The Far Side of the Sun

He moaned.

She danced downward to his sack with her fingers, then, after a few minutes, with the tip of her tongue began to trace lazy circles over the tip, then along the length of his penis. She felt his cock respond immediately, to twitch as it filled with blood, and she drew back once before taking it all in her mouth in one lunging plunge.

His back arched and instantly he filled her mouth with cum. She struggled to swallow it all, amazed at how fast he released, but even so spent she continued to work his shaft with her mouth and fingernails. She felt the muscles deep inside the backs of his thighs tremble, heard him mumbling things like "Oh bloody Christ!" and "Sweet Jesus" over and over until he grabbed her head in his hands and began to thrust into her mouth.

His second orgasm was, if anything, larger and more forceful than the first, and his legs buckled so severely he had to hold on to her chair to keep from falling to the floor. He was breathless, was caught completely off guard by the intensity of this strange new sexual contact, and yet he found he wanted to know what Heidi's feelings were...

He focused on her as he regained his composure and was almost aghast at what he saw.

There were huge gobs of sticky white stuff running from her mouth, but it was the expression on her face that held him. Her face was upturned, her eyes closed as she swirled the stuff inside her mouth with her tongue, yet her body was shaking, trembling, and he thought she was reacting much as he had, that she too was lost inside some sort of release not unlike his own. She was in a deep rapture of some sort, lost within her own emotional and physical response to this union, but when all was said and done it was the sight of her mouth that both captivated and appalled him. She seemed to play with the white stuff, first with her swirling tongue, then with her fingers in her mouth, and all the time with her face upturned, as if her body had become weightless – as if somehow she was communing with God.

He lifted her from the chair, carried her to their bed and lay her out, then he covered her and lay beside her and held her until sleep came for them both.

+++++

Rebecca came to the clinic much later the next morning than she had the past few days, and she seemed troubled when Heidi found her coming out of the clinic's shower.

"Are you alright?" Heidi asked. "You look, well...?"

"Oh! I didn't know you were here yet," she jumped, startled, then replied slowly, as if coming out of a trance, "Well, yes, I guess troubled would be a good choice of words."

"What happened?"

"Well, it seems word of my...exploits is getting 'round the valley." She seemed distracted, wary. "Anyway," she continued, "it's been kinda fun, but it's time to get down to work. Get this place organized, up and running."

"Yeah, we're busier than Mass General," Heidi said, chuckling as she swatted a fly.

"I got the inside scoop on that last night. Folk medicine, home remedies. That takes care of most of the day to day stuff. When bad stuff hits, folks die, simple as that. They don't question it, or wonder what might have happened if they had better medicine. They just move on." She was looking at her phone, checking email, and at least that wasn't an issue here as there were more than a few cell towers within range.

"Kinda figured that might be the case. If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

"Hey, an email from Joel," she said, indicating her boss in New York. "Two journalists, from Fox News and MSNBC are coming out, first of the month. They want to interview us, get our first impressions of the people here."

"Oh? You have any?" Heidi asked.

Rebecca blushed. "A few," she laughed. "Probably not what they want to hear, though."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Heidi looked around, made sure they were alone. "I had my...well...my first oral experience last night."

"What? You mean the first you've had since you got here?"

"No, first ever. Actually, my first sexual experience, ever."

"No shit?"

"Was always too busy," Heidi said as she looked away, almost regretting bringing this up.

"And? What happened?"

"It was wonderful, but..."

"But what?"

"I had the strangest sensation. Like I was on fire, trembling."

"Where?" Rebecca was more than curious now, because a paraplegic having an orgasm was kind of interesting, no matter how you parsed it, yet from a medical standpoint it was simply fascinating.

"It's kind of hard to put into words. I kept thinking it felt like fire, and trembling, but I couldn't pin a locus. Even the sensations were somehow – off. Not what I expected, and almost more like a spiritual thing, but that isn't quite it either. Whatever 'It' was, it was all consuming, gigantic on an emotional level."

"What were you doing? At the time?"

"Giving Martin a blowjob. He was, you know, uh, in my mouth at the time."

