A Girl's Story Chapter 41
We are almost at the end of our heroine's college career. There's still plenty of sex but she's also thinking more about what will come after college.
Part 41 -- Our Last Semester and Our First Real Road Trip
My aunt Ginny had given me a rice cooker for Christmas. It was her old one, she now had a quite fancy new one; she told me she had learned about them when she and her husband had lived in South Korea; she knew about my love of cooking and had told me this would simplify my life immensely. She was right, it made making large amounts of rice (and keeping it warm) far easier. By now I had an entire shelf of cookbooks and I had a small degree of fame for my food; my friends certainly liked it.
Amber and Greta had been working diligently together to put together their all-girl band. Greta was a really good guitarist and shared my love of Joan Jett and Lita Ford, Amber and another girl named Andrea would be our sax section, Lizzie, a tall thin redhead, played bass, and a very solid black girl named Tanisha would be our drummer. That put me as the lead vocalist (Oh Shit!) plus Lisa and Abigail on backing vocals. I was excited and scared to death at the same time.
I decided I needed to feed the girls in the band and, it being a cold January weekend, I decided to make jambalaya. I was trying out my new rice cooker and Ginny was right, it made making rice so much easier. As the girls arrived our little apartment was quite cozy and more than a little crowded, Lisa had lit the little gas fireplace and that, combined with the smells of Cajun food made it a wonderfully domestic sight. Based on conversations with Lisa and Amber we now knew that Greta and Tanisha were both at around a 2 or 3 on the Kinsey scale (might be interested in girls if the vibe was right) but that Andrea and Lizzie were firm zeros (guys only); all this meant I had to be on my best behavior. Only me and Lisa knew Abigail was a 4, she had told us we were the only girls she had ever fucked. We still wondered where things stood with Andre, he and Abigail made for a very cute couple.
Lizzie had brought along some beer from Dixie Brewing called Blackened Voodoo (it was yummy) and that, along with some regular Dixie beer and some wine had us all quite full, happy, and talkative. The main topics of conversation were first off, what songs do we play? And secondly, what do we call ourselves? All the girls, having heard me singing karaoke at the Mersey Ferry, agreed that we had to do "Born to Be Bad" and "Shelter Me," but what should be the third piece? My main contributions were that it couldn't be vocally challenging, there was only so far that I could stretch myself, and it had to be something I knew well. Amber and Andrea both wanted whatever song was decided upon to have a sax part (they didn't want to just stand there looking sexy) and Greta loved songs with a slide guitar part (she was good at that). After much discussion we settled upon "Ride On Josephine," the song was originally done by Bo Diddly (and Tanisha loved the "Bo Diddly Beat") and it had been covered by George Thorogood which meant it was within my limited vocal range. We all felt good about the choices, now we just had to practice.
All the girls thanked me profusely for dinner, dropping lots of hints I should feed them again. I got a nice tingle when Tanisha kissed both Lisa and me on the way out. I was already having very dirty thoughts of me rolling around on the floor with her, grabbing at her big, dark tits.
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I was working at my computer one evening when Lisa came home, bringing Abigail in with her. Looking at our lovely black friend I could tell she had already lost her bra, so Lisa had not been wasting any time. Lisa had a very lustful look in her blue eyes and that was making me nice and tingly.
"Abigail needs our help babe."
"No problem, what do you need sweetie."
I could tell she and Lisa had talked about this, but she still seemed embarrassed about it, "Andre and I have been getting more serious, but we've never gone further than him playing with my boobs and me putting my hand into his jeans and grabbing his cock. I've realized I have to be the one who makes the first move and you two are the only people I've ever had sex with."
Lisa smiled at me, "We like Andre, he seems like a nice guy."
Abigail was smiling as well, "He is, but his life had been even more sheltered than mine. He's 22 and I'm the first girl that he's touched her boobs."
I was intrigued, "So what do you need from us? We can show you how to eat pussy, but we already know you're good at that."
"Lisa told me about your dildo. I want you to use it on me so I can see what I like. Me and Lisa are alike this way, we tend to plan everything out."
I was already pulling my t shirt off, "Yes, she is; but's she so cute when she's doing it." I went into the bedroom and got our purple dildo and the lube out of the nightstand drawer; I came out with it already up in my pussy and I was ready to go.
