“He can handle that,” replied Joe. Charlotte did not reply, much less sure about that.
Daniel wandered off through the crowd, loosely in the direction of the three dancing girls. He had thought his life was full and all his time was accounted for. Then he had looked into the eyes of a woman he had never set eyes on before and suddenly there was a whole new thing to be explored. He asked a couple of friends the name of the first girl who had said Hi to him by name as they went by. The first couple of people he asked did not know, but the third said that they were language students that one of the hosts had met. Daniel went over to the host in question and asked him too.
“Yes, they were in a group of girls we got talking to in the Fort St George,” he said, referring to the pub nearby Jesus College on the river a short walk across Jesus Green. “They seemed adventurous, finding our pub from where they lived near Addenbrookes old site so I invited them tonight. The redhead one is, erm, Alesha I think.”
“Thanks, Gareth,” Daniel said, starting to move along.
“Don’t mention it,” Gareth called after him, grinning.
Daniel moved through the crowd, glad-handing and making small talk. His height gave him a good view of who was where, heads bobbing to the music or standing in small tight groups talking. He stepped back from a handshake and barged into the redhead. Turning he said, “So sorry, so sorry,” he looked up, “Are you all right, Alesha, isn’t it?”
“Yes that’s right, Daniel. I’m fine, great party.” The other two girls had gathered to listen to the conversation.
“And you are… ?” Daniel asked the other blonde.
“Ellie,” said the second girl.
“And… ?” He turned to the slender silver-blonde girl.
“My name is Anya,” she replied.
“Do I detect an accent there, Anya?”
“Maybe you do, Daniel,” she smiled quizzically. “I am originally from Estonia. Here to study my English.”
“Well, I am very pleased you did,” declared Daniel, “And that you found our little party tonight. He raised his hands palm up as if to offer the event for her appraisal.
Daniel and Anya chatted on. Alesha and Ellie found themselves frozen out as Daniel and Anya faced each other and were not much interested in talking except to each other.
Joe and Charlotte danced past them as they stood in a little island of themselves, talking, talking, unaware of the dancers passing by.” We may have a little problem here, Charlotte,” he said in her ear against the noise of the music. “The last time I saw that look on his face, we Montagues fell out big time with her Capulets and it all ended very badly for our Romeo Alron and his Juliet.”
“So does that make you Mercutio? We all know what became of him,” Charlotte chided him.
“I can’t see that this girl has brought angry male cousins with her for me to tangle with,” Joe replied. “But in any case Daniel is big and old enough to look after himself by now.”
“One for all and all for one, I’m afraid,” Charlotte said changing legends in a heartbeat. “Hard to imagine anything affecting Daniel won’t affect us as well.”
“No denying he is affected right now.” Daniel was standing straight, head bowed to look down into Anya’s upturned face, only a very small space apparent between the two. They were engrossed, the noise of the music and din of the party requiring they alternated head turns, speaking into each other’s ear to hold their conversation.
The party was mature, enjoying a life of its own; Daniel was not greeting newcomers anymore and all were swept up in lubricious conversation and dancing. Charlotte and Joe were enjoying a rare free evening together, partying like it was 1999. Daniel and Anya were ensconced in their own private world, hardly speaking to any of the other partygoers for the rest of the evening. They danced, Daniel showing remarkably rhythmic hip rotation and coordination with his arm movements that accentuated his height and reach still further. Anya frisked around Daniel like a sprite, the loose, filmy material of her top floating one moment, whipped close to her figure the next as she swirled under, around, against Daniel. They danced many pounding songs through until Daniel declared it was time to fill their drinks again and sit one dance out. The hard-pressed college staff served them beer and wine and they found a vacant large modern armchair against the back wall, a solid thing in black plastic and simple rectangular form. Daniel plumped down, narrow hips leaving too little space to the wide arm of the chair so Anya wedged in tightly against him, forced to be half turned into the side of his chest. They took a draught of alcohol and Anya started talking softly into Daniel’s ear, “It is so wonderful here tonight, Daniel. I am so happy… ” Anya stopped mid-sentence with a soft catch in her voice. Daniel turned to look into her eyes worrying something may be amiss and realised that the pause was emotional breathlessness. “… So happy to be here in this lovely place and with you.”
Daniel was certain she was speaking truly, there was no disguising the depth of her feelings, clearly overwhelming her voice and manner. “I can honestly say I have never had a birthday quite like this, Anya. All the trouble putting it together is suddenly worthwhile and a very distant memory now.”
“Oh, Daniel,” Anya was speaking so slowly and softly, directly into his ear, that it seemed to Daniel she was speaking straight into his very soul; the noise of the party all around was making the intimacy of their conversation posture entirely natural. “Tonight is all about you, my beautiful Daniel.”
Daniel turned to Anya to protest and saw her eyes shining, holding the warmth of his own brown-black eyes in steady regard. “Oh, I don’t know about that, Anya, there are several of us friends celebrating and everybody is having a great time!”
