 
 THE MEASURE OF MAN

 An Epic by Gil Gamesh

Chapter Fifty-Three


As for you, Gilgamesh, fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace; for this too is the measure of man.


CAST OF CHARACTERS:
 Kieran Stuart, 43; Siobhan Stuart, 42; Kavan Stuart, 17; Arial Stuart, 15; Kerry Stuart, 12 1/2

Brad Weaver, 17; Kathryn Jenssen, 17; Nicole Whittaker, 15


TELLING THE STORY
Arial Stuart

<><><>

(ARIAL)

Monday morning I made Brad help us cook breakfast for the family. He wasn’t totally lost in the kitchen but he had a lot to learn. He didn’t even complain when Mom put an apron on him while he cooked the sausage. He was cute standing there in his usual khakis and knit shirt, with the red apron in front. 

We had hardly pulled out of the driveway on our way to school, when Kerry asked me what he should say to Nicole when he saw her.

“I thought you called her yesterday,” I said.

“Yeah, I did. I did what you said I should do: I thanked her for going out to dinner with me and told her how much fun it was being with her. I didn’t say anything about her kissing me.”

“What did she say? You were on the phone with her for quite a while.”

“We talked about lots of stuff. She said I didn’t act like a little kid and that I was more grown up than lots of older guys she knows. She told me how much she enjoyed dinner with us. We talked about the student musical production again and what they’re trying to do.”

“Did you ask her if she’d go out with you again sometime?”

“Yeah, I asked her sort of like you suggested, nothing specific. She said she would but she didn’t date much because she was so busy.” 

“Is that all?”

“Naah, she said she’d like to be friends with me but I’d better not fall in love with her.”

Brad laughed and I pinched his leg.

“She’s right, Kerry,” he said. “Just cool it. You don’t need to fall in love until you get at least as old as Arial and me.”

Kerry ignored his comment.

“Wednesday afternoon, after school, I’m going to that meeting at her house, you know, with the kids who are going to do the school musical.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Brad asked. “I thought you wanted an excuse not to do it.”

“I don’t know. It sounds like fun. Nicole told me who else is involved and it’s a good bunch. I’d like to do something with them.”

“How will you get home from her house?” I asked. “It’s too far for you to walk. Have you talked to Mom?”

“Not yet. Nicole said that wouldn’t be a problem. Her mom’s already taking some others home in her van. She said they do a planning session first and than practice dance routines afterwards. She said they’re usually through by five-thirty.”

“Well, what’s the musical going to be?” Brad asked. “If it’s not based on Terminator, what movie are they using?”

“She wouldn’t tell me,” Kerry answered. “She said they’re all sworn to secrecy and the only way I can find out is to agree to be in it.”

“Well, I think you should do it,” I said. “When you practice with me, you’re a very good dancer. You’re not like somebody else I practice with. I can’t make up my mind whether he’s the tinman or the scarecrow.”

“Naah, I’m the cowardly lion,” Brad said.

<><><>

On Wednesday after school, Kerry rode the school bus with Nicole to her house so he could meet with the others planning the school musical. Brad offered to give him and Nicole a ride but Kerry said he wanted to ride the bus. There would be about a dozen others who were going to Nicole’s house and he wanted to get to know them.

Brad picked me up after school as usual. When we got home we said hello to Mom and talked to her a little. Kavan and Kathryn were working at the plant nursery and would come in hungry. I asked Mom if I could do something to help with dinner. She said we were going to have a cold dinner with ham and potato salad and it was already done.

Brad had a little time before he had to go to work for his father so I took him in my room so we could fool around a little. It was nice to kiss and grope each other. I think I could have convinced him to stay a little longer if I’d tried. 

I decided to get my schoolwork out of the way so I wouldn’t have to do it later. I wanted to talk to Kerry about the meeting when he got home and I had a book I wanted to finish reading. I had just put my school books away when a car pulled up in our driveway, a door slammed, and I heard Kerry and a girl yelling something when the car drove away.

He was bubbling over about the meeting, how nice the gals and guys were, and how much fun it was to be with them. I tried to get him to tell me about the musical but he said he didn’t know anything yet and wouldn’t know until they decided he would have a part. Even then, he said, he’d be sworn to secrecy.

I stuck my tongue out at him and then decided I’d better be nice to him so I hugged him. He was sweaty and stinky and so I told him he was. He begged Mom to let him eat before he showered and she gave him a roll and a glass of milk and sent him to the shower.

Thursday night at dinner, Kerry asked permission to go to Nicole’s after school on Friday. He said some of the kids were going to practice dance routines and they wanted to see if he could do them too. He said Nicole’s mom would drive a bunch of them home again. Dad gave Kerry permission and then gave Mom a look like he was asking what was going on. She just shook her head and shrugged like she didn’t know. I didn’t know either but I wanted to find out.

After school on Friday, Kavan and Kathryn were working again so Mom and I were the only ones home. About five, I heard the same van pull up in front of the house, some girls yelling, and then Kerry yelling back as he slammed in the front door.

