From: mmtwassel@aol.com (Mmtwassel)
Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories
Subject: Bird Watching in French Lick
Date: 9 Mar 1996 05:20:27 -0500

		     Bird Watching in French Lick
				  by
			     M M Twassel

	The weekend in French Lick was my dad's idea. Rick and
I were at my dad's house in the suburbs for a late supper, Coquilles
St. Jacques, one of my dad's specialties he'd come up with these really
huge scallops, exquisitely tender, bathed in butter. There were also
some delicious noodles and that crinkly salad I never liked.

	"I always try to get Ann to put a drop of Tabasco on it," my
dad told Rick. "It's that little sting that really... "

	"I like these just the way they are," I said. "Why should I
mess with perfection?"

	Rick just nodded, making no effort to reach for the Tabasco
bottle. Rick likes things bland.

	"So how are your two love birds doing?" my dad asked. "The
marriage is almost two years old, right?"

	"Three weeks from Wednesday," I said.

	"Still on that `fast track to nowhere'?" my dad asked Rick.
That was what Rick had said about our jobs, our lives, the last time
my dad has asked two or three months ago. Rick meant it as a little
joke, a touch of irony; but, in fact, our work loads were immense; as a
result we seldom saw each other.

	"There's a song about us," I said, "Law and Marriage, Law and
Marriage, go together like a headless cabbage."

	"Hey," Rick said, "I'm lucky I could get out here at all
tonight."

	"Easy, Boy," my dad broke in. "Relax. You two need some time
off together. If I can see that, anyone can."

	"We're OK, Dad," I said, "A couple more months of this
grind... "

	"No, really," my dad said. "You should enjoy each other while
you're young. I know what I'm talking about."

	"We try to," Rick said.

	"What I mean is, get away with each other. A friend of mine,
an ex-colleague, has this condo in French Lick. He's always after me
to spend a weekend down there. Enjoy nature, peace, solitude, away
from all this... noise. I'm certain he wouldn't mind if you two went
in my stead. There a golf course, horseback riding, and a spa. I
understand it's a tad dilapidated, but my friend says the scenery is
terrific, quaint, historic, rustic, um... bucolic?"

	I was sure Rick wouldn't go for it. He'd been working seven
day weeks for the past five months. Twelve sometimes fourteen hour
days. Often when he got home, first thing he'd do is plug in his
laptop, connect to his office or the client's.

	"French Lick?" Rick said, "Isn't that where Larry Bird grew
up?"

	"Exactly!" my father said. "Home town of Larry Bird, the best
basketball player since"

	"Well, he's no Jordan," Rick grumbled, "And he's no Magic
Johnson, but I guess he was the best white basketball player since."

	"Right!" my dad agreed. "So you should check out his home
town. See where he grew up, where he went to school."

	"Maybe," Rick said.

	"No `maybe,'" my dad said. "Just do it! I'll call Josh now,
set it up." He moved away from the table. "Some day people will be
coming to this little burg, check out where our cute little redhead grew
up, huh, Annie?" He rustled his hand gently through my hair on his way
towards the telephone.

	While Dad was making the call, Rick has second thoughts. "I
don't know," he said. "Maybe you and your dad could go. I just have so
much to do."

	"So much shit," I said. "We're going! You can shoot hoops with
Larry Bird."

	"I'm sure he doesn't live there anymore," Rick said. He gave
me a glum smile.

	My dad came back to the table to tell us it was all
arranged three weekends from now. "Josh will E-mail you directions,
where to find the key. All the good stuff. Think of it as a second
honeymoon."

	I hadn't seen my dad this happy in a long time, maybe not
since before Mom died. That was about seven years ago, my first year
at college.

	After supper Dad led us into his den.

	"We've got to be going pretty soon," Rick said. "Got a few
work things to wrap up before morning."

	"I know the feeling," my dad said. "But sit for just a minute.
The work's not going to run away. I've got some good brandy."

	"I'm not much for brandy," Rick said.

	"Well, Pepsi, then." My dad went into the kitchen. Rick
started rummaging through the silver seaman's chest which contained my
dad's record collection.

	"Your dad should get a CD," Rick told me. "These things are
antiques."

	"Antiques?" my dad said. He handed Rick a tall soda glass.
"Those LPs were actually my father's. He did love music. I've
inherited some of that."

	"Yeah, but the fidelity on the CDs," Rick said.