Abigail was suddenly very shy, "Can I be on top first?"
"Of course you can sweetie." I laid down on the floor and Abigail slowly lowered herself down onto the purple plastic cock. She grimaced a little, she had only had (by her own admission) our fingers and tongues up inside her. I had my hands-on Abigail's hips so she could rock back and forth; Lisa got tired of just watching and sat on my face so I could eat her delicious pussy and she could play with Abigail's soft, dark boobs. I rolled us over so that Abigail was now on her back; I got on top of her, letting my nipples brush hers, and pushed the dildo slowly into her wet, dark pussy. Being on top now I could bite at her nipples while Lisa played with her black braids. Abigail's orgasm took a bit longer this time but it was still fun to watch her soft, dark body quivering with pleasure.
Abigail got on her hands and knees, her round, brown butt up in the air. Her face was buried in Lisa's pussy as I pushed the dildo into her now very wet pussy. I was working it hard, my hips slapping against her quivering ass and kept the dildo deep in her as she climaxed once again.
I grabbed her by her long braids and pulled her head from Lisa's white bush, "You want to try in in your beautiful ass?"
Her "Yessssss" was a drawn-out, lustful hiss. I put some lube on the dildo, it didn't need much since Abigail is quite the juicy girl, and slowly pushed it into her puckered butthole. I didn't pound her quite as hard but from her quivering and shaking she still enjoyed it a lot. The one thing we couldn't help her with was sucking a cock. She tried with the dildo but that just didn't work for her. The best we could do was to watch the porn version of Tarzan with the very well-hung Rocco Siffredi; we had found the video for cheap when a local video store closed. We knew that our friend Jan could have stepped in for my Siffredi, since his cock was even bigger but Jan was too shy to ever do that. We enjoyed the video because of Rocco's delicious Hungarian wife, Rosa Caracciolo. Abigail was confident Andre had a smaller, but still very nice cock. Abigail thanked me for my help by diving between my legs and licking my pussy with gusto while Lisa was licking hers.
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I had gone with Lisa to many practices with Jehovah's Favorite Choir, but all I had done is sit and watch (and think dirty thought about my lovely girlfriend). It was very different now that I was there in front of the mike and Lisa was sitting on a stool watching me. The three songs we were going to perform were ones I knew (two of them quite well) and I was pretty familiar with the third. The lyrics were not going to be the problem, blending in musically with the band was going to be the hard part. Lucky for me the girls accepted that I was not as talented as any of them, and nowhere near Lisa's talent; I described the situation to my friend Lee as, "They're the Beatles and I'm the Monkees." I was also fortunate to have a great coach who would reward me with wonderful sex when I did well.
After one practice (it went pretty well) Lisa came over to me, "I'm going home to get the blankets out. Greta and Amber are coming over." Her smile was sly and hungry at the same time. "Amber's been telling Greta about us and she want to see you and Amber fight."
Now I was getting a hungry look, "I'm ready for her."
Back at the apartment we came in the door to be greeted by the incredibly sexy sight of Lisa bent over spreading out the moving blankets and displaying her pink pussy peeking out of her white bush. I went and the bedroom so that I could toss my clothes in the laundry basket and I came back out to see Greta and Amber were both naked. I had seen Amber's lovely body before, I was very jealous that it looked like her nice tits had gotten bigger and I was enjoying the thought of twisting her hard, brown nipples. Greta was a solid girl; she had small, but quite perky, breasts and she had a nice, soft tummy as well. I also liked that she had a dense dark blonde bush. By the way she was playing with Amber's tits I could tell the two of them were, at the very least, fuck buddies.
