Not Your Ordinary Alien Story

CHAPTER NINE

Warning: 

This chapter gets a little hot and heavy (for mature readers)

My birthday is Monday. Blue has to work that day so he wants to celebrate my birthday with me today, Sunday. I try to talk him into coming over after work on Monday because what I really want to be doing today is to trek back to the remote spot in the forest where the fallen redwood is. I want to check out the other larger object that's hidden inside the redwood. Maybe the strange wrapping on it will melt in the sunlight like the wrapping on the journal did.  But Blue is insistent. He wants to celebrate my birthday today, just the two of us.

So, we drive in his truck to Stout Grove, an area of old growth redwoods that's part of Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. "Remember the birthday you got a Slip 'N Slide?" Blue asks as we drive along. It's a beautiful day, warm and sunny. I have the window rolled down with my hair blowing away from my face.

"That was the year I turned eight," I tell him. "We spent all day sliding down it."

"Remember your birthday after that when we took all those balloons your mom was gonna blow up for decoration and we made water balloons out of them?"

I laugh. "Yeah, I got you good a couple times."

"You hid behind the shed then popped out and bombarded me when I came looking for you."

"What about your tenth birthday? You made such a big deal about it because you were finally in the double digits and I was still only nine."

"Yeah, I remember."

I look out the window as we turn off from Redwood Highway and take the bridge across the Smith River. The water is white and frothy below the bridge. "And your dad made a big bonfire that night and we roasted marshmallows," I say.

Blue nods his head. "Rocky was there. That was fun."

"What about the next year when you turned eleven and we put on dance music really loud and we had a contest of who could be the craziest dancer?"

Blue throws his head back and laughs. "You won that contest."

"You did!"

We drive over the South Fork Bridge, an older wood bridge that creaks as we cross over the water. "Well anyway, it's about time you catch up to me," Blue says as we turn around a curve, the paved road giving way to a narrower gravel road.

"What do you mean?"

"In age."

Blue turned eighteen in January. "Not this again," I say to him. When we were kids, Blue used to make a big deal about being six months older than I am. I give him the same reply I used to all those years ago. "You might be older but I'm smarter."

"I'm stronger."

"I'm braver." We burst out laughing. We've said that to each other twenty times before.

We drive slowly along the gravel road, the trees becoming densely packed, all of them redwoods with no understory of tanoak or Douglas firs. The way the trees tower in the sky, it looks as though they're reaching all the way to heaven. We park the truck on the side of the road and sling on our backpacks. The sun slices through the enormous branches in long thin blades of light as we enter the realm of ancient 300-foot trees. Thick spongy layers of needles cover the ground and the carpet of red sorrel lends to a pervasive sense of quiet. I feel about one inch tall as we walk among the giant trees.

We hike for a couple hour before stopping for lunch. As we sit with our backs leaning against the enormous trunk of a redwood, I glance all around us. The diffused violet light slanting through the trees casts a dazzling spell. The air looks like millions of infinitesimal fireflies scuttling about, fireflies so tiny I cannot see them, only the traces of their movement.

Is this Qi I'm feeling and seeing?

"This is perfect," I say.

"What?"

"This." I give a sweep of my hand. "Everything."

Blue leans over and strokes my cheek with the back of his hand then he kisses me. "Tomorrow's your birthday," he says. "Make a wish."

"There's no birthday candles to blow out."

"Pretend like there is."

"I don't even know if tomorrow is my birthday."

"It doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does."

"Why?"

"Because...because..." I lay back and rest my head on my backpack, staring up. In a tree near us, a squirrel stares down at us. "Because I'll probably never find out about my biological parents."

Blue takes hold of my hand. "Is that important to you?"

"Sometimes." I take my hiking boots and socks off and wiggle my toes.

Blue kisses me again then reaches in his backpack. "Even if tomorrow isn't your birthday, it's close enough. Here." He hands me a square flat box wrapped in blue paper with a silver ribbon.

"Blue..." I say as I tear off the paper. I open the box. Inside is a sterling silver bracelet with green jade stones. I take it from the box and hold it in front of me in a sliver of sunlight. The stones glisten like the turquoise water of the river. "It's beautiful!"

He reaches over and takes it from me. "It reminds me of the color of your eyes," he says as he fastens it on my wrist.

I lean over and kiss him. He reaches for me pulling me against him. His mouth feels urgent on mine; he smells like pine and wild sage and river rocks baking in the sun. He unbuttons his shirt then spreads it on the pine needle covered ground. His skin looks smooth and muscled in the sunlight. He kicks off his shoes. I take off my T-shirt and spread in alongside his shirt on the ground.

He reaches out and brings his hand to my neck. His fingers trail down touching me ever so lightly before he reaches back and unclasps my bra letting it drop to the ground. He circles my one nipple with his fingertip and it puckers and becomes hard. Then he runs his fingertips horizontally to my other nipple.

My breath catches in my throat. He unbuttons my cutoffs, unzips them, then pulls them down to the ground. I'm wearing only my panties. He takes one look at me from head to toe; it's as though his eyes are touching my skin. "Lay down," he whispers gesturing at our spread-out shirts on the ground.

I lay on my back looking up at the redwoods reaching up to the sky. Blue takes his jeans off then his boxer shorts. He kneels beside me and tucks his fingers into the band of my panties. I breathe in sharply then bite the bottom of my lip. His fingers reach further finding the wetness between my legs. I feel my face flush, my heart is pounding, my back arches up. Blue's fingers slow down pressing with just the right pressure. I moan and then he's on top of me and in me.

As the bird calls echo among the treetops above us, and the sun slices through the trees engulfing us in lemon-colored light, we make love.

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