Scanning Proofreading: CSH
Chapter III
I shriveled up in my hammock, hung early for the coming night, and hid under a mosquito net. I felt hot, but not nearly as muggy as earlier in the day. I had swum, finished my change of dirty clothes and hung them out to dry, and it should have been pleasant enough, but I was filled with thoughts of home. Making wisecracks with newspaper editors, buying lunch from the deli near my apartment, meeting people with specific goals and getting information from them that I wanted. Sharing a glass of red wine with a man who was about to make love to himself at night.
My hand sneaks inside my pants and unknowingly reaches into my boxers. Seriously, I was feeling sexually horny again.
What happened in the woods was truly appalling, but fucking really exciting.
All the silent carcasses of the rainforest were terrifying, hundreds of different parasitic field creatures clinging to the same host tree and growing around its branches and leaves. Some of them looked like they could move, as they circled and coiled around and around above my head like thick cables.
I was horrified by the sight, but it gave me a very interesting thought. It was a fight to be continued, like spermatozoa swimming wildly in semen. The leaf litter was full of frogs, toads, lizards, fruit infested with mesquite, creepy crawlies, beetles, and snakes feinting nearby to feed on the field. Toward the top there were beautiful birds and butterflies, monkeys and sloths munching loudly on the fruits of the leaf litter, animal-eating ants, and all sorts of animals that survived and thrived without us, without human beings.
I’m picking up on certain signs.
Pepe has told me about terrible things, such as the huge green ticks that feed on tapir bellies, and that if you shoot a tapir, they turn their heads, crawl up a man’s legs to his groin, and push their mandibles into his penis. Pepe is a Venezuelan who is the best engine manipulator in the Amazon. He hated the backwardness of his homeland, so he traveled downriver to Brazilian territory to make more money and fewer mosquito bites.
I smelled something. I had to take action.
I lifted the mosquito netting and sniffed hard; the smell was strong, but not unpleasant. Neither rot nor decay or other such odors, but it seemed dangerous.
I rested my head on the side of the hammock, and only then did my nostrils take in some fresh air.
Matson, smoking a small cigar, was coming toward our boat at a slow pace. I looked up and stared at him with both eyes.
“Put the cigar out quick,” I shouted.
“All you had to do was announce a no-smoking range, Ms. Cold?”
“Matson, put that cigarette out, there’s danger back there.”
He watched as I did as I was told. With extreme caution, I climbed down from the hammock and padded across the boat.
Over the side of the boat, leaping to the shore. Masson stood there, watching me. “I smell kerosene,” I said.
I don’t need to say more than that. There are no cabins on board, but there is room for a large store of provisions, and some equipment. The first of these stores was the large cans of kerosene, which was used as fuel for the engines and also as ballast, and when each drum was emptied, it was filled again with river water to clean the ship. Every other item was placed more or less in order on top of the large tanks.
In other words, there’s a bomb on board.
Matson leaned over, his nose sniffing keenly. He turned to Jack and called out to him, when Pepper came xu-stepping over as well.
Some kerosene is leaking somewhere on the ship.
The cooking fire was extinguished, and the gang who were smoking extinguished the cigars, pipes, and cigarettes in their respective hands, and then we proceeded to unload the ship’s cargo.
The cause was found, a small bucket with a hole in it.
We all stared at the hole. It looked like a hole drilled by a sharp tool, the tacky paint was peeled off and the bare, shiny, silvery-white metal was exposed. It was one of those holes drilled with a screwdriver.
Rory said, “I’ll take care of it, better check if the food has been defiled and leaked.” Without waiting for a reply, he grabbed his machete and marched off into the forest.
“We don’t use kerosene anymore?” I asked, dumbfounded. I knew it was dwindling by the day, but it was an indispensable resource for us.
“I’ve filled the boat’s oil tanks,” said Pepper, and indeed he always kept the boat on standby, even though the engine was lifted out of the water. He grinned.
Margaret looked sad. “We could have been killed,” she said in a hoarse voice.
Matson put his arm gently over her shoulder. “Hey, all right,” he said, “realize that far more people die in traffic accidents than are blown up on boats.” But the image that stayed in our minds was so realistic; the ship had a series of violent explosions, leaving only us, the passengers, to make the meatloaf.
The jungle boiled over. Millions of lurid bats, birds and insects scurried into the air, and the sky was dark in the blink of an eye. This was the first time I really realized that the Amazon is indeed a place where killing is hidden everywhere. We white people were like cattle on the grasslands, we were moving meat, dumb as cows but edible, and we delighted the bloodsucking insects.
“I wondered if he’d get lost,” Matson gloated.
“Don’t be jealous, dear,” I whispered. “I’m sure there are times when you possess certain noble qualities.”
“How old are you, Sidney?”
“None of your business, photographer.”
“I surmise that your future reincarnation will certainly be as a minor pathogen of influenza.”
“On the contrary,” I said in mock surprise, “I finally realize that this current tactic is exactly for your strike.”
He laughed heartily. After a while I felt the need to tantalize him about the mask. He, like me, had already experienced certain singularities, in his suite at the hotel. I wondered if he would ever act boldly towards the opposite sex.
But he’s let loose before. The time in the woods with Kara, I confirmed it was him behind the mask.
I suppressed the urge. I regretted having told Lori about it. It sounds like I’m a little crazy, because the mask wasn’t that big of a deal, it was just something the Spaniards threw away when they swept in, a creepy, old artifact from a bygone culture. (I am not anti-Spanish. All colonial empires have done this sort of thing in areas within their reach, and still do today.) As soon as I saw Matson I had a sexual urge, and being a normal man, and the fact that I’m not an eccentric looking person, he responded. The guy was physically and mentally sound, fully engaged in his work, and anyway, I had to speculate on something in a roundabout way.
There must be something wrong with this country, this place, I thought with anxious impatience. Maybe I’ve always been a little unsettled. I hardly recognized myself anymore, and all of this was contrary to my original condition. I wanted to legitimately, honestly fuck the kind of naughty posing, good mature urbanites. These strong, jungle-traveling men only know how to dance with a machete in their hands, and they only have an outdated structure of sexual arousal. They are not genuine, and even men like Lori are just for show.
