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 A World of My Choosing   An Out-of-this-World Story by Gil Gamesh   Chapter
Nineteen   We were in our bed chamber, standing near the bed, hugging each
other.  I had my hands cupped under her ass cheeks with my fingers almost
touching between her legs.  She had her hands on my ass, pulling me against
her.  I could feel the hard knobs of her nipples against my chest.  My
penis, engorged but not quite ready to stand up, was pressed against her
smooth mound.  I wanted her so much and I didn't want to wait any longer.

   "Do you want to make love with me?" I asked.

   "No, I want to fuck you first," she said.

   "Huh?" I said, surprised.

   "You heard me, David.  I said I want to fuck you first.  Then I want you
to fuck me.  And I do mean fuck!  After that, we can be sweet and gentle
with each other and make love for the rest of the night."

   "You want to turn your hairless pussy loose on me first?  And then I can
turn my hairless beast loose on you?  And then we can make love if I can
still get it up?  Is that right?"

   "Yeah, that's right, damn it!  Now get your ass on that bed and spread
your legs."

   I was surprised by what she said.  She knew I wanted a partner, not a
subordinate, in everything especially in sex.  I wanted her to assert
herself but I hadn't expected her to be a...what...dominatrix?

   I crawled on the bed and stretched out on my back with my head on my
pillow.  I was thinking about the situation but not about defying her. 
Without thinking about her order to spread my legs, I reached down and
tugged my testicles out from between my legs, crossed my ankles, and let my
penis fall across my thigh.

   "Damn it, David; I said spread your legs!" she commanded in an
authoritative voice.

   I looked up at her, still standing, and saw her eyes.  If it's possible,
they were smiling at me.  Her mouth was tightly controlled but I thought I
could see a smile there too.  I smiled up at her and she lost it.  She
grinned at me and dimples appeared in her cheeks.

   "Come on, David; play with me," she pleaded.

   I slowly spread my legs and then she attacked me.  She attacked me;
that's the only way to describe what happened in the next few minutes.  She
quickly crawled on the bed between my legs and flopped on top of me with
all her weight.  I was glad I had spread my legs.  My testicles were
hanging down between them and were protected from her assault.  Her knees
pushed my legs farther apart but she didn't hurt my family jewels.

   She put her hands on the sides of my face and kissed me from forehead to
chin and ear to ear.  She wasn't the least bit gentle and slow about it. 
She was rough and demanding.  Then she fastened her mouth on mine and I
found out what it feels like to be tongue-raped.  She kissed me, bit my
lips, bit my tongue, and tried to stick her tongue down my throat, all with
a demanding urgency.

   I wrapped my arms around her and tried to keep her from squirming and
wiggling on top of me.  I bent my legs and locked them over hers, trying to
hold her still and barely succeeding.  I realized suddenly that our roles
were reversed and that everything was the opposite of the way we were with
me on top of her.  I knew I was about to be fucked and I wanted her to fuck
me.

   My penis had been warm and swollen and just shy of becoming erect.  Now
it engorged into its usual rigidity, ready to penetrate her.  But she had
her full weight on top of me and my penis was trapped between our two
abdomens.  I wanted to do something to get it in her but I also wanted to
let her play the role she had chosen.  I wanted her to do something with
it, to fuck me the way she wanted to do it.

   She was in no hurry.  She lifted her head and squinted down at me.  Her
breath was rasping in and out of her nostrils.  So was mine.  She wasn't
smiling.  She was devouring me with her eyes.

   Suddenly she moved downward on me and fastened her mouth on the juncture
of my throat and shoulder.  She bit me there and then started sucking.  I
didn't resist.  I let her mark me.  I was hers.

   She shoved my arms off her back and my legs off her legs.  I gave up and
lay there spread-eagled with my arms and legs out to each side, eyes
closed, tense in every part of my body but trying to relax and let her fuck
me.

   A minute later, she moved down again and sucked on one of my nipples and
then the other.  That was a totally new experience.  My penis was already
stiff but her teeth nipping at my little nubs made it even harder.

   Once again she moved downward.  This time she rose up, leaned back on
bent legs, and looked at my penis and testicles.  Without her weight on it,
my penis lifted up so that it hovered above my abdomen.  My testicles were
still relaxed and dangling between my legs.  Before, she had devoured my
face with her eyes.  Now she devoured my penis and testicles with her eyes
the same way.  I let her look.  This was her game.  I wanted her to play
it. I was enjoying it too.

   Then she leaned forward, held my penis straight up, and began to
ferociously devour it.  She licked it from my testicles up to the tip of
the head, bent over further, took the head in her mouth, slid her lips up
and down a few times, tried to suck the head off my penis, licked the area
where my foreskin is tied to the head, took more of my penis in her mouth,
bit down on the shaft and slid her teeth upward to the groove behind the
head, sucked on the head again, all the while playing with my testicles
with one hand and slowly sliding her other hand up and down the shaft so
far that the skin on my penis was stretched painfully tight.  She finally
rose up, looked at me, smiled, and then did it all over again.

