Fossil Hills

They pulled into the area where she had camped by the pool. There were no signs now of the devastation of her camp and equipment, and as Karina got out of the vehicle and feeling the ground beneath her feet, she wondered at the peace of the place. “Surely it should carry an atmosphere of evil, of hostility,” she thought. “Something to mark the deeds that had been done.”

There was nothing but the quietness of the bush except for the sound of Hull driving into the area.

She turned to Jane and said, “I’m going over to the pool.”

“Is that where…?”

“Yes.”

“Shouldn’t you leave it for a while, until you’ve settled in?”

“No, it will be dark in an hour, and if I’m going to do it I must do it now.”

“Do you want Hull or I to come with you, dear?”

“No, I must do it on my own.”

Karina walked the short distance to the pool watched by Hull and Jane. She stopped at the place where she had been raped and injured and stood staring at it.

“Nothing! Why do I not feel frightened? Why do I not see the shadow of the horrors I suffered here. It’s just a place, just red earth.”

She stood for a while longer contemplating, and then giving a shuddering sigh she turned away and went to where Hull and Jane stood looking at her. She went to them and said, “It’s all right, the dragon is slain, let’s make camp.”

Jane took her in her arms and Hull stroked her hair. “I’m so glad it’s over, my dear, so yes, let’s make camp.”

There were two tents, one for Karina and one to be shared by Jane and Hull. Darkness was beginning to close in, the last of the suns rays lingering on the tops of the hills. They worked quickly and once the tents were up and equipment in place Jane produced a cold meal. After that they were ready for bed.

Chapter 11.The New Beginning

Karina slept well and on waking felt as if a great load had been lifted from her. Jane was already up and preparing breakfast. They had not bothered to wash the night before, so after breakfast Jane began to boil water from the pool.

Washing was a matter of using a large bowl and splashing water over oneself and rubbing down with a wet flannel. Karina was amazed to see that Jane and Hull were naked as they washed and Hull attended to Jane’s back.

Seeing Jane naked enhanced Karina’s appreciation of her beauty. Not being a male she had paid no particular attention to Jane’s breasts. Now, looking at them she wondered at their loveliness. They were large with a very narrow valley between them. Pink nipples with light brown aureoles stood out, and her hips swelled in graceful curves. Her legs were long and slender but with strong thighs.

Karina had some time before learned Jane’s age of fifty one. “My God,” she thought, “if only I could look as lovely as that when I’m fifty one.”

Hull was equally impressive in his male way, with broad shoulders, and narrow hips. Karina could not help noticing that he seemed to have a partial erection as he washed Jane’s back.

Since they had washed naked Karina decided she had better conform and stripped off. Part way through her wash she noticed Jane and Hull looking at her. She felt somewhat embarrassed by this, partly because of the comparison that must be made between her and Jane she felt she must come off second best.

She was somewhat mollified when Jane came over to her saying, “Darling, you’re lovely and you’ll be even lovelier when you put on a bit more weight. Let me wash your back for you.”

Karina had heard all sorts of rumours about the ways in which artistic people behaved, and on the grounds that she supposed Hull and Jane were artistic, and not wanting to appear unsophisticated, she accepted Jane’s offer. The operation of washing Karina’s back was more like a gentle massage that she found very pleasant and relaxing.

When they had dressed Hull took his equipment and went up the nearest hill to begin his sketching. Jane announced that she would tidy up the camp and finish getting out the odds and ends that they had not had time for the previous evening.

After helping Jane for a while Karina decided that she would take a walk in the hills. She would not be exactly looking for fossils, just taking a walk, but she’d keep her eyes open. As it happened she saw nothing in the way of fossils, but at one stage going to the top of one of the hills she sat looking out across the plain. She tried to see it as Hull saw it and as he expressed it in his paintings.

She found it difficult until she saw a wedged tailed eagle rise up into the blue sky. “That’s what Hull caught in one of his paintings,” she thought. She watched the eagle swoop and soar on its huge wings and she felt herself soaring with it.

It was in that moment the arid landscape was transformed for her. It became as Hull painted it, the bare red earth; the salt and blue bush and even the few struggling trees took on a beauty she had never noticed before.

