Prairie Dogs, Pronghorns & Penis Sheaths
by Biff Spork
Chapter 13
A Bird's Eye View
Flash floods are quick-rising floods most often caused by heavy rains over a short period (usually six hours or less). Flash floods can happen anywhere, although low-lying areas with poor drainage are particularly vulnerable. Also caused by dam or levee breaks or the sudden overflow of water due to a debris or ice jam, flash floods combine the innate hazards of a flood with speed and unpredictability and are responsible for the greatest number of flood-related fatalities.
(https://www.nrdc.org/stories/flooding-and-climate-change-everything-you-need-know)
When Jason had visited the previous day, he had brought more veggie dogs and buns. We absorbed those for lunch. Then, in preparation for Anna's visit, we put on our kotekas . It was strange how wearing a koteka made me feel that I was dressed, but it always had that effect. Once my mind knew I could get a boner without anybody knowing, I relaxed.
Just then I felt such a burst of love for Marcus, I pulled him to me, hugged him tightly and buried my nose in his hair to drink in his smell. We kissed a bit too, until we heard the beep that signaled the arrival of the ATV. We ran through the woods to meet it and collect our new supplies and equipment.
Anna and I sorted the additional food supplies while Jason and Marcus set up an additional small tent to hold the laptop, drone, solar chargers, camera and notebooks, and to protect them if it rained.
Over the last few days, I had realized that Jason and Anna were not simply employees at the house. They were genuinely fond of Marcus and treated him more like a son than an employer. While we dealt with the provisions, Anna said things like, "Marcus really likes this, but you have to cook it like this…." and then she would give me instructions. I noticed that she often glanced fondly over at Marcus like a mother would. Before they left she said to me, "Marcus is very dear to us, Bumper. Since his granddad died we've never seen him so happy as he has been lately. Since he met you there's a light in his eye again and he laughs and smiles like he used to when he was little. If there's ever anything you need or you want to talk about…."
"There is something," I said. "Marcus and I want to stay together, like in the same house. It's okay now because we have to be in isolation together. But when this two week quarantine is over and later, when school starts…."
"You're worried about being split up, about your parents, about hurting their feelings or having problems with them," said Anna.
"Yeah. Marcus and I are thinking that maybe we could spend some time with them and then spend some time with you. I don't think we should talk to them about that yet, but maybe you and Jason can think about it and we can talk about it later and decide what to do."
"Would you like to do homeschooling with Marcus?" she asked.
I said I would and we talked a bit about what grade I was in and what subjects I found interesting.
"Don't worry, Bumper," said Anna, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "Jason and I have already been thinking about all that and we'll be happy to talk to you guys about it whenever you want. We'll work something out."
After we waved them goodbye, Marcus and I walked back through the woods towards our campsite.
"I really like Jason and Anna," I said.
"Yeah," said Marcus. "They're great. I'm glad granddad made it so I have to stay with them till I'm grown up."
"So, do they work for you?" I asked.
Marcus laughed. "Well, yes and no. It's complicated. They sort of work for me but it's more like they work for granddad. According to his will and his trustees, they're here, at the house, until I'm twenty-one, and longer if we all want to stay together. Officially they're my guardians and they're paid for that, to do that. But I can't fire them. In fact, they can tell me what to do and they do, sometimes. Mostly, they let me make my own decisions. That's what granddad wanted them to do. But there are some things, like education and safety and health things like brushing my teeth, that they're very firm about. I can't remember when they weren't around, but since granddad died they're even more important to me."
"Do they know about what you do at night on your cart?"
"Sort of…. Granddad knew and understood that I needed to be doing something to prevent the climate crisis, something concrete. I don't think he liked the idea of me doing graffiti at night, but he helped me build the cart. And he knew what I was going to do with it. After he died, Jason told me that we have some of the best lawyers in the country on retainer. If I get caught, they can probably get me off. But only once. So, I can do what I like at night until I get caught. If I get caught once, I have to stop."
"How does your uncle fit into all this?"
"Him!" snorted Marcus. "Well, he used to share the guardianship with Jason and Anna, but then he got into legal wrangles over granddad's will, and the trustees, the guys who handle granddad's estate, they decided that since he was challenging the will he shouldn't be responsible for taking care of me. That was fine with me because he never took care of me anyway. I hardly ever saw him and I've not seen him for nearly a year now."
I was silent as I absorbed this information.
"I'll tell you a little about how it works," said Marcus. "It's not a secret from you. There's no secrets from you," said Marcus and took my arm. "Granddad left a pile of money and businesses. And he basically left it all to me. He and my uncle didn't get along so he left my uncle an income. Every month he gets a check from the estate. I think it's like a hundred thousand dollars or something. But my uncle thought that granddad should have left everything to him, or at least half of everything. So he hired a bunch of lawyers and tried to get more of the money. But granddad made such a tight will, and tied up everything so perfectly that my uncle couldn't do anything."
"So it's all yours?"
