Ketchikan or Bust (Tom's Adventures in Alaska) Read online

  “We’ll need to put in the coil that I found, and get some new tires. After that we’ll need to put some miles on it. If it’ll run out to Vic’s yard, we’ll hang some saddlebags so that we’ve got room to haul our stuff.” Tom explains between bites. “I need to put a clutch in a truck for Vic to pay for the bags but that won’t take too long. We should be ready to go by tomorrow if we get busy and keep after it. Then we’ll just need to round up a tarp to sleep under and a couple of sleeping bags. Do you have rain gear?”

  “Of course I’ve got rain gear. I live on a fucking island, it’s always raining here.” Swan exclaims. “I’ve already rounded up the sleeping bags and I made sure that they zip together. I’ve got a small tent that I used to use to go camping. It should be compact enough to tie on somewhere. Let’s finish up here and run the bike down for tires. I saw the coil hanging from the handle bars after you left last night so I put it in. You can check my work if you want but my daddy didn’t raise no prissy little bitch!” Swan smiles. “I’ll help you put in that clutch even though it’ll burn my ass to do anything for Vic!”

  They finish eating and sit for a few minutes while they finish their coffee and chat about the day in front of them. Tom slips a twenty under his plate for a tip and they head out of the restaurant. Swan saddles in close to Tom and hooks her thumb into his belt loop as they cross the street to the truck. Tom slides in next to Swan. She starts the truck and heads toward her house. She swings onto the gravel and runs up the hill, skidding to a stop inches from the front of her house. She smiles at Tom and hops out. Tom kicks the bike a few times and it rumbles to life. Swan swings her leg over the seat and grabs Tom around his waist. Tom looks back at her and smiles.

  “Bible Don made me promise that you’d wear a helmet,” Tom says loud enough to be heard over the roar of the bike.

  “I don’t wear a bra and I don’t wear a helmet! I want to feel the wind in my hair and the bugs in my teeth. Grandpa ain’t going to dictate how I live no more than he’ll let me tell him what to do!” Swan replies. “If you want to feel my tits pressed into your back you won’t mention a helmet again!

  Tom lets out the clutch and heads down the hill. They run up the highway a few blocks to the tire shop and window shop in the mall across the street while the tires are being installed. Tom pays for the tires and they head to Bell’s Flats. Swan holds Tom tight as they ride down the highway and rests her chin on his shoulder. He feels her hair whip in the wind and decides not to mention the helmet again. They lean into the corners as if they were a single rider. The bike comes to life and runs better every mile; it seems to be happy to be on the road again. Tom pulls up in front of the shop and shuts the bike off.

  “So we’re going to mount those on the back?” Swan asks. “If you can scrounge up some paint, I’ll clean them up and get them ready.”

  Tom heads to the door of the shop.

  “Hey Tom!” Swan calls.

  Tom turns to see her sitting backwards, spread eagled on the edge of the seat with one foot on each turn signal. “Are you sure that you want to mount them on here? It’ll get in the way of you mounting me on here!” Swan says with a laugh. “Sorry to make things so hard all of the time, I like catching you off guard.”

  Tom stands for a minute shaking his head. As much as he’d like to jump her on the seat, they have a lot of work to do. He walks into the shop, looks for a few seconds and starts to dig around. It takes ten minutes to find a sheet of sandpaper and a can of red spray paint. Swan steps gingerly through the junk and takes the sandpaper and paint from Tom. She blocks the exit and shakes the can violently. Tom smiles as he watches her shake the paint- her whole body jiggles, especially her tits. She smiles at him and shakes the can a bit harder to exaggerate the animation. Tom wonders if they’re going to get anything done. She turns and heads out of the shop, still shaking the can. Tom follows.

  “You get busy with that clutch, I’ll work on these things. If we’re going to meet that ferry, we’ve got to stay focused. If you can stay as focused on doing the clutch as you are on my tits, we’ll be done in no time,” Swan says with a cheesy grin on her face.

