by Stephen Malczin
(04/15/09)

I hadn't really planned on camping last weekend. Sitting on the couch after the fifth day straight of staring at prices and reports and figures, I had my computer on my lap and a beer on the wood floor beside me. I felt blah: that kind of blah that means a solid weekend of sitting at home eating too much, drinking too much, my most interesting company likely to be the Eddie Izzard tape I'd rented for the fourth time.

Halfway through the Eddie Izzard tape, right when he says "I'm covered in Bees!" I switched it off and decided to go camping. I spent until midnight going through drawers, looking under the bed, and out in the shed to find enough flannel to cover my ass for two days. By the end of the evening, I'd gathered my old brown two-person tent, matches, fire starters, the Coleman lantern, the camera, and some food that even I couldn't ruin.

Eight a.m. Saturday, I threw everything (well, almost everything, but I'll get to that) into the car and hit the road. Three and a half hours and a full camera card later, I was in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, halfway to the summit of a giant extinct shield volcano called South Mountain. The dome sat high above the campground I stopped at, clearly visible through the last of the gold autumn leaves. I sat on the hood of my car for a minute and just stared at it.

The sites were, of course, all full of giant honking RVs with satellite dishes, dogs, people, and the usual mishmash of armchair Intrepid Campers milling about. Someone was even playing Queen's Greatest Hits on a black Bose stereo atop his picnic table. Ah, people...

I resolved to find the hike-in campground. I strapped my tent on my pack, and my pack on my back, and went off onto the mile-long trail to the middle of nowhere, where the only sounds would be wind and winter birds, and maybe a creek full from the recent and much-needed rains.

The hike was lovely. It took me two hours to hike a mile, which for me is an extremely good sign, at least for my mental health. I stopped and took photographs of little red mushrooms and late-growing ferns hoisting themselves above the fallen poplar leaves. I sat down on a rock by the river that runs through the park and listened to the water. I even spotted a few trout by holding my camera's polarizer to my eye and staring at the water. At one point, I stared down a Duke Energy power-line corridor at a bunch of deer milling slowly around, enjoying the early afternoon.

At the campground, I was pleased to discover I was only person there. There was one tent, its occupant was away for the moment. I started throwing mine up and putting out my camp stove and unpacking my food. When she came back, I was laying on my stomach on top of the picnic table, using my sleeping bag as a pillow, reading Paul Theroux.

"Nice ass. Are you my supper?"

"Nice to meet you too..." I said, getting down from the table and brushing myself off. The sun couldn't be seen behind the mountain anymore, but there was still plenty of daylight. She had shoulder-length brown hair, curly at the edges, wild and windblown from the day. Her grin had "evil genius" written all over it. It made me want to follow her around just to see what would happen next. The rest of her was hidden under a mix of corduroy, denim, and flannel. I held out my hand. "David."

"Jamie. Are you starting a fire soon? It's going to get kind of cold, I think, so if you're not starting one, I am. You're welcome to join me."

"Oh, thanks! Here," I tossed her one of my homemade firestarters, which she caught, lit, and set under some already-gathered kindling in one graceful motion. I watched her with curiosity for a second while she got the fire started. She had a nice ass, too. I peeled my eyes away to help gather firewood.

Twenty minutes later, we had a nice crackle going. We hadn't said much, but she'd sat down on the same log, close, like an old friend, huddled up by the fire. She said something first, "You came here for the same reason I did."

"What?"

"The silence. Peace."

"Yeah, I guess I did."

"Had enough yet?"

I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing, "Yeah, probably. I'm David."

"I know, you said. I'm Jamie, since you've probably forgotten by now. My butt's cold and I'm hungry. Did you hike in with anything that can be eaten warm? I've just got granola and stuff."

"I did..."

"Well, how about we pool resources? I'm bringing my blanket to sit on, my granola, and my good looks, and you've got your fire starters and hot dogs."

"Hot dogs?"

"Soy dogs? C'mon, you don't do this often, so you have to have brought hot dogs -- you're a guy."

"What's that got to do with it?" She stared pointedly at me in reply with a melodramatic eyelash flutter. I felt on the defensive. "And I don't do this very often?"