	"You're probably right," my dad said, "But I like the idea of
the needle riding those grooves, making the music come out."

	My dad pulled a record from the collection and stuck it on the
turntable. "Someday this is going to be a lost art," he said as he
adroitly placed the tone-arm right where he wanted it.

	We listened to the tune, scratchy, a jaunty, good-time beat
belying something essentially sad. "That's Billy Banks and the
Rythmakers," my dad said as the song ended. "'Who's Sorry Now,' I
think it's called."

	"Nice," Rick admitted. He studied the record jacket. "This
Billy Banks, is that a man or a woman?"

	"Good question," my dad said, "But does it really matter?"

	Dad leafed through the silver chest, pulled out another album.
"Try this one," he told Rick. "You put it on track four, I think. Isn't
there something sexy about doing it yourself?"

	"What if I scratch it," Rick said.

	"Wouldn't be the first time," my dad answered. "Part of the
thrill."

	The song started. Peggy Lee singing "How Long Has This Been
Going On".

	"Not Nine Inch Nails," Rick said when it was over, "But I like
it. Is this the stuff you listened to when you were a kid?"

	"Nope, I was a Beatles fan. Stones. Led Zep. Maybe some Dylan
for spice."

	"Hey, we still listen to that stuff."

	"You can still listen to Peggy Lee, too."

	Rick spent an hour picking through Dad's old records. He
seemed to be entranced. I sat through a few songs and then wandered
into the next room, the library. I was looking at some of the old
pictures, me as a kid. I stared at those photos and hadn't the
slightest recollection of what I was thinking in those days. I looked
happy, but I don't remember being happy. They could have been
photographs of someone else. I felt a hand on my shoulder; and when I
turned, I was startled to see it was my dad. I guess I'd been
expecting it to be Rick.

	"Just looking at your old books," I blurted. I don't know why
I didn't want to admit I was looking at the photographs. "Thought
maybe I'd find something to read for French Lick. Got any
recommendations?"

	"That's a tough one," my dad said. "What kind of books do you
like?"

	I admitted I hadn't been reading much lately. "If you were
going to French Lick for a weekend," I said, "What book would you
bring for yourself?"

	My dad thought for a minute. Then he went to a lower shelf and
pulled out a book with a dark green dust jacket. "I'm not sure this is
a good book for a girl, pardon me, woman," he said handing it to me.

	"The Followed Man," I read, "Thomas Williams."

	"He died a couple of years ago," my dad said. "Of his novels,
this was my favorite. I've read it several times."

	"You must really like it," I said.

	"Or else I keep forgetting what it's about," he laughed.

	"What is it about?" I asked, "Not a mystery?"

	"It's about a man's life after his wife and child have died,"
my dad said. "This journalist, well I guess I don't remember it all
that well."

	I looked at my dad. He looked as if he might be about to cry.

	"I'd like to read it," I said. I hugged him. We held each
other for a long minute, so that he could cry if he wanted to.

	He stepped back then. "It's a good book for the woods or the
wilderness," he said, "But I don't know if this is the book for you."
He paused. "There are some sexual parts."

	I had to laugh. "Daddy, I know about sexual parts." As I was
saying this I realized I'd slipped into a little-girl voice.

	"I know you do, Sweetheart," my dad said.

	"If it'll make you feel any better, I'll read the sexual parts
with my eyes closed."

	My dad laughed. We hugged each other again.

	"You know, at dinner I was thinking - " I stopped.

	"What were you thinking?" my dad asked.

	What I had been about to say was that the scallops reminded me
very much of sexual parts, specifically of the taste of Rick's
penis, buttery soft and succulent, a flavor fresh of sea and earth and
something else, something unnameable.

	"I was just thinking what a wonderful meal that was, and how
sad that Mom couldn't be with us." I felt a tinge of guilt for making
this up, though the sentiments felt true.

	"I know, Honey," my dad said, and he hugged me harder. Now I
felt like I was going to cry. When my dad started to break away, I
held him for a moment longer.

	As Rick and I were about to leave, my dad handed me the book.
"Don't want to forget The Followed Man," he said. "Oh, and I have
something else." He offered a small, worn pouch of soft leather. "My
old field glasses," Dad said. "They're small," he said with a wink,
"But I think you'll find them more than potent enough for bird
watching."

	"Your dad's a pretty neat guy," Rick said as we were driving
back towards the city.