Mason is very close to me. “You’re missing that, aren’t you?”
“I miss every single thing. Delicious food and wine, actual work, and interesting men.
”
“Regret your decision to go along?”
“I was sorry to have you along.”
“Is it a bad day to be hungry, honey?” He snickered darkly.
“May yours be ravaged by flat lice,” I countered cheerfully.
“You said the great lover is back.”
I saw Lori walking slowly towards us after all the arson.
“I think Margaret is a very nice girl, Masson. It’s a pity she lacks the ability to judge right from wrong.”
“She’s just using me to get off, like Martha used Lori. In fact, you wouldn’t know Martha’s filthy carnal desires.”
I looked at him calmly, remembering the provenance of the mask I had once heard about. “Martha may have made a mistake,” I said.
He looked perplexed, and then we seemed to move beyond the playful insulting of each other into a whole new realm. Of course, we were in the clouds again.
The cloudy mountains hovered at the edge of our vision for days on end. We were moving at a snail’s pace along a calm, slow-moving river that had turned its back on the mountains from which it originated, and would run for thousands of miles before joining the ocean. Sometimes we could see the mountains blotting out the distant sky, sometimes we could only see them sticking out their flat tops through the dim clouds. At other times, and often in the wrong direction, it meanders aimlessly along at its feet.
At night, I heard a helicopter.
I woke up feeling euphoric, and then spent some time trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
The night was as dark as black velvet, and I felt comfortable hiding under the mosquito net, all my energy immersed in memories that were a comforting and intimate return to the billions.
After the joy of waking up has calmed, I feel empty inside and can’t help but feel homesick again. I think I do hear certain voices already, and not just the sounds of my dreams.
Just what is out there that sounds so much like a helicopter! Two million square miles of land is covered with these dense forests, and helicopters can’t possibly fly that far without fuel, especially at night. Even civilian aircraft have to be especially careful flying over such ranges, and loggers’ camps and gold mining areas are only small dots in this vast expanse of land.
I heard the sound of a helicopter and I was inspired by the new technology of civilization. That’s the problem. We can’t win, the rainforest can beat us. The stinging insects see us as a meal, as do the snakes, as do the jaguars, the piranhas, the huge catfish, the electric eels, and what’s more, the telltale stingray, whose ferociousness is more than enough to shut us up.
“Margaret,” I called softly, my head sticking out from under the tent. “Margaret.”
She didn’t answer. I just wanted to ask her if she had also heard what she had just heard, or if it was just my hallucination.
I rolled out of the hammock, there were no silk pajama pants here, I changed into a dry suit for the night and took off my boots, the multiple laces had come loose. I put on my boots and crossed the cabin surface with extreme caution.
Margaret wasn’t in the hammock.
Could it be a cry of nature? I tiptoed across the deck and hopped down to the shore. It was a very beautiful campground, a vast sandy dry salt lake, and a riverfront that had been full of butterflies when we anchored.
I moved noiselessly to the sand, far from the embers of the campfire where the men slept. The moon was high in the sky, and I could feel a sense of peace, except for the fearful cries of the nocturnal animals that surrounded me. Coming to the Amazon is an experience, like reading a deep and meaningful novel, that even if you can’t enjoy at the time, you’ll be glad you did it later.
I heard a sound, I mean a distinctive sound, and my heart turned over with a pang of pain. Crocodiles, did they eat people at night! I drew a deep breath, and was just about to cry out, when I suddenly remembered that all the men were in the hammock, and that I was the only meat attached to this ground, and had to dismiss the cry for help, and turn to flee.
I suddenly stopped walking. In the moonlight, in front of me sat two men, their backs facing me, talking quietly next to each other.
I took careful, rattling steps forward as I tried to eavesdrop. Secret conversations at night, huh, Sidney wanted to know what was being said.
Masson twisted his head and kissed Margaret on the lips. Her head was thrown back, her eyes closed, her mouth pressed against his. His hand was moving down the front of her shirt.
She let out a low, pleasurable moan.
Indeed she will. The guy is good at sex, that I certainly know. I stepped back a little, but I bumped into something that moved, and I tripped and fell on my back in one fell swoop.
A light suddenly came on and suddenly I was dizzy. The light swung from me to the top of the thing I had just tripped over.
I am not a screamer. If I ever screamed at the top of my lungs, it would be an extremely rare event and would be to alert others or myself to the immediate need to get help. I don’t hoot and holler in terror, ever, unless I fall on a crocodile. It had its mouth open, and I was really watching its fangs with considerable interest.
I screamed at the top of my lungs that I was going to turn into a most noisy dinner myself. You’d think nothing could make things this bad, but they do. The lights went out and I struggled after collapsing in the middle of the sand, feeling my shoes poke through. You don’t get a worse feeling than lying with your back in the dark and knowing you’ve just kicked a crocodile in the mouth and nose. I regained my vision as it once again opened its mouth wide and waddled forward.
Pepper stabbed the large knife into its lower jaw. It closed its mouth and swallowed the knife, then opened its mouth again and let out a truly horrifying wail. The machete was spat out and I saw it poke through the beast’s nose. My screams still echoed as this crocodile shook its head and stepped closer.
Matson stopped making out and backed up alertly. The crocodile sped up its crawl. All that was seen was a flash of bright light, a loud bang, and the crocodile stopped, accompanied by a few swings of its tail, and it was dead.
Margaret stopped screaming. If this crocodile had an accomplice, I would have been a meal. I can’t move at the moment.
Pepper came toward me with a rifle. He had shot the thing dead, and when I woke up from the shock, Matson grabbed this rifle and steadily fired another shot.
Matson probed at me. “Are you okay?” His voice was odd and shaky.
“Help me up,” I huffed.
He hauled me to my feet with one hand. “Won’t it bite you?” He asked.
“You stopped it just in time.”
