TassieDevil
On Vacation
I was in between things and traveling well more meandering up the coast, Camping, surfing, sleeping...chasing the sun...it was, at the time idyllic. I had just escaped one of those life experiences you wish you hadn't started. Wasted time with things that I didn't need to do. I had money, I had no commitments, I just needed time to think, breathe again, surf, sit in the sunshine. I needed to be me again.
Driving and open spaces always cleared my mind. Driving for thinking....open spaces for not. I needed time for both, I needed time to just lay on a board, drifting, rocking gently looking skyward, just time to be in awe of life again, instead of trying to defend or destroy it.
Girls at the time for me were of interest, but only fleetingly, as they also required maintenance, and each girls maintenance is different.
I didn't have the time....I was only passing through anyway....just passing, interest.
I pulled into a Tourist information map and was looking at the coastline for campsites etc near beaches. Found what I thought was the right way to a known campground and somehow got lost. Ended driving down an ever narrowing road to a clearing with a beach...this wasn't mapped...Im sure..it didn't matter, I could see the coast, feel the sting of a driven onshore breeze...I was home.
Next day was still shocking weather wise and I stayed camped in the car. 1982 Ford XD Panel Van. 302 Cleavland V8, running gas, single exhaust....low and lumpy, it had a purr that was quietly confident, and a comforting rumble through the seat.
The following day broke mid morning sunshine. The onshore breeze had softened to a whisper....the only sign of the past days weather was the usual kelp and debris dumped up to high tide...everything else had been washed clean and now sparkled.
There was one rip evident at the northern end of the beach, and maybe a pipe or channel down the southern end. Two like this are often linked the rip takes you out, the channel brings you back in...or they're not linked and you get taken somewhere else. I was quietly confident and put in at the northern rip.
Now came the slow offshore drift. Floating on my board, I watch as the rip starts pulling me out...its slow, gentle...I lay back on the board staring up at the sky, watching the shore birds come and go...drifting, gently rocking, drifting....
I started to doze off, the numbing rock of the ocean was pulling me under....drifting....
"Hello?"
The ocean is talking to me again...it doesn't usually say hello, but ok..
"hello"
"Hello?!"
I'm bolt upright, head spinning, commands screaming in my head...lost I fix landmarks and see the point, the beach, the point. I snap around to see the silohette of a person...the sun is right behind....hips...hair....her...
"Hi, are u OK?"
Still reeling to snap out of the my floating sleep, I fix again again on her face
Eyes...blue, sparkling, her eye lashes were stuck together like she had mascara...
Mouth...smiling, edge curved slightly higher on the left side...mmm a bit cute...
Eyes...she's still looking straight at me...
"I said, are u OK?"
Slicked back blonde hair, wet from salt water draped over one shoulder, slender long neck with a bleached shell necklace, led me to delicate shoulders, brown, glistening, the hairs were standing up slightly on her arms...eyes...
"Yes, um, yes, thanks, I was just drifting...its just the perfect day"...eyes
I was now staring back at her, smiling. Her eyes flicked down, her smile widened, and then straightened as she lifted her head.
"Im glad, I saw the board, but couldn't see anyone around, I thought..."
"What's your name?" I interrupted her, her held tilted up and left with a slight flick of a smile
"Marley"
With that, I was smitten. We sat on the boards, talked, floated back into shore in the channel and then sat locked in conversation for the rest of the day. She was beautiful, younger than I , slight build with a lightness of being and a grace of movement that was just mesmerising. She was easy to talk to, easier than I'd ever known any woman to be, considerate and kind with her words, I was transfixed...time and life and everything around me had just stopped....silent....the only thing I could see and hear were her.
We walked from the beach to my camp. Talked. She invited me to dinner at her parents house....she thought I needed a shower...it was a fair call. I didn't want to become involved with another story. The events of my last escapade had left me without any need for anything except time. But Marley, she gripped me deeply. So there I was being invited home by the girl of my dreams, having just now found freedom again.
We drove back to her house on dusk. Lights on, double story brick building with manicured lawns, somewhat atypical of this smaller north coast town, more typical of the larger cities.
Marley's mother greeted us, ushered us in to a white marbled entry. She asked the usual opening questions, but Marley was quick to answer and get us through past the main lounge and kitchen and out into the back yard. The franjipani were still in flower, the smell hits me as she leads me down a path to the guest house.