   I lay there and let her do whatever she wished.  It wasn't my penis
anymore.  It was hers and she was fucking me with it or fucking with it or
fucking herself with it or something.  I didn't care.  I just didn't want
her to stop.  I'd never had an experience like it before, being fucked by a
woman, being totally under her control.

   She stopped.  I opened my eyes again and saw her looking at what she had
in her hand.  She nodded her head once, twice, and then made up her mind
about what she wanted to do next.  She moved up and over me, put one hand
in the center of my chest, spread her legs wide over me, held my penis with
the other hand, and rubbed the head up and down in her pussy.  It was wet,
almost drooling, or maybe it was my penis that was drooling.  When she had
the head wet, she notched it in the right spot, took a deep breath and with
it inhaled my penis, sucking it into her pussy until my testicles acted as
a stop.  Where we were joined looked strangely unfamiliar without any pubic
hair on either of us.

   Then she just sat there on top of me, with my penis buried to my
testicles in her pussy, motionless, eyes closed, a faint smile on her face.
I wanted to ram my penis into her as far as it would go and to keep on
doing it until I squirted a load against the entrance to her womb or maybe
squeeze the head of my penis through her cervix and into her womb so all of
my sperm would be there waiting for any egg that dared to descend.  I
forced myself to wait, to remain motionless so she could do whatever she
wanted.

   I was wondering what she was going to do next when she looked back
underneath herself and slowly raised up until just the head of my penis was
in her.  Then just as slowly she lowered herself back down until our two
hairless mounds met.  She looked up at me, smiled again, and then looked
back down.  I watched what she was watching, my penis being slowly exposed
and then engulfed again.  It was hypnotically fascinating to watch. 
Occasionally she would look at my face when my penis was fully inside her,
squirm around for a few seconds, smile just a little bit, and then lift up
again and watch.  I liked the way her mound looked without any pubic hair.
I wasn't so sure I liked the way mine looked but there was one thing any
man would like.  I know my penis wasn't any longer but it looked like it
had grown another inch.

   She began to move a little faster and at the same time she altered the
way she was moving.  She still rose up and slid back down on my penis but
now she leaned forward and added some sort of pelvic movement that almost
bent my penis.  I watched intently and it finally dawned on me that she was
doing something that pressed her clitoris against the shaft of my penis. 
Again I learned something new.

   I held my hands up, palms toward her, fingers spread, and she knew what
I was offering her: two hands to hang on to while she fucked me.  She put
her hands in mine, fingers intertwined, and resumed her wild ride.

   Suddenly she stopped, took one of my hands in hers, stuck my thumb in
her mouth, sucked it for a moment, then withdrew it, spit on it, and pushed
it down to the juncture of our bodies.  I knew what she wanted.  I felt for
her clitoris with my thumb, found it, and then held still, waiting for her
to tell me what to do.  She nodded once, said "Rub my button," and then
slowly started to ride me again.  I pressed my fingers against her stomach
and rubbed the juncture of her little lips with my thumb.  She slowly
resumed her ride, sliding up until part of the head of my penis showed,
down until her mound was against mine and nothing showed, and all the
while, my thumb was making lazy circles on her little button.

   I wanted her to come before I did.  I knew my penis could become too
sensitive after I came and it might lose its erection.  I didn't want that.
I wanted her to get the orgasm she was so intent on having.  For a short
interval I managed to let her ride me without feeling like I was going to
come.  I tried to think of something else other than the way she was
fucking me but it was no use.  I felt the first twinges of an impending
orgasm and, unless she stopped, I knew it was soon inevitable.

   She didn't stop.  In a few seconds more, my body reached that point of
inevitability where there was nothing I could do but squirt my semen into
her.  I gritted my teeth, every part of my body went stiff, and I gave her
a long pulsating series of squirts.

   I suppose she felt me coming inside her because she went wild, slapping
her pelvis rhythmically against mine with a ferocity that was almost
painful.  Just as the last of my orgasm began to fade away, she finally got
hers and I felt her vagina squeezing around the shaft of my penis.  She sat
there on top of me with a grimace of a smile on her face, with my penis
buried to the testicles in her, and with her pussy trying to amputate my
penis, until the storm subsided.

   When she finally rolled off me, she flopped flat on her back, grabbed a
pillow, and stuffed it under her hips.

   "Would you get me a towel, please?" she whispered.

   After Flagstaff, I was no longer so ignorant of a woman's body that I
wondered why.  I knew she expected to overflow from what I had ejaculated
into her.  I looked down at my penis.  It was lying like it was exhausted
on my stomach, still swollen but without stiffness.  It was glistening with
her juices from crown to root and streaked with white from my semen.  I
needed to piss and wipe off before I came back with a towel for her.  I
rolled out of bed.

