels start sliding the wrong way.

I parked and got out. The air was cool and crisp, a typical early spring day high in the Sierra. As I walked up to the door, it opened. Holding it open was an attractive woman, with shoulder length curly brunette hair, mid-thirties I would guess, long legs, and womanly hips; in short, an attractive woman.

"Hello," I called out.

"You must be Mr. O'Hara," she said.

"Call me Mike," I said.

"Please call me Naomi. In six months I'm sure you'll be like a member of the family," she said smiling.

I followed her into the house. The entrance led into a very large room with incredible picture windows looking out over a canyon behind the house. Whoever built the house had picked a perfect spot, right on the rim of a canyon and right next to the road. The dining room was part of this large room and the kitchen opened onto it with just a counter between. The three rooms together made the whole thing feel like one room. It was decorated in typical mountain fashion, a deer head above the rough stone fireplace, mountain scene paintings, and knick knacks.

"This way," Naomi said as she led me down the hall. "This is your room."

It was a typical bedroom with a queen bed, a dresser, an armoire, and a heavy throw rug in a southwest pattern. She opened a door in the room. "I'm afraid you share the bath with my daughter. Hopefully, she'll not get in your way."

"I'm sure that will be fine." I looked in the bath. There was a door on the other side which I assumed led to the daughter's bedroom.

I looked to Naomi and she said, "Claire's still in school."

I nodded. "Look's fine to me. I guess I'll get my things."

So I moved in. Over the next couple weeks I found out why Naomi was renting the room. She had married straight out of high school to a man older than her. Her parents had opposed the marriage mostly because of the age difference. She was in love and didn't care. They had married and she had Claire almost immediately.

They built this house. Then a few years ago, her husband had been diagnosed with cancer. He didn't last long. To help make ends meet she rented the extra room when she could. She laughed as she told me she was 100% occupied for six months with me being there.

She made it plain that she wouldn't trade a minute of her marriage for he had left her with happy memories, her daughter, and this house. Her parents did a little of the told you so, her being widowed so young, but there is nothing to say if she had married a younger man he wouldn't have come down with cancer. Cancer is an equal opportunity killer.

I met Claire that afternoon. She was a younger version of her mother, blonde instead of brunette, green-eyed, and fourteen, just blooming as a woman.

The room charge included breakfast. Since I was staying for six months rather than simply stopping for a night, I had arranged with Naomi to include lunch and dinner in the room rate since the nearest restaurant was a greasy spoon an hour away. If I ate there for six months I'd have every artery clogged before my time was up. Naomi had offered a discount for my long term stay. I had told her no since the government was paying the usual and reasonable costs of the project.

I almost told her to up her rate, but I guess that would have been over the line. I'd rather my taxes go to someone like Naomi who is actually working rather than a millionaire farmer to pay him not to grow food or to tobacco farmers as price support for a crop the same government is discouraging people to use. Does this make sense?

Dinner in my home away from home was wonderful. Naomi turned out to be a good cook. Eating dinner, sitting in the dining room, looking out over the canyon with the Sierra in the background as the sun set, the colors changing every few minutes as the light faded, was one of the most memorable experiences I've ever had. Granite is just a gray rock. But that evening, as the sun set, I saw more subtle colors in those sheer rock cliffs than I thought possible, mauves and orange, rose and purple, all starting as pale precursors and eventually turning dark and inky.

I was up early the next morning and drove the county road through the high Sierra valleys to another county road and up it for a few more miles. In five miles of road I gained 2,000 feet in elevation. There was still plenty of snow up here. In a normal year, the snow would have mostly been gone this late. Since we now have global warming I don't expect it is a surprise this had been the coldest winter in twenty years. Some global warming.

People should know better. As soon as all the politicians get behind something, you know for sure it is crooked. Listen to the politicians and they all say the same thing: we're all going to die unless, and that's the hook, that big unless, we pass more taxes to pay for ... whatever that politician's pet project happens to be. And there's the key to why all the politicians have climbed on the global warming bandwagon. Every time I hear a politician talk of global warming the next words out of their big yap is, more taxes. They want more taxes. We all know once they start a tax it will never be rescinded no matter that in ten years the whole global warming fraud will have blown up. We are more likely headed for a mini ice age than a greenhouse. So in ten years, these same politicians will be crying for more taxes so we can pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and warm up the planet.

I found the cutoff road, but it was two feet deep in snow. I parked and put on my skis. It was an easy climb to the meadow we had selected for our study. The meadow still had several feet of snow and I began to wonder how we were going to set up the equipment. I shouldn't have worried.