  Tom stops for a moment to collect his thoughts and decides he better put his thoughts aside until the clutch is done. He slides under the truck to assess the job, slips back out and heads back into the shop for tools. He digs around and throws the tools he thinks he’ll need into a leather tool bag. He carries the bag to the truck and slips it under, just behind the front tire. Tom crawls back under the truck and removes the drive shaft. He unbolts the bell housing and removes the bolts from the rear cross member but leaves the mount in place. Tom supports the engine with a jack and a block of wood and then straps a piece of angle iron to the frame under the front of the transmission. He pries the transmission back a few inches and leaves it hanging on the angle iron. He unbolts the pressure plate and lifts the clutch from the space between the engine and transmission. He shoves it out from underneath and rolls out the other side.

  Tom opens the door of the truck and retrieves the new clutch from on the front seat where Vic said it would be. He compares it to the one he’d just pulled out and then sets the new clutch on top of the tool bag. He crawls under the truck and hoists the new clutch into place. He struggles to start the first couple of bolts and finger tightens all of them. He centers the clutch by feeling the edge of the clutch disk and pressure plate before tightening all of the bolts. Tom forces the transmission forward and lets down the jack under the engine a bit to line the two up. They slip together so he starts the bell housing bolts. It takes Tom another half an hour to bolt everything back together and install the driveshaft. He adjusts the clutch linkage and fills the transmission with fluid before sliding out from beneath the truck one last time.

  “How are you doing there, dirty boy?” Swan asks. “Have you got the transmission ready to come out yet? I’ll crawl under there and help you.”

  “I’m done,” Tom says, smiling at Swan.

  “You can’t be done! When dad and I did a clutch in his truck it took us all day.” Swan exclaims.

  “I’m done. You can check my work if you want but my daddy didn’t raise no prissy little bitch,” Tom says. He laughs at Swan’s startled look.

  “Watch it boy! I don’t like you making fun of me!” Swan says with a serious looking frown. She holds the face for a minute then laughs at Tom’s reaction.

  Feeling annoyed, Tom walks over and kneels beside the saddlebags. The paint is dry to touch and has a nice even shine. The color is a pretty good match to the paint on the bike. Tom gives Swan a thumbs up and uses a tape measure to compare the mounting brackets on the scrap frame to the frame on the motorcycle. He fetches the bag of tools from under the truck and unbolts the brackets. He and Swan lift the saddlebags and trunk from scrap frame as a unit and hoist them over their bike to see if they’ll fit.

  “Hold on Tom, let’s set this down. I found a seat back that we should mount first. If I’m going to ride back here, I want to be comfortable!” Swan says. “It was in a box of junk so Vic won’t miss it. He probably doesn’t even remember that he has it.”

  Tom looks at the seatback and Swan sits on the seat while he bolts it on. Tom steps back to see how it looks and stands staring at Swan. The sun glistens in her hair and there’s a gleam in her eye. She catches him looking at her and flips her hair back.

  “It looks good and you look great!” he says finally.

  Swan smiles as she gets off the bike. “Then let’s mount these saddle bags and get out of here. I feel like a dirty thief out here!”

  It takes a few minutes to bolt the front brackets to the frame of the bike. They struggle to mate the saddlebag frame to them but can’t get them lined up properly. Tom looks in the shop and finds an electrician’s conduit bender that he uses to tweak the tubes on each side until they slip into the brackets. He does the same with the rear tubes until everything lines up. The saddle bags look like they were made to fit the bike.

  Swa
n opens the trunk. “The key is taped in here so we’ll be able to lock them,” she says, pointing at the key.

  Tom rips the tape away and throws it on the ground. He tries the key in all three locks and puts the key on the same ring as the motorcycle key. He looks over the bike, checks the fluids and the lights. He inspects the brakes and tops up the fork oil. Swan sits on the seat and watches him check things over while reading the manual to give him instructions. They make a good team.