“Perhaps the beauty lies in the sheer survival in this landscape,” she thought, “for after all, there is beauty in endurance in the face of harsh realities.” Then she caught her own thoughts in mid-flight. Had she not survived in the arid environment of emotional and mental collapse? And now here she was, if not her old secure and optimistic self, at least on the way, beginning to rise up once more like that eagle out over the plain.

She came down from the hill and into the camp for lunch. Hull was already there and as she drew close Jane looked up at her from her preparations and said, “Good heavens, Karina, what’s happened to you? You look as if you’ve just struck a fossil goldmine.”

“I’ve struck something better than that,” replied Karina, but she didn’t elaborate and Hull and Jane wisely did not pursue the matter, but wondered at what they saw as Karina’s transformation.

Karina was indeed transformed and told herself that if there were fossils to be found in Fossil Hills she’d damned well find them and put her fellow palaeontologists to shame.

After lunch and clearing up, she set out once more, this time to begin a definite and systematic search, looking for the layers in which fossils might be found. Again she found nothing, but then, she knew how much time and effort it took to do this work.

Chapter 12.A Shock for Karina

During the following days each of them went about their separate tasks; Hull his sketching; Karina her fossil hunt and Jane her camp tidying and cooking. Occasionally Jane would keep Hull company for a while. Karina saw her sometimes sitting with Hull under the large beach umbrella he used to keep out of the sun while working. For all that Karina got a great deal of affection from them, especially from Jane, she envied their close relationship.

Jane had said a few times that she had wanted a daughter, and that she and her late husband Jeff had been disappointed that they had not produced one. Karina thought the implication might be that she was a substitute daughter, but she also saw that she did not have the closeness that Jane and Hull had.

It was on the fourth night of their stay that things took a new turn. At night they used gas lamps fuelled from bottled gas to light their tents. On that particular night Karina carelessly shattered the delicate mantle of her lamp. When she looked for a new one she discovered that spare mantles were something she had forgotten to bring.

Cursing because she wanted to bring her notes up to date, she decided to go and ask Jane if she had a spare one.

As she approached the tent she saw their gaslight was still burning. Along the side of the tent where she had to pass was a window of some transparent material. She glanced though this window, and became rooted to the spot, unable to tear her eyes from what she saw.

She had already noticed that the only air mattress she had seen in the tent was a double one. She had wondered where Hull slept or alternatively, Jane. Now she knew. Hull was lying on his back and Jane was straddling him with legs.

What they were doing was obvious. Jane was lifting herself up, then dropping down again, sliding Hull’s penis in and out of her vagina. There was nothing hurried in her movements, and when she had received Hull’s full length she was pausing, staying there pressed down on him. Hull’s hands were exploring her breasts and they were whispering to each other.

Karina could not hear the actual words, but from the look of joy on their faces and the way they seemed to look into each other eyes, she gathered they were speaking words of love to each other.

She was both shocked and fascinated. Shock because they were mother and son copulating and fascinated by the beauty of the scene. They were enjoying each other and seemed almost to be one.

As she watched Jane began to move faster and their words became audible. Jane cried out, “Darling, I’m coming,” and Hull released her breasts and took hold of Jane’s hips and began to pull her down tight onto him. He responded to her cry, “Oh, mother,” and then gave a sighing moan. He was clearly ejaculating into Jane.

Still murmuring to each other they both appeared to climax together, Jane pressing down as Hull held her, his last ejection dragging a groan from him. After giving a gentle cry Jane began to sob, saying, “Oh my love…my love.” She continued to move on Hull as his hands returned to fondling her breasts.

As Jane finished her orgasm a wonderful peace seemed to descend over them. Jane, still with Hull’s penis inside her, leaned over him, her breasts brushing against his chest. Her last audible words were, “I love you so much, my darling.” Hull responded, “And I you.”

Karina tore herself away from the tent. She had looked on at a wonderful but very private moment in two people’s lives and felt ashamed of her spying on them. Emotionally she was in turmoil. One part of her was crying out, “How could they? How could they, mother and son?” Yet another part of her said, “You have seen a few moments of an act of love, and that’s what you want.”

She wondered if Hull behaved like Robert, and broke away as soon as he had finished ejaculating. From the few seconds she had seen of the aftermath of their coupling it seemed unlikely as both had seemed unwilling to end the union.

