Chapter 1
Looking trim but not at all muscular, resplendent or so he thought, in his new tramping (hiking) clothing and boots, Todd Wells (19), continued to peer at the full-length mirror.
He rubbed his upper lip, still annoyed that attempts to grow a manly moustache had failed, producing uneven fair-hair stubble resembling a slice of a harvested wheat field.
Todd's mum Joyce crept in behind him, and placed her arms around under his elbows. All in a continuous movement, she locked her fingers of both hands and gave his backside an almighty thrust with her groin, hoping to scare the wits out of him while simultaneously switching on the part of his brain that drives young guys into launching into to sex.
Joyce was worried. He was two years late with that natural switch-on.
Todd wasn't scared.
He'd noticed his mum in the mirror creeping up behind him.
What the fuck?
The forced slammed him into the mirror, belt buckle banging against the glass. He instinctively jerked his butt back and his mum staggered backwards screeching in fright.
Serve her right, the idiot.
"What's up, mum. Dad been failing to rumble with you?"
"That's disgusting, Todd. Talk to your mother with dignity."
"Take responsibility, mum. All those years ago, you chose to hit on a fellow university student who was studying divinity."
"Don't blame me, son. I was too young to understand that some idiots confine their sexual activity to procreation attempts."
"Then tell him you want another kid."
"What, at my age?"
"What's significant about your age precisely?"
Joyce said it didn't matter. She'd come in to hug him while saying breakfast was ready.
Todd apologised for pushing back at her so hard, adding, "I had no idea you were horny."
His crimsoned-faced mother fled to the kitchen.
It was Saturday, and mother and son had finished eating and were on to their second cup of tea when Roy came for his breakfast, and answered his wife saying that notes for his sermon at church next day were proceeding not without difficulty, as usual.
Roy then began an impromptu sermon.
"Son, man should not go alone into the bush (wild forest or scrub peppered with trees)."
Todd asked was that a biblical quotation.
"It's my phrasing that threw you. No, I was giving you repeat practical advice, for your safety and for our peace of mind."
"Dad, I've gone into the bush since I was about six."
"Yes, but just inside the edge of it."
Todd nodded and said he'd recently agreed with his father he'd not venture further than a mile from their bush-edge home for the first ten times of fitness training plus exploring ventures to build tramping experience.
"Incidentally, what is the equation and rationale dad that you used to calculated that limit of one mile penetration was X-times safer that a 10-mile penetration?"
"Are you defying me Todd Joseph Wells?"
"I guess I am."
Roy's face darkened, his teeth showed and his hands curled into showing white knuckles.
"Steady on, Roy," his wife cautioned. "The boy is simply showing signs of mental backbone."
"I have Divine authority. The boy has none."
Todd realized the situation that he'd been longing for, the pathway toward greater independence had arrived.
"Dad, you claim to have God on your side. Here's your chance to test it. Strike me right now and risk being rushed to hospital after I hit back."
"You insolent young and ungrateful youth. Go to your room."
"I'll go to my room to get my kit and return to the kitchen to pack food and drink and then I'll be off on my first 1-mile incursion because I accept that initial caution in this instance makes sense. Eat your breakfast."
Todd almost added and take your wife to bed and pretend they were attempting to procreate; but he decided there often is a time when it's advisable to close one's mouth and keep it closed for a bit.
His furious father looked at his bacon and eggs and then at the doorway.
"Todd intends obeying your wise initial restriction in limiting his incursion into the bush," Joyce said sweetly.
"Good," said her husband, hands shaking as he cut off a small bite of crispy bacon, eyes not moving from his meal.
* * *
Angry at being bullied, Todd set off to take the toughest route, the climb of Bennett's Hill, a trackless ascent through frequent entanglements of vines twisting around scrub that grew aggressively where the tree cover thinned out.
He was bike-racing fit but still took a couple of 'breathers' during the ascent
Todd thought about his occasionally unhappy mother, now patently aware of what her problem was, and decided he shouldn't interfere. She was intelligent and would know solutions were available to her or to patiently wait to grow older until the problem dissipated. The situation placed a hanging question over the wisdom of some aspects of coupling with the one person for life, but what would he know when he was still confused about the whole thing?
