Chapter 98:     Sundown, Moonup

ART reports events of Monday, 8 August--

4:00 PM

The women in the house were busy preparing for a party, preparing snacks, 
boiling coffee, etc.  One departure from normal party-girl behavior, however, 
was that clothes and make-up were not part of the equation; not for Nokhons, 
of course, and so Lissandra and Melly were also staunchly dedicated to nudity 
(except for cell phones hanging on strings around their necks). Elaine was 
not naked, since she was still not planning on attending, although busily 
masterminding refreshments and snacks for all those who were. 

Pokey and Maki came in from buying more fruit and vegetables in Monroe, 
carrying bags and boxes.

"Good you made it back in time," Lissandra commented, "you guys were gone 
pretty long."

"Uh, yeah, about that..." Pokey started to say, obviously about to make an 
announcement.  Everyone stopped to listen.  "...Maki and I have decided 
not to go to the Kha-rat."

"No, you guys!" Lissandra complained, "You've gotta come: the band is going 
to play!  You're our drummer!"

"Yeah, sorry about that.  But I'll bet Masnia can fill in for me--I showed 
her some stuff and she's actually got a talent for it."  

"Yeah but it's not just that," Lissandra whined, "it's...well, you and me...
I rilly want us to, you know, again..." 

"Hey, me too, Pokey," Melly chimed in, "I've been looking forward to finally 
having sex with you!"  She sent Maki a concerned look, "Hope you don't mind, 
but we both love Pokey too."

"It's cool, I get that," Maki said, "and how could I mind under these 
circumstances?  Besides, we're definitely not saying NEVER..."

Pokey rolled his eyes, "Oh God, I TOTALLY love all three of you--which makes 
me almost as greedy as Adam--and man, DO I YEARN to be with each one of you 
tonight!  Natch!  But...but Maki and I have been discussing US and 
temptation..." he gave Maki the nod.

She took over, "You guys all know that Pokey and I are alcoholics.  No, we 
don't drink any more, but we're still addictive personalities.  Those three 
days of fixing on shyøma are a pretty good indication of how we deal with 
temptation. 

"But we didn't just screw all three days--we couldn't, even though we wanted 
to--so we talked and talked (then screwed some more).  Long story short: we 
REALLY fell in love.  We think..."

Pokey continued, "It's just that with shyøma driving you fuck-crazy, how can 
you tell if love is real or not?  And man, we both WANT it to be.  So we've 
got to get away from all this--at least until the smell goes away--to find out 
what's really going on between us, because it may be the most important 
thing in our lives."  

"And we need to be faithful to one another," Maki summarized, "at least for a 
WHILE.  Don't worry, Liss, I know Pokey wants a little extra love with you 
and I won't be a bitch about it--fact is, I might like to try a threesome 
sometime, like you guys do.  You too Mel.  Just not right today, okay?"

"Hey, it's a date, Maki-babe," Lissandra promised.  Shy giggles all around.

Pokey looked relieved, said, "So we're going to go on a stupid romantic holiday 
to exotic Spokane; no alcohol, no shyøma, no friends, just our two 
addictive personalities.  Hell, we might not even be able to screw for a week, 
I think I've used up everything I had."  

"God, I hope we can find something to talk about," Maki pondered, rolling her 
eyes and being cute, then laughed.

4:30 PM

The scene being set out on the Mother's Meadow was already a departure from 
any typical Kha-rat that had ever before taken place: there was skesk, there 
were musical instruments, there were mattresses to make "Bigfoot boffing" 
easier for frail little Nokhsettes and there was a banquet of food and drinks.  
It resembled more a Grill Party than a Kha-rat, but that's what happens when 
those decadent Nokhsos crash the party.  The squatches were loving it. 
 
Melly was going back and forth from the house out to the gathering in the 
meadow, bringing fruit and snacks out to the growing party scene.  New guests 
had arrived, so now there were sixteen squatches, eight of both sexes, it was 
going to be a much bigger party than they had planned.  It was only a ten-
minute walk from house to meadow, but an amazing journey every time, starting 
in clear-headed America and ending up in that cloud of hormonal frenzy right 
in the middle of Squatchland.  

Sex might not be allowed until moonrise, but there was so much hanky-panky 
going on that it hardly mattered, Melly was having orgasms from just brushing 
past any male.  Most of the females had returned from foraging for thistles, 
so the smell of shyøma was extremely potent now. Grabbing going on everywhere, 
laughing, rolling in the grass.  

