The Whittier Trilogy

by Michael W. Layne

  Both Alice and Christina looked at him.

  “It’s not very safe over there,” Alice said.

  “Too many animal spirits?” he said, laughing.

  Alice took a sip of her drink.

  “Nope. Just asbestos and bears.”

  Trent stopped in mid drink.

  “Shit.”

  “As long as you didn’t punch a hole in the walls or anything, you should be fine,” Christina said. “And the bears will leave you alone as long as you make enough noise and don’t sneak up on them. Don’t listen to Miss Worry Wart over there.”

  Alice sneered.

  Trent stared at her briefly before calling for another shot.

  Even though he was having a great time with Christina, he wasn’t going to get anywhere with her as long as Alice was hanging around. He moved his head in closer to the two women, and motioned them both to come nearer.

  It was time for him to stir the pot a bit.

  “It’s none of my business, but there’s some obvious tension between you two, and I don’t want to make things worse,” he said.

  Alice picked up a shot of whiskey she had just ordered and downed it in one gulp.

  “There’s no problem here,” Alice said. “Christina is what you call bisexual, and sometimes, for reasons I can’t understand, she wants the company of one of your…kind.”

  Alice looked at Trent, waiting for him to say something, but he just held her gaze and focused on not showing any reaction at all to her latest statement.

  Christina hung her head and let out a heavy sigh.

  After a long pause, Alice spoke again.

  “When she gets this way…well, if you look around the bar, you can see why it’s not usually a concern for me. There’s not a lot for her to choose from up here.”

  Then Alice smiled for the first time in a while, even if it wasn’t completely genuine.

  “You’re only here for a day, and then you’re gone, which, believe it or not, makes you at least somewhat attractive to me as well.”

  Alice waved for the scruffy bartender to bring another round of drinks for her and Trent. The bartender asked about Christina, but Alice waved him off.

  “Have to keep my wits about me,” Christina said with a thin smile. “But I do feel like taking a walk. Wanna join me, Trent?”

  He couldn’t resist the invitation to get away from the crowded bar and from the tension between the two women. He slapped his credit card down on the bar to pay for the bill, and neither Christina nor Alice protested. After signing the receipt and leaving a tip bigger than he normally would have, he stood on mildly shaky legs, as did Christina.

  The bartender leaned in before they turned to leave. He looked like a mountain man someone had forced at gunpoint to wear an uncomfortable white shirt and black dress slacks. Despite his almost humorous appearance, he was suddenly intimidating.

  “Don’t go too far, Chris. You know the last tunnel out of here is at 11:00, and it’s already a little after 7:00.”

  “I’ll make sure he gets home on time,” she said.

  Trent looked hopefully at the bartender.

  “If I miss the tunnel, maybe I could just get a room here for the night?”

  The bartender laughed.

  “We’ve got twenty-five rooms and those fill up half a year in advance. You miss the last tunnel out of here tonight and you’re sleeping in your car, which isn’t something I’d want to do. Not tonight, at least.”

  “Too many animal spirits roaming around, right?” Trent asked, laughing.

  The bartender glanced at him, then at Christina and let out a grunt before walking away.

  Christina stood up and gave Alice a long, but not very passionate kiss on the lips.

  “Take care,” Christina said.

  Trent popped a handful of peanuts in his mouth as he hurried to follow her out of the bar and into the lobby.

  “I could use some fresh air,” he said.

  Christina laughed.

  “Fresh air. Exactly what I was thinking,” she said with a dry, but feminine laugh.

  “Is Alice going to be cool about us hanging out?”

  She turned to look at him, with a smile.

  “Oh, she’s fine with this, baby. She knows I have needs. You know about needs, right Trent?”

  He was not often left speechless, but he remained silent as Christina took his hand and pulled him out the door and into the pre-dusk light of Whittier. Tonight was ending up better than he had expected, although he suddenly wished that he hadn’t had so many of those Jäger shots.

  As he watched the natural curve of Christina’s jeans-covered ass sway back and forth in front of him, he realized that he was probably going to need all the energy he could muster for the evening ahead of him.

  And if she was as good in bed as he suspected, he might have to rely on a little sleight of hand as well.

  Chapter 6

  TRENT WAS EXPECTING her to take him straight to her place, which he assumed was one of the apartments in The Towers—essentially the one and only place to live in Whittier. As they walked hand in hand, she explained that the first and fourteenth floors of The Towers were reserved for commercial and communal spaces like the general store, the library, and meeting rooms. In much the same way the barracks used to be during its prime, The Towers was a self-sustained living environment with its own church, offices for the town hall, and even a school for the kids. The barber and even the Police Department were located in The Towers as well.

  Trent could only think that no matter how hard it snowed in Whittier, the kids probably would never experience the joy of a snow day off from their classes. He also imagined that with everyone living in the same building, things could easily become more than a little claustrophobic. And he couldn’t even imagine dating in Whittier. If you were to break up with someone, you’d never be able to get away from him or her. He was surprised that Whittier’s living conditions didn’t drive people absolutely bat shit crazy.

