CHAPTER 10

Naked Bodies

Cautious hands startled Santo from behind. It was Kerry.

“Beautiful, isn't it, Richard?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Why can't it always be this way?”

“Why can't we live forever?”

“Then you have no answers either.”

“I don't even have the questions.”

They laughed.

“I'd like to reach out and touch the moon,” Kerry said.

“Yeah…look at it.”

“Hey, there's the man in the moon!”

“It almost looks orange.”

“I want it, Richard. Like I want you.”

“Don't, Kerry.”

“I'd like to reach out and put the moon into my pocket.”

“Friends, Kerry. We can be friends.”

“I don't understand.”

“You see the moon…the moon sees you. That's all I know, man.”

Cautious hands startled both of them from behind. It was Melisa.

“I got lost,” she said.

Santo placed the flat of his right hand on her face. “Are you alright?”

“I think so.”

“Good.”

“Let's go for a swim,” Kerry said.

Melisa and Santo responded to his suggestion by taking off their clothes.

“Oh, my God,” Kerry said. He began tearing at his clothes to catch up with them.

Three naked bodies found four other naked bodies knee-deep in the expanse of the black sea: they were trembling from the psychedelics.

Then they began rushing toward the horizon—joyfully, recklessly, but most of all aimlessly—against the current and into the deep. And before they knew it, there was no backward or forward, no up or down, no right way or wrong way…no direction at all. But they continued to run and splash and laugh and seek the comfort of companionship until…until Julian came to a stop. His contrasting stillness bewildered the others as they nervously rallied around him.

“What's wrong?” Nat whispered.

“Where are we?” he said.

“We're here!” Paisley shouted.

“But where's…there?”

“It's over…where?” Nat became frightened. His fear was infectious.

Suddenly, they began running in another direction. Nobody knew who made the choice or why. But they were afraid to ask the question because fear was threatening them with an answer.

They were together. That's all they knew. That's all that counted. They ran for their lives.

It became a dangerous ocean, a rushing sky, and a viscous wind; the universe was moving in a multitude of directions and swallowing them up in its vastness. They were scared, and they were blind, and they kept running long after they felt dry sand under their feet.

Kerry plopped, belly down, into the sand. He was exhausted. “Not another step.”

Each of the others haphazardly dropped to the ground near him, physically spent and emotionally wrought. Their naked figures loomed in the darkness; their shadows angled into the sand: they drifted into a silent alienation beyond loneliness. It began to rain.

The drops cut the horizon on a slant and gently tapped the sand.

“Christ!” Nat said. “It's raining!”

The others began to laugh.

Somberness continued to transform into happiness as two nude figures began to dance independently. And when Santo rolled onto his side to watch the silhouettes perform, he bumped into Gladys who was sprawled on her back near him.

“This is good, Rick. Thank you.”

“Thank Paisley.”

“He doesn't need thanks.”

“Then that makes it easy.”

She managed to stand up and shout into the sky. “Thank you, world!” She looked like a boy without a penis.

Paisley stopped dancing in response to Gladys's cry. Then he dropped to his knees in mock gratitude.

“Thank you, world! Thank you, Earth! Thank you, sand!”

This inspired a series of alternating exclamations:

“Thank you, sky!”

“Thank you, rain!”

“Thank you, moon!”

“Thank you, ocean!”

“Thank you, acid!”

“Thank you…!”

They continued these celebrations until they exhausted their imaginations.

Santo rolled onto his back and began to experience an uncontrollable tremor that shook him to his soul. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't. He wanted to panic, but there was nowhere to go. And when he realized somebody was lying on top of him, he opened his eyes and discovered it was Gladys. She pressed her lips against his and caressed him passionately. But her sexual advances seemed more like a plea for help. And after they remained entwined in a desperate embrace for the bitter period of an eternity, she stirred.

“Are you alright, Gladys?”

“I think…so,” she answered.

“Can you move?”

“I don't know…if I want to.” Then she passionately pressed her hips against his.

“Ohh, God, stop feeling so good.”

“Why would I want to do that?” she said, as she inserted the head of his penis into her vagina and slowly eased him fully into herself. Then she moved and undulated so expertly that Santo's orgasm was almost immediate. He rolled onto his side, taking her with him.

“The sand doesn't feel as good as you,” she said.

“Yeah…well…I'm sorry I…”

“Don't get scared…please. I just wanted to feel you inside me.”

“Yeah…well…”

Then he exploded into another acid tremor and into his own scared world, unaware that she was fondling him, again. It was a world torn by war. A world that could not leave him alone. He heard the distant sound of choppers, the intimate cry of men, the swirling chaos of a firefight. He listened again and again and again…he had another erection. And when he finally felt her hand exploring him, he roused himself to his feet. Then Gladys knelt in front of him and guided his penis into her mouth. A shooting star streaked across the sky.

The LSD reached a peak intensity that made Santo experience a disjointed sense of time, each separated by a void; the confusion of leaving one moment in time and finding himself halfway through another increased his disorientation while decreasing his balance.

When Gladys finally released him, he almost fell backwards. But he regained his equilibrium and staggered aimlessly away into the hallucinogenic darkness. And aside from a few sporadic moments of awareness, Santo continued to reside in this chasm of unconsciousness until the darkness of the night began to surrender to the gray of approaching day.

Santo looked around. They were all within a few feet of each other in various states of nakedness. They appeared to be caricatures of frozen attitudes. No longer flesh, but more dense like…like prehistoric stones forming a ruined circle on a vacant landscape. From the deep past of an ancient life, Santo felt a curious certainty that he had once stood among these shadows. But where? When?

He saw his naked body at an angle from several feet above.

There were no words…just feelings. There were no gestures…. just a little movement that eventually brought them closer together into a tighter circle. Melisa linked an arm around one of his.

Gray gave way to the sun as it began to pierce above the line of the horizon and clear the way for the blue silence of daybreak.