Lisa and Greta sat on the couch, legs overlapped so that they could stroke each other's pussy. Amber and I circled each other, our tits swaying as we moved. She gave my tit a hard slap and I grabbed at her black hair, pulling her in close. It didn't take long for me to realize that Amber had learned some things from her bodybuilder friend Brenda; she grabbed my arm and pulled me in, sweeping my feet out from under me with her leg. I went down hard on the floor on my big ass and she threw herself across my naked body. I reached between her legs and grabbed her pussy, squeezing her lips between my fingers (she was already really wet, I was too). Amber grabbed my curly hair and forced my face into her lovely tits. I grabbed her shoulders and pushed her down along my body until I could get my thick legs around her. I gripped her black hair with both hands, pressing her face into my tits now as I started squeezing her warn nude body with my legs. I thought I was doing well until I felt Amber's fingers (she had very long, graceful fingers) tighten around my neck, I had to abandon my leg scissors and try to push her off me. I grabbed at her tits, pinching her dark nipples hard and giving them a good twist. We thrashed on the floor, mauling each other's tits and kicking wildly at each other. I finally got Amber on her stomach and sat on her warm butt. I grabbed her chin with both hands and pulled back, pulling her torso up until her boobs were swaying freely. When Amber finally signaled her submission both Lisa and Greta were enjoying leg-shaking orgasms (Lisa's was not a gusher).
I got off of Amber and sat on the floor, my legs spread wide to show off my pussy. I grabbed Amber by her black ponytail and pulled her over between my legs so she could get to work on licking my pussy. I kept a grip on her hair so I could see her big, brown eyes while she swirled her tongue around and across my clit. As I felt my orgasm coming on I let go of her hair, I didn't want her to have to perform with a sore shoulder or a black eye. My pussy was dripping a little when I crawled over to the couch to get between Greta's chubby legs. Her pussy lips were quite meaty and I slid my tongue across them and over her clit while I slide one hand under her to push my finger into her butt. Greta's orgasms were quite loud and her legs clamped tightly together, squeezing my head between her soft thighs.
Greta was enjoying licking off Lisa's fingers (Lisa was doing the same to Greta's), "Amber was right, watching it live is a lot more exciting than watching the Golden Girl's tapes. Greta had fooled around with a few girls at college but she was, in her own estimation (she had taken a gender studies class) a 2 on the Kinsey scale. We spent some time catching our breath and discussing our favorite female masturbation fantasies (I wasn't interested in what guys Amber and Greta drooled over). Greta had heard of Wende Richter, which earned her a proper nipple sucking from me, but her favorite girl-fantasy was Susanna Hoffs from The Bangles. We all agreed that her eyes in the video for "Walk Like an Egyptian" were amazing and that she was completely luscious in the otherwise forgettable movie The Allnighter. Amber's surprised me a bit, her go-to now was Melissa Sue Anderson who had played Mary Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. Who am I to question what makes another girl wet?
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Everyone knows I will be a White Sox fan until the day I die (and maybe a little while after that) but like many Chicago baseball fans the 18th of February came as a shock when we all learned that Harry Carey had died. He had been a baseball broadcaster for 25 years, starting with the Cardinals and the St. Louis Browns, then one year with the Oakland A's, followed by 11 years with the White Sox starting in 1971 before finally taking a job with the Cub. He had become famous for his rousing renditions of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at the 7th inning stretch and his love of beer.
I recorded his funeral, it was broadcast on all the Chicago stations, at the end of the month; the service was at Holy Name cathedral in Chicago, and the church was packed with former and present Chicago baseball players, as well as Coach Ditka from the Bears, Mayor Daley, and even the governor. What stuck with me was that when it came time for the recessional at the end of the service the organist played "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Later, when we talked about it, Granddad made me promise that I would have the organist do the same thing for him when his time came. I promised him I would do that.
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The performances of Jesus Christ Superstar ran all week. Over the course of the week all of our friends came to see Lisa performing the role of Mary Magdalene; I didn't go to every show but I went to most of them. Rita, Jan, and her parents came down for one show; Jan was particularly impressed with Lisa's performance and Mrs. Graff was laughing hard at Izzy's inspired and totally over-the-top interpretation of "Herod's Song". For the last show on Saturday I made sure to tell Doris in the flower shop so that she could have something for me to give to Lisa after the performance. Doris and the girls were sad we were moving because they would all miss my cooking. Janet's spring break was a week earlier than ours so she came with Mom and Dad to see Lisa's performance, as did Lisa's parents. Aunt Carla drove Granddad down to see the show too (it was a matinee) since none of the family wanted him to be driving very far from home. Lisa was amazing, as always but everyone was awestruck by Andre's performance of Caiaphas, I was quite convinced that the low notes he hit at the end of "This Jesus Must Die" included frequencies that could only be heard by whales.