Her own cute little golden-skinned ass was a very popular target of much 
patting and caressing.  She had hated that in Hollywood but loved it here!  
It would have been intimidating for a young woman to walk naked into a horny 
swarm of hairy giant males if she hadn't done it so many times already, she 
knew none of them would accost or harm her.

But when she came to where Adam was talking with a very large and impressive 
Nokhon with a red Sha-haka pouch, she froze still in sudden dread, recognizing 
Daklakht from that night on the rooftop in Seattle.  This was Addy's evil 
Adversary, who had turned him into a monster and commanded him to rape her!  

Melly couldn't believe that Adam was politely introducing Daklakht to her 
while she was frozen in fear, stunned speechless.  But when the formidable 
Alutna-Jii looked down at her she could see that his eyes were apologetic 
and quite kind.

Daklakht came down on one knee before her, head at her level and bowed, 
speaking impassioned words she understood as asking for forgiveness.  Melly 
tried to regard him with a hard heart, but she knew the story Adam had told 
her about some wicked master in Shamballah having been the real villain, 
Daklakht's own mind just as violated as Adam's had been that night.  That and 
the erotically charged  atmosphere shoving her emotions toward intense 
affection rather than hate, tempered her judgment. 

Melly took Daklakht's face in her hands and lifted to look into his eyes, to 
see who he really was before judging him.  Naturally, under the emotional sway 
of shyøma they locked eyes and without a word both agreed to yoramma 
about it later.

She also recognized the little old naked white man in the crowd, having once 
met Uncle Wallace when she was ten years old.  He had been 100 himself back 
then, 11 years ago, but looked exactly the same, his ancient body still lean 
and muscular.  They spoke briefly, her wondering if she was also supposed to 
have sex with him this evening, remembering him as a funny but dirty little 
old man.  Then Melly was amused to realize that she could consider herself 
a just-as-dirty little young woman under these conditions and resolved to 
keep an open mind. 

Having delivered the fruit, she went to the piano that had been set up on 
the grass, along with other musical instruments for the band to play this 
evening.  She was astonished and happy to see Adam's supposedly lost 12-
string guitar there as well.  She sat on the velvet piano bench, a very 
sensuous feeling for a bare bottom already electrified with stimulations and 
began to play her favorite piece by Chopin in the sunlight under a blue sky.


