Friday June 26, 1992
A summer night is a field of mysteries, in four dimensions, ageless and wide as the universe on a clear night. It goes on, it never stops, good things, bad things, invokes our instincts to move to shelter, take stock, secure our interests and draw near to someone.
But it’s still a hazy late afternoon when Nick pulls onto the property, just before the sign McDONNELL’S AUTO AND FABRICATION and he spots the cabin up off to the left, looks as well made as its contents, sturdy, blocks and lumber.
He’d brought a cooler and grabbed six bottles of 7Up since that’s what sounded good, pulls up in front of the cabin which looks like gets mowed with a wide deck along with the rest of the vast property. From what she’s described it goes back quite a ways into the woods. He’s got some butterflies for the usual reasons.
What certainly doesn’t help his nerves is when this blond steps out of the cabin, with a cooler and her purse, wearing a light button-up top, beige plaid skirt above the knees, tan strap-on shoes and those shades, it’s all a bit more voltage than he’s wired for. She gets into the car and he just takes it all in as she buckles up, looks his way, “Hi there.”
“Who you tryin’ to kill, lady?”
Noreen just looks away and acts exasperated, channeling Sally Field, “Does this thing move?”
He pulls her in slowly and she ends the kiss after two beats,
“Take a left out of the driveway, unless you just want to sit here all night.”
“I’ll go wherever you want."
This gets a smile, “Thanks though. I’m tempted to think you’re exaggerating to make me feel good but I’ll take it.”
They proceed on and get to the state route, she’s quiet but seems content, Nick can’t think of anything to say, except, “what do you think of this election?”
“I try not too. It could be worse...well, let me say this, I try not to talk about it with my family since I don’t see things like the guys do, and my sis-in-laws just stay out of it.”
“Oh, yeah, I don’t tend to talk about politics much. Things are pretty much gonna be what they are, I just dwell on technical things and vote best I know how.”
“That’s refreshing Nick. Since you asked...I’m getting fed up with those who need to be part of a wolf pack, you know, dig in to their views so hard that they either attack or retreat together, and just fight it out and nothing gets done. I suppose we have to have the parties but it just seems like no one wants to compromise.”
“Gridlock.”
“Yeah that’s a symptom of it. This Perot character would be a real kick in the nuts if he got in but I don’t see it happening.”
“Me neither. He’s biting a big hunk of Bush it looks like.”
She just giggles and tries to hide it.
“What?”
“Biting a big hunk of bush.”
“Oh my God I didn’t even catch that.”
She laughs it out some, “Sorry, feeling giddy...anyway...yeah you might say I’m an independent but I care about a lot of things that you’d call left of center, like education, health care and people things. You’ve got folks that are afraid of big government but they forget that it’s supposed to be OF the people, and that fear just takes over. I dunno, just frustrates me.”
“We’re all in this together, aren’t we.”
She grabs his right hand that’s dangling off the armrest, “yep.”
In a couple more turns they are at the drive-in and finding a spot, they agree way at the back. They oriented the screen facing north and so the setting sun is still on their side but not much of a threat.
“Wanna eat in here or out on the trunk? I brought a bankie.”
“Wow check out the boy scout, are you always this well prepared?”
“Just thought it might be nice.”
“Howbout the hood and we can people watch?”
So they set up camp on the ample warm white-ish hood, munch on the bologna and cheese and she brought a fresh bag of Lays and some watermelon slices.
“Wow, she was in my high school class,” Nick says while eyeing a gal heading up to the playground area with two toddlers, “She must have squeezed out twins.”
“Yeah I never understood how or why anyone would let that happen when you’re that young.”
“When we walked at graduation there were at least three or four waddling with a bump.”
“They must have forgotten to pick the seeds out of their watermelon.”
“Is that how that works? This is really good by the way.”
“I could live on this stuff in the summer, forgot to bring some salt.”
“Doesn’t need it.”
“Looks like they took down the speaker things now that everyone has FM capability.”
“I used to have one of those from a flea market but our old church was able to use it for choir monitors, at least for a while.”
“Those could be collectible someday.”
“Yeah didn’t think of that. So what’s the first flick?”
“Usually they do the most family-friendly first, looks like Beethoven with the big dowgie, then Sister Act with Whoopi, then the night owls get Cousin Vinny.”
“How late did you wanna stay?”
“I’m here as long as you are.”
Before long the previews start and Nick switches on the radio, but since they can hear it just fine from everyone else they just stay on the hood for now. There’s an ad for Pic mosquito strips, Nick wonders,
“Doesn’t seem like many mosquitoes this year.”
