Under the Wild Wyoming Skies

"What was her name?"

"Alexandria Vandershoot. I called her 'Lexi.'"

Diana sat down beside me. "That name sounds familiar."

"She was a model, a cover girl model."

Diana snapped her fingers. "Yeah, she was on quite a few magazine pages. Now wait, you're telling me that you dated Alexandria Vandershoot, the model?"

"Yes..."

"I don't want you to take this wrong, and you're a handsome man in your own right, but seriously, you were dating Alexandria Vandershoot. That's hard to grasp."

A picture had always been worth a thousand words, so I opened my wallet, and pulled out two photos of me and Alexandria. I handed them to her. "That's her and me at one of the fund-raisers her dad had. This one was taken near the new trade center building next to the memorial."

Diana studied the photos by the light of the flashlight. She sat back and then looked at me. "Jesus, that is her. With you! You had a relationship with Alexandria Vandershoot."

"We had sex, too. Lots of sex."

"It's no wonder. No wonder at all."

"What are talking about?"

"How could you sleep with someone as beautiful as her and here I am. There was no car accident was there? You can't perform because I can't do anything to excite you. God, no wonder. Oh damn... it's me isn't it?"

"That's totally not true. It's complicated."

"We've got all night. Damn, how complicated can it be? She's a model and I'm nothing but a farm girl." Diana placed her hands over her face. "I'm just a homely Wyoming farm girl."

It was time for me to come clean. God, I didn't want her to think she's at fault because I couldn't get an erection. She needed to know. I pulled her hands down from her face.

"Listen up. She was a model. But you're more than a farm girl. Don't sell yourself short. Alexandria was a young woman with a drive for life. She lived in Europe, went to the best schools, drove expensive cars, and wore the best clothing her dad's money could buy.

"It's not one world. I started to drink heavily and things got out of hand... I hit her one night when I was drunk out of my mind. Alexandria left. She came back only under the condition I get help, which I did. To keep myself busy, I restored the Indian motorcycle. I told her it would take a few years to get it done. Alexandria said if I could stay sober for those two years, she'd ride out here with me, and on the way back, she'd wear my wedding ring. We never got the chance.

"We were going to go out, to celebrate six months of sobriety. I was at a local shop, Alexandria stayed in the apartment getting ready for our date. She told me she'd get all fancied up. I liked it when she did that for me.

"A local kid I knew told me that his buddies saw a stranger sneak into our apartment from a fire escape. I ran back, and went in the same way that the intruder did. I figured I'd catch him off guard. I figured wrong.

"He had a gun and he pressed the barrel into the center of her forehead. Her blouse had been torn from her body, her breasts were bare and I could see large red welts where he had manhandled her. I wanted to kill him. 'It's not your time to be a hero' he said to me. I wanted to fight, but I couldn't. Have you ever stared down the barrel of a loaded gun? I watched as that son-of-bitch reached under Alexandria's skirt. He tore at her hose ripping it to shreds. In one yank, he ripped her underwear off. Diana, I stood there and did nothing. Absolutely nothing! I watched as he rammed his dick into her. She cried and I moved. The barrel of gun went into my face. 'Not your time to be a hero. You or her, you decide.' I froze and I watched him violate the woman I loved. You have no idea how that made me feel. Unable to help, I watched as he raped Alexandria. Diana, I swear I couldn't do anything. I should have tried. Why didn't I? The kid that told me about the stranger ran into the room. There was some gunplay and Alexandria got shot. She died in my arms."

Diana turned away from me for a moment. "Her father had her murdered. I remember reading about it. There was something in the news about him running for governor and getting caught with a male aide," Diana said.

"That's the jest of it. Had the press got wind that her dad, running for governor, was giving oral sex to a staff member in a closet. That would have ended his political career. His daughter caught them in the act. So he had her killed."

"Damn, his own daughter?"

"Yeah, and ever since then, I can't have sex. I've been to every doctor in New York. They tell me there's nothing wrong with the plumbing. I need to see a psychiatrist. So I did. It's all in my head. A woman shrink told me to see a hooker. That didn't work. I spend almost two grand on an escort. That didn't do anything except lower my savings account."

"So," Diana began, "You came out here with her ashes. And all this time, you led me to believe it was me."

