Are You Scared Yet?

by J J Janicki

Chapter 24

Stephan woke me up at 5:22 Monday morning. It was still dark outside and just barely sixty degrees, but in spite of that he thought it was the perfect time for us to get cleaned up a little. I honestly didn't think we needed to that badly, not right then, but he can be very persistent. Needless to say, though, once