The warm summer afternoon hung lazily over the Swiss Alps, over the expansive meadow where the cows and the sheep from the village below spent their summer grazing in the luscious alpine grass dotted with wild flowers and aromatic herbs. The milk and the butter and the cheese they produced on their summer grazing ground were the best in the valley and renowned far and wide for their exquisite quality and taste.
A solitary window floated a few feet above the meadow, a clock without hands suspended in the sky, the tinkling of the cowbells the only sound in the rarefied air of the quiet afternoon.
Leonard loved the mountains. He had been coming up to the summering alp ever since he was a boy old enough to help with the cows and, later, help his father with the making of the cheese. Now he was the cheese maker himself, like his father and his grandfather before him, and proud of his work.
The massive rock formations of the mountains, heaved skyward during the violent evolution of the newly formed Earth, always made him feel protected and secure. He could have spent his life up there on the alp, were it not for the harsh alpine winters, but even his home in the village was close enough to the mountains that he was always very much aware of their presence, always felt part of their majestic power, their imposing mass.
There were five other men on the alp, three cowherds and two shepherds with their herding dogs. The men looked after the milking while the dogs kept track of the animals, so that none of them ever strayed too far. Two women completed the group – Lori, who was in charge of churning the butter, and Beatrix, who prepared all the meals in the cookhouse and served them on the long wooden table with the wooden benches. Leonard had never seen the two women before this season; they were from a town beyond the valley, up on the alp for the summer, a refreshing change from the long winter.
The men bunked together in one of the log cabins built into the slope, the women shared one of the smaller cabins, Leonard preferred to sleep in his own bed in the cabin where he made the cheese. He felt most comfortable there, and at ease with himself.
When he looked through the floating window in the meadow from the one side, he could see the clock without hands in the sky. When he looked through it from the other side, he could see Lori. She was always naked when he looked at her through the window, although he could only see her from the waist up. She had beautiful breasts. He wished he could take them into his hands, but she had never yet given him any indication that she was at all interested in him or in his hands.
She made it a habit of going for a walk after their traditional supper of thick soup, fresh bread and butter, and chunks of cheese. He noticed that she always walked past all the cabins towards a narrow tongue of forest growing down the slope, then disappeared among the trees. He kept trying to imagine her in the forest, but the window was no help. On this one beautiful evening, he summoned up all his courage and followed her up the slope and into the forest. He could see her through the trees, reclining against a gentle rise of grass beyond the forest. She had one hand on her breast, the other one between her legs.
He hadn’t meant to spy on her. He was about to turn back quietly to avoid an uncomfortable encounter when she heard him coming through the forest. She sat bolt upright and straightened her clothes, peering into the trees. He hurried through the rest of the forest and out into the meadow, apologizing profusely.
“I’m really sorry,” he stuttered. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I just came to visit with you.”
“You came to kiss me,” Lori said.
“How would you know that?” Leonard asked, taken aback. He walked up to her and put his arms around her.
“I know things,” Lori parried, putting her own arms around him.
They kissed. Leonard had never felt so good in his life. They fitted perfectly together, nibbling each other’s lips, playing with their tongues, savoring each other.
“You smell of cheese,” Lori observed when they finished kissing. “I love the smell of cheese.”
“I’m glad,” Leonard replied, putting his hand on her breast. “I love the smell of milk and grass on you.”
Lori untied the ribbon holding the top of her traditional embroidered blouse together, and Leonard slid his hand into her bra. Her breasts felt as good as they looked, fitting perfectly into his hand, melting into his hand, his hand melting into her breast, a perfect fusion, skin against skin.
“Can you see the clock in the sky?” Leonard asked, squeezing her breast, feeling her nipple harden against his palm.
“It’s always there,” Lori said.
She pulled her blouse down over her shoulders, pulled off her bra. Leonard took both of her breasts into his hands.
“It doesn’t have any hands,” he observed, stating the obvious.
“If it did,” Lori parried, “time would stand still.”
Leonard fondled her breasts, feeling the soft, tender skin against his hands. Lori sighed contentedly.
“But time doesn’t exist,” he said, taking a nipple between his fingers.
Lori moaned. “What does exist?” she asked, pressing her breast into his hand.
“Motion,” Leonard said, exerting his own pressure on her pliable mound. “And gravity, of course. Gravity always exists.”
“And you and I,” Lori added. “Here and now, in this particular place.”
She hiked her embroidered skirt up to her waist, slid her panties off, and spread her legs. Leonard moved his hand down and started to stroke her moist pussy.
“We are the moment,” he said, finding the source of her juices, parting her swollen lips. “We are part of the tableau.”
