thrilled about walking those gates, which were a couple dozen feet above the water, with no handrail at all, so, after just a few feet, we turned back.
"How do you ever walk out there?" she asked me.
"One foot in front of the other, Jen, but heights have never bothered me. I had to help a buddy reroof his parents' house, and it was three stories tall on the back side. That's how I know I can redo the roof on the cabin."
"Do you really think that you can do all of that work? That cabin needs a lot of work, not just the roof."
"It needs a lot of work, true, and I'm not sure that I can get it all done before our wedding night -- Jen kind of blushed at that -- but I can get it livable. I'm just a bit worried about the cost of materials, is all, but I'll manage that somehow." I didn't say anything about the money I had in the bank from my grandmother's estate. It's not a lot, but I know that Jennifer would be worried if she knew I'd have to put some of that into fixing up the cabin. "Your father told me how he and your mom would wander down to that creek on hot summer evenings, and how just walking barefooted in the creek made even the August heat go away. I can see us, right now, sitting there on the bank, having a picnic dinner, with no one around but the two of us."
"And that's what you want?" Jen asked me.
"I can't imagine anything better in life."
We were sitting on the bank of the river, not too steeply sloped, and softly grassy, and Jen's response to that was to get on my lap, facing me, and start kissing. I was sort of leaning back, using my arms to support both of us, when Jen started tugging at my t-shirt, pulling it off of me. That meant sitting up a bit more, and this looked like it was going to be a
very
fun trip to the river. It was a bit difficult to get my shirt off, with her kissing me constantly, but finally it was off, and she made no move to stop me when I started pulling off her shirt as well. She raised her arms up into the air, and off came her t-shirt. Since Jen had started leaving her bra at home, she was naked from the waist up, and looked as sexy as could be. Then she pulled a trick I'd never even thought of. She grabbed her long ponytail, put it around the back of my neck, and used it to pull me into more kisses. Oh, my Lord, this woman was just so great!
And then we heard voices. Jen scrambled back into her shirt, getting it on just before the hikers appeared around the bend. She was still sitting on my lap, and fell into a fit of uncontrollable giggling. "I guess that we'll just have to wait for later," she told me.
Jennifer's story
I'm usually pretty good with directions, but Mark made so many twists and turns finding our way down to the woods that I was completely lost. Finally, we wound up on this old gravel road, where we had to stop and let this huge flock of puppies finish crossing the road. I felt sorry for the mother: I didn't think that dogs could have litters that large!
Finally we came to this huge, old barn. It hadn't been either painted or creosoted, and the old wood had a grey patina. There was a decent-sized gravel parking lot, so I suppose that this barn was used by the Parks Department, or whomever maintained this area. We went through a gate in the barbed wire fence, down a bit of a hill, and then the trail went into the woods.
These woods were just alive with noises: there were birds chirping, and I spotted a pair of cardinals building a nest. The rest of the birds I could hear, but not actually see. There were bees buzzing around the spring flowers, orange daylilies at the entrance to the woods, and then some other kinds I couldn't identify once we got under the cover of the trees. The path was slowly meandering downward, and if the woods were alive with birds and bees, there were no people sounds at all.
I guess that we had been along the path for twenty minutes or so, when I spotted it: a downed tree. Oh, my gosh, images of what Monica had suggested were running through my head, and I both wanted to do it and was terrified of doing it. It wasn't just the thought of getting caught, but just what she told me to say to Mark; I just couldn't do that! But, my feet were a bit tired -- saddle oxfords are sturdy enough shoes, but they really aren't made for hiking through the woods -- so I sat down on the old log, telling Mark I needed a drink from the canteen. It was fun, sitting there and kissing, but those thoughts kept roiling through my mind: I really wanted to try this, but I didn't know if I could go through with it. Still, I bet that Mark would love it! Then I thought, maybe on the way back up to the car. "OK, let's head on down," I told my boyfriend.
About ten or fifteen minutes later, we made it down to the locks. There was an old concrete walkway leading up to them, and a dilapidated lock-tender's cabin. There are some big concrete pilings out in the river that Mark wanted to go out to, but once we started walking along the steel gates, I went "Whoa!" These things aren't even three feet wide, and while they had a two inch raised lip, there wasn't any handrail or cable at all, and walking these things was just
way
too nerve wracking for me. I asked Mark how he ever walked on something like this, and he told me that heights had never bothered him. I didn't think that heights bothered me, either, and I had spent plenty of time climbing around the old barn, but this was completely different. We started out about ten feet up, and once we got over the water, it would be a lot further than that, and I just couldn't do it.
Mark never pushed me into trying to go further; once he saw that I just couldn't do it, he turned around and helped me off.
We wound up sitting on the river bank, which wasn't too steeply sloped by the locks, with a nice grassy area; the trees had been cleared and it was warm and sunny. I took off my shoes and socks, to feel the cool grass on my toes, and Mark and I were just sitting there, talking, and holding hands and occasionally kissing. We were talking about the old cabin that Mark wanted to fix up for us, and he told me that he could do the work himself, but I could see that he's worried about affording the materials. Mark's family is poor, and while we have the farm, and it supports our family, my folks still don't have a lot of spare cash. I had a lot of scholarship money, and that's the only way I could ever have afforded UK. Even then, that only covers undergraduate school: I still have no idea how I'm going to afford medical school.
Mark was sitting there, with his legs stretched out, leaning back with his arms supporting him. This was just south of the Valley View Ferry, and we were facing west. The sun was in his face, and he looked just so calm and peaceful there. Maybe it was time to disturb his peace, I thought, and I got on his lap, facing him, started kissing him, and tugging to get his t-shirt off. He liked that, and sat forward a bit and put up his arms, so I could get his shirt off, which still took some effort, because I kept kissing him.
Oh, my gosh, I had started this, and now Mark was tugging on my t-shirt! Well, I guess that, if I started it, I couldn't back out now, so I raised my hands above my head, and Mark pulled my shirt off. I hadn't worn a bra, so that left me completely topless, outside, in the sun, and I was just loving this feeling, and it was pretty obvious that Mark was, too. I kept hugging him close and kissing him, and then a strange idea came to me: I grabbed my ponytail, pulled it over my shoulder, then over Mark's shoulder and around his neck, and used it to pull him closer to me. It surprised him, and, heck, it surprised me, too, but he was trapped and he loved it. I was kissing him more, and he couldn't escape me now!
Mark's hands were on my bare back, pulling me even closer, and I knew it: we'd be making love in this soft, warm grass in just a few minutes. I was just so completely turned on . . .
. . . and then I heard voices approaching.
Crap!
I had to scramble for my shirt, and while I just got it on in time, when this couple came around the bend I just knew that they could tell what we were doing. I should have been embarrassed, but instead I found it funny, and I just started giggling uncontrollably. At that point, if they had come around the bend a few minutes later, and had caught us making love, I'm not sure I would have cared, or even known. It just seems like, when we're making love, that there's nobody else in the whole world but us. Still, I told Mark, "I guess that we'll just have to wait for later." I think he thought that I meant when we got back to the apartment, but I was thinking of that downed tree, and what Monica had told me to do.
