The Outlander 1

"You be one of them outlanders." I had pulled into the petrol station out of necessity; I didn't know how far it was until the next available fuel. I had taken a wrong turn a while ago and by the time I had realized that I was lost I was low on fuel. My GPS was no use out here, it gave me GPS co-ordinates but they meant nothing without a map and there was no map available on the system out here. The man had walked out of the shop in neat overalls wiping his hands on a rag that he stuffed into his back pocket. "What be you wanting today sir?"

I looked at the pumps and couldn't see what I was looking for. "Do you have premium unleaded?"

"There's super and standard, I would say we have diesel as well but that fancy looking car you got don't look like it'd run on diesel."

"What's the octane rating of super?"

"Super is ninety-eight octane and standard is ninety-three."

"I guess that it'll have to be super then, fill it up thanks." I popped the fuel filler hatch for him.

"Now don't that beat all, I was looking for the filler cap and there it is hiding under that flap. Now I've seen everything." He filled the tank and hung up the nozzle. "Would you like me to check under the bonnet for you sir?" I popped the bonnet catch and he fiddled around for a while until he found the secondary catch, and he raised the bonnet. He just stood there looking in the engine bay for some minutes scratching his head. "How do you find things under here?"

I was confused, what century was I in? I walked to the front of the Audi A8. "You can touch anything that's yellow like the dipstick and the catch tank for the cooling system but that's about it."

"I wouldn't like to work on one of these, I wouldn't know where to start." Just then a young woman walked out of the service bay wiping her hands. "Mary's car's running sweet as a nut, I'll run it over to her and she can bring me back and pay you at the same time."

"Sure thing Lucy, before you go would you came and have a look at this thing." He pointed at the engine bay of my Audi.

"I hope there's nothing wrong with this car mister, I sure as hell wouldn't want to have to work on it, I wouldn't know what to look for. I'd better be gone Mary's waiting on her car to do her rounds." She walked back into the service bay and an engine started and a car that I'd never seen in the flesh before reversed out and drove off, it was a P3 Rover from the late 40's. I did sound sweet though and there wasn't a trace of oil smoke from the exhaust.

"That comes to thirty shillings and six pence." The man held his hand out for the money.

"What?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"That's correct, she took just about fifteen gallons at two shillings a gallon." (In today's currency that equates to just under 12 cents per litre.)

"Do you take plastic?" I took my wallet out and pulled my Visa card from it.

"I ain't seen one of those before mister, we takes just cash, pounds, shillings and pence."

"I am still in Australia aren't I? We haven't had pounds, shillings and pence since nineteen sixty-six. I only have dollars and my card, how am I going to pay you?"

"I guess you'll be wanting to change your funny money into real money and the only place you can do that is to the bank, it's just across the road and down a bit, the big stone building next to the meeting hall. You'll be leaving your vehicle here while you get some money."

I had no choice, I crossed the road, waiting while a couple of cars drove past it was about then that I noticed that they were all old cars, mostly English with the occasional Holden thrown in, but even they were old, FX's and FJ''s nothing newer than that, it was as if I was stuck in the 50's. Where was I and more to the point when was I?

Being inside the bank didn't help, the thing that struck me as I walked through the door was the noise, the clatter of typewrites and accounting machines almost drowned out the sound of people talking. The customers would walk up to the teller's window and hand over a small book and tell the teller how much they wanted to pay in or take out, the teller would then write in the transaction, work out the new balance in his or her head and then stamp the book, all the time exchanging chat about the weather and whether the dance on Saturday night would be better than the last one. Even the parting had a different ambience to it, none of the phoney 'have a nice day' about this, it was 'see you on Saturday Mabel' and 'Take care of your chooks (chickens) it's going to be a scorcher today and they don't like it too hot.'

I walked up to the teller. "I'd like to exchange this money for pounds please."

"Just a moment sir," She turned to the head teller. "Fred, what's the exchange rate for dollars these days?" "Not changed from yesterday, it's still two for one." She took my hundred dollars and gave me fifty pounds in exchange. "You planning to stay in town for long?"