   "Don't go `way," I said.  "I've got to pee.  I'll be back in a minute
with your towel."

   When I came back, she tucked the towel between her legs and went to the
bathroom.  She came back after a few minutes, crawled in bed with me, and
curled up with her head on my shoulder.

   We talked about everything, about our dreams for our lives in this new
world, about Iain and James and who else might be coming, what we were
going to have to do to survive, what we might try to do in guiding the
group about sex and love, and what we did and didn't want to be part of our
lives.

   Toward the last of it, Anna put her hand on my stomach and slowly moved
it down until she found my penis.  She played with it until I began to feel
a renewed hunger for her and it was standing suspended above my abdomen
again.  She wrapped her soft hand around it, moved it up and down for a
while, and then began to play with my testicles.  Finally I had enough
playing.  I wanted her again and, from the way she played with me, I knew
she wanted me too.  I pushed her over on her back, fastened my mouth on
hers, moved my hand down to the juncture of her legs, and slid one long
finger into her pussy.  I didn't need to stir up anything.  She was already
hot and juicy and receptive.

   Without a word, I moved on top of her.  She spread her legs, brought
them up, wrapped them around mine, reached between us and showed my penis
where to go, and then put her hands on my ass and pulled.  I slid my penis
into her cauldron in one continuous slow push, parked it there for a
moment, and then began to fuck her.

   As usual, I quickly lost all sense of time and place.  All of reality
was centered in my loins and in my need to find release in her.  My beast
gradually took over and made me keep slamming into her until I finally
came. I froze with the head of my penis jammed against her cervix while it
squirted out my heart into her.

   When I returned to awareness, I realized that almost my full weight was
on top of her.  I hadn't felt her orgasm but when I pushed up and looked at
her face, she was smiling like she had come too.  When I asked her, she
nodded and smiled even wider.  I was a little ashamed of myself for the way
I had fucked her.  I had given no thought to what she might be feeling.  I
hadn't thought of anything.  My brain had shut down and my instincts had
led me to planting my seed as deep in her as possible.

   I lay there with my slowly softening penis in her.  I didn't want to
move and perhaps she didn't want me to move either.  She had her legs
around me and I could feel her heels against my ass.  She had her arms
around my chest and was holding me tight.  I kissed her forehead, her eyes,
her nose, her cheeks, her mouth, and that was as far as I could go in her
tight grasp.  Finally I put my cheek against hers, my mouth near her ear,
her mouth near my ear, and we whispered to each other.  We talked about how
much we loved each other and how good it had been to be joined together. 
Then I remembered the two previous times when we had completely merged
together while we were joined and I wanted that again and wondered why it
had not happened.

   I finally rolled off her and immediately pulled her up against me so
that we were face to face lying on our sides, our legs entwined, one of my
arms under her neck, one of hers straight down between us touching my
penis, with the fingers of our free hands laced together.  I didn't have
anything else to say and I don't suppose she did either.  Gradually I faded
into sleep.

   Sometime in the middle of the night, I awakened.  We were still face to
face just as we had been when I went to sleep.  But now my penis was hard
again and I felt her hand around it, slowly sliding up and down.  I wanted
her again.  I moved on top of her without a word, she guided my penis home,
and we started making love together.  She squirmed under me, bit my ear
lobe, sucked on my shoulder, and marked my ass with her fingernails. 
Through it all, I was slow and steady in pumping in and out of her.  I
didn't care whether I came again or not.  It was just so good to be moving
inside her, feeling her hot wet pussy wrapped around my hard penis.  When
an orgasm sneaked up on me, I continued slowly thrusting and withdrawing as
my penis throbbed inside her once and then I felt her vagina began to
convulse around it.

   And that's when the melding happened again.  Suddenly I was no longer
me. I was me and her combined and I knew that we were joined together in
love.  There was no I.  There was no me or she.  There was just us, one
entity, both male and female, nothing separate from us.  I felt my
penis/cervix convulse again and again and our semen was sucked into our
womb and then we slowly drew apart and separated into two again.  I had
been one with her again.  I was finally satisfied, completely satisfied,
and wanted nothing more than what I had.

   <><><>

   The next morning, Anna and I slept late, until a few minutes after eight
o'clock.  I looked for Iain and James, didn't see them, and assumed they
were checking the rabbit snares.  Anna and I had finished breakfast and
were just getting dressed, in loin-cloths and moccasins, to go outside when
we heard someone running.  When James burst into our bed chamber, I saw
blood on him and I became cool almost instantly, thinking that Iain must be
hurt and bleeding somewhere.  Then I saw that James was smiling.

   "We killed a deer!" he yelled.  "We really did!  We killed a deer!"

   "OK," I said.  "Calm down and tell us what happened."

   He took a couple of deep breaths.