5:13 PM Daklakht was standing with Dagrolyt and Dambaraggan but listening to Melly play piano, fascinated by her tiny golden beauty and regretting that he had caused her any grief. Then something else caught the professional attention of the Alutna-Jii. It was only a feeling, but he had long ago learned to trust his policeman's instincts. Yes, his spider-sense was tingling. Daklakht's psychic abilities suggested that something dangerous was lurking in the forest, a threat to someone or everyone here. He sensed fear and hate, confusion, dismay. And a weapon. A word and a hand signal to Dagrolyt, then Daklakht slipped into the forest and was gone. Dagrolyt whistled quietly to discretely alert Adam and Dabronat, three quick signals and he too vanished between the trees. "What is it?" Adam asked, aware that some kind of emergency had come up. "Don't know yet," Dabronat answered, "Daklakht is onto something." A moment later a scream of terror sounded from the forest, shrill like a woman or a child. Soon thereafter Daklakht and Dagrolyt came into view with a young white man in their custody. Daklakht was carrying him by the shirt with one hand, Dagrolyt brought the rifle. Adam saw that there was something wrong with the young man, as if he were slightly crippled and his first reaction was to call to Daklakht to take it easy on the poor kid. But then he finally recognized the captive: "Jeez, that's Peter Sinsley!"
Peter was dropped in the middle of the meadow, ending up flat on his back, surrounded by what seemed to be an army of sasquatches frowning down at him. They jabbered monkey talk--pissed off monkey talk--obviously angry about something. Oh yeah, the shotgun, which one of his captors violently dashed to the earth. He was terrified, pissed in his pants and--oh, that smell! "What the hell are you doing here with a weapon, Peter?" Peter looked up, grateful to have heard English instead of monkey-talk. "Hi Adam! Oh y'know, just sorta... hunting." He coughed, the smell getting to him. "Here? Exactly where your father shot and killed my mother almost 20 years ago?" "Hunhh? Was that here? Ohh, didn't know that." He coughed again, the smell was making him sick now. "So I'd guess that you were hunting ME," Adam said, kneeling close to Peter, closing in. "No! No, not you!" Adam was surprised. He could always hear a lie, but also a truth. Melly arrived, not knowing who had been captured but hearing Adam speaking English to whoever it was. "Peter!" she cried in surprise. Peter snapped his eyes onto her and they went wide at the spectacle. Melly was far more naked than he had ever seen anyone in his life, exposed and vulnerable, but mostly-- overwhelmingly desirable. His body was going into convulsions of lust for her, all he could say was "Ngg ngg!" as he lurched up to grab at her. Adam's heavy hand pushed him back down into the grass. Not violently, but irresistibly. "Why are you here, Peter?" Melly asked him. Peter squirmed, struggling to come up, grunting like a pig, eyes wild. Then his eyes became sly slits, looking at Melly, then the shotgun lying not far away, back and forth. He desperately tried to reach for the weapon but was held down. Among the animal sounds he uttered were only two articulate words: "Die Bitch!" Adam rarely allows himself to act in anger, but it was an extremely agitated Bigfoot who snarled into Peter's face: "You're here to kill MELLY?" He drew back a massive fist, ready to flatten Peter's skull and everything inside it. Adam barely resisted that lethal urge, then realized everyone was shouting "Skog!" at him and Melly was hanging onto his arm to hold it back, others also poised to intervene. Peter was wearing an oversized jacket and blue jeans, so up to this point had there been no skin-to-skin contact between Adam and himself even though struggling, until Adam's fingers happened to barely graze Peter's bare wrist. Peter screamed and Adam grunted. It had been contact enough for both of them to feel the shadow-syssk inside Peter. Adam gave a shout of disgust and jumped back away from Peter, who was then held down by Daklakht. Still squirming, Peter began to laugh, rather like a classic madman. "He has a Ssysk!" Adam shouted. "The same kind Melly had! Khask!, how many people did I contaminate that night?" Melly came to Adam, buried her face in his furry chest, both turned away from the ugly sight of Peter. Daklakht touched Peter's face, investigating the ssysk with some expertise. "Ra, it's yours--which means it's one of mine. But this kind of psychic transfer usually only happens between people who share an intense emotional connection. With Ma-elli-a it was love. What emotion did you share with this man?" Adam was not ready to answer that since there is no Nokhon word for "hate", only euphemisms useless to an Orator who cannot lie. Hate is a morally unacceptable concept in their culture and even though anyone can feel it, one does not mention it. Dagrolyt approached Adam, "Perhaps you can tell me what this means," and handed him the shotgun. Adam looked at the weapon with disgust and was about to toss it, but did a double-take instead. He sniffed at it, then opened the double barreled chamber to look inside "It's not loaded," he said to Melly. She