Chapter 52 : Wandering
They lost the number of times they stopped to take a picture of the awesome nature surrounding them, or just admiring the landscape surrounding them. The mountains, the trees, the endless clearings full of numerous flowers and bushes. All was so beautiful and huge.
They saw a bear in the far away while hiking in Hetch Hetchy, walking along the river. Squirrels followed them all the time, looking for food and some company in these enormous woods. Red foxes and deer were also common to see in there but always so majestic to admire from a safe distance. Jim loved to see Chris so excited to show him the animals she watched while they were walking. She was beautiful when she was smiling. Not that she was not the rest of the time but he loved to see her so peaceful, so glowing.
They enjoyed their time to visit all they had on their list: upper Yosemite falls, Olmsted Point, Tuolumne Meadows, Half Dome, El Capitan, Sentinel rock, Wawona or Maripoa Grove. The list was so long.
Each night, they came back at their hotel, exhausted but marveled by all they had seen through the day. The richness of he places was so huge, they left the Yosemite Park with stars in their eyes. Ready for the second part of their trip. As they got on the bike, they took some minutes to look at the landscape surrounding there; it was still early and there was no noise. All the lights of the hotel rooms were still in the dark.
"Ready to go?"
"I guess we have to… I don't understand how one week and a half had already passed. Seems like we've arrived here just hours ago."
"You know what they say. Time is always passing quicker when you're in good company."
Chris couldn't retrain from snickering. "Don't flatter you too much, J. You're not the only reason, look at this. It's kind of breathtaking."
She turned her look to the Valley which stretched at their feet. Jim enjoyed the moment to look at his stunning wife, a faint smile of bliss on his lips. It had taken them time to get there but he would never change a single thing to their story. It had been complicated, full of angst and suppressing feelings, till it had become so uncontrollable that it had to get out.
"Maybe we should go…" She told him after a while. "Not that I'm not enjoying the view but we have a long journey ahead from us."
"Yeah, better not to hang there too long. Especially if we want to start visiting from today!"
They both got on the bike and left this place. This perfect place where they had shared so many magical moments. But they both knew it was only the beginning.
Jim drove for 4 hours straight and stopped the bike in front of a little restaurant. They needed to reload the batteries. They still had three hours to drive before arriving to Convict Lake. They ordered coffee and pancakes with maple syrup. And also pecan nuts pie. With all this food in their stomach, they were ready to do the rest of the trip.
The next three hours spent quickly. Surrounding by big oaks and giant trees, they felt so tiny. For long moments, they were the only ones on the road. They had this impression to be the only two people left on this Earth, an impression which didn't annoy them at all. They were fine together. They had thrown their shitty past away and now enjoyed building this new life just the two of them.
As they got closer to the Lake, people came back in their sight, easing the feelings of happy loneliness they had felt before. Jim parked the bike next to their hotel. It was only 2 PM. They still had plenty of time to visit.
"And this time, we don't feel asleep!" He joked as he was untied the bags on the bike. She laughed.
"Not this time!"
They checked in at the hotel and dropped their bags in the room. Time to freshen up a little and they were already back outside.
"Any idea of where we're going?" He asked her as she got the little guide out of her pocket.
"Someone told me the Mildred Lake trailhead was cool…"
"This someone seems really smart!" She knocked him with the guide, right in the arm.
"Hey!"
"Don't be a sissy!" She burst into laughter. Soon followed by Jim who couldn't remain serious. "Let's go!"
They reached the trailhead which was 15 minutes away from the hotel and started to visit the place. She walked fast, always ahead from Street who liked to watch over her despite the fact that he knew that she would dislike this a lot if she knew what he was doing. But he kept doing it anyway. She was too precious to his eyes not to be taken care of.
"Hey!" She waved at him from five feet ahead.
"Coming!" He hurried to join her till he came closer to her. "What's up?"
She pointed at a silhouette in the far away. "Look, it's an eagle, just right here, behind the trunk lying on the ground.
Jim focused on the place she was pointing at him but still saw nothing. "Are you sure?"
"J. Please focus, just right there. You see the branch which almost touches the ground?" He mumbled so she could continue to explain." Just look on the right but look at the ground, not in the tree…"
"Oh yes, I see it!" He felt a tap on his arm.
"Shhh, don't talk too loudly, it will be able to flee!" He gave her a faint smile and shut up, looking at the show the nature offered to them.
They kept walking, watching at the animals and landscapes surrounding them. Chris stopped from time to time to take pictures of the river, the mountains, of them.
"We could hang this one to our wall at the apartment when we're back home…"
"It'd be a wonderful idea… And could I ask for something more?" She frowned as he asked her this question.
"Maybe we could take one when we kiss?" He kept talking, shyly. "I know it's cliché… And you don't like this… But when I'm with you, I don't care about cliché or being idiotic… But I'll understand if you don't want to…"
"Where?" She grinned at him. "Who cares about cliché anyway?"
Instead of one, they took many pictures kissing, holding hands, Jim carrying Chris on his back, them making faces.
When they came at the hotel, it was almost night. They ordered dinner and ate in their bedroom, seated on the floor, planning the next day. Their last day here. Chris was focused on the map till she felt Jim's breath in her ear.
