Tribute to Dad

In 1995 Sean and I visited my Dad in the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia where he lived at the time. He and I went ice skating together at the Stone Mountain Ice Skating Rink where he was volunteering as a rink guard. The ice was almost empty and at age 70 we did our usual trick, a shoot-the-duck for the last time together.

We did ice skate one more time together when he last visited his family up north, but I had to tie his skates, as he was by then suffering from profound Alzheimer’s dementia. He complemented me on the job I did and I told him I was trained by the best. He laughed.

He had skated all his life. When he was a little kid he skated with a circus in Austria. He used to do a shoot-the-duck through the legs of the clowns. He came to New York City and was a skate guard at Rockefeller Center, lived in Lake Placid and skated with many athletes and stars. He taught skating for nothing and for classes for years. He was extremely generous with his gift. He met my mother on the ice in Central Park. When I was a kid, we used to skate every winter weekend as a family. Dad taught me to skate.

So when I visited Lake Placid and skated for the first time since he died in 1998 of pancreatic cancer and since my brain surgery in 1999, it was exhilarating and somber at the same time. I laughed and cried while on the ice. I sped around the ice feeling shaky both physically and emotionally, and trying to find my inner balance. Sean snapped photos. I dared not try any tricks. I felt so alone. Yet, I could feel my Dad watching with approval. “There is my little girl”, he was saying, “on the ice. See her skate! Watch her go! So brave after her surgery! She is alive and still skating! What a survivor!”

That is what he would have wanted for me. To keep going in spite of the adversity that life deals us. He was that way too. A survivor. Just keep going around that ice, no matter what happens, we are each of us alive today.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Movie Review - Charlie Wilson's War

I really wasn’t interested in seeing this movie, and was pleasantly surprised. Tom Hanks stars as Charlie Wilson, the Texas congressman who is a boozing philanderer that finds himself swilling single malt scotch in a Vegas hot tub with strippers in 1979 watching an unshaven Dan Rather wearing a turban in Afghanistan. Dan is talking about fighting the Soviet Union’s sophisticated arms with antiquated weapons and the resulting slaughter of native peoples on the ground and how nobody in the US knows about it.

An agitated Charlie storms back to Washington and doubles the covert budget from $5 MM to $10 MM. That is the beginning of the movie. He then meets with the wealthy conservative Christian Texan Joanne Herring, played by Julia Roberts who supports the Afghan cause. He also meets firebrand CIA Afghan desk operative Gust Avrakotos, played superbly by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Other roles I enjoyed watching were Strategic Weapons Expert Mike Vickers played by Christopher Denham, and Charlie’s office gals, notably including Shiri Appleby from Roswell. The film is directed by Mike Nichols.

Charlie visits Afghanistan and is shocked by the appalling state of affairs there and the do nothing and make no waves attitudes at the US Embassy. The plot thickens as more countries who are typically sworn enemies become involved in the covert plot to arm the Afghan mujahedeen so they may shoot down Russian helicopters without US help being detected. Over the next 10 years the Russians are defeated by the mujahedeen as the covert budget grows to $2 billon dollars. Eventually the Berlin wall is taken down marking the end to the cold war. Who would have thought that this would be a feel good movie?

Between Hank’s and Hoffman’s acting and scenes in the Middle East that were also brilliantly cast, most notably Om Puri as President Zia, I was thoroughly entertained. The whole movie just flew by. But then I wondered at the truth of the whole thing. This all happened during the Reagan years. All I could think of was that this was another Iran-Contra plot and I assumed that Charlie Wilson was another Oliver North. This whole affair could have been planned by the staunchly conservative anti-communist Reagan administration. But, it seems that Charlie Wilson does exist, and has co-written a book, so does Joanne Herring and Gust Avrakotos (see photo above). Did Reagan know? I suppose we could ask Charlie.

The movie ends with Charlie being denied $1 MM to build a school in Afghanistan and noting in retrospect at a party that we fucked up the end game.