unburied her face from his hairy chest and looked, so that they could both be perplexed. Adam did a search of Peter's pockets, who continued to writhe and laugh and cough. There were no shells on him. Big old Dannat moved in through the crowd, observed the captive Nokhso and said, "The little Nokhso is going into shyøma overdose convulsions and may become harmed if we do not give him some blue flowers now." Malla was behind him with a handful of them, freshly foraged for the Kha-rat. Peter was difficult to feed, trying to spit out the flowers. Melly said to say to him: "Peter, if you don't eat these you might die. Fine with us, up to you." He finally began to chew and swallow, almost gagging. Peter's convulsion subsided in a few minutes, but Dannat continued to study his patient. "There's something else wrong with him," he noticed, "his body is damaged." "Ra," Adam asserted, "I had to harm him the LAST time he tried to kill me. Remember when you saved my life from that noisekiller wound? This is the Nokhso who did that to me." "Ahhh," said old Dannat as if having a revelation, then asked about the details of their confrontations, most specifically the latest when Adam had attacked the Sinsley house. "I remember only vaguely, it was that night I myself had been possessed, having been sent to this man's family bakhl to...to do what I'm not sure, it wasn't me in control..." Adam looked to Daklakht. Daklakht returned an apologetic nod, "Da-starda-hat had intended that I send you there to kill that Nokhso, but I managed to distort the command into PUNISHING him and leave the moral ambiguity up to you." "And then he let ME know about it," Dagrolyt announced, "so that I could intervene, which was a secret I could not tell you. My brother Dabronat and I have been Daklakht's virtual conscience against Da-starda-hat's wicked domination ever since the tape-recorder incident with Adam's mother. We are allies." "So I had to play double-agent in my own head," Daklakht admitted, "obey my orders, but sometimes arrange that a mission would fail. In your case, Dadamet, I had hoped to avoid you harming yourself or anyone else." "Well, I didn’t physically harm anyone, but I do seem to remember holding this little guy, Peter, up before me and repeatedly SHRIEKING into his face until he fainted. Then I felt satisfied and tossed him away. After that I ripped their bakhl into pieces, which seemed like fun at the time." Old Dannat turned to confer with Daklakht and Dagrolyt. They muttered together, bobbed their heads. And concluded: "This is a classic case of habitual enemies contaminating one another. Da- peter was the weakest, his mind and body already damaged in a previous encounter, thus easy prey for psychic contamination by a shadow-syssk." "What do you mean contaminating one another? I haven't been affected," Adam insisted. "Really? And yet you still share something with this man, although you will not say what. But you must purge yourself, Dadamet, none of us can do that for you," Dannat said, like wise men do to grasshoppers. Daklakht pointed at Peter lying in the grass, "Him, we can heal...unless you prefer for him to remain contaminated. It's your ssysk." "No, I'm not going to wish that on anyone. Can you guys exorcise it?" "Oh, sure," Daklakht said nonchalantly, "give us a minute."
Adam and Melly walked away from the ceremony to let the others deal with Peter Sinsley, wanting no more to do with him. They stopped to talk. Adam was upset, shaking his head. "He was defenseless, but I was ready to kill him." "But you didn't and you never would have." "I don't know, the HATE just took over. And then I find out that I'm the one responsible for what he is..." He shrugged helplessly. "Let's just get him away from here quick as we can," Melly said, caressing him, "I don't want HIM to be here at the same Kha-rat as me!" "Neither do I, but we're not ready to cut him loose just yet. Dannat thinks he can adjust Peter's skeleton back to something like normal." "Addy, do you even WANT to do that? You said you hate him. He got hurt only because he was MURDERING you, a fair punishment, I'd say. He hasn't even gone to prison for it!" "I know, but I don't want hate to make decisions for me. And I don't want to have crippled anyone with my strength, not even him. Revenge is not really in my nature." "No, it's not. You're so sweet." She kisses him, arduously enough to cheer him up. "Boy, a little screwing certainly brings out the best in you, Mell." "Yeah? Then I should really be my best later on tonight. Oh, wait, it won't be just you, YOU finally have to share ME." "Well, go ahead and have fun, I will." "Me too. Just as long as HE's not standing in line for a dance!" Melly said with a glance toward Peter. "He's hardly standing at all," Addy remarked, "what can he do?" "Never underestimate a horny man," pointing at Peter's erection. He was lying down but it was not. Melly's cell phone rang. It was Elaine up at the house, who said that neither she or Art would be coming to the Kha-rat and asked to borrow Melly's BMW. "Sure, Mom, take it. But it's a shame you and Art aren't going to be with us. Or Pokey. Yeah, have fun, you guys." She looked at Adam, "You got the gist of that?" "They chickened out, too