The Nation Chronicles: Book Two (The Nation Chronicles Trilogy 2)

depend upon where you wanted to live, not just me. I don't think I would want to live in a city though. I like it here...It's peaceful. Really nice, and it's also special to me. I mean, I've been with women before, well, girls I guess, at least mentally, but at the time that was my mind set too so I guess I was the same. But I've never made love to anyone, and I was almost to the point where I thought I never would... I really do love you. I guess if anyone asked me if something like this could happen I would have had to have said no, but not now. Now I know better. I love you, and that's the difference between just sex, and making love. Sounds corny, right? But, it's true. Would you want to live here? Or someplace like here?"

Becky lay on her back, staring up into the diamond studded sky. She rolled over and propped herself up on one elbow next to him as she spoke.

"Not like this place," she said, "this place. It used to be a state park, but now it's just a nice lake. Nobody owns it anymore. Joe, I would like to come back, if you want to. I'd like to live here; you know, build a house and live here. You could do it, and you could teach me how so I could help you build it. This place is special to me too. Joe, I've never made love to a man in my life. That other stuff, what I was, was nothing. It wasn't anything that ever held any sort of feeling for me at all. Do you understand?" Joe turned his eyes towards her and saw that she was once again close to tears. He sat up and gently pushed her back down onto the raft.

"If this is the place you want to be, then it's the place I want to be, Becky. I want to be here too." He bent and kissed her softly, and as he did she drew him down towards her, returning his kiss. His hands slipped across her body, and she could feel his need pressing against her.

"Water's gonna boil away," she whispered through a kiss.

"Too late for tea anyhow, it'll keep us up all night," he whispered back. They made love once more as the gentle swell of the lake rocked the raft, and when they had finished they swam slowly back to the shore. Becky removed the pot from the fire, and refilled it, this time setting it to one side so it would be there in the morning when they awoke. They crawled into the tent and were asleep in each other’s arms within minutes.

The silvery moonlight shown down as they slept, the nearly full circle slowly traveling across the darkened sky.

- 2 -

They awoke early to the chatter of squirrel-talk in the trees. Gray squirrels playfully leaping through the pine branches and running up and down the thick trunks, scolding as they went.

Becky set the water to boil, once she had rekindled the fire from the still glowing coals, as Joe broke camp and quickly loaded the truck. They ate a small breakfast of the leftovers of the meal from the night before, and sipped the hot tea as the sun began to slowly peek over the tops of the trees across the lake. After they rinsed the utensils in the lake, and after dousing the fire, they climbed into the truck and drove slowly back to the main road. They both felt an urgency to be under way, and once they regained the main road Joe pointed the truck north.

The going was slow, but the farther they traveled from Seattle, the less traffic there seemed to be, and, Joe discovered, if they stayed on the shoulder they could make pretty good time.

Towards mid-morning they turned off onto state Route 82, and began to angle towards the Oregon border. The going was much easier and they found that they could keep to the pavement, most of the time, which allowed them to make even better time.

Late afternoon found them in the small city of Hermiston just inside the Oregon border, and Joe drove the truck into the parking lot of a large shopping mall on the outskirts.

The mall served as an anchor for several large department stores, and a large grocery chain. There were several other specialty shops scattered throughout the mall. They stocked up on canned goods, as well as several packages of freeze dried meats from a sporting goods store in the mall. Becky wandered across the empty mall to a clothing store, and Joe walked off towards a small shop he had spotted as she picked out some clothing for both of them. By the time they had finished it was late in the afternoon. They left the small city behind, and continued into Oregon until they picked up Route 84. Just before nightfall they reached the Wallowa National Forest and Joe pulled the truck off onto one of the dirt roads of the park and found a place to park among the trees. He unloaded the truck and set up camp, as Becky made dinner. She experimented with canned meat along with some of the freeze dried food, and the result was a tasty stew-like dish.

"Where did you learn to cook, Becky?" he asked, "this is really good."

"Oh it's just a little something I threw together," she joked, as she blew lightly on her finger-tips.

"All I ever ate when I was by myself was fast food," Joe said, "and it all sort of tasted like cardboard after a while. I can't believe you made this out of that stuff we picked up today."

"Well," she said, "I did throw in some canned meat. If you think this is good, just wait until I have some decent