   "Iain shot it with an arrow and it stuck in its side and I threw my
spear and it stuck in the deer's hind leg!  It fell down and tried to get
up and Iain jumped on it and pinned it down and it tried to throw him off
and he told me to cut its throat!  I did.  I kneeled down on its head and
cut its throat with Little Boy and it died!"

   "Is that where the blood came from?" I asked.

   He looked down at his body.  There was bright-red blood all the way from
his chest to down one leg.

   "Uh huh, the deer squirted blood all over us!  Iain said he'd stand
guard over it and for me to run get you!"

   "Where did it happen?" I asked.  "Were you running the rabbit snares?"

   "Yeah, we were almost through and we had two rabbits and we saw a bunch
of deers just off the trail eating stuff and we killed one!"

   "Can you take us to where Iain is?" Anna asked.

   "Yeah, it's on the lower leg of the trail where the rabbit snares are.
It's not far from here.  We killed it, Anna!  Me and Iain, we killed a
deer!"

   I didn't see the scabbard with my knives around his waist.  "Where are
my knives?"

   He looked down at his waist.  "Oh.  Iain made me take'em off so I could
run.  He's got'em."

   Aimee was monitoring our conversation as usual.  "David, would you
please get a tablet and take some pictures.  I would like to see what they
did and I need to make the pictures part of our permanent history."

   James didn't wait to see how I responded.  "Yeah, that's a great idea.
I'll go get mine."

   Anna and I let him lead us back to where Iain was waiting with their
kill.  I was still a little cool so I saw him sitting on a rock before he
saw us.  He had his loin-cloth in his hands and seemed to be trying to do
something with the waist strap.  When he saw us, he picked up James' spear,
stood up with effort, and turned toward us.  I saw that he was sprayed with
the deer's blood too but, from the way he leaned on the spear when he stood
up, I knew that he was injured somewhere.

   "Where are you hurt?" I asked.

   He looked down and pointed at his left side, near his groin.  "Right
here," he said.  "The deer kicked me.  It's not bad.  My loincloth saved
me."

   I saw a long scrape, from near his navel, down barely missing his
genitals, and on down his left thigh.  The area on his stomach was covered
with dirt and a little blood.  The blood was oozing out of Iain's abraded
skin.

   Anna quickly took charge.  She went to him, dropped down on her knees in
front of him, held him by both hips, and inspected the wound.  Then she put
one hand over his genitals, held them to one side, and felt the area around
the wound with one finger.

   "There's not much swelling yet but there will be later," she said,
looking at me.  "We need to get him clean and put him to bed with a cold
compress and something for pain.  Is there any water nearby?"

   There were streams everywhere but I knew there were none close by.

   "The shower at home is the closest," I said.  "I can carry him home. 
You come with me and let James stay with the deer.  You can take care of
Iain and I'll come back for the deer."

   "No, David," Iain said.  "I can walk.  Let Anna and James help me home.
You bring the deer."

   He and James had killed the deer and were obviously proud of their
accomplishment.  He didn't want to relinquish control over their kill yet.

   "Are you sure you can walk?  Show me." I said.

   He hobbled around in a small circle, stooped and shuffling almost like
an old man.  With Anna and James on each side supporting him, I believed he
would be able to walk and I knew he was determined to be a man and get home
walking.

   "OK, we'll do it your way," I said.

   "We've got to take some pictures first," James said, holding out his
tablet to me.  "David, can you take them?"

   "Yeah, but let me arrange the pose first," I said.

   I pulled James close by Iain's side, laid the deer in front of both of
them, then put the two rabbits in front of the deer.  I was about to walk
away when I realized I should say something to show I was proud of them.  I
faced them, put a hand on each of their shoulders, and said it:

   "It's good to have two men like you by my side."

   I walked back to Anna, took the tablet, and stood for a moment looking
at them.  Iain and James were both standing up straight, James, in
loincloth and moccasins, with his spear in his right hand pointing up and
my knives in his left hand, Iain, naked except for moccasins, with his bow
and arrows in his hands, and both smiling as widely as possible.  The deer,
a young doe, and two rabbits were arranged at their feet.  I had just
raised the tablet to take a picture when Anna spoke to Iain.

   "Iain, do you want to put your loin-cloth back on?" she asked.

   "I can't," he responded.  "The deer broke the waist strap."

   "Would you like mine?" I asked.

   "No, I'm OK like I am," he answered, lifting his head and standing up
straighter and taller.

   "Well, wait a minute and I'll take mine off too," James said, standing
up tall and proud too.

   He put his weapons down, untied the waist strap on his loin-cloth,
tossed it to one side, picked up his weapons, and then turned back to face
me.  He and Iain were both standing up straight, holding their heads high
with big grins on their faces.  They were both tanned all over and the
white stripes around their middles were gone.  They were both slim and
muscular, hair long and wild, penises and testicles full and heavy, and
body and arms and legs long and slim.  They looked like naked savages,
proud of their first kill.  I was proud of them too.