“But they are not having special time like I am and all for you, not for them.” Anya’s attention broke from his ear and turned slowly from right to left to regard the room, dismissing the rest as unimportant, a mere background stage to the primacy of their duet. She turned back to Daniel and snuggled tighter into the space between the black vinyl arm of the chair and the unyielding corrugation of his ribs. Daniel was very conscious of Anya’s taut stomach against his waist and the soft press of her breasts wedged either side of the edge of his pectoral chest muscle. She was most pleasantly trapped in the crook of his arm. Anya stretched her head up to whisper in his ear again as he tipped it towards her quiet voice, “Do you think we could leave soon, Daniel? Is great party but finishing soon, I think.”
Daniel felt the timing was right to move on, too, “I am just across at Chapel court if you would like some coffee?” he offered expectantly.
Anya caught her breath again giving Daniel just enough pause to think he was overreaching so soon, then she started to breathe and speak together again, “That would be lovely, Daniel, it is all about you today, it is perfect evening for us I am thinking, mmm.”
Daniel’s enthusiasm rebounded from the moment he had thought Anya was going to turn him down and he helped pop her out of the space she was lodged into in the armchair with a squeak of plastic. They laughed and Daniel climbed out to join her. They weaved through the lights and dancers to the main door thinking themselves unnoticed but in truth many eyes swivelled to see them leave; Charlotte nodded to Joe after the departing couple and gave him a big wide-eyed grin and wobbled her head about to signify the momentous event of Daniel being smitten. Immediately Daniel and Anya closed the door to the hall, the party was a muffled and distant thing and they were alone under the high stone roof of the cloister outside. Daniel led Anya by the hand along the dimly lit corridor of solid wall on the inside and courtyard and night sky glimpses through tall Georgian stone arches on the outside. It was a truly magical setting keying directly into their high spirits. There was a dark corner where the cloister turned a right angle towards the archway exit and Anya held back ensuring Daniel was pulled round to face her. She smiled up at him and he took her in his arms leaning
forward to find her lips in a long, open-mouthed kiss that caused their spirits to swirl together. They were dizzy such that they were in real danger of losing their balance. The white-plastered internal wall was mere inches away so Daniel guided Anya gently backwards until she fetched up against the wall and could go no further. They were still joined together in their first, longest, lingering kiss. It was a common thoroughfare at the heart of the college but the couple were oblivious to the occasional passers-by that regarded Daniel’s broad back and the small attractive parts of Anya that were visible with part amusement, part envy.
Eventually, Anya broke free of Daniel’s embrace and drew a long breath. Little more needed to be said as both knew they needed to continue in private. Daniel took Anya’s hand again assertively and she felt pulled along in his purposeful stride. They took the left turn out of Cloister Court into the wide open space of Chapel Court. They walked out together with the dark mass of the Chapel to their right and on to the wide path between spiky-textured silver moonlit lawns to the impressively castellated west side of the court. Daniel’s staircase was just beyond the tall tower that dominated the Boatie Arch. They strode swiftly up the stairs to the second floor and both were breathless as Daniel opened his door and led Anya inside.
Coffee was forgotten as Daniel turned to Anya and they resumed the long kiss they had broken earlier. Once again Daniel pushed Anya back against the wall next to the door and this time Anya’s shoulders and head hit with a tiny thud. Daniel grunted an apology without coming up for air and they continued to kiss, bodies thrust together. Anya took the initiative and curved her spine out towards Daniel so that she was only pressed against the wall at her shoulders. Her pelvis thrust forward promiscuously and Daniel hunkered down instinctively so that her weaving hips ground against him. They thrust against each other, the denim of their jeans and chinos mashed tightly together. They continued the long kiss and merged as the passions in their minds swirled together. Eventually they drew apart and gasped. Anya was reaching up with handfuls of Daniel’s top until it was over his head and his torso emerged, shining in the meagre light from the window that looked across the court to the chapel under the stars. Her top came up and off next to float to the floor. Both kicked off their shoes across the room then shed their jeans quickly. They embraced again in underwear only. Anya’s back was arched like a bow against Daniel leaving a space for her breasts prettily held in lace as he looked down into the gap she had created. Lower still their loins were glued and Anya was still grinding against him. Anya shrugged her bra away as Daniel unclipped it and she pushed her soft breasts against his chest, nipples brushing through the tight curls of his chest hair. Finally they stripped off thong and underpants and Daniel sprang up and out, joyful to be freed.
Anya stepped backwards leading him to his bed in the corner of the room and sat back when the rear of her knees stopped against the edge of the bed. She laid back, knees bent over the bed, toes pointing to the thin carpet below. Daniel stood over the bed between Anya’s slender legs. She gasped looking up at him as his impressive manhood pointed straight out over her demanding her entire attention. She had a moment to wonder at the unlikely potential for her to accommodate him and gulped hard before he knelt down and gently squeezed into her. Daniel felt the hot pleasure outside of himself, inside of Anya, the complete focus of his universe. He pushed on until he filled her completely and she called out as he hilted up against her. They stayed locked together, Anya’s eyelids fluttering as she whimpered with pleasure. Daniel strained, held completely within her so tightly he could not move initially. He leaned over her and they kissed intimately again as they both started to move. They groaned into each other’s throats as the motion of lovemaking commenced. Memories of other lovers down the generations echoed in Daniel’s soul but they could not compete with the headiness of their physical and spiritual arousal in the here and now. Anya abandoned herself to their union with an overwhelming sense this was so right for her.
