Don't Read in the Closet: Volume Four (52 page)

piece.

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The view was amazing, looking up at the sun dappled canopy. The

green light filtered down, gaining more shadows as the beams lost the

brightness they started with. Bright flashes, probably parakeets flying

in dizzying swoops, drew his eye. He hardly noticed the droning hum

of insects any longer.

He had forgotten how much he enjoyed the almost peaceful

descent. Just him and nature, communing with one another.
OK, that

was just too corny, even for him,
but still nonetheless true for all of

that.

The smooth slide of the rope through the figure 8 and his hands

gave him total control over his life for those few precious moments.

No uncontrolled plunge into who knew what, no preordained path

carefully laid out for him by his father, just total and complete control

of his own fate. The master of his own destiny, no longer willing to

just play it safe, he would reach for what he wanted. Even though the

thought scared the hell out of him.

He halted and set his feet on the floor of the chasm, and just that

quickly, the illusion ended. He could feel the weight of familial

obligation settle back on his shoulders.

“Belay off!” He removed the belay and pulled the loop of rope off

the other figure 8, before stepping back.

“Off belay!” echoed back down to him. A moment later the ropes

swung out as Kevin prepared for his descent. “Belay on!”

He passed the belaying rope through his figure 8, took up the

slack and braced his feet. “On belay!”

Kevin took the first part with a whoop in a heart stopping drop

that almost had Scott pulling him up short. Only knowing what a

daredevil the man was kept him from putting on the brakes. The peals

of joyful laughter overhead made him smile in spite of himself.
What

a loon!

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The other man slowed and enjoyed the rest of the rappel at a more

sedate pace, allowing Scott’s heart to settle back into his chest. He

didn’t quite relax until Kevin set foot on the ground.

“What a rush! I love that feeling of falling without control. No

rules to contain me, no fear!” Eyes shining in a flushed triumphant

face, Kevin looked like a modern day Pan, gleefully striking fear into

all around him. Kevin, ever the night to Scott’s day.

A few pebbles tumbled down the side of the cleft, followed by a

larger clump of dirt. Scott looked up to see if someone had come close

to falling over the edge like he had. No one peered back. Some of the

trees swayed and trembled. Then he felt the earth shift under his feet

and reached out to steady himself.

A deathly silence descended over the bush and for the first time

since they had entered, the only sound was their ragged breathing.

Maybe animals could sense earthquakes. He’d always thought people

who credited their pets with special powers had overactive

imaginations.

“I think we just had one of those frequent little earthquakes they

warned us about.”

“Never been in one before. Wasn’t much to it.” Kevin

painstakingly coiled the rope so the lengths wouldn’t snarl on them

later.

“Let’s take a look around this place.”

Scott shrugged his pack into place and turned toward the sound of

falling water. Broad leafed plants grew in profusion to either side of

the stream running on one side of the ravine. Soft green moss covered

many of the exposed rock surfaces as they neared the falls. A small

rainbow danced near the base of the cascade in the errant beam of

light that made its way down past the trees.

The ground shifted and Scott fell against the rock wall. Something

gave and crunched under his hip drawing an alarmed stare from the

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other man. Kevin clutched his arm and pulled him upright, steadying

them both. “Are you alright?”

Scott nodded. “I’m just a little bruised.”

“I guess Mother Nature wasn’t done with us yet. Wonder if there’s

going to be more?”

“I’m just glad we weren’t in the caves yet.”

“You’re not kidding! I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere near one

of them today.” Kevin studied the ground and the walls of the gorge

carefully. “I think we should stay away from the walls as much as

possible. I don’t think we have to worry about a flash flood right now,

but if you hear anything let me know.”

Another tremor ripped through the ravine and threw them into

each other’s arms. Scott wanted nothing more than to melt into the

impromptu embrace, but he didn’t know what he should do. Cursing

himself for not taking advantage of the poorly timed opportunity, he

allowed Kevin to set him back on his feet.

A deep roar and a bone shaking rumble resounded from the far

end of the ravine, drawing their eyes. A cloud of dust rose from a

place near where they’d descended. Scott made to move to the spot,

but Kevin held him back.

“No, wait. That might not be the end of it.” When he didn’t

release his hold, Scott took the chance to edge subtly closer to him.

Was it just hopeful thinking or did Kevin gather him closer? It was

probably just an instinctive move and had nothing to do with any

feelings the other man might have for Scott.

Standing in the protective circle of Kevin’s arms felt like fate

finally smiled on him. It seemed like forever, yet ended before he was

ready. Kevin made a tired sound and released him. “I guess it’s safe

enough now. Let’s go see what happened.”

Scott stared in disbelief at the pile of dirt, loose stones and plant

debris where their ropes had been. Damp earth and the pungent smell

of crushed greenery filled the air. Near the top lengths of the bright

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red nylon peeked out of the ruin they had scaled down just a short

while ago. Loose earth and rocks shifted and tumbled down as they

watched.