"No, no, no. I didn't lead you to believe anything. Maybe I should have told you then, but what difference does it make? I can't get it up no matter what I, you, or any other woman does. It's in my head. That's the conclusion they all came up with. They told me that when I try to be with a woman, I recall Alexandria's rape and death. I remember the fear in her eyes as that thug assaulted her."

"And tonight, you were going to get drunk. It's not a world-ending problem if you can't have sex. Jack, there are plenty of ways to make a woman happy without putting a dick inside her. And there's plenty of ways you can enjoy a woman, too."

"I'm sorry about the other day, Diana, I'm not like that."

"You should have told me about your drinking, I never would have brought that stuff over."

"That would have been a great conversation starter. Hi. I'm Jack and an alcoholic and while we're talking, I can't get my dick hard so we won't be able to fuck like a normal couple. You wanna go out for a date?"

She squeezed my fingers. "It's okay. It really is."

We sat beside each other for the longest time holding hands as we watched the rocks twinkle and sparkle. A stray cloud or two would roll by, and would blot out the moon filling our rocks with starlight.

I did like Diana. I liked her a lot. I had thought for a second about asking her about the troubles she had with the prosecutor and Boyd Nelson, but decided I'd leave that for another time. No sense in dumping each other's problems out all at once.

Somehow my hand found her thigh and before I knew it, my fingertips toyed with the buttons on her shirt. "Would you mind?"

"No. I told you there are many ways to be close." She pressed against me as I un-buttoned her shirt. To me, there are few things as sexy as a woman's bare back. It's something you rarely get to see, and that's why I seemed to enjoy caressing a woman's back like I do. I tugged the shirttails out from her jeans. Diana's bra strap was in the way, so I opened the clasp. She pressed harder against me.

My fingers moved along her skin. So warm... So smooth... Diana laid her head on my shoulder as my hands enjoyed the sensation I simply can't get enough of.

"This is nice," I said.

"You have a very gentle touch."

My hands followed the curve of her spine. Diana's breaths were as soft as the night air.

"Oh... you're so gentle."

Diana looked at me and under the wide Wyoming skies. "Jesus, you're pretty."

We heard a noise. It was more of a grunt than a noise. It was a sound I had never heard before, but Diana sure had. She froze.

"Don't move," she whispered.

We were locked in our embrace, my right hand still on her back. "Why?"

"That's a black bear; about twenty feet from us. God we're so screwed. Don't move!"

"What about that cannon you carry?"

"I left if in the truck."

"Why?"

"I didn't want to shoot you."

"I sincerely appreciate your thinking, but what do we do now?"

"Just don't move. It's probably looking for food, and there is nothing here on the rocks to eat, so it will move along."

"We're on the rocks and that bear might decide to eat us." My hand slowly moved off her back. Before I sat down I spied a few hunks of granite that had broken off.

"What are you doing?" She whispered.

"I'm going to bean that sucker with one of those rocks."

"You'll never hit it from here. Don't even try it."

"I got this!" The rock left my hand, and whacked mister bear smack on the right side of his head. He growled and scampered off sparkle rocks.

Diana stood and turned away from me, and as quickly as she could began to button her shirt closed so I couldn't see her breasts. She snaked the straps of her bra down her arms and wiggled it out from her shirt. She stuck it in my pocket.

"A souvenir to remember this night. We need to go right now. There might be more than one."

She grabbed my hand and we dashed back to the truck.

We were out of breath and happy not to had been bear food. Diana checked her gun and placed it back in the center console. Through long breaths she asked, "Where did you learn to throw rocks like that?"

"It's a gift. I had a rooftop garden in the city, and I could nail pigeons with clumps of dirt from almost twenty feet away. I got plenty of practice putting the fear of God to those flying rats."

After our hearts slowed, Diana started the truck and headed back to town. She pulled alongside my bike. As I was about to open the door, she grabbed my hand and said, "There's nothing more I'd like than to make love to you. I understand. I'm lonely, too. Can't we give us a try?

************Chapter Six************

After our encounter with the bear, I hadn't heard from Diana in a week. I don't even know what her phone number was to call her. I asked around town, and it seemed that she's had a room in a boarding house, but spent most of her time back home with her parents in Gilbert.

So it was quite a surprise when I heard a knock on the door. When I opened it, there stood Diana, minus her cowboy hat.