"Oh Hell, that's just about what happens to me when I'm giving head. Some girls hate cum; I fucking love the stuff. Can't get enough."

"Martin could have filled a cup with each orgasm."

"Each? How the Hell many did he have?"

"Two. The first happened after just a few seconds, and it was a lot. The second took a few minutes, but it was overwhelming, like a gallon of the stuff. But that's not the weird part. It's like the more he came the more this sensation rolled through me. The bigger it got."

"Yeah, that's what guys don't get sometimes. Our orgasms are physical, sure, to a degree, anyway, but there's also a very large mental component, and I think some might even say it's spiritual. You seem to be proving that point, with what you're telling me, anyway."

"I was reading that paraplegics experience orgasms differently, because of the nature of the injury and all, but I had no frame of reference. No other orgasms to relate to."

"That could be a blessing, if you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I'd hate to have to compare the two."

"Yeah, and never ignore the psychological in sex, or the visual. Ya know, I hate to get into the nitty gritty so early in the morning, but I had this boyfriend when I was finishing my residency. He was sweet, but could be a freak, and was big time into S&M. He bought me these really crazy outfits – latex, leather and whips and stuff I'd never even heard of – and he'd have me tie him up, use whips and toys on him, verbally abuse the Hell out of him. The point, and there is one here, is that I could get him off without even touching him. Sounds weird, I know, but I was reading that some paraplegics have had similar experiences." Rebecca pointed at her head, smiling. "So, never underestimate the power of the mind. And that goes for guys and gals, if you know what I mean."

"I don't think I will, ever again," Heidi said, nodding her head at the memory of the fire that had nearly consumed her the night before.

"Still, I think guys are more into the visual, ya know? The visually kinky? Like they're patterned at a very early age. Marilyn Monroe and high heels, that sort of thing. Anyway, that's what made me wonder, about you and Martin. The mental is obviously going to be important, maybe even vital, but maybe the visual will be too. I don't know enough about the psychology to be of any use to you though, I'm afraid."

"I wonder what visual influences were up here? You know, for patterning?"

"Good question. Sure wasn't Marilyn and high heels!"

"Well Rebecca, it helps to have a friend up here, you know, to talk about things."

Rebecca leaned over and kissed her on the top of her head, and Heidi blushed. "Thanks, Heidi. I mean it. It sure is a long way from the city, isn't it?"

"Yup. So, about those journalists..."

+++++

There were banks of lights set up in the clinic, and two news crews – one from each network – were set up with cameras, make-up people and recorders ready to roll. The two reporters, news anchors, really, were now inside the clinic interviewing Heidi and Rebecca, but there was rank animosity between the two news personalities and everyone was nervous.

After walking around the valley for most of the morning, the reporters had seen the small scale of the valley and met a few of it's inhabitants, and now were getting the lowdown on the background and intent of the operation, but the sharp political differences between the two were turning the questions intense, almost hostile at times.

"So, do you miss flying?" the reporter from MSNBC asked, trying to defuse the situation.

"Sometimes Rachel, I guess I do, but not as much as I thought I would. The work here, and getting to know the people better, has been pretty consuming so far. Still, the people I've met here seem genuinely welcoming."

"We've all read the account of the accident, the break-up of your aircraft, and your rescue by the villagers. Has that effected your relationship with the people here?"

"I guess it almost had to, I guess, but it has on so many levels. But more than anything, I was grateful then, and remain so."

"Yes, a touching story," the Fox News reporter added sarcastically, "but I'm skeptical about one thing."

"Oh? What's that, Bill?"

"Well, doesn't this clinic amount to little more than socialized medicine? Do you have any idea how much this is costing our state and federal governments?"

"Well, the clinic building and our equipment were paid for through private donations and foundations, while our ongoing operational costs are being paid for through a consortium of private colleges and universities, those that will be sending academic researchers, teachers and students here. So, I'm not sure any taxpayer funding is involved at this point."

"But what about the isolation? In the event of a major medical emergency, won't helicopters be necessary to medevac people out of here? Wouldn't that entail government money?"