He flung me hard across the face. All I heard was a buzzing sound in my ears, and Margaret yelped in horror at it. Other than that, only Pepper caught a glimpse of the scene. The rest were rolling over and climbing down from their respective hammocks, searching for torches to see what had happened.
Pepper’s head quickly turned from my side to Matson’s and then dropped back. I covered my face with my hands as my eyes glazed over. In all my life, I’d never been punched, not once, not ever, and certainly not by a man.
All of them suddenly appeared. I became shivering all over and pushed them away as hard as I could to run back to my boat, and it took me two tries to finally climb aboard. I stumbled and climbed into my hammock, lay down in it, and wrapped myself in mosquito netting.
My thumb slipped into my mouth without realizing it. I lay on my side, curled into a ball as if I were a fetus, hammock permitting. I was lost in my own rhapsody, letting sleep wash it all away.
The next day Margaret said, “I have angrily reproached Masson. He was so rude.”
My cheeks are still a little sore and red. I made a point of applying a thick layer of jungle insect repellent, hoping not to draw attention to it.
I don’t want to talk to Margaret. I don’t want to talk to any of them.
“He said you were spying on us. I don’t think that makes sense.”
“I hate that Ben didn’t spy on you guys,” I lied. “I heard a helicopter in the night, and in every way it sounded like it. I wanted to ask you if you heard it, but you weren’t in the hammock, so I got up and took a little walk. I had just seen you and was about to turn around when all hell broke loose.”
“He really shouldn’t have done it.”
“It’s nothing,” I said wearily. “We’re not going to get anywhere, you have to be clear about all this.”
She looked at me strangely. I was walking along the dry salt lake with my smoked pilchards, hot wheaten cakes and coffee. I had just calmed myself down when I saw a couple of alligators leaving along an open road, and I couldn’t help but tense up again.
Pepper has skinned that crocodile and is suggesting to Martha that we eat it.
“What does it taste like?” I heard her ask.
“Rubber.” He replied.
Matson came to my side. “I’m sorry I hit you.” He said.
I shrugged my shoulders. “You saved my life first.”
“Margaret told me you heard the helicopter too.”
“Did you hear it too?”
“Yes.”
“Did Margaret hear that?”
“Heard that too.”
“Then all three of us heard the helicopter.”
“Exactly.” He seemed a little impatient now.
“Then I presume it is true,” I said, while nodding gravely.
We also reached the mountain. The river was running along its solid bedrock, and the wild grasses and trees that grew everywhere were rare here, the river having washed away all the soil. In order to climb the mountain, we had to abandon the boats, leaving Pepper to protect them. We shall have to try to make our way through the rainforest until we have climbed the western side of Cloudy Mountain, and, with luck, hope to find the cave of the mask.
Of this action I was not quite sure. In the first place every one must carry weight, and the dampness around the river had rotted my toes a little, and in spite of the anti-mold powder I did not like to go too far, preferring to make the best use of the nearest means of transportation.
In the meantime we have to do the cooking ourselves. Pepper is both the driver and the cook, and now he can take a short vacation.
The first day Lori and I were on the sidelines. “It doesn’t look like this mountain was too hard to find,” I spoke with feigned cordiality.
“No one thought it was difficult until then either,” he said. “Up until the current time, no one thought it was important unless an airplane flew over and saw us.”
“Did you hear the helicopter the other night?”
He suddenly turned those bright eyes on me and said, “The night you almost got eaten?”
“It was that night, I remember it well, it was the sound of the helicopter that woke me up.”
“I heard that. I’m guessing he’s lost, and it’s a shame the radio doesn’t work. Of course, it could have been a government airplane, but I don’t expect anything like flying at night. It’s a surprising mountain range to have something like flying in such a dangerous place.”
“But there’s nowhere to land.”
A short silence followed. “I can’t understand, either,” Rory said carefully, “why you went out with Masson the other night. I mean,” he added hastily, “it’s a completely private matter for you, but I do have one piece of advice for you two; don’t take it any further.”
“We’re not together.” I denied flatly. “He’s rubbing up against each other with Margaery.”
“I would have thought she would have had better judgment.”
I shrugged. “Circumstances dictate it, I guess. There aren’t a lot of options here, are there? She’s an energetic woman.” Actually, I think she’s a girl looking for a husband, with eyes as empty and bulging as ashtrays.
We were both slightly behind, Colin and Matson driving ahead and clearing the barricades with their machetes, revealing the moorings for us in the process, when Rory suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.
“God,” he said less strongly.
“Why.”
“The payroll book, that’s not compensable.”
“I’m not going back with you to get it.” I said, but my heart started thumping in an unusual way.
He dropped the package and put his hands on my shoulders, loosening my backpack.
I’m at your mercy.
He took my face in his hands and pulled it towards himself, and I obeyed completely, trembling. His mouth came toward me, and my eyelids closed in ecstasy. His mouth touched my lips, teasing and pouting them open. I felt myself fall gently into his arms. He took a step forward, then wrapped his arms around me, and I savored his square tongue as he kissed me harder and more passionately, so thirsty.
He suddenly trembled all over and hugged me even tighter. You lovely guy, I raspy thought, in fact, you have long wanted me.
We kissed each other furiously, as if a dying cow saw water. I guessed that was indeed the case. He undid my shirt and kissed my breasts. “You’re this beautiful,” he panted, “so beautiful, just beautiful.”
My hands also violently tugged at his shirt and pressed against his body, I hadn’t realized how strong my desire for this man was. To touch his naked skin with my own hands was truly the greatest bliss.
He hastily loosened his belt. “Touch me now, Sidney, I need you.”
I put my hand inside his pants. His prick was engorged and erect, very hard. Its searing, smooth length fit right into the groove where his own hand curved. I squeezed gently while nibbling on his shoulder, “I want you inside.” I said with a strong expression.
