I got to the car first and opened the passenger door. In the pitch darkness the courtesy lights seemed to light up the burgundy interior like a night game at Yankee Stadium. I pulled the seatback forward and looked longingly into the back seat

"Why thank you", said Karen slipping in past me

Ducky was at my elbow with a sincerely apologetic look on his face

"Sorry man", was all he said as he hopped in

Karen seemed to gloat as Lisa came into view. More of that rival sister stuff

I abandoned any notion that I might talk them out of the back seat for the trip home

I got into the middle of the front seat. Lisa slipped in beside me. She had a hungry look in her eyes. I leaned over, kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear

"Can you come over after we get back?"

"What time is it?"

I looked at the dashboard clock. It was 10:35. Much later than I thought

"Damm!", I said

"What is it?" Gene asked getting in behind the wheel

"oh uh I’m out of cigarettes and Lindy’s is closed"

"Glove compartment", said Gene

Lisa opened the glove box and pulled out a half empty pack of Viceroys. We looked at each other. Then at Gene. This was getting downright spooky

"For chrissake! You don’t even smoke", I said

"Sometimes I do", he returned

I noticed one loose joint among the cigarettes and held it up to Gene

"Wanna do this?"

"Yeah", Gene said "let’s get rid of the evidence"

We fired it up and passed it around the front seat. Ducky and Karen were otherwise occupied

I asked Lisa what time she had to be home. Midnight at the outside. If Gene hurried he could get us back by a little after eleven leaving us the better part of an hour. Lisa seemed encouraged

"I want you tonight", she whispered, flicking her tongue in my ear

Gene started down the road. In the pitch darkness the high beams of the car lit the trees in an eerie way. Like passing through a tunnel in some depraved fairy tale. The town was still empty and the TV sets were still on in the houses

As we started back up Fairmont Valley Road heading for the highway Lisa’s bra flew up from behind us

Lose something?, asked Karen sarcastically

Lisa didn’t say a word. She just pulled her arms into her shirt and reassembled the garment. Honestly, I still don’t get it

I turned and caught a glimpse into the back seat barely able to believe my eyes. I mean, it was pretty dark but I could swear I saw Karen naked from the waist down straddling Ducky and Descending on his huge tool. I turned around fast looked next to me and saw Lisa staring into the back and biting her lip

I turned her away gently

"C’mon" I whispered, "let’s just get home". Karen began to wince and gasp audibly as she stretched to accommodate Ducky’s massive member. I couldn’t believe it

"Time for music!", I said grabbing for the radio knob

Once again the local stations yielded no music

"…standing by for a live telecast from the crew of Apollo 11", a newscaster’s voice trailed off

Gene handed over another eight track. Blind Faith. I shoved it into the tape player and Do What You Like issued forth from the speakers

When we got to the route 206 intersection Gene came to a full stop carefully surveying the blind rise before pulling out. At night it wasn’t quite as bad as it was during the day. The headlights of on coming cars were visible from beyond the rise

Meanwhile, as we sat at the intersection, in the sea of tranquility on the surface of the moon Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin completed the final checklist and prepared to don their space suits for what would be the most astounding technological achievement in human history. A walk on the moon. At that time few people were aware of what a close call it had been putting them there. NASA, naturally, created the impression that the Eagle’s landing had been a cake walk. It was any thing but. You see, six and a half hours before the big white Mercury sat at the intersection of 206 and Fairmont Valley Road, Neil and Buzz managed to fly their shapeless little craft directly to tranquility base with a malfunctioning computer, a non functioning autopilot and land it with a grand total of 15 seconds of fuel remaining

With no traffic visible and nothing in sight beyond the rise Gene trounced on the accelerator and the big Cleveland V8 shot us up the hill like a rocket. I could hear Karen cry out from the back seat. We could only guess why. Lisa grinned. Suddenly the car began to weave unsteadily from side to side followed immediately by the annoyingly familiar lub dub sound of a blown out tire. "Dammit", Gene said, realizing what had happened. He started to pull over to the side of the highway. Ducky and Karen furiously started putting themselves back together as we came to a stop on the shoulder. Lisa squeezed my hand, an anxious look on her face

"Don’t worry", I said

Gene pulled the keys, put on the emergency flashers and hopped out heading for the rear of the car. I told Lisa to sit tight and quickly slid out after him. I caught up with him at the trunk

"Let me have the flashlight and the lug wrench. I’ll get em loose for you", I said

Gene handed both over like a surgical nurse handing instruments to a doctor. Ducky, having made himself presentable, presented himself at the trunk

"Anything I can do?", he asked

"Help me find the parts to the jack", Gene replied

I scanned the car with the light and found the flat. It was the drivers’side front and though I wasn’t crazy about crouching down so close to the traffic lane to change it I knew that my eleventh hour was shrinking with each passing minute and went to work without thinking twice. Prying off the wheel cover I set it down like a bowl to hold the lug nuts once they were removed. I loosened each nut and waited for Gene and Ducky to bring the jack. It seemed to be taking them a long time. I lit a cigarette and went back to find out what the holdup was. The girls were out of the car now surveying our progress. Ducky and Gene were franticly searching the trunk