They increased their urgency as both rushed forward towards the fast-approaching dam burst. Just as Daniel thought he was going over the edge first he felt Anya pulsing powerfully around him, constricting the already impossibly tight hot space around him. Anya reached high above her head and grabbed pillows, groaning in her passion, totally beyond control. Daniel made no noise; his other senses were so overwhelmed. Then he too erupted. It seemed to go on and on forever until he collapsed on top of her. In time they both calmed from their climax as she held his head fondly against her cheek.
They never got round to making that cup of coffee; they drifted towards sleep, still enfolded in each other’s arms.
FIFTEEN
Doctor Stephen Hadley was Joe’s supervisor for Biology of Cells in his first year. They met weekly to manage Joe’s studies on this course. Stephen Hadley had recently received his PhD in zoology and was effusively enthusiastic and positive about his subject and indeed all aspects of his life. He saw in Joe a very capable student genuinely interested in the behaviour and intelligence in animals, particularly social animals. Joe was less interested in the more tedious collection of data on the rest of the animal kingdom, its taxonomy and evolution. This appealed to Stephen who had written his thesis on social structures in the insect world, studying the behaviour of ant, bee and wasp cultures, particularly in the rural areas of East Anglia conveniently close to Cambridge that offered as much unspoiled open space as you could find in the southern half of England.
Stephen’s studies centred on an area of heathland and ancient flint mines surrounded by natural and manmade forest close to the small market town of Thetford. This location was about an hour’s drive in Stephen’s old VW Polo that was the workhorse for his small research team to ferry equipment to and from the study site. The heathland was mottled with the depressions of ancient flint mines as if the area had been annealed with a giant’s hammer fifty yards or so across. The shallow craters were caused by the central pits where the flints had been extracted leaving circular raised paths around the heath that connected the edges of the old mines. This provided ideal foraging for the heathland bee colonies that made nests in the old oaks thereabouts, and competed with ants and predator birds to make their homes in the rich heath and scrub over the flint mines and close to the forests. Stephen’s team were regular visitors and the site was occasionally visited by walkers and tourists to the area. It was close to the air force bases of Mildenhall and Lakenheath that had attracted much attention from nuclear disarmament campaigners during the early days of the US military stationing nuclear weapons in the UK decades earlier.
Zarnha of Spargar followed the US military wherever they moved new technology around the world and they had started flying regular visits to this part of England to monitor USAF missiles as soon as they were installed. Initially, the Zarnha visits were surveillance only but they soon reverted to type and started testing the weapons and abducting military and civilians from the same area. Stories emerged locally of alien visitations to the military bases and surrounding forests. There were reports from senior USA officers about fast-moving lights over the forest including actual alien craft landing that were witnessed close up, even touched. The official response as normal was that this was not the case and they were filed under ‘top secret’ to bury the issue for many decades. There was no actual proof of alien contact and the sightings were attributed to high-tech craft of military origin outwith public scrutiny and explanation. The military themselves of course sheltered from public enquiries behind a mask of inscrutability while furiously thrashing internally to find out if these UFO stories were real or maybe spying by the Russians, each theory requiring military explanation and resolution. A large pile of reports and analysis was written and stored in olive filing cabinets, later to be captured electronically and hidden again behind firewalls and database access control.
Stephen recognised an uncanny maturity in Joe that ran counterintuitive to their official relationship of supervisor and
undergraduate, but he was an open-minded individual and was rather enjoying their academic relationship. Joe was on track for a lower first in the subject and Stephen thought there was every possibility for improvement there leading hopefully to Joe specialising in Zoology in his second and third years.
The supervision process at Cambridge University augments the familiar university teaching one-to-many broadcast of the lecture theatre with a one-to-one conversational style management of learning. This allows the teacher to get behind the student’s mask that can conceal deep inner interest or complete boredom and every shade in between. It allows the student to quiz the teacher and volunteer ideas and theories in an unthreatening way as the one-to-one situation diminishes the reticence of quiet scholars and allows the supervisor to draw the student out.
In this way Stephen had tested Joe’s seeming disinterest in the data-collection aspects of laboratory experiments that were so necessary in modern science. Joe could understand that Stephen was making his name in detailing the mechanisms driving the social order of large insect colonies. Stephen had even hosted some television documentaries keying into new public interest in science topics especially with advanced camera techniques that could get down to the level of definition required to dramatise tiny beasts swarming in their home environment and then venturing out to explore their territories. This was all brought to life on television by engaging hosts who really understood the science and could communicate the message. And Stephen was engaging. He had struggled at school with his sexuality and that confusion had led to an episode of depression as a young undergraduate. He had taken an extra year at university to complete his degree so he could receive therapy. He had come through that stronger, not just coming out as gay but declaring a positive attitude to his life, reversing the negativity he had suffered previously. Stephen was proud of his new attitude and affected a strong posture thrusting his chest out and drawing his shoulders back to show the world he now had a positive outlook.
Star Matters Page 23