He pulled off my pants and with a firm push propped me up to sit on a tree root. My hands towered over his shoulders and my face was buried in his hair. He thrust his cock, raised upward, between my legs and I savored the sensation of it thrusting into me. My vaginal opening spasmed, and my love-filled pussy seemed to forget all about sucking on his prick. He began to pump long and hard, quenching his thirst as he caressed it, his face hole buried in my neck, his lips kissing my throat.
From a technical point of view, perhaps this was no mean feat. We left no gaping hole, it was a lesser venue, and we were so hungry that we couldn’t be bothered to speak of elegance. But it was beautiful, only beautiful. This long-hungry man was desperately trying to get satisfaction from my flesh as well as satisfy me, and almost simultaneously my orgasmic pole came. As his orgasm descended, his long, thick male root pumped hard, filling my entire cunt with its sweet aroma, and I yanked on his hair until his head was thrown back, and then kissed him greedily again, his eyes, his mouth, his ears, thoroughly taking in everything in his flesh, as his manhood filled my deep cunt with sweetly scented, cloudy, white semen.
He pulled up his own pants and got down on both knees to lick and kiss my belly. “Sidney,” he said, “I’ve gotten so much out of you, but it’s not enough. I’m not going to stop again, and you’re not going to make me stop.”
“No,” I replied, with unmistakable pleasure, harrumphing and shouting at the same time. “We can’t stop now.”
He pulled my tunic up and hugged me tightly. “I have reason to make love to you.” He whispered in my ear, “I will give you all the pleasure a woman needs. As a woman like you deserves.”
“Bluffing,” he said and laughed again.
“What does that mean?”
“That’s what I always say when men boast to me.”
He kissed the tip of my nose. “I’m not boasting. You’ll know better in the future, you’ll know one day that we’ve done this and you can’t deny it.”
I insight his face and wrap my arms gently around his neck. “What a lovely man you are.” I said without exaggeration. “So awesome it almost scares me a little.”
“Why does that scare you?” Presently he is making fun of me.
“How can I watch myself when I’m with you?”
“That’s not what I want,” he said, becoming menacing. “I want you defenseless and in my grasp, and I’m going to fuck you until I lose consciousness.”
We renewed our passionate kiss and it was insane. The others could return at any moment, and were besieged by things that were going to devour us. But I still wanted this man inside me again, I wanted to conquer him completely, in bed, sipping cool, sweet wine, lazily spending hours scrutinizing every part of each other’s bodies, physically savoring and arousing all the fiery emotions, limbs intertwined, my love-filled pussy swelling again with arousal.
I’m going to be hyper.
He stopped moving and stood back, looking a little shaken. “We need to find the way.” He said in a hoarse voice, “For Christ’s sake, let’s move quickly.”
“Okay.” I responded, nodding my head slowly and pleasantly. It was a good idea at the moment, we had to get out of this, so the pretense that I was looking for a way out kept the secret of my carnal desires and hid my inner emotions.
Rory picked up my backpack, “Carry this on your back, beautiful.” He said. “Don’t look so happy, people will see what we’ve done, it’s not appropriate for you.”
I laughed out loud. “You have some character,” I said. “Then you stopped me from cheering with a razor.
”
He became suddenly serious. “It won’t be long now Sidney, I swear, I’m going to end my part in this farce quickly. Nothing, nothing in this world is going to stop me from needing you, and you’d better watch out.”
I sprinted down the trail where the men had cleared the barrier. Rory was a little hesitant, so we did not walk together again. I arrowed into the trees, which were entwined with thick, solid vines, with flowers protruding straight out from the trunks, which resembled huge bromeliads, with great flanges supporting the trees, and air roots sprouting from the main trunks supporting the whole tree from a distance.
What an unusual place.
The feeling of peace in my heart began to fade, and I heard the others ahead of me who were cleaving their way through this everlasting warm room.
My body calmed down at that, the taut strings in my head loosening slightly.
What is the problem? What will Martha do once he stops playing the role of the doll? Fire him? Or fire me?
And then there’s the young, delectable Carla, who will twist Lori’s arm to force him to reach into her panties?
What kind of farce was he talking about just now? The farce of sex? Or the farce of these treasure maps and the lost ancient city filled with gold.
I wish I wasn’t so thirsty for this man, he is weakening my judgment. The strong, mature heart inside is quick to tell me should I go down this road? I have no experience dealing with such delicate feelings, and I have been successful in keeping them out of my life.
I’ve kept myself safe.
Coming here I seemed to need something independent. We used to apply jungle repellent, and nowadays it seems that one of the repellents I need would simply be a huge mistake to get entangled with them.
Once I met someone like Rory who wanted to unlock my heart, it was hard to stay awake. To be honest, I had a strong sexual desire for him, and his manhood was like a magic wand of pleasure inside me.
I feebly told myself that Rory had no competition in this land of a billion only insects. The guy is provocative, cerebral, and just plain mean.
Yes, he’s mean. I can feel it here, but I like my men to be witty and to ask for slickness.
If Rory had lustful, dangerous thoughts, then he would have swallowed Martha’s nasty love juices while kissing Carla’s delicate, soft muscles and saving some more fuel in his own tank in order to make mad love to me.
Do I really care? I am not and never will be jealous. It’s a stupid act, too bad, I’ve never been jealous, jealousy is a sign of aging, and to cause me this neurotic feeling is just betting on a sucker that all his lustful pronouncements had such a strong effect.
I guarantee that man intends to do the same, and he fell in just as I did through confusion and disinterest in love.
Playtime is always welcome, but things are looking serious.
That night we set up camp at the foot of Yunwu Mountain. The mountain looked extremely steep from a distance, but up close it appeared to be uneven, like a ridge. I even thought that given enough time, I would be able to cope with this slightly difficult climb.
We cleared out a small patch of ground in the forest and put up a rain shelter with branches. Jack started a fire and made dinner arrangements with Margaret while Matson and I hung the hammock.
We ate a bounty of canned meats, cookies and dried fruit. As a special treat, Martha brought us assorted sticks from the larder to munch on. We drank coffee, the only time we didn’t attack the boiled water, because Martha opened a bottle of brandy and we mixed it all in.
