Jessy sat there. And waited for words. And they came to
her: "God, Kit...you're so sweet...and it's incredible! It sounds
impossible...it sounds impossible. It sounds a little crazy. But
it's not stupid. It's not stupid at all...And I want to believe in it
...darling..."
        He was so stoked already that you could not have thrown
another log on that fire. He was nodding, knowing too that
she was inspired as she continued:
        "It'd be such an amazing good thing...like the human race
at last came to its senses...or something...it'd be such a BIG
thing...historical to the max, I mean...since Jesus or World War
Two...or something...and everybody...everybody would say
GOD, thank You...finally!....But I can't see them doing it...I
can't see it happening, Kit. I can't see it making it but, then...I
can't see it losing, either...Jeez, I mean, it's complicated. Heck,
though, I feel I...I feel I want to help...I really DO. I want
to help you...I want to see it done! I want to see it done too!
It's...IT! It IS the next step for Civilization...for Humanity....
And everybody WANTS it. God, everybody wants it..."
        Kit was gagacacalala. Kit was in bonkervillevillage. Kit
was farking gone over his girl. She was go. O Goddam. She
was rollin', dudes and dudettes. And she was just...mirific.
Mirific. She was magic.
        She continued, "...except the bastards...sorry...you know
what I mean...they'd try to stop it. But...it would be sooooooo
gooood Kit!...God...."
        She asked some more questions. And he answered them
all as he picked up the guitar, the one he had left her ten years
before. He tuned some strings lower - really lower - and started
playing a Spanish-sounding ballad of his own as he answered
her questions and conclusions and all.
        "That's so beautiful, ...will you teach it to me?"
        "Well, heck no, precious...this is mine," and smiled. "...At
least not unless you teach me one of yours, no? You know...it
was soundin' to me, when I came...in here...young lady...that
you're ready for Nashville and the world right now...aren't'cha?"
        "Well...that's pretty awesome to say. That's big life, y'
know...."
        "Well...you're a real big soul, Jess....And full of talent and,
in my humble estimate, which you have probably already guessed,
thee most beautiful woman that has ever lived...I mean, let's talk
history...let's talk anything you want...Jesus, Jessus ...you're a
star as soon as you want to do that...."
        "Awww, Kit...you are so sweet..."
        "Well...I'm tellin' ya...it's not sweet. It's the almighty awesome
truth, Jess....And I'm so thrilled you picked up that guitar...you
better believe it! You're great!...."
        "Thank you...Kit," not believing for a several-second flash
whom she was talking with, "you are such a sweet heart...and I
picked it up...I started to learn it on my own..."
        "...The best way...."
        "...B'cuz it was your's..." she kept on, "sometimes thinkin' that
playin' it would bring you back...but I couldn't figure out why you
just left it there outside...inside our fence...."
        He leaned over and gently kissed the side of her head, the
ambrosial scent of her soft hair and skin whisking his mind to the
nexus of everywhere, and answered, "just crazy...I guess..." and
they looked at each other as he pulled away, then she leaned over
and kissed him - O God - slowly on his forehead, then each cheek,
above his beard, then...his lips.
        And, when their eyes closed...together...they felt something.
Like a zot...or something...like fire inside of them...like their spirits
were moving inside their souls, and then outside, then moving
around together as they kissed that first kiss, whispering on each
other's lips what they were feeling and thinking as they both
thought they herd Joni doing "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter"
somewhere in the local ether.
        Well...that kiss eventually did end, and, after, she so quietly
said, "so...you want to try, an'...end war on Earth...for me...and I'm
the only other person who knows about it...."
        Kit nodded and said, "si...most beautifullest...est...verily...."
        "And you think there's really a chance...."
        "Well...that's up to everyone. Or enough of us doing enough...
like we ended the Cold War...and Vietnam...and...."
        "Kicked Nixon out..." she added, knowing very well about
Kit's contribution to that.
