Blessing of the Wood

His voice tight and carrying touches of anger, he said, "She should have told me."

"Maybe, but what's done is done. She was just trying to protect you — and me, I guess."

He closed his eyes for a second, and then said, "I'm sorry. This is... It's..."

She squeezed his hand. "It's not your fault. I'm more worried about you than I am about what she thinks of me."

"I don't understand," he said, shaking his head. "I thought she'd be happy for me. It doesn't make any damn sense."

"I know. Maybe she just needs time?"

"I don't know," he sighed, looking out at nothing.

"Why don't we go back inside? I know your mom is worried, and it's getting a little chilly out here."

"Yeah. Okay," he answered, his voice distant.

Ella stood, still holding his hand, and he rose with her. As soon as he was on his feet, she pulled him close and cradled his head on her shoulder. "I love you."

"I love you too."

She held him for a minute or so more, until he lifted his head. After giving him a kiss on the temple, she led him back inside.

****

Ella awakened to the soft morning light filtering through the curtains. She turned to look at John and saw his brow was furrowed. He'd had a rough night of tossing, turning, and muttering in his sleep. She reached out to caress his hair, and smiled when she saw his features soften.

Not wanting to wake him, she slipped slowly out of the bed, straightened her nightshirt, and crept out into the front room.

"How's he doing?" Terra asked.

Once John had fallen asleep, Ella had gone straight to her own lifelong rock of support — her sister — and told her what happened.

"It was a rough night. He didn't sleep very well," Ella answered as she looked out the window and toward the woods.

"How about you?"

Ella sat down next to her sister on the couch and answered, "I'm okay. Just drained." Seeing that Terra was fully dressed, she asked, "Are you going somewhere?"

"Breakfast with Mom. Is there anything at the house you want me to grab while we're there?"

"Nothing I can think of."

"I told her you probably wouldn't feel like coming, but..." She lifted her eyebrows in a silent question.

"I don't want to wake John, and I want to be here when he wakes up."

"Okay." Terra held out her arms in invitation, and the twins hugged. "I'm only a phone call away. Mom said to tell you the same thing."

"Thanks."

Terra nodded toward her end of the house. "I'm going to go see if Nathan's out of the shower."

"Tell Mom I said I love her."

Knowing Nathan would have questions as well, Ella decided to head back to her bedroom and let her sister answer them. The flier with the recipe on it caught her eye as she walked in, and she pursed her lips in thought. There was something about the campground that she could almost remember, but it was escaping her.

It was something to take her mind off of things, so she sat down at the desk, grabbed her tablet, and did a search for the name. A website popped up in the results, and when she clicked it, she knew what had been lurking at the edge of her consciousness.

The campground went to great lengths to be green. Almost all of the small amount of power the place used was solar generated. The cabins had been built from salvaged lumber. The lake was never treated with any sort of chemicals, and only the relatively small swimming area was cleared of moss and cattails. Decades before Ella was born, the owner had replanted a part of the forest lost to an arson fire, and it now thrived.

It gave her an idea. If she contacted the various conservation groups her family supported, she might be able to help raise the money to save the campground. It certainly fit the bill as a place worthy of protecting from a government takeover.

And it might help convince John's aunt she wasn't the devil's temptress after all.

With a plan in mind, she closed the browser and put the tablet down just as John stirred.

"Morning," she said as he blinked the sleep out of his eyes.

He stretched and echoed, "Morning."

"Want some breakfast? Some homemade apples and cinnamon oatmeal, maybe?"

He smiled, which heartened her, and answered, "That sounds good."

"I'll go get started then."

She had just finished dicing the apple when John walked into the kitchen — still in his boxers. "Where did Terra and Nate take off to this early?"

"They're having breakfast with Mom," she answered. "We have the whole house to ourselves for a while."

"Do they know what happened?"

She held up a chunk of apple, and he opened his mouth to accept it. As he crunched, she said, "I couldn't not tell Terra. She knew something was wrong the moment we walked in the door last night."

"That's okay. I get the sister thing. I just wondered."

"You know she won't press you about it, and I don't think Nathan will either."

