Indian Summer-- R

So, this started out as a post for the http://www.dreamsofwilliamshatner.blogspot.com/ site but once it was on paper, it wouldn’t let me go. I wrote the story in bits and pieces, late at night, after putting away my ‘real’ writing. And YES YES YES! The vampire story is coming back. I haven't forgotten my favorite audience. I mean, my only audience...

Read the dream here first: http://spockjones.blogspot.com/2007/12/dreams-of-bill.html

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The Story~

My father sent my brother Adam and my cousin Spencer to the fairgrounds to walk me home, but they disappeared into the dark with the Peterson sisters almost as soon as they arrived.

“Don’t leave here without us, Yoyo,” Adam warned. “You whistle if you see Cal E or Choppy, you hear?”

“You promised to stop calling me Yoyo,” I said.

“You’ve only been eighteen for about an hour,” said Spencer, punching me lightly on the arm.

“I’ve been eighteen for three days,” I said. I aimed a slap at him but missed. “And hurry up.”

I didn’t mind waiting. I walked down the deserted midway in the warm indigo evening. Giant moths and flying hoppers buzzed the lamps that lit the walkway. I stopped to watch Luke Tall Trees lift a fifty-gallon vat of fry bread waste oil and pour it into a recycling drum. He was tall and leanly muscular but hardly looked strong enough to lift the thick cast iron caldron; yet he did so with one hand, steadying it with the tips of his fingers on the other.

“Nyota,” he said, nodding at me. He was the only person besides my grandmother who consistently addressed me by my given name.

“Chief Tall Trees,” I replied. Tall Trees worked the fair every summer to raise money for the reservation school. The rest of the year he was a math analysis instructor at the university where I took advanced placement courses.

“Have you made your decision?” he asked.

“MIT,” I said.

“Ah. More calculus.”

“A little,” I smiled. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Nyota.”

I turned back. “Yes, sir?”

“Do not allow yourself to become distracted,” he said.

I was on the walkway that led to the farm exhibits.

I looked away, my face hot. “School starts next week. I leave Sunday”

“Three days is a long time during an Indian summer. Certain…elements have more power then.”

“Maybe I’m tired of being a good girl,” I said, lifting my chin just a bit.

He raised a brow and I lowered my eyes. “Thank you for your advice,” I said.

My face was still hot as I continued down the walkway, and the warm breeze failed to cool the beads of sweat that formed at my temples. I pulled my t-shirt away from my body but that only allowed the breeze to tickle through the fine hairs on my lower belly. I shivered, feeling the flush on my face deepen. My hair suddenly felt too heavy on my head so I released the clip that held captive the thick waves. I lifted the hair from the back of my neck then let it fall, shaking it out.

There was a rustle in the bushes up ahead and to my left. I slowed, peering into the dark. I heard a snicker behind me. I turned around.

“Come out of the bushes, Cal E,” I said.

“Where you going, missy?” Cal E stepped onto the walkway, brushing leaves out of his dirty, blonde hair.

“That would be my business,” I said. Behind me, Choppy giggled but didn’t show himself.

Cal E frowned. “You think you’re better than us.”

I sighed. “Cal, my brother and cousin are here and you know that they would cheerfully wipe what would be left of you off their shoes if they knew that you were even talking to me.”

“Yeah, I’m so scared, smart girl” he sneered. “We saw them go off with them Peterson sluts.”

Choppy rattled the bushes and chortled. “Sluts,” he hissed.

“I whistle and they’re here in two minutes,” I said.

“That’s all the time I need,” hiccupped Choppy.

“They aint hear you,” said Cal E. “They in a car with the windows all rolled up and steamy. They can’t hear your mama calling.”

He sidled closer. A smell like boiled turnips rose from his body.

“Look at you. With titties and everything,” he said, staring avidly at me.

His eyes were vacant and cloudy blue, as if covered with cataracts. I could feel them, like red ants crawling on my legs and neck. I resisted the urge to fold my arms across my chest. I shifted my weight to the balls of my feet.

“Assuming you could lay a filthy hand on me, you can’t seriously believe that you would get away with it,” I said.

“That pussy’d be worth a whoopin’,” giggled Choppy from the bushes.

Cal E licked his lips. “Oh yeah,” he said.

“My father would kill you,” I said.

“Which is nothing compared to what I’m going to do to you if you don’t move on, Calvin.”

I spun around. Jimmy Kirk slouched on the back of a gigantic black draft horse. I hadn’t heard him approach but I could feel the ground vibrate under my feet when the horse lifted a hoof the circumference of a serving platter and tapped it on the soft asphalt.

Cal E tried to bluff it out. “This don’t concern you, Kirk.”