It was no longer clear to me just how far this road trip to eat dried fruitcake went. Matson began to play the harmonica with a half-bitter, half-sweet, dejected melancholy.
“Would you have been very disappointed if you had not found Vicar Bamba?” I asked Martha. I had to admit that she did arouse my curiosity and interest, and I, an extreme skeptic of the goodness of human nature, craved a mixture of romance at times.
“Disappointed? That’s certainly how it must feel, Sidney. But grief? It won’t. We came here as a gamble, and not all bets are recovered.”
“How did you pick this team?”
“I travel a lot, Sidney. Partly because the business requires it, and partly because I like to travel. Carla herself is willing to come with me. Jack and Margaret often accompany me as well. This time they were not required to accompany me, but I am glad they chose to go along. I see that this trip should come with a stipend on top of my regular paycheck.” She giggled, showing a mouthful of snow-white, straight teeth. She resembled a tough guy. “Matson introduced me and Carl to each other and started working on this after our first meeting. It was Carl who discovered us as two useful experts.”
“You’re satisfied with all this, aren’t you?” I cross-examined.
“That’s for sure, don’t you?”
“Except for the mosquito bites and being scared half to death by that hungry crocodile, maybe that’s about right. It was indeed an experience.”
“That’s exactly my fortune and interest, Sidney.” Martha said mildly. “Experience, you know, I’m not afraid to say there’s a lot of it, but I’m pressed to believe it, screw it, you know?”
“Can I quote you on that?” I laughed out loud.
“I grew up in an area where Christianity’s Bible was all over the place, and I wanted to do every insignificant and harmless thing that seemed to me, but some weird-looking guy in a thick collar said no.”
“What kind of harmless things are you referring to?”
“To experience feelings in the Garden of Eden, I want to lie under a white-tailed hare and go for lucky grass. My mother wanted me to get married and have children, my father used to whip me with a belt, and that administrative magistrate chastised me and put his hand in my panties.”
“But you don’t want to do it.”
“Yes. But all the religious people have told me that intercourse is dirty, and I realize that they are wrong, dead wrong. Baby, I know that it’s a joyful thing, a wonderful thing, a thing that couldn’t be more appropriate for a man and a woman to do together. I didn’t really understand how I knew it, but was certain that no one else would ever feel as I did, and after that I met Charlie. Charlie was about thirty years old, had come ahead of me in a race, and ran a bookstore in our neighboring town. I moved in with him, he was gentle and kind and loved what we did together. There were no arguments, but there was whiskey every day. This man taught me many things, and here I don’t want to talk about technicalities, Sidney, I’m going to talk about lifestyle.”
“What happened after that?”
“Charlie died of a heart attack, but he left me the bookstore. I sold the store and moved up north with that money, and I volunteered for some different kind of art education because Charlie had taught me that the older something is, the more beautiful it is, and then I married my own teacher. After the separation I met Jonah.”
“Do you ever go back to the old country?”
“Father calls me a whore, and mother always weeps for me. It doesn’t bother me anymore, but I give them enough money. I should say Jonah’s money, and having that money is not without its woes.”
Early the next morning we gathered our tents and headed for the cloudy mountains, where the temperature dropped four degrees for every thousand feet of ascent. As we moved upward, the forest changed its appearance. The silent giants of the forest made the roads narrower and more and more aspen-like trees appeared. The weather grows cooler, and a vague mist surrounds the tuberous, curving trunks of the trees like steam.
We climbed up into the middle of huge rocks covered with soft, thick green flogging. Flowers nodded their heads in the still, moist air, and in the distance animals screamed shrilly, and overhead the green wattles poured very close together, very much like a very old English-style woodland. Intertwined with each other in a mass like soft fur.
I couldn’t help but shudder. A wizard wouldn’t appear from here, or a gnome. We marched in single file, unable to help each other, silent.
The trail became more and more futile, with grassy field objects growing on the huge rocks along the roadside creating open vistas.
The rock was in various forms, some inverted, some grooved, as if someone had deliberately carved it. It was lighter in color than the material we’d seen camping by the river, and Colin explained, “It’s sandstone.”
A pebble is simply a rock to me. “Is this Andes Mountain granite?” I inquired.
“They’re andesite,” replied Colin.
Asked a stupid question.
The path became more and more treacherous, like a real climb, and I had to use my hands and feet in the most treacherous places, and I tried to be careful not to look down or behind me. In my vision, I saw the waves of rainforest forming a canopy like an endless green cloud, stretching forever from a distance.
We were climbing up a broad sloping slab of rock, cracks and ridges rising out of the rock for easy footholds, as if climbing a staircase, and it was dangerous and a little scary, and the slab gradually turned into a rocky mouth, and then a tooth, and I paused, exhausted, by my companion’s side.
“We have to go back.” Masson said.
“Is there no way out?” Martha asked.
They were arguing about the gap that appeared between the faulted rock and the mountain stock. The crevice was six feet away, and it didn’t seem that far. But it extends down that six feet for about forty feet and more, gradually narrowing to a small crevice. There was nothing anyone could do to change the fact that there was absolutely no way to fall from here.
Colin surveyed the path and everything around us, the tiny top of the summit we were on was right on the sharp knife edge of the mountain, completely on the inside of the splintered peak. “Assuming we can get a rope we can get across.” He said.
“Better get down there and head back.” Matson said. He was snapping pictures with his Nikon camera, capturing the majestic view with a special lens. It made me feel uncomfortable.
Rory walked around. Then he yanked out a rope and spread it out on the ground. I watched as he tied one end of the rope to a stone pillar with a U-shaped indentation and the other end to his waist.
The others were still arguing. Carla lay flat on her back with her eyes squeezed shut, her face pale and amused. Margaret watched Matson as closely as if he were a lunch. Martha listened to everyone talking able to make decisions as we rested.
Rory moved back slightly.
“Hey!” I said suddenly.
He grinned and gave me a flying kiss, followed by a boost and a jump.