He leaned against the island counter where she worked and said, "I know. I don't even want to think about it. I just want to forget and move on. Nothing we can do about it, anyway."

She knew it wasn't going to be that easy, but could sense that for the time being, it was what he needed to try to do. "You could get the oats out for me. They're in the second cabinet."

He squeezed her butt before going to fulfill that request. She was up in the air about whether that was a good sign, or whether he was trying to convince himself everything was all right.

They talked as they cooked, ate, and washed the dishes. The conversation ranged from college, to friends, to television shows... Anything except what had happened the night before.

Then, when they finished brushing their teeth, he moved in behind her and pulled her close. She could feel his hardness against her butt and gasped from the unexpected advance.

Between kisses on her neck that gave her shivers, he said, "We've got the house to ourselves. Want to take advantage of it?"

She was fairly certain he was trying to bury his feelings, but it was hard to argue with his choice of ways to do it. Rationalizing in an aroused instant that the intimacy would do them both good, she gasped, "Yes."

****

For the rest of the day, John acted as if nothing had happened. It worried her just as much as if he'd remained withdrawn and distant, though she did her best not to show it. Someone he thought of as a parent had disowned him, and she knew that wasn't something anyone could shake off in a day.

Once they split up on campus to go to their first class the following day, she sent an email about the campground to her aunt Kia, who handled most of the contacts for the family. If her plan worked, he might not have any feelings to suppress.

A little over halfway through the lecture, her phone vibrated. She brought up the message from her aunt, which read, "Can you give me a call?"

Ella answered, "In class, but I'll call you between, in about fifteen minutes."

Once out of the room, she made the call. When her aunt picked up, she asked, "So, you got my email?"

"Yes, I got it," her aunt answered. "I'm afraid I have bad news."

"What?"

"I saw one of the fliers for an ice cream social a couple of weeks ago and looked up the campground. When I saw how they operated, I floated the idea of supporting them to a lot of the local organization chapters. Nobody will touch it with a ten-foot pole."

Ella stopped in her tracks just outside the building and asked, "But... Why?"

"It's too closely associated with the church."

"What's that have to do with anything?" Ella asked while stepping out of the way of the crowd emerging behind her.

Kia sighed. "You know how polarized things are. All it takes is disagreeing on one issue, and all the places where you agree don't mean anything."

"It's so stupid," Ella spat in frustration.

"I'm with you," Kia said. "That's not all, though. Once I found that out, I put together a donation from the family and sent it to them. They returned it unopened."

With the defeat she felt creeping into her voice, Ella said, "They wouldn't take the money because it was coming from us."

"That's what I have to assume. The stupid is going both ways."

"Just wonderful," Ella muttered.

"Don't be down on yourself. Your heart was in the right place. You can't help it if everyone else's heads are up their behinds."

Ella winced, because she wasn't really thinking about the campground as much as finding a way to get into the good graces of John's aunt. "Thanks for trying, anyway. I have to get to class."

"Sorry, sweetie. Goodbye."

Ella said her goodbye and ended the call. At first, having her idea go down in flames so quickly left her despondent. It wasn't long before a spark of determination ignited and began to grow, though. She wasn't going to give up so easily.

During her next break between classes, she called her father. With his connections as a state senator, she hoped he might be able to do something from the government side.

"Hello, Ella," he said when he picked up the phone.

"Hey, Dad. Are you busy?"

"Only busy banging my head on the desk. Trying to get anything done at the statehouse since we lost our super majority is frustrating, to say the least."

That made her second-guess what she was about to say, but she went ahead and asked anyway. "I was wondering if you could do me a favor?"

"Such as?"

"There's this campground called God's Green Earth that's having problems with property taxes."

He interjected, "That's the one we tried to send some money to and they sent it back, right?"

"That's it. I was hoping there was something you could do."

"I could look into it, but if they wouldn't take our money, I don't think they're going to let me do anything else to help them, either."

She had been so dead-set on finding another way that she hadn't even considered that before jumping into the plan to call him. He was right, and she knew it. The church — or John's aunt — didn't want their help, and nothing was going to change that.