	I squeezed Rick's thigh. "Yeah," I said, "But I think he must
be lonely."

	"Well he's got all those neat records," Rick said. "And tons
of books. What was that one he gave you, The Lonely Man?"

	"The Followed Man," I said. I told Rick about my dad having
read it three times.

	"Must be good," Rick said.

	"He says he keeps forgetting the details."

	"That's what happens when you get older."

	"My dad is not "older"."

	"He's older than us. Look what he does all day. Sits around
listening to old records and reading books he knows by heart."

	"That's not a bad life," I said half-heartedly. "I mean, what
do we do all day?"

	"Well," Rick said, " I wouldn't say we're ready yet for Billy
Baker and the Rhythm Makers. We've got our work. We've got each
other... "

	"Is that right?" I said, taking my hand off Rick's thigh. "And
it's Rhythmakers, not Rhythm Makers."

	During the long quiet I thought about my dad. I wondered what
he was doing right then. Probably putting the dishes away. Probably
thinking about Rick and me driving home. Maybe he was thinking about
us, about whether we were talking about the dinner, about him. These
thoughts made me sad.

	"Do you think my dad has anything to look forward to?" I asked
Rick as we entered the city.

	"Like what?" Rick asked.

	"I don't know," I said.

	"He's probably got plenty to look back upon."

	"Yes, but how important is that?"

	"I think it's pretty important," Rick said.

	"What kind of things do you look back upon?" I asked.

	Rick thought for a moment. I watched his hands on the steering
wheel. I liked watching his hands. His fingers seemed the perfect size
and shape. I could tell he'd come up with an answer, but that he
didn't want to say it.

	"What?" I said. "I won't bite you for it, even if it's
something like having sex with some girlfriend before you met me."

	"As a matter of fact, I was thinking about the first time we
made love," Rick said.

	"In my apartment on Indiana Avenue?"

	"Right," Rick said.

	"What about it?" I asked.

	"About how good it was," Rick said.

	I put my hand back on Rick's thigh.

	"About how wonderfully fortunate I felt to be inside you."

	"About how hot and warm and wet and tight you were," Rick
continued.

	"Hot and warm?" I said, stressing the "and."

	"Hot inside, and warm everywhere else," Rick said.

	"You were a sweet boy," I said.

	"I remember I was worried about your landlord's cat."

	"About Celeste? What about her?"

	"That she didn't like me, that while we were making love she'd
jump on my back and claw me to shreds."

	I laughed. "Celeste was a very possessive creature." I
scratched my nails along the denim of Rick's trousers. Closer and
closer to the bulge.

	"She did bite my toes sometimes," Rick said.

	"Oh, that naughty Celeste." I was rubbing the bulge now, soft
circling strokes.

	"Probably a good thing," Rick said. "Probably kept me from
coming too soon."

	Rick parked the car, and we took the garage elevator up.
"Maybe we should get a cat," I said, leaning against Rick, nuzzling.
"A little kitten, a cute little sex kitten?" I was thinking about
running my hand down his front, maybe slipping inside. I was wondering
if I dared.

	"Didn't your dad have a dog?" Rick asked. The comment came out
of nowhere.

	"No," I said. "We never had a dog."

	"Oh," Rick said. "I guess I'm confused." He unlocked the door.
Without a moment's hesitation, he strode to his laptop and plugged it
in.

	"Are you going to be long?" I was standing next to him with my
front pressed against his elbow, a breast caressing his ear.

	"Why?" Rick said, "Do you want to use my machine?"

	I took a shower, got ready for bed. Rick was still at it. I
got under the covers but couldn't sleep. I started reading The
Followed Man. It was good, but thoughts of my dad distracted me. I
turned off the light. I started touching myself, but my heart wasn't
in it. I fell asleep wondering whether my dad touched himself, and
what thoughts he had when he did? Were they thoughts of some past
pleasure or were they fantasies about some sensuous future? Or was his
mind just a sleepy blank until his fingers produced those little jolts
of empty ecstasy? I thought about my dad's hands, the way he might
stroke himself, but my mind refused to picture it, at least not
precisely, and, in the end, the image that came into my mind wasn't my
dad at all; it was Rick, smoothing his perfect hands along the fur of
a red puppy dog.

	For a few days Rick actually seemed excited about the French
Lick trip. I convinced him to schedule a couple of vacation days; we
could make a four day weekend out of this second honeymoon. We planned
to leave Thursday right after work if we beat the rush hour swarm out
of the city, we'd be in French Lick before midnight.