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Abigail came over one afternoon right before spring break and she was back to her usual shy self. We were both sad she didn't want to fuck but Lisa comforted me by sitting in my lap on the couch so I could play with her boobs. Abigail got to the point pretty quickly (for her) with her announcement, "Andre and I fucked!"
Lisa clapped her hands with joy, "Good for you sweetie? How was it?"
Abigail smiled, "The poor guy was terrified so I had to do the driving, but I think he's a fast learner and he's pretty good at licking my pussy. Not as good as you two, but he's certainly enthusiastic. I have decided however that, no matter how useful they may be, I don't like condoms. That's why I'm here; I have an appointment at Planned Parenthood tomorrow afternoon and I need some moral support when I go."
Lisa frowned, "I'm sorry babe, I've got an anthropology test tomorrow."
I kissed Lisa's neck, "I've got this babe. I can go with you sweetie; my last class gets done at 1:00 tomorrow. Should I come pick you up?"
"That would be great. There is one other thing I want to ask now."
"What's that?"
"I've never ridden on your motorcycle and it's supposed to be warm tomorrow so," She looked over at Lisa, "Can I borrow your helmet?"
Lisa licked her lips, "Sure, but in return I want to sit on your pretty face."
"Deal!"
We went in the bedroom so that while Lisa wriggled out of her panties Abigail laid on the bed. As soon as Lisa lowered her white-furred pussy to Abigail cute, dark face our friend went to work, devouring my sweetie's cunt. I pulled off Abigail's jeans and spread her thick thighs wide so I could slide my tongue all over her wet pussy and tease her swelling clit. Lisa's orgasm was not overly wet, though Abigail did gag on the juices just a little, and Abigail's orgasm had her thighs and belly quivering with pleasure.
The next day I picked up Abigail from her class, several of her friends seemed impressed, or maybe they were shocked, to see Good Girl Abigail (if only they knew!) getting on a big, blue motorcycle behind Cindy the Notorious Lesbian (I was a known quantity in the music and theater departments as "Lisa's Lesbian Girlfriend"). I was happy to see the same pretty African doctor who had seen me several years earlier was still there and she was still amused when I tried my best to have a short conversation with her in French. I waited in the waiting room while Abigail had her exam.
As we rode home Abigail told me the doctor thought that the best option for her was an IUD since did not require an ongoing prescription and because they are very effective. When I dropped Abigail off at her apartment she gave me a proper kiss but did not invite me in. She already had plans to have Andre over for a marathon fuck session. I gave her my standard advice to please not fuck him to death as I had grown fond of him.
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Lisa had wanted me to come with her to Arizona to see her uncle and her grandmother for almost as long as we had been together and now, finally, it all worked out. I was excited because, apart from one trip to St. Louis when I was in elementary school and a brief side-trip to Ste. Genevieve when we went to see Sam get her award, I had never been west of the Mississippi; I certainly had never been out into the desert. We, O.K. mostly Lisa, had been planning this for quite a while and we had it worked out pretty well. We would leave on Friday, right after Lisa's last class, and drive as far as St. Louis where we would stay with (and hopefully fuck) our friend Steph. The next day we would drive as far as Amarillo and then drive to Scottsdale on the next day. On the way back Lisa wanted to take me to the places she had visited, she was really excited about this; we would see the Grand Canyon, the Meteor Crater (this always made me think of Dr. Hirschhorn), and Santa Fe. She was so excited it was completely adorable. We pored over Granddad's old road atlas and, because I really wanted to go, we would detour through the town of Teec Nos Pos, Arizona because I knew Dr. H had spent time there and I wanted to see it. However, after calling Hiram Chee's daughter she told us Teec Nos Pos is barely a wide spot in the road with pretty much just a few houses, a trading post and a Mormon church. She lived in the town of Window Rock she said she would love for us to come visit her so we decided to do that.
The drive to St. Louis was pretty dull, lots of rural Illinois landscape; it looks pretty dreary in late winter when there is no corn growing, but I was excited when we drove across the bridge into Missouri. We found Steph's apartment and went in, she lived with two other girls who were in the pharmacy program with her and they were, conveniently, away for the weekend. Steph's bed was kind of tight for three of us but three naked girls can get very close together. Me and Lisa took turns with Steph; one of us licking her pussy, the other licking her butt. Several orgasms later she went to work on my pussy; she felt no shame when I thrashed myself right out of the bed, and then Lisa's. We really want to sleep with her but there just wasn't room so me and Lisa used one of her roommate's beds; we didn't even fuck on it so we wouldn't mess up the sheets.