“This concerns me a great deal,” said Jimmy. He grinned with one side of his mouth but his eyes reflected flat light from the lamps.

“Oh, I get it,” said Cal E. “Well, fuck you, Kirk. We was here first.” He snorted and glanced at the bushes. “You can have sloppy seconds, though.”

I sensed Choppy holding his breath from the bushes.

Jimmy blew air from his pursed lips. He combed his fingers idly through the horse’s mane as he gazed out over the fairgrounds. Finally, he looked at Cal E. “What do you think is going to happen here if I have to get off this horse, Calvin?” Jimmy asked conversationally. He watched Cal E with genuine curiosity.

“I--we--,” Cal E. stammered.

“You’re stupid and you smell bad,” Jimmy said. “Get out of here and don’t come back. If I see you or your idiot psychopath brother again, I’m going to punch your ticket.”

“You can’t threaten me,” mumbled Cal E.

Jimmy raised both brows. “Did that sound like a threat? If you thought that was a threat, then you absolutely misunderstood me.”

Choppy broke cover and ran, his greasy hair bouncing in strings and clumps on his bullet head. Cal E’s face twitched when he glanced back at his fleeing brother.

“Fuck you, Kirk,” he said, but he was backing away and couldn’t quite meet Jimmy’s eyes. “I go where I want, when I want.”

Jimmy shrugged.

“What the fuck you looking at,” Cal E yelled at me.

“Nothing,” I said.

He winced again and I suddenly felt sorry for him.

“Listen, Cal—,” I began.

“Fuck you,” he screamed. He pointed at me. “Fuck you!”

“Go on, Cal E,” Jimmy said softly.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” he yelled, but he turned and ran down the walkway after his brother.

“Are you all right?” asked Jimmy.

I nodded my head. “Calvin and I were friends when we were children,” I said. “I wasn’t afraid.”

“You’re not feeling sorry for him?” Jimmy asked.

“You were.”

“Cal E could bench press this horse with me on it.”

“You were bluffing?”

“Hell yeah. I was praying that Spencer and Adam would show up. I’m a diplomat, not a soldier.”

“Liar.”

“I could take them one at a time but probably not both.”

“I could take Choppy.”

“Sure you could, skinny bones,” said Jimmy. “Where were you headed anyway?”

I motioned vaguely toward the vast open-sided barn that held the farm animals. “I wanted to see who won blue ribbons today,” I said, running my hand over his horse’s sleek coat.

“Clyde here won in the three year olds.”

Clyde tossed his head at the sound of his name. The muscles in his neck were like full pressure fire hoses curved under his skin. A vein as thick as my finger pulsed against my palm.

“I can hear his heart beating,” I whispered.

The horse snuffled the faint strawberry scent of my hair. He took some of it into his mouth then spit it out. He nudged me with his huge head, nearly knocking me over, convinced I hid strawberries somewhere. I peeked at Jimmy from the cover of my lashes. He was watching me intently.

“Was that all?” he asked.

“Is what all?”

“The only reason you were going to the barn. To see the blue ribbons?”

“Could be,” I said.

“Hmm,” he said. He huffed out a laugh. “Ok. Fair enough.”

Clyde gently lipped the tip of my nose then blew his hot breath into my face.

“Thank you, horse,” I said. “That’s the closest I’ve gotten to a kiss all summer.” I stepped back and shoved my hands into the back pockets of my shorts. “But, I promised Dr. Tall Trees that I would not let myself become distracted.” Clyde nodded, agreeing.

“You really weren’t afraid,” said Jimmy, wonderingly.

I tucked my lower lip between my teeth and blew two short blasts. “Wait for it,” I said.

About thirty seconds later, Adam pounded up the walkway behind me and Spencer came crashing through the bushes. Adam slid to a stop and looked around wildly.

“What the fuck?” panted Spencer, holding his pants up with one hand.

“Clyde won a blue ribbon,” I said.

“I pulled out—I mean, you called us for that?” cried Spencer.

“Jimmy seemed to think it was pretty important.”

“Dammit Kirk, you dumbass,” said Adam. “Just for that, you’re taking her home, flyboy.”

“That’s not—Cal E and Choppy showed up,” said Jimmy. “Oh and by the way, fuck you, West Point.”

“And your mother, Annapolis,” Adam replied automatically.

“Well, hell. You could have done Cal E and Yoyo could take Choppy,” said Spencer.

“So she tells me,” said Jimmy.

“Hell, she could kick my ass if she got pissed enough” Spencer grumbled.

Adam peered into the dark on the other side of the walkway.

“They’re long gone,” I said.