bad. But Pokey’s not coming either?" "Oh. Well, I think he and Maki are on their way to Spokane about now." "Hmm! We squatches made some magic for tonight, Pokey's part of it. I'd better call him, if you'll just loan me your phone." Magga approached them, leading a slightly confused-looking Lissandra by the hand. "Ma-elli-a, maketli wobwandel, wo'kro." Melly understood all the words (the women are gathering now, come), which Lissandra could not. "What's going on? Magga wants me to go somewhere with-- oh my god, is that Peter Sinsley over there?" "Yeah, I'll tell you about him on the way," Melly said to Lissandra, "right now we're supposed to go with all the women, the Coven is meeting. Liss, get ready to become a witch!" "Rilly? Cool!" Lissandra smiled, ready for an adventure. Both girls planted passionate good-bye kisses on Adam's mouth and Lissandra said, "Screw ya later, Alligator." Magga smiled at that and also gave Adam a wet Nokhso-type kiss, saying "Later me too," in English, gave him a bump with her hip and led the two smaller girls away to the women's secret place in the forest. Adam was about to call Pokey when Old Uncle Wallace came to him, "Jussa minute, sonny, there's some stuff you needa know 'bout 'fore calling anyone. Oh, but jus' answer the call that come now and we's take it from there." "Well, it's not ringing, so there's no call to answ..." Melly's phone in Adam's hand started ringing again.
Peter was quite docile now, as if his constant rage and confusion had evaporated. Actually, it had, the Ssysk was gone. He was not afraid, but felt rather happy and at peace with the world, strange as it was at present. Probably because he was more erotically aroused than ever before in his life, so much that some of these Bigfoot babes were looking pretty good to him. Not as good as Melly, but he knew that was a lost cause now. He was genuinely relieved that he had not harmed her. That he was surrounded by gigantic sasquatches hardly bothered him at all, they were not frowning at him anymore and he could tell that the big old one was trying to help him in some way. Dannat the healer had Peter sitting up, getting the position just right, while Dagrolyt squatted behind Peter and supported his position with his hands. They were gentle and seemed to be purposeful. Then there was a dramatic pause, a double-checking of skeletal alignments and Dannat placed his huge hands on Peter's left shoulder and right hip. And then, WRENCH! The pain was so sudden and so shocking that Peter blacked out. When he revived, he saw that they were preparing to do the same with right shoulder and left hip. Peter tried to wriggle free, but Dannat froze him with a gigantic LOOK in the eye and WRENCH! The pain was even worse, he fainted again. But when he came to again he could feel that the old Bigfoot had snapped all the bones of his distorted skeleton back into place. He was signaled to stand up, which he tried to do but kept falling sideways. One of Dannat's women, Malla, helped him to his feet, keeping him steady for a moment, then let go. He teetered. Peter tried to walk, every muscle in his body tenderized and it hurt but he took three steps. Then four five six. His left arm felt normal again, both legs hurt equally, he could turn his head. Then he had to rest, sank to the grass and weep for joy.
6:30 PM Back at the house, Elaine and I watched the sundown happening through the trees. It was almost time for the Kha-rat. She was standing firm in her decision not to attend the orgy and was preparing to drive to Seattle, where she would spend the night with Gary and Rhonda. The plan was that I would go to the Kha-rat without her. But I couldn't. Oh I desperately wanted to. I wanted the experience, not so much the orgy, which probably intimidated me as much as it did Elaine, but the telepathic revelation, the spiritual communion of the group. All right, I'll admit that I also badly wanted all of those wonderful girls, but not bad enough to fail Elaine. She was my wife, not because we were legally married, but because we were life partners who really do love each other. "I'm ready to go," she called to me, "see you tomorrow sometime." "Wait, Laine. I'm going with you." It didn't even hurt to say it. "No, Art, you want this, I know you do..." "I want YOU more, Elaine. Let’s go somewhere and make love all night, you and me. Have our own orgy." "Yeah, well, we've been missing out on that recently, so that would be nice, but this is your big chance to..." "To show you that it's you and me, okay?" "You sure?" The look in her eyes was better than any orgy. Really. We took our coats and keys and went out to Elaine's Mazda station wagon. "Just a sec, I'd better tell the girls we're leaving now," Elaine said and dialed Melly's cell phone. "Hi Mell, we're going to leave now. Yes, together, Art re-decided at the last second. No, it's not because he was afraid you and Liss would learn that he really IS a dirty old man. And no, I'm not going to put him on, or he'll just come running down there to ravish you both. Yes, he knows he's welcome to some ravishing, you've both made that quite clear. He's doing this for me and I want to honor his sacrifice. But I also want to ask you, can we borrow your sexy