There came an unearthly scream of terror. Rory landed on his hands and feet on the opposite side, rolling dizzily on his boots for a moment before he gained his balance. He stood up and turned to us, grinning smugly.
A pang went through me. I hate strong men’s pranks. Martha stood there clapping her hands and laughing happily, and Matson appeared extremely calm, the scene looked truly shocking.
The ropes are loosened and he has to jump over them second. All the packs are teleported over, including Rory’s, and the ropes are flung over.
“Ladies first!” Rory shouted happily.
“I’ll go over first,” Matson said. “Let me check it’s safe.”
“Let me test it,” said Jack, “and if it will bear my weight, all will pass.”
He wrapped the rope around his waist a few times. Over the narrow valley he pushed forward, head first. With the tension of the rope around his waist, he hooked his feet to the bridging rope, while holding the other rope in his hand, and pulled himself across. Just watching from the sidelines gave me the creeps.
Followed by Martha, then Carla, then Margaret and me. The hands that had grabbed me loosened, then another hand caught me, and it wasn’t too bad. Matson moved forward.
“Next Colin,” shouted Rory, who was checking his side of the rope to make sure it wasn’t frayed. “This is so much fun, and Masson is going to talk about going back.”
Colin straightened up as he wrapped the rope around himself. It was just as good as wrapping it around that hard pole, Matson paced back and forth as Colin leapt over it.
Now we all came over except the photographer. “Shall we leave this rope here for when the place comes back?” He shouted.
“Then I’ll jump again and come over here and untie it.” Rory grinned brightly.
“Don’t be so stupid!” But it was obvious that Martha was amused at his conceit.
“I’m serious,” Rory said. “We might have to use the rope again. It’s the only one we’ve got, I’ll jump over it, don’t worry, and maybe we’ll find a better shortcut.”
Matson untied the ropes before walking to the edge of the rock spout. He had two ropes tied around him and had tucked his prized camera inside his shirt. Then crouching with bent knees, there was a moment’s silence and he leapt forward.
I could hardly look at what was in front of me; the rope on Rory was pulled tightly against a wall of rock. He should have crossed the gap with ease, yet he slid deeper into the canyon. He struck brittle rock, and a mass of splinters clattered downward.
Dragging the rope tightly, Rory slid forward, climbing the stone wall with one hand and grabbing the end of the rope with the other.
Jack moved forward in an attempt to help, then Colin grabbed Rory. From the canyon came Matson’s horrible curse, and we all heard it.
Jack settled himself and stuck his booted foot out. Rory grabbed his foot and reached out a hand to grab Masen’s arm.
He finally came up, born on his ass, let go of the rope and took the camera out from inside his shirt checking for bumps. Then he stared at Rory, his face looking somber and gray from shock, “You son of a bitch.” He cursed.
“Hey,” Martha cried shrilly. “It was an accident, Matson. Rory did the best he could.”
“It was Jack who saved his life, Martha.” Lori said. “I was sliding down the slope at the time, too.”
Masson stood up. “We can move on now!” He said rudely.
Martha said, “You can say thank you to Jack, and I think you should apologize to Lori.”
“Jack knows exactly how grateful I am that he saved my life.” Matson said. A long silence ensued.
“That’s all right,” said Rory casually. “Don’t blame him; after all, I’m at fault too.”
We all stood up and slung our respective backpacks over our shoulders as we continued on our upward climb.
The cloudy mountains were beginning to live up to their name, and the sky was gradually drizzling with a gray, woolly rain.
We moved steadfastly upward, and then we emerged on the other side of Cloudy Mountain, above it.
I gasped.
Before us the mountain stood up in a series of spectacular sights, with its elevated parts tilted skyward and fluted on each side, and it looked as if it towered over the clouds. Below and behind us lay Cloudy Mountain, its thick, fluffy, downy top a pale red color for miles as the setting sun shone in the west. Opposite this marshmallow-like vista, a dark shadow appeared so gloomy and gray. The peak itself casts its own reflection on the upper end of Cloudy Mountain, on whose eastern flank we are situated. This peak stood between us and the setting sun.
“We had better camp here,” said Jack. “It will be dark in a little while.”
The weather became so cool that we slept on the ground, wrapped in our respective hammocks to keep us warm. We found a small, broad, cudgeled outcrop below one of the overhanging objects, which would provide some protection from the wind and rain in case of a storm during the night.
“Let’s go gather some firewood to light a fire.” Rory said as he walked over and took my arm and we left together in high spirits.
He climbed with the agility of a cat, paying no attention to the dry branches blown off by the wind. I felt a little lighter because I didn’t have a backpack. We were approaching a saddle-shaped ridge of huge, flat rocky outcrops. The peak looked like a flat-topped mountain from a distance, but the center of the highland summit sank in the middle.
The closer you get, the more complex the terrain appears.
Rory plunged downward into a small depression and snaked under a protruding rock.
“Come here, Sidney.” The sharp change in his voice made my heart pound.
I jumped onto the ramp with my arms outstretched. He stretched out an arm and pulled me close with one hand as I approached.
I leaned in close to his body. “I’m going to take you slowly with every trick in the book.”
His lips pressed against my skin. “The others are still waiting for us.” I said dizzily.
“To hell with them.” He kissed me furiously on the mouth as he undid my shirt and kissed my breasts while holding me up above him so that he could take my nipples in turn in his mouth in one smooth motion, sucking on them lovingly.
Just how long did he spend thinking about me today, planning all this?
“You’re a little cold.” He murmured and whispered.
“No, it wasn’t cold at all. It wasn’t cold but I was shivering.”
“You’re so cute, my sweet.”
He took off his shirt and laid me flat on it. His body was warm and strong, and I found myself brushing my lips against his skin, taking in his body, thus allowing me to take my time and enjoy this man.
He wasn’t particularly kuiu nor tall, but his muscles were strong and well developed. It was a very attractive physique, one that combined strength and agility at their best.
It felt so wonderful as he wormed his way down my body while undressing me and kissing me passionately. I felt his lips land on the softness of my waist, then my stomach as his tongue licked my belly button and his lower jaw gently grazed the soft bulge of my pussy.