"Your tent's ancient and your clothes aren't. And you brought a cooler. If you camped up here all the time, you'd pack lighter and you'd have a nice new tent that was as warm as it is heavy."

Wow. I chuckled again and grabbed the cooler. I pulled out a package of soy dogs. "The soy ones don't really cook over a fire all that well, generally, but it's the thought that counts."

"Indeed." She impaled a hot dog and hoisted it over the coals. "Where'd you come from?"

"Triangle. Carrboro, actually. I live on the edge of it, where it starts to go a little bit more rural, but I can still bike into town."

"So you're a grad student?"

"Nope, I buy, grade, and roast coffee. It's like working for the university. All I see are students and profs when I go to the shop."

"Really? Fun! I'm a grad student. Not much to say about it, except that I'm so tired of it I'm up here. I study fish."

"Fish?"

"Fish. South American cichlids. They're punchy, aggressive little fish that protect their kids and do some amount of parenting. I'm heading to the Amazon in February. Can't wait."

We kept chatting until the fire died down. Then we took flashlights and walked to a clearing on the path back toward the main campground and looked at the stars. I had to hold my breath to see them -- to keep from emitting clouds of steam. It was really getting colder. We stood in silence, huddled together for warmth. I stood behind her, and she huddled up into me. I put my arms around her. Still we said nothing, but she put her cold hands on mine and warmed them. Slowly the stars began to wink out as clouds moved in, and we started making bets, in M&Ms, on which constellation would be the next to go.

She knew the constellations better than I did, but I was better at guessing the clouds' victims. When they were all out, she owed me about a package and a half of M&Ms. We went back and chatted until the fire wasn't warm enough anymore, and then we turned in.

I don't know what time the rain started. I woke up in the dead of night with a giant drip on my nose and cold feet. Rain slowly soaked the tent while I flung off the last vestige of sleep. The rain-fly! I'd totally forgotten the part of the tent that keeps water off when it rains. It was at home, sitting next to where the tent was in the garage.

I got up, got a flashlight, and looked around. Not too much was wet except my bag. It was a mile back to the car in the dark and in the rain. I ran to the other tent. "Jamie! Jamie! Can you help?"

"Wha?"

"My tent's soaking wet! It's raining out here," It was also getting really cold.

She stuck her head out of the tent, "Holy shit! Yeah, hold on. Bring your stuff in here, there's room. Your dry stuff. Hold on, let me throw on a jacket."

She came out in pajamas, shoes and a poncho and helped me move what stuff the rain would ruin over to her tent. We threw her spare tarp over the rest, and I climbed into her tent.

"Your hair's all wet. Your clothes are soaked. Here's a towel. Take your clothes off and throw them outside."

I blushed, somehow, despite being freezing cold.

"Go ahead. I wanted to see you naked anyway."

I sat for a second, realizing that I was erect, hard as a rock, and freezing cold, slightly damp, thoroughly embarrassed, and a thousand other things that by themselves are just miserable, but somehow, together, meant that I was all of a sudden really, really horny. "Um, do you want to turn your flashlight off?"

"No. Do you want me to?"

"No."

I took my clothes off. I threw them outside. I toweled my head off, and I didn't look down at the giant hard-on I knew she could see. I pulled the towel off my head. She locked her eyes with mine, and I was frozen in place. She smiled gently and laughed, and then buried her eyes in her hands and laughed harder. Then she looked up at me with this big grin and took her pajama shirt off and threw it behind me.

"There. Now we're even," She looked down, "Okay...um, no we're not." Then she took her pajama bottoms off. "Now we're still not entirely even, but I can't match that --" (she said, pointing) "-- without hitting my bedroom stash back home."

It was my turn to laugh.

"Oh my god, that was nuts! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm so cold." Now I could see every bit of her, all that had been covered by those clothes. She was freckled lightly all over, slender, with beautiful breasts high on her chest. She had a tattoo of a fish on the inward curve of her left hipbone.

Her whole body was suddenly covered in goosebumps, which somehow looked wonderfully inviting, like she needed me, and her nipples were hard and small like copper pennies. "You're cold, too," I said.

"I am. Come here," She held up the sleeping bag, and I slipped in with her, catching the first kiss on my way in. Her breath tasted sweet, and she kissed aggressively, with a slight shiver as she warmed her cold hands and feet on me. I hardly noticed the temperature. Her lips were warm. I noticed that.

