Sweet Pleasures ✔︎

[19] 𝑻𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔

Status : Unedited

❦︎

It was the most beatnik scene Josh had ever experienced, including those of his wilder college days. The field was awash in tents, shacks, teepees, and stages where bluegrass, jazz, and rock bands played, and the throb of music resounded for miles. Enough pot smoke hung in the air for non-users - meaning no one - a contact high. There was henna painting, hard liquor, fortune tellers, tattoos, hula-hooping, body odor, dreadlocks, porta-johns, bikinis, drum circles, food tents, fire-eaters, and more tie-dye than was needed to outfit everyone during the Summer of Love.

Jupiter seemed right at home here, pausing to greet or hug someone every now and then, always introducing him as "my friend Josh." Because his cooperation would make her happy - and because he increasingly wanted nothing but happiness for her - Josh told himself that no one here had any idea who he was and that it would be fine if he just rolled with it.

So he did. Jupiter insisted he buy - and wear - a rainbow Grateful Dead T-shirt. They ate burritos and drank cider in the hot sun while listening to a bluegrass band, beat the bongos in a drum circle, signed petitions to protect the environment, people watched, danced, played hacky sack and ping-pong, socialized with a motley crew of friendly folk, and tried as many foods as they could, including blueberry lemonade and chilli-flavored cotton candy.

The only activity Josh declined was hula-hooping, but only because he wanted to watch his girl without any distractions. The decision yielded amazing results, as he sat in the shade with a cold beer, listening to the beat of reggae steel drums and watching Jupiter's curvy body shaking and shimmying with such gusto that he eventually had to look away or risk a hard-on. Though he suspected this crowd would probably approve.

After she'd gotten him worked up with the hula-hooping, Jupiter grabbed his hand and tugged him over to a grove behind a camping site. Latched between two trees in the shade was a wide cloth hammock layered with Indian-print pillows.

"As much as I love your bed," Jupiter climbed into it, "hammocks have their own special qualities that you won't find anywhere else. They're known for great health benefits."

She reclined and tugged him down beside her. Josh settled in, and she tucked herself against his side. Their combined weight rocked the hammock, the motion pressing their bodies closer together.

Ahh...

He closed his eyes as the breeze cooled his hot skin and the oranges-and-clove scent of Jupiter filled his nose. As he sank into a light doze, he had the vague thought that he could quite happily lie here with her for the rest of the weekend, rocking gently as the music played in the distance and the sun filtered through the trees...

"Wake up," Jupiter's lips pressed against his cheek. "We've been asleep for an hour, and we'll miss the blues concert if we don't head over there now."

As Josh pulled himself reluctantly out of sleep, he couldn't remember the last time he'd taken a nap. And waking up from one in a hammock...he was beginning to think this hippie lifestyle had a lot going for it.

He and Jupiter returned to the festival activities with renewed energy. By the time the sun began to sink on the other side of the sky, they were both sun-burned, sweaty, tired, and dirty. Campfires began to light up around the tents, tough most people streamed toward the main stage where the headliners were playing. Jupiter's Friend Tom, along with his wife and another fellow who went by the name Wolf, lounged beside a campfire.

Josh looked to where Jupiter sat on the other side of the fire. Her hair was falling out of its knots, loose tendrils drifting around her face, and a warm contentment filled her brown eyes. With the firelight glowing on her skin, she looked almost otherworldly, like she really was a pagan witch who'd cast a spell on him.