When he came in the kitchen with me and Mom, he had a big grin on his face and he was starved as usual. He was dripping wet with sweat again and even stinkier this time. He also had a little lipstick smear at the corner of his mouth, faint lip prints on the cheek on the other side, and the colors weren’t the same. Mom didn’t say anything but I know she saw the lipstick. She just gave him a couple of cookies and a glass of milk and told him to the hit the shower again. I think he ate the cookies in two bites and drank the milk in two swallows. Then he went down the hall to his room, singing some silly song that I’d never heard. “Why is everybody always picking on me?” He was funny when he tried to sing in a low voice.

Kavan and Kathryn came in about five-thirty and Mom decided they needed to shower before dinner too. Dad was only a few minutes behind them and I guess he didn’t smell bad when he hugged Mom because she just sent him to change. Dad came back in shorts and knit shirt, bare-footed like the rest of us. Mom stuck her head in the door to the basement and yelled for Kavan and Kathryn to come to dinner. I guess that’s when I realized Kerry hadn’t come back yet so I told Mom I’d go call him.

The bathroom door was open and nobody was in it. The one to his room was closed but I didn’t hear anything. I pushed his door open quietly and peeked in. Kerry was lying on his bed asleep. His shoes and socks and sweaty clothes were scattered on the floor. I could tell he hadn’t showered.

He was lying on one side, almost on his stomach, with one long leg straight and the other bent. One arm was twisted behind him and the other was bent around in front with his hand over his eyes. His long hair was all messy and tangled. The sun was shining in on him and the hair on his arm was shining like gold. I watched the slow rise and fall of his chest and I could have counted his ribs.

He had on just his briefs, pulled up on one side and stuck in his crack with a smooth butt cheek showing. Between his legs I could see something that I still wasn’t used to. After seeing him for so many years with just little marbles down there, it was still strange to see a bulge that looked like two eggs in his briefs. He was so innocently beautiful and so male sexy my heart ached just to look at him.

I felt a touch on my arm and turned around. It was Mom. I put one finger in front of my lips and moved aside so she could see what I was looking at. She put her arm around my shoulder and we both stood there and looked at him for a minute or so. Then she kissed me on the cheek and told me to get a couple of wet cloths.

When I came back, Mom was in the bedroom leaning over Kerry and I watched her looking at him. She gently brushed his hair off his face and then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He jerked, rolled over on his back, and looked up at her. He stretched his long arms and legs, took a deep breath, and then gave Mom his best grin. I got the same sleepy grin when he looked at the door and saw me.

Mom and I pulled him up to a sitting position and then wiped him off down to his waist with the wet cloths. He sat there through all of it, his eyes closed, that same silly grin on his face. Mom made him stand up and she pulled his briefs down. He didn’t say a word - just kicked them off and stretched again – long arms out to the side and tight muscles in his back and butt and legs. Then he stood there with eyes still closed and a big grin still on his face. His balls were hanging down low and his dick looked all warm and relaxed against them. I waited to see what Mom would do. When she started wiping him off in front, I did his butt and the back of his legs. Our hands sort of met between his legs. I watched when Mom skinned his dick back and wiped the head clean. I wanted to do it but I didn't say anything. When we finished, he finally opened his eyes and looked around.

“Is dinner ready?” he asked, standing there naked with his dick swollen enough so it looked like it was almost ready to stand up.

After dinner, I showered well before bedtime so I could wash my hair and let it dry. I was in my bed reading when I heard Kerry in the shower. I read for a while longer, halfway expecting him to come in my room to talk to me. Finally I went to his door, tapped, and heard him say, “Come in, Arial.”

He was sitting, if you can call it that, in front of his computer, slumped down in the chair with his feet propped up on the desk. He’d made something that attached to the arm of his chair so he could use his wireless mouse on it and he had his right hand on the mouse. He was killing aliens again. 

He had his left hand in his lap with his fingers curled around his balls. His dick, swollen but soft, was lying off to the side on his thigh. He also had on the new nightgown I’d bought him and it was pulled up to his waist. He did something and the screen froze.

“Like it?” I asked.

He quickly glanced down at his dick. “Yeah, it’s nice.”

“Silly, I meant the nightgown, not your dick. Stand up.”

He stood up. “I knew what you meant. I was talking about the nightgown. But I do like my dick. I'm glad I've got another Stuart one.”

I’d bought me and him and Brad flannel nightgowns the last time Mom and Kathryn and I had gone shopping. Even in cold weather, Brad ended up sleeping naked most of the time when he slept with me. Since he was so tall, his arms and shoulders were uncovered and cold too often. I thought he and Kerry both might like something that kept their arms and shoulders covered and let them be naked below when it was pulled up. 

I’d got Brad an extra-large and it fit him just right in the shoulders. I’d got Kerry a large size and it was a little too big in the shoulders but I wanted it to be loose and comfortable. On both of them, the nightgown came down to mid-thigh when they were standing. Brad said his was just long enough to cover his dick when it was hanging down but he was just bragging. Kerry’s covered his dick all right but it was making a nice bulge in front.

“It looks like it fits OK. What were you doing?” I asked.

“You mean playing with my dick or playing with the computer?” he answered.

“On the computer, Squirt. You know what I meant.”