This was my first field project, but the Forest Service supervisor, my liaison, knew what to expect. A few hours later I heard the roar of trucks. Several big MOOG trucks with those massive tires came roaring up the road. A couple of feet of snow meant nothing to them. Along with them came a small dozer. It cleared a patch near the center of the meadow. The guys on the trucks had the tent set up, then the equipment, everything nailed down against the wind, and less than an hour later, they were gone.

I stood back and watched. As the trucks were roaring off back down the road, the Forest Service fellow, Gary, said, "Looks like you are ready to go."

I nodded. "I'll throw the switch and start today."

He smiled and shook hands. "Good luck. Call if you have any problems."

I waved as he got in his truck and followed the path blazed by those monster truck tires. I went into the tent and threw the master switch. All the power was solar, which is why we needed the meadow which would give us enough sun to run the equipment 24/7. All the machines used low power so they should run without a hitch, I hoped. For instance, the computers were all laptop technology running on minimal power. The basic design of these units was mine. Everything was off the shelf technology but how it was all put together was my baby.

I actually had the idea while finishing my EE degree and sketched it out for a senior project. Of course, since it was practical it got a C. Here I was two years later actually implementing that supposed C project. I don't know how many people know that the guy who founded FedEx turned it in as a graduation project. His teacher gave him a D mark with the comment; you can't compete with the Post Office. I just hope he kept that paper and sent it back to the teacher along with his shareholder statement.

I turned on the main monitor and ran through my checklist. I had verified everything numerous times in the lab and in a vacant field near our offices. But there is always that difference in the real world. Why is it that the real world just doesn't follow our expectations and turns the simplest experiment on its head? It's a mystery of the scientific world.

I won't say I was worried, but I did know my credibility hung on this working, and hopefully, working well. If it collected all the data automatically, processed it, and recorded it in usable formats, it would be a success. If it worked, we would eventually set it up to automatically download by satellite everyday to the Forest Service.

For now, because we were still in the experimental mode, I would download once a day onto a memory stick. Those things are amazing how much data they can hold. Then, using the Internet through satellite I'd forward the data to the Forest Service and the home office every night ... as long as it worked.

I finished the testing and first day setup. I closed all the weatherproof doors and looked at my baby. I patted it lovingly before strapping the skis back on and heading back to my car. I had to stay off the road since those trucks had torn up the snow so it was now deep ruts and chewed up mud.

I retraced my way back down the road to my home away from home. As long as everything worked as designed, and what were the chances of that happening, this would be my daily routine. I almost felt guilty, what with drawing a full day's pay for a few hours work. But if we won this contract, I would more than make up my pitiful salary cost to the company. It costs money to make money.

I met Claire that afternoon. She arrived home not long after I got back. I was in my room, using my laptop to upload the data by satellite to the home office. They would vet it, make sure it was usable and looked right, then forward it on to the Forest Service.

"Uh, hi," I heard and turned to see a cute young woman standing in the door.

"Hi," I said.

"What you doing?" she asked.

"Up loading info back to my office," I said.

She furrowed her brow. "On the telephone?"

"No, it's satellite," I said.

"Really? Oh my God. I have so wanted Internet here. We can't even get cell phones up here," Claire said bouncing on her toes.

Naomi was coming down the hall and said, "Claire, we don't have Internet. Mike has it for his work."

It was like watching the air go out of a balloon as Claire sunk down. "Oh Mom. I need Internet to do homework."

"The school library has computers," Naomi said.

"Oh right. That's just what I want to do, sit around after school in the stupid library," Claire fumed.

I looked over at Naomi since I didn't want to get in the middle of something. She just shrugged but she did look like she had some empathy for her daughter's problem. "Tell you what Claire. If I'm not using it in the evening, you can use it for homework." She lit up like a Christmas tree. "For homework," I reiterated.

That took a little of the edge off, but Claire was still beaming. "Thank you so much, Mr. O'Hara."

Naomi jumped in, "You'll have to pay for the time."

Claire looked concerned. I shook my head. "No. I'm on a monthly plan. It doesn't matter whether I use it one minute or a million minutes."

Finally Naomi nodded yes. Claire was ecstatic.

That night, I set up two logins for the computer, mine as administrator and Claire's as guest. I also locked away all of the business directories so she couldn't screw something up by accident. I set up a main screen with all of the programs she might need for school.