"May I come in?"

"Of course. Why did you ask?"

Most of the time Diana had this built-in smile on her face. She must had been born with it, yet today, it wasn't there. She slipped what looked like an envelope in and out of her hands.

"I stopped by the school yesterday. I wanted to see what the bus schedule would be. Principal Meyers didn't have an address for you. I told her I'd drop this off on my way back to Gilbert."

She handed me the letter.

My heart felt like it was about to jump out of my chest. My hands began to sweat so much they smeared the writing on the envelope.

"This is it!" Then it hit me. It could also be the letter that says thanks, we'll get back to you. My enthusiasm evaporated like a drop of water on a hot rock. I stared at the envelope.

"Aren't you going to open it?"

"What if it's bad news?"

"Won't know until you open it, will you?"

"Here," I handed the letter to Diana, "you read it for me."

"You sure?"

"Yeah..."

She tore the flap open and pulled out a single sheet of paper. I watched as her eyes moved along the words.

"Well?""

"It says that they were impressed with your résumé but—"

"Damn! There's always a but..."

"Let me finish. 'Due to the urgency to fill this position, the board has decided to forego the usual interviews. After checking with the City of New York education board, and receiving an outstanding recommendation, you will need to fill out the necessary forms to complete your status as an employee...'"

"I'm hired?"

"I'd say so."

I hugged Diana and lifted her off her feet. I smashed a kiss on her lips. "Damn! Just damn!"

"That's good. I guess I'll see you at work then." She turned and started toward her truck. I reached and caught a bit of the back of her shirt.

"Where you going?"

"Back home to Gilbert."

"Why? This is great news. It's fantastic news! I've got a job. I thought you and me... we could celebrate a bit."

"Some other time."

Diana and I hadn't known each other that long, but Stevie Wonder could have seen there was something seriously wrong with her. Normally, she's been kind of fun to be around, and now it's as though her dog had died.

I pulled her down beside me and we sat on the front porch steps. "What's bugging you, Diana? Something wrong? You wanted a friend, so, share what's eating you with your friend."

"Normally I go back home during the week, but decided to stay. I have a room I rent by the week in town." She twined her fingers together. "I think I'm losing my mind." She palmed her eyes.

I placed my arm around her waist and kind of pulled her close to me. "Now why do you say that?"

"It's a room with a bed and a small table. I don't remember doing it." She looked at me through red eyes. I don't remember..."

"What don't you remember doing?"

"I woke up about eight this morning. My place looked like a twister went though it. I'm generally a well-ordered person, yet this morning..."

"Diana?"

"It was as though someone came into my bedroom while I was sleeping and rummaged through all my personal things. Every pair of panties I own were strewn across the floor. Some were even in my little kitchen area. All of my clothing had been messed with. It was as though... I don't know. I can't remember. Why would all my intimate things be scattered all over my bedroom? Why can't I remember?"

"Are you sure?"

"Come on, of course I'm sure. It was as though my dressers exploded and shot every thing out."

I rubbed her shoulders. "Maybe you had a guy over and had a few too many? Like the song says, 'tequila makes her clothes come off.'"

Diana lowered her head into her palms. "I don't know. I'm sure I'd remember doing it. Truth be told, I haven't been with a guy in a long while."

"You sure picked a lemon to hookup with."

"You know I've enjoyed being with you. You know that don't you?"

She sat there with her hands folded on her lap. "Why not tell me the rest?"

Diana let out a long deep breath. "I so confused."

"About what?"

"This morning, while I gathered my things off the floor there was a pair of hose that were strewn across the bed. Jack, there was semen on them. This is Wyoming... What I'm saying is, I haven't worn hose in years, yet there they were. I started to look around, and on a pair of panties, I found more semen. I'm not making it up. I'm losing my head. I'm going mad. I don't remember having a guy over there...yet. Jack! What's wrong with me?"

Diana shook with fear. I put my arm around her and pulled her as close as I could. "Maybe you got drunk and passed out? You should report this to the sheriff."

"Report what? That my panties had semen on them? Oh, that's going to be way up on their to do list."

"What about the surveillance cameras?"

"This isn't New York. There are no cameras in this shit hole town." She started to cry. "This isn't the first time I've found semen on my things. I couldn't remember any of it then either. I can't remember..."

