1 ... Gabriel MorrisOn a weekend that Amy had free, we decided to go on a little road
trip together. She met me at my studio and, with loaded backpacks,
we hiked out to Highway 101 at the north end of Arcata, intending
to hitch north to southern Oregon and then spend a few nights on a
beach together.
We got a ride to Trinidad, only fifteen miles north of Arcata, but
then ended up waiting there for a couple of hours without another
ride. It became cold and windy as the sun began to go down, and
eventually we got tired of waiting. I knew there was a nice beach just
a short walk away, even though we hadn’t made it far out of town,
so we left the highway and hiked down to Trinidad State Beach, sur-
rounded by spectacular rocky cliffs typical of much of the Northern
California coast.
Neither of us felt like doing much over the weekend. We lazed
around in the sand and sun during the day, did some reading and
swam in the cold ocean waves. On the second evening, as the sun
was setting, we made a fire to warm ourselves and to cook dinner.
After eating and watching the campfire fade into glowing coals, we
lay next to one another in our sleeping bags, staring silently up at the
stars in the moonless night, feeling soothed by the lulling crash of
the waves.
As the night chilled, we huddled together, taking our arms from
our sleeping bags to hold one another. We talked quietly, holding
each other close, squeezing our bodies together, stroking our hands
down each other’s backs, and eventually surrendering to the silence,
as we kissed. Suddenly it was as if all of the affection we felt for
one another, unexpressed over the past few weeks of spending time
together, surged forth. Our timidity vanished as we gave in to the
passion that had been building beneath our newly rekindled friend-
ship. It was like an electrical charge, yearning to be released, and we
allowed it to flow freely between us.
We made slow, sweet, gentle love there under the gaze of the stars
and the whispering of dark ocean waves...and then lay quiet and
still in the darkness, holding each other close. We slept long and deep