   <><><>

   In the days after her arrival, Anna and I grew more in love every day
and made love almost every night.  I was learning what real love for
someone else was like and what it was like to be loved by her.  I couldn't
imagine ever being happier than I was with her.

   I soon learned a few important facts about women's, especially Anna's,
sexual nature.  First, I learned that her sexual arousal took much longer
than mine so I made sure there was a long period of foreplay in our
love-making.  Second, I learned that she could reach orgasm much easier
when she was in control so we often made love with her on top of me.  I
easily provided an erect penis; she rode it until she came.  Third, I
learned that my tongue was as good as my penis in bringing her to orgasm.
Perhaps it was even better because I could invariably bring her to a good
orgasm by using my tongue on her clitoris for a long period of time.  I
liked to do it and afterwards she typically demanded that I mount her and
let my beast loose.

   We kept a chair in our sleeping chamber now because of something that
happened one night soon after her arrival.  I awakened to find her gone,
waited a few minutes, holding a stiff penis that wanted attention, and then
went looking for her.  She was in Aimee's room and the two of them were
talking.  They were both naked, two beautiful naked women at ease with each
other, talking girl talk.  I stood and looked at them and listened for a
moment without saying anything.

   "I think David has brought you something, Anna," Aimee said, giggling
like a young girl.  "Perhaps you should lead him back to bed.  A man can be
led anywhere by his penis."

   "You're so right, Aimee," Anna said.  "But I think I'll just take care
of it in front of you if you don't mind.  I'm going for a ride."

   "Oh, I do not mind," Aimee said.  "I always like to watch.  I am
learning so much from what all of you do."

   Anna made me sit down in her chair and then straddled my legs.  I put my
hands on her hips and let her assume control.  She held her pussy open with
her fingers and then slowly worked her way down on my penis until her
thighs were resting on mine.  She groaned pleasurably with each downward
push as my penis went deeper and deeper into her.  I groaned just as
loudly.

   With as much of my penis in her as possible in our positions, she sat
for a moment with her eyes closed and a smile on her face.  Then she
started her ride at a leisurely walk that changed into a trot and then into
an all-out gallop toward the finish line.

   Suddenly she stopped, put her hands under her breasts, and lifted them
to my mouth.

   "Suck," she whispered through clenched teeth.

   I obeyed for a moment while she sat still on me.  Then she returned to
her ride and I couldn't bend my neck fast enough to continue.  I sat there
looking up at her face, lips clenched, forehead furrowed, and listening to
her breath rasping in and out of her nostrils.

   She stopped again.  "Suck more!" she said, holding both breasts up
toward my mouth.

   I sucked first one and then the other of her erect nipples while she
moaned and squirmed.  I wasn't close to coming.  I wanted to resist the
urge to squirt my semen into her until she had crossed the finish line. 
When she did, I was afraid she was going to hurt one or both of us with her
final dash.  I felt her pussy clenching strongly again and again around my
penis until she slowly subsided into stillness.

   "Fuck!" she commanded, still sitting astride me, arms around my neck.  I
tried but I couldn't move or get up with her weight on my thighs.

   "Fuck, I said!" she groaned.  "Take me to bed and fuck me!"

   I wrapped my arms tightly around her, braced my feet under our combined
center of gravity, and managed to stand.  She wrapped her legs tightly
around me and I carried her to our bed chamber.  She kept me wrapped up in
her arms and legs while I lowered her down, still with my penis in her
pussy.

   "Good," she said with her mouth next to my ear.  "Now fuck me!  Let your
fucking beast loose and fuck me!  I want to be fucked without mercy."

   I did as she commanded.  I put my arms under her with my hands curved
around her shoulders so she couldn't get away from the fucking I intended
to give her.  She wrapped her arms around my chest, locked her ankles over
my ass, and fastened her leech-mouth on my neck.  I quickly let my beast
loose, my mind shut down, my penis assumed control, and I pounded into her
for a couple of minutes until my body erupted in a long series of pulses
and I held still with my penis buried to my testicles in her pussy.

   "Ummm, good," she groaned.  "That's what I wanted."

   <><><>

   During those wonderful days after Anna's arrival, the four of us often
went exploring.  We usually wore clothing to protect ourselves from the
briars and brush and carried spears, more as walking aids than for
protection.  Sometimes we carried bows and arrows but we saw nothing big
enough to warrant their use.  I often carried a machete to clear brush and
vines and briars because I was the one who had the strength to swing it. 
When I offered to let Iain carry Big Boy and Little boy for an excursion,
he was as pleased as James had been.  After that, a different one of the
four of us carried them each time.  Anna refused to defer to our male
desire to carry weapons and insisted on her turn carrying my knives.  She
always carried a spear and was learning to throw it.  She was as good as
any of us three guys in using a bow and arrows.

