by Haley Walsh
“No, dude, I…” He could swear he could hear Sidney laughing in the distance. Games. She liked games, did she?
“No, you know what? Yeah.” He released the man’s hand, took his face in both hands, and planted a kiss right to his lips. It was a closed-mouthed kiss…at first, until Joey grabbed Mike tightly around the waist, opened his mouth, and thrust in his tongue. Mike’s first instinct was to shove the guy back. Maybe even swing at him. All his muscles were tensed and poised to do just that, but at the last second he decided not to. Sidney’s games. He’d show her.
He heard a whoop from somewhere in the direction of the SFC table—that might have been Jamie, come to think of it—and chose to ignore it.
It wasn’t long till the harsh kiss turned to something softer—he didn’t know men could have soft lips—and it was then that he gently but firmly pushed the man back.
He licked his lips and could barely raise his eyes to the guy. “Uh…thanks. Um…so. I think, uh…I think…”
Joey looked a little glassy-eyed. “Time to return you to your lady. Only slightly used.” He took Mike by the hand and led him back to the booth, where Philip and Rodolfo were clapping wildly. Jamie was whistling between his fingers, and Dave was merely shaking his head.
The man kissed Mike on his cheek. “By the way,” he said, leaning in toward his ear, “If you ever need to school anyone else, I’ll be around. Otherwise, stay out of Trixx, Straight Boy.” He posed for the SFC and disappeared into the crowd again.
Mike, feeling that his face was on fire, turned to Skyler. He was staring with his mouth hanging open. Keith had his hand over his face and was looking at him between his fingers. And Sidney…
Damn that girl! She certainly wasn’t wearing the expression he had hoped she’d be wearing. Didn’t anything embarrass her?
She swooped up to him and laid her hands on his chest. “That. Was. The. Hottest thing!” And she planted her mouth good and firm, opening her lips to him.
He didn’t mean to compare, but it just flew into his head. It was true that he loved kissing her…but that man. Damn. He could teach a class.
“We have to come here more often,” she purred.
“Do you want to go home?” he asked breathlessly.
“Yeah! Come on, hot stuff.”
They waved their hasty farewells and hurried out the door. Mike vowed to never mention that dance floor kiss again, but he doubted the SFC would ever let him forget it.
BACKPACKING TRIP
A BUMP IN THE ROAD WOKE SKYLER AND HE sat up, surreptitiously wiping the drool from the side of his mouth so Keith wouldn’t notice.
“Back with me?” Keith asked, keeping his eyes on the gray highway. The sun was still an hour or so away from rising but the sky was lit with false dawn, blushing the horizon and morphing to a deep blue in the clear skies above. Skyler peered out the windshield toward the wide valley with its wall of battered and rocky sierras to his left, and worn barns, roaming cattle, and glittering cottonwoods to his right. Another set of mountains rambled along the highway in the distance.
“Yeah. Sorry I fell asleep there.”
“It’s all right. You’re adorable when you snore.”
“I do not snore.”
“Then you’re keeping a buzz saw somewhere in your shirt.”
Skyler shook his head and turned to look out his own window. “I do not snore,” he muttered.
They had left well before dawn ever decided to crack. Keith had said the earlier the start the better. They didn’t want to get to the trailhead too late. And from their place in Redlands it would take three and a half hours just to get to the town below where the trail began.
Skyler turned eagerly to Keith. “This is kind of exciting. There are suddenly new words in my vocabulary, like ‘trailhead’ and ‘carbineer’. How far is it to Independence?”
“Not far now. Only about twenty minutes, then it’s another thirteen miles up Onion Valley road to the trailhead.”
Skyler watched his boyfriend’s face. “You like this stuff, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do. I admit, I haven’t had much time for it in the last few years. But there’s nothing like being in the wilderness, knowing you’re the only people for hundreds of miles.”
Skyler’s heart gave a lurch. “H-hundreds of miles?” he squeaked.