Remembering the earlier conversation with Kia, she decided to actually do the right thing. The campground had an earth-friendly ethos that she appreciated, and there was no way of knowing who would end up with the land if it was foreclosed upon for unpaid taxes.

"Maybe there's something you can do without letting her know it's you?" she asked.

Confused, he asked, "Her?"

Ella blushed and corrected her Freudian slip, "Them, I mean."

"I'll make some calls. I looked at the website, and it's a nice place. I'd hate to see them lose it."

"Thanks, Dad."

"You're welcome, honey. I'll let you know if there's anything I can do."

"Okay. Bye."

"Love you. Bye."

The disappointment followed her through the day, right up until she met John for lunch. Simply seeing him was enough to brighten her spirits, but it also reminded her there was a way she could earn some points with at least one member of his family.

It was time to convince her fiancé to get his annual checkup.

She waited until they were done eating, and then scooted closer to him on the wall where they were sitting. He slipped an arm around her, and she leaned against his shoulder.

"Why don't you want to go in for a checkup?" she asked.

"Ah crap," he said, and then chuckled. "Mom's bringing out the big guns. She put you up to this, huh?"

After his earlier reaction, she'd expected more resistance. She still thought he was overcompensating for the blow his aunt had delivered, but she pressed on.

"No, it was my idea. I have a pretty good reason to want you to stay healthy." Then she held up her engagement ring for emphasis.

He shrugged the shoulder she wasn't leaning against and said, "There's nothing wrong with me. What's the point of spending a bunch of money for some doctor to tell me what I already know?"

"It's not going to cost you anything. Your mom already told me you're on her insurance and she'll pay for anything it doesn't cover. You never know. The whole point of getting a checkup is to catch things you didn't know were wrong early. You know I go twice a year."

He sighed. "I don't know. I've just never liked doctors."

"Will you do it for me? Pretty please?" she said, and then affected a pout.

"That's not fair."

She could see his resistance faltering and hear it in his voice. As he'd suggested earlier, she decided to bring out the big guns.

"If you go, I'll give you something much better than a lollipop for being a good boy."

"Ella!" he gasped in surprise when she squeezed his manhood through his jeans.

Still caressing him in full view of anyone who might look their way, she said, "Just say yes."

"Okay, I'll go."

"Get your phone."

A couple of minutes later, he had an appointment for the next day, right after class.

****

As soon as John's name was called and he walked through the door, Ella sent a text to his mother. "At the doctor. He just went in."

Her response arrived a few seconds later. "Bless you! Did you tell them to lock the back door so he can't sneak out that way and escape?"

Ella had to fight hard to hold in her laughter when she read that. She replied, "He won't get very far very fast. I have his phone and the keys to the car."

His mother's next message read, "And his heart. Thank you again."

A couple of rambunctious children in the waiting room convinced Ella that trying to study wasn't likely to be productive. So, she left her books in the bag and hit the internet on her phone. A page collecting funny postings from all over the internet caught her attention, and the minutes rolled by.

Before she knew it, the sound of someone saying John's name caught her attention. She peeked through the reception window and saw him in front of the counter on the other side of the door. Ella put her phone away, slung her purse over her shoulder, and stood up.

"You're all set to go," the woman at the counter said. "Take this across the street to the lab. We sent over all your information, so check-in shouldn't take long."

When he emerged, Ella kept the question she had to herself — but only long enough to exit the building and see that nobody was close by in the parking lot.

"What was that about the lab?" she asked.

John shrugged and answered, "Just some test the doc was going on about. I said okay so I could get out of there."

"What kind of test? Blood work or something?"

The sudden flood of color in his cheeks caught her off guard. "It's nothing important," he answered evasively.

Once again, she waited. They were only a few steps away from the car, so she held back until they reached that relative haven of privacy.

He proved he knew her just as well as she knew him when they both closed their car doors a few seconds later. He let out a resigned sigh, ran his fingers through his brown hair, and told her what he was trying to dance around, because he knew he wasn't going to get away with it.