   At Iain's suggestion, Aimee began helping us map the mountain.  On every
excursion, we took a tablet with us and, when it was placed in its
recharging dock, she downloaded all sorts of information such as altitude
and orientation and paths followed.  Eventually she will have a complete
data base of our mountain, including pictures, of significant rock
formations, caves, trees, coast line, and edible fruit and nut trees.

   On almost every expedition we found something new.  We found the olive
grove and later spent a day clearing away most of the brush under the
trees. I knew nothing about olives and their gathering but the trees looked
loaded with olives to me.  When we returned home at the end of the day, I
used Aimee's resources to research how to harvest olives and how to process
them into oil or to store them in brine.  Then I dragged the olive oil
press out of its corner and made sure it was in good working order.

   On another of our expeditions down the South side of the mountain, we
found a small orchard of fruit trees.  Some of the trees were loaded with a
fruit that was just beginning to ripen.  It was similar to a nectarine
except that it was solid red and very sweet.  We named it Reds.  We all
gorged ourselves on Reds and then carried a big load home.

   On another exploration up the mountain, we found an orchard of apple
trees with immature green fruit and brought some home.  We ate sparingly of
those and started checking the ripening process every ten days or so.

   On still another expedition, we found a cave containing a treasure
trove: bat guano.  The entrance to the cave was a big one and provided
enough light for us to explore a short distance inside.  I led the way
until a huge boulder almost blocked the passage, then climbed up on the
rock, invoked the cool response, and tried to see what lay ahead.  Suddenly
my feet shot out from under me and I slid down the rock a short distance
until I was stopped by a soft loamy substance.  I soon realized that I was
sitting in a huge pile of bat shit.  Anna called my name and I told her I
was OK.  I looked overhead but didn't see the bats which should have been
there during the day.  I looked down at the black guano and didn't see any
insects feeding on it.  I quickly realized that I had fallen in a huge pile
of fertilizer for our garden, one that might have been inactive for years.
All we had to do was to haul it back to our garden.

   We made a big raft from bamboo as large as my thigh and put it in the
large lake at the bottom of the mountain.  Then the next day, we poled the
raft around the lake and used the fishing equipment that had been provided
for us.  The lake was teeming with fish and we caught all we wanted to
carry home.  James had never used a casting reel and rod but he learned
quickly and caught a couple of large fish.  Iain caught three.  Anna caught
the biggest one and fought it for a few minutes before landing it.  I had
never heard her squeal with excitement that way before and I couldn't help
but laugh.  I was content to pole the raft and let them catch the fish.

   With three willing helpers, I finally finished my first big project,
outdoors near the fire-pit.  Anna called it a gazebo and I suppose that was
as good a name as any.  I used four huge bamboo poles, as big as my thigh
for the corners, then used eight smaller poles as the top and bottom
connecting cross pieces.  Two of the bottom crosspieces were raised about
half a meter off the ground and then connected with a lot of smaller bamboo
poles for support for the mattress.  On top of it all, on the East and West
sides, I slanted two more poles together and connected the two side
triangles with a single pole at the top.  Finally, on top of it all, we
tied smaller bamboo poles, laid tightly close together and extending beyond
the perimeter of the rectangle.  I had no intention of making anything
impervious to rain; I wanted to build something where we could rest
outdoors in the shade.  When it was finished, I sent Iain and James for a
single big mattress.  They placed it between the corner posts and
immediately flopped down on it.  I made them move over so Anna and I could
lie down with them.  It was crowded but it was shady and comfortable.

   We returned to the site for our larger garden on the South side of the
mountain and began the construction of another long curved terrace.  Our
first chore was clearing the land of trees and vegetation.  I chopped down
the larger trees and, with a little instruction, Iain whacked the smaller
ones.  James and Anna piled the limbs over big tree stumps to burn later. I
knew that would kill the tree stumps and provide fertilizer for the land.
We laid the tree trunks in curved lines where I wanted to build a rock wall
someday.  Within a few days, we had the second of the terraces cleared.  As
soon as the third terrace was completed, I wanted to begin to level enough
soil for three or four rows of planting so we could plant corn.  That would
best be done in the colder months since cutting tree roots and shoveling
soil would generate enough warmth no matter how cold the temperature.

   After our day of work on the garden, we all staggered into the shower,
exhausted and hungry but pleased with our work.  Anna and I had been
talking about doing something new when we showered.  The three of us gave
James a thorough scrubbing first, Iain second, Anna next, and me last. 
Iain and James seemed to accept it, not as something erotic, but as a way
of showing affection and friendship.  Anna threatened us with a thump if we
got a hard-on when helping her.  It's good she didn't mean it; she would
have worn out her finger.  I liked the closeness and friendship of bathing
together and was determined to make familial bathing a part of our normal
life when the other sixteen were with us.