        "...And kicked Nixon out," he repeated. "I'm pretty sure, at
least, that we could be able to get the idea out to the world....I guess
I'm betting my freedom and semi-fortune, or...life on that...."
        "Not your sacred honor?"
        "Shoo...I'm not sure I have any of that left," and had a not so
confident smirk, "anyway...from there, yeah...I think there's really a
chance, Jess..." and got a thought of Pute refiguring the odds since
the Chief, and thought of telling her about that.
        She looked in his deep blue sky irises for a few moments, then
said, "I believe in it, Kit. I believe in you. I think it's really an
awesome plan. And I think it could work. But...."
        "Let me guess, precious..." he answered, "...it'll take one heck
of a lot of us and a mother lode of luck and...more..." thinking again
of the Chief.
        "Pretty close there, bucko....I really want to help, Kit. Heck...
I'm going to help you. I'll come with you...."
        His jaw actually did drop. There is no embellishment here.
Nada. It's how it happened. "Yes!" he answered in a somewhat
surprisingly controlled cheer. "I mean no. NO!" and jumped up and
started pacing around, "it'd be too dangerous for you....Absolutely
NOT!...."
         "Yeah right. Would not. I've done stuff a lot more dangerous
already..." she was fabricating and trying to remember some of her
most dangerous deeds to date, "...and probably still will..." thinking
of what could happen if she went with him, "...you'd be surprised,
Cody. Anyway...I've read your plans...and heard and felt your
confidence...and I know things you've done before - things Mom and
others told me about...and you have things...well...well in hand. And
I can handle it. And you came to me out of everyone...and trust me...
and you'll need help," she smiled and took a breath, poking him
gently outside of his heart with her right index finger.
        "I know I will..." he raised his brow in some real worry and
nodded slowly, "...believe me, Jessica...I want your help. But I don't
want you in any danger...ever...especially on my account...or any
account....Trust me, darlin', you could be chased for the rest of your
lifetime over this and frankly, my dear, your coming along would be
way more than I...thunk...." After her short giggle at the word he
added, "imagined...I meant...."
        "I thunk you meant that....So, what you're tellin' me is...having
me out of danger carries more import - in your mind - than lettin' me
help? How...chivalric..." she smiled.
        "I couldn't bear any harm coming to you...."
        "Well, I appreciate that thought. I don't want any harm to me
or you either, my...Kit. We'll just have to make real darn sure we
don't tune into any, won't we?"
        "Aw, Jeeze...all, Jess...you can't be serious," realizing the
joyous prospect of her coming along.
        "Kit...."
        "Hey....?"
        "Do you remember that Easter morning I got in bed with you...
and how we smiled at each other laying there in the covers...?"
        "Oooo...God...Jess...I've thought about that every Easter ever
since...besides every other day...and night...God...."
        "Well, I knew then...that I loved you...and would my whole
life...and wanted to be with you...."
        "Holee Jeezzuzz...Jesseee....I'm so...old...."
        "Sshhhshhhh..." she said as she put that same right index finger
to his lips. "Do you remember the last time we saw each other...?"
        "The laundromat...."
        "And what did I tell you?" surprised he had remembered.
        "That you'd wait for me...."
        "And I did....And do you remember what I said in my letter -
under the rainbow...?"
        Kit reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the letter and
handed it to her. Tears welled up in his eyes, and then hers as she
read it, and quietly read the last of it outloud to him, the words she
had written under her rainbow ten years before: "I'll Love You
Forever." And she leaned over, and wrapped her precious arms
around his neck and slowly, and tenderly, and so passionately,
kissed his face softly, from his chin and jaw and cheeks to his
temples, brow and hair. And the rain, which had, by the way,
been slowing, stopped. Outside.
        "I love you, Kit Cody," she whispered so gently into his ear.
His right ear, they kind of remember.
        And he whispered back, after those several unbelievable
moments of his entire existence, "I...adore you...Jess...."