little BMW Sportster tonight? No, I don't think we'll be going to Gary and Rhonda's after all, somewhere farther and faster and more fun, I'm thinking. Okay, thanks." "I'll switch keys," I said, merrily looking forward to driving that flashy little BMW and dashed into the house. When I came out again, the driveway was blocked by a big red Pontiac GTO. Felix and Sarah Sinsley were talking with Elaine. "Look, we KNOW Peter is here somewhere, just let us go look for him!" Sinsley was saying. Oh no, I thought, if they go out to the meadow just as the moon is rising... well, they'll have an interesting experience, but then it'll be on the front page of the National Inquisitor tomorrow evening. Or they'll call the Sheriff. "We looked for him yesterday without result, what makes you so certain he's here today?" I asked. Sarah spoke up, "Listen, Art and Elaine, we found a...a note on his computer. Peter is crazy--it's hard for me to say this--but he IS! He plans to kill Melly!" "We don't know that for sure," Felix dithered, "it might just be a sick fantasy..." Elaine was already on the phone. "Melly? Oh, Adam, thank god, listen: we may have a situation with Peter Sinsl... oh? He IS? They DID? Why didn't you CALL us? Ohhhhh. Well yes, as a matter of fact, yes the Sinsleys ARE here right now, looking for Peter. WHAT??? But... oh! Yes, yes, I'll tell them. Okay, bye." Which left the three of us staring at Elaine with mouths open, waiting to hear what was going on, but she seemed too stunned to say anything for a few seconds. Then she was shrugging and waving her hands around as if to capture some way of explaining, finally blurting out: "Peter's with them. Everything's okay. Someone's coming over here to take us all to him." The Sinsleys looked at each other to share big sighs and smiles of relief, a little confused, but mostly happy. Not me, though. "Take THEM up THERE? NOW?" broke out of my mouth before I could stifle the words. "Up where?" Sinsley just had to ask. Curious. "What's going on up there anyway?" Elaine rescued me: "Adam is hosting some kind of ancient Nokhon Full Moon ceremony up in the meadow." "Tribal customs," I added, "No big deal." "Oh yeah, Bigfoot stuff," Sinsley said knowingly. "But that sounds fascinating," Sarah said, "I've always liked National Geographic Channel. Tell us about it." "It's probably not a good idea for...uh... foreigners to disturb them right now..." I was treading water. I DID NOT WANT the Sinsleys to go up to the meadow . One whiff of shyøma and they couldn't avoid being sucked into the Kha-rat. Elaine interrupted me, "Art, we're supposed to give them each a dose of the little blue flowers." "Wait a minute, just WHO decided THAT?" I demanded to know. "All of them, Adam says." "I don't understand.." I was stalling, I knew perfectly well what that meant, but couldn't accept it. I could give all sorts of fair reasons for denying Felix Sinsley access to the experience he would be stumbling into: even though he had mellowed out considerably over the last year, he was NOT our friend. In fact, I still considered him MY WORST ENEMY. He had murdered Adam's mother. He had beaten me up. He had been a constant legal pestilence, suing and litigating against us year after year. He had poisoned his son's mind against our son to the degree that murder had been attempted. Sinsley was an ASSHOLE! But the truth is: most of all, I couldn't stand the thought of that man receiving the undeserved pleasure of having sex with our girls, which would be practically inevitable. Instead of me. Just not fair. There, I said it. I felt sick, needed to get away from them before someone arrived to lead them up the hill. "Look, we were just about to leave for Seattle, maybe we'd better get going." "No, Art," Elaine said, "we are to accompany them to the ceremony."
Pokey and Maki were roaring east on Highway 2, toward the soon-coming moon- rise--well, "roaring" as loud and fast as his little motor scooter could-- when his cell phone rang. He couldn't get to it but Maki, sitting behind, reached around and took it out of his pocket, looked at it and said, "It's Adam." It was too difficult and dangerous to talk on a phone while driving with helmets and gloves, so they pulled to the side of the road and stopped. "Yo, Bro, what's up?" "Pokey, where are you guys now?" "On Highway 2, near Gold Bar." "Hunh! I thought you'd left hours ago, you didn't get very far." "Yeah, well, Maki and I got stuck in that teepee again. We finally had to make a break for it or we'd still be there now." "Well it's a good thing you're still nearby, I need you to come back. We all have to be here for this Communion. And if you and Maki are going to stay together, she'd better come too." "Are you serious, Kemo Sabe?" "Something is shaping up, this is an important Kha-rat for the Nokhon Nation, I need my main guys." "Just a sec, Bro, you better talk to Maki." "Hi Adam. What's going on?" "Maki, I need you both here for the Kha-rat. Come back" "Will I have to have sex with squatches? They’re too big for my teeny weensy..." "None of them will harm you, they’ve promised to be very careful with all the Nokhso women. You can try me first and see how it goes." "Okay! We'll come quick as we can." Pokey and Maki took a moment to look each other in the eyes, shrugged, smiled. "We can go on a honeymoon later," Maki said. "Yeah, we'd better take care of the family business first." They shared an intensely passionate kiss before putting on helmets and gloves and turning the scooter around.