“No been pretty dry, we’ve been lucky out on the property even with all the trees.”
Beethoven gets going and they hold hands on the hood a while, then decide it’s cool enough to regroup on the front seat, that magical breeze has made its debut. They move the bench all the way back then Nick wads up the blanket to lean against on the driver’s side and she leans back on him. There’s still plenty of daylight left and the evening is fully charged. She takes her shoes off and sets her feet on the passenger door. Nick can’t keep his eyes on the screen, she has her feet crossed, and he can’t quite get a mental fix on what else is going on, except that her legs are smooth as glass, eventually he wonders if she had done anything special like waxing. He wonders what she thinks of his reaction to all this with what’s beneath her lower back, things are starting to come alive.
After a few more moments Noreen softly sighs and maneuvers her left hand to the affected area, and starts massaging. “I can see we’re going to have to deal with this sooner than I expected.”
“I didn’t mean to...”
She squeezes and he shuts up. She continues the same pattern for a bit then slides down to where the back of her head is able to keep massaging that. It’s becoming quite clear that she’s on a mission of sorts, with a knack for knowing just when to take a turn and keep him guessing.
“Keep watch,” she commands, then turns over and curls up on the seat. She doesn’t hesitate to undo the fly and dig out his eager friend. “It’s about time we met, don’t you think?” as she gently strokes.
Nick is still in suspended disbelief, in a way this feels like a setup but he’s not about to complain.
She takes him in her mouth, fully, with that hair splayed all around as it had when she was reviewing his lab report, just kneading, going somewhere but not in any hurry. She just keeps on and he tries to keep watch out at a new landscape of cars, people walking around, too far to see, and many with similar goings on to conceal. None of them matter. He’s got the right gal and she’s a bit too much but never in a wrong way. The St. Bernard bops around the screen and it all goes on. He has no idea what the plot is. We’ll get the tension out of the way then enjoy the other movies, but then, let’s not end it too soon.
The sky grows darker and the air a tad cooler, and at some point she finds a spot that makes him churn. “You got something for me?” She keeps on that spot and he knows it’s near, in a strange way he hopes she likes it but that seems silly, she always seems to, and this time it’s not making her sick, so-
The moment arrives and he jerks, she puts a hand on his chest as if to reassure, and once it’s done she plants a kiss on the end.
“Mmmm now I have part of you inside me.”
Nick feels paralyzed but she repacks his shorts and curls back up on his chest. This has never happened, a female so caring and understanding. He can tell she’s no expert at the technical aspects, but took her time and made the slow burn worth it. He thinks he dozes off for a few minutes and she just lays still.
Eventually he finds the movie winding up as one might expect and he starts thinking about what’s beneath that skirt.
“Wanna move to the back?”
“Nick what are you up to?”
He motions for her to help move the front seat forward, and she cautions, “just don’t bump the horn.”
They each look out for witnesses then crawl over the armrest. Nick grabs the blanket and repacks it on the same side then they lean on it and he just looks at her a few moments, they kiss, and he undoes her blouse. “Time for me to get to know these better.”
She helps with the bra and he finds them alert and ready. “Nick you might need to go easy, I tend to be pretty sensitive.”
So he finds the right balance, thankful for the admonishment, they’re so thick but he resists the urge to chew, plenty of room in between, she’s getting antsy, better explore further.
He slides down onto the floor and caresses her hips, kisses her knees, they taste as good as they always look, then starts up a thigh. “Nick you don’t have to.” He just keeps going, slowly, she seems unsure, he keeps going, he waits for her to pull back the Shroud of Mysteries, he keeps going, then slips his hands on her hips inside the Shroud, until he makes First Contact.
She’s definitely not wearing panties. He pauses and looks up at her in surprise, she smiles, “I had a feeling they would just get all messed up one way or another, hell they would have been drenched over an hour ago.”
Nick shrugs and starts licking again back at her inner thighs, then moving back in, around the lips, then he had a feeling where to head next, on the hood -
That was it, she jerks slightly and gasps, so he uses the same technique as upstairs, gentle, mix it up, then before she has to ask he explores within, first with the tongue, then with the fingers, lick the hood some more, find that spot in there.
This rhythm becomes hypnotic, it seems to be headed somewhere, and at what seems like an odd moment, she explodes.
It hits with a force he could not have been ready for, let alone the volume. In a split second he realizes he needs to reciprocate and take in as much as possible, so he swallows, then coughs-
“Oh baby you OK?”
“Yeah,” coughs some more, “just went down the wrong way.”