   Our life was about one-third playing and two-thirds working.  We had the
usual chores of setting the rabbit snares and then checking them, picking
vegetables from the garden, and getting fish from the fish trap or the
lake. We were all accustomed to our diet of venison and fish and rabbits
with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.  As free of fats, except olive
oil, as our diet was, we all were slim and healthy.  I felt better than I
ever had before coming to our new world and Anna said she felt the same
way.

   Iain sang for us every few days and mesmerized Anna with his songs.  One
evening we learned how he had met Caitlyn.  He was singing at the school he
attended and he had included "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" in his program.
When he sang it, he usually asked some young girl to come on stage so he
could sing it to her.  He saw Caitlyn in the audience and cajoled her into
joining him on stage.  Before the song was over, he knew he wanted to get
to know her and then their relationship had taken its usual course.  He
said she stole his heart away.

   Iain also entertained us occasionally with more programs from radio
station I-A-I-N.  His programs were mainly classical, Broadway musicals,
and golden oldies.  Anna and I enjoyed almost all of his productions. 
James tolerated them.  We all suffered through the occasional opera.

   We also greeted the dawn or the sunset on occasion.  Iain chose some
short musical piece for us, usually classical, and then sang in his
beautiful tenor voice.  On one occasion, he and James sang together: Many a
New Day from a musical called Oklahoma.  Anna loved their performance.

   We went to the swimming beach occasionally, usually in the afternoon
after working in the morning, and we quickly became accustomed to swimming
in the nude.  We played games in the clear water and, since there were four
of us, fought battles with two of us on the shoulders of the other two. 
Anna and James were the smallest so they were usually on my shoulders or on
Iain's.  At first Iain was reluctant to try to get Anna on his shoulders
but his strength had progressed so much that he succeeded.

   We visited another beach, wilder and more rugged, with huge boulders
interspersed in a rocky beach, with a strong breeze blowing, and with rough
breakers rolling in.  We spent an hour or so diving in a protected area for
shellfish to carry home.  I wanted to try something like the bouillabaisse
I had eaten in France.  My cooking didn't yield anything like my L'Héritier
grandmother's but, with tomatoes and onions and mushrooms as the base, we
all approved of the result.

   On another trip, Iain and James collected some little white seashells
and, when we returned home, they spent hours boring holes in them.  They
made four short necklaces, one for each of us, and then they made Anna
another one, larger, with a collection of wildly-colorful seashells.  Anna
was pleased with it and wore it with the small white one.  The necklaces
gave her even more of an earth mother look.

   One evening James came to me with the answer to something I had tasked
him to do: decide how we would keep our calendar.  After a little thought,
I agreed with him.  Since every day was the same for us, with no days set
aside to rest from work and no day to waste on worship, there was no need
to name the days and no need for weeks.  Simple numbers would suffice to
keep up with days and months.  Anna and Iain agreed that our convention
would be day, month, and year in numbers.  It was as simple as could be. 
Aimee agreed and then rearranged her calendar to use it.

   I had arrived on 15-03-01 so I had been here about four months, Iain and
James and Anna about three, two, and one month respectively.  So far, I had
heard no one complain about being here or wanting to return.  Iain wanted
to stay if only Caitlyn could come to him.

   But no matter what we did each day, one thing was the same: weapons
training.  I started with one weapon I was most familiar with and, when
they reached a fair degree of competence, I moved on to another one.  By
the time twenty-four days had elapsed, I was confident that they could use
the basic weapons and help to defend themselves.  They were by no means
expert but they seemed comfortable with the challenges I gave them.

   <><><>

   Finally, twenty-six days after Anna's arrival, I decided to venture an
excursion on the isthmus connecting our mountain to the mainland, beyond
the shield of protection that Anna maintained over us.  I wanted to explore
the isthmus and some of the mainland and I was reasonably sure that the
others could do their part in protecting us.  The isthmus was largely bare
of vegetation and I thought we could easily see any dangerous animals.  The
mainland was one large green forested area and I knew that we might not see
them as easily.

   After supper one night, I explained to the others again how Aimee
maintained a shield over the entire mountain which prevented the entry of
large animals or birds, so we were relatively safe under her protection.  I
told them about the large raptor bird which thought it could make a meal
from my carcass and how it had failed in its first attempt but almost
succeeded in its second.  That left their mouths hanging open.  As
fantastic as the shield over the entire mountain was, none of them
questioned Aimee's ability to create a safe environment for us.

   And so the four of us, in full Robin Hood regalia and carrying an
arsenal of weapons, set off early the next morning.  The trail we followed
led from the South side of the mountain where we lived to the Northwest and
it was after mid-morning before we left the forest and arrived at the
isthmus.

   "I've given Aimee instructions to let all of you leave the shield but
please don't do it without me," I said.  "I don't know what dangers are out
there so I want you to listen carefully to my instructions."

   "Yes, sir.  Aye, Aye, sir," James said loudly.  Iain saw me frown at
James and slapped him gently on the back of the head.  James gave him the
finger as usual.  They were both smiling as usual.