Sinsley was ranting. "You're really telling me you expect us to go with you to some kind of Bigfoot sex and drugs orgy..." "Shyøma is not a drug," I tried to explain, "it's the natural mating smell of the females...consider it organic." "Oh and that's supposed to be BETTER?" "You didn't mind the other day," Elaine reminded them, "when you both got horny." The Sinsleys sent one another guilty looks, having obviously been too embarrassed to discuss their unexplicably shameless behavior that day. They were confused about having to eat little blue flowers, but saw that Elaine and I did too, so they followed suit. They were still worried about Peter and would do whatever it took to get to him. I wasn't explaining much, being SO against having Felix Sinsley along to spoil my first Kha-rat. Sarah I didn't mind at all, for obvious reasons. Elaine seemed to be taking the change of plans with infinite grace. It had been decreed by some higher power that we join the Kha-rat, absolving her of any moral decision. Go with the flow! We were waiting on the terrace with a view towards the hills when we saw two figures come out of the forest and approach us. Elaine and I were surprised by who they were, but the Sinsleys were shocked to see a naked little old man coming our way, so tiny beside a strapping female squatch. It was Uncle Wallace and Aunt Mawa. She was one of the newcomers, so we didn't know her very well, except that she was Adam's aunt, his mother's older sister. And I must admit that we didn't know Uncle Wallace very well either. "How-dee folkzes," Wallace greeted us, bobbing his head like a squatch, obviously having gone native long ago. "We needs ya to come 'long with us to this extra-special Kha-rat we gots goin' up in the meadow." Mawa came closer and stood staring at Sinsley with an unreadable expression, neither positive nor negative. And yet I could sense that she knew exactly who he was: her sister's killer. That close, her shyøma hit us all at once. Man, I loved it and could see that Elaine had totally surrendered to her fate, dragging a deep breath in, ready to be aroused. But the Sinsleys almost fell down with the impact of sexual hormones going into overdrive. They both cried out and buried their faces in their hands. Lucky for them they had already eaten the flowers. "What IS this?" Sinsley shouted, as Sarah was gasping for air. They grabbed each other in panic and in a few seconds they were both gasping for air, locked in a passionate embrace. We had to calm them down and begin to explain before they started having sex on our terrace. But then they wanted sex with us. Old Wallace stepped in: "Okay, no real co-pulationing 'til the Kha-rat begins. Le's all go to The Mother Meadow now, Moon comin' purty soon. Then ye can co-pulate all ya want." Magic words to the Sinsleys, who were all the way into it now and horny as hell. They followed the funny little old naked man without a second thought, holding hands and giggling like children, grabbing at each other and us. Sinsley even tried to feel Mawa's furry ass as she walked up the hill in front of him, her hips swaying provocatively enough. He was having lots of fun until we came out of the trees and into the Mother Meadow. At the other end of the open area was a party of humans and sasquatches, a piano and other instruments off to the one side, an old apple tree off to the other side. Sinsley froze. "I've been here before," he said in an unhappy voice. Then wondered, "Uh...why do you call this place The Mother Meadow anyway?" But he knew why, I could see that he realized exactly where he was. Even after 19 years it looked the same as when he had last been there with a high- caliber hunting rifle in hand. "I gotta get out of here," he said, turning around, "or those Bigfoot are going to kill me!" "No, they ain't, sonny," Old Wallace informed him, "Nokhontli don't do revenge. They do confrontation and atonement and tha's why you're here. If they wanted to hurt you," he indicated silent Mawa walking ahead of them, certainly large and powerful enough to squash a little human twerp like Felix Sinsley, "Mawa would already have done it. She's Mayala's sister." "Mayala?" "Adam's mother, the Bigfoot lady you shot right over by that apple tree there." "I didn't know she was human," he wailed, tears coming now, "I thought she was some kind of big ape. There was no proof they even existed before then. And I've been sorry about it ever since!" "Then it's 'bout time for you to atone, ain't it sonny?" Sinsley thought about that, then said, "Yeah, it sure as hell is," he wiped the tears and snot away, turned back to face the crowd waiting for him on the other end of the meadow and asked, "what are they going to do to me?" "They ain't gonna do nothin 'xcept let you 'pologize to Mayala. That stuff's important to them." Sinsley straightened up, gulped, still afraid but resolved to go meet his fate, declaring, "It is to me too."

Chapter 99

Adam out of Eden