Ketchikan or Bust (Tom's Adventures in Alaska) Page 11

  Swan grabs Tom by the waist and pulls him to her. She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him with a passion stronger than he’s felt from her before. She stops for a second and looks in his eyes. “Food can wait Tom, I want you to make love to me! Right here, right now!”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Tom drags a log over next to the fire and sits down. Swan sits next to him and rests her plate on her knees. Tom watches her deftly lift both filets from the bones and toss the skeleton into the fire. They eat as the twilight deepens, watching the dancing flames of the fire. Swan smiles at Tom as she finishes, and takes their plates to rinse in the creek. They spend a few minutes clearing the campsite of food and stow it out of the reach of bears on a platform of branches on the other side of the campground. They both wash up and settle back in beside the fire as the evening cools. Tom thinks they make a good couple.

  “So…..you want to go to Ketchikan?” Tom asks. “That’s quite a trip.”

  “What makes you say that?” Swan asks.

  “Back at the Trading Post you told the lady that our goal is Ketchikan or bust,” Tom says as he looks at her. He smiles and brushes her hair from her face.

  “I just said that because I thought it sounded better than just saying we’re wandering around aimlessly.” Swan says with a timid smile. “I think it’s a little far to be going at this time of year, I’d hate to get caught in the interior of Alaska if a blizzard blows in.”

  “I was watching the weather channel at the hotel in Anchorage. They said that the weather’s supposed to be unseasonably warm into next week. I think that if you’re up for a sore ass and a good time, we should head to Ketchikan. There’s a ferry that goes from Prince Rupert, BC to Ketchikan so we could head down through Canada and go north from there. If the weather turns nasty we can take the ferry from Ketchikan to Anchorage through the Inside Passage. It’s a long ferry ride but we can pitch a tent and pass the time sleeping…..or something.”

  “How far is Prince Rupert?” Swan asks.

  “Twelve hundred and fifty miles. We can get there in four or five days if we stop a bit to enjoy the trip, two if we don’t. I don’t want to rush, this is my vacation after all,” Tom says, looking at Swan. “I’m up for it if you are.”

  “I say we go! I’ve always wanted to go to Ketchikan!” Swan exclaims. “I hear it’s really cool. There are more totem poles there than anywhere else in the world! I hear that a lot of houses are built on stilts and hang out over the ocean!”

  Swan jumps into Toms lap and hugs him tight. Her face glows in the light of the fire and her eyes sparkle. Tom sits holding her and enjoys listening to her tell him everything she knows about Ketchikan. He eventually nudges her to get up because his back is cold and his ass is sore. They both turn around, stand close to the fire to warm their backsides and look into the night.

  “Did you see that?” Swan exclaims.

  “What?” Tom asks.

  “A shooting star!” Swan says excitedly, pointing to the heavens. “I haven’t seen one for a long time!”

  Tom unzips the tent and pulls out their sleeping bag. He spreads it out on a picnic table away from the fire. They lie together on the sleeping bag and look up at the sky. Every few seconds a meteor streaks through the night. They watch the show and point out the constellations they know in between the fireballs. They lie there for a long time and the air grows crisp and cold. Swan flips back the sleeping bag so that they can crawl in. Their campfire goes out while they snuggle in the dim moon light watching the fireworks rain down from heaven. The sky starts to shimmer as an aurora show starts. The Northern lights ripple across the sky occasionally streaked by a meteor. The quiet of the night is only broken by the crackle of the Northern Lights as they burn in the atmosphere. A meteor shoots slowly across the shy, lighting the night like a noon sun. They watch flames shoot from its tail. It explodes three times above them, bursting in a ball of flames each time. The sky bursts with light from the flames. Swan screams in her excitement and startles Tom. She grabs him and kisses him quickly before staring back at the sky. Pieces of the meteor rain down around them. Plink, plink, plink. The pieces hit the ground and the motorcycle. A small piece falls between them and lands on the sleeping bag. Swan picks it up.

  “It’s still warm!” She says excitedly, her face beams. She leans over and they kiss. She shakes with excitement. “You sure know how to show a girl a good time!”

  “Don’t give me credit for this; I think it’s your doing,” Tom says.

  “I think it has to be you, I’ve lived in Alaska all of my life and I’ve never heard the Northern Lights or had a meteor fall on me! And I’ve never had one explode in front of me! All of this has started to happen to me since I met you,” Swan says excitedly.

  “Maybe it’s been here all along and you just notice it more now,” Tom replies. He doesn’t want to take credit for the wonders that Mother Nature has to share.

  Swan rolls over and puts her head on his chest. She presses close to him and pulls the sleeping bag tight. They lie on the picnic table and enjoy the night, warm in each other’s arms.

  When Tom wakes up, his nose is cold. He looks around in the dim morning light. There’s a light frost painted on the trees and grass. A light fog hangs in the air. Swan is warm, sleeping snugly tucked in beside him with her head inside the sleeping bag. Tom pulls the bag over his exposed shoulder and hopes to shed the cold of the morning. It’s a mystery that they stayed sleeping on the picnic table all night. He’s surprised that they haven’t fallen to the ground. Tom listens to the splash of the water as it goes over the small waterfall and the birds chirping as they wake up. Swan’s lets out a tiny snore with each breath. She’s sleeping so soundly that Tom doesn’t want to disturb her. He pulls her close to steal some of her warmth.

