Chapter XII
By Cheryl
Kid and Chancy sat around the fire. It had been a long day. Both of them had been tired from staying up late the night before. Then they had gotten up at the crack of dawn, neither of them knew exactly how, and had been working hard all day. They had had a duty to do though and had done it. Now they relaxed by the fire. Both of them had wanted to rest all day and now that they finally had the chance to sleep, neither of them could.
"How are the beans?" Kid asked as he watched Chancy finish off the last of her dinner.
Chancy sighed, "I guess I can't complain, they beat field rations," she commented as she ate another bite. "Isn't there an old southern tradition of putting bourbon in beans?"
Kid shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah, I suppose."
"So where's the bourbon?" Chancy asked.
"It's against company policy," Kid stated.
"Oh, I forgot that," Chancy said.
"Why?" Kid asked, hoping that Chancy didn't want to be drinking.
"I just had beans like that once. I liked them," Chancy said. "And since you're a good ol' Southern boy I thought that maybe you would make them like that."
"I probably would, but…," Kid started.
"It's against the rules," Chancy finished for him.
"Sorry," Kid said.
"It's okay," Chancy said, "the world needs reliable people like you. I could use a good reliable guy like you. The beautiful, blue eyes and sweet smile would be just a plus."
Kid gave Chancy a curious look.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean for that to sound like a come on," Chancy quickly said.
"Isn't Hamilton a nice guy?" Kid asked partially to shift the subject.
"Hamilton's definitely not a nice guy," Chancy said, "He's probably already moving on to the next woman, as we speak."
"What about Dmitriv?" Kid quietly asked, not wanting to upset Chancy.
"Dmitriv?" Chancy said, "It's okay Kid," Chancy added to make Kid feel better about bringing up the subject. Chancy looked at the fire for a minute then looked back at Kid, "Have you ever known someone that just … got under your skin? They drive you so utterly… crazy."
Kid looked up from the fire, which he was staring at. Thinking of Lou, he nodded his head and answered, "Yeah."
"He's so unpredictable," Chancy continued talking about Dmitriv. "Sometimes he can be the greatest guy, then he does this 180 and totally shocks me. He drives me crazy. I totally don't understand him. The thing is I don't think he understands me either." Chancy looked at Kid. "Dmitriv just knows people. Like he sees to their souls and can see everything. I don't think he can do that with me."
"Huh," Kid said. He was lost in his own thoughts about Lou.
Chancy looked at him and figured that she knew who Kid was thinking about. "So what is going on with you and Lou?" she asked.
Chancy's comment brought Kid back to reality, "What do you mean?" he responded.
"How far have you actually got?" she asked. "First base? Second? Did you get lucky and hit one out of the ballpark?"
Kid looked at her with a thoroughly confused look.
"Baseball analogy for sex," Chancy replied, "You haven't ever heard of that have you?"
Kid shook his head, "I've heard of baseball, the game with the bat and ball. I don't really understand it."
"Well," Chancy said, "that's a start. My father used the baseball analogy to explain the birds and bees to me."
"What is it?" Kid asked curious.
"My father's a big baseball fan. He relates everything in life to baseball," Chancy said. "It's a way to explain love with baseball terms. There's four bases right?"
Kid nodded his head.
"First base is kissing, anything neck and above. Second base is anything above the waist. Third is below the waist but not actually going all the way and a home run is the whole shabang."
"Okay," Kid said.
"So," Chancy continued, "How far have you and Lou gotten? First? Second?"
Kid blushed.
"Third?" Chancy asked intrigued.
Kid blushed an even deeper shade of red.
Chancy looked at Kid wide eyed, "We have got to be joking. You … and Lou… ran the bases, so to speak."
Kid looked confused.
"Made a homerun," Chancy explained.
Kid shrugged his shoulders his cheeks still red.
Chancy shook her head. "I can see Lou doing it. But you doing that. I mean that's not the moral Christian thing to do."
"So," Kid replied looking guilty.
"Oh, Kid," Chancy started, "I don't really think it's a bad thing. It's nice to find two people that love and care for each other."