"Okay," he began, "My uncles on Dad's side both have low sperm count, so the doctor is trying to get me to go get tested."

"That's pretty important, I think," she said, and then laid her hand on his leg. "To both of us. You are going, right?"

He let his head thump into the headrest and sighed again.

"John..."

"What am I supposed to do? Go over there and tell them I'm there to jack off in a plastic cup?"

Ella had only been thinking about it in the abstract, and his words brought home the reality of how the sample was obtained. "Okay, I see your point," she admitted. "Can I see that slip the doctor gave you?"

He pulled it out of his pocket and passed it to her. As soon as she looked, she knew that it was of no help. It plainly stated that the doctor was requesting a semen sample. She had hoped it would be written in some sort of medical code. There was no way he was going to be able to walk up to the reception counter and hand over that piece of paper to a woman without dying of embarrassment on the spot.

An idea popped in her head. "How about this? You stay here, and I'll walk over there and talk to them. Nobody will see you, and if there's anyone we know there, I'll come straight back without saying anything."

"I... I guess," he answered with nothing resembling conviction.

Ella cupped his cheek in her hand, turned him toward her, and kissed him. "Try to relax."

He didn't have to say, Easier said than done. She could see it in his eyes. Remembering she had his phone, she pulled it out of her purse, brought up the page she'd been reading in the waiting room, and handed it over.

"Check this out. It's funny," she told him. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

With that, she laid the keys on the center console in case he wanted to roll down the windows or listen to the radio, and climbed out of the car. Upon crossing the road, she observed the lab carefully. She meant to keep her promise. If she saw anyone who knew them, she wasn't going to embarrass him by bringing up the test where they could hear.

All was well when she reached the door. She didn't recognize anyone in the waiting room or behind the reception desk. What she had never expected was that she was nervous as she walked up to the counter.

"Can I help you?" the receptionist asked.

"I was wondering if I could speak to someone about a test my fiancé is supposed to take here."

"What kind of test?"

Ella tapped her fingernails on the counter, trying to come up with an answer for that as her cheeks warmed.

A woman in a lab coat stepped in behind the receptionist and said, "I'm one of the technicians. Why don't you come back, and we can talk in private."

Relieved, Ella said, "Thank you."

The woman pointed and said, "Through that door right there."

Ella walked through the door and the woman introduced herself. "I'm Lauren. We can use this consultation room."

"Ella."

"That's a beautiful name." She opened the door to the room and gestured for Ella to enter.

"Thank you."

The technician closed the door behind them. "Do you have a doctor's order? That might be easier than explaining why you're here."

"Yes, it's right here," Ella answered, and retrieved it from her purse.

"Ah," Lauren said upon reading the order. "So, do you have questions about the test, or is it a problem with convincing him to take it?"

Ella smiled, feeling more at ease, and answered, "Both."

"This is going to be a bit embarrassing," she warned, "He should only provide the sample when he's refrained from ejaculating for at least twenty-four hours. That's the most difficult part for some. Most, really."

Ella chuckled when the woman rolled her eyes. She then said, "Yesterday morning, as far as I know. Does he have to... You know... Do it here?"

"Well, he doesn't necessarily have to provide the sample here — although I would recommend it. I can send the testing materials home with you, but the sample needs to be kept at body temperature and brought in within an hour. In my experience, samples provided here and turned in immediately yield the most accurate results."

Ella blew out a slow breath and tried to think of how she was going to convince him to come in.

"This isn't the first time this test has proved a little complicated," Lauren said. "You could take the paperwork for him to fill out and bring it back in. Then, I could set him up in a room near the side door. That way he won't have to come in through reception at the front. You could bring the sample up to us when he's finished, and then no one would even see him."

"That might help," Ella admitted. She thought about it for a moment and asked, "Can someone be in the room with him?"

Lauren smiled. "That's not uncommon. There shouldn't be any lubricant or saliva in the sample, though."

Ella chuckled and nodded. "I understand."

"Sometimes, that's the only way it works," Lauren said. "Many men find it difficult to attain an erection in a sterile room of a public building without help."