	Wednesday night Rick delivered the bad news. "Korhorn has some
emergency in New York; they've asked me to hold the fort."

	"Does that mean we're not going?" I said. I felt weary with
disappointment, that heavy emptiness.

	"No," Rick insisted. "We can still go. I've just got to hang
around here an extra day or two."

	"You've got that damn laptop," I said, "Can't you use that?"

	Rick said there might be the need of some meetings. "Face to
face stuff. It's all up in the air, but the bottom line is I've got
to be here Friday. I can leave for French Lick Saturday, right after
my run. How's that sound?"

	Rick held me sweetly, sorrowfully. "Here's what we should do,"
he said. "You drive down there Thursday, after work, just like we
planned. I'll rent a car and join you sometime Saturday. That way
you'll have some free time without me in your hair."

	I had to laugh at this. "Since when have you been in my hair?"
I said.

	"I can return the rental in French Lick, and we can drive back
together Monday night? How's that sound?" Rick kissed me then, pecking
kisses all over my face and eyelids.

	I started to say something, I'm not sure what; I'd just opened
my mouth to say "I... " and Rick swallowed my tongue.

	"Couldn't you skip your run on Saturday?" I asked Rick later.
He was pushing into me from behind, a millionth of an inch at a time.
"That way - "

	"No," he said firmly. All at once I was filled; there was
nothing left to say, nothing left to decide.

				 ***

	As I drove down to French Lick Thursday evening, I thought
about Rick's running. It was running more than work that took
him away from me. Rick had always worked late. But in the first
months of our marriage, we shared the early morning hours, sleepy
good-morning cuddles and fucks, and then we'd shower together, long,
seriously silly showers often leading to more sex. I'd feel
deliciously satisfied all morning and well into the afternoon. By the
time Rick got home at seven or eight or nine that night, I'd be keyed
up with anticipation; I'd greet him with kisses and a body wanton and
wet with desire. Sometimes we'd make love before and after dinner.
Those were the first few months.

	In the fall I went to Dallas for a three day seminar. The
morning after I got back, I reached for Rick and he was already
getting dressed. "I thought I'd do a little running today," he said.
He'd been on the track team in college, a long distance runner. "You
don't want me to get flabby, do you?"

	"You're not flabby," I said, reaching for him; but he was out
of reach.

	I thought it was just going to be a one-time thing, but Rick
ran every morning, even weekends.

	One Saturday, a wonderfully sunny early November morning, I
tried running with him. We'd jogged together a few times during our
dating days, three or four laps around the cemetery back at school,
and then some sweaty petting in the shade of the tombstones. "This
will be fun," I thought, as we set off along the lakefront. I was
hoping we'd find something like a cemetery along the way, although I
knew it was a little chilly for grave-side snuggling. Still, I was
ready for anything if the opportunity presented itself. But Rick
spurted right off. I'm in pretty good shape, but there was no way I
could keep up. "It's too hard on my legs to go so slow," Rick
admitted.

	"Slow!" I said, huffing and puffing after less than a mile.
"This is ridiculous. This is like lightning."

	"I'm used to doing sixes and we're doing eights."

	"Before we were married you didn't mind eights."

	"I had more time then," Rick said. "If we do eights now, I
won't get in enough miles."

	"Enough miles for what?" I asked.

	"Enough miles for me," he said.

	"Couldn't we just have sex?" I said.

	"Running is like sex," Rick said.

	I'm sure that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, but I had
no answer for it. Rick continued to get up at five o'clock every
morning, and within ten minutes he was off on his two hour run. I was
usually on my way to work before he got back to the apartment.
Sometimes we still had the evenings together. Sometimes the evenings
were fun. "I shouldn't be so greedy," I told myself.

	I made only one wrong turn and arrived in French Lick a little
after midnight. I called Rick but got the busy signal. That meant he
was online with his laptop. "At least I know he's safe at home," I
thought, and I fell asleep quickly.