"I'd imagine so," Rebecca interjected. "But the state already operates such services for victims of motor vehicle crashes, do they not? And almost any other medical emergency requiring rapid response. I'm not sure there's much difference. Whether we like it or not, these people are still citizens of the United States, and not subjects of a King who's been dead for two hundred years."

"Perhaps," the Fox News reporter said. "Still, do the people in this village, in this valley, really want, or even need, this type and level of intervention?"

"One of the villagers that accompanied me to Vermont after my accident became familiar with the problems, the dilemmas you're pointing out, and he came back last winter and talked with all the people in the valley about just these kinds of potential conflicts. So, it was in a very direct way put to them; I guess you'd say in a very democratic context," Heidi stated. "And then they voted on the matter. We're here as a direct result of that process, both with the folks here and with with the approval of policy makers in our government, and by that I mean governments in both Albany and Washington, D.C. And keep in mind, Bill, that part of what we hope to accomplish over the next few years is to set up a new kind of school, so that anyone here in the valley interested in taking classes in the sciences will have the opportunity to do so. My own hope is that over time some of the students in the village may want to get more advanced medical training, and that they would return here to help shoulder some of the burden, but this is kind of a 'work-in-progress' right now."

"Actually," Rebecca added, "we already have several older women interested in nursing at this time. Heidi and I are working with them informally, and they're very receptive, so we'll begin more formal classroom work in September, when the first academic teams arrive."

"Surely," Fox News stated, "you're not claiming these women are ready to start taking classes in modern science?"

"I don't know if you had an opportunity to meet with some of the people here," Rebecca continued, "but everyone I've met so far is well schooled in the classics, most have taken a good deal of math and understand Euclidian geometry, and by the way, most people up here speak latin. In fact, by and large, aside from their lack of exposure to modern scientific theory, I've found these people to be extraordinarily well educated. They don't understand things like the internet, and most modern music is incomprehensible to them."

"It's incomprehensible to me, too," Fox News said, laughing.

"Well," Heidi continued, "music provides an interesting context, doesn't it. If you get to listen to the music the villagers perform, you'll hear early nineteenth century folk music mixed with eighteenth century forms of classical music, mainly baroque forms. That's to be expected. But consider The Doors..."

"The Doors?" MSNBC asked. "You mean like, Jim Morrison? Those Doors?"

"Yup. Take the Alabama Song. You remember? 'Oh show me the way, to the next whiskey bar? That one?"

"Yes, so?"

"Well, that song wasn't written by The Doors, it was written by Kurt Weill, during what we call Weimar Period in Germany after the First World War, and for an operetta. But Weill, and his co-composer Bertolt Brecht, were influenced heavily by Richard Wagner, who had in turn been influenced by Beethoven, and so on. So, the point I'm trying to make here is that Music represents continuity, it links people generationally, but here, that linkage was interrupted. Stopped dead in it's tracks, if you will. That's what's fascinating, but music is just one example. We're finding all sorts of discontinuities here. Music was just the most obvious thing that jumped out, but that's why it's so vital to get academic researchers up here, get them set up and working before the purity of the site is diminished. We may never have a chance to see these kinds of circumstances, these interactions, again. To have the opportunity to, in effect, interact with Europeans from the 19th century. Here, in the 21st. I mean, really...think about it. Think about the opportunity, what this means for our understanding of the past. And perhaps, the future."

"Our future?" MSNBC asked. "How so?"

"Well, again, think about it," Heidi continued. "These people not only endured while effectively cut off from progress – locked inside the 19th century – they've survived, perhaps you could even say they've flourished, yet only to the degree their state of technology permitted. But, consider what might happen to our way of life if, for instance, oil ran out suddenly like it did in '73 or '79, but on a larger scale, or there was some other type of massive, unexpected interruption to the industrial subsystems we take for granted, you know, to those that permit our society to operate. Perhaps, say, to our power grid, or to our food distribution networks. Who knows, perhaps something like a cyber attack, or some unforeseen natural calamity, but on a truly massive scale, even a planetary scale. How would people in our 'modern' society adapt, or even cope emotionally? Could we survive? So, what can we learn from these people that might help us through such events?"