“I love being part of the tableau,” Lori moaned, arching her back, spreading her legs wider to give him better access to her treasure.
Leonard slid down the grassy slope and buried his face in her pussy, lapping up the fragrant nectar, tasting her delectable juices. She moaned delightfully.
“Do you know about the window?” he asked between licks.
“Of course,” Lori moaned, gyrating her hips. “I also know that you can see me naked when you look into it from the right side.”
“Only from the waist up,” Leonard said. “And I never see Beatrix at all. She always seems to be obscured by shadows.” He inserted a finger into her, pulled it out, sucked her juices from it.
“I know that, too,” Lori said. She took both her breasts into her hands and started massaging them, fondling them, tweaking her nipples. “I can see you naked, too, you know. And not just from the waist up.”
Leonard blushed at the thought, although he should have realized by now that she could look into the window as well. He found her clit with his tongue and brought her to a shuddering orgasm. Lori cried her intense pleasure to the mountains, to the sky.
“You’ll see all of me next time you look,” she gasped, holding on to her breasts, trembling with the orgasmic waves rushing through her body. “And I’m sure you’ll see Beatrix as well very soon. Just be patient and wait for the right conditions.” She stopped to catch her breath, then added, “She’s very nice, you know. She has very pretty little breasts and a delicious pussy. You’ll like her, I’m sure.”
He moved back up beside her and stretched out in the grass next to her. “How do you know all this about her?” he asked. “Do you do that with her?”
“All the time,” Lori said, quite nonchalantly. “Does that bother you?”
“Not at all,” Leonard protested. “It’s your life. But how do you know all the things about me?”
“I told you I know things,” Lori said as she went down on him, opened his trousers, took his penis into her hands. “Besides, you’re a very special man.”
“Special how?” he wanted to know as Lori slowly stroked his penis, gently and expertly, massaging him as if she were working a block of fresh butter.
“I can’t tell you that,” she said, increasing the pressure with her hands, stroking his penis more and more forcefully. “You have to keep following your own path and you’ll find out for yourself.”
“I didn’t even know I was on a path,” Leonard said.
“You are. Believe me, you are,” Lori said, a wistful smile playing over her face. “I can tell those things. Just wait and see what becomes of your life. Be careful where you walk and what you do along the way.”
With that she took his penis into her mouth and sucked him to a roaring orgasm of his own, licking every last droplet from its tip. Then she moved back up beside him and let herself plop into the grass.
They lay quietly beside each other for a while, looking up at the towering mountains, at the slowly darkening sky.
“Sometimes I think the mountains talk to each other,” Leonard mused. “We just can’t hear what they say.”
“Maybe some day we will,” Lori said. “It’s a matter of synchronicities, and being ready for whatever may happen to us.”
“There are secrets among the mountains,” Leonard said. “They are so massive and so old they must be able to teach us something about ourselves.”
“Just keep listening to them,” Lori said. “Everything else will come to pass exactly as it should. We’ve already grown together today, and hopefully learned some important things from each other.”
They rose from the meadow, straightened their clothes, and walked through the forest back to the loosely arranged cabins at the edge of the alp. When they reached the cheese house, Lori followed him inside, took off her clothes, folded them neatly over a chair, and climbed into his bed. It was the first of many times that he saw her completely naked. He was very pleased with the way the evening had turned out.
They woke with the first morning light, had a quick breakfast of bread and butter and cheese, then went about doing their chores, Lori in the butter hut, he in his own element of fresh cheeses and the necessary ingredients, cast-iron cauldrons and wooden implements. He worked busily all morning without looking up once, until Beatrix rang the lunch hour bell and he straightened up from his tasks.
When he stepped outside, the sky was covered with ominous clouds, the peaks, the clock in the sky obscured.
“We’ll be getting a storm today,” one of the shepherds observed.
“Sure looks like it,” another one agreed.
Yet nothing happened to the sky except that the clouds kept traveling rapidly from mountain range to mountain range and the air smelt different, foreboding, Leonard thought. He went back to his cheese making after lunch and paid no further attention to the outside world.
After supper, the sky still looked much the same. Leonard walked across the meadow to the window and looked through it from the side where he could see Lori. She was right: he was able to see her whole body now, naked and beautiful from head to toe. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
He was so absorbed in the image that he wasn’t aware at all of the rapid changes in the sky, of the storm moving in over the snow-capped peaks. By the time he tore himself away from the window and looked up, the storm was already above him, lightning bolts slicing the thick air in all directions, thunder claps crashing off the mountains, off the rocks, reverberating among the peaks.
He ran across the meadow to avoid the inevitable downpour, didn’t quite make it, was immediately soaked to the skin. The rain came down in thick sheets, obscuring the window, obscuring the world. He dashed the final meters to Lori’s cabin and burst in through the door, dripping with rain.