	The next day I explored French Lick. Soggy. I drove down a
steep winding road to the resort hotel and talked to a clerk at the
registration desk who said it'd been raining for most of four days.
"The golf course is closed," he said. "So are the stables. But there's
indoor tennis. Or I could sign you up for a massage." I told him I'd
think about it. I was vaguely tempted, but I was leery of the
protocol. I'd never had anyone I didn't know really touch me before. I
felt funny about the idea of a stranger's hands rubbing my skin,
kneading my muscles. Instead I spent the morning walking through the
hilly town. Most of the large frame houses needed repairs. The yards
were strewn with frazzled gardens. Baggy work clothing fluttered from
sagging laundry lines. Children scrambled amid stray toys and scrawny
pets. I wondered what it might be like to grow up amid this wild
poverty. I wondered which house might have been Larry Bird's. I
spotted one home with a basketball goal attached to a lamp pole. The
rim was bent down and there was no net. "Hmm," I thought. But as I
continued my walk, I noticed that almost every house had a basketball
goal set up somewhere on the garage, on a utility pole, on the side of
the house.

	By afternoon I'd returned to the hotel. I thought maybe I'd be
bold, try the massage, so I followed the signs down a damp hallway
which smelled more and more of sulfur. Some swinging doors had "spa"
stenciled on the glass. I stepped through. A pair of overly plump
women with curiously thin necks stood chatting in front of the sign-up
counter. The sight of them made me uneasy. They looked too much like
turkeys. "How could these women bear to have someone touch them?" I
found myself thinking. I knew these thoughts were unkind and
uncharitable and inexact, and truly I felt a trifle abashed at my
meanness; nevertheless, I stepped quickly away from the smelly spa.

	From the lobby, I called Rick and left messages at the
apartment and his office that I was safe in French Lick. "I was
thinking about a massage," I whispered daringly in my message to
Rick's office. "A white fluffy towel draped over my bottom; isn't that
the way it's done? But what happens if it slips?" I let some silence
linger on the line.

	The sun came out as afternoon wound down. West of the hotel a
fat man in a canary yellow shirt stood on a raised piece of turf
slugging golf balls into a pond. A half-dozen brown ducks swam across
the pond, investigating the plopping golf balls. I wondered if the man
was aiming at the ducks.

	I set off along the little service road, barely more than a
gravel path bordering the golf course, checking back over my should a
few times to make sure the man wasn't turning me into a target. The
golf course and this little road cut through a forest which rose
sharply out of the valley. Across the soggy fairway, the forest lifted
to a hill crest covered with buildings, one of them surely my
condominium. I had a strange thought, that if Rick were up there, maybe
he'd found a way to leave early, if he were on our little bedroom
balcony, he could look down and see me. From that distance, he
probably wouldn't be able to recognize me. Acting on some silly whim,
I waved. Immediately afterwards I felt watched. A shiver ran through
me. Dark clouds cruised across the sun. I thought maybe I should turn
back, but I kept on walking, and around the bend I saw something
strange: an old steam locomotive. Not a big one, just a baby,
abandoned on the edge of the golf course. The phrase "Let sleeping
dogs lie," entered my head; the black hulk did indeed resemble a huge
hound crouched in the crinkly roadside weeds. I approached it
cautiously.

	I climbed up into the engineer's cabin. Strangely cool in
there, and nothing much to see: a black iron floor, a black iron
bench, tall rectangular window openings with views, now that I was
sitting down, of nothing but treetops and sky. It felt good to be off
my feet. I braced my hands behind me, half reclining on the iron
bench, my legs stretched out, and a delicious ease crept over me. A
tingling. I closed my eyes. The tingling almost seemed to have a
sound, a pleasant little buzz. When I opened my eyes I saw the wasps,
three or four, hovering in an upper corner of the dark compartment,
weaving tight irregular patterns around each other. I watched them for
awhile. They didn't seem much interested in me. Cautiously, in case
their air dance might be less amiable than it seemed, I stepped out of
the locomotive. By the time I'd strolled back to the hotel, the sun
was down.

	I decided to eat in the hotel's restaurant. From my table I
had a view of the lobby where a young woman, fists full of pastel
chalks, sketched a pair of children while the parents looked on with a
mixture of pride and apprehension.

	I didn't hurry over the menu. "A glass of white wine," I told
the waiter. It was served cold and tart, perhaps not good wine, but
it felt good on the tip of my tongue. When the waiter came back to
take my order, I asked him how long the old train engine had been
there. He said he didn't know anything about it. I noticed grilled
scallops on the menu, and I was tempted to order them; it seemed
fitting, but I wasn't sure, and then I thought about the duckling, and
I wondered if these ducklings came from the flock on the golf course
pond, not that that would have bothered me. Rick doesn't enjoy my
indecision in restaurants. "Can't you be more decisive?" he chides.