We kissed and I ran my hands up and down her arms over the rapidly fading goosebumps, enjoying their texture with my fingertips. We kissed more and more deeply, erasing any vestige of sleepiness with our increasing fury. She was warm all over now, and she raised herself up, letting the cold air flood into the space between us.

Her kisses got more playful and more aggressive all at once. She teased my lips with her tongue. I kept trying to return her kiss fully, and she'd back away, teasing, and slowly pinning me down with her hands, grinning, eyes intent. Over and over. Then she lunged, and as her lips hit my neck, I briefly imagined what it must be like to be bitten by a vampire; I understood why the people in books never seemed to mind so much.

I leaned into it, and I did feel teeth, but they were normal human teeth, teasing, biting gently but insistently, making every nerve on my neck tingle. She brought her tongue into the kissing and biting. I dug my fingers into her back, pulling at her. I wished for just that little something more so I could come, from her tongue on my neck alone.

I dug my nails in, she got even more aggressive, and I halfway did come. The feeling started in my neck and spread outward, sending goosebumps across my skin in waves until the feeling of orgasm reached my groin. I shuddered under it, screaming into the night in bliss.

But as satisfying as it was, I was still there, hard and ready to go. I had one second to pause and feel the lust begin to rise again, and that was when she lowered herself down to envelope me. I arched my ass up, and she grabbed it with both hands, pulling me up into her even more. Her growl was primal. My ass hit the ground, and she was all over me. I've never thrust like that before. Out in the wild, in the cold, in the night, with the rain howling down, a mile away from anyone else, we were our animal selves for one evening.

We crawled out of the sleeping back hot and she lay on her back, ready for me. I thrust into her and she yelled and pulled at my ass, giving my thrusts rhythm. She pulled my head down and kissed me, and then bit into my neck again on the other side. At her tongue on my neck I began to come, and she grabbed my ass with one hand and held me tight against her.

When I pulled out, I still wasn't done. I couldn't be.

I went down on her, and her hand that had held me so tightly now held my head. I licked. I could taste my own come in her. That somehow made my lust more powerful. I ran my tongue slowly, teasingly, like she had done with her kisses, and it drove her wild. I explored every groove of her cunt, and she began again to give me rhythm. She guided me into how to fuck her with my tongue, and held me against her.

I could feel when she began to come. She squeezed me in her thighs, and the pressure was wonderful. I could hear blood beating in my ears; I wanted to speed up, to give her more, but I kept the same pace because that's what she wanted, and I felt her contractions with my lips before I heard her yelling in bliss. She came, thrusting herself at my tongue with every shudder until she was spent.

I lay down beside her, hot, feeling the cold slowly sap away the steam from us both, and I held her. She turned the flashlight off and kissed me; I could feel the smile at the corners of her lips as she did. We slid back under the covers just before we both fell asleep.

I woke once during the night when she reached down and fondled me until I was hard. With her back to me, she guided my cock between her labia and then leaned into me, pulling me in with her hand on my butt. We had slow sex that time, with the haze of dreamy sleep our third partner. I came again and we fell asleep spooned together. She woke me up in the morning the same way.

When she unzipped the tent that morning, the rush of cold air was almost unbearable. She grabbed my hand, "David, look out there!"

There was snow everywhere. She loaned me her pajamas to wear under my one dry set of clothes. We hiked around that morning in the snow. We made it to the top of the mountain and looked out at all the white peaks surrounding us and held each other. On the way back, we strayed off the trail and made love standing up in the snow. I've never felt the cold like that before, the air shocking my cock and testicles every time I pulled back for another thrust.

I've never made love that many times in twenty-four hours before. When it was time to pack up, we packed together, and she helped me haul some of my wet stuff back to the car in her tarp.

I've seen her three times in the last week at my coffee shop. It's always at the end of the day, and she stays long after hours. I lock the door and we sit on the couch together and talk until three in the morning. I've been horrible with figures this week.

Tomorrow, we're heading back to Gorges State Park -- together. I've made a list of everything I'm supposed to bring, but she's bringing the tent. She wants to be sure there'll be a rain-fly.

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