        "So..." she answered, just above that whisper, "...take me
with you...I can help you do it...."
        Kit, well, Kit took that in. He absorbed that into his soul. And
his spirit. MAN, did he take that in. The tears in his eyes came out
...and Jess delicately kissed them into her mouth...and he looked
disbelievingly into her eyes when he asked her, "...you could do that?
....Just like that?"
        "I can do that."
        "How can you do that?"
        "One, I want to. Two, Spring break started today. Fact...right
about...." and looked at her watch, "...now...."
        "Holeeee ffffaa....."
        "Pretty good timing, huh?"
        "I can't even believe I found you....I don't know how I could
get so lucky....You shouldn't have even been here....Why were you
even here?!"
        "O...I just broke up with...someone...and decided to hang
around...and work on a song....Funny, huh?...."
        "Funny AWEsome...."
        "Or was it fate?" she answered like a commentator, for a laugh,
which he gave her, since she had affectated Cronkite just about
perfectly.
        "It's..." he struggled for words. Werds. Wurdz. Those things of
letters. Gossamer. Magic. And he had a flashback of one of the signs
that the Chief had given him.
        "Destiny?" she asked him seriously.
        "Do you think it could be?" he asked her just as seriously.
        "O....Let's see....You find me right after I break up with Evan....
You plan to change the world - for me....And we've been waiting ten
years for each other....Gee, I don't know, Cody....Could that be....
destiny?...."
        "May be...hunh?" not knowing quite how to respond to her.
        "O! Do you want me maybe..." Well, she was kidding, but had
sounded plenty darn serious enough for him, he recalled.
       "Wow! NO! I want you NOT maybe....I don't want you maybe
....I want you...totally....hey?....I'm not getting this right, am I? Aw,
God, Jess...you just blow me away....Course, you are ten years older
..." trying to make light.
        "Yup! And you're only twice as old as me now."
        "O God."
        "Well, Cody....That's a good sign, don't you think?" looking out
the window.
        "What?!...That I'm twice as old?!"
        "Aw heck, I blew you away just as much ten years ago," she smiled
as she stood up, then stood him up, grabbed onto him, and they rocked
in each other's arms again, and looked out the window cheek to cheek.
"The rain's stopped. That's a good sign, Mister Kit," she smiled at him
and gave him another kiss on his lips.
        Woo God. He was gone. "O...yeah it is..." he answered after that
kiss.
        "So...you want me, then?"
        He let out a breath, wondering where it came from, and
answered, "Jess....I want you then....I want you now....And I want
you forever...."
        She kissed him once more and said, "let's go, then...."
        "Hey...? Are you really sure you want to do this?..."
        "Why?...Can't I trust you?" and smiled.
        He took one more second, then answered, unequivocably, "let's
vamos, then..." all vestiges of his objections - yeah, like he really had
any - gone. Evaporated. Vanished. Poof.
        She started putting the guitar away right away. He got Pute,
asking her once more if she was sure - about everything. She came right
back, "yeahup," and put "Gibby" and her song sheet in the gig bag,
grabbed his arm and held it between her hand and her left breast - aw
God - as he picked up Pute and they headed out through the door and
into the corridor, Kit walking on pure cloud cover. She put her old letter
to him back into his jacket pocket and felt something really hard.
        "What's that? A ray gun?"
        "Nahh. Just glad t' feel what's bumpin' against my arm, love...."
and looked at her shaking her head at that old joke, then he added,
"nine-millimeter Beretta..." and looked at her face again, "...which I
hope to God we never have to use....I haven't had to...yet."
        "I understand, Kit. It actually makes me feel safer....I know you'll
take care of me."
        "You can count on that, precious." She gave him a squeeze on his
arm and pressed her breast into it a little more and he moaned happily,
"aww God...." He had come. He had found her. And she was coming...
and all those sensuous thoughts were zipping through his male brain. Then
the details and questions rushed in right behind of how to do everything
now.

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