Here is the movie preview:

I give this movie

**** of five stars.

Fair View Welcomes Angelo's Dark Side

Join me in welcoming Angelo of Angelo's Dark Side as a new link! Below you can see the screen image he uses:



I hope that is really his tattoo, because I really think it is cool.

I am very excited about adding Angelo because he is also an ardent fan of Francesco D'Macho and even has a link on Francesco's blog. Angelo pours over the internet looking for photos of Francesco and hits pay dirt and posts them on his blog. Here are some of his finds:

Francesco with Martin Mazza

Francesco recently at the Billy Club with Jean Franco

Isn't that a fantastic set of photos?

Angelo also posts about other porn stars. His blog is not to be missed. So add Angelo's Dark Side to list of blogs to visit every day.

The Demise of Dragon Fish

I really didn't want to be a bummer during the holiday season, but one of my pond koi died this past week. He was the biggest fish I had, my yellow matsuba koi (see photograph below). He was over 2 feet long and I had him for over 20 years. I noticed he wasn't doing well the week before last and pulled him out to see if there was anything I could do to help him out. Seeing there wasn't, I put him back to let him live out his final days. Yesterday, I took him out and he was dead. I decided not to do an autopsy. This is the first fish I have had that hasn't made it through a winter.



I have selected the following Haiku poem to honor his passing:

fish under water -
the illusion of words
we think we know

François Sagat Photos

Enjoy these images from François Sagat's photo blog. Click to enlarge.







He is truly a beautiful man. I really miss his blog and hope he begins it again soon. In the meantime, take care François, we are thinking of you.

François Sagat Lebanon

Friday Fantasy - Part 15, Ecuadorian Equinox

So with little faith, I kept shooting the machine gun past the heavy bark of the kapok tree behind which I was hiding. So did Pete. Oscar lay back bleeding slowly from his shoulder wound and Cristo was tied up and worrying over him. Time went by at a snail’s pace and the moon rose in the sky and brightened a bit in color to near white, lighting the forest more brightly as it did. Now it was a foggy, ghostly white.

Suddenly, we heard some shots from a different direction in the forest, and one of the guerrillas that had been shooting at us cried out in pain and stopped shooting. We heard “Hector, son usted bien?” Then there were more shots from the other direction and that voice too was silenced. Pete pulled up his machine gun and smiled at me.

“Stop firing Sue.”

There was total silence for a full five minutes. Pete said “Austin, Chuck are you guys here?”

“Yes Sir!”, they both replied.

“Mr. B are you here?”

And from behind us came the answer “Yes Pete, I am here.”

“Mr. B carefully walk forward and join us with your head down please.”

He did. I immediately put down my weapon and hugged him tight.

“There is no time for that Dr. Fairview. Pick up your weapon and cover me!”

“Yes Sir!”, said I, and I complied with his order.

Then Pete cautiously walked out from the cover to join Austin and Chuck where the dead guerrillas were. They stripped them of their guns and water and whatever food they had. Then they came back to join us in our circle of kapok trees.

Water was passed around and everybody was really thirsty. Pete went over to look at Oscar’s gun shot wound. The bullet had gone right through, but he needed surgery. Certainly, he would not be able to walk very far with a wound like that. At least the bleeding was controlled. A pressure bandage was cobbled together and applied. But, we had no real medicines with us. They were all at base camp. Oscar had to get to a doctor as soon as possible.

We ate all of the food we had and scouted the area for more fruit. Nobody had any rice with them. With all of the gun fire, we had pretty much scared all of the mammals away, so hunting was out of the question. Sleep was one thing we could do. It was quite late when we were ready for that; around 3:00 in the morning.

I felt so weird. After expending all this energy to run for my life, I had just come off of the biggest adrenaline rush of my life, and not having had enough protein to eat; now I was supposed to sleep. I was dog tired physically. I felt shaky. I just wanted to be held by a big strong man. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was still scared. I knew I was safer now than I had been for days, but who thinks of things logically in these situations? My eyes found Pete and I tried to communicate all of this without saying it to him. But I knew that Mr. Butterfly would want to be close to me tonight and I couldn’t really blame him for that. But, Pete took command of the situation and I had nothing to fear.