	"If you would like an appetizer, the escargot are very nice,"
the waiter offered.

	"Can you come back later?" I told him.

	In the end I ordered roast loin of pork; it seemed more
appropriate to southern Indiana than snails or scallops, and it was
excellent. As my sharp silver knife sliced through the pale flesh, I
remembered (for the first time in many years) a dream I'd often had as
a child. In the dream, my dad was Robin Hood, and I was a little
creature, half-girl half-piglet, whom he'd captured in the forest. My
dad brought me into the banquet room deliciously nude on a large
silver tray, which he set down on the long plank table, and then, with
his razor-sharp sword, he sliced pieces from my bottom and served his
guests. The dream, at the time anyway, did not disturb me. Getting cut
was completely painless, maybe there was even an element of pleasure;
and I know I felt quite pleased that my dad was able to make use of
me. Thinking about it now was a mite unsettling, not so much because
of the content of the dream, but because it might be too intimate to
share. What if my dad and Rick were at the table, I thought, and we
were all having a fine roast pig? Would I be able to tell them of this
dream? And if I did, how would they react?

	After dinner I strolled slowly through the old hotel. So many
doors. Maybe Rick was trying to call me. Maybe he was waiting up at
the condo right now. It was pleasant to think so. The wasps in the
train seemed so long ago. I had a strange urge to enter one of the
guest rooms. Of course, the door would be locked. But I had the
feeling that whatever door I picked would open. I didn't test this
theory, I simply walked to the end of the first floor corridor and stood
there looking out the windows of a doorway which led to a stone patio,
and beyond that, a little garden. It was raining, a very slow, slight
rain, and in the garden behind the hotel a man and a woman, the couple
with the pastel children, stood with their arms around each other.
Ignoring the rain, they kissed. Tender passion.

	I watched the embrace. The rain fell harder. The couple kept
kissing. The woman moved her hands down the man's back, beneath his
trousers. I turned away, walked back down the corridor towards the
lobby. Only a few steps down the hall, I noticed one of the doors
wasn't shut tight. The little pastel boy peered out through the slim
crack, a few inches of his waifish body bathed by the bright hall
light. Seeing me, he blinked, and he covered himself with a small
hand, but not before I'd seen the little waggle of his semi-shy
privates. Puppy dogs and snails, I thought, understanding for the
first time that children's rhyme about what little boys are made of.
"Shut that door," I heard his sister say, "Shut it right now or I'm
telling." The boy wavered, and I got a final peek at his little penis
before the door snapped shut.

	Back in the condo I called Rick. Busy. Laptop time.

	Saturday brought little fits of rain. I spent a fretful
morning, thinking what a bad idea it had been getting here early. I
calculated the earliest Rick might arrive, counting the hours on my
fingers. Three o'clock seemed likely. Four at the latest. What to do
until then? I drove down the hill and watched a pair of middle-aged
men play indoor tennis. I drove to a grocery intending to buy supper
stuff, ending up with wine, cheese, and some cream for Rick's coffee.
I drove back to the resort hotel, parked, walked into the hotel
garden, stood in the very spot where the couple had that rain-drenched
kiss. Two o'clock was possible. And what about the time zone? Should I
add or subtract for that? I was back in the condo by noon.

	Thunder rolled through the heavy clouds over the valley. I
spent half an hour figuring out how to work the corkscrew, the rest of
the day curled up on the couch, sipping wine, nibbling cheese, and
reading The Followed Man.

	Rick arrived shortly after midnight.

	"I tried to call," he said. "Are you sure this phone works?"

	"I don't know," I said, "I can call out. Did you have trouble
with the car?"

	"Not exactly," Rick said. "But I had some stuff to do at the
office."

	"I was worried," I said.

	"I'm sorry," he said, "I tried to call."

	"Are you sure you have the right number?"

	"I don't know, I think so. It did occur to me that the number
might be wrong."

	"Then why didn't you call my dad? He could have told you what
the number was."

	"I did try to call your dad. I tried several times and never
got an answer."

	"That's strange," I said. "Maybe I should call him now."

	"It's too late," Rick said. "Anyway, I'm here. You don't seem
so glad to see me."

	"I guess I'm just tired and irritable," I said. "It's been a
long day."

	"I should have rented a car phone. I'm just going to call the
office, see if there are any messages."