Todd sighed. Heck, last year his first-ever real girlfriend said straight out she wanted him to fondle her and confused he really was. He ran. She attempted twice to reunite them, without success. He didn't actually spell it out for her but he had no desire at present to cuddle although gentle kissing was okay, kind of super friendly.
Resuming from his second brief stop, Todd sniffed the air.
Smoke?
He walked upwards and came to the end of the natural tree and latter scrub line near the summit of Bennett's Hill, the beginning of rocky ground and, presumably, low fertility. He thought perhaps the summit was an ancient volcanic vent.
Todd spotted a tent and beside it a woman working at an easel, painting perhaps. Nearby was a metal drum confining a fire of tree-dropped deadwood with a grill over it and on top was a smoke-stained coffee pot.
Time for coffee, he thought and wondered should he intrude on the woman's privacy.
At that moment, the woman stood, stretched and began walking to the grill, having picked up a bag of something.
He decided bugger privacy on public territory and called waving, "Hi, good morning."
The woman turned and waved and called clearly, "Coffee and a crumpet?"
Damn yeah, he thought happily.
"Oh yes please, how marvellous."
He arrived beside his instant hostess who held out her hand and said, "Kayte Williams, that is yte."
Todd shook her soft hand, said he was Todd Wells, and asked, "What is the meaning of why-tea?"
"That spelling of my name is unusual, it's K-a-y-t-e."
"Oh, apologies. I'm thick."
"Are you Rev Well's son?"
"Aye."
"Then being thick is unlikely. I heard his son was flaxen-haired top scholar and I once knew your gorgeous mother. She was a newly qualified teacher at my first year at high school. We girls never again had a math's teacher that we adored so much."
"Kayte, she's still a sweet person. Look, I'm sorry to intrude..."
"Shut up. I invited you into my bush retreat so just enjoy the interlude. I've camped here at most weather-settled weekends for almost a year, just after our twins began university, and I've never seen anyone come up that horrendous way from the west. Were you lost?"
"No, I had a row with my father over tramping in the wilds alone and left home angrily and decided to take it out on myself by going straight up Bennett's Hill. Christmas, parts of that climb were close to becoming a dangerous."
Kayte looked at him sympathetically and grabbed and hugged him, patting his back and soothing, "Oh you poor boy."
She smelt lovely and her hair was incredibly soft against his cheek. Todd wanted the hug to continue but... oh, well.
"Sorry, I sweated during the climb."
"That's okay, how do you think I smell after taking an extended 3-day weekend up here living primitively?"
Todd said, without thinking, what alone?
She joked saying yes, did he wish to join here and cried, "Omigod, you're blushing like an awkward schoolboy."
"Sorry."
Kayte said firmly, he should not apologise for displaying innocence. If he only knew, it was a treasure to be lost.
He said she had him confused.
Kayte looked at Todd gently and asked casually how many females were close to him in everyday life.
"Close to me, um just my mum really. That's a strange question to ask, so why do you ask it?"
"I work as a child psychologist, attached to a group of six primary schools. In our conversation, you have indicated some hesitation or even confusion as if you were struggling to produce answers to questions. Please don't think I'm overly pushy, I'm just being honest with you. The thought came to me that this guy is not used to talking to females. Are you at university?"
"Yep, geophysics with emphasis on seismic science."
"Omigod, you're an egghead. How many students are there in your intake and how many are female?"
"Oh, that question is loaded. Thirteen of the original fifteen guys remain, plus the original two females."
"And the senior lecturers and professor and assistant professor are males?"
"Yes, but we do have some female junior lecturers."
"Is my conclusion correct, you live virtually in a male's world."
"Basically, that's so, but we have female visitors to our home and have females among relatives."
Handing Todd a buttered crumpet briefly warmed on the bottom from the grill, Kayte said, "What about girlfriends; is there a history to relate, but only if you wish?"
"I've only ever had one real girlfriend, and that was last year at uni, and we had tons of fun together."