"No longer than I have to, I have somewhere to be in a day or two and it's going to be a rush now." I pondered all of this as I walked back to the petrol station. It was almost as if I was back in my grandfather's time, I remembered him talking about the way things were done back when he was a young man and I didn't believe that the world was ever like that, now I wasn't so sure.

"I hope you weren't planning on driving too far today sir, after I moved your car off the forecourt I noticed some oil on the ground that couldn't have been there before you came in. Lucy's having a look under it now to see where it came from."

"What? This car is not more than six months old and it's one of the best German cars around."

"German eh, I guess that they don't make cars like they used to, those Auto Unions were good cars before the war."

"Auto Union? This is an Audi."

Lucy came out of the service bay and motioned for me to follow her. Pointing up underneath the car on the hoist she showed me traces of oil coming from the motor. "There's your problem, it seems to be coming from the oil pump gasket, I can make a new one for you or you can wait while I send outside for a new one, what should I do?"

"I need to get moving as soon as possible, can you fix it today?" I was starting to get worried.

"I couldn't say until I take the pump out but if it's not today it will be ready for you first thing in the morning."

"Where can I make a phone call?"

"If it's a call to outside you'll have to use the telephone at the Post Office, if you hurry you'll get there before they close."

"Where is it?"

She pointed down the road past the bank. "It's on the next block past the bank. They close prompt at four." I looked at my watch; I had just over half an hour. "Did you reset your watch? We're half an hour ahead of outside time.

"Shit!" I ran but obviously not fast enough, I reached the Post Office as the closed sign was put in the window and no amount of banging on the door attracted the attention of the staff inside. Disheartened I trudged back to the service station. "Is there a hotel or something where I can spend the night?"

"There's the Valley Hotel on Main Street that's good and comfortable if all you want to do is sleep, and then there's Martha's Bed and Breakfast on South Street for good home cooking and a hearty breakfast" Lucy thought for a little and then "I could always put you up for the night, I can't guarantee top quality food but it's healthy and there be plenty of it."

"Don't you live with your parents?" She didn't look old enough to live on her own, but then she doesn't look old enough to be a mechanic either.

"No." That was all, just no.

"That sounds interesting, when can I see your place?"

"Give me five minutes to shut everything down and lock up and I'll be ready to take you home."

She walked out the back of the service area and I could it getting quieter as she shut down. The next thing I knew was a young woman coming towards me running a comb through her hair. The transformation from tomboy type mechanic to this was amazing. I must have been standing with my mouth open in amazement. "If you don't shut that thing you'll be swallowing flies." I shut it. "Come on." She led the way around the corner of the building and climbed into a low slung sports cart and fired it up. The motor burbled quietly as I walked around it taking in its classic lines, I had never seen one of these before.

"What kind of car is this?" I sat and looked at the dash panel, it was a work of art.

"It's an SS 100, a very early Jag." Lucy pushed the gear lever gently forward until the gears meshed and then accelerated smoothly out on to the road. I noticed that each time she changed gear she would depress the clutch, move the gear lever into neutral adjust the revs, depress the clutch again and change smoothly into the next gear. She noticed my interest in these manoeuvres. "Haven't you seen anyone changing gears before?"

"Not like that, I've driven a manual but this one is different, for a start it's much noisier than I'm used to and then you have to use the clutch twice to change gears."

"It's called double shuffling, the official name for it is double de-clutching, and it's necessary with these Moss boxes, they've got straight cut gears, that's what causes all the noise, and no synchromesh, you have to get the revs right or you crunch the gears and it doesn't do the box any good. This car is eighty years old and still going strong."

I don't know why I expected a modern cottage with a roller door to the garage but what I saw as we turned off the road was nothing like that, it was an old style house with a bull nosed veranda all the way around it and the garage set back level with the rear of the house, its brightly painted wooden doors gleaming in the late afternoon sunlight. "Would you open the doors for me, it'll save me getting out." They swung smoothly on well oiled hinges and Lucy drove in and let the car idle for about a minute before shutting it off.

"This is a nice house you have here, do you live here alone?"

