Love in Strange Places. Anonymous

at the corners of his mouth.

      “What?”

      “You said you wanted a shower . . . well, get naked, then. This is it. Come on in.”

      With that, he parted the shower curtain and entered the platform, pulling me in after him. As I quickly shed my clothes and tossed them onto the chair, he turned some handles, and suddenly, wonderfully hot water cascaded over us.

      “How do you get hot water out here?” I asked, laughing in wonderment.

      “Solar heat,” he said. “I have a portable panel set up just over there.” He motioned with his head.

      It was the most sensuous shower I’ve ever had. We lathered each other’s bodies with our hands, caressing, stroking gently. Then, as the hot water cleansed us, Rebel embraced me tenderly, planting kisses all over my body.

      Refreshed and relaxed, we lounged on the bed afterward, wrapped in towels, and dug into the snacks he’d prepared for us. As we worked on the second bottle of wine, he lay on his side, looking at me silently. A wistful, almost sad look came into his dark eyes. As I reached out to him, he took me into his arms. Every nerve ending in my body seemed more alive than ever before. He caressed me, held me tight, and made soft, tender love to me. I slept a deep, peaceful sleep in his arms that night.

      Hours later, I woke to find him propped on his side, facing me, those black pools of his eyes reflecting the warmth of the morning sun, a sweet smile on his lips. The chirp of grasshoppers in their summer assault on the nearby fields accented the laziness I felt as I stretched out on the silken sheets. Just then, at that moment, my world was perfect. I wanted nothing more than to lie there in the summer morning and not have to move even a toe. I smiled at Rebel, then lazily closed my eyes again. His fingers traced paths up and down my body like feathers on the wind. I felt the passion begin to build inside me. Then, once again, we made love tenderly, lovingly, completely.

      “I’m not married,” he said, out of the blue, as we lay in each other’s arms afterward. There was a palpable silence. Then, very lowly, he said, “But the truth is, I almost was… once.”

      “What happened?” I asked.

      There followed a long pause, and then he said, “She left me,” and offered nothing more. His life was still a complete mystery to me, but the things I felt in his arms couldn’t, wouldn’t, be denied.

      Finally, hunger pangs reminded me that we had other human needs to tend. “If you’ll go get my bag out of my car, I’ll see what I can put together for breakfast,” I said, though I would have preferred to lie there naked with Rebel all day long.

      I pulled on one of his T-shirts and began to rummage through the small refrigerator and the cabinets in search of breakfast fixings. To my surprise, he had eggs and sausage, biscuits, coffee, and jam—even some scallions to chop into the eggs as I scrambled them. We ate, and I set about cleaning up afterward.

      Rebel sat in his chair and watched me, a strange, unreadable look on his face. Then he got up and left—without a word, without a kiss, without a gesture of any kind. He just left. The invisible barrier had slammed back into place. I had no idea why. I killed as much time as I could in the trailer, but as a couple of hours passed with nothing from Rebel, an uncomfortable, restless feeling overcame me.

      Had I been dismissed?

      Was our time together already over?

      Something clutched at my heart. Not knowing what else to do, I took my bag and headed for my car.

      But my path took me to the roller coaster, instead. As I shielded my eyes from the sun and peered skyward, I spotted Rebel up high on the scaffolding, intent on his work.

      “Rebel, I’ll be back tonight,” I called out to him.

      But he didn’t respond, simply kept on working.

      Had he heard me? I couldn’t tell. Did he want me to come back? I couldn’t tell that, either, but I did know I felt like a fool just hanging around there like a stray dog hoping for a handout. I could feel the eyes of the other carnival workers on me. What did they know? Did Rebel do this in every town they worked?