When she got home from school, I had already been up to the site, downloaded the info, and transmitted it back to his office. I brought the laptop out to the main room. When Naomi and Claire came in, she took one look and came running over. "Can I?"

I stood up, "Of course."

She sat down took one look and asked, "Can I set up an e-mail?"

"You need e-mail for school work?" I asked innocently. Well, I tried to sound innocent.

Claire was biting her lip. "Um, in case I need to ask someone something."

I could have been mean and asked what, but decided to let it go. "Type in 'Yahoo.com'. Now hit 'Set up account'. What do you want to call yourself?" She typed in Claire. Of course, someone already had that and Yahoo came back with an array of truly weird possibilities. I suggested, Cutie Claire which made her smile but of course it was taken. She finally settled on Claireb94. When I asked why she said because she was born in 1994.

Claire pulled a small piece of paper from her purse and I recognized email addresses. This time I couldn't hide it and I had to smile. I began to realize how much Claire felt like she was out of the loop with her friends. She couldn't text or call on a mobile from up here. I'm sure her mom sat on the phone privileges. Now, Claire would have a way to talk with her friends the way they talked with each other, electronically. I left her to it.

For all of the beauty of this place, it was isolated. For me and probably for Naomi, this was a little bit of paradise. I could sit in the main room and watch that canyon for hours, the constantly changing light and how it played on those granite mountain sides, shifting from blinding light, to gray and brown spotted with green, to deep purple as the sun set. Squirrels and chipmunks were constantly running around, exploring, looking for food, fighting each other or running from predators. Hawks, eagles, even an osprey would fly along the canyon accepting the updrafts from the canyon walls to soar far overhead.

Claire was still enthralled by the computer when dinner was ready. It took a stern word from Naomi before Claire would turn off the computer. I put it away in my room. Claire looked wistful.

So we settled into a routine. I would work in the mornings, and usually by early afternoon, I was done. Occasionally, I would be out longer when some piece of equipment or other needing fine tuning. I had to rewrite part of the control code when we encountered a glitch. But mostly, it was simple and quick work each day.

When Claire got home from school, she'd jump on the computer which I brought out to the main room. She'd ask me for help when she was trying to do homework. There are ways of searching effectively and ways of finding nothing but garbage. Anything connected with Microsoft, like MSN, is junk. I'd help her find the kind of reference material that she needed. Soon, she was an old hand.

I was heading down to the nearest 'city, ' one with a real market and shops and decided to go Saturday. I asked Claire and Naomi if they wanted to come along. Of course a chance to go shopping was quickly accepted by Claire. Naomi begged off. The two of us drove down to Colfax, talking all the way about nothing at all. We went into the supermarket and I replenished all of the essentials I needed. I could see that Claire was having a wonderful time just getting off the mountain and seeing civilization.

I offered to take her to the movies, which she gladly accepted. Colfax doesn't look like much but it did have a multiplex theatre. I let Claire chose the movie and we went in. It finished one run about ten minutes later and after the theater emptied we went in. She wanted to sit in the back which was fine since it was a small side room.

I don't even remember the name of the movie. I sat in companionable silence feeling Claire next to me. I was surprised at myself. 'Mike, ' I told myself, 'this girl is too young for you to be feeling this.' But emotions are hard to direct by reason alone. Claire was leaning against me and I liked the feel of her arm against mine. Then she put her hand on my thigh and I nearly leapt out of the seat. I felt butterflies in my stomach, the kind I hadn't felt in years. Christ, I was reacting like a teen myself, all jittery from one touch.

That's when I did cross a line. I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. Claire snuggled into my side her hand still on my thigh. This was way too much like boyfriend and girlfriend. My conscience should have been squealing. Instead, I felt wonderful and leaned down to kiss the top of Claire's head burying my nose in her soft blonde hair. Her hand squeezed my thigh when I kissed her. Satisfied, I went back to watching the movie.

On the way back up the mountain, Claire's hand kept touching me, on the arm as she made a point in the conversation, on my hand as I shifted, on my thigh to rest there. It was all nice and completely innocent, I told myself. It was maybe half way back when she thanked me for her 'first date.' I should have said something. I really should have told her it wasn't really a date. It wasn't until later that night as I lay in bed thinking about Claire that I really thought I had gone too far.