"Problem?", I asked

"We can’t find the bumper bracket for the jack". Ducky replied

Almost all new cars come with scissor jacks these days. One of the few real improvements I’m able to acknowledge in modern cars. The scissor jack is simple with only two parts and just the thing for today’s lighter weight cars. In the olden days, however we had these things called bumper jacks. For the benefit of anyone who has never owned a car predating the 1980s allow me to explain. The bumper jack was a truly heinous contraption that consisted of five parts. A platform base, a square shaft, the jack mechanism itself and a funny looking shoe like bracket that attached to the jack and supported the car by the bumper. The lug wrench then completed the assembly as a handle to ratchet the jack up the shaft. They weren’t exactly the safest things going. The bumper jacks were famous for slipping from time to time leaving hapless motorists with their cars sitting flat on the ground or worse. Gene had pulled the spare out of the trunk and had the platform, the shaft and the jack mechanism but no bracket. Without it we didn’t have a hope in hell of getting the tire off the ground and changing it

"Let me have a look", I said starting to hunt through the trunk

"Don’t bother", said Ducky "we’ve both already looked". I looked anyway

I thought, maybe it might be hiding somewhere in the clutter of the trunk but, unfortunately, the trunk was like everything else in Gene’s life. Neat and orderly. There was no clutter for the part to be hiding in. It just plain wasn’t there

"Damm", I said, we got us a problem here"

"No shit", Ducky returned. We both looked at Gene

He was staring silently into the trunk and seemed to be muttering wordlessly to himself. Gene, ever the dispassionate one, ever calm and above all always prepared for anything found himself in the one situation he was totally unprepared for. Which was not being prepared. He looked as if he was about to come apart at the seams

"Take it easy Gene", I said as calmly as I could, afraid that he might blow a gasket right then and there. "We’ll figure something out"

Of course, none of us had a clue as to what to do so we all gathered at the back of the car and started tossing out ideas. Lisa was really pissed off. She started to stomp off, realized she had no place to stomp off to and came back. We leaned against the fender of the car and she took my hand

‘I’m sorry", she said, it’s just that that…."

"I know. Believe me I know". Even Karen seemed sympathetic to her

Ideas were few and far between. Gene suggested that we retighten the lug nuts and limp it on the flat to the nearest open gas station. The closest station anybody could think of was eight miles up the road in Chester. We’d be risking destroying the rim and there was no guarantee that they would be open. We ruled the idea out. Ducky suggested that we call the nearest garage with a wrecker and get a tow. With a total of six dollars between the five of us that didn’t seem doable either. Gene was holding out on calling his parents. He didn’t want them finding out about the trip to Black River Falls if he could avoid it. We all fell silent wondering how in hell we were going to get home. It was Lisa who finally spoke up

"Ya know", she said, "this isn’t the busiest highway I’ve ever seen but at least two cars have passed us by since we’ve been stopped here. Maybe we could flag someone down and borrow a jack"

"That", said Gene "is a great idea"

"Yeah", I chimed in, "most bumper jacks are the same. I bet we could find something that works"

"All right!", Ducky added. "I can stand out on the road with the girls. That way someone is sure to stop"

Karen flashed him a look

"You want to use us as bait?" she demanded indignantly

"Precisely", Ducky returned

"OK", said Karen, "Let’s do it."

And so we waited……..and waited……….and waited some more. Like Lisa said, it was not the busiest stretch of highway in New Jersey but I was amazed at how un-busy it was. Except for the flashers on the car it was unlit, totally deserted and so quiet that all you could hear were the crickets chirping in the woods. I lit another cigarette and stared down the empty stretch

"Maybe this wasn’t such a hot idea", said Lisa

"Wait", I said. Somewhere beyond the bend in the road I could just barely make out the glare of on coming headlights

Ducky, Karen and Lisa took up position at the edge of the road. Lisa stuck her leg out and assumed an exaggerated sexy pose

"That’s a bit much. Don’t you think?", said Ducky

Obviously it wasn’t as the car pulled over. It was an Oldsmobile. Not very promising. The driver was a heavy set middle aged man

"What’s up?", he asked, not getting out of the car

"We have a flat and our jack is missing a part", Ducky replied

"That’s a Mercury. I don’t think my jack would fit"

"Could we try it and see?"