"Yes," Rebecca continued, "we're trying to keep in mind that we'll be here not only to examine these people and their culture, to learn 'about' them, if you will, but to learn 'from' them."

"Interesting. So," Fox News added, "researchers will be coming up here looking at all these types of things too? Looking at survival situations, family values, those kinds of things?"

"Yup," Heidi and Rebecca said, in unison. "Exactly so."

"Truly fascinating," Fox News said. "Well, we hope you'll keep us posted on developments here, and perhaps let us come back, say, in a year or so. Yes, this is truly a worthwhile endeavor..."

+++++

"So," Martin said over dinner that night with Heidi and Rebecca, "People all around the world will watch this on television?"

"Conceivably so, yes," Rebecca said. "Those two networks reach a lot of people."

"Could we watch it here?" he asked.

Heidi and Rebecca looked at one another. 'Contamination', they thought, in unison.

"Well, it's possible," Rebecca replied carefully. "Right now we have limited abilities to look at what's called streaming TV. We might need more data capabilities to do that, Martin. Let me look into it."

He looked at Rebecca, then Heidi. "I see. Well, perhaps it would be more interesting to learn of various reactions to the broadcast. What people think of us."

"Definitely," Heidi said.

Later that evening, while Martin was helping Heidi into bed, he wanted to talk about that part of the evening's conversation: "She's a clever girl."

"Who? Rebecca?"

"Yes. I've seen her watching television up here, she has the 'capability'; why would she try to evade this? Is it a problem?"

Heidi looked him in the eye: "It could be, Martin. I think it might be because many of the academic researchers coming here in the autumn want to be able to talk to the villagers before they've been exposed to too many outside influences."

"Yes, we've talked of this in village meetings. Why is this so important?"

"Well, many of the people coming here are anthropologists. These people study ancient cultures most of the time, but they are most interested, by and large, in trying to look at how different cultures operated, socially and agriculturally, or even industrially – in the distant past. Sometimes all they have to work with are the physical remains of a culture, like pottery, or weaponry. Most of the time they have obscure evidence to sort through, like these people's types of housing, or their fortifications, but rarely do they know their languages, because that is often "gone", and even things like books or other writings are rare. So to these researchers, this village represents a unique opportunity, and what they've asked us to do is limit the amount of outside influences introduced here, before they can get settled and operating here."

"I see. Perhaps now I understand how a bird in a cage feels, or an insect under a looking glass."

"Yes, I've been concerned about that. I would too."

"Would you show me the television reports. So I could understand what it is that concerns them?" Heidi looked away for a moment, and he watched her closely. "Okay. I think I understand. I'll try to be patient."

"Come lay with me," she said. "Please?"

He slipped out of his clothing and crawled under the sheets and lay beside her. She pulled herself up on her side and looked at him, looked into his eyes as she reached for him under the sheets.

"Yeow!" he cried out, "you're hands are cold!"

"I know a place that's warmer..."

"I know that place, too," he said as he rubbed a finger around her mouth.

"I was thinking of someplace different. Someplace we haven't tried before."

"Truly?"

"I'm kinda scared too, Martin. Like I ought to know what to do, or how to, but..."

"Well, I've walked down this path before. I know the way."

"I know, but I don't. And I don't know how I will respond."

"Perhaps we shouldn't think about things so much. Maybe just try, and see how things go."

She smiled. "You're a good teacher," she said. "And a good listener."

"I always thought the two go hand in hand."

"You're right, dear friend."

"Friend?" he asked. "Are we – friends?"

"Hmm, yes. I always thought that friends would make the best lovers. Or that the best lovers are in the end the best of friends."

"I can see that," he said as he leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips. "Now, have you thought about how you would like to try this?"

"Well, in truth, I've thought of little else. For days."

He laughed at that. "I see."

"One of the problems I've read about is that I will be very dry down there."

"I could use my mouth," he said, "first."

"Would you?"

"Yes, of course. This is, I promise you, no great hardship!"

Now it was her turn to laugh, and she did as she used her arms to pull herself into what she hoped would be a good position, but Martin had some ideas of his own, and he spent several hours working things out until he was sure she was more than happy with the results.