	"Midnight massages?" I said, trying to be sexy-funny.

	"Annie," Rick said, "Look, you left the ringer all the way
down. No wonder no one could get through."

	"God," I said, "It's not like I didn't flush the toilet."

	"Well I was worried about you."

	"I'm sorry," I said. "Why don't we just go to bed."

	Rick was asleep instantly. I was up most of the night.

	I awoke to bright sunshine. Rick wasn't there, but I found a
note on the table. "Gone running," it said. I made some coffee and
took a shower and took my coffee and the book bag out onto the
balcony.

	What a glorious day! I sat on the white wrought iron chair
enjoying the warmth of the sun on my bare feet and bare legs. I had on
my fluffy white shower terry, but it didn't cover much. No one to see
anything anyway. I put my feet up on the railing and spread my legs
apart just a little. The sun felt wickedly nice. I sipped some coffee
and closed my eyes and enjoyed the sounds of the woods, the rustle of
the breeze, the flirting songs of countless birds, happy squirts of
melody amid a soft mix of chuckles, clucks, and coos, and,
occasionally, the heady hollow rap of a woodpecker's hammer. Above,
nothing but blue sky.

	From up here I could see much of the valley: at the base was the
long green ribbon of the golf course, and just beyond it the thin
service road. I let my eyes play over the woods, those deep in the
distance, and those directly below me, and suddenly I saw some
movement, a bird, I thought at first, a bright orange-red bird; but
then I thought it was too big for a bird, maybe a fox. Wouldn't it be
something to see a fox!

	I remembered my dad's field glasses; they were in the book bag
right next to me, nestled in that little pouch under The Followed Man.
I fished out the soft pouch and opened it. Little things, these
binoculars, but very powerful. At first I couldn't find anything, even
after adjusting the focus, just twigs with newly burst buds. I had to
locate the fox with my bare eyes first. It was working its way up the
steep hill, zigzagging patiently through the thick underbrush, and now
I saw it wasn't a fox at all, it was an Irish Setter, a lovely dog,
all by itself out there. "Where's your master?" I thought as I brought
the binoculars back to my eyes. And there he was, a middle-aged man
reaching down to pet the dog, to tousle the fine red fur. The man wore
a green-splotched camouflage jacket and a hunters cap. He had his
back turned, but he looked familiar. He looked like my dad. I took the
glasses down to get a better overall view, but without the
magnification the man blended too well into the woods; he might have
been a small tree; he might not have been there at all.

	Again I viewed the scene through the glasses. This time it was
easier to find the dog. The setter stood stock still. I could see the
slim silver chain. Any movement, and I was sure I'd hear the jingle,
but the dog didn't twitch. I inched the glasses upwards, the man's
torso, his elbow, his face. I couldn't see his face because the man
had his hands there; he was holding binoculars to his eyes, he had them
trained on something to our left.

	I looked where the man looked but I wasn't sure what to look
for. And then I saw: at the edge of the golf course a small boy was
walking. With the binoculars it was different: it was Rick, and he was
running. He looked exquisitely graceful, like a streamlined animal
whose long, plunging strides would take it into the air at any moment.
I concentrated first on his maroon running shorts, the way they
creased at the groin in rhythm with his gait, and then on the funny
flap of his running shirt waggling in the sun, and finally on Rick's
solemn face: He looked seriously content as he sped across the soft
green grass. I knew the look. It was the look he wore when he was
fucking me, when he was in that no-man's-land the instant before
orgasm. Running next to Rick, matching him stride for stride, was a
young woman, a girl, really. Her mane of red-blonde hair streamed
behind her. Her little breasts bounced shyly, almost in slow-motion,
against the front of her half-top. She had white nylon running shorts
with maroon piping, the mate to Rick's gear. I saw that her long lean
legs were mud-spattered, but she grinned as if she were running in
heaven.

	I rested the glasses on my knees, trying to think whether I'd
ever seen this girl before. She could have been my younger sister, if
I'd had a younger sister. I was sitting on my heels now, my legs wide
open, my white terry of no consequence. When I looked at the runners
without the glasses, they could have been one being. I brought the
glasses up and propped my elbows against my knees to steady the
vision. I wondered if the man with the dog was still watching them. Or
had he trained his sight to me, to the snug curl of my wet secret
center, or even worse, was he getting into my eyes, my thoughts, the
truly secret center of my being. I didn't dare look. I just watched
Rick and the girl.

