Page 22 of Road Refugees

Chapter Eight

Town

To have a shapely woman’s arms wrapped around my torso again! I never thought the day would come. Until Linus, I hadn’t touched another living thing in years.

We easily cleaved the forest of piñon pine and cypress. I didn’t want to show off or take risks, but I could feel her smiling back there, when I passed slower-moving cars. I was disappointed when we pulled up at Sax’s cabin in the woods. The angel named Heaven had her arms so tightly around me her boobs were smashed to my back. This tingling, squishy feeling along with the heat from her thighs wrapped around mine combined to stiffen my cock, and I wouldn’t have changed it for anything.

I glanced down at Linus, and I could’ve sworn he was grinning.

I was too.

Who was Heaven, aside from a Morbot fundy from a secretive enclave? I’d met up with people who had been prisoners of war. Not a pretty experience trying to navigate their minds. It took a lifetime to iron them out, if ever. But this angel—my angel—had willingly, with trust, gone with me, a complete stranger. Maybe she was overly rustic . . .

We crunched the rocky driveway that led to Sax and Bee’s A-frame under the pines. A gruff and gravelly sort of guy waited by the front porch light wearing a Bare Bones cut, a pitcher on a tray in front of him.

I took Heaven’s helmet and placed it in Linus’ sidecar. Heaven bent to open his door, and he licked her face in gratitude. Her bun was messed up from the helmet, and she slid out the hairpin. That’s when her long and silken caramel-colored hair came loose. It’s like she was removing curlers or something, how it bounced to her waist. Her bust was much too large for the button-down shirt, and I looked away in shame. I needed to treat her like a respectable woman.

“Welcome, Town and Heaven,” Sax said, his voice gravelly too. He poured a glass and lifted it to me as we approached. I was afraid it was beer, so I let Heaven go before me.

She whipped the glass from his hand and gulped as though we’d been riding across the desert instead of the cool mountains.

“Oh, that’s delicious. What kind is it?”

Sax held his chin high. “Bass Ale. Town?”

I made a “pass” sign with my hand. “I’m good.”

“Come on in,” said Sax. “Bee should be here in a couple minutes. She just had to go close up her nursery.”

“Plants?” said Heaven, surprisingly taking the lead. “I love plants. In Cornucopia, I used to plow the ground with a horse. I grew potatoes and corn. I loved working with the soil.”

Sax said, “Then you should get along with Bee. She does love her plants. Come on in.”

The steepled roof soared, and I breathed in the woodsy scent of the house materials.

“I always looked forward to winter,” Heaven babbled on, and I saw she’d already finished her beer. “It was a sort of hibernation period. Of course we still had the chickens to deal with. And it still took me sixteen hours a day to keep the stove going. I did the lunch dishes, had two sips of coffee, took a dead leaf off a succulent, and then it was time for dinner. I think it would be much nicer taking care of only one man, no women and children.”

Sax chuckled. “Talk to Bee about how nice it is. I’m a rock man myself, not the cleanest fellow but not the most demanding either.”

“Rock man?” I asked, as we took seats on overstuffed leather couches that formed an L before an unused fireplace.

“A mineralogist. I have a rock shop in P and E. I’m off at shows and conventions or just on the road looking for a specific item.”

I spoke directly to Heaven now. It wasn’t the rock man I wanted to get to know. “So you, ah, love farming?” Of course I had in mind my mushroom farm dream.

“Oh, yes!” she said as she accepted another pour of beer from Sax. “I would stand for an hour soaking in the glory of a sun-drenched branch of jasmine. I’d walk in the citrus orchards and sink my face into the fragrant boughs. I just thanked God for the miracle of fertility.” Her face fell a bit. “But mostly I worked in the chicken coops.”

Sax said, “Your brother Sock Monkey is big into the pot plantation on Mormon Mountain. Run by Lytton Driving Hawk.”

“Yes!” Heaven said. “That’s the guy I spoke to on the phone when looking for Arkie—I mean Sock Monkey.”

“Doctor Driving Hawk,” said Sax as he rolled a joint on top of a magazine. “He’s a real good fellow to know in a tight spot. And what’re you here for, Town? Aside from escorting these two lovelies.”

Sax smiled at Linus. I was mortified when Linus got the idea this meant he could leap onto the couch, nearly bowling over Heaven. I let him do that at my condo.

“Oh, sorry, sorry,” I said.

“No worries,” said Sax. He scrunched Linus’ head in his broad palm. “It’s leather. So what’re you here for?”