  “It looks like all we’ll need to do is pack up and get a license plate. It’s been a pretty productive day,” Tom says. “I’ve never seen a girl get as dirty as you are. I think we both need a shower.”

  Chapter Nine

  Tom wakes up before dawn. The twilight of the northern sky illuminates the room in a ghostly glow. Tom wonders where he is and looks around the room. He soon realizes that this is the first night he’s spent in Swans bedroom. They’d been so tired the night before that he just stumbled into the room, crawled into bed and fell asleep almost instantly. He contemplates getting up but decides that waiting until Swan wakes up will be better for his soul. He lies next to her and listens to her breath. Her hair tickles his skin with each breath. She seems content sleeping with her head on his chest and he’s content to have her there. Tom gives her a gentle squeeze. She moans gently, presses her breasts into him and gives him a hug with the hand stretched across his chest. She pulls her hand back to the middle of his chest and twirls his chest hair around her finger. Tom’s not sure whether she’s awake or not but decides to just enjoy the moment. She continues to play for a few minutes before her breath deepens and her hand goes limp. He caresses her back and marvels at how soft her skin is. Tom lies still for a long time holding Swan close as the room grows light.

  “Morning, Love,” she says. “I was wondering if you were awake or not. I’m glad you decided to stay here last night instead of going down the hill to sleep at Vic’s. It’s nice to have you wake up in my bed, I could get used to this. Did you sleep ok?”

  “I slept better last night than I have in quite a while. It’s the first time I’ve waken up in a real bed for what seems like months,” Tom replies, “and waking up next to someone who smells as good as you do made it the best morning I’ve probably ever had.”

  “You just like that I smell like sweaty sex,” she says with a big grin, “and you make me smell like that.”

  “I didn’t see you pushing me away! It seems to me that you were a pretty active participant!” Tom says laughing. “When you pushed me down so you could be on top, I took that as you really wanted to take charge rather than quit!”

  Swan rolls on top of Tom and looks him in the eye. “Are you saying that I’m greedy? That it’s bad for me to take what I want? What do you think? Should I let this morning wood go to waste? Granny told me to never waste a good hard on because you never know when you’re going to get another,” she says as she rocks back and forth on top of him. “Should I get up now so that I don’t come across as greedy or do you think we can agree that it’s your fault that I smell like this? Personally, I could go either way, ride you until I scream or leave you here so frustrated you want to scream.”

  Swan runs naked down the hall and beats Tom to the shower. She reaches in and turns on the water. “Should I wash off this morning sex and put on some perfume or would you prefer me to smell musky all day?”

  Tom pushes her into the shower and follows her in. he nudges her into the stream of water and lathers her up. She washes her hair and rinses and then steps aside to let him under the water. Tom tips his head back under the shower head to get his hair wet. He rubs the water from his eyes, looks around and Swan’s gone. He peeks around the end of the curtain as she walks out of the bathroom. He lathers up quickly and finishes his shower. He steps from the shower, wraps a towel around his waist and goes to look for her.

  “Sorry about that! It’s so cramped in that shower that I had to get out of there. Besides, I’m not sure if I could stay in there much longer without getting really frisky. Having you lather me up like that almost sent me through the roof,” Swan says shyly. “The truth is, I wasn’t that experienced before I met you. The little I know I got from romance novels. ”

  Tom pulls her in close and holds her for a minute. “Neither was I honey, neither was I. I had a couple of platonic girlfriends that I hung around with more than anything. But there was no one who made my heart race every single time I looked at them and none of them were as stunningly beautiful as you are. You make me feel like you’re the first girl I’ve ever kissed.”

  Swan looks up at him. “Really? I thought you’d have had every girl trying to get into your pants as soon as they discovered boys. I know that if you’d have been here I’d have chased you just to keep the other girls away.”