Lori was waiting for him, naked on her bed, partly sitting, partly reclining against the wall, one leg slightly bent. Beatrix was sitting on her own bed in the opposite corner of the cabin, indistinct in the shadows. He could just barely make out her form, her arms folded across her breasts, her legs spread with their heels touching each other.
“You’re soaking wet,” Lori stated the obvious. “Get out of your clothes and hang them somewhere where they can dry.”
He did as he was told and climbed on her bed with her. Outside the storm was raging on, the thunder vibrating the cabin, bouncing off the mountain sides, the rain whipping against the windowpanes, drumming down on the roof.
“I love thunderstorms,” Beatrix said from her corner. “Especially up here in the mountains. Everything seems to be so near, so immediate, so completely powerful, overwhelming, almost.”
She detached herself from the shadows and came over to Lori’s bed. She did have very pretty little breasts. “We should really be outside,” she gestured toward the window in the cabin wall. “Look at all the beautiful rain! It seems a shame to waste it by staying inside.”
She turned away from the bed and headed for the door. Leonard and Lori followed her and then they were standing in the downpour, lightning and thunder all around them, the rain pelting on their skin, soaking their hair, dripping down over their faces, running all over their skin.
“Wow!” Beatrix exclaimed, brimming with excitement, her head thrown back, her face turned up to the sky. “This is so incredible. I’ve never done anything like this before. It’s like being part of the storm.”
“We are part of the storm,” Leonard said. “Part of another tableau. We are always part of something, even when we’re by ourselves.”
“I love being part of the rain,” Lori said, turning her face into the downpour the way Beatrix was doing.
“Listen to the thunder bouncing off the rocks,” Leonard said. “Maybe it can tell us something the mountains can’t.”
“It can’t be forced,” Lori interjected. “You have to wait for the right moment to learn anything from anything.”
“She’s right, you know,” Beatrix said, but Leonard kept listening to the thunder even though he wasn’t able to understand anything. At least, he told himself, he tried.
The two women took each other by the hands and danced around in the pouring rain in their own private ritual. Then they put their arms around each other and began to fondle and caress each other, rain all around them, soaking them.
Leonard, not wanting to be left out, put his arms around them and started to fondle their wet bodies. The women quickly included them in their play. Beatrix didn’t even flinch when he took her breasts into his hands. She only moaned delightedly, then reached for his penis at the same time as Lori. He groaned deeply when the two hands began rubbing and stroking him and he reached for their pussies and felt the rain drip off them and soaking their pubic hair.
The storm gradually moved across their meadow, the lightning bolts disappearing behind the range of mountains, the thunder rumbling from further and further away. The rain was still coming down as rapidly as before, as if the sky were about to come falling down, the bursting clouds pressing down on the meadow.
Back inside, the three took turns toweling each other off, then climbed on Lori’s bed together and continued their mutual explorations and stimulations. Lori was right: Beatrix did have a delicious pussy, wet and invitingly spread open, quite a different taste sensation than Lori’s. Not better, just very different.
“Do you see the clock in the sky?” Leonard asked Beatrix when he surfaced from between her legs.
“It’s always there,” Beatrix said. She bent over him and sucked him off. “It has to be there, doesn’t it?”
“Precisely,” Leonard agreed, groaning with the pleasure Beatrix provided.
The women concentrated on each other again and Leonard watched with great interest as they brought each other to simultaneous orgasms and flopped down on the bed, holding each other in their arms.
“What I love about the mountains,” Lori said sleepily, “is how close the sky seems up here. It feels as if I could just float up into it without any effort at all.”
“At night,” Beatrix added, “the stars are so bright and clear you’d think all you’d have to do is to reach up and touch them with your hands.”
“Another one of those moments,” Leonard said. “Perhaps if we fit them all together sometime, the puzzle might fall into place.”
“I’m sure it will,” Lori said.
Leonard found enough room on the bed behind Lori, wrapped his arms around her, and fell asleep, the rain still pitting against the windowpane, cosmic drum solo on the roof.
Next morning, everything was calm again, the sun shining brightly down on the meadow, the grass pleasantly wet from the rain. When he finished his chores in the afternoon, Leonard went to the window and looked through it from the one side to make sure the clock was still in the sky, then from the other side to watch Lori and Beatrix. He could see them both, as Lori had said he would. He could see their whole bodies with their beautiful breasts and their triangles between their legs.
He stood by the window for a long time, saturating his mind with the images the view afforded him. Then he turned and walked up the narrow footpath leading along the slope to the base of the mountains, the clock without hands straight above him in the velvety sky.
Originally published May 2009