In the midst of her confused reflections Karina was surprised to find her self sexually aroused. Aroused no doubt partially by what she had been witness to, and surprised because since the rejection by Robert her sexual self seemed to go into deep freeze. She had wanted nothing to do with men, or women for that matter, and had found no reason to relieve her self with masturbation.

Now she hastened back to her tent and stripping off and laying on her mattress, she sought release from the pressing sexual needs she was experiencing. With one hand she massaged her breasts and with the other she plunged her fingers into her vagina. She ended by circling her clitoris as she gasped her way through her orgasm. She fantasised, but instead of focussing on one sexual image she found both Jane and Hull looming over her at her climax.

Despite the immediate release from sexual tension she found it hard to go to sleep, and when she did it was to dream of Hull and Jane in the sexual act.

In the morning she was loath to leave her tent feeling unable to face Hull and Jane. She heard them washing and laughing together, then for some time there was quiet. Finally Jane came to her tent and called out, “Karina, are you awake?”

Short of feigning sickness Karina felt unable to justify hiding any longer. She answered, “I’ll be with you in a moment.” She hurriedly dressed and went outside.

Jane was boiling water for Karina to wash with, and seeing her Jane smiled and said, “You’re up late this morning. Have a wash and then some breakfast. Would you like me to help you wash?”

“I…I…don’t think…I…”

Jane looked at her more closely.

“What’s wrong, darling, you look distressed?” Karina looked away without replying, so Jane went on after a pause, “What is it? Has something happened to upset you?”

Karina knew that the knowledge she now had about the relationship between Hull and Jane, had and would change her perception of them. At some time what she knew would come out if she continued to associate with them. “If it is going to come out,” she thought, “it might as well be now.”

“I…I…came over to your tent last night for something.”

Jane waited for her to go on, but when Karina remained silent she asked, “Then why didn’t you come in and ask?”

Karina sucked in a deep breath and said, “Because of what I saw.”

Jane looked at her quizzically for a moment and then she realised. “You saw Hull and I making love?”

“Yes.”

“I see, and you were shocked?”

“No…yes…I thought…”

“Mother and son?”

“Yes, its incest.”

“I know what it is, my love, but it’s also a way Hull and I have of expressing our love for each other.”

“But why like that, how could you ever do it?”

“There are many things that happen in our lives, as you should know, that we don’t expect to happen, that come upon us unexpectedly. That’s how it began with Hull and I.”

“How do you mean?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“If you want to tell me.”

“All right, let’s sit down and I’ll tell you.”

They sat, and Jane began. It was almost as if she was speaking to herself, talking very quietly and looking down at the ground.

“It began after my husband, Jeff’s death. His death was a tremendous shock to me – sudden heart attack. He had been not only my husband but my friend, companion and lover for twenty seven years. At first I couldn’t comprehend it – refused to accept it.”

She paused for a moment, and then went on, “I was brought up to face life’s problems and shocks stoically. I didn’t cry or make a fuss. People thought I was cold and heartless, but inside I was being torn apart. For about a year my life seemed to be hanging in a state of suspension. I needed healing but didn’t know how or where to find it. It was Hull who brought me back to life.”

Again she stopped speaking, but Karina was seeing some parallels with her own experiences, so she asked, “How?”

“One night Hull and I were watching a television documentary. It had to do with people who had suffered some great loss – who had felt great grief. Some of them cried during the interviews, and suddenly I felt the tears welling up in me.”

“I’m not clear now what I said or did, but it was something like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so unhappy, I miss him so much’.” I think Hull turned the TV off and came and sat beside me. He put his arms round me and held me to him. He said something like, ‘I know mother, I know’, and I knew he did.”

As I began to calm down I became aware of being in his arms, arms that had comforted me, but also awareness of being in the arms not only of my son, but of a man. It had its affect on me.”

“You may think it terrible and wrong, but I started to get sexually aroused. I would have done nothing – said nothing – but I noticed the hard lump in Hulls groin. He had an erection. I’m sure like me he would have done nothing, but a woman’s arousal isn’t so obvious, is it?”

I wanted him – it’s not really so surprising because we had always been very close – I kissed him and said, ‘Love me properly, darling’. I suppose that kiss and the way I had spoken told him clearly what I wanted. He was very gentle with me. He had never seen me naked before, and I could see the look of wonder in his eyes as he undressed me.”

“’Mother’, he said, ‘you’re so beautiful’. With those words he could have done anything with me, but he only entered me and took me very lovingly.”

Jane looked up sharply at Karina. “Well, that’s the story of how it started and ever since Hull has shared my bed. If you are shocked, I’m sorry, but for us it is an act of great love.”

“Yes, I could see that,” whispered Karina. ”I wish I could find a love like that.”

Chapter 13.An Act of Love?

They remained silent for a while, and then Jane rose and said, “You’d better have your wash, I’ll set your breakfast out.”

What Jane had said had affected Karina deeply. She felt the need for some physical human contact; a touch that would span the void that had been her physical and emotional self. Speaking very quickly she asked, “Would you wash my back, Jane?”

Jane looked a little surprised, no doubt anticipating rejection after the telling of her story. “Yes, if you want me to, my love.”

As Jane poured the water out Karina undressed. As she began to wash Jane began on her back. Her touch was gentle and comforting and Karina leaned back against her say, “Oh Jane,” and began to cry.

Jane turned her and took Karina in her arms. Karina felt Jane’s breasts pressing against own through Jane’s shirt. They were unbridled and Karina wanted to feel the warm flesh against her. With her hand she began to stroke Jane, moving ever nearer to her breasts. Jane understood her need and said, “It’s all right, my love, I understand, come into the tent.”

They went in together and lying on the double mattress Jane undid and removed her shirt to expose her breasts. Putting a hand under one breast she raised the nipple and brought Karina’s lips to it. Karina took the nipple into her mouth and Jane held her and suckled her as if she was a child, making soft crooning sounds.

Jane bent to kiss Karina on the lips and Karina felt Jane’s fingers exploring her vagina. She had never been with a woman like this before, but Jane’s embrace, her breasts and the kiss had melted her. She parted her legs in surrender to those exploring fingers. Jane found her clitoris and slowly circled it with a finger. Karina felt waves of love for Jane flow through her and she seemed to sink into a world of sensual delight.

She felt the first stirrings of her orgasm and cried out, “Oh Jane…Jane…”

Jane understanding the meaning of that cry moved her finger a little faster. Karina clung to her, weeping again, but this time with the delicious torment of her coming climax. As she reached the peak she gave a shrill cry and clung even more closely to Jane. Then the aftershocks came in gradually diminishing waves with Jane slowing the movement of her finger until they ceased.

Karina lay back and Jane hung over her, looking into Karina’s eyes just as Karina had seen her do with Hull. Then Jane bent and kissed her, long and deep, exploring her mouth with her tongue. When the kiss ceased Karina gasped, “Let me do something for you, Jane.”

Jane smiled down at her said said, “If you really want to, darling.”

“I do really want to.”

When Robert had been giving her oral sex Karina had often wondered what it was like for him. Now, with that curiosity and the desire to pleasure Jane, she decided to find out.

“Sit over me, Jane. Sit over my face.”

Jane removed her shorts and panties and moved over her, slowly lowering her sex organ to Karina’s mouth. Karina felt the touch of Jane’s vulva against her lips and she began to explore it, running her tongue over the outer lips and trying to push in to the soft inner lips. Jane helped her by using her fingers to part the outer lips.

Karina smelt Jane’s musky woman fragrance and experienced the salt flavour of her lubricant. On occasions when she had masturbated Karina had sometime smelt and tasted her fingers afterwards, Jane smelt and tasted little different from herself.

Jane had put her hands under Karina’s head and began to give sharp little jerks of her vagina, gradually moving Karina’s stimulation to her clitoris. Karina felt Jane’s orgasm approaching and strove to increase the movements of her tongue. Jane made a sudden convulsion and cried out, “Karina, I love you.” Then it was as much as Karina could do to remain in contact with Jane. She had to hold on to her thighs as Jane thrashed back and forth in the anguish of her climax.

Understanding Jane’s female needs Karina kept licking her until all movement ceased. Jane dropped down beside her and they wrapped their arms round each other.