“Relaxing before I go to bed. I made it up two more levels tonight. The damn aliens get smarter as I go up. They almost got me. Do you want to try again?”

He got up and I sat down in his chair. He switched to the game with my name on it and the aliens got me again within a couple of minutes. 

I swiveled around in the chair so I was facing him and put my hand up under his nightgown. I slid my hand up his leg and around to his behind and his butt cheek felt as smooth as it had looked when I found him sleeping. Then I cupped my other hand under his balls with my fingers back between his legs. Everything felt so nice and warm and soft except for his dick; it was almost hard. 

“Who was kissing you this afternoon?” I asked.

“Nobody! What do you mean?”

“When you came in, you had one color lipstick on your cheek and another at the corner of your mouth,” I said. “Did Miss Nobody do that?”

“Oh, shit, everybody saw it at dinner?”

“No, Mom wiped it off your cheek. I wiped it off your mouth.”

“Thanks. I guess one of the girls put it on my cheek. It doesn’t mean anything. That’s just the way they are. They kiss their friends on the cheek, like they do in movies sometimes.”

I wrapped my hand around his dick and slid it back and forth. He caught his nightgown in his hands and pulled it up so he could see what I was doing. I pushed the skin back so the head was uncovered and then teased the smooth head with one finger. His dick jerked every time I touched it. Maybe all guys really are the same: just one little finger can make them a jerk.
 
“Well, how about the one on your mouth?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I guess I got that from Nicole. She kissed me on the mouth after we did a dance routine together. She kissed me again before I left. It’s just being nice. It doesn’t mean anything.”

I leaned over, held his dick down, and kissed it right on its shiny head. “It doesn’t mean anything,” I mimicked.

“It doesn’t, Arial. Some of the girls hug me when we do a dance routine. Guys hug me too. I know they’re not gay. It’s just the way they are.”

“Well, what were you doing that made them hug you and kiss you? Maybe I can do it with Brad.”

“It was just a dance routine that Nicole and Bob Hanson showed me. They did it together and I watched. Then Nicole asked me to do the same routine with her, doing Bob’s part. At the end of the routine, the guy and the girl sort of hug up together and he picks her up and swings her around in a circle. I just did the same stuff Bob did and, when I swung Nicole around and stopped, she kissed me on the lips. She said she couldn’t believe I could do exactly the same things Bob did after just seeing it once.”

He leaned back against his desk, spread his legs, and his nightgown fell down over his hard-on. I scooted the chair up a little closer and reached under his shirt again so I could play with him some more. He let his hands rest on the edge of his desk and watched what I was doing.

“You’ve always been a fast learner, Kerry. I’ve been telling you that when you’re dancing you just relax and enjoy it and let your body do what feels right.”

“I guess that’s the way it is. It’s not like I’m learning something. When I do it, I’m having so much fun I don’t even think about it. It’s like time stands still and I don’t even know there’s anybody else around but me and Nicole. I even did the routine with Bob, doing Nicole’s part, and it was sort of the same way, just the dancing moving me without me thinking.”

I let my hand wander all over under his shirt – up and down both legs, around a little on his stomach, touching back behind his balls, up and down a little on his dick, pulling the soft hair down there.

“Why did you do it with him?”

“They wanted to see if I could do it. After I did it with Nicole, she asked me if I could do it dancing her part with Bob. I just shut my eyes and kind of remembered what she’d done when she danced with him. Then I just did it. I even let him swing me around in a couple of circles. When we finished, he hugged me. I’m glad he didn’t kiss me though.”

“How did that go over with everybody?”

“I guess they liked it. When we finished, everybody was just standing around watching us. They even clapped when we finished.”

“Do you like Nicole?”

“Yeah, she’s really something. She just treats me like a regular guy, not like a little kid. I wish you’d help me think of something so I can ask her for another date.”

He pulled his nightgown up again and held it and we could both watch what I was doing.   

“What would you do if you were alone with her in her bedroom? She might want you to mess up the sheets with her. Will you be ready for that?”

“Shit, Arial, it’s not like I’m not trying to get in her panties. I’m just having fun with her.”

“Well, you should be ready for anything, shouldn’t you?”

“What do you mean, like, will I have a condom to use?”

I started sliding my hand back and forth on his dick, as slowly and gently as I could. It felt so hard underneath the skin. I liked watching the skin sliding over the head and then sliding back to uncover it again. 

“I don’t know, Kerry. What you and Nicole do is your business but you’ve got to be responsible. You know Dad’s always preached that.”

“Well, do you want to buy me some rubbers too?”

“I will if you want me to. Who else has offered to get you some?”

“Well, Dad was first, Kavan was second, and Brad was third. If they all deliver, I think I’ll have enough to last me a few weeks.”

I looked down at his dick and slid my hand back and forth a couple of times.

“Your dick’s big enough now, isn’t it? I mean, like if you use a regular-sized condom, it will fit OK, won’t it?”
 
“Yeah, Dad says it is. He wants me to practice jacking off with one on so I’ll know how it feels.”

 I looked at his dick. It certainly looked big enough. I looked closer. The underside of his foreskin and the head of his dick looked red and irritated.

“Did you jack off when you showered?” I asked.

“Huh?”