The trouble was that my damn emotions, passions, and hormones were all in league against me. Recalling the afternoon, I sprang erect. My hand quickly encircled my shaft and stroked. Closing my eyes, in a half dreaming state, I saw Claire's hand slowly glide up my thigh as if it had done so that afternoon. When her hand wrapped around my shaft, there in the theatre, I exploded, except I was lying in my own bed. I came out of the reverie and realized my dreams were getting out of hand, so to speak, about Claire. After all, I knew she was too young.

I was finished sending the data from that day back to the office when I went online. I checked my history to find a website I had been on a few days earlier. There were several websites I didn't recognize in the history, among them were obvious porn sites. I clicked on several and found them to be quite good free porn sites and bookmarked several. One site was a story site and by checking the cache I could tell which stories had been accessed from the site. Uniformly, there were romantic stories of older men and younger women. I knew I hadn't looked these up. That left only one conclusion, Claire.

Either she had done some very quick and extensive research on her own, or her friends had given her a head start on her adult entertainment. So much for her being too young. Some of the videos she had been watching ... Whoa. They didn't leave anything to the imagination. If anything had been left out of her sex education before, these movies would have filled in the gaps. And the stories would have finished the education quite thoroughly. Suddenly, I had to think of Claire in a whole new light. The stuff she was reading and watching, well, those would appeal only to someone who was an adult or had adult desires.

On top of my own desires, I had proof that Claire wasn't a little girl; she was a woman with adult desires. That didn't help me rein in my own lecherous thoughts.

Claire and I occupied what some call Jack and Jill rooms, two rooms sharing one bath in between. I tried to make sure that I didn't cause her problems. Most mornings I waited until she was off for school. Then I'd rise, shower, and head off to my meadow. I'd download the data, run a couple tests so my boss knew I was working, and head back to the house. I'd upload the data and usually by noon, I was done for the day. It's a tough life.

One night, not long after I had found the evidence of Claire's porn watching, I went to my room. I noticed the door to the bath was open and I distinctly heard the shower running. I closed the door quietly wondering why it had come open. I was sure I had closed it securely.

It happened again two nights later. That made the antenna go up. I knew I had been careful with the door. I sure didn't want Claire to think I was spying on her. With my already guilty conscience, a spying charge would have been terrible, especially if it wasn't true. I closed the door again making sure it latched.

The next day I inspected the door. Everything was fine. The door latched securely. I couldn't shake it loose. I had to turn the handle ninety degrees to get that door open. Now I had several thoughts and a few questions about what was going on.

Two nights later, it happened again. This time I didn't close it. I lay back on the bed. From there I couldn't see the shower. I heard the shower stop and ruffling sound of the curtain opening. Claire had to see the door was open to my room. I was nervous or maybe anxious is a better description. I pretended to read but was watching out of the corner of my eye.

I heard something heavy hit the tile floor. Without thinking I jumped up and ran to the open door. There was Claire, gloriously naked, standing by the tub looking at a plastic shampoo bottle that had hit the floor pretty hard. She looked up and saw me, hesitated just a bit, then said "Oh Mike. I didn't know you were there!" She grabbed her towel and ran into her room closing the door behind her.

I sat there stunned for a second. For one thing, the image of her naked was burning in my consciousness. The other was that I was trying to figure out exactly what had happened. I went in and picked up the bottle, weighing it in my hand. No way did it make that noise if it simply fell from the tub. It had to be helped. And there was no way did Claire not notice me when I made such a racket getting to the door. She had waited, posing, for that extra moment. The little minx had shown off for me. That was interesting.

That night I spent a lot of time going over everything in my head, mostly wondering what I should do. I knew if I ignored it, more and more would happen. She was obviously trying to get my attention. No, I had to take that back. She had gotten my attention big time. Damn it, she looked incredibly sexy naked. What would she do next? The other thing I knew for certain, I wouldn't resist her attempts. Eventually, I'd get myself in trouble unless I did something to put a stop to, well, whatever was happening. I had to take the bull by the horns.

Normally, Naomi would drive down the five miles to the county road and pick up Claire where the bus would drop her off. I volunteered to do it the next day. Naomi was more than happy not to. The bus was just pulling away as I drove up. I guess Naomi was more used to the tight turns since she normally arrived before the bus. Claire burst into a big smile when she saw my car and ran over.

"Hi Mike," she said as she jumped in my car.

"How was school?" I asked.

"Like usual," she said. "How come you're picking me up?"

"I volunteered."

She gave me a funny look obviously waiting for me to say more. Instead I winked and shrugged. Her brow furrowed I could tell she was trying to figure out exactly what was up.

