Heart of Stone (7 page)

They were just walking back to the
house when they heard a faint plaintive cry coming from one of the
park’s garbage bins. Simon frowned and sifted through the bin. He
peered into one bag. “Don’t look Tyra”.

“
What is it?”

“
A litter of kittens, about
three weeks old by the looks of them. They must have been thrown
out last night.” He glared murderously in the direction of a house
down the street. “Most of them are dead from last night’s cold.
I’ll bury them back in my gardens while...” He pulled out a small
handful by the scruff, it was barely moving. “You go and make this
little one warm. The shop should be open now too so I’ll go and buy
some milk for him. We should be able to feed him with an
eyedropper.”

Before he handed the little grey tabby
kitten to Tyra, Simon placed it in his left hand and hovered his
right hand over it. Tyra thought she imagined a small beam of light
pass out of his palm into the cat.

“
He’ll live now. I gave him
a tiny bit of my essence so he’s part of me now but we’ll still get
the Vet to check him over when she opens up for the
day.”

Tyra took,
Oscar
she decided because
of his timely rescue from the rubbish bin, back to the house while
Simon hurried down the street.

Whatever Simon had done to the kitten
it had certainly come to and was yelling loudly for some milk by
the time Tyra found a sunny patch for it in the glassed-in verandah
that was attached to the side of the house. Some minutes later she
heard the ding of a microwave in the kitchen and Simon appeared
with a small glass bowl of milk and an eye dropper. Oscar looked up
expectantly with very intelligent eyes and started purring, for all
the world like he had a little motor going inside him.

Simon fed Oscar from the dropper while
Tyra rustled up some breakfast for them.

At 9am Simon and Tyra had Oscar at the
vet for a check-up.

Simon just about stomped into the
surgery room. “That bastard Thomas is dumping his cat’s litters
again”

Sally Wilson, the local vet, shook her
head in dismay. “I’ve told him time and time again that I’d fix
that cat for nothing but he won’t bring it in.”

Simon considered this for a moment
while Sally carefully examined Oscar. “If the cat were to suddenly
appear on your operating table you’d fix it then? I’d
pay.”

Sally smirked. “Why Simon, what are
you thinking, a little cat napping? And no you won’t
pay.”

Simon shrugged his shoulders, “I’m
game if you’re willing. We can’t exactly let this keep happening.
There were five stone cold dead kittens along with Oscar in a
shopping bag in the park this morning.”

Sally mused on this. “Alright if I
give my brother Michael at the station a head’s up? He might be the
one after all who has to deal with an irate Thomas”.

Simon nodded his assent. Sally picked
up her mobile and made the call. There followed a lot of “yes
Michael, …no Michael, ...we won’t get caught Michael” and then she
hung up.

“
He said we’re not to break
the 11th commandment or he’ll have our guts for garters. He also
says that our cover story is that the cat was found by the side of
road injured, I operated to save her.”

Simon curled his lips in a smile.
“Sounds fair by me. Go and make yourself a cup of tea in half an
hour’s time. The cat will be on your table when you come back in,
if that suits?”

“
Yes that’ll be fine, I’ll
have the table all ready. I’ll keep her in the hospital here for a
few days to make sure she recovers well before I let Thomas take
her back. Oh by the way. Michael also said Thomas had already been
on to him this morning, something about all four tires on his ute
being flat when he went to drive off to work this
morning.”

Tyra whispered to Simon on the way
out. “What’s the 11th commandment”.

“
Don’t get
caught!”

By the time Simon had finished his
mid-morning exploits at the vet’s it was getting on to lunch. Simon
made Tyra and him some vegetarian sushi in his surprisingly modern
stainless steel and white laminex kitchen. It didn’t go with the
rest of the house but it was a chef’s paradise, functional and
spotless. Oscar got his next dose of milk with the eyedropper until
his little round tum was full and then he promptly went back to
sleep when he was put back on his cushion in the sun.

After lunch Tyra enrolled at the youth
club. Tyra was somewhat bemused that a fifty year old could go to a
youth club but the town was so small that she guessed they couldn’t
be fussy if they wanted enough members to keep going. She’d met
with I-Wayan Agung, an expat Balinese guy who the locals just
called Yan for short. He wouldn’t even let his silat students call
him ‘guru’ as he considered it unaustralian and most of his
students were his patients anyway. A few years back Yan had gotten
into trouble in his old country for his pro-hindu ethnic community
political views and had received serious death threats. Thanks to
an immigration program that placed overseas doctors in Australian
country towns he had become Boswell’s doctor. He was a small but
wiry muscled man who radiated warmth. Yan said he’d be honoured to
take Tyra on as a student in Pencak Silat, initially with private
lessons three times a week until she got fit enough to join his
group class. Tyra tried to persuade Simon that between the morning
Tai Chi and Yan’s classes that was enough of the fitness stuff for
now. Simon wasn’t convinced. In the end it was the Aikido master
and local teacher of Japanese, respectfully known only as
Suzukisan, a white haired gentleman with a wispy beard and
indeterminate age, who came to her rescue. He said it was not a
good idea for a martial arts beginner to mix styles, that it was
better to gain depth of practice by learning a few basic things
well. After a quick call to consult with Yan they both agreed and
suggested that since Tyra was into books that maybe she could spend
a few weeks studying the Aikido founder’s philosophical teachings
and that she come along to Suzukisan’s informal Saturday morning
class on the mental and spiritual aspects of Aikido, Zen and
something called Budo. Apparently it was a fun hands on class and
she would get a chance to learn things like zen meditation,
Japanese calligraphy and the tea ceremony which she’d always been
fascinated in.

