Chapter 1. Arrivals
I saw her coming down the corridor at the airport, and knew there was something wrong. She was walking like a tentative doe, like she was a bundle of nerves. I could see her eyes looking a bit wild and a small tremor in her slight body. She was walking like she expected to be attacked at any second and flew the last few yards into my arms.
"Hey, hon, are you OK?" I asked, stroking her short sandy hair.
"Please, just get me out of here. There are so many people, I... I can barely control it." She murmured into my chest. I was not sure what she meant by that, but I could plainly see that she was in distress. She looked great otherwise. I had expected that her time in the desert would have made her tanned and leathery, but she looked wonderful, other than being in distress. Was she taller?
"Sure, how about you just sit over here while I get your luggage?"
"No, please? The luggage is taken care of, it will be delivered to my place. Please, I just need to get out of here." Odd, but the least of my concerns right now. I helped her to my car in the parking garage and we took off.
The further we got from the airport, the more she relaxed. It was so palpable that even the air seemed sweeter. I felt my own spirits lifting like I'd been under a dark cloud for a while. It felt really nice.
The drive from the airport to her house follows a fairly quiet route so there was little traffic this time of day but I noticed that every time a car came by, the air around me seemed to change subtly. Once, when a car pulled up beside us at a light, I felt myself growing aroused. When I looked in the car, it was a couple teenage guys. Why in the hell was I getting aroused at a couple of guys, and why did it start before I looked over?
Tracy, my girlfriend, had her eyes tightly shut and seemed to be muttering something to herself. As the car drove off, we both relaxed.
"Whats going on?" I asked her, getting a bit nervous.
"Please, just get me home, I'll explain everything when we are safely at the house." We completed the drive to her quiet suburb in silence.
Chapter 2. Travels and Travails
Tracy lived in a large old home in a semi-historic neighborhood. It had belonged to her parents who willed it and a decent inheritance to her before they passed away. I loved her neighborhood- spacious, green, quiet. It had a real turn-of-the-century, small-town feeling to it. The neighbors knew each other but respected privacy- they even had old-fashioned socials and block parties.
None of this was on my mind as I helped her into the living room and got her comfortable on the couch. I got us both something to drink and she began to try to haltingly tell me her tale.
"It will be easier if I just do it this way." She sighed as she reached over to touch my arm.
It was like I was watching through her eyes and sharing her thoughts. I was there as she and some of her old school friends traveled to New Mexico. The mixed group was exploring everything from fossils to wildlife, but the main focus was on the ancient Indian cultures in the area. I felt like I was right there with her on the critical dig. Hot sun on our bodies, sweat on our face, bra and panties digging uncomfortably- thinking about slipping them off and going commando like Lisa did but worried about Bill's roving eyes. Dust and sand everywhere, a long bath sounds so good. Picking away ever so slowly in what appeared to be a storage cache in the floor of an out of the way adobe cliff dwelling- tedious, achy work.
A figurine starts to appear under our tools. At first we assume it is a fertility fetish because of the large breasts but more digging reveals an anomaly- what looks like a long, thick phallus pressed up against the abdomen. Every touch of the figure makes us want to touch it more. We glance around to see if anyone else has noticed, feeling a need to keep this secret for some reason. A few more minutes and it is hidden in our bag and we are digging somewhere else.
That night, we take it out in the full moon and hold it, just looking at it when some words come to our mind and we begin a chant. We hold the figure high in the air and chant and move and feel it. We feel the moon on our skin and realize we are naked and it feels so good. We feel the moon's power seep into us like a refreshing soda with an acidic bite. It made us think of ginger ale being poured into our brain. We hear the shaman talking to us in his tongue that no one alive speaks anymore, telling us about the power and the gods, and our new role in their plans.