Pete said “This is how we are going to sleep tonight. Austin will take first watch. Chuck will take second watch. I will guard Dr. Fairview, since she is the potential hostage out here. Come and sleep by me Dr. Fairview.”

So, that settled it and I moved to be near Pete. We had no blanket to sleep on, but we slept like spoons and he put his huge arm over me and drew me in close so that I could feel his big warm body down the entire length of mine. He breathed into my ear and it was very reassuring. I felt his erection in no time. But, he was mature about it and didn’t rub it into me or anything like that. We were both way too tired for that sort of thing anyhow. Hmm. Maybe some other time I thought to myself. Still, I began to tremble. I couldn’t control it, I guess it was from fatigue and pent up fear. He stroked my arm and reassured me in his deep voice that everything was okay and I had done really well today. Then the trembling stopped. I was so warm and cosy next to him that I was in the land of nod in no time.

Then next thing I remember was hearing static on the radio. It was morning. Everybody was up except for me and Oscar. The sun was trying to break through the persistent cloud cover of the rain forest. The birds were making their usual morning racket. Austin was in touch with the Ecuadorian Army. They were going to be arriving via helicopter and hiking to us within a half hour. They were going to land in a clearing not far from where we were and collect the dead guerrillas as well as Cristo and Oscar. We were going to wait for them to arrive and then hike with them to their chopper to pick up enough supplies to get us back to base camp.

It seemed like no time at all and 8 or so Ecuadorian Army personnel were with us. They put the two dead Columbians into greyish body bags and onto stretchers so that they could be carried out. Oscar was being looked at by a doctor, given some morphine and put on a stretcher and an IV of saline and an antibiotic had been placed on his chest. Cristo was led away in handcuffs. The Ecuadorians looked rather fresh compared to us. I really could have used a good night’s sleep on a real bed and a shower at this point, but that was a long way off. Pete told them about the dead Columbian guerrilla in the cave and gave them the coordinates.

Off we trudged to the helicopter, which was just “two clicks south”, as Austin put it. We kept a steady and reasonable pace. Thank goodness no one was looking for speed out of me today. It took about 35 minutes of walking through dense vegetation to get to the clearing where the chopper had landed.

The bodies were loaded on the skids and Oscar was put inside with Cristo and all of the Ecuadorian Military men. We were given rations of food and bottled water to last us until we got back to the camp at 3200 meters north, where there was a rice store and a water source. There should be no problem reaching there later today.

We bid farewell to Oscar, who had saved our asses numerous times and even taken a bullet for us. I would have to make it a point to visit him when I came back through Quito on my way out of Ecuador.

So now it was just Austin, Chuck, Pete, Mr. Butterfly and me left in our party. We decided to have breakfast right there and so made a fire to make some coffee using the precious bottled water and helped ourselves to the Ecuadorian field rations, which were pretty uninspiring. We just had to hunt again and use Pete’s special spice, which he told us he had brought with him. So, having our mission laid out, we stood and set out for the camp at 3200 meters north.

We hiked due north for the 2 clicks we had come south, which we covered much more quickly now that the Ecuadorian Army had cleared them a bit, and then continued per the GPS coordinates as followed by Chuck and Austin the night before. We arrived back in 4 hours at an easy pace. It was only 2:00 in the afternoon. It was great to see the old camp again. I felt like it had been ages since I had been there, but it had only been three days.

I was a bit over warm from the walking and my first thought was a nice bath in our pristine little pool of water edged in moss. I just wanted to get naked and hop in. So that is what I told the boys I was going to do. Let them sort out what they were going to do. I had some clean clothes still at this camp where I had left them and I couldn’t wait to bathe and get changed into them. So, I stripped naked, not caring in the least who saw me. I felt dirty from not bathing in three days. I guess I noticed Pete glancing over a bit. I kind of giggled to myself that he was trying to be inconspicuous about looking.

Suddenly, he said “I think I’ll join you Sue.” With that he began to undress too.

Austin said that he planned to go hunting and Chuck said that he would hunt also.

Pete said “Now don’t you boys be shooting each other.” Then he laughed hard. I tittered because it was funny to think that these experienced soldiers would accidentally shoot each other.

Mr. Butterfly said that he would be taking a siesta in the tent.

I grabbed my towel and headed for the pool and Pete followed bringing one of the guy’s towels. We reached the pool, and the water had warmed a bit in the sun and was very pleasant. I was able to get in all the way all at once and so did Pete. I hunkered down to rinse my hair and face. Man, did that feel great!

“God, isn’t this heaven Pete?” Then I sighed very deeply.

“Better than yesterday, huh?”

“What isn’t?”

“Yesterday was tough. Even for an old bastard like me. But we got through it, just you and me. And now here we are in paradise.”

“Yup, paradise. That is what this is. Beautiful country. I just love it here.”

“Just one thing missing.”

“Oh, what is that Pete?”

“This.” And then he leaned over to me and began to kiss me gently on the mouth. He raised his big hand and held onto my jaw with his thumb and index finger as he slid his tongue between my lips. I opened wide for him, as wide as I could to show him how much I wanted him. The message was not lost on him. He slid his body closer to me in the water and pulled me on to his lap with his free hand. My ass was now on his crotch. I could feel his hard on grow underneath me. I put one arm around his thick neck and the other tweaked the nipple on one side of his massive chest. He grabbed my breast with his free hand and massaged it. I was already beginning to breathe hard. God, I just had to have sex with him soon.

He groaned and his hand moved down to grab my ass. His mouth moved towards my breast and I murmured “Tell me you brought condoms.”

He winked in response and fished around his towel producing a pack. He stood in the water and opened them with his teeth. He motioned for me to stand also. As I did he donned the condom on his erection. There was a sloped rock that rose from the water and he laid me across it. Then he continued to suck on my breast and finger my crotch. I reached down and played with his nuts. It didn’t take me long to get hot again and soon I was begging him to fuck me. His cock was good sized and fit tightly inside me. But then he asked me to roll over and that was when it got really good. He really got animated when he could see my ass as he was fucking me. It was so awesome. He was a beast! He just grabbed my hips and thrust in and out with such force that I felt like a little rag doll being used as his toy and I loved every moment of it. He tossed me around on his dick as if I weighed nothing. Use me, abuse me and I love it. It is just inexplicable. I climaxed repeatedly throughout our “lovemaking”. He could feel it too and it spurred him on. He knew I was getting off on what he was doing and enjoying it as much as he was. He didn’t need to ask. Finally, with a repressed grunt, he came and then he pulled out quickly to take off the condom and wash the jism into the pool of water. I felt so empty, but he turned me around and gave me a huge hug and he took me back down into the water and held me tight.

* * *

Mr. Butterfly was restless as he lay down for his nap. He was really feeling like a fifth wheel. That was why he stayed here at camp. It was obvious that Austin and Chuck wanted to go hunting together and Pete and Sue needed some alone time at the pool. They were probably going to get it on. Good for Sue. She deserved a bit of fun after all she had been through. But that did leave him feeling like a bit of a fifth wheel. He was well into feeling sorry for himself when he heard a faint noise from outside of the tent. Then the zipper began to open.

It was Austin, sneaking in. Well now, thought the young explorer, this was a welcome sight! Had the young ex-Marine come back for seconds? The young explorer pretended to be asleep.

Austin tapped the young explorer on the shoulder and said “Mr. B, I was getting lonely for my gal again, and I thought maybe we could talk about it.”

The young explorer, pretending to have just wakened replied “Oh, what, again?”

“Yes, remember, like the other day?”

“Oh yeah, sure. Go ahead Austin.”

“Yeah. Well, I really miss Diane. That is her name. We are supposed to marry when I get back home from this trip. Her big tits and fire crotch really get me going. When I am inside her, her snatch just milks my cock dry. See, I am hard as a rock again! Put your hand on it and see for yourself.”

The young explorer could not resist such an invitation, so he did as this young ex-Marine commanded, unzipped his fly and put his hand on the erect penis he found. Austin gasped a bit, but settled right down when the other man began to stroke it. Austin’s breathing settled to a rhythmic pace that matched the stroking. In short order, the young explorer moved down to undo Austin’s web belt and pull down his camo pants. He had decided to give him a proper blow job with all the bells and whistles this time. The young explorer figured that Austin could deal with his own denial.

So he went at it. He slobbered as usual, gave Austin a full nut licking and sucking, but still stayed away from Austin’s anus. Austin just moaned and writhed with pleasure during the whole thing. In no time he shot his creamy load all over his six pack abs and chest. The young explorer quickly dropped his own pants and jerked off onto Austin’s abs also. Austin watched this with fascination.

There was a rifle shot in the distance. Austin said “Chuck must have got our dinner! I have got to go. I can’t be seen here!”

“Okay, whatever.”, replied Mr. Butterfly dejectedly.

Austin pulled up his camos, unzipped the tent and there coming back just in time to witness his exit were Pete and Sue returning from the pool in their towels.

Happy Boxing Day with Pedro & Daniel

Here are Pedro Andreas & Daniel Marvin and some of their pals wishing you a Happy Boxing Day!



Don't they have cute round butts? So check out their blog, link in sidebar.

Holiday Message from Francesco D'Macho

Hello Friends of Fair View Sue. Sue has asked me to tell you that today she goes to see her family on Long Island. She wishes you all Happy Holidays and hopes that the season will bring peace on earth and that your holiday is safe and warm.


(Francesco never said any of this - my apologies Francesco)

Figgy Pudding

Remember hearing this song?

We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Good tidings we bring to you and your kin;
Good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer

We won't go until we get some;
We won't go until we get some;
We won't go until we get some, so bring some out here

Did you ever wonder what figgy pudding was? I did. So I googled it and found this recipe:

Traditional Figgy Pudding
16 oz. dried Calimyrna figs (the light brown ones, not the black ones)
1 3/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cup AP flour
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1 tablespoon grated orange peel

Hard Sauce:
1 1/2 cup confectioner's (powdered) sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) softened
2 tablespoons brandy
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Grease a 2 1/12 quart bundt pan with spray or butter.

Cut stems from figs and discard. Cut figs into 1/4" dice

In a a medium saucepan, heat milk and figs over medium-low heat but do NOT bring to a boil. Cook for 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally. The figs will perfume the milk and the milk will soften the figs.

The mixture may look curdled, but don't worry.

In a medium bowl (not your mixer's bowl, we'll use that next), mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt.

In your mixers bowl, beat eggs one minute on high. Reduce speed to low and add butter, bread crumbs, orange peel, and warm fig mixture.

Slowly incorporate flour mixture. Beat until just blended.

Pour/spoon the mix into the greased bundt pan. If using an intricate mold/pan, push mix deep into all crevices so it will take the shape when baked. Level top as much as possible. Giving the pan a half twist back and forth will sometimes help the mix find a nice level surface.

Cover the mold with a piece of aluminum foil greased on one side, greased side down.

Place the mold in a roasting pan and place on oven rack. fIll with hot tap water 2 inches up the side of the mold.

Bake for 2 hours or until the pudding is firm and it is pulling away from the side of the bundt pan.

Now, make the sauce. With a mixer, mix all the sauce ingredients together until creamy.

Remove the pudding from the water bath. Remove the foil and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before unmolding. Invert bundt pan onto a serving plate/cake stand and remove mold. It should come away easily.

Serve warm with sauce. The sauce is more like frosting at room temperature, but if you heat it a bit, it will melt. I liked it more frosting-like.

Since I am going to Mom's for Christmas, I decided to bring some figgy pudding with me to treat my family. But I have never made it before, so I needed a dry run. I baked it last night for a Christmas party at a friend's house and it was a big hit! Everybody loved it!

I very much recommend making figgy pudding for the holidays, but if you do, don't go until you get some!

Sagat's Tattoo

Friday Fantasy - Part 14, Ecuadorian Equinox

“Fuck!”, shouted Oscar.

“Don’t move or the next one is for you Cristo!”, yelled Pete. “Oscar, grab his gun!”

But Oscar had already begun to move away from Cristo to grab his machine gun. Cristo was frozen on his knees and now put his hands up.

“Stay right here until I call for you.”, said Pete to me and he put a huge hand on my head to emphasize the message. I nodded to show I would. Then he got up and ran down the slope to where Oscar and Cristo were. Oscar was holding Cristo at gun point. Both men were naked.

Pete ran past them to see if the new guerrilla was dead. While there, he grabbed the machine gun and a pistol from the body and slung them over his shoulder. He then turned and joined Oscar and Cristo. He held Cristo at gun point while both men got dressed. Oscar armed himself, and Cristo was put in plastic cuffs before Pete called for me to come down from where I was. Oscar and I dragged the dead guerrilla into the cave so that no one would find him anytime soon.

Pete said to Cristo “Do you think this guy was a scout and that means that the other guys are right behind him? Or do you think that he was going to report back to them?”

“I have no idea what it means that Alberto was here. But if I were you I would not hang around here too long find out. My comrades know this location well as we have used it before and they knew I was coming here with the woman.”, replied Cristo very honestly and gesturing to me. There was no need for him to mislead us, we could have guessed as much.

“Sound advice.”, said Oscar nodding his head sadly.

Pete just frowned and shook his head.

“Fuck. We are so fucked. I didn’t want to, but we now have to use the radio. I will use a different channel, but we risk that the guerrillas will hear what we are saying and be able to locate us and know what happened.” Without further ado, Pete took out his radio and contacted Austin at the 3200 meters north camp.

“Snoopy this Charlie Brown. Come in.” A little bit of time went by and some radio static but then…

“Snoopy here. Over.”

“We have Woodstock and are heading for the dog house. Meet us halfway by heading towards GPS coordinates as follows… We met with the red baron, but he is down. We anticipate more interference. Radio Ecuadorian Army stat for assistance. Over.”

“Message received. We will head for GPS coordinates immediately and radio for help. Snoopy out. Over.”

Pete turned to me and pulled an automatic pistol out of the new guerrilla’s thigh holster that he had taken off the body. “I read your bio and I know that you have some limited shooting experience. I would not do this unless it was completely necessary. This is an automatic pistol with 24 rounds in the clip. This is the safety. Rule number one: don’t shoot us. If this is not enough bullets, we are done for. Got it?”

“Yes Sir.”, I said as I took the thigh holster that had been on the new guerrilla and used it. It was a bit loose, but I adjusted the sturdy nylon straps to fit me. I sure hoped I didn’t have to use it.

“Okay everybody let’s book it out of here.”, commanded Pete. Off we went at a forced march that was a bit quick for me. I had a time of it keeping up and we were going to keep this pace for quite a time today, at least until we met up with “Snoopy” and the boys. I took a deep breath and gritted my teeth. I dug down deep inside myself; I had to do this to stay alive today.

* * *

Austin was really trying hard to sleep. What had he done, and how would he live with it? His body felt the relief of sexual tension, but his mind was tortured. Was he gay because he let a man blow him? Shit, it had felt so good at the time. But now, he just couldn’t reconcile it in his mind. He tried so hard not to think too much about it, but he kept coming back to it. He desperately needed something else to think about.

The radio static and crackle of an incoming call from Pete was just the perfect answer to his prayers. Mr. Butterfly was there and heard the entire exchange. After the call, Austin called Chuck down from watch.

“Chuck I just received a call from Pete. He has rescued Dr. Fairview and has killed one guerrilla. They are fleeing to these coordinates and want us to proceed to same ASAP to meet them in case they are being followed. I’m going to radio the Ecuadorian Army for assistance.” Then he did just that.

“Ready yourselves for departure. Mr. B, have you ever shot a gun?”, asked Austin.

“Um, once. I shot a pellet rifle with some pals on a dare.”