"Forget it", said the man curtly, "It won’t work". He shot up his power window and sped off

"Nice guy", I remarked

We all watched as the Oldsmobile’s tail lights disappeared over the rise so none of us saw the next set of headlights as they approached. I turned in time to see them only a few hundred yards off

"Hey", I yelled, "Another car!" But before we could even assume positions the car began to slow down and pull over. It was a Volkswagen Beetle

"Great", said Ducky, "A lot of good this is gonna do us"

The Volkswagen pulled up slowly and drew to a stop behind the Mercury bathing us in the glare of its headlights. The driver’s side door opened up and a shadowy figure of a man got out. I couldn’t see him very well with the lights in my eyes but he was tall. Very tall. Tall enough to look absurd getting out of a Volkswagen. He walked slowly up to us and as he came into the light we all got a good look at him

He stood at least 6’6" and was skinny as a needle with a stringy mop of reddish brown hair swept straight back. He wore kaki pants and what looked like an army surplus shirt. A pair of geeky looking glasses sat on his pointy nose. A phrase repeated over and over in my head. "King of the nerds"

"Seems like you’ve got a problem here", he said. He sure didn’t act like a nerd. He spoke with the clipped speech and no bullshit tone of someone accustomed to taking charge of the situation

"We have a flat", said Gene "and we’re missing the bumper bracket from our jack"

Our unlikely Samaritan paced from the rear of the car to the front looking it over

Gene followed him

"68 Monterey?" he asked

Gene nodded and the man studied the bumper for a moment. He had intelligent analytical eyes and gave the impression that he did a lot of thinking on his feet

"I think I can help you", he said, catching us all by surprise. Looking over at Ducky, who was holding the jack mechanism, he said in an authoritative tone "You. Come with me and bring that thing with you"

They both walked back to the Beetle, jumped in and drove off

The Samaritan hunched his tall thin torso over the wheel slamming through gears as they flew down the highway. Between third and fourth he held out his long hand to Ducky

"I’m Roland Metz", he said

"Spencer Drake", Ducky returned shaking Metz’s hand

Metz turned the radio up and cocked his head to one side as if listening for something important. His boney fingers played deftly with the tuning knob

"Actually, uh, everybody calls me Ducky"

"ssshhhhhh!" was the curt response

"What is it?", Ducky asked

Metz looked over at him. His face, half illuminated in the dim light of the Volkswagen’s dash had a look of utter intensity

"Armstrong is about to walk on the moon!"

Karen watched incredulously as the VW sped off with Ducky. She started walking swiftly up the hill after it as though she could somehow catch up until the tail lights were gone over the rise. She paused there for a moment then turned back to us. There was a look of exasperation on her face as if to ask "Where did that man go with my boyfriend?!" She walked over to Gene

"What the fuck are we supposed to do now?"

"Wait for them to come back", Gene replied

"Back from where? We don’t even know who that guy was"

"Take it easy Karen", I said "He seemed like a straight arrow to me besides I think Ducky could probably beat the shit out of him"

While Gene was calming Karen down I looked around for Lisa. She was standing by the car looking up the steep bank that rose up off the shoulder of the road. I walked over and gave her a kiss

"I’m sorry", I said. "What’s up there?", she asked, still looking at the ridge running along the top of the bank

"I haven’t a clue"

She turned and reached into the back seat of the car pulling out one of the beach towels. Then turning back looked directly into my eyes. Her own eyes had a misty possessed far away look. Her face, lit by the red of the flashers, was a combination of lily white innocence and unquenchable dark desire. She took my hand and placed it gently between her legs. I slipped into the cutoffs. She was hot to the touch and gushing wet

"Take me up there", she said

We started scaling the bank. The terrain was loose shale in a ruddy red colored dirt more reminiscent of Georgia than New Jersey. As we reached the top Karen noticed us

"Hey! Where do you think you’re going?"

"For a walk", Lisa replied. It was her turn now

"Well you better finish walking by the time we get this tire changed or we’ll leave without ya"

I had no idea what lay beyond the hill. Most likely it was private property and in the Far Hills area of northern New Jersey private property is seriously private. To say that it was up scale would be an understatement. Merv Griffin, Mike Tyson, Angela Landsbury, the Mennen family, Jackie Onassis and Tom Selleck as well as NJ Governor Christy Whitman and publisher/former presidential candidate Steve Forbes all live or at one time lived within a five mile radius of where Lisa and I were trespassing

A wooded area at the top of the hill gave way to an expansive open area that sloped down into the valley. As far as I could tell in the darkness it was a hay field. I couldn’t see the moon but there was enough light to make out the landscape rolling away and the hills beyond. The air was rich with the smell of recently mowed hay. It combined with honeysuckle, Queen Ann’s lace and a thousand other scents all making up the musky sweet perfume of a summer night

"It’s beautiful here", said Lisa. She spread the towel out on the ground then turned and looked at me. I fished one of the little foil packets from my pocket and tossed it on to the towel. She began to gracefully shed her clothes. I followed until our bodies were all we had left. To me, in the dim light she looked perfect. We embraced slowly, our bodies coming together, and kissed, gently at first then building in intensity. My hands craved the smooth feel of her. She began to drop ever so slowly to her knees, her hands fondling my ass and the backs of my legs, and without taking her eyes from mine she took me into her mouth. I had done this before with other girls but Lisa was the first one who really knew how. My scalp tingled as I swelled and hardened in her mouth. She drew the hardness from me with each long sensuous stroke, tonguing me in the sensitive spots until I thought my knees would buckle. My cock standing at full attention, she kissed it and sat back on the beach towel leaning back on her hands. Then, flashing her innocent cheerleader smile, she opened her legs

"C’mon", she said, "we don’t have much time"

Time is not my friend
It moves me closer to the end
Of my sweet warm blue season of desire.