About half way back to the house there is a spot where a creek comes tumbling down the granite rocks, then dives under the road. It is a beautiful little spot and there is room to pull off the road. I did. "Let's sit by the creek," I said.

Claire jumped out and went over to sit on the guard rail by the stream. There was a light mist in the air from the stream splashing down on the rocks. Claire was smiling. I had decided that I was going straight to the heart. "I know," I said.

"Know what?" she asked.

"That you left the bedroom door open on purpose," I said.

"No," she said shaking her head.

I went over the whole thing, my checking the door, her waiting for me, her making sure I looked up. By the time I finished she was blushing quite fetchingly, further proof if I needed any. "Claire, I think you were trying to seduce me."

"So?" she said, trying to sound confident but I could hear the waiver in her voice.

I went for the throat. I told her about the history file and the cache even naming the stories she had read and the movies she had watched. Her eyes got wider and wider. Fear replaced the blush.

"Are you going to tell mom?"

"No way," I said. "You're my best researcher. If I tell your mom she might make you stop. I love the stories you find," I said.

Claire stared at me trying to figure out whether or not I was kidding.

"I'm not teasing. Look, I did the same thing when I was your age. There is nothing wrong with being curious. The problem is my age and not your age."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because," I said.

"That's not a good reason," she said.

"Okay, it's a lousy reason, but it is a legal reason," I said.

Claire asked, "Mike if you know about the stories I've been reading, you know they are about older guys teaching young women, like us, and how older guys are safer and better." I nodded. "And I've been thinking about us..."

I asked, "Claire, are you sure?" knowing exactly where she was heading.

She nodded. She looked up and I could see just how lovely she was and I could see in her face that she did want to know about physical love, the joy of sex with someone who could teach her those joys.

Recalling that moment, I am again astounded at how easy guys are. I was all prepared to lecture Claire about how this wasn't a good idea, how society frowned upon it, how it shouldn't happen, and blah, blah, blah ... When I looked at her eyes, her pretty young face looking up at me, yearning for a touch, I fell apart. All that resolve went up in smoke, whoosh, gone.

I leaned down and our lips touched, just touched and it was magic. I pulled away and saw that Claire had a dreamy look on her face.

That was all it took to banish any objections I might have come up with. So much for me taking control and putting a stop to our imminent relationship. Not only hadn't I put a stop to it, I had transgressed and carried what was nothing but thought and gave it physical expression. Claire was happy. I kissed her again, this time with more passion. She matched my passion and I took her into my arms crushing her to my chest. Her arms went round my neck and she matched the intensity of our clench.

Finally, the kiss ended. Her eyes were sparkling. "I didn't quite expect that," I said. "I was supposed to be telling you why this wouldn't be a good idea."

"I want to be your girlfriend, Mike," Claire said.

"I guess I could tell that," I said. "And I guess the truth is I'd love for you to be my girlfriend." She laughed in delight. "Serious thing. We can't let your mom know. She'd have to stop us."

Claire nodded. "I guess it is good we share the bath so she won't know."

"Moms have other ways of knowing," I said. "We'll have to be careful around each other. Even secret looks she might see." I looked at my watch. "We better hurry or your mom will wonder."

Once in the car, I sped back up the road. I was right. The first thing Naomi asked when we came in was, "Did you have trouble?"

"No, I guess I'm not a lead foot like you." She gave me a look. I continued, "I'm not used to these twisty roads. The bus was already gone by the time I got there. I'll speed up once I get used to the roads."

"Not too fast, flat lander," she said. Flat lander was a disparaging term for drivers from the flats who drive with ten cars behind them on the twisty mountain roads and never pull over.

"Very funny," I said.

Naomi turned back into the kitchen and I raised my eyebrows at Claire. She nodded in understanding; we'd have to be very careful.

The rest of the evening was filled with tension, at least for me. Naomi didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. Claire asked to use my computer while Naomi and I watched TV. I looked over a few times and Claire would wink as she 'worked' on the computer. I knew she was surfing porn by the glint in her eye. I found myself getting erect just thinking about this whole thing. I had to cross my legs and put my hands in my lap to hide the evidence.

Claire went off to bed, giving me my computer. I noticed it was still on. I excused myself and went to my room. As soon as I opened it the browser came up and a movie started playing. It was a young girl who looked surprisingly like Claire. An older guy came in and typical for the genre, they were undressed and in bed in seconds. Knowing Claire had deliberately left this on for me was incredibly erotic. She was saying, 'Here I am.'