All sex participants are 18 or over.
***
Homecoming has always been a huge social event in my hometown; bigger even than the county fair. It's a matter of civic pride that alumni come from all over the country to watch the Friday night football game, golf and grill Saturday afternoon, and attend the Homecoming dance Saturday night.
My Senior year I was sidelined with a sprained ankle for the game, but we won for the fourth consecutive year. Since I couldn't dance with a bum ankle, Emily dragged me away and we drove out to the Hill.
Hanson's Hill is less an actual hill than a steep cut bank along the Ogahpaw River. It's named after Ollie Hanson who spent his life converting his family farmland into a vast cherry orchard.
I parked in our favorite spot. Emily grabbed the blanket from the back seat then opened her car door.
Atop the Hill, amidst the trees, if the moon is full, you can see the Ogahpaw Valley stretch its way past town, all the way to the horizon. When the moon is new, and the sky is dark and clear and cool, you can see the Milky Way rise from the river valley, like crepe paper streamers, gathering stars on its way up to the apex of the universe.
"Earth to Ryan. C'mon, let's get out."
We spread out the blanket on the very edge of the Hill and lay down, side by side. I was on my back with my hands behind my head, marveling at how the stars moved so fast but seemed not to move at all.
Emily was on her side snuggled up next to me, caressing my chest. Her generous breasts pressed against my ribs. She had one leg thrown over mine, perfectly positioned for rubbing her warm crotch on my thigh.
She noticed my lack of response.
"Hello, Ryan, what's the matter?"
I scanned for a meteor, wanting to wish away this moment.
"I was thinking about all those people who came back for Homecoming."
Emily nuzzled my neck. "I'd rather think about you and me."
"I was thinking how they were once where we are now—just getting ready to graduate high school—and they're ten, twenty years further along, and they come back here for a couple of days to relive the past."
"Oh, forget about that, Ryan. I need a little loving." She was getting frustrated.
"I wonder why they do that."
"Jesus, Ryan, they just want to hook up with old friends. Who cares."
"Maybe so, but maybe they think their past is better than their present. Maybe they come back thinking they can change something in their past that will make their life better."
"That's stupid, Ryan. Nobody can change the past."
"True enough, but we can change the future. At least, we can
affect
the future."
Emily propped herself up on her elbow.
"Now, you're freaking me out."
"Sorry."
She lay back down on her back.
The Ogahpaw River usually runs low, quiet and lazy but up north they'd had thunderstorms earlier in the day, and the river was running high and frantic. It was too dark to see the water, but odd as it sounds, I could
feel
it moving, pulled downstream by irresistible forces.
"I don't want to be like that. I don't want to have to come back to wash away any regrets."
I fondly remembered our first time on the Hill. Waiting for the privacy of darkness, we watched the sheen on the river fade as the sun sank below the horizon. The awkward fumbling with buttons and belt buckles. The slow, building anticipation of an imminent storm. Lightning and thunder. Dam-breaking force. Relief. Tenderness. Laughter. A bond that grew into love.
"I had a premonition," I said quietly.
"What the actual fuck," she whispered.