A jolt shot down his spine, leaving a chill in its wake. If they had

been on the ropes when that had happened…

“Well, there’s no going back up that.”

Scott had to agree with Kevin’s calm assessment of their

predicament. Kauati wouldn’t even think to come looking for them

until tonight when they didn’t return to camp. The guide couldn’t

search for them in the dark, so there wouldn’t be any help from that

front until tomorrow at the soonest. That left him with a night alone

with Kevin, not exactly how he had pictured his big chance, but there

you had it—his big chance.

“Where’s your phone? We can call for help.”

Kevin was right. He had forgotten about the phone. Reaching for

the case on his hip, Scott almost regretted having it. He opened the

case and stared at the cracked screen. He must have fallen on the thing

when the quake threw him against the rock wall.

“I don’t think that’s an option.” He showed the broken phone to

the other man.

“Ok, plan B. What do you have in your pack?”

Scott tried not to blush at the thought of the lube and condoms in

the bottom of his pack. Kevin may be the Eagle Scout, but Scott was

no slouch either when it came to being prepared.

After practically upending both packs, they spread the contents on

the ground: two knives, a magnesium bar for lighting fires, a couple of

flares, a first aid kit, a compass, two emergency thermal blankets, a

coil of light weight rope, water purification tablets, energy bars, some

bottled water and a few MRE’s. Some twine, spare shoe laces,

carabiners, figure 8’s and, of course, the ubiquitous blue ground cloth

rounded out their emergency supplies. Privately Scott wondered

where the other man had found such a small compact tarp.

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“Not too bad since we weren’t planning on spending the night.”

“Looks like we will be tonight. Kauati won’t be expecting us until

tonight and will have to wait until tomorrow to come look for us.

Then a quick trip back to get some rope and we’re out of here.”

A troubling thought occurred to Scott. “We do have extra rope

back at the camp, right?”

“Of course we do. As much climbing and rappelling as we are

going to be doing requires a fair bit of rope.” Kevin glanced around.

“We’ll set up camp over there.”

He pointed to a bend in the stream about half way back to the

waterfall. A small clump of trees spread their branches near the bare

dirt crescent, but the most notable feature was the site’s distance from

any overhangs.

“Our very own little beach,” Scott jokingly dubbed it, while

clearing the sandy area of any debris. When he had finished, he had a

nice pile of kindling to one side and some leaves for a “mattress.”

In the meantime, Kevin had fashioned a fire pit and reached for

the tinder to start building a fire. Shredded bark, dry leaves and the

tiny ends of twigs went down first. Then he added more twigs to make

a fire teepee over the kindling.

By this time Scott returned with an armload of smaller branches

and Kevin was ready to start the fire. He shaved a few splinters off the

magnesium bar with his knife and then struck the flint on the spine of

the bar with the back of his knife blade. Sparks showered down on the

magnesium shavings and flashed into flame. Soon they had a merry

little blaze going.

They ate energy bars while waiting for the fire to burn down.

“Now we can boil water and have some warmth tonight. Once I

get the coals going we can bank this and go looking for more

firewood.”

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After several trips lugging firewood back to their camp site, Scott

wiped the sweat out of his eyes and strung a line between two of the

trees. Then he stripped the farmer john off and hung the sleeveless

wetsuit over the length of twine. After banking the coals and covering

them with a thin dry layer of soil to ensure the fire did not get away

from them, Kevin removed and hung his wetsuit next to Scott’s.

At some point the local wildlife had resumed their vocal activity.

No longer cowed by the quakes and clearly not sensing any additional

tremors, life had returned full force to the forest.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit warm. Sure could go for a

nice shower in the falls over there.”

His heart in his throat at the thought of Kevin naked or mostly

naked and trying not to be too obvious about it, Scott looked down

and attempted to sound nonchalant, “I’m with you.” Right up until he

saw the tent his dive skin couldn’t contain. Even his apprehension

didn’t keep him from getting turned on and he couldn’t back out now.

Heart pounding, cock throbbing and with his stomach trying to

turn itself inside out, Scott followed after Kevin. He nearly stumbled a

few times, watching every graceful motion of the other man’s athletic

body like his life depended on retaining the vision for later, instead of

paying attention to where his feet went.

Kevin unzipped and peeled the upper part of his dive skin down to

his waist, exposing an athletic chest and shoulders. Scott had seen him

shirtless any number of times, but this time he intended to touch all

the nicely tanned skin, run his fingers through the dark hairs sprinkled

across the muscled form and stroke the brown nipples with his tongue.

“Come on. You’re not going in like that are you?”

Scott blushed and unzipped his suit. He never tanned as well as

his roommate did, so the blush stained his lighter skin a mortifying

shade of red, making even the sparse pale hairs on his chest stand out.

Unable to look up, he pulled the thin lycra off his body.

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He heard splashing and glanced up to see Kevin walking into the

water, displaying a truly glorious ass and a smooth all over tan. No