  After a while, Tom hears the roar of an engine. He looks toward the entrance of the campground and watches a motor home trundle down the road. It bumps and scrapes as it heaves over the rough trail. Swan stirs from the noise and rolls over. She teeters on the edge of the picnic table and wakes up in a panic. She scrambles for solid ground as she drops off the edge, pulling the sleeping bag and Tom with her. Tom lands on top of her and she flails her arms trying to get free. She screams as she squirms and kicks her legs. She knees Tom in the groin. Tom struggles to free both of them from the sleeping bag but finally grabs her and holds her tight.

  “It’s ok, Honey! You’re ok!” Tom says into her ear. “Come on Honey, breathe. We fell out of bed.”

  Swan slowly stops fighting her imaginary demon and starts to laugh as she wakes up and realizes what happened. “I was having a dream that we were watching the Northern lights and a meteor shower. All of the sudden I was falling, then I stopped falling, and then I was falling again. It scared the hell out of me!”

  Tom looks at her and laughs. “It’s funny because it’s all true. We fell asleep on the picnic table watching the meteor shower and the Northern Lights. A motor home just drove in and startled you awake. It startled you enough that you tried to get up. You fell off the side of the picnic table and pulled me on top of you.”

  “Did they see it happened?” Swan asks. “It must have been quite a show!”

  They struggle to get untwisted and free themselves from the sleeping bag. They stand and look around the campground for the motor home. It’s pulled into one of the first sites, obscured by trees and the fog.

  “It looks like we didn’t have an audience,” Tom reassures Swan. “I’m sure we’d hear them laughing if we did!”

  “It wouldn’t matter; at least we weren’t naked like we usually are!” Swan says with a laugh.

  Tom laughs with her. “Let’s pack up and have breakfast in Tok. It feels crowded now!”

  After breakfast in a quaint little café, they pull into a gas station on the outskirts of Tok. Swan jumps off the bike and runs into the building while Tom fills the tank and checks the oil. He starts to wipe the bugs and dust off the windshield when Swan comes o
ut of the gas station. She bounces and giggles as she skips across the parking lot. She gives Tom a quick peck on the cheek and kneels behind the trailer. After a few seconds she jumps up and runs back to the steps, laughing. Tom follows her in. She hands the cashier a felt pen and Tom steps in beside her to pay for the fuel.

  “What was that about?” Tom asks.

  “I came in here looking for a bumper sticker or a sign but couldn’t find one so I made my own.” Swan snickers.

  “So what’s it say?” Tom asks.

  “You’ll see!” Swan says excitedly as she bounces beside him.

  As they walk across the parking lot, Swan tugs Tom toward the back of the trailer, “ Ketchikan or ( . ) ( . ) ” is scrawled on the back of the trailer in thick felt marker strokes.

  “So what does that mean?” Tom asks.

  Swan giggles and cups her breasts. “Ketchikan or Bust!” she says as she wiggles her tits. “I don’t know if we’ll make it to Ketchikan, but we’ll definitely make it here!”

  Tom smiles at the sign and laughs at her antics. “Let’s hit the road, we’ve got lots of miles to cover!”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I thought the guy at the border was going to choke when he was going through the saddlebags,” Swan says with a giggle. “He kept pulling out my panties and handfuls of loose condoms. Every time he did he gave me a look like I was making him feel like a dirty old man. It was almost like he’d never seen either one before.”

  The waitress steps up and sets their lunch down. Tom looks at her and smiles.

  “You two got here at the right time, the lunch crowd is about to start piling in and the grill gets pretty busy. Where are you two off to?” the waitress asks, trying to make conversation.

  “Ketchikan.” Tom replies.

  “So you’re going to Haines? That’s a pretty tough go on a motorcycle.” the waitress says. She rolls her eyes with a snide look.

  “Nah, we’re going to go to Prince Rupert and take the ferry from there. We’ll probably take the ferry back to Anchorage,” Tom says as he gives her a sideways glance.

  “That’s quite a trek at this time of the year. What’ll you do if you get stuck in a motel somewhere because a blizzard rolls in?” the waitress pries.

  “Have sex!” Swan says sarcastically.

  The waitress takes the hint and walks away. Swan slices into her chicken, dips a piece in the gravy and stuffs in her mouth. “I hate it when they want to talk while my food’s getting cold.” She takes another bite. “I’m so hungry I thought that plastic polar bear on the roof looked good! Where are we?”

  “Beaver Creek,” Tom says between bites.

  “How far do you think we’ll get today?”

  “There’s not a lot between here and Whitehorse, if we keep moving we should be there before it gets too dark.” Tom tosses a fry in his mouth. “You can take this next stretch so that I can have a nap. I’ll need my sleep if I’m going to sex you up all night.”