  Tom nudges her toward the kitchen. “Let’s have some breakfast. We’ve got a lot to do so that we can have the evening free.”

  They fix a simple breakfast and spend the day running around to get ready for their trip the next morning. They find that preparing for a long trip through the Alaskan wilderness on a motorcycle takes a lot of planning and even more negotiation than either of them thought it would. It’s early in the evening when they ride the motorcycle up the hill to finish packing things into the trunk and saddlebags for their trip. When they get up to the house, Vic is sitting in his truck waiting for Tom.

  “Come here boy, I need to talk to you!” Vic calls out the window.

  Tom walks over and leans against the little truck.

  “I don’t appreciate you going out to my shop and taking those saddlebags without fulfilling your end of the bargain. Either give me the cash or put the clutch in the truck! That was the deal!” Vic says angrily. “I don’t like people taking advantage of my good nature!”

  Tom leans in close to the window. “I put the clutch in yesterday,” he says dryly. “If you want to waste my time, we can drive out right now so that you can check.”

  “You bet your ass we’re going to go check! There ain’t no way you got that clutch done that quick. Get in!” Vic exclaims.

  “No sir, I’ll follow you out on the bike.” Tom says to Vic. He looks at Swan. “Come on Honey, we’ve got one more thing to do before we can enjoy our evening.”

  Tom starts the motorcycle and Swan hops on the seat behind him. They follow Vic out to Bell’s Flats and pull into the drive a couple of minutes after Vic because he’d stirred up so much dust that they had to stop to let it clear. Tom pulls into the yard and turns around so that he can ride straight out the way they’d came. He gets off the bike and walks over to the truck. Vic is in the driver’s seat with the engine running. Vic backs up a few feet and pulls forward again.

  “Holy shit son, I can’t believe that you got it done. If I’d put it in I wouldn’t have been able to get it done for a couple of days.” Vic says in a humble voice. “And it sure wouldn’t feel this good.”

  “A deals a deal, are we square?” Tom asks.

  Vic reaches into his truck and holds out a letter to Tom. “Yeah, we’re square. Are you expecting a letter from Texas?”

  Tom takes the letter and tucks it into his back pocket, ignoring Vic’s question. “Remember that you owe me fifty bucks for doing the clutch. We’re hitting the ferry in the morning and we’ve still got a lot to do so if you’re done with me, we’re going to take off.”

  “You were serious about taking a vacation?” Vic asks. “I thought you were joking so I’ve got a lot of work lined up for you to do. You know that motorcycle isn’t ready for a long trip, you’ll need to ride it for a few weeks to get used to it.”

  “Come on Swan, let’s go,” Tom says. “See you in a couple of weeks Vic.”

  Swan gives Vic a little wave as they ride away. Tom turns left on the pavement and accelerates toward Kodiak. Swan wraps her arms around Tom and holds him tight. He leans the bike into the curves. Tom knows that it takes trust to be a good passenger. He knows also that this isn’t her first time on a mo
torcycle but it is the first time that Tom has enjoyed having a passenger. They pull up the hill to Swan’s house and Tom shuts off the bike. As they walk into the house, Swan rests her head on his shoulder and looks up to Tom.

  “What’s in the envelope?” Swan asks. “Or is it personal?”

  “Do you remember the envelope that you gave me the day we met? I mentioned that I’d found a note in a bottle. I think that this might be the reply,” Tom says.

  Swan snatches the letter from Tom and tears the envelope open. She pulls out the letter and turns her back to Tom to read it. He tries to lean over her shoulder to read it but she shields his view by draping her hair over the paper. She folds it up and turns to him.

  “This says that you had a girlfriend who wanted the note back. Have you been two timing me?” Swan asks in an accusing voice. She stands with her hands on her hips waiting for his answer.

  Tom stutters for words, “I didn’t know how to ask for it back, I put that in there because I thought it sounded better than me wanting it. What if he wanted to keep it?”

  “So, have you been two timing me?” Swan demands.