The next day was more endless prairie as we crossed Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. I did think of the girl we had met the first time we went to the Feast of the Hunter's Moon who was a member of the Wea tribe and going to school in Rolla, Missouri when I saw the exit for Rolla. We had made enough space in the back of the Jeep so that one of us could sleep some as the other drove, that made it a bit more bearable, but even with the boring countryside I truly enjoyed just being with my sweetie. I did bring up the idea of us getting married someday, if the laws of Illinois changed as well as the Canons of the Episcopal church. Lisa had her hand right up between my thighs, I was driving, making me more than a little wet.
"I have thought about it, especially after seeing some of the dresses in the fashion show. I know this would horrify my mom, and I am sure your mom and Janet would be mortified as well, but I think I would want to wear a black dress. I know you loved seeing my hair down loose when I wear black."
"You would look perfect in that baby. I'm sure Janet would be just as offended too see her horrible lesbian slut of a big sister wearing white, to say nothing of my white high-tops." We had a good laugh over that one.
Amarillo was nothing special, but we did go out and see the Cadillac Ranch. I got several photos of it, I knew Amber would go wild over anything even remotely connected to Bruce Springsteen. I was fascinated by the little towns we went through on the way that had once been major stops on old Route 66 but had now been left behind by the interstate, we made less progress as I insisted on taking lots of photos. We turned off the interstate in Holbrook, Arizona (I got photos of the Wigwam Motel) and headed south; now we were in what I considered to be actual mountains. We crossed the Apache reservations and went through the Salt River Canyon, which was amazing to a midwestern girl like me; Lisa was all sophisticated because she had seen it before. We got into Scottsdale about three hours later than we planned; Lisa said she would spank me tonight for making us late.
Lisa's aunt and uncle lived in a large house, all three of their kids were grown and had moved out, in a golf course community (both of them were avid golfers); Lisa's grandmother had lived with them for several years but she now lived in an assisted-living facility (we would go see her the next day). They had fixed up the guest bedroom (it even had its own bathroom) for us and it was at the other end of the house; Lisa told me we would be able to fuck as much as we wanted to, we just couldn't get too loud. They took us out to dinner and I got my first taste of proper Mexican food; I would never be able to eat at Chi Chi's again. I was warned that the green chili on my burrito was hot but I figured if I could handle proper jerked chicken and Cajun food I should be fine. I almost wasn't; but I am pleased to say it was not a repeat of the Chinese mustard incident. After dinner I was introduced to sopapillas with local honey; I could have easily skipped dinner and just eaten an entire basket of them. As my ass will attest I do love me some fried dough.
Once we were along in the bedroom Lisa went total Mean Girl on me. She sat on the bed and pulled my naked body across her lap before going to work on my ass. She spanked me thoroughly, taking the occasional break to push one or two fingers up in my butt. Once my round butt was bright red she pushed me onto the floor and dropped her shapely ass down hard on my belly, leaving me winded. She pulled and twisted on my nipples as she rubbed her wet pussy against me before finally leading me by my hair into the shower, ordering me to eat her pussy, which I did. She was really revved up because tonight I got the full firehose, it was a good thing we were in the shower. Barely giving me a break, she spread her pink cuntlips and soaked my now tender tits with a stream of hot pee.
Lisa pinned me against the wall of the shower and, with her fingers nice and wet, pumped my pussy without mercy; she never did get her entire hand in me, but she stretched me pretty good with four fingers. I was still orgasming and about to collapse when she held me up and started spanking my pussy, slapping it hard. Her mouth was over mine, muffling my moans, swirling her tongue with mine. We got ourselves cleaned up and went to bed; naked, exhausted, and very happy.