“Well, as I understand it, it will likely be more crowded than that in the summer. They don’t allow more than sixty people a day to pack through the pass. But people are coming and going all the time. This is the way to the John Muir Wilderness so there are a lot of people tramping through to King’s Canyon and Sequoia.”
“I didn’t know we were going to be so close to that. I’ve never seen a giant redwood.”
“And you won’t on this trip unless you can hike real fast. We don’t have enough time to get that far. We have to hike out, too, you know, within a week.”
“Oh yeah. Maybe next time.”
“We’ll see if you take to this. We aren’t going to go very far. Just to the first lake. Wouldn’t do to kill my boyfriend first thing.”
“Who would you snuggle with at night?”
Keith smiled. “Exactly.”
Skyler sat back, watching the eastern horizon as the sun steadily brightened the sky. He liked the look of the landscape spread out before him. The grassy plains with black cattle and horses seemed to go on forever, with one picturesque barn after another. And always, the battlements of the sierras with their crown of clouds rose up majestically above the valley floor.
“They don’t look that high,” mused Skyler.
“We’ll be going to 11,000 feet. And they still go up above that, though not by much.”
“It’s just…the scale is weird. It looks like you could just easily go up there.”
“You’re right,” he said, moving over in his lane to let a faster car pass. “The scale is deceptive. But believe me. Those mountains are high. What we have to watch out for is altitude sickness. You drink plenty of water and take aspirin if you feel a headache.”
“I know the drill. Will we be able to have a campfire? I love those.”
“Nope. Backpackers aren’t supposed to leave anything behind, and that includes forest fires. We have a campstove, I’m afraid.”
“Aww. No snuggling by the campfire?”
“Sorry, babe. But there can still be an abundance of snuggling.”
“In our one tiny tent and our zipped-together sleeping bags.” Skyler grinned.
“But I’m going to bet you will be too tired to do anything.”
Skyler looked askance. “Me?”
“Even you, my friend. It’s hard work and the air is thinner.”
“We’ll see.”
Keith smiled and shook his head.
They passed signs alerting them that they were coming upon Manzanar. “Oh, man,” said Skyler, watching as they whizzed past the Asian-style gate house that signaled the presence of the World War II Japanese internment camp. “I didn’t even realize we would be going by here. Maybe we can see that on the way back.”
“If we have time.”
It wasn’t long until signs appeared telling them they were coming into the tiny town of Independence, population 669.
Highway 395 shot through it as it did countless tiny burgs along the way. But it was here that Keith, after following the highway in a more or less straight path for hundreds of miles, finally made the turn that aimed them toward the sierras.
“That can’t be snow up there, can it?” asked Skyler.
“Yup. It’s quite possible that if a weather front comes through we could encounter a blizzard.”
“What? In June?”
“It has its own weather up there. There are some places that have snow year round. Though with the drought, those might become fewer.”
“What am I letting you talk me into?”
Keith smiled. “Don’t worry. With all that snuggling we won’t freeze to death.”
Skyler remem
bered what Keith had said on inspecting his backpack. He took out a lot of extra clothes but insisted Skyler have long pants and long-sleeved shirts, a down jacket, and lots of socks. Apparently, he had to wear the same clothes day after day. And probably couldn’t shave! He didn’t mind if Keith got all scruffy but he didn’t like it much for himself.
Oh well. As Jamie told him, it’s all an adventure!
§ § §
The trailhead turned out to be a gravel parking lot with lots of cars parked and seemingly abandoned. Keith explained that some folks went hiking for weeks and months at a time. The actual trail was marked by two posts and an Inyo National Forest sign. There were other signs, too. “Onion Valley, Elev 9200.” “Citation for food left unprotected from bears.”
Skyler whipped toward Keith. “I’m pretty sure I don’t remember you talking about bears.”
“I’m pretty sure I did,” said Keith, navigating around cars and finding a spot for the truck. “Remember, we have to put all our food, deodorant, toothpaste—anything with a smell to it—in the bear boxes at night.”