"Stop this, you know I'm sensitive when you do that." She giggled.
"And if I do this…" He ate her earlobe.
"Stop, stop it." She kept laughing, enjoying the contact of Jim's tongue on her skin. He kept kissing her, eating her skin as his life depended on it. He could feel she was yielding, her muscles being less tense. After a few seconds, she grabbed his face and kissed him, hard, passionately, savagely. She pushed him on the ground.
"Here?" He looked surprised she didn't bring him to the bed.
"Afraid of the unknown?" She said naughtily.
"Never!" He let her take the lead. She removed her tee-shirt, her shorts, knickers. She wanted this man inside her, urgently. He enjoyed the moment to kiss her breasts, as she came closer to him. She kissed his torso, his muscles were prominent, she loved to let her hands lose against them. He intensified the kiss and let go of her breasts to come back in the neck. He loved to kiss her just behind the ears.
She shivered as he did this and took advantage of him to press him against the floor and sat astride of him. It was go time, she was thirsty of him as he was thirty of her. She felt his urge, his envy. She let him in and let him know she was glad he was here by moaning. They danced for seconds, for minutes. To be honest, they lost count of the time, of the place they were. It was just magical, feeling sparkles all over your body, making only one with your partner.
In an ultimate effort, Street gave Chris more pleasure, forgetting his for a while and focusing on her well-being, on her need. She screamed of pleasure, before blushing. She was not used to do this kind of things but with Jim, she reached new levels of bliss. She took a last drop of the perfect bliss before rolling on Street's side.
"It was…" Street couldn't end his sentence, he was too busy to grin like an innocent.
"Fantastic… " She concluded, still out-of-breath of their extraterrestrial experience.
Street turned his head and looked at her, lying on the floor next to him. "Yeah… Unbelievable and intense." He snickered. The connection they shared was so extraordinary she brought him to places he didn't even know they existed. He felt her hand snaked in his. He pressed it. He loved to feel her closer and closer to him every day.
They remained like for a while, watching at the while ceiling, snorting at each other's jokes, talking about more serious things. "Time to go to bed, kind of freezing here." She told him, laughing.
"As you wish." They got up in a hurry and ran under the blanket. It was time to sleep before their big hiking from tomorrow.
Three days later, they left Convict lake for the last stage of their trip, Sequoia Park. It was already the end of the trip. Unbelievable how those three weeks had passed so quickly.
"Hey, no negativy, Chris! We still have Sequoia Park to enjoy!"
Six hours later, they arrived at their hotel, it was early afternoon. Time to drop their bags in the room and they were already walking in the woods. Looking for squirrels and beavers. They loved to watch at them and looked at them eating and moving. It was fun and kind of hypnotizing. They had to stopped for a half hour, waiting for a deer to move from the hiking path. It was laid in the middle of the road, preventing anything or anyone to pass. They sat on a large stump and waited till it decided to go somewhere else.
"What if it doesn't go away? Don't want to end up here eaten by a bear…" Chris started, making Street laugh.
"C., one: bears are not coming on this side of the park, way too many people walked on this path each day. And two: there's not food enough to attract them. And three: deer is an animal who loves to walk so don't worry, don't get grumpy, we'll have your all-you-can-eat dinner."
"Why are you telling this? I'm not hungry all the time!"
"You kidding? You eat like all the time. And you don't gain weigh. Have to admit, I'm a little jealous. I'll eat half of what you eat, I'll be like Shrek." He laughed at his own joke.
"Not my fault if my body needs a lot of food to work through the day… And also to be perfect…" She teased him, faking rolling her eyes.
"I can confirm your body is perfect, every nook and cranny, every inch, everything." He took his naughty tone. She tapped him on his arm.
"Stop this, the deer could hear you…" She burst into laughing. "Or keep going it seems to work, look, look, it's moving!"
Chris and Jim looked at the deer which slowly got back on its feet walked deep into the woods, until it vanished completely.
"Time to go!" Street told as he stood up from the stump with energy.
Day ended with them admiring General Grant. This sequoia was so impressive. It had survived fire, snow, drought, polar cold, and it was still here. Majestic and royal. Reigning over the park from the top of its little hill. Around them, only a deafening silence reminding them they were nothing against nature.
They watched it, for maybe thirty minutes, admiring its wounds. The shallow in the trunk was so big. The bark seemed so thin and yet so strong. Chris asked questions about the tree to Jim who couldn't stop telling her the whole story, he had learned from this foster dad, who had been a light, an escape road during his long, complicated teenage years. Along with Buck to which he could tell the whole darkness of his thoughts.
"Our last hiking…" Chris whispered with regret, getting closer to Jim.
"Think it's time to go back to work…" Jim said regretfully.
"Guess so… Kind of nostalgic… Three weeks… Seems more like three days to me…"
"We'll go again… As long as we have new days off… Colleagues can't offer us days off all the time!" He gave her one of his goofiest smiles. She tapped him on his arm.
"You stupid!" And she laughed. He was stupid, but he was his stupid. And she liked this.
"Ok I stop, even if deep down I know you love my stupid jokes."
She rolled her eyes. She needed to fool him, at least a little. "Let's go, we still have a few hours before packing."