Part 27 PG-13
Quinn and Zander were dancing close.
"Let's go," he said, "I have somewhere I want to take you."
She smiled in assent, and walked off, holding his hand, with a feeling of pleasurable anticipation.
"So what are we doing here?" Quinn smiled. He parked by the side of a field. They walked a little way, and then came to a barn. He knew his way around. He even turned on a light.
"Well," he said, putting his arms around her and drawing her further in. There were bales of hay everywhere. She laughed. "It's like this. I had memories of our house in Florida. They weren't so good overall. Not that they were so bad, but that it became painful in my mind after all that time. Now I see the map of Florida and Russia in my house, but when it reminds me of the house in Florida, mostly I think of the time you went there with me. Now I remember you on the beach, and I even remember the guest room better than mine, being in there knowing you were sleeping in my room."
"That's nice," she said.
"Yeah, it makes that house a better memory overall," he said. "Just that one night re-colors it all, do you understand?"
"OK."
"So this place is where I felt the worst I ever did in my life, I think, outside maybe the day Dad got arrested when he followed us back from Moscow."
"Oh! This is the barn!"
"Right!"
"So," she said, kissing him. "I can create another memory for this place."
"Right," he said. "You don't mind?"
"No," she answered. "Though it's different. Here, you're talking about another woman, not your parents."
He stepped forward so as to push her backwards. "But nothing big happened here. You know that," he grinned.
"OK," she laughed. She looked through her purse. "Here's my cell phone. It's off." She turned it off with a gesture to make a show of it.
"That's the way," he said, grinning. He kissed her again, for a long time, then they ended up down on the hay.
"Now I know what they mean by a roll in the hay," Quinn said.
"Oh, I'll show you what they mean by that," he answered.
She undid all his shirt buttons and kissed him on the chest several times.
"Finally you had a roll in the hay," she said, still breathing hard.
"I never did before," he said. "Thanks for breaking me in."
She laughed. Then they heard a long, low, "mooooooooooooo."
They jumped and grabbed each other.
"What the hell was that?" he asked.
"A cow," Quinn said, starting to laugh again.
"A cow?"
"This is a barn," she said, laughing really hard now. He was the only one in the world who could get her to laugh that hard.
"There never was any cow here before!" he said, but then he started smiling, realizing how absurd it was. He put a piece of straw in his mouth. She started laughing harder. "And what did she see?" he asked, with mock horror.
"She's an adult!" Quinn went off again into peals of laughter.
She hugged him really tight. He laughed and lay back down, pulling her head down onto his shoulder.
"So now your memories from here should be redone."
"Now they're pretty funny," he said, squeezing her to him again. "I'll remember you, and how much I love you, and how much fun we had."
"And you'll also remember her."
"A little, but it won't hurt too bad."
"Oh, come on, now, Bessie just scared you a little, that's all!"
He looked at her, then laughed, then took a handful of straw and threw it at her. She threw some back at him. They laughed until they stopped and stared, and went back to each other for another kiss.
"Hey," he said, "I have one more place I would like you to help me remember differently."
"Only one?" she asked. "I thought maybe I'd be spending evenings in all the barns in the county."
"No."
"Where?" she said, truly wondering.
"Vee must vork on your Russian, comrade," he said.