“You heard me. Did you jack off in the shower?”

“Yeah! How did you know?”

“Did you use soap when you did it?”

“Yeah, you told me not to use baby oil in the shower.”

“Well, the skin on your dick looks red and irritated. Don’t ever use soap to jack off, Squirt. Baby oil’s always good to use. I just asked you not to use it in the shower because it gets on the bottom of the tub and it's slippery.” 

I leaned over and took the head of his dick in my mouth and sucked gently on it and teased it with my tongue. I didn’t know whether he wanted me to play with him but he was hard enough. I wanted to play with him even if he couldn’t do anything for me. I stood up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Lie down on the bed,” I said. “I’ll be back in a minute.” 

I went first in my bedr0om to get the salve I use when I have a little irritation. It was something Mom had recommended and I liked it because it was a crème and wasn’t greasy and it usually relieved any soreness or irritation after a night with Brad. I pulled my nightgown off and threw it on the bed. After that, I went in the bathroom and got a wet washcloth, a towel, and the baby oil. I guess I’d already made up my mind what I wanted to do.

He was waiting for me, stretched out on his bed, with his hand about like it had been when I walked into his room. His fingers were cupped around his balls, but now his dick was standing straight up and his foreskin was pulled down.  I sat down on the side of his bed and looked at his dick. It really was red and irritated looking on the end.

“You’ve got your period, haven’t you?” he asked.

“Yes, how did you know?”

“You’ve still got your panties on. I can tell you’ve got a pad in there. That means you’re almost finished, doesn’t it?”

I squeezed out a little bit of the salve on my finger and rubbed it on the head of his dick. Then I used my fingers to smear it all over the head and down the shaft where it was red looking. His dick twitched a couple of times while I was doing it. I didn’t know whether it was because it felt good or because it hurt him.

“Uh huh, I just use a tampon when it’s heaviest, like Wednesday and yesterday. I use napkins when it’s tapering off. Did I hurt you?”

“Nah, it feels good. Are you going to be ready for Brad when he comes over tomorrow?”

“I should be. It’s almost stopped already.”

“Did Mom get her period?”

I wrapped my hand around the shaft of his dick and slid it up and down as slowly and gently as I could.

“No. I’ve been asking her everyday. That’s the first thing Dad asks about when he comes in. Does that make it feel better?”

“Uh huh. I guess that means she’s pregnant, doesn’t it?”

“Maybe. It’s a little too soon to know. When you’re not on the pill, your periods are not as regular. She could just be late. It happens.”

 “I hope she is. I don’t understand why she wants another baby but, if it’ll make her happy, I hope she’s pregnant.”

“Me too. I’d like to have a little brother or sister to help raise.”

“Yeah, that would be nice,” he said. “We could both love it, I guess. I know Mom and Dad will.”

“Would you like me to do you again?”

“Yeah, that’d be nice too.”

He put his hands together behind his head and waited. I swapped hands and slid my left hand up so his foreskin covered his dick and there was a little wrinkled circle of skin at the tip. I thumbed up the cap on the baby oil, squirted just a small amount right on the little wrinkled circle, and then smeared it all over.

“The way they’ve been looking at each other and smiling, you’d think they were newlyweds who’d never had a baby before,” I said. “I don’t understand it but Mom says it’s what her heart wants.” 

Kerry and I both watched my hand slowly sliding up and down on his dick. I liked feeling it when it was so hard and stiff and the oil made everything so smooth. 

“You’re ambidextrous, aren’t you?” he said. “I hope Brad appreciates that tomorrow night.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can jack him off with either hand. If one gets tired, you can just swap.”

“Silly, I don’t think I’ll have to use my hand.”

“When Luke and Rachael move back, you can baby-sit with little Kieran Lee and James Connor both. Shitty diapers. Puking all over everything. Crying all night. You’ll probably never want to have any kids with Brad.”

“Don’t say that, Kerry. I don’t mind changing Kieran Lee, even when he's shitty. Last time we kept him and little Paul, you liked holding him after we bathed him, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, he’s kind of nice. I just don’t want one like him for a long time.”

“Well, you just be careful then. I’d like to have a baby with Brad, just not anytime soon.” 

“I wish I could be your baby,” he said. “I’d bury my face in your breasts and suck on your nipples until I got a stomach full of warm milk and then I’d go to sleep.”

“Would you like to try it?” I asked.

I lay down on the bed beside him and turned toward him. He didn’t answer. He just moved down on the bed, turned toward me, put his hand on my hip, and found my left nipple with his mouth. I put my hand behind his head and held him and let him suck. I started humming the go-to-sleep lullaby and he shut his eyes. I liked him being my baby; I always had.

“Are you asleep yet, little baby,” I asked.

He nodded just a tiny bit, never turning loose of my nipple.

“I think that one's dry, little baby. Would you like me to do something with your little pee-wee?”

He took his mouth off, nodded again, and rolled onto his back with his hands under his head again. His little peewee was sticking up at an angle over his stomach. I could see something new there – a faint trail of hair from his naval down to his dick.