“Oh, b-e-a-r boxes. I guess I misunderstood. I was kind of looking forward to finding out what that was.”
“You little slut, you.” Keith threw the truck in park and killed the engine. The silence, like a heavy blanket, suddenly fell over them.
Skyler leaped down from the truck and stretched his legs and spine. He looked back along the road from Independence and saw that it was far below.
“In case you’re wondering,” said Keith, “we’ve already climbed 5,000 feet just from the town.”
“Oh.”
Keith started unpacking the truck and Skyler clambered up over the side of the bed, hauling things forward for Keith to set on the ground. Keith checked to see that their sleeping bags were secure on the backpacks, made sure all the items he wanted handy were in his shorts pocket, and checked his watch.
“You ready, babe? Let me help you get the pack on.”
Skyler had tried it on back at home and was pretty sure it was too heavy, but he hadn’t said anything. Keith held it while Skyler threaded his arms through the straps and fastened the hip straps around his waist. Yup. Still freakin’ heavy. He did his best to adjust straps here and there but there was no amount of shifting that would help…unless there was a helium balloon packed in there somewhere.
Keith hoisted his pack up onto his shoulders and strapped himself up.
“How…heavy are these?” Skyler couldn’t resist asking.
“Fifty pounds. You okay?”
“Yup. Fine. Are we ready?”
“If you are.” He hit the truck lock on his key fob, stuffed the key in a zippered pocket in his shorts, and led the way to the trailhead.
“Wait!” said Skyler. He fumbled for his phone. “I want to take a picture of you.”
“Well hurry up. And then shut your phone off to save the battery. Unless you have a solar panel, we won’t be able to charge them.”
Keith posed, Skyler took the picture, and then shut down his phone. Good-bye, civilization!
On they went. The well-worn path through the brush soon climbed, and though this was considered a moderate path, Skyler soon found himself huffing and puffing. This is ridiculous! I’m in good shape. But after an hour he was forced to ask Keith for a rest.
Keith huffed. “Thank God, I thought you’d never ask. I didn’t want to be the first to suggest it.”
“Oh, thanks!”
“The altitude is getting to me a bit. I’m sure you’re feeling it, too.”
“Yeah. I mean, I feel so out of shape…and I know I’m not.”
“It’s tough to get used to, sometimes.”
Skyler looked up. The scrub was giving way to nothing but rocks, gravel, and a chalky landscape.
“I thought we’d be in the wilderness. You know, trees and stuff.”
“We have to get to the trees. But I think it has its own beauty, don’t you think?”
Skyler offered a neutral expression. He didn’t think it was beautiful. He thought it was a stark moonscape with nothing to relieve the eye. And as he looked up the mountain to the trail ahead, he saw nothing but their trail zigzagging endlessly. “What is that?”
“Those are switchbacks. There are a lot of them, I know, but once we pass that we’ll get into a much better trail. It’s just the only way to climb this high this quickly. Otherwise it would be outrageously steep.”
Skyler sighed, drank some water as Keith instructed, and then got up for more hiking.
This is hard work. I could use a spa once we get up there. But he knew there would be no spa, no soft bed. This was a tough week ahead of them and he was only beginning to truly realize that. But so what? This is where I test my mettle. This is where I see what kind of man I really am! He stumbled and righted himself, hand skimming along a boulder. “Oh shoot! I think I broke a nail!”
Skyler tore it loose with his teeth and spit the nail crescent away from him, following Keith as they both put one foot in front of the other, climbing, climbing, switchback after switchback, endlessly zig-zagging up the mountain.
Skyler looked back and was jolted at how far down the valley appeared. The town of Independence looked small amidst the sprawling green and golden grasses. Beyond that was another mountain range. And beyond that, Keith had told him, was Death Valley.