  Just as he thought they were going to turn left and head up to her place, she kept walking straight for the base of the mountain. She pointed to the top of The Towers as they passed it.

  “See up there on the twelfth floor. The one painted in that nasty salmon orange? Right on that corner. That’s my place.”

  “And that’s not where we’re going?” he said.

  She didn’t answer. Just kept pulling him along until they reached the tree line of the woods at the base of the mountain.

  “This is one of my favorite trails,” she said.

  Trent did not normally consider himself to be a nature person. And he certainly wasn’t a mountain man.

  “Do you have any bear bells?” he said, before he could think twice about how pathetic that made him sound to a woman who lived in Alaska.

  “Oh, the bears can smell us coming. Don’t worry. Plus, they know me around here. As long as we’re together, you’ll be fine.”

  He waited for her to flash a brilliant smile to punctuate her joke, but her face remained deadly serious as they moved onto the forest trail. Immediately, the path went up, and Trent found himself sliding around in his dress shoes that were already getting clogged with wet dirt.

  “We going to the top?” he said.

  “No, silly. I want to show you something just a little further up the trail.”

  After another fifteen minutes or so, he heard the increasingly loud sound of running water. As the trail crested, a thin waterfall came into view, cascading down from somewhere beyond his line of sight and pooling in front of them before traveling down to the bottom of the mountain.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” she said. “If it wasn’t so late in the season, we could go for a skinny dip.”

  As she said this last word, she turned around and stepped into his space. Her face was only a few inches from his as she looked up at him devilishly.

  “Well, the water probably is freezing,” he said.

  “Oh, it is,” she said as she plac
ed both of her open hands on his chest. “I’m still a little pissed that you lied to me about the stuttering thing earlier. Maybe you deserve a little dip as your punishment.”

  Trent flashed her a smile.

  “I already said I was sorry about that. Force of habit, I guess. I started out with a stutter when I first met you, before I knew we were going to end up…here. And I just kept it going. It was good practice. Makes the audience focus on whether I’m going to be able to finish my sentences. Distracts them from what’s really going on when I do my shows.”

  “That how you think about everyone? How you think about me? As a member of your audience?”

  “Not really,” he said with a grin. “But everything in life’s a show, my dear. At least mine’s entertaining.”

  Christina started unbuckling his belt without breaking eye contact.

  Trent was used to mesmerizing people with his tricks, his tales, and his banter, and there had been more than a few times that he had literally charmed the pants off a female audience member. But with the beautiful Christina working on undoing his slacks, he was completely under someone else’s spell for once in his life. As soon as she had loosened his belt enough, she reached her small hand down his pants and cupped him, squeezing and massaging the hardness she found waiting.

  That was all he needed to break him out of his stupor, and within seconds, both of them were shedding each other’s clothes as fast as they could, oblivious to their surroundings, the waning light, and the falling temperatures. They embraced each other, completely naked as the night closed in, and he laid her down in a pile of leaves. Forgetting all common sense and safety, he entered her and lost himself in her body and her kisses.

  A brief and very unsuccessful voice inside of his head warned him that he didn’t know the first thing about this woman. She could have some strange disease or not be on the pill or just be crazy in general. But there was something about her to which he was drawn—something natural and real that he hadn’t felt before. As their combined fever rose, their sex became more animalistic—her fingernails digging into his shoulders, her mouth sucking hard on his chest. His thrusts became more urgent, and he knew he was close. As he brought himself to the brink, his whole body tensed and she bit down hard on his shoulder, breaking the skin. When he climaxed, she screamed and shuddered uncontrollably, tearing at his skin as he held her tight. For those brief moments, the two of them merged into a single creature that was both of them and neither of them at the same time.

  As she relaxed her grip on his shoulders, he collapsed on top of her, trying to catch his breath. He raised his head from her breasts and laughed a little. All around him different playing cards were strewn here and there where they had fallen from the secret concealments tailored into his suit.

  So much for his vaunted mysticism, he thought to himself. Sex with Christina was a much more powerful, spiritual experience than he had ever mustered through one of his routines or had experienced on stage.

  As he rolled off of her, she flipped on top of him and propped herself up on his chest.

  “Don’t you worry about wild animals out here?” he said. “This is Alaska, after all.”

  By the time he had finished asking his question, she was already asleep. Her body on top of his was comforting and warm, and he soon drifted off to sleep as well.

  When he woke up, it was like coming out of a drug-induced stupor. First he had to realize that he was in the woods in Whittier, Alaska and that he was incredibly chilled. Then he had to grasp that a gorgeous woman was lying on top of him and that they were both naked. He reached up and pulled back some hair from her face, and she slowly opened her eyes. As soon as she saw him she smiled, but just as quickly, her face turned to one of stress as she looked up at the sky.

  “What time is it?” she asked, looking up at the sky and the moon above their heads that was just starting to come out.

  Trent looked at his watch.

  “About 10:45. Late for a date?”

  She didn’t answer him, but instead jumped to her feet, slid into her jeans, and looked around for the rest of her clothing.

  He started gathering his clothes and slipped into his pants.

  “Everything good?” he asked.