I crawled over him and lay down on the other side so I could use my right hand. There was still enough oil on his dick so I wasn’t worried about irritating it anymore. I just did it slowly and watched how he reacted. When I saw his balls draw up and his stomach muscles get tense, I tightened my grip and moved my hand a little faster. He started grunting and then shot out a few spurts on his chest and stomach. I relaxed my grip and moved my hand slower and slower. Finally I just held it a minute or so until I felt it begin to soften. I milked it down and squeezed out another white drop on his stomach.

“Thanks, Arial. I like being your baby,” he whispered, eyes still closed.

“You just lie still now, little baby, and let me clean you up,” I whispered.

I cleaned up the little white strings and puddles of semen with the towel first and then gently wiped his dick off with the washcloth. I applied another little bit of the salve to the head and foreskin, pulled the skin back over the head, and coated his dick and balls with just a touch of baby oil. Finally I leaned over, kissed his tummy and his dick, and pulled his nightgown back down. When I straightened up, he was looking at me.

“There, little boy, you can go to sleep now."

“Thanks, Arial. I love you too.”

“Even when we’re silly like this?”

“Yeah, especially then. Goodnight.”

He turned on his side and closed his eyes. I looked at him for a moment longer, thinking about the way I loved him. Finally, I turned out the light and went back in my room. I went to bed and dreamed a good dream about having a baby.

<><><>

On Wednesday of the first week in May, Brad asked me again to go to Cold Creek Canyon with him. He said the weather prediction for the weekend was for warm sunny days. A family birthday party for me was planned for the following weekend and after that there would be school activities every weekend until school was out for summer. He said it might be our last chance if I wanted to see something special. He wouldn’t tell me what it was but he said it would be worth the trip.

I asked Mom if I could go and she said I could. I gave her Brad’s cell- phone number and the number for the park-ranger station. I told her we had to check in there and they would know exactly where we were. 

I told her we wanted to leave early Saturday morning and I wanted to fix a good breakfast for Brad. She said she’d be up early too and we’d make a big breakfast for everybody. I knew Kavan and Kathryn would be working all day and Mom usually tried to send them off well fed. She said she wanted to get as many as possible of the plants Kavan and Kathryn had brought home into the ground in the lot next to ours. She said Dad was going to help and Kerry would too even if he didn’t know it yet. 

Brad and I were on our way a little after eight o’clock. He said it was about a forty-minute drive to the park and then we had to check in with the rangers. After that, we’d drive a little more, then walk a mile or so, then cross the creek, and we’d be at the dragon’s nest about mid-morning.

The park rangers all knew Brad and they were very nice to us. The one who checked us in told us that the place we wanted to see wasn’t on park maps because it was so fragile. He reminded Brad that we should leave nothing but our tracks and take out only what we brought in. He asked Brad why he wanted to see that area and Brad said he wanted to show me the dragon’s blood and the dragon’s eggs. I didn’t know what they were talking about but the ranger did. 

He asked Brad which route he was going to use and Brad told him he was going to the end of the park service area, then walk down the hill to the creek, and wade across it. He asked Brad if he’d done that before because the creek was up a little and might be deep there. Brad told him he’d expected that and we would be OK wading it. I wasn’t so sure when I heard him say it might be deep.

Brad gave the ranger his cell-phone number and asked him to call if anybody else was going to the same place. We were about to leave when the ranger asked us if we’d like to be honorary park rangers for the day. I didn’t know what that meant and he explained that we would be expected to report any damage or vandalism to the area. He even gave us a couple of little badges that said “Park Ranger for the Day” on them.

We drove a few miles further and then parked and walked down a steep hill to the creek. The hillside was almost impenetrable with bushes but Brad finally found a path to follow. The big trees were so thick it was almost like twilight under them. By the time we got down the hill, I was glad Brad had told me to wear jeans and a sweatshirt with my hiking boots. When we got to the creek, we finally broke out in an open area. I couldn’t see anything but a rock wall, almost a cliff, on the other side. The creek curved around, hugging the cliff on the other side, and there didn’t seem to be any place to go when we crossed. I guess Brad could see I was puzzled. He struggled out of his backpack and stood looking at me.

“Trust me,” he said. “We’re close to it. You just can’t see it yet. We’ve got to get across the creek first.”

I looked at the creek. It was moving slowly but it looked deep like the ranger had said. It also looked cold.

“OK, Mr. Honorary Ranger,” I said, “how do we do that?”

“I’m going to wade across,” he said. “You can wade with me or I’ll carry you.”

“We’ll get our clothes wet,” I said. “Is that why you asked me to bring some shorts and a shirt?”

“We won’t get our clothes wet,” Brad said. “They’ll be in a plastic bag. The only thing that gets wet is us. We’ll wade naked.”

I looked at the creek. I couldn’t tell how deep it was. I knew he wouldn’t expect me to do anything dangerous but I wasn’t ready to wade across.

“Brad, are you sure?” I asked. “I don’t see any place to go when we get across.”

“I’m sure,” he said. “I know exactly where we’re going. Trust me. Go stick your hand in the creek.”

I walked out on a rock and found a place to put my hand in the water. It was like ice. I turned and looked at Brad and he was grinning like a jackass.

“Do you want to wade with me? Or would you rather I carry you?” 

“It’s freezing, Brad. It’s a lot colder than the creek behind our house.”

“Why do you think they call it Cold Creek? A few miles upstream, it comes out of the rocks looking just like this. It’s coming from under a plateau that’s close to the mountains. It never gets warm, not even in the summer.”

“Well, what do you want me to do?” I asked.

“Let me carry you.”

“OK, then I don’t have to take my clothes off, do I?”

“What if I drop you and you get your clothes wet? What’ll you do then? You’ll freeze your butt off.”

I liked that idea of him carrying me, especially if we were both naked, so I did what he told me. We both stripped down to our birthday suits. He pulled a couple of black plastic bags out of his backpack and put my clothes and shoes in one and his in another. He tied a piece of string around the top of one bag, tied the same string to the other bag, and hung them around his neck. I thought he looked silly standing there naked with two black plastic bags hanging down on his chest but he seemed satisfied with it. He put them back down and looked at me.

“OK, are you ready?”

I nodded. I didn’t know what I was ready for but I trusted him. He picked me up in his arms, I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he started wading slowly out in the creek.

“I may get your butt wet but I’ll try to hold you out of the water,” he said.

I held on tight while he waded further. The water came up and up as he got further out and I held my breath waiting to see what would happen. I knew it had to be up to his waist when I could have reached down and put my hand in the water. He kept wading, slowly, and I could tell he was trying to find where to put his feet. 

“Hold on,” he said. “I’m going to lift you. This is the deepest part.”

I held tight while he lifted me even higher. I felt his hard muscles holding me. He bent over and kissed the side of my breast and then winked at me. I liked being carried by him. 

He took a few more steps, feeling with his feet, and then the water began to get shallower. After a few more steps, he strained and stepped up on something. I looked down and could see a flat rock about four feet below me. Brad lowered me gently until my feet were in the icy water and we both waded up closer to the cliff wall. Finally he held my hand while I stepped out of the water onto another rock shelf. He climbed up beside me and pulled me up against him. I put my arms around him with my hands on his buns.

“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asked.

It hadn’t been bad for me but I knew it had been for him. His body below his waist felt like ice. I could feel a hard little protrusion against my stomach. I was glad he’d carried me. I pulled his head down and held him while I kissed him.

“Thank you, Brad,” I said.

He pushed me away and turned back to the creek.

“Wait here and I’ll go get my backpack and our clothes,” he said.

I still didn’t know where we were going so of course I waited. He was slow and careful going back and I got to watch his tight little butt disappear under water. When he got to the other side, he put on his backpack again and then slung the plastic bags around his neck. I watched this time as his frozen little dick and balls disappeared under the water. He was back with me in a couple of minutes.

“OK, it’s easy from here on,” he said.

He took my hand and we walked carefully upstream along the rock shelf, just a foot or so from the creek beside us. We’d gone just a short distance when I saw a crack in the wall ahead of us. As we got closer, I could see there was an opening to one side leading upward. We had an easy climb up through the opening and finally reached level ground again. I could see an open area a short distance away that looked like a huge almost-flat rock with only a little vegetation growing in places on it. I could see bright sunlight on the rock and what looked like little patches of red scattered around on it.

“Is this it?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, “this is the dragon’s nest. You’ll see why in just a minute.”

He led me out of the trees and onto the flat rock. It was huge. The rock l0oked like one formation except for occasional cracks in it, all leading toward the creek. In some of the cracks, there were bushes or little trees growing. All over the rock, in depressions, there were spots of something that was bright red. There must have been hundreds of them. 

Brad dropped our clothes and then the backpack and held my hand while we stood and looked around. The landscape was like nothing I’d ever seen. It was beautiful in a strange sort of way. I hugged up against his side and he put his arm around my shoulders and we stood there naked for a few minutes, just looking at everything.

“Do you want to put your clothes back on?” he asked. “I think you’ll be warm enough in your shorts and shirt. You’ll need your boots to walk on the rocks.”

“Do we have to?” I asked.

“No, I guess not. If you’re comfortable like this, I’ll be OK when I get warm again.”

I looked down at his dick. It was drawn up so small it looked like it belonged on an old statue. His balls were pulled up close to his body in one neat little package. He saw where I was looking.

“You’re cute,” I said.

“Thanks,” he said. “If you tease me about it, you can get back across by yourself.”

“Would it really be OK if we just stayed like this?” I asked. “Do you think we’ll be the only ones here?”

“Yeah, I think so. It’s not on any of the park maps and it’s too hard to get to if you don’t know the shortcut. The only other way to it is a hard walk over rough terrain for a couple of miles. We just found the shortcut by accident when we were wading up the creek. The water was a lot lower that day.”

We put our socks and boots back on and Brad put his backpack and the bags with our clothes on a little rise where we could watch them. He took out his cell-phone and put it on top of everything else. He held my hand and led me to one of the little red pools.

“This is the dragon’s blood,” he said. “When the dragon was wounded, he hurt so bad he swung his long neck around and threw drops of blood all over the rock. Every spring you can see them for a month or so.”

I looked close at the little depression and saw that the red stuff was something that looked like a mat of the tiniest flowers I’d ever seen – just a roughly-circular area of blood-red little flowers.