	They stopped suddenly, and hand in hand they ambled directly
away from me. They'd found the old locomotive, and in a moment they
were climbing aboard. Rick helped hoist her into that cool compartment,
a place I couldn't follow. Did I even want to? I kept my dad's field
glasses steady on the engine's dark window, the upper corner, where
three or four wasps worried the sunny air, while inside Rick crouched
on the black iron floor, the girl's white running shorts puddled near
his feet, and the girl, braced on the engineer's black bench, studied
Rick's perfect hand, two glistening fingers easing into her slim
sexual recess.

	Believe me, Rick knows how to fingerfuck. Rick's technique:
middle finger curled up to rub the inside spot; other finger extended,
pressed down, to stretch the hole, to coax the mucus, the cloudy
love-milk which soon pools in the opening of her cunt: I know how
intensely distracting this can be, that is, nothing matters, nothing but
the intense pleasure, the incipience of release. It is understandable,
therefore, that the girl would not at first notice that a wasp has
alighted on her tummy less than two inches below her belly-button. It
would have felt like little more than a couple of sweat droplets
joining up for a tickly little ride.

	But Rick noticed. Instantly Rick stopped the motion of his
fingers, leaving them deep in the slick wet place. And the girl,
curious about this cruelty of Rick's teasing her this way, pausing
while she was poised at the sharp edge of orgasm the girl looked down.

	"Oh, Rick," she whispered.

	"Just be still, maybe he'll go away."

	The wasp, in no hurry, undulated its plump abdomen and began a
syrup-slow strut down the tummy.

	"Oh, Rick," the girl whispered.

	Wasp paused before climbing the little hill, and then with a
waggle marched right up the mound to the plateau of that plump little
sexual shelf. The girl had no hair of consequence, nothing tangled or
tufty to impede the wasp's progress, just a few wispy red-blonde
strands, down matted with moisture.

	"I think you better - " the girl said.

	Maybe Rick misunderstood. His fingers, still inside, resumed
their rubbing.

	The wasp, almost at the apex, rode the undulations which
mimicked his own up and down dance.

	"Oh, Rick," the girl said, "What are you doing? If you make
me come I'm going to kill you."

	Half-perched on the fattened hood of the girl's clitoris, half
straddling it, the wasp seemed to cock its little head before abruptly
lowering its prick-tipped belly into the rhythmic tremors.

	I heard the scream the moment I put the glasses down. Maybe it
wasn't a scream, maybe it was a cry. Some sounds are hard to
categorize. This one was strange: it could have been pleasure, it
could have been pain, it could have been a bird of prey ripping into a
plump bunny. I listened hard, but the sound did not repeat. I took a
deep breath, closed my legs together, and went back to my reading.

	Sometime later I heard Rick come in. "There's coffee," I
called out. A moment later Rick stepped out onto the balcony holding a
ceramic mug. He was still in his running shorts, and he had a towel
draped over his shoulders.

	"How was your run?" I asked.

	"Good," he said. "This is good coffee."

	"Come here," I said.

	"I have to take a shower," Rick said.

	"Just for a second," I said.

	Reluctantly, Rick stepped closer.

	I reached behind him, felt the sheen of sweat on the heavy
muscles just below his buttocks.

	"The coffee's good, huh?" I said as I worked my fingers
against the muscle.

	"Annie, I really need to shower."

	"You're OK," I said. I liked the slightly swampy smell, a
scant hint of sea, of freshly turned earth.

	"Did anything unusual happen down there?" I asked.

	"Where?" Rick said.

	I pulled down his running shorts. His bundle nestled like a
fat little frog. A sleepy creature unsure what to make of the sudden
sunlight and fresh air. "Time to get up," I said, tweaking the nose. I
bent forward and swallowed it all, kept it there until it grew out of
my mouth. When it was full size I let it rest on my tongue. I felt
certain the man with the binoculars had us sighted in.

	"Rick," I asked, "What would you do if a big bee landed right
on your penis?" While he was thinking about this, I took the tip of
his penis between my teeth. I held the rest of him firmly with both
hands. I bit down. Just hard enough to make him scream. I was curious
whether his scream would sound at all like the earlier scream, like
that bird or whatever it was. It didn't, but it surprised me how far
away the scream sounded, and it surprised me that the blood tasted
like cum. "Oh, Rick," I thought, "I do love you." Then I finished him
off.

			       The End