"Yes, ever since my father died. His father built the place when he first moved here from the outside and married my mother. He was an engineer who specialised in farm machinery but with the advent of the motor car he took to mechanicing and my father followed him into the business. Because I was an only child I followed him into the trade." We were inside the house and I couldn't get over how new it looked given the time line Lucy had just told me it would have to have been at least sixty years old yet it looked as if it had been built yesterday. "Would you like a drink? I think you should try the local beer it's very nice." She opened a door to what must have been a cool room and brought out a bottle that was different from any beer bottle that I'd ever seen, instead of the usual crown seal it had a cork that was held in place by a wire cage. A quick twist loosened the wire and a corkscrew had the cork out. The beer had a slightly nutty taste to it, not the slight bitterness that I was used to in beer, but it was cool and very refreshing.

"I'm Lucy by the way but you already know that." She held out her hand.

I took it and shook it briefly. "Duncan, Duncan Roberts."

"I can offer you steak or lamb, both are good local produce and vegetables or salad."

"Steak would be nice, thank you." She went back into the cool room and came out with a piece of beef and proceeded to slice a couple of thick steaks from it. It was then that I noticed a complete lack of electrical appliances or lights for that matter.

Lucy raised a cover on the big stove and tossed the steaks onto a griddle where they began to sizzle while she prepared the salad. She noticed the expression on my face. "It's a slow combustion stove it stays on all the time and apart from cooking it provides me with hot water."

After dinner she went off to have a shower leaving me with little to do other than wander around the living room picking up things to read, there was no TV or HiFi. I picked up a copy of the local newspaper if you could call a couple of A4 sheets stapled together a newspaper. 'The Town Crier, all the news you need', was written in a chatty manner with such controversial topics as; 'This year the Christmas puddings will be cooked up at Marjorie Thompson's place, Judy Stevens has donated the eggs, the Co-op is supplying the fruit and flour. All welcome and bring your threepence and sixpence coins for inclusion.' (These pre-decimal coins were small and made of silver and safe to place in Christmas puddings) and 'Fred Merryman will be slaughtering twelve prime hogs for Christmas hams. All welcome to help with the butchering and curing of this choice meat, helpers will get first call on hams.' and 'Bert Browne's potatoes are ready for harvest, all who help will get first call on produce.' and Tom Rutherford will paint your house in exchange for paving bricks for his driveway, first class tradesman.' There were dozens of other similar offers and it seemed as if there was a thriving barter economy in operation in this place, none of the advertisements had a monetary value attached.

Lucy came into the room , my breath was dragged out of my chest and flung away. She was dressed, if you'd call it that, in a dress that was that sheer that you could almost see everything and imagination did the rest. Mine was in free fall, what the hell was going on here, it was almost as if she was issuing an open invitation to me to fuck her. "I want you to fuck me."

"What did you say?" I was incredulous.

"I said I want you to fuck me."

"But why me?" Let's face it I didn't have the looks of a model or movie star and I certainly didn't have the buff physique of an elite athlete and we hadn't talk enough for her to gauge my intelligence, so what was this about?

"Do you want to do it or not because if you do let's get to it, if not I'll drive you to the hotel."

Being normal in most of the important aspects of manhood my cock was trying its damndest to claw its way out of my pants and the smile on her face told me that she'd noticed it. She held out her hand and led me to her bedroom where she attacked me with a ferocity I had never experienced. I have to mention here that I'm not inexperienced when it comes to sex but I approach the matter differently, I believe one should get to know the object of one's desire before broaching the subject of sex and even then a little foreplay sort of sets the tone for the experience. This was a new and alien experience for me and while I find Lucy attractive I was sort of hoping for a period of familiarization before the event.

She was naked within seconds of entering the room and my shirt gave up the ghost under her onslaught, the buttons pinging off walls and the ceiling before she literally ripped the shirt from my body. Without so much as pausing to admire the scenery my trousers were the next to fall by the wayside, she dragged them down to my ankles before making a grab for my cock that was ready for action even if I wasn't. With a mouthful of cock she pushed me onto the bed and straddled my face, pushing her pussy onto my mouth. It would take a stronger man than me to resist her so I didn't, I decided about then that I should participate and try to get some enjoyment from all of this action. I licked her, I fingered her, I played with her clit until she was thrashing around the bed, I was a little concerned that she might get over-enthusiastic and bite my cock, instead she spat it and growled. "Come here, I want all of your cock inside me." She swung herself around and lowered herself onto my rock hard cock.

"Are you on. . . ."

"No."

"I don't have any condoms. . . ."

"Fuck the condoms, just fuck me." Oh well, I tried, what a magnificent sight, her firm breasts, millimetres away from my face, were too much of a temptation and when I took one of her nipples into my mouth she lost control and reached a shuddering orgasm. I joined her just as she was coming down from her high.

"Wow! That was something else, do you do this to every man that you meet?"

"No, you're the first in a long while."

"What happened to the last guy, did he die of exhaustion?"

"No, it was my uncle and he only did it so I could lose my virginity, he wore a condom so that there was no risk of my getting pregnant, but once we'd done it that was it, I was saving myself for you or someone like you."

"This is weird and I don't understand it at all, you were saving yourself for me or someone like me, how did you know that I was coming?"

"Someone had to come eventually. Now, you said that you had places to be, where do you have to be and how soon do you have to be there?"

"I'm supposed to be meeting my fiancé's parents tomorrow evening, but I seem to be less enthusiastic about that now."

"Good, I need you to fuck me again, now."

"Whoa there, I'm confused, you claim to have had sex only once but you seem to know what to do, but then you don't know what to do."

"What do you mean?"

"Where did you learn how to make love?"

She leaned over the side of the bed and took a few books from beneath it. "I've read these from cover to cover many times." The first was the Kama Sutra followed by the Perfumed Garden then the Joy of Sex.

"Now I understand some of it, you see where I come from there is more to sex than just technical fucking, there is getting close to each other, of falling in love with each other and sex becomes the bonding agent for your lives ahead, together."

"I don't care about that."

"You don't now because you've never experienced it, believe me once you have tried it you'll never go back to pure animal sex again."

"Okay, you'll just have to show me then."

I took her in my arms and when she tried to devour my mouth I took hold of her face and eased it away from me, then I kissed her softly applying just a little pressure until she had relaxed and accepted that what I was doing was giving her pleasure. My pressure increased slightly and I eased my tongue between her lips, she opened hers to accept it. Meanwhile my fingers were caressing her cheeks, her neck, running lightly through her hair increasing her pleasure. My mouth left hers and travelled to her neck where I kissed her and lightly raked her with my teeth. She was beginning to respond to my touches, moaning softly and her arms were around my neck. My fingers found a nipple and slowly circled it, a feather touch that gave her much more pleasure than heavy manipulation, her hips were thrusting against mine and her moans had become louder, more insistent until with a loud sob she came.

Her convulsions eventually subsided and I continued my caresses, moving down her body until my finger entered her pussy. "Oh god, I don't know how much more of this I can handle."

"Isn't this better than what we did before?"

"Yes, it's so much better and it will be even better if you'd just hurry up and fuck me."

"No I'm not going to fuck you, I'm going to take my time and make passionate love to you."

"Whatever, just do it before I rape you again."

"Well if you're going to be like that I guess that I'd better stop what I'm doing and let you."

"No! What you're doing is fine by me." So I continued what I was doing and sometime during the next hour I moved between her legs and replaced my hand with my cock and slowly made love to her. She must have come at least three times before I eventually couldn't hold out any longer and came, filling her pussy with my sperm once more.

Lucy snuggled up beside me, her head on my shoulder. "That was so much better than I had expected, you are a very sensitive lover and so very different from my uncle, he just did it, there was no feeling involved at all." She went to sleep, there had been no mention of me sleeping in any other bed and I was comfortable so I stayed where I was, but sleep eluded me. What was going on here, why was she so keen to have sex with me and why did she not care about protection. My thoughts drifted to my fiancé Ami and her attitude to sex, if I didn't wear a condom I didn't get sex, she was paranoid about falling pregnant before we got married and was forever using pregnancy test kits even though her periods were as regular as clockwork. Women! I just couldn't understand what makes them tick, on one hand there's Ami and her paranoid fear of pregnancy and then there was Lucy who gave every impression of wanting to get pregnant. With this interesting though in mind I went to sleep.