“It’s beautiful,” I said. “What is it?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t think anybody’s ever decided what it is. It’s something like the lichens around here. You’ll see every-color lichen under the sun on the rocks. This stuff just grows in all the depressions, never out on the rocks. The depression has a little soil in it and the stuff grows in that. It blooms in the spring and turns dark in the summer. In the winter it looks like sand.”

We walked around on the rock for a while looking at the pools of dragon’s blood and the other lichens on the rocks. There were so many different kinds and colors and they were all beautiful when you looked closely at them. At one place I heard water running and gurgling.

“Where’s the water?” I asked.

Brad pointed. “It’s running down that long crack in the rock over there. It comes out of the ground over there” – he pointed again – “and runs down the crack to the creek. The rock goes back under the ground in all directions from here and it probably keeps rainwater from seeping further down. That makes the water run out on the rock in lots of different places around the edges.” 

We walked over to the place where the water was running. It was just a big crack in the rock, big enough to fall into it and the water was about five or six feet down. It was so dark in the crack I could hardly see anything.

Beside the crack I saw another depression that had water in it. I looked and saw that the depression was actually a circular hole a few feet across going down in the rock.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“That’s where the dragon’s eggs are,” he said. “Would you like to see one?”

I said I would and he went over to his backpack. He untied something that was rolled up at the bottom of the backpack and carried it back. When he unrolled it, I saw it was an old blanket with U. S. Army stenciled on it.

“These old wool blankets wear like iron,” he said. “I’ll bet this one is fifty years old and there’s no telling what it’s been used for. It smells pretty bad when it gets wet.”

He folded the blanket in half and put it down with one end close to the hole. He lay down on his stomach on the blanket and stuck his arm down in the water. It was clear but as soon as he put his arm in it became muddy. He lay there with his arm in the water for a minute or so, looking up at me and grinning. Finally he got up and held out his hand to me. There was a perfectly-round rock, about the size of a tennis ball in it.

“Dragon’s egg!” he said.

“Brad, it’s a rock.”

“Yeah, but how many times have you seen one as round as this? This is a genuine dragon’s egg.”

“OK, if you say so.”

“Here, let me show you,” he said. He laid down and put his arm down the hole again. He started bringing out rocks of various sizes but all of them almost round. They ranged from baseball size down to marble size. And they were all rocks. He put them around the edge of the hole and I guess they could have been dragon’s eggs.

“How do they get in the holes?” I asked.

“When the rain is heavy, the crack can’t carry off all of the water. It runs over this area of the rock and over all these holes. The park rangers say the water probably swept some rocks into a depression and they got trapped and were swirled round and round. That eventually deepened the depression into a hole and smoothed the rocks into round balls; neat, huh?” 
  
He used his foot to push the eggs, one by one, back in the nest. Then he led me around and showed me that the only place the holes were found was near the crack. After he showed me, I could see how the rock surface had been smoothed and there was no debris in the area near the crack. He said they’d traced down the crack and found all sorts of rocks and other stuff that the water had swept down to the creek when it overflowed the crack. We walked back to where we’d left our clothes and he pulled his watch out of his backpack.

“It’s a few minutes after twelve,” he said. “Are you hungry?”

“Yes, but I think I’d better get out of the sun for a while. I don’t want to get blistered.”

“OK, you get the blanket and I’ll carry the rest of the stuff. We’ll find us a shady place somewhere around the edge of the rock.”

It took a few minutes but we did find a shady area under some huge old trees at the edge of the rock. The sun and warmth had felt good for a couple of hours but I was ready to relax in the shade for a while. Brad spread the blanket for us, then sat down, and I sat down with him. He took off his shoes and socks so I followed his example. It was nice to be there with him, sprawled out on the blanket in the shade with the breeze blowing through the trees.

“Would you do one more thing with me before we eat?” he asked.

“You know I will, Silly,” I answered.

“Not that. I want us to sit up, side by side, like those Buddhist guys do when they meditate. I want you to close your eyes and listen.”

“To what?”

“I don’t know. Just whatever.”

He sat up and tried to fold his long legs up. I folded mine up and then put them in the lotus position. He looked at me and tried to do it too and then gave up. He shut his eyes, still grinning, and I shut my eyes too. We sat there for a few minutes before he said anything.

“What do you hear?”

“Lots of stuff.”

“Tell me.”

“I hear birds, all kinds of birds. I hear water running. I hear the wind moving through the trees.”

“Do you hear the squirrel?”

“No, where?”

“In the tree above us.”

I listened for a minute or so and then heard a funny noise.

“There, that’s him. He’s fussing at us. We’re under his tree. He wants us to leave.”

“He told you that?”

“Sure. What kinds of birds do you hear?”

“I don’t know, Brad. Just birds.”

“I heard crows in two different directions, a blue jay, a cardinal, and, I think, a mocking bird. They imitate other birds so I’m not sure. There’s one bird to our left that’s looking at you.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because he’s saying ‘pretty, pretty, pretty.’ He sees you.”

I listened carefully for a minute and I did hear one bird repeating it’s call, three or four times, then resting, and then repeating it again.

“Silly, that’s not what he’s saying.”

“It is too!”

“It’s not. He’s a Southern bird. He’s saying “purty, purty, purty.”

“Well, anyway, I think he’s looking at you when he says it,” he said. “Let’s eat and then I’ll tell you why I wanted you to come with me, OK?”

Brad had told me not to worry about what we’d eat and drink during the day. He said he’d bring the same thing he did when he hiked and I could try something different. It wasn’t really that different; it was just plain and simple. We had bread with cheese, nuts, dried fruit, and, for dessert, two navel oranges. He brought a gallon of water in one of the plastic bags he used when he hiked and he held the bag for me to drink out of it. He showed me how he could push his thumb in the stem-end of the orange and then peel it with his thumb and fingers in just a minute or so. I got orange juice on my breasts and he said he’d clean it off for me.

When we were finished, he opened the plastic bags with our clothes and pulled them out. He picked up my boots and stuffed them in my jeans, one down each leg. He put them at the edge of the blanket and then put my other clothes on top.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m making you a pillow. You can lie down on the blanket and put your head on this. I’m sorry I didn’t bring you a real one.”

I watched as he did the same thing with his boots and jeans and put his pillow beside mine.

“Are we going to take a nap?”

“We can if you want to. I’d like to talk a little bit first, OK?”

“Of course, what did you want to talk about?”

“Us.”

“Us? Just us? That’s all?”

“Yes, Arial. Be serious. This is important. You need to listen to me and then think about what I say.”

“OK. I can be serious.”

I lay down on the blanket with my head on the pillow. Brad leaned, propped on one arm, looking at me. He had his usual silly grin on his face. I couldn’t help but smile at him. I put my hands together on my tummy and shut my eyes. Let him look!

F0r a minute or so, nothing happened. Then he put his hand on top of mine and just barely brushed his lips against mine. I opened my eyes and looked into his, just inches away.

“Arial, I do love you,” he whispered. “You’re so beautiful. I can’t believe how lucky I am.”

“I feel the same way, Brad. I hope we can always be together.”

He pulled back so that his face was just above mine. His eyes were locked on mine.

“There’s something I’ve got to ask you, Arial. I don’t want to but I’ve got to.”

“What?”

“Luke was your first, wasn’t he?”

I looked in his eyes, thinking about what to say. I couldn’t think of anything I’d said or done which would have led him to guess. I couldn’t believe anybody else would have told him. I knew I had to be honest, no matter what.

“Yes,” I nodded.

He kissed me very lightly just on the tip of my nose.

“Are your parents still going down to bring Rachael and the babies back? I think you said they would sometime soon.”

“Yes, in just a couple of weeks. Luke will come with their car when the movers leave. They’re moving in with the Andersen’s for a while.”

“How’s everything going to be when they move back here, I mean between us?”

“The same as they’ve been since last December, Brad. No different except maybe better.”

“Do you love him?” he asked.

I had to think for a few seconds about that. “Yes, Brad. I love him. I’m not ashamed of that. I’ll always love him. But I don’t love him like I love you. I thought I did but I don’t. I can live the rest of my life without him without crying. I don’t want to live the rest of my life without you.”

“Do your parents know?”

“Yes, they know. It happened last August when we all went to the cabin with the Andersens.”

“Will you tell me about it, just enough so I’ll know how to handle it when we’re around him and Rachael? Not now, just sometime soon?”

“Yes. But please don’t worry about it. I’ve told you how he came to live with us and how he’s almost like an older brother to me. Please don’t hate him.”

“Don’t even think like that, Arial. It happened before you ever knew me. Just like something happened to me with Holly before you ever knew me. You don’t hate her, do you?”

“No, I’m not jealous. I don’t hate her.”

“You were still a virgin to me, Arial. I hope I was that way to you. I sure as hell didn’t know much about making love with a woman. I had no idea I could feel this way about someone.”

There was something under the blanket that was sticking in my back. I sat up, stretched, and then pulled by legs up in the lotus position again. Brad didn’t even try it. He moved to the other end of the blanket and sat up too, legs bent, leaning forward with his arms on his knees. I couldn’t help but smile. He didn’t look like an old statue anymore. His balls were hanging down between his legs so low they were resting on the blanket. His dick looked soft and full and it was hanging almost down to the blanket too. He saw where I was looking and looked down between his legs.

“You’re still cute,” I said.

“Show me yours,” he whispered.

I leaned back, spread my legs like his, and tilted my pelvis so he could see my pussy. He looked at it and finally up at my face.

“You’re still beautiful,” he said.

“You are too, Brad. You might not think you are but you’re beautiful to me. Everything about you”

His eyes locked on mine again and I wondered what he was thinking.

“There’s something I’ve got to tell you, Arial. I don’t want to but I’ve got to. You’ve been honest with me and I’ve got to tell you about it.”

“What?”

“I’m afraid to tell you. I don’t want you to stop loving me.”

“Silly, what could you have done that’s so bad you can’t tell me? It can’t make me stop loving you.”

“A couple of years ago, when I was fifteen, I had… I don’t know what you’d call it, I had… another guy and I had sex with each other for a while.” 


TO BE CONTINUED:
