Nora Ray (Ray Trilogy) (20 page)

Jeremy kept putting his fingers in the water and flipping it at her until she pick
ed up the challenge. It wasn’t long until their competitive spirits took over and it was an all out a water fight. Fortunately they both wore tennis shoes, because it wasn’t long until they both were knee deep in water. Nora stepped on a slick rock and felt the water splash up to her neck.

Concerned that she might be hurt, Jeremy rushed to her aid. He reached out his arm to help her up.

Nora, determined not to the only one wet up to her ears, clasped his hand and jerked hard. He yelled and fell into the water beside her with a big splash.

Shocked but pleasantly surprised, he ducked her. She came up sputtering and shaking her head. “
Jeremy, that wasn’t nice!” she yelled as she gleefully tried to duck him.

He was too strong for
her. He stood up and pulled her up and before she realized his intention, he carried her into deeper water and dropped her. By this time they both were totally soaked. After another hour of play, they began to tire so they headed back to the room.

They he
aded to the bathroom to take off their wet clothes. Jeremy determined to be nice to her asked, “May I come in with you?”

She thought a moment and nodded her head, she started taking off the wet clothes that now felt cold.

“May I?” he asked brushing her hands away from the buttons on her blouse.

She let him but she felt a little foolish. Nobody had unbuttoned her blouse since she was too small to dress herself. His hands opening the button
s down the front of her blouse began to feel so sensual. As he opened the front he kept brushing her breasts which were responding appropriately.

Jeremy reached around and unfastened her bra. Her breasts were perfect as he knew they were. He touched them reverently and then kissed each one. He quickly finished undressing her
. He sat on the edge of the tub and pulled her to him and kissed her belly. “My beautiful Nora, you are lovely and perfect.” He stood and lifted her face to kiss her.

She began undressing him. She had seen him without his shirt before, but she had never ha
d the pleasure of touching him. She ran her hands over his chest and kissed his chest in every place that took her interest and there were plenty. She unfastened his jeans and pulled them down and it seemed that he exploded forth. She stepped back startled. She had never seen a man’s erection before. She laughed, “No worry about you getting ready.”

Jeremy agreed with a laugh, “
Not a bit.”

They quickly showered together and Jeremy picked her up and carried her to the bed.

By three that afternoon, they came out of their room ravenous.

“
The first place we find to eat, we’ll stop,” Jeremy said hungrily.

Nora was as hungry as he was spotted it first. “
There,” she said, “pointing at a little café on the north side of Main Street.”

“
Gosh! Nora,” Jeremy exclaimed, “I want everything on the menu!”

“
You do that and I won’t be able to find the snap on your jeans under your belly,” Nora teased.

“
Well, in that case, I want the chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes, cole slaw, and apple pie ala mode.”

The waitress brou
ght them their drinks and Jeremy placed his order.

Nora said, “
I want what Jeremy ordered but I want salad instead of cole slaw.”

After hungrily eating, they both sat back and felt like rubbing their
stomachs.

“
What would you like to do next, my lovely Nora?”

“
Let’s window shop and walk off some of this food,” Nora suggested.

“
Sure,” Jeremy said.
Window shopping is not my thing, but I will be with Nora.

They held hands
and walked both sides of Main Street.

“
That didn’t take long,” Nora said disappointed. She pointed toward the hill on the south side of Main Street. “Let’s walk up there,” she suggested.

They walked leisurely along looking and commenting on the houses, pointing out the flower
gardens that adorned them. One house especially took their interest because it was painted bright yellow and had a screened in porch which housed at least two dozen parakeets in various colors. Several birdcages and swings hung from the ceiling. As they stood on the sidewalk appreciating the birds, the owner came out and visited with them. She explained that she was a breeder and sold them to various pet shops.

“
How interesting!” Nora exclaimed. “That must be a peaceful occupation, listening to birds chirping and playing.”

Soon they walked a short ways farther and heard s
omeone praying. Jeremy and Nora stopped and looked at each other in surprise. They looked around and saw that the prayer was coming from the church on the corner. They walked a little closer. On the front of the church was a sign that simply said, Holiness Church.

Interesting
they whispered to each other.

They walked three more blocks and saw another church with music drifting out the open door. The sign over the door said, Undenominational. They stood for a moment enjoying the piano and guitar music.

“Must be someone warming up for the service tonight,” Jeremy commented.

They turned and walked back to their car to return to their cottage.

Jeremy said, “I brought some cards, I’ll challenge you to a game of Rummy.”

“
You’re on, but I’ll win,” Nora promised.

He laughed, “
You can try, but you can count on it. I plan to win.”

They only lasted five hands before they found more interesting things to occupy them. At nine, that night they left to find hamburgers and ice cream.
Finally, they found a Dairy Mart at the far west end of Main Street as it turned to go out of town. They were already in the first stages of closing but Nora and Jeremy begged them to fix them a hamburger. The ice cream machine had already been cleaned. When they received their hamburgers, they thankfully gave a big tip for their kindness.

The next mor
ning they checked out of the Pipe Springs Motel and drove east. The road curved so much that after a few minutes Nora begged Jeremy to stop. She stepped out on the grass at the side of the road and felt everything moving under her feet. She stepped a few paces toward the back of the car and upchucked the last of the hamburger she ate last night.

“
Ugh,” she said.

Jeremy ran around the car and handed her a clean handkerchief.

“You gotta’ slow down, Jeremy. I feel green,” she begged shaking her head and shuttering. “Uck!”

“
I’m sorry, Nora. I promise I’ll slow down,” Jeremy said repentantly.

Nora got back in the car and rolled the window all the way down and sat with her face into the wind hitting her
face.

By the time they reached Little Kansas, Nora had color in her face again.
They had been traveling over thirty minutes since they left the motel. Jeremy turned off the road to see if there was a café or store somewhere that they could find food. After driving about three blocks north they came to a tee in the road. To the right he could see a grocery store. An old well stood in front of the store in the middle of the street. It must have been a community well at one time. It appeared to be capped. How quaint they commented to each other.

Jeremy asked the man behind a counter “
Is there anywhere to buy breakfast?”

“
Don’t reckon,” he shook his head. “I can make you a sandwich, if that would be what you’d want.”

Jeremy looked at Nora and she nodded her hea
d.

They ordered sandwiches. Jeremy got a cola and
Nora got a lime soda. Jeremy collected some fruit and cookies to take with them. They sat on the bench outside the store and enjoyed the sandwiches and drinks. At the last minute Jeremy decided to buy a couple of six packs of colas before they left.

About ten miles down the road, they came to the Illinois River. Jeremy pulled over where people were camped out at the river. “
What do you think? Does it look like fun?”

“
Absolutely!” she laughed as she opened the car door.

There was a gas station nearby, so they went over to change into their swimsuits.

When they got into the water, Nora said, “Be nice to me, Jeremy, because I’ve never learned to swim.”

“
You’re kidding!”

“
Nope,” she shook her head. “I’ve always been a nerd. I’ve never done anything except study and work. I’ve never had a vacation before.”

“
Wow!” he said amazed. “I feel honored that I get to take my love on her first vacation.”

“
Jeremy, you’re such a mess. It’s going to take a lot of kisses to help you.”

He stood waist deep in the cool river water. He turned to her and seriously
said, “I really feel like we should get started on those kisses before I get worse.”

Nora looked around at the others in the campsite and in the water, she giggled, “
Jeremy, you are a goober. I promise when the circumstances are better we will get started on that.”

“
Oh, well,” he said sorrowfully. “I guess it’s time to teach you to swim.”

Jeremy had placed one of the cartons of cola in the cool water so they could drin
k some when they came out of the water to rest and lie in the sun. They stayed at the Illinois River all day and went to West Siloam to get a motel room for the night.

The next day they went to Tahlequah
and floated down the Illinois River in a raft. Back in Tahlequah the next day they went through the Indian museums and the College.

They also took in Fort Gibson and the submarine near Muskogee.

They had seen and done a lot of things. It was a fun and restful vacation without driving far and costing a lot of money. They returned home tanned and happy.

Chapter Eighteen

It was time to prepare to go back to college. They consoled themselves that this would be the last year they would have to be separated. It was a tearful separation but they were determined to make it work.

Nora consoled herself that once she started back into school and started getting involved in her studies she would be alright.

Jeremy went back to Harvard with a box full of papers he had written during the summer to describe and illustrate his theory.

He made an appointment with his biochemistry professor that he studied under last semester.
The professor listened to Jeremy present his theory as he described what he had studied and the experiments he had done. When Jeremy finished, he asked the professor, “What do you think about it?”

The professor basically scoffed at him and said, “
Jeremy, all you have is a box of papers and a hypothesis. You haven’t proved anything at this point. You’ll need several generations of plants providing fruit and test each one. If anything comes to fruition, then come to me and I’ll look closer at what you have.”

Jeremy picked up his whole summer
’s work and took it back to his room discouraged.
After all that work I did
he thought.

He wanted to call Nora, bu
t long distance calls weren’t in his budget unless it was an emergency. He didn’t think this qualified.

He enrolled and bought his books. This time he went to his counselor and changed his major to
horticulture with a minor in business administration. This time besides his basics that were required, he took entomology, chemistry, and genetics. Also, Jeremy sent off for an application to transfer to OU in Tulsa to study horticulture.

After a week of waiting for the application, he received a letter
stating that he would be better served by enrolling in Oklahoma State University Horticulture and Landscape Architecture. He immediately sent off a letter requesting an application to OSU.

After another week of waiting, he finally received his application. On the a
pplication they asked if he wanted to transfer for the Spring semester, the Summer semester, or the Fall semester.
Well, I hadn’t thought of anything but the Fall semester. I just changed my mind.
He filled it out for the Spring semester.

He sat there toying with his pencil. It really made sense to go to
Stillwater for the Spring semester because he could drive to Tulsa to find a house for them. He would be closer to home. He could easily go home on the weekends.

The way he figured it, he
would save his dad so much money by changing universities; he should love him for it. He could save those big bucks for Jeffrey or one of the other boys.

Nora, on the other hand, had gone back to school and
immersed herself in her studies. She missed Jeremy every moment that she wasn’t disciplining herself to concentrate on some school work. At night she lay in bed remembering every touch and sensation.
Gosh! I’m worse since our vacation than I was before
. She had immaturely thought being with him might relieve some of her desire so she could make this year easier than the previous year. Her body ached for him.