   "First of all, you can always tell when you are crossing Aimee's
boundary.  It will feel like a big charge of static electricity.  It won't
hurt you but every hair on your head may stand up.  When we cross the
boundary, pay attention to the way it feels so you'll know when you've
crossed back under it.  When we're on the isthmus, I want Iain to stay
about ten feet to my right and behind me.  I want James to stay about ten
feet to my left and behind me.  Anna, I want you to stay somewhere behind
me, between the two of them.  Understood?"

   Three heads nodded in response.  I continued.

   "If I see danger, I'm going to yell `GO'.  I want you to quickly and
quietly walk back toward the boundary.  Don't panic.  Don't trip and break
a leg.  Just hurry back under the shield."

   I got three more nodding heads.

   "If I yell `GO, RUN' I want you to drop everything and run like hell. 
I'll be behind you.  Don't look back.  Just run as fast as you can."

   Three more nodding heads.

   "You all know what happens to me when there's danger.  With my
heightened senses, I'm going to be your best source of protection.  You are
not to worry about me.  Do you understand?"

   Three more nodding heads.

   "OK.  I want you to hold down on the talking.  Be as quiet as you can.
I've been out here before any of you arrived and I saw signs of pigs. 
Maybe we'll see a turtle.  Both are good eating but just watch out for
anything that would provide food for us."

   When we started out on the isthmus, the boundary was easy to recognize:
every hair on the four of us stood up.  After that, we found our way
through boulders, large at first, gradually diminishing in size.  The south
side of the isthmus was largely sand and was easier walking except for all
the driftwood.

   The chance of danger had provoked the cool response in all my senses and
I heard the grunting noise before the others.  I held my hand up and we all
stood listening.

   "Pigs," Iain whispered.

   I nodded and motioned for the others to gather around me.

   "I think it's a sow with a litter of little ones," I whispered.  "The
sow's probably too big for us to carry back but the little ones are
probably OK.  Do you want to see if we can get one?"

   Three more nodding heads.

   <><><>

   We didn't have roasted suckling pig for dinner that night.  The one we
brought back was too large to be a suckling pig anyway.  At the first
stream we crossed on our way back up the mountain, I field dressed the
porker.  Iain and James held her by her front legs and pulled in opposite
directions while I slit her from under her chin down to her you know what.
All I wanted to pull out of her was her digestive tract from her throat all
the way down to her asshole.  I wanted to keep the liver and heart and some
organ parts so I could eat them and maybe somebody else would too.  With
Iain holding the pig up, Anna cutting with Little Boy, and James pulling
the two sides apart, I managed to pull the guts out and let the stream take
them away.  Nobody puked at the sight or smell of the porker's innards but
I think James was close.

   I held the pig's hind legs and carried the porker all the way back up
the mountain.  I had been through training exercises with a fifty-pound
backpack but the pig weighed more and I was exhausted when we finally
arrived home just before dark.  I wasn't the only one.  The others seemed
hardly able to put one foot in front of the other.  Then when we staggered
inside our home, we got a surprise which made us forget how tired we were.
I quickly took the pig to the kitchen cooler and returned to where the
others were looking in wonder at the latest arrival.

   It was a large shipment of boxes in a neat stack in the center hallway.
The stack was about two meters high, about three wide, about five long and
was wrapped in a tough plastic covering.  I used Little Boy to carefully
cut away the plastic.  James started to wad it up but I made him start
folding it up so we could save it to wrap food for the freezer.

   We were all delighted when we learned what was in the boxes: flour,
cornmeal, oats, barley, peas, beans, buttermilk, whole milk, cheeses,
yeast, baking powder, vinegar, pepper, and salt, and some other stuff I
didn't recognize.  Everything had been dehydrated and compressed, even the
vinegar.  On each box there were instructions in English and French on how
to reconstitute the contents.

   Between two of the boxes, Anna found an envelope with Iain's name on it.
She showed it to me and then handed it to him.  He opened the envelope,
retrieved a single sheet of paper, read it quickly, and then closed his
eyes and smiled.  He lowered the paper and I glanced at it.  Even upside
down, I saw a neat script in horizontal rows but written in an alphabet
that looked nothing like any I was familiar with.  When he opened his eyes,
they were almost overflowing with tears.  We were dying to know what the
message said.  James asked him first.

   "It's from my mother," Iain said.  "She arranged to have the food
shipped to us.  She told my father she was going to do it and he said it
was OK with him.  She says he loves me and he's sorry.  She says she loves
me and always will and wishes me well."

   He stopped, closed his eyes, shook his head slowly from side to side,
and breathed deeply a few times.

   "Is that all?" James asked.  "What about Caitlyn?"

   "She's coming to be with me," Iain said, grinning with tears in his
eyes.
   TO BE CONTINUED: