Kate and David sat by the shore, the river’s rhythms coursing inside them. It had been a glorious day on the water. Dinner was his river specialty, vegetable curry with rice and sautéed plantain. He cooked while Kate talked. The night was clear. They would forego the tent and sleep outside, lying on top of their inflatable pads, a sleeping sheet thrown over them.
He took Kate’s hand and pressed it on his lips. “Okay?” he asked, rolling on top of her.
“Ruby,” she whispered.
“We’ll find Ruby,” he said, rolling off.
For a few minutes, they looked at the velvet night sky, counting shooting stars.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
“One penny, one thought,” he said.
“Like?” she laughed. David Tanner often made her laugh.
“Like what an orgasm is.”
“Is?” she chortled, suspecting another attempt at foreplay.
“Laugh away!”
“Tell me, Dr. Orgasm.”
“I’m serious.”
“I can be serious.”
“You’ve got nerves in special places?”
“Noted,” she said.
“Stimulated by pressure, these nerves trigger or generate desires intended to propagate the species. I’d call that a standard definition, agreed?”
“Yes, doctor.”
“But before we were born, before we were anything, there was an original neural feeling of father’s sperm bombarding mother’s ovum. When that happened, there was a big burst of …” he groped for the word.
“Excitement?” Kate suggested.
“Yes, atoms were filled with tremendous physical excitement and later when we had orgasms, it was that feeling our body remembered. The first sensation we ever had. What the French call le petit mort, but it’s exactly opposite, la petite vie.” His face broke open in a sheepish smile. “Interesting theory, huh?”
“Funny,” she murmured as she drifted to sleep.
David reached for the origin of pleasure, semihard. With coaxing, it would respond. He watched Kate, her nipples beneath the thin cotton shirt and hair spread under her like a fan. He listened to her soft sleep-filled breaths. His eyes swiveled to the sky. He tried to restrain his heartbeat and the motion of his hand. But his hand acted of its own accord until he was hard, stiff, upright. He wanted to defer the pleasure, but against his will another will overtook him. And the oldest feeling inside him exploded.