"I'll leave you here"...she's looking a little coy...and you can have a shower in do what ever it is you need to do. Ill come back in a half hour or so. She's gotten a towel out for me, checked for soap, I've cornered her in a very small bathroom. She looks at me smiling. My brain is firing commands at me but I'm frozen. Eyes. Were moving slowly toward each other, eye's locked. She starts to take a breath in as she lifts her hands up to cup my face. I relax, ok, Im not imagining this, few...my hand slip over the tops of her hips. The hot pink bikini she's wearing isn't covering much. I can feel the hardness of the front of her hips under my thumbs, the softness of the back of her hips under my fingers. We kiss. The full weight of her body now resting against mine. She's breathing hard through her nose, holding me there, not letting go. I pull her firmly into me as a slide my hands down her hips and over her backside. The intensity of her tongue in my mouth increases, I put her in harder. Were both moving together, sounds, tastes, the feeling of her curves in my hands, breathing in each other.
We break, just far enough to still feel each others breath, close enough to hear the need in that breath.
Were looking into each others eyes, she breaks silence.
Ive been waiting for that kiss for a long time...her head tilted slightly on one side, curling smile again. Every movement she made captivated me, every slight change in expression, the way she flowed when she walked, everything about her stopped me, I just wanted to experience every moment of her.
"Me to, since I saw you in the surf...when you thought I was drowned..."
I was talking like it was days before. It was only 6 hours earlier, but it felt like a lifetime of unity had passed, like I'd known her for years.
Despite having to deal with the protective father thing at the dinner table, and after, and before, I'd already won Wendy over. I pulled Marley into line when she started up at her mum, it stopped Marley, and helped bring Wendy over to my side a little. She even defended me when Marley's father Tom was drilling me. This ended up in an invitation to stay in the guest house overnight.
The night ended, I went to bed. A simple kiss at the back door, just in front of Wendy sealed acceptance, as far as I was concerned. I went to bed. It was so much more comfortable than the car. The car was good, but this was better, way better. I drifted off to sleep. I woken by the sound of the door opening light footsteps, a sheet lifted and Marley nudging her way into bed with me. She's wearing a mauve silk teddy. She's breath taking, her eyes are sparkling. She's grinning from ear to ear, I'm frozen again.
"Well?" We kiss again, this time it's slower, deep breaths, moving, intensity. My body's on fire. There's a rising rhythm in our movements...hands, legs, sliding against one another, a heated passionate desparation.
I was her first. She was the only woman for me, all others didn't, weren't...just her. She left early morning, before sunrise. We planned to have breakfast and then go surfing, spend time away from everyone else, just us.
For the best waves we had to walk the beach out along a rocky point and jump in with rising swell into the deep water, for the paddle to the real surf.
We were close to the drop off point, I'd just looked over to see her bend over to tie her leg strap on...she was just an amazing collection of curves, colours, sights and sounds, she was stunning. You know how sometimes you get a feeling that you shouldn't be staring at something, but you do anyway?
I wasn't watching the rising surf nor the green slime I'd just put my foot on...
I slipped, was laying down on the rocks. If I had have been standing, I could have easily resisted the tide, it'd be just 1/2 way between knee and ankle, but the tide and rising water floated me out like a raft 12 feet away to sea, into the barnicles you usually miss when on top of a board.
I was pulled into the barnicles and down the face of the rocks.
Underwater momentarily I start to feel burning in my legs, backside and back...
Surface....big gulp of air, turn rocks now 12 feet away, rising swell....damn...I quickly duck under the swell but am now six feet away from the rock and barnicled edge that has just lacerated me from ankle to hip.
I was in 15°C water, but half my body felt like it was on fire...salt water, open wounds...
I had to swim back away from the rocks and tread water for a bit, I had to get the rhythm of the swell, and wait in the surf for the next rise big enough to lift me back on top of the rocks, not back into the edge of the shelf where the barnicles were.
It felt like hours. Finally I saw a set coming with a large one behind it, I'd get pushed back in just far enough to be lifted by the last set up and onto the rocks....
Timing, burning....breathing...struggling
The first two left me short of where I wanted to be, so I started swimming straight for the rocks....it was now or never, my heart rate was too high and I was struggling to stay afloat, struggling to breathe.
There is a stillness, a peace in focused attention. It can allow a pianist to complete a passage or piece despite nervous tension, it can allow a winter sports person to hold their hands steady to fire at a target just after skiing km's at race speed.
I found it in the rush and the roar of the surf...the screaming pain in the lower half of my body, the last ditch effort of a desparate man led to a focus on timing
...I saw the last wave drop, the undertow of my wave pull me horizontal. Arms, legs, thrashing, increasing roar of the surge, and the lift...this is where everything goes silent...
Im watching as the edge of the rocks get closer, but increasingly below me, I feel the power of the surf pushing, I already know in that instant where Im going to land...I know in that moment Im out.
1/2 hour wait for an ambulance. 2.5 hours to the nearest hospital. 1 1/2 L of blood, 106 stiches, loss of one autographed tri-fin thruster, 4 days later, loss of one fantastically beautiful woman, and 6 weeks recovery to go.