Tyra still didn’t know exactly what
Simon’s plans were, if she was expected to stay with him or go back
to the cabin, for how long, absolutely nothing but life was
starting to acquire the flavour of an adventure. She decided to
just go with the flow and take each day as it came.

Stopping at the local farmers co-op
for some supplies Tyra picked up a bag of chickpeas she was
thinking to sprout but Simon took them out of her basket and put
them back. “Sorry but no onions, garlic or beans for you, except
maybe for some mung beans, lentils or tofu. No mushrooms
either”.

Tyra pulled a face. “What the hell!
You afraid I might fart and smell of onions or
something?”

Simon laughed heartily. “Yep, that
pretty much covers it but it's also an important dietary
restriction that prepares you for some of the mediation I want to
teach you.”

“
And the
mushrooms?”

“
There’s an ancient science
which says there are three types of foods. Heavy foods such as
meat, eggs, cheese, potatoes, wheat, brown rice and mushrooms are
considered to be grounding and do have their use at times but
mostly they just bog down your digestion, sedate you and dull the
mind. Hot, spicy, salty and pickled foods, as well as fish, chicken
and vegetables of the nightshade family (tomatoes and eggplants and
such like) are considered to be stimulating, which again has its
place in moderation but can agitate the mind making it more
inclined to anger and hate. The foods that it would be better for
you to eat, for our purposes, are light and easy to
digest.”

“
So what can I
eat?”

“
Pretty much the standard
new-ager’s diet of high antioxidant fruits and berries, plenty of
nuts, seeds, coconut, blue corn, low-GI white rice, lots of
organically grown fresh green leafy vegetables, sweet potatoes,
squash and the milder spices. Only eat what’s been freshly
prepared. The diet helps you achieve clarity, calm and
balance”

“
That doesn’t sound so bad
but if I get hungry on it I reserve the right to
grumble”.

“
It will be my pleasure to
keep you well fed Tyra Goodwin.”

Simon made good on his promise that
evening by dishing up a small banquet. A green salad garnished with
a few marigolds and rose petals from the few off season blooms in
his garden, some plain rice, a delicious gingery mungbean dhal and
for dessert they shared a freshly sliced mango with a good dollop
of easy to digest lactose free yogurt and a sprig of chocolate
mint. They let all that settle while relaxing over a cup of hot
ginseng tea.

Simon said he had something to prepare
so Tyra gathered up the plates, chucked the scraps in the bin he
said was for the worm’s food and then put the plates in the
dishwasher. By the time she came into the lounge room to find Simon
she was met with a room transformed by candlelight and a large red
silk covered mattress in front of the fire. Simon was seated naked
on it waiting for her.

“
Come Tyra!”

Tyra’s pulse sped up and she swallowed
the moisture that gathered at the back of her throat. Maybe this
meant that last night wasn’t a one-off.

Simon lay down on his back and
casually patted a spare space on the mattress. “Consider this a
travel experience. You’ve never touched a man intimately have
you?

“
Um...that would be a
definite no.” Tyra paused a moment then grinned cheekily, “but I’d
like to”.

He smiled reassuringly “Then come and
explore. Come and taste me, touch me and smell me. Look at me and
listen to my heart beat. This doesn’t have to lead to anything, you
can even keep your clothes on if you like. Just be in the moment
and explore me with all your senses”.

Tyra absent-mindedly rubbed
her bottom jaw with her thumb. If she was a gambler they would have
called it a tell.
This would have to be
the strangest come-on line of all-time but I’m damned if I’m going
to refuse such an offer.
Deciding to
pretend that she was thirty again and go with the moment she found
some long buried sexual courage and quickly dispensed with her
clothes. She knelt down beside him. “What would you have me
do?”

Simon gently but firmly caressed her
arm. “Start by touching me like this. Pretend that you want to be
able to draw me so you’re going to study the lay of my muscles and
bones, see what different skin and hair surfaces feel
like.”

Tyra, hesitantly at first, touched his
ribs, stroking her finger along them. That seemed pretty safe but
then Simon took hold of her wrist and moved her hand up to his left
nipple. He moved her hand in a circular motion. She could feel the
nipple hardening and rising slightly to meet her hand. Fascinated
she did the same to the other nipple using her other hand. Simon
let go of her wrist, his breathing seemed to be deepening and he
moaned slightly. Feeling empowered by this effect that she was
having she stroked gently down over his abdomen and then furtively
ran her hand, as gentle as a feather, over his cock. In response it
seemed to increase in size and blossom into sudden
rigidity.

Simon chuckled. “You’d best do that
last or this is not going to take very long at all. Why don’t you
try my feet instead”.

Tyra had once seen an online video on
foot massage so she tried to do some of that and started by rubbing
the underside of his foot with her knuckles. Simon groaned in
pleasure at that too.

Feeling like she had been given
license to play and experiment she wondered what would happen if
she sucked his big toe.

Simon responded by arching his back
and nearly yelling. “Yes that‘s real good, more please.”

Tyra giggled with pleasure and
proceeded to give each of his toes a good sucking until Simon cried
out “enough...you can work your way back up my legs
now.”

Tyra ran her hands along
his prominent tibia bones then gently outlined his knees with her
fingers. As she contemplated where to stroke his thigh she thought
to herself
what the hell, he did say taste
too
and proceed to lick him along each
inside leg. That elicited more moans from Simon.

Back to where she’d been warned off
before she dared to play assertive and pushed his legs apart on the
mattress. Kneeling between his legs she bent forward and took his
now very erect cock in her mouth. She’d never done such a thing but
had read a little. She used her tongue to work the moisture of her
mouth over his long length and then let her lips slide with just
the barest friction along his length.”

“
That is so... good” came
the almost whispered whimper from Simon.

Tyra thought it was more like
beginner's luck but was enjoying his pleasure so much so that she
was determined to keep at it.