Diana went on her knees in front of me and took my hands into hers. Help me, please?"

"Let's go back to your place, and we'll see if this isn't nothing more than too much Jim Beam."

***********

The place Diana called home was exactly as she described it. It was quite minuscule,, even by New York standards. It consisted of a bed, a small eating area with a hot plate and a small refrigerator barely big enough to hold a six-pack and half a pound of salami.

We walked in and she instantly went to a trash bag, and pulled out a pair of rather dark coffee brown pantyhose. She pulled the garment tight. "Look, right there."

I had left my share of pecker tracks on many a pair of pantyhose in my days, and it sure looked like dried semen to me. It appeared to be on the backside of the left leg.

"I see it."

Diana returned the hose to the trash bag and removed a pair of red panties. All across the back were the unmistakable deposits of semen. We sat on the foot of the bed. "See I told you I wasn't making it up."

"No one said you were."

I had a thought. Something started to gnaw at me. If you're going to go through all the work of getting Diana down to her under-things, why jack off on her ass and leg? Why not go for the gusto? Unless whomever done this wasn't sure about something important; something that scared them to death.

"I'd like to ask you a very personal question, Diana?"

"You were inspecting my panties a minute ago, and you want to ask something personal? How much more personal could it be?"

"Are you on birth control?"

The tiny room filled with silence. "Yeah, so what? The pills help with my periods."

"Is there a drug store in town? And if so, do you get the prescription filled there?"

"Are you kidding? Sure, there's Pat's Drugs, but I'd never get birth control pills from there."

"Why not?"

"'Cause within one day, everybody in town would know I'm on the pill. Those old men at the barbershop would twist and distort the facts so much... no... I don't have my pills refilled at Pat's. Why did you ask?"

"It's nothing. Only a random thought."

But it wasn't. Whomever the guy was that shot his semen all over her panty-covered butt, didn't know she was on the pill. If he knew, his semen wouldn't have been on her panties and hose. That person didn't want to take a chance of getting Diana pregnant. And that meant one thing. He was local.

Diana palmed her eyes. "Don't abandon me? Don't abandon me like all the others. Please? I'm so messed up. I don't know what's going on."

I had been caught in the moment and slipped her shirttails out from her jeans. My fingers ran up and down her back. "I'm not going to abandon you."

Diana started to cry once more. "He ruined my life. Why won't he leave me alone?"

"Who's the he?"

"McConaughey!"

*************

McConaughey turned out to be the county prosecutor the boys in the barbershop told me about. I thought for sure that Diana would have opened up about the Boyd Nelson murder she was suspected of, but all she said was McConaughey and her had some legal issues.

Sometimes a person has to take a leap of faith. I had done it before in the past, hell, that's how I ended up falling for Alexandria. This time, it was going to be monumental leap of faith. Am I the fly about to invite the spider into his home?

"I'm thinking you'd be safer in another place."

"There aren't many around here that will let me rent a week at a time. When school is out, I go back home."

"So why are you here this summer?"

"You know why."

"You like my hands on your bare back?" I asked.

Diana was clearly upset, and I don't know how she kept her tears from flowing down her face.

"Of course I do."

Here it goes. Neal Armstrong made one giant leap for mankind, I was about to take one giant leap for Diana and me.

"Would you like to move in with me, in that beat up and about to fall over farmhouse?"

"Are you serious?"

"Wouldn't have asked if I wasn't."

"Give me ten. No five minutes!"

Diana bounced off the bed and returned with a handful of black garbage bags. She scooped everything out of her drawers and jammed them into a bag. With a swish of her arm everything that she had on a desk flew into another bag. Whatever she had in the closet, she rolled into a giant Tootsie roll and wiggled a bag over it. I didn't say a word as she picked shoes off the floor of her closet and unceremoniously threw them the last bag she had. She plopped the bags on the bed and looked around the room.

"That should do it," she said.

"I take it that's a yes?"

********Chapter Seven**********

The first day of school out here was like the first day of school in any other state. A week before classes started, I came in and met with all the teachers and staff. They were a likeable enough group. There was the usual mix of teachers that should have had retired years ago, and a few around my age. I couldn't help but notice some of the female teachers were quite attractive. I instantly felt at ease with the high school football coach, Skip Bullinger. Like every football coach I've ever known, everyone called him Coach.