He rubbed his bare chest against my breasts again from the bottom up. His hand pressed against the top of my pubic hair as he gazed into my face, his own lids dark and seemingly so subdued, while he curled his fingers and flexed them into the hollow below my pubic bone. “I like shaving you here best.” He whispered quietly.
“You’ll be like the fruit, with those plump lips pouting outward from here, and that soft juicy pussy-muscle cleft here.”
His fingers squeezed at the grooves of my pussy as he peeled my legs apart, one finger slowly resting against the lips of my cunt, his lids so close to me. “I’m going to fuck you and lick you until you scream.” He said loudly.
“I never yell.”
“You will hoot and holler because of me.”
His fingertips ringed into the tight opening of my vagina. His tongue peeked out from between his teeth and his breathing had become a little irregular.
How marvelous it is, on a mountain peak in South America.
“How do you want me to do this?” He asked quietly. “With my fingers like this?” He tweaked my clit, and a surge of violently excited passion traveled quickly through my entire body like an electric current.
“Or with my tongue?” He spits out his tongue farther and sticks it in my mouth, and I kiss back furiously.
“Let’s use my cock!” He inserted a finger into my love-filled pussy and squeezed.
“How about this?” He withdrew the finger that was wet in the gateway. I felt his teeth nipping at my neck as that finger lied into my anus, and my body couldn’t help but jerk tightly against him.
He laughed loudly and maniacally.
I pushed him far enough away to slowly remove my own leather boots and pants. Then I turned around and straddled him again. Beneath me his eyes gleamed in the gloom, and his tanned face looked so alive and full of energy.
I leaned forward so that my breasts hung low enough to brush his cheeks. He took in both pert, bud-like nipples, licking and kissing and sucking in anticipation of my next move.
I lifted my hips, his cock was quite firm. I rocked back to a crouching stop. Supporting myself above him, I lifted his manhood to place the glans at my pleasure gate, and I gently squeezed downward to bring it almost fully inside.
“Kiss,” I said. I gently stroked up and down, these two sticky places coming together for a moment, then separating, then squeezing together, then separating again. I neither let him impale me nor let go of him as his man-root licked and kissed my swollen pussy and my swollen labia responded enthusiastically.
“What a lovely woman.” He said, his voice low and deep, affectionate and naughty. He thrust his hips, so suddenly that I was caught off guard, and the glans of his cock had plunged into me and stopped.
The feeling was so wonderful, the sensation it brought in my tightening cunt was so wonderful.
We looked at each other. “Who will be the first to admit defeat.” He said as he licked his lips.
I clenched my juicy pussy muscles.
“Heh!” He moaned excitedly and tenderly.
I clench again.
“I think you’re ducking.” I began to swing eagerly, just in a tiny range so that I could clamp the glans with my pussy lips, neither letting him in completely nor allowing it to come off completely.
He began to pant sharply, “Vixen.”
I continued as he licked his thumb and placed his hands on my breasts, his thumbs brushing quickly over my nipples. I rubbed against the end of his cock, then suddenly stopped and sank all at once so that his manhood thrust upward, all the way into the depths of my mind.
His face was covered in passion, and I was amazed at how good his cock felt inside me as we began to make painful love.
After a while he was very satisfied and pumped vigorously inside me, as if the sex game had been long awaited. We enjoyed the time to the fullest, and then he lifted me up by my waist.
He raised it slowly, the muscles in his arms slowly bulging. As he fucked, his eyes gazed down at the area between us, his reddish, glistening cock gradually coming into view, lying across our bodies.
I could feel every bit of him squirming as he slowly pulled out of me.
He propped me forward and slowly lowered me closer to his face, I had landed on both knees and I could feel his warm, satiny hair brushing against my inner thighs.
He still held me above his face, his tongue spitting out to lick and suck my engorged and swollen pussy door.
I felt the burning tongue teasing me. He kept teasing and tantalizing my love-sticky pleasure gate with his tongue, then between the labia majora and minora, which he lightly touched a couple of times with an etched-in motion. He pushed his tongue backward, penetrating my anus.
He lowered me slightly. Licking and kissing my nub, my pussy, he gently chewed my labia and flicked them. He pushed his tongue further up inside my juicy pussy and lapped up my love juices. He kissed my anus, crinkling his lips into tiny little folds so that they could match the shape of its narrow, pale red folds.
He pressed his lips to my sex and sucked on it, then nibbled on my clit.
“Lori,” I called out quietly, my voice shaking a little.
His head stretched out sharply and he did lick and suck hard. It was too much for me to help myself, and my orgasm came all at once. My body convulsed and shuddered with regularity as a huge amount of love juice gushed out of my cunt.
He licked and sucked even more violently, swallowing the secreted jizz and nibbling lightly on my bud-like clit. Then he quickly put me on top of him and placed my open, still stumpy, twitching pussy on his hard, thick cock.
He thrust upward very hard, and I jerked straight up, my head hitting the jutting rock above me, and I barely noticed, clenching my pussy muscles as hard as I could. I felt his orgasm coming.
This was accompanied by a slight, low, deep sputtering sound as he began to soften and loosen up after a few strong, powerful strokes.
I rolled off of him. Opening my mouth I sucked his soft, moist and thick shaft completely into my mouth. I licked and sucked with my tongue as I took his balls into my mouth again and gently licked and sucked on them.
He tugged me close against him, and he and I lay next to each other flat on our backs in this limited space. It was now completely dark, and he reached between my legs with one hand and groped for a juicy pussy, then he rubbed his hand up and down, and along the lubricant that my pussy was secreting, he easily lied into my hole in the back. He lowered his head and began to suck on one of my nipples, he sucked rhythmically as he finger fucked my behind.
I began to get aroused again as I felt his manhood first flaccid against my belly and then begin to harden again. As his prick hardened, he skimmed my anus and pressed me underneath him.