"Yep. But it's all in trust until I'm twenty-one. There's about ten guys called trustees, who manage all the money and businesses. I meet with them twice a year and they tell me what they're doing. I've talked to them about the climate crisis and they seem to understand. They said that granddad had insisted that they only invest in companies doing green energy and that kind of thing. So I was happy with that. But mostly, Bumper, I don't think about all that. I know I'm really lucky to have so much, but what makes me happiest is to have you as my friend, to be with you. You're more important to me than any of that other stuff."
We stopped there beneath a tree and hugged and said nice things to each other. Then we ran back to the campsite to decide what new equipment we wanted to try out that afternoon.
I chose the new, more powerful binoculars and a notebook. Marcus brought the drone. He said he had an idea he wanted to try out. When we arrived on the hilltop, The Boss announced us to the town and everyone continued their activities. I held the drone up; Marcus started the motors and it lifted. As soon as it was airborne, The Boss gave his warning yelp and all the dogs disappeared.
"This is not good, Marcus," I said. "We're scaring them again."
"Just wait and see," said Marcus and flew the drone over the town. He slowly lowered it down to land a few feet away from The Boss's burrow. Then he shut the motors off. "See, I noticed that there are birds, like the killdeers, that fly over and even land in the town, and nobody pays any attention. They only scatter when it's a hawk. So I figure they're scared of the drone because they don't know what it is. Once they know it's not a hawk, I think they'll be okay with it. I'm just gonna leave it there and let them get used to it and look it over. I bet they're smart enough to see it's not a hawk."
He was right. Shortly after it landed, The Boss peered over the rim of the entrance to his burrow. He eyed the drone for a minute. Then he slowly emerged from his burrow and cautiously circled around the drone. He crept up to it and sniffed it. Then he poked it, jumped back and went around the other side. He prodded it again and jumped back. Marcus started the motors and raised the drone about five feet into the air. The Boss dived for the entrance to his den. Marcus continued to hover. The Boss watched from his burrow entrance. After a minute, Marcus landed in the same spot and turned the motors off. Again The Boss crept over and sniffed the drone, then nudged it and jumped back. Marcus started the motors, lifted off, and maintaining a height of about five feet, he flew the drone slowly up the hillside to us and landed it.
Marcus stood. "It's okay!" he called down to The Boss.
The Boss looked in all directions, then stood up on his hind legs and gave the 'all clear' yip. The rest of the dogs came above-ground and started moving around. About five minutes later we did it again. We repeated it once more and during the last procedure, Ear-bit and Limpy came over and had a look at the drone. Then they conferred with The Boss and seemed to decide that the weird plastic bird was no threat. From then on, Marcus was able to hover over the town and watch activities from above. The dogs were still wary of the drone if it flew too close, but he found if he hovered at a fifty foot altitude, they didn't pay any attention to it.
I spent the afternoon watching the dogs nearest me, trying to understand their normal activities. I could see they weren't running around randomly, like flies seem to buzz around without any idea what they are doing. The prairie dogs moved around with a sense of purpose, like they had jobs. I wanted to know what those jobs were.
As we walked back to the campsite I said, "Do you think we could do the same thing, you know, ourselves?"
"What?" said Marcus.
"Well, like you got them used to the drone. Could we let them get used to us, bit by bit? Like maybe if we just moved down the hillside a little closer every day, until we were right in the town."
"That's a great idea, Bumper. I love it. Let's start tomorrow." He paused and then said, "But maybe it should be just one of us. Two big human animals like us might seem like an invasion. But If you kinda sneaked closer, bit by bit, I bet they'd get used to you in no time."
Anna had brought a feast for our supper that night. While it heated, we had a swim. We ate so much we could barely move, and though we had planned to look at the drone footage after supper, we just brushed our teeth, crawled into our sleeping bag and fell deeply asleep.
We slept through the night like we were dead. I came awake at dawn face to face with Marcus in my arms and our bodies pressed tightly together. When I opened my eyes I stared directly into Marcus' eyes and we lay like that, perfectly still, for long minutes. Then Marcus' penis began throbbing and pulsing against my stomach. And within a few seconds, my own began pumping and spurting in response. We grunted and held each other tightly as the pleasure swept through us and over us, until the squirting finally ceased.
Marcus grinned, "Well, that was nice."
"Best way to start the day," I agreed.
Marcus threw aside the sleeping bag and straddled me. "Now I'm going to clean you up," he said. Then he tongued my belly clean and moved on to my scrotum, licking and sucking my balls and then carefully licking my penis. He gently pulled the foreskin down and lapped all around the head until everything shone. I pushed him over on his back and licked him clean. I had wanted for so long to have his penis in my mouth, I saved it for last. It was difficult to stop wrapping my tongue around it and sucking it, but to honor our agreement, when it was shiny clean I rolled his foreskin over it. Then I unzipped the tent flap, crawled out into the day, said, "Last one in has to do the supper dishes!" and raced for the river. Marcus was right behind me, or maybe even ahead of me, but we agreed it was a tie. After our swim, we did the dishes together while breakfast cooked.
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