“Just making sure. I don’t need any more interruptions.” Adam hooked an arm around my neck and rubbed his knuckles on the crown of my head. “That’s for being a dork.” He kissed me loudly on the cheek then ruffled my hair with both hands. He looked up at Jimmy. “You don’t mind?” he asked.

“No problem,” said Jimmy.

“Cool. Uh, and take the scenic route. It would look better if we got home at the same time. Say, thirty minutes?”

“Forty-five,” said Spencer.

“Sure thing,” said Jimmy.

They walked away, talking in low voices.

“No wonder you weren’t afraid, seeing how you can call down the cavalry with a whistle,” said Jimmy

“I’m the only girl. They’re protective.”

“Guys are like that about their baby sisters.”

“I’m all grown up now,” I said. “But no one’s seemed to notice.”

“People have noticed,” he said.

“Cal E and Choppy, certainly.”

“That’s not funny.”

I didn’t have a snappy comeback. He was right. It wasn’t funny--for each of us, a different reason. He frowned and looked away. The lamps that lit the walkway flared then winked out one by one.

Clyde rumbled and shifted his weight, chewing on his bit. He snorted and turned his ears toward the dark hills beyond the fairgrounds, stamping a hoof impatiently.

“Come on, let me get you home,” Jimmy said. When I hesitated, he said, “Grab my arm, I’ll pull you up.” His hair fell across his forehead when he leaned down. I gripped his wrist with one hand and the crook of his elbow with the other. “Jump,” he said. I pushed off the ground with my feet and he swung me up behind him. The horse’s back was so broad that that I could barely get a grip with my thighs. Jimmy rode bareback so if I didn’t want to slide off, I needed to hang on to him. I leaned back to keep from sliding forward and into Jimmy. After a moment, I placed my fingertips lightly against the small of his back.

“You could build a barn back here,” I said.

“Yep.”

Jimmy clicked his tongue and the horse started forward. I felt Clyde’s muscles ripple from front to back between my legs.

“You better hang on,” Jimmy said.

“I’m good,” I said.

“You’re going to fall.”

“No, I--.”

Riding a horse is mostly about balance but you also have to hang on a little bit. I tried to roll with the movement of Clyde’s body but my knees were too far apart. When Clyde hopped over the small trench that ran along the walkway, I slid into Jimmy, my knees, my thighs and my hips fitting to his as snugly as a puzzle piece. I wrapped my arms around his waist and he nudged the horse into a trot. I tightened my arms.

“You ok back there?” he asked.

“Yes.”

His body was hard beneath my wrists; and under the cotton of his t-shirt, I could feel a light scrub from the hair on his lower belly. He smelled of hay and horse and very faintly, of Lifebuoy soap. I could feel his warmth through his jeans and the insides of my thighs were hotter there than where they touched horse flesh. I inhaled a shaky breath.

“Are you cold?” he asked.

“No.”

“You just shivered.”

“No.”

We rode by the barn and amid the noise of the animals being bedded down for the night came good-natured “Fuck you, Kirk”, “Bite me, space boy” and “Eat shit, Rocket Man”. Jimmy returned these taunts with a grin and an upraised middle finger.

We turned toward the hills and gave Clyde his head, letting him run off the tension of standing in an exhibit stall all day.

Jimmy let out a whoop and yelled “Hold on!” 

We leaned forward over Clyde’s neck. I laughed breathlessly, squeezing Jimmy with my arms and my thighs.

As we found our rhythm with Clyde, Jimmy clamped down with his knees and pushed up, holding us both a few inches above the horse’s surging back. I felt like I was flying. I closed my eyes and buried my face between his broad shoulders.

This is is all I’m going to do, Chief Tall Trees, I thought. Just this ride home. I’m going to pack my bags and go to MIT and study hard but right now, I’m going to do just this one wild and reckless bareback ride on this enormous beautiful horse running flat out in the dark, with only Jimmy Kirk to hold on to.

Clyde splashed through the creek that bisected my family’s property. Jimmy pulled him up when we reached a meadow on the other side of the embankment. The horse stamped in a circle, snorting and baring his teeth, clearly still full of energy. Jimmy spoke to him in a soothing murmur until he calmed. I opened my eyes and looked at the moon rising over the ridge. The sky above it was black and pocked with hard, bright stars.

“The moon takes forever to rise during Indian summer,” said Jimmy.

“What?”

“You can let go now.”

I could hear the grin in his voice. I relaxed my grip but held him with the flat of my palms pressed against his belly.

“I used to think it was because the moon was bigger then,” I said. “Heavier.”

“I used to think that, too,” he said.

“I thought that’s why they called it the full moon.”

He patted my thigh. “Let me help you down. We’ll walk the rest of the way.”