He turned back toward the trail, looking up the mountain—they were close to the ridge now—and wondered at the strange geography that characterized the area. Mount Whitney, which he couldn’t see now from where it sat behind their mountain, was the tallest peak in the contiguous States, while Death Valley, just over that range across the valley, was the lowest point. How could it all be?
“You know,” he said, a little breathlessly, “I should have brushed up on my geography and geology before we set out.”
“I know a bit of geology if you have a question, Skyler.”
“Okay, then. What are all these horribly homogenous rocks we are tramping over?”
“It’s granite.”
“Oh? I didn’t take it for granite. Yuk, yuk.”
“Very funny. Like no one ever makes that joke.”
“How come you know so much about a California mountain range? Last time I looked they have mountains in Colorado and Seattle. Have you been here before?”
“I’ve been here a few times. Through Kearsarge Pass, in fact. That’s where we’re headed.”
“So you’re a mountain man. Are you also a lumberjack? Are you okay?”
Keith sighed. “I didn’t know there was going to be humorous commentary all the way up this mountain.”
“You’ve known me how many months? Surely you could have guessed.”
Keith shook his head, but he was smiling.
Skyler stopped talking to use his energy to get up to the ridge. He was suddenly taken by surprise by two people marching rather quickly behind him. He hadn’t heard them and suddenly there they were, and they were overtaking him and Keith. He scrunched himself to the side of the trail for them to pass and Keith perched himself on a boulder. They raised their hands in greeting as they went by and Skyler watched them go with a little streak of envy. They seemed to fly forward. One of them had an iron skillet tied to the back of his pack, and the other had two lawn chairs artfully bungee-corded to his.
Keith snorted once they were over the rise and gone. “Those two will be back.”
Skyler wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, before he rolled up that sleeve and then the other. He took his sunscreen from his pocket and slathered his arms. “Why do you say that?”
“Did you see what they were packing? That stuff’s too heavy. The ranger will send them back down.”
“Where will the ranger be?”
“They go up through here all the time, especially in the summer when it’s busiest. They have to check our permits. What do you want to bet those jerks don’t have permits?”
Permit? Permit? Skyler’s heart fell. “Keith,
I don’t have a permit!”
“Yes, you do. I have both of them.”
He smacked Keith’s arm. “Why didn’t you tell me about that?”
“You were stressed enough. I took care of it.”
“Next time, tell me everything we’re supposed to have, okay?”
“All right. Sorry. I have a fishing license, too, if you wondered. And yes, I got one for you, too, just in case.”
Skyler grimaced. “Just in case of what?”
“Just in case you wanted to fish.”
“Ew, no. I won’t be doing that.”
“You might want to give it a try—”
“Nooo, no, no. Stick a hook in a creature’s mouth? No.”
“No, you take the hook out of their mouths.” Keith leaned in to him. “Right before you gut them.”
“Eww. Stop right now.”
“You eat fish all the time. Don’t you want to have the fresh stuff?”
“Not if I have to see its death throes.”
“The fish you cook has to be gutted by someone—”
Skyler stuck his fingers in his ears. “La, la, la. I can’t hear you!”
Keith laughed and marched on.
They finally reached the top of the switchbacks. Keith had been right. The trail leveled out and big pines were suddenly everywhere. Skyler stood at the top with some satisfaction and looked back from where they had started. The clear sky was the deepest blue he had ever seen it. He threw open his arms and yelled, “I’m king of the world!” It echoed back at him off the granite faces of the mountain range.
Keith’s arms were suddenly encircling him. Well, as much as they could over his backpack. “You’re king of my world, babe.” He kissed the side of Skyler’s face and licked his lips. “Mmm. Salty.”
“That reminds me. I’m kind of hungry.”
“This is as good a place as any to stop for lunch. Some crackers, some cheese, and beef jerky. And a little gorp for dessert.”
“You gourmand, you.” But Skyler was indeed ready to divest himself of his pack. He unsnapped and caught it just in time to settle it down gently. He rolled his shoulders and scratched at his waist. “What I wouldn’t do for a covered wagon about now.”