He gains his wits then leans in to continue, but she laughs, “Nick it’s OK, I finished, you finished me, the way that only you could.”
“Wow,” he says, then fishes under the passenger front seat and produces a hand towel.
She looks at it and at him, “Mister Boy Scout strikes again,” then grabs it and cleans up, then he does the same.
“How do you feel?”
“Better than you felt I bet, but it’s not a race, it’s just amazing, you know how to reach me.”
Then despite where he’d been she pulls him up for a kiss while lowering the Shroud.
After a few moments she speaks up. “OK, I really need to step outside for a minute.”
She crawls back over the front seat, slips out the driver door then squats out of view, and he can hear liquid hitting the ground.
As always, Nick can’t resist, “You really are wasting that out there.”
“Shut up and gimme that towel, Sport.”
So he does, and he exits after she climbs back in to do the same thing.
“Need the towel?”
“Nah I get three shakes remember?”
“Do you need any more shakes?”
“Not at the moment, no.”
“Good just checking.”
They reassemble as before in the front seat, in a haze of spent, and rejoin Sister Act already in progress. Noreen had said she was looking forward to the musical numbers and it’s cleverly done. Finally this gets to be very comfortable, almost too much so, for being in a car among mostly strangers in subdued lighting, but then, it’s an understood thing, a community of the moment, a when taking part in a musical group.
At some point Nick gets hankering for another pop and they share one. Not too long after that he thinks he smells a strange earthy aroma that he associates with that illegal plant that seems to show up here and there.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“God that stinks.”
“To be honest, I have partaken before, but usually just one or two hits to make the rest of the room seem more tolerable, if that makes sense.”
“I never have, it would probably make me cough up a lung.”
“Yeah it’s harsh, but look at it this way, if folks feel relaxed enough here to blaze up then we’ve got little to worry about.”
“Good point.”
Despite his best efforts, Nick starts to think about her body again. He resists the urge to explore in her shirt some more, since there’s no way things will top what happened earlier, so he just holds off, sometimes the wanting can be good too. He’s not ready to do the deed, not yet, it’s somewhere off in the ether, but not here and not tonight. She has a wonderful flavor, everywhere he’s explored, almost too good to be true.
“I can feel that you know,” she pipes up.
“It’s your fault.”
She just lets it drop. It’s completely dark now and you can hear a few bugs mixed in with the sisters. Some cars have left but more have arrived, but none too close to the white Cordobeast back in the corner. Maybe it looks too pimp to mess with.
Once the film goes to credits she flips over again, “OK buster, got any more where that came from?”
“You’re welcome to find out.”
It’s darker and she’s bolder. She undoes her top and slips her bra completely off, then perches on one elbow and undoes his shorts completely this time. She takes out his stuff and massages, stroking, then whispers, “play with my tits.”
So he does, and they play together, sometimes it’s just good to play, even if it doesn’t result in anything, but eventually, it does, and she leans in and makes sure it gets rubbed in.
“If you’re trying to kill me I like your style.”
“No I need you around too much.”
“Glad to hear it.”
She finds the famous towel and cleans him up then buttons her shirt back up and returns to where she was on his chest. Sometime during the beginning of the last feature he makes his way beneath the Shroud, she doesn’t mind, but gets into it quickly, and so begins the next slow burn until she twitches and dozes off.
Nick never completely falls asleep during Vinny but is able to follow it for the most part, very witty dialog and they are going out of their way to juxtapose two cultures here. But his awareness of her presence never goes away, they are cemented with their vital fluids, this is as close to mated as he’s ever known and beyond imagination, strange, yet, just right.
Vinny winds up and goes into credits. Nick takes a deep breath but she doesn’t stir. Engines start up and she is still asleep.
“Sweetie?”
“Hmm?”
“Movie’s over.”
“No. We stay here.”
“How long till the cops show up?”
“You’re not helping.”
“Yeah I suck.”
“I’ll do the sucking around here if you don’t mind.”
“Did you hear any complaints?”
She pops up with a tired, wry smile and leans in for a peck. “Nick this has been the best.”
“Aren’t we celebrating something?”
“Yeah you got a job.”
“Oh I sure did.”
This earns a very dirty look, then she looks to the side, smiles, “Well I did too so there ya have it. Alright, if we must, but this is under protest.” She plants herself in the passenger seat and buckles up.
“It’s over too quickly.”
“Well we just have to look forward to next time.”
“To next time.”
He fires up the Cordobeast and they head into the star-filled universe.
Nick pulls into his driveway at half past two, and thankfully sees her bra in the back seat before it has a chance to attract attention. He falls asleep quickly with it beneath his pillow.