He swung his leg over Clyde’s neck and jumped to the ground. He turned and reached up and I let myself fall into his waiting hands. He set me on the ground but I stepped into his body and wrapped my arms around his neck.

“They’re proud of you, you know,” I said. “The guys back at the barn.”

He rested his hands on my hips and tilted his head back slightly to look down at me.

“What are you talking about, little girl?” he asked softly.

“Recruited for the space program right out of flight training school,” I said. “You’re about to become the youngest astronaut in history. That’s pretty neat.”

“Neat?” he chuckled.

“Kind of makes you like, I don’t know. Superman or something.”

“Yeah, that’s me. James T. Kirk, Galactic Hero.” He laughed, but he looked away and I could see the blush creeping up his face even in the moonlight.

“It’s a really big deal, Jimmy.”

“Cut it out,” he said, grinning. He pushed at my hips with the heels of his hands but held me close with his fingers hooked through my belt loops. “And nobody calls me Jimmy any more.”

“I’m serious, Jim. Only about eight percent make it through flight school and no one has ever been accepted into the space program right after graduation.”

“Yeah, well…” He shrugged then nodded.

“I know how hard you worked,” I said.

He let go of me but didn’t step back, looking away with a frown. “Maybe I got lucky,” he said. “Listen, I’m tired of talking about it. It’s nice of you to say, but I just want to forget about all that. Just for a little while. Ok?”

“Ok.”

“Thanks.”

He gazed down at me for so long that I thought he might kiss me; but he took my wrists gently into his hands and unwrapped my arms from around his neck. He stepped back. He grabbed Clyde’s reins and started walking. I watched him for a moment then followed.

“So I hear you’re going to MIT,” he said when I caught up.

“I am.”

“I heard you also beat out about twenty thousand applicants for one of the scholarships.”

“Not twenty thousand. Ten thousand or so.”

“Still, that kind of makes you like, I don’t know. Wonder Woman, or something.”

“Maybe I got lucky,” I grinned.

“Tall Trees seems to think you’re pretty smart,” he said.

“You talked to him about me?”

He chuckled. “More like he talked to me about you.”

“What did he say?”

“He has a way of getting his point across in a very oblique way.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I didn’t either. Until just now.”

I stopped, exasperated. “Just tell me, Jim.”

“I think that your brothers trust me with you more than he does.”

“What—oh. I see.”

We gazed at each other in the moonlight. A loon called to its mate from the pond on the other side of the ridge and the breeze rustled through the silver meadow grass. I shoved my hands into the back pockets of my shorts. Jimmy’s eyes dropped briefly to where my shirt stretched across my breasts.

“Like I said, people have noticed that you’re not a child anymore,” he said.

“But they still seem to think that it’s okay to treat me like one.”

“Don’t get mad at Tall Trees. He’s just looking out for you.”

“I’m not as fragile as I look.”

“I believe you, Yoyo,” he chuckled.

“Think you could take me?”

“Anywhere, any time.” His eyes glittered in the moonlight. Then, he grinned. “Be cool, baby.”

“Chicken.”

He laughed. “That’s me.”

“I’m serious,” I said, and suddenly I was.

He studied me for a long moment, his own face suddenly serious. “I think it’s time to go now. Your brothers--.”

“Forget it,” I said.

I stomped past him. He grabbed my arm as I went by. His hand was warm on my skin. I closed my eyes and leaned my shoulder against his chest. He pressed his lips to my temple.

“Nyota,” he whispered.

“I’m not a child,” I said.

“Yes. You are,” he said.

I turned my head, caught his mouth with mine and poured all of my aching longing into the kiss. He stood unmoving, his hands by his sides. He shook his head.

“I—I can’t be—I won’t do this with you,” he said, but I could see his pulse pounding in his neck and I knew the power I held.

I faced away from him, took his hand and placed it under my shirt. I rubbed his hand all over my body, pushing up my bra with his fingers, sliding his palm over my nipples, down my belly and beneath the waistband of my shorts. His body was rigid against my back as I slowly guided his hand to my pussy.

“Wait,” he said. “Oh god, Nyota. Don’t.”

I squeezed my thighs together, trapping my throbbing clitoris between his fingers. I gripped his wrist with both of my hands, digging my nails into his flesh as the pleasure began to build in my loins.

We stood like this, as still as statues until I came with soft gasping breaths.

I released him and ran away on wobbly legs. I looked back and he still hadn’t moved. I laughed, exhilarated and giddy, certain I done absolutely the wrong thing.

“See you around, Captain Kirk!” I yelled.

I ran until I reached the dirt lane that lead to our farm house, where my brothers had only just arrived. I ran past, smacking them each on the back of the head.

I raced them to the door, squealing as Spencer caught me and tossed me into the air.

**********

End
girl6
1/08