Summer School
3
Naked in the Desert
They sat on the swing and she leaned against him. Without saying a word, he turned her body against him and put his arms around her waist from behind. She curled her legs under her.
Okay," She said, "Let me ask you. What do you want out of life?"
"Hmmm..." He answered. "Other than another beer, I'll have to think how to explain it."
She moved from him and stood.
"I'll go get us both one."
When she came back she sat on the other side of the swing from him, leaning against the arm rest and curling her legs under her. Her t-shirt rode higher up her thighs.
"So, tell me." She said.
"I'm not sure." He answered. "Some of the guys from school....they graduated and got a job at one of the plants in town. If they didn't join up or get drafted. I guess I can't see eight to five, five days a week, wife and kids, a mortgage and car payments, and a gold watch in forty years." He sipped his beer. "Nothing wrong with that, I guess, I just....can't see me doing that. I want to see things. Experience things. I sometimes have trouble being what I am supposed to be...."
"Maybe that's not what you are supposed to be." She said. "Maybe you're supposed to be something different."
"I want to make enough money to live." He said. "I don't want to be rich. I'm fine just like this. This is enough. In fact, I like this place...living this way. Until something better comes along. I know I need to plan for my future and all that, but..."
He looked off across the desert behind the house.
"I knew a guy in school. He had big plans. Had it pretty well mapped out. A few months ago, he came home in a box from Vietnam. He had a future planned that never happened."
"I'm sorry..." she whispered.
"Nothing to be sorry about, I guess. I'm sorry for him, his parents, his friends...the life he'll never have..."
He turned and looked back at her.
"I wouldn't want my life to end like that or to have it end with....so much left to experience. I want to go see what's over there," He gestured to the west and the hills on the other side of the valley, "who's over there...and write a story about it."
He looked at her again. "What about you? What do you want?" he asked.
"I suppose a bit like you..." she said, softly, then looked at her beer bottle.
"I tried the go to school, get a job, get married, settle down raise a family and live happily ever after thing. I think 'happily ever after' is just in fairy tales. I think...well, at least for me...'happy right now' is the best we can expect."
"And what do you want?" He asked, "Don't look down at your beer bottle. You do that when you want to say something difficult...revealing...and you're not sure how it will be taken. How someone might react."
"You're good." She laughed, looking up at him. "I am content right now. I like it here, I like being with you. And the difficult part, the part I want to say but don't know how you will react, I will just come right out and say."
She took a deep breath.
"Okay, I'm twenty-eight years old, married, divorced, starting a new life in a new place. In the past, I've done some things I'm not proud of and some things that were misunderstood. You're nineteen. You're young, but I think old beyond your years. Honestly, I'm attracted to you, both your mind and your body. Okay, I admit it. I like sex. I've had some experience. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you've had little. I see an opportunity for me to let you, help you, gain experience, let you experience what you haven't yet and perhaps with you, I can experience some things I haven't but want to."