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The next morning we went to see Lisa's grandmother. She was happy to see us and she remembered meeting me after Lisa's performance in Grease and from our high school graduation. Lisa had brought along the scrapbook she kept with the programs from all the shows she had been in, as well as the photos I had taken of her. Her grandmother insisted upon hearing the story of every single item in it. She didn't talk to me very much, I think she was still not convinced that I was worthy of Lisa, but she did express approval when I told her we would be living in the apartment under my granddad's house; I took that as a win.
Phoenix was an absolutely sprawling place, not near as many people as Chicago but I was sure it occupied an even larger area. Lisa took me to a place for dinner that had something else that reminded me how insular my life was; I was introduced to genuine Navajo frybread, and specifically an Indian taco. It was a small place and, feeling bold, I told the lady at the register about how much I loved the frybread. She smiled and told me it only has four ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, and milk; unlike a sopapilla (which is more of a New Mexico thing) it doesn't have any sugar in it. She also told me there were recipes all over the internet for frybread. I told Lisa that my new quest was to master frybread and she was happy about that, she was sure I would find some willing test subjects to try it on.
That evening Lisa drove us east of the city, up into the Superstition Mountains; I recognized the name as being the supposed location of the Lost Dutchman mine. It got dark, and I mean it was really dark. We pulled off into a Forest Service picnic area and got out of the Jeep. Lisa wrapped her arms around me, it was getting chilly, and told me, "Look Up."
I did and I almost collapsed; there were more stars that I had even seen before in my 22 years of life. I immediately started crying because right away because my first thought was, "I wish Dr. H could see this." Lisa held on to me, stroking my hair, "He gave you a love of the stars and nothing can ever take that away from you."
We did some serious tongue wresting and then, feeling very Mean Girl, I pulled Lisa's jeans down and hand her bend over the picnic table. With one hand squeezing her lovely neck I began pumping my fingers in and out of her wet pussy. Just as she would get close to an orgasm I would slow down and then, when her legs quit shaking, I would go back to mauling her pussy. After a few rounds of this, and with Lisa's high-pitched squeal waking up the coyotes, I let her climax; it was one of her epic orgasms with her juices gushing out from her delicious cunt. She got up, not even bothering to pull up her jeans and pushed me down onto the table on my back, spreading my legs wide. She tormented me by spanking my pussy in between sessions of fucking me with her tongue. She was just as much a Mean Girl as I was, bringing me to the edge of passion and then letting me back down, until finally I literally thrashed myself off the table and fell onto the ground, grunting and holding my quivering pussy. We both love the feeling of fresh air on our naked bodies, almost as much as we love fucking in the water.
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We left the next day and headed north toward the Grand Canyon. We had wanted to stay at the El Tovar hotel, the Harvey House that had been built by the Santa Fe railroad, but it was brain-bustlingly expensive; instead we stayed in a Super 8 not far from the park. We did stop to see the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Dr. H had told me about it. The main telescope was open for public viewing, it was after dark when we got there, and (What a surprise!) started to cry when I saw Saturn in the eyepiece, looking for all the world like a Christmas ornament.
Lisa made me get up early the next morning, promising me it would be worth it. I doubted her but she had devoted some quality time for eating my pussy to convince me; it worked. We got up and drove into the park and it wasn't even light yet. Fortunately for me I was able to fill my thermos with some tea before we left the hotel. We pulled into a parking lot and went over to sit on a bench on the edge of the canyon (I was very nervous ab out being this close to the edge).
Lisa was right, it was worth it. Watching the Sun rise over the Grand Canyon is one of those life-altering sights and yes, Weepy Lesbian Girl was front and center. I did manage to get some photos but mostly I held on to my sweetie and just enjoyed the experience. This was a very whirlwind trip but Lisa assured me we would come back someday when we weren't poor college students.
Even if we didn't stay in the old hotel we did eat breakfast there. It was not cheap, but you are definitely paying for the view (which was amazing). Lisa was in her element devouring a stack of classic Santa Fe railroad French toast while I had my first experience with huevos rancheros; they were excellent.
We had a drive in front of us, we had to get to Window Rock to meet Margaret (Hiram's daughter) in Window Rock, which is right on the state line with New Mexico. We stopped off to see the Meteor Crater; no surprise, out came Weepy Lesbian Girl again, and we drove through the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. We weren't even home yet and I had used up 15 rolls of film; I was going to be spending a lot of money at Target getting it processed.
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Window Rock, Arizona is not a big place, but there is a rock with a quite literal round window in it. Window Rock is the administrative center for the sprawling Navajo nation (it spreads through three states) and Margaret worked in the education department. Both of us were quite nervous going into the building, the closest we had ever come to being involved with a government was going to Springfield once to rally in support of Illinois recognizing same-sex marriage (it failed that time). Margaret came out to greet us, wearing a brightly colored skirt with her long, gray hair braided in pigtails. She recognized me from Dr. H's service and I introduced her to Lisa. We (O.K., Lisa) had done some research and we knew many Navajo people are quite conservative where sex is concerned so we had decided to not bring up the whole lesbian thing. Margaret introduced us to the people in her office, all of whom it seemed had met Dr. H at some point and all of whom seemed eager to tell us stories about him. Margaret noticed I was tearing up and that Lisa was doing her best to force back the tears too.
"We will miss him too. He may not have been Diné (that's what Navajo people call themselves, it means "People") but he was a part of our community none the less.
I sniffed hard and wiped my eyes, "I really miss that silly old man."
She took my hand, "Come with me girls, I was to show you what a wonderful man he was." She took us into a large meeting room where there were about 30 people, of all ages, were standing. Margaret spoke to the group in Navajo, which meant neither of us understood a single word, but I did see a few people wiping away tears so it must have been pretty moving. She turned to us, "Folks, I want to introduce you to Miss Cindy Manning and her friend Lisa Pickett. They were friend of Ira Hirschhorn in his last years and they are on their way home from visiting Lisa's grandmother in Phoenix. Girls, all of these people are graduates of New Mexico State and our friend Dr. Hirschhorn helped all of them through the entire college experience. He also worked with my dad to help other veterans here on the reservation and he was a beloved member of the community."
That was it, I lost it. People were hugging me and I was trying my best not to be a sloppy mess all over them. We went out to Margaret's truck and she drove us over to the high school. Around back of the school was a little shed that I recognized, after all, I had helped to build it and wire it for electricity. "Ira left this to the school in his will. A group from the school drove out to Illinois to take the shed apart and bring it and Ira's 12-inch telescope here to the school for our students to use." She showed us a metal plaque on the side that said that the telescope was the gift of Ira Hirschhorn to the young people of the Navajo Nation and to honor all Native American veterans. I was crying yet again; Weepy Lesbian Girl was right there in the spotlight. Margaret put her hand on my shoulder, "We Diné believe that no one is truly gone as long as one person remembers their name. I can tell you the Ira's name and memory will still be celebrated her long after all of us have left this world." That made me feel better.
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The next morning, after some hearty breakfast burritos from Margaret, we headed east into New Mexico. Once again we made slow progress and I went through another five rolls of film on the way. Our plan was to spend the night somewhere east of Santa Fe and then try to get all the way home from there. The Sun was going down and Lisa was driving, I was dozeing in the passenger seat, when I sensed us slowing down.
"What's going on?'
Lisa gave me her most dazzling Ingrid Bergman smile, "Look." I sat up and it took me a moment to figure out where we were; Lisa took my hand, "Welcome to Hernandez, New Mexico baby." I was proud I didn't start crying again; there in the distance was a village catching the last rays of the Sun with a big, almost full Moon, rising above the hills. I used up a bunch more film.
I leaned over to kiss Lisa, "Thanks babe.: I felt quite humble, standing in possibly the exact footprints of Ansel Adams.
We drove on as far east as we could, stopping in Tucumcari and staying in a classic, and a big dingy, old motor court along the old highway. Lisa got me up early the next morning but she let me sleep until we were well into Texas. We drove all day, and well into the night, finally getting back to our little apartment. We barely had the energy to get out of our clothes and collapse into our bed to snuggle together. It was our first long trip together and it had been an amazing time.
The trip out to see Lisa's grandmother was the first long trip I ever took without my parents along, it was just me and Lisa. I didn't want to write a travelogue so I didn't go into all the details of me getting to see such amazing sights for the first time. We did go back to the Grand Canyon for our 20th anniversary (we still weren't able to get married) and we did spend a few nights at the El Tovar. I love hearing from you all (cattingcindy@yahoo.com) and please consider a donation to Nifty (https://donate.nifty.org)