I lay flat on my back, him on top of me, and I spread my legs. He grabbed my legs and raised them to his shoulders, and my sex was propped up exposed beneath him. He wrapped his arms around my waist so that I was pressed firmly to the ground. He lifted himself up so that his entire body was completely off the ground, his weight supported solely by his hands and feet.
I lay spread out on all fours underneath him.
He let out a soft, low grunt, and then his stiff cock plunged into my taunting, hot, already aroused, mucus-filled cunt, with the strength of his loins and without the aid of his knees or elbows, so that his whole body tensed and began to writhe. He was like a speeding train rushing and fucking me very deeply and violently, almost savagely.
It’s just brilliant, it’s wonderful. My pussy was so lubricated and all parts of my body were completely stretched out. It seemed to feel like it wanted to keep his cock inside me forever. Each powerful thrust caused my teeth to rattle, bringing me close to a second orgasm. As he pushed in sharply, I began to view the stars in the sky, a marvelous combination of sexual violence without pain. My body was also strong enough to not only absorb each thrust but to give him the proper response.
Accompanied by a gasp that came from my lungs like a whistle, my orgasm came and my head twisted back.
All came to a halt just waiting for this brilliant and glorious moment. He was affected by my orgasm and it came, thus I felt the power of his orgasm as well as his exuberant libido.
He lowered my legs and lay on top of me and propped himself up on his elbows to take his weight off. He kisses my cheek.
“I want you to scream out loud because I make you so satisfied.” He said.
“You vain bastard.” I said half laughing, half sobbing.
“I know you’re pleased.” He spoke in a pleased tone. “I can see it in the way you move, that you are restraining yourself, and I can see it in your eyes, and the way you talk. You’re a slut, aren’t you? Sidney. You like it kinky.”
“I guess it does.” I giggled.
He rubbed his nose against me, “I’ve got all kinds of secret spare wonders, and I don’t want you to fuck with Masson.”
I was amazed. “You’re jealous?”
“Not all of them, I wouldn’t have a problem with having sex with other people, like Jack or Pepper. Of course you can’t get Colin, he’s gay. If you like you can also play with girls, if I can watch.
“He kissed me again. “But definitely not that damned American, that sly, timid, whiny, trouble-making American whose eyes are always on you, and of course, you know all about that.”
“He’s courting Margaret.”
“He can’t even spare a fart for Margaret, he’s using her to make you jealous.”
“What?”
“Believe me, Sidney, it wasn’t just because your beauty, intelligence, cheerfulness, and sensuality would have been completely ravaged by that man with nothing better to do. It’s more than that; he’s attempting to goad you against me, and that’s what he’s really after. He’s a guy prone to jealousy, baby, and it’s even worse that he saw us helping each other and ground trying to sabotage that.”
“And what do you mean?”
“He’s a lover of trouble, a jerk. If he could, he would spoil the expedition.”
“It wasn’t him and Karl who started this expedition?”
“What with him and Carl, Sidney, what with their efforts to plan it, it was nothing more than an agreement to deceive Martha. The plan was that we’d use her money to find the Vicar Bamba, but after we found it, we’d then try to get rid of her and divvy up the wealth before officially announcing to the world how clever we were.”
I can see there are a couple of mysteries here. “Martha is not stupid. Had you found Vicar Bamba, she would have known?”
“You wait, Cat; when we have enlisted Colin, I can easily make this thing happen; we will camp here, and if Carl and Matson and we are all of one mind, one of us is bound to discover Vicar Bamba first. Jack has been protecting Martha, and you girls won’t venture out alone; Pepper is staying with the ships.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I advised Martha not to proceed any further, and then Matson also said deliberately that it was a joke, and that he did not expect it to become so serious. He denied the expedition to Martha, and besides, she had to have Matson because he had the mask from that period. She thought she could beat Matson. In a way, she was right.
”
“What do you believe about this mask?”
“I believe it’s not a forgery. I believe it will help us. I feel its lips against my skin curving into a smirk. You must realize that for all of this to exhaust my ingenuity, and after this stage I am fully confident that I can unlock the secrets of this mask, do you think I’m being arrogant.” He rubbed his body close like a cat, smug.
“I have perceived every thing about you.”
He laughed darkly. “No, you couldn’t possibly, my dear, you’re very clever, and as resourceful as I am in dealing with every little detail. I couldn’t have fooled you more, if I had tried to. That’s what makes you so desirable, and of course I might try again.”
“Why? Why did you make a fool of me, Lori?”
“Because it’s fun.”
In the darkness, I captured his mouth from above my own, kissing it while sledding open his mouth to suck on his tongue. “We better get back.” I said.
“Walking in the dark, is that appropriate?” His voice seemed smug. “We’ll have to come up with a lie on the way back, can we say we were attacked by a panther.”
“You mean the jaguar.”
“It took you by force, and I counter-jacked it with the only nails I had left.”
“It hijacked you.” I wittily shot back, “I saved your life by filing down its teeth with an emery board and clogging its nostrils with cotton paper.”
We dressed and crawled out from underneath into the night. Rory threw his torch and it arced across the sky and mountains. When he threw it away the sky was clear and the stars were shining and glaring at us.
Rory screwed on the flashlight again and waved it around; it was getting cold and I was shivering. He took my hand and we started chopping and sinking toward the way we came.
As we were nearing our destination, we heard the others talking and saw the fire. How Rory found the path I am not sure, he was as calm as a cat and his eyes seemed to be able to recognize the smallest of potholes in this dark and harsh environment.
When we saw the light, he stopped in his tracks and put his arms around me in a tight embrace.
“Don’t make me unhappy, Sidney.” He said.
“What do you mean?” It was so romantic standing here, almost his entire body sank into his strong, powerful embrace, the man didn’t seem to feel cold, he was warm all over.
His lips buried themselves in my fragrant hair, “I’ve stopped thinking there are women like you here, gutsy, sexy, brave, funny, and witty.”
“Talk.” I said as I kissed him.
“Darling, I hope so.” He broke apart for a kiss and we walked toward the others.