  “How about you skip your nap and only sex me up for half the night.” Swan says as the waitress slides the check onto the table. “If you don’t finish me off, I’ll take matters into my own hands!”

  The waitress gives Swan a dirty look as they leave the café. Swan smiles at her and hangs on Tom’s arm. She hops on the bike and kicks it a couple of times to get it started. Tom jumps in behind her and she lets out the clutch. The bike launches onto the highway and they leave Beaver Creek behind. Within a few miles the air gets heavy and acrid from the marshes and bogs of the Yukon Flats. They ride through clouds of mosquitoes that rise off the marshes as they approach. Occasionally they hit a gravel section of the highway. The dust that hangs in the air makes breathing tough. Tom’s thankful that the traffic on the road isn’t as heavy as during the busy summer tourist season because they’re able to cruise along at a good clip.

  They pull into Whitehorse later than Tom had anticipated. He swings into a gas station to fill up. He’s sore from the trip and thankful they’re in a larger town where they can do some real shopping and maybe take in some nightlife. Shopping and living on gas station grub gets old really fast.

  “You look hilarious!” Swan says while laughing. “Your face is streaked with blood, caked with dust, and dotted with bugs.”

  Tom looks at her and smiles. “I suppose you think you look freshly showered? At least I don’t have a bug cemetery in my hair.”

  Swan bends down to look in the mirror on the motorcycle, shrieks and pulls away.

  “So what do you think, should we blow off this two bit backwater berg and find a nice campground?” Tom asks. He struggles to hold back his laughter.

  “I don’t fucking think so BUDDY!” Swan says sternly. “You’re going to take me to a hotel!”

  “I think they’re all booked! How about we just find a carwash and take a run through. We could pay extra for hot wax, that way the bugs won’t stick as bad tomorrow!” Tom says with a smirk.

  “Funny Boy, you can turn this thing around and take me home unless you find a hotel!” Swan glares at him and puts her hands on her hips defiantly.

  “I don’t know, I kind of like you au naturel! You’ve got au naturel all over you!” Tom says, starting to laugh again.

  “You go in and pay for the gas,” Swan says as she straddles the bike. “The next place I go into is going to be A HOTEL ROOM.” She crosses her arms.

  Tom pays for the gas and decides not to joke about it anymore. They ride further into Whitehorse and pull into a budget motel.

  “Why did you pull in here?” Swan asks “There were lots of other hotels along the strip. This place looks like kind of a dive.”

  “When I was through here before, this was the only motel on the strip that had a full parking lot. Besides, the way we look, there might just be a chance that they won’t chase us out,” Tom says.

  Tom goes into the office to register while Swan leans against the bike. She hasn’t looked happy since she looked in the mirror.

  “You want a room?” the woman says with a heavy European accent. “We got one left.”

  “Yes,” Tom replies.

  “Fifty six dollars, I show you room before you rent!” the woman states.

  “Oh, there’s no need,” Tom says. “We’ll take it.”

  The woman walks around the counter. “No, I show you. Come with me!”

  Tom follows the woman out of the office. He’s tempted to pick at the peeling paint as they walk along the front of the building. She puts a key into the lock, opens the door and waves Tom in. Tom steps into the room and looks around. It looks exactly like a picture in a magazine: crisp, fresh and clean.

  “My husband and I just immigrated here last year. We bought this motel and have been remodeling the rooms one at a time. My husband’s a carpenter and he’s trying to make them nice. You like? Is it worth fifty six dollars or is that too much? I give you ten percent off for cash,” the woman says as Tom walks out of the room.

  Tom can see that Swan is wondering what’s going on as he and the woman walk past her to the office. He registers for the night and takes the keys from the woman.

  “You and your husband should be proud. The room is beautiful,” Tom says politely.

  “I hope you enjoy your stay, tell your friends to stop here!” the woman says with a broad smile.

  Tom walks out to Swan. “I rented the room even though it’s not much better than a tent,” he says dryly. “The shower is around back in an outhouse. She said that we’ll have to be careful because it’s a common shower and bathroom for all of the rooms. We’re lucky, we got the last room they had!”

  “There are vacancy signs all down the strip! Get your money back and let’s go get a real room! I’m not sharing a shower with anyone but you!” Swan says as she gets back on the motorcycle. “Go on boy, unregister from this dump!”

  “Come on, let’s stay here and I promise to pick a nicer place next time,” Tom says as he tugs her off the bike. “It’s really not that bad.”


  Swan pouts and follows Tom to their room. Tom opens the door, gently pushes her in and closes the door behind them.

  “Wow, this is beautiful!” Swan exclaims. “I feel like I’m getting the room dirty just standing here. I wish my bedroom was this nice!”

  Tom goes out to fetch their things. He nudges the door open with his foot and finds Swan is still standing in the same place looking around.

  “You might as well strip here and go jump in the shower. Take your time, I’ll bring stuff in so that you can enjoy it,” Tom says as he sets his armload on the bed.

  Swan accepts his offer and Tom goes out for another load after the bathroom door closes. Steam sneaks from beneath the door when he brings in the last of their things. He takes off his clothes, looks in the mirror and chuckles.