  “Nothing to do you with you, babe,” she said with a quick smile. “That was incredible. But you have a tunnel to catch, and I have to get back to my apartment.”

  This is what he had been half expecting. For once, he was the one-night fling and the one getting kicked out of the proverbial bed.

  “Come on!” she said as she impatiently waited for him to put on his shoes. “You have to get out of here by 11:00.”

  He tried to put things in perspective in his mind as he slipped on his shoes and followed her down the moonlit trail. Christina lived in a tiny town in Alaska, for God’s sake. And she had a girlfriend! It wasn’t as if there was ever going to be more than a one-night stand between the two of them.

  Ahead of him, she was moving quickly down the trail, and he did his best to stay with her. Within minutes, they were back to the trailhead, and she broke into almost a dead run, with him following closely behind.

  When they got to the corner of her apartment building, she stopped and stood on her toes to give him a kiss.

  “Listen, this was amazing. I really wish we had more time, but you have to go, baby. Remember me, okay? And find me if you ever get back to Whittier. I’ll be working in the same place, and I promise to have some soy milk waiting for you.”

  She kissed him again, then she broke off at a dead run for the front door of The Towers. Trent suddenly came to terms with the fact that he had only seven minutes until it was 11:00, and he still had to get to his car and get in line for the tunnel out of Whittier. He wasn’t in the kind of shape that he needed to be, and his car was still about half a mile away, but suddenly he wanted very much to leave Whittier and to get home to the nice warm guest bed at his cousin’s house.

  He took off running as fast as he could, his breath coming hard, and his sides stitching with cramps from the sudden exertion and the cold. But he pushed on through. Being a mentalist trained his mind to focus, and he used that to keep himself on track. Within minutes, he was at his cousin’s car. He reached into his pants pocket for the key, but it wasn’t there.

  Frantically, he searched the other pockets in his pants, and a feeling of dread washed over him. If the key had fallen out on the trail, he was completely screwed for the night, and probably even for the next day unless he could convince Christina to help him go look for it. As a last resort, he decided to check his suit jacket, and there in his inside breast pocket, he found the keys.

  He unlocked the car door, hopped in, and started the car. It revved on the first try, and within seconds, he was driving across the parking lot, and turning onto the only road that led out of the town. He gunned it a little, but the last thing he needed was to be stopped by a local cop. He looked at his watch. 10:59 p.m. He was going to make it. He had to make it.

  As he pulled around the curve that led up to the queue for the tunnel, he saw the taillights of a car entering the tunnel. He raced into the lane that led to the tunnel entrance, but as he approached, the gate closed and the light turned red.

  He slammed on his brakes and pressed the back of his head against the headrest in anger. Close, but not close enough. Now he was going to have to call Jay and tell him that he wouldn’t be making it home at all tonight, which would screw up their plans to go to the family’s favorite breakfast spot in the morning.

  Trent had missed the last tunnel out of town, and now he was going to have to spend the night in Whittier.

  Chapter 7

  AT LEAST THERE were no other cars in line behind him, so he had no problem backing up and turning around to head back into town. He drove slowly as he thought about what to do. As much as he wasn’t looking forward to it, he decided to check the Inn just in case the bartender had just been giving him a hard time earlier about how difficult it was
to get a room there. Of course, if there really were no rooms available, he might actually have to spend the night in his car. It wasn’t as if he had never done so before, but he would much rather have preferred a nice warm bed somewhere.

  Trent drove back to the parking lot in which his car had been sitting all day, but the signs were very clear about parking permits lasting only one day, and he suspected that if he parked there now, his cousin’s car would be towed sometime that evening or first thing in the morning.

  He continued driving around until he saw an empty spot on the curb that didn’t seem to have any warning signs associated with it. He got out slowly and sauntered over to the Inn since speed no longer made any difference.

  He went straight up to the front desk and spoke with the clerk on duty.

  The bartender had not been lying. Nothing was available.

  Trent took a deep breath and shuffled over to the bar. The place was still full, but mostly with tourists now. There were only a few people still there who looked to be residents of Whittier. Beards and rough, calloused hands identified the men while tight T-shirts and jeans marked the women. When he walked in, the small group of regulars looked up, surprised to see him back.

  Trent glanced over at the bar, but Alice was nowhere to be seen. He leaned into the bar and asked the bartender what time last call was.

  “Eleven-thirty tonight. Closing early,” the bartender said. “And you’re still here, which is not good, sir. Did you check with the front desk, just in case?”

  “I did. No luck. Just like you warned me about,” Trent said.

  The bartender poured a double shot of Jäger, told Trent that it was on the house, and mumbled that he was probably going to need it.

  Trent downed the harsh but warm liquor and closed his eyes for a moment. Not a big deal, he thought. It wouldn’t be so bad sleeping in his car for one night. It wasn’t even winter yet. Worst case, he would wake up with a stiff back.

  He thanked the bartender and got up to leave. He noticed that the regulars were doing the same, turning in early for the night. Now the tourists completely owned the bar, drinking up and enjoying their vacations, knowing they only had to make it up one flight of stairs to get to their beds. Trent envied them.