Austin made a deep sigh as he handed him a pistol. “Be very careful with this. Here is the safety. Don’t point it at a person unless you are going to shoot them. There are 8 bullets in the clip. We are going to move out a quicker pace than yesterday as the need is more urgent. Everybody ready? Let’s go.”

Mr. Butterfly’s adrenaline was pumping so he was ready to run at a faster pace than the trot he had getting to the 3200 meters north camp. He had to save Sue. He was a bit surprised at the controlled, yet quicker pace that Austin set for them though. He thought he could run faster, but for how long? Austin had experience here. So he just followed at the pace set for him.

* * *

Pete kept thinking back to the hug. He couldn’t keep his mind on the trail. This pace was easy enough for him and that was why his mind was wandering. Why was he so turned on? He rescued Dr. Fairview and then she insisted on hugging him. Sigh. God she was so cute and sexy. That ass! He had to resist mightily not to grab handfuls of that action. He just wanted to drag her back into that cave and have some alone time with her. Mmm. He bet he could show her a thing or two. He had noticed her before, but now, he just had to figure out a way to be alone with her. Focus on the moment. Focus Marine! No “Suzy rotten crotch” for you yet. His eyes went to the path just in time to keep himself from tripping over a moss and bromeliad covered branch. That was too close.

We kept this relentless pace for almost three hours as the sun went down and a bright orange harvest moon rose above the forest canopy. Footing was difficult to see in the persistent twilight of the rain forest. Sometime later, it became apparent that we were being pursued. There was a twig snap well behind us. Pete had moments to find a defensible position in the forest.

A Kapok tree

He chose a rise that was surrounded by kapok trees with large root bases that would surely stop machine gun fire and provide cover. There, he and Oscar set up two machine gun nests to fire upon the advancing guerrillas. Cristo was stowed behind them as was I. I would watch the rear approach. I felt faint with fear and my heart was pounding. I had never been in a gun battle before.

Pretty soon, the air was filled with bullets whizzing by. I kept my head down. We returned fire sparingly as ammunition was limited. In a lull in the fire, Pete radioed for Austin.

“Charlie Brown to Snoopy. Over.”

“Snoopy here. Can hear your gun fire. Our GPS coordinates are…. Over.”

* * *

In the distance, Mr. Butterfly could hear machine gun fire. It scared the shit out of him because he knew they were shooting at Sue and her party. Then the radio call came in and the gun fire was even louder on the radio. But they were closer than he thought. He wished his feet had wings. But he was not the one that could really help Sue, because he did not have a machine gun or the training to use one. She needed military men. But Austin and Chuck were there and fit and running at top speed, or as fast as the difficult footing allowed, towards the fire fight.

* * *

Pete radioed our coordinates and Snoopy and the Peanuts gang were closer than I would have thought. They were maybe only a half an hour away. They must have been running at full tilt to meet us. Certainly they would hurry now. But the guerrillas would mount a full court press while they had an advantage if they were listening in. It was just as I had thought and the hail of bullets rained harder.

I felt so useless with my tiny pistol which I had not bothered firing. I looked at Pete and he was busy shooting as was Oscar. Suddenly, Oscar stayed up too long to get a shot and was hit in the left shoulder. The impact threw him back a few feet. I rushed over to see to him. He said that he would be okay and brushed me away.

Cristo whispered “Son usted bien Bebé?”

Oscar just gave him a look.

Pete called to me.

“Sue, pick up his machine gun. Oscar can take care of himself. We have got to hold them off for another 15 minutes until the guys get here. Hold the machine gun like this so it doesn’t kick back on you. Gently fire one round at a time. Don’t aim or look. Just point it at the bushes over there. That is where they are.”

“Yes Sir.” I replied in such a way to give Pete confidence, if only it would work on me though. I was scared shitless.

So, I took Oscar’s position and gun and gently fired one shot at a time in the general direction indicated by Pete. At least I was in the fire fight. I was going to have to be careful what I wished for. When would the boys get to us? Would we be able to hold out for that long? Where was the Ecuadorian Army?

Gavin & Boyd by Tassos

Photo credit: Tassos, the Greek Brazilian Boy