All for paying far too much attention to a gentle curves of a lovely lady, and some great smoke
You asked for it!
Driving and open spaces always cleared my mind. Driving for thinking....open spaces for not. I needed time for both, I needed time to just lay on a board, drifting, rocking gently looking skyward, just time to be in awe of life again, instead of trying to defend or destroy it.
Girls at the time for me were of interest, but only fleetingly, as they also required maintenance, and each girls maintenance is different.
I didn't have the time....I was only passing through anyway....just passing, interest.
I pulled into a Tourist information map and was looking at the coastline for campsites etc near beaches. Found what I thought was the right way to a known campground and somehow got lost. Ended driving down an ever narrowing road to a clearing with a beach...this wasn't mapped...Im sure..it didn't matter, I could see the coast, feel the sting of a driven onshore breeze...I was home.
Next day was still shocking weather wise and I stayed camped in the car. 1982 Ford XD Panel Van. 302 Cleavland V8, running gas, single exhaust....low and lumpy, it had a purr that was quietly confident, and a comforting rumble through the seat.
The following day broke mid morning sunshine. The onshore breeze had softened to a whisper....the only sign of the past days weather was the usual kelp and debris dumped up to high tide...everything else had been washed clean and now sparkled.
There was one rip evident at the northern end of the beach, and maybe a pipe or channel down the southern end. Two like this are often linked the rip takes you out, the channel brings you back in...or they're not linked and you get taken somewhere else. I was quietly confident and put in at the northern rip.
Now came the slow offshore drift. Floating on my board, I watch as the rip starts pulling me out...its slow, gentle...I lay back on the board staring up at the sky, watching the shore birds come and go...drifting, gently rocking, drifting....
I started to doze off, the numbing rock of the ocean was pulling me under....drifting....
"Hello?"
The ocean is talking to me again...it doesn't usually say hello, but ok..
"hello"
"Hello?!"
I'm bolt upright, head spinning, commands screaming in my head...lost I fix landmarks and see the point, the beach, the point. I snap around to see the silohette of a person...the sun is right behind....hips...hair....her...
"Hi, are u OK?"
Still reeling to snap out of the my floating sleep, I fix again again on her face
Eyes...blue, sparkling, her eye lashes were stuck together like she had mascara...
Mouth...smiling, edge curved slightly higher on the left side...mmm a bit cute...
Eyes...she's still looking straight at me...
"I said, are u OK?"
Slicked back blonde hair, wet from salt water draped over one shoulder, slender long neck with a bleached shell necklace, led me to delicate shoulders, brown, glistening, the hairs were standing up slightly on her arms...eyes...
"Yes, um, yes, thanks, I was just drifting...its just the perfect day"...eyes
I was now staring back at her, smiling. Her eyes flicked down, her smile widened, and then straightened as she lifted her head.
"Im glad, I saw the board, but couldn't see anyone around, I thought..."
"What's your name?" I interrupted her, her held tilted up and left with a slight flick of a smile
"Marley"
With that, I was smitten. We sat on the boards, talked, floated back into shore in the channel and then sat locked in conversation for the rest of the day. She was beautiful, younger than I , slight build with a lightness of being and a grace of movement that was just mesmerising. She was easy to talk to, easier than I'd ever known any woman to be, considerate and kind with her words, I was transfixed...time and life and everything around me had just stopped....silent....the only thing I could see and hear were her.
We walked from the beach to my camp. Talked. She invited me to dinner at her parents house....she thought I needed a shower...it was a fair call. I didn't want to become involved with another story. The events of my last escapade had left me without any need for anything except time. But Marley, she gripped me deeply. So there I was being invited home by the girl of my dreams, having just now found freedom again.
We drove back to her house on dusk. Lights on, double story brick building with manicured lawns, somewhat atypical of this smaller north coast town, more typical of the larger cities.
Marley's mother greeted us, ushered us in to a white marbled entry. She asked the usual opening questions, but Marley was quick to answer and get us through past the main lounge and kitchen and out into the back yard. The franjipani were still in flower, the smell hits me as she leads me down a path to the guest house.
"I'll leave you here"...she's looking a little coy...and you can have a shower in do what ever it is you need to do. Ill come back in a half hour or so. She's gotten a towel out for me, checked for soap, I've cornered her in a very small bathroom. She looks at me smiling. My brain is firing commands at me but I'm frozen. Eyes. Were moving slowly toward each other, eye's locked. She starts to take a breath in as she lifts her hands up to cup my face. I relax, ok, Im not imagining this, few...my hand slip over the tops of her hips. The hot pink bikini she's wearing isn't covering much. I can feel the hardness of the front of her hips under my thumbs, the softness of the back of her hips under my fingers. We kiss. The full weight of her body now resting against mine. She's breathing hard through her nose, holding me there, not letting go. I pull her firmly into me as a slide my hands down her hips and over her backside. The intensity of her tongue in my mouth increases, I put her in harder. Were both moving together, sounds, tastes, the feeling of her curves in my hands, breathing in each other.
We break, just far enough to still feel each others breath, close enough to hear the need in that breath.
Were looking into each others eyes, she breaks silence.
Ive been waiting for that kiss for a long time...her head tilted slightly on one side, curling smile again. Every movement she made captivated me, every slight change in expression, the way she flowed when she walked, everything about her stopped me, I just wanted to experience every moment of her.
"Me to, since I saw you in the surf...when you thought I was drowned..."
I was talking like it was days before. It was only 6 hours earlier, but it felt like a lifetime of unity had passed, like I'd known her for years.
Despite having to deal with the protective father thing at the dinner table, and after, and before, I'd already won Wendy over. I pulled Marley into line when she started up at her mum, it stopped Marley, and helped bring Wendy over to my side a little. She even defended me when Marley's father Tom was drilling me. This ended up in an invitation to stay in the guest house overnight.
The night ended, I went to bed. A simple kiss at the back door, just in front of Wendy sealed acceptance, as far as I was concerned. I went to bed. It was so much more comfortable than the car. The car was good, but this was better, way better. I drifted off to sleep. I woken by the sound of the door opening light footsteps, a sheet lifted and Marley nudging her way into bed with me. She's wearing a mauve silk teddy. She's breath taking, her eyes are sparkling. She's grinning from ear to ear, I'm frozen again.
"Well?" We kiss again, this time it's slower, deep breaths, moving, intensity. My body's on fire. There's a rising rhythm in our movements...hands, legs, sliding against one another, a heated passionate desparation.
I was her first. She was the only woman for me, all others didn't, weren't...just her. She left early morning, before sunrise. We planned to have breakfast and then go surfing, spend time away from everyone else, just us.
For the best waves we had to walk the beach out along a rocky point and jump in with rising swell into the deep water, for the paddle to the real surf.
We were close to the drop off point, I'd just looked over to see her bend over to tie her leg strap on...she was just an amazing collection of curves, colours, sights and sounds, she was stunning. You know how sometimes you get a feeling that you shouldn't be staring at something, but you do anyway?
I wasn't watching the rising surf nor the green slime I'd just put my foot on...
I slipped, was laying down on the rocks. If I had have been standing, I could have easily resisted the tide, it'd be just 1/2 way between knee and ankle, but the tide and rising water floated me out like a raft 12 feet away to sea, into the barnicles you usually miss when on top of a board.
I was pulled into the barnicles and down the face of the rocks.
Underwater momentarily I start to feel burning in my legs, backside and back...
Surface....big gulp of air, turn rocks now 12 feet away, rising swell....damn...I quickly duck under the swell but am now six feet away from the rock and barnicled edge that has just lacerated me from ankle to hip.
I was in 15°C water, but half my body felt like it was on fire...salt water, open wounds...
I had to swim back away from the rocks and tread water for a bit, I had to get the rhythm of the swell, and wait in the surf for the next rise big enough to lift me back on top of the rocks, not back into the edge of the shelf where the barnicles were.
It felt like hours. Finally I saw a set coming with a large one behind it, I'd get pushed back in just far enough to be lifted by the last set up and onto the rocks....
Timing, burning....breathing...struggling
The first two left me short of where I wanted to be, so I started swimming straight for the rocks....it was now or never, my heart rate was too high and I was struggling to stay afloat, struggling to breathe.
There is a stillness, a peace in focused attention. It can allow a pianist to complete a passage or piece despite nervous tension, it can allow a winter sports person to hold their hands steady to fire at a target just after skiing km's at race speed.
I found it in the rush and the roar of the surf...the screaming pain in the lower half of my body, the last ditch effort of a desparate man led to a focus on timing
...I saw the last wave drop, the undertow of my wave pull me horizontal. Arms, legs, thrashing, increasing roar of the surge, and the lift...this is where everything goes silent...
Im watching as the edge of the rocks get closer, but increasingly below me, I feel the power of the surf pushing, I already know in that instant where Im going to land...I know in that moment Im out.
1/2 hour wait for an ambulance. 2.5 hours to the nearest hospital. 1 1/2 L of blood, 106 stiches, loss of one autographed tri-fin thruster, 4 days later, loss of one fantastically beautiful woman, and 6 weeks recovery to go.
All for paying far too much attention to a gentle curves of a lovely lady, and some great smoke
You asked for it!