"So, what about you and Dmitriv?" Kid asked shyly, not sure yet if he really liked the subject of the conversation.
"Well let's just put it this way," Chancy said, "The first time we teed up we ended up hitting one over the fence."
"What was that?" Kid asked confused by the baseball talk.
"Teeing up is when you go to bat," Chancy explained things slower.
"Okay," Kid replied.
"And hitting one over the fence is a home run," she added.
"You and Dmitriv have….," Kid started but wasn't able to finish.
"… slept together? Yeah," Chancy finished for him and then answered the end of her own sentence.
"That happened the first time you kissed?" Kid asked with amazement.
"Well," Chancy started, "yeah. It's not like we intended to." Chancy explained. "It just kinda happened." Kid had a confused look on his face about how two people could just kinda end up doing that. "We were both really drunk at the time," Chancy said to defend herself although she knew that her actions weren't really defendable.
"So how many times have you done that?" Kid asked curiously.
"Just the once," Chancy answered, "How many times have you and Lou done it?" she asked.
Kid blushed and Chancy could tell that he wasn't exactly comfortable talking about his sex life with a woman. "The whole thing? A couple times," Kid finally answered. "I don't know. We shouldn't really be doin' that kind of thing without bein' married."
"Hell why not, people do that kind of thing all the time without being married," Chancy replied. "Well at least in the future," she added.
"Well it ain't the right thing here," Kid informed her.
"How do you know?" Chancy asked. "How many people you talked about sex with?"
Kid grew silent for awhile and Chancy knew his answer before she even asked the question. Kid didn't seem like the type to be talking about sex in a causal manner with even his wife, if he ever had one. "Well… none I guess," Kid answered her finally.
They both withdrew to there own thoughts for awhile. Chancy could tell that this wasn't a subject that Kid felt comfortable with and she was just about to drop it when she silently asked, "Kid, when you and Lou… You do use or do something to make sure that she doesn't get… pregnant, right?"
"Well," Kid started. His cheeks had turned from the embarrassed pink they had been throughout the conversation to a bright red. "That's the reason we shouldn't be doin' it in the first place," Kid finally managed to say.
Kid could clearly see Chancy's look of shock on her face. "You mean you don't do anything?" she asked a little distressed.
"There's something you can do?" Kid asked curious but also feeling like a bit of an idiot.
"I don't know about here," Chancy replied, "but where I came from there's a hell of a lot you can do."
"Well… " Kid said at a bit of a loss for words, "if Lou gets…. " Kid started but couldn't bring himself to say the word that he hoped in his heart would never happen, "I'll just marry her," he ended with determination in his voice.
Chancy shaking her head replied, "That isn't the way to start a marriage Kid, even if you do love each other, and it isn't right to take away Lou's freedom for some mistake."
Chancy noticed that Kid was getting defensive. She really should stop this conversation. But she was worried about her new friends and Kid's lack of knowledge on the subject. "Your mother accidentally got…," Kid replied getting angry, "got pregnant."
"That was different." Chancy quickly added, "They were using protection and it backfired," she explained.
Kid grew silent. He had known all along that what him and Lou had been doing the last couple of weeks was wrong, now he had even more proof of that. Shaking his head at his own mistake Kid stated, "That's why I keep tellin' Lou that we shouldn't be doin' that sort of thing unless we're married. It's just that now that we done it, it's hard to tell her we can't."
"Why'd you do it in the first place?" Chancy asked curious to hear the answer.
"I don't know," Kid replied, "just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. You know like we'd been putting it off for too long."
"I guess I can understand that," Chancy replied. "You want to drop the subject don't you?" she asked Kid, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah," Kid replied. His mind was already churning with thoughts of him and Lou, what was right and what was wrong.
"Consider it dropped," Chancy said. She then crawled under the covers of her bedroll. "We should both get some shut-eye," she stated.
Kid nodded his silent agreement. With just one look Chancy knew that Kid was probably going to get very little sleep. She felt bad about having brought up the subject in the first place. She felt like kicking herself for putting Kid through all this for her own personal curiosity.
Copyright 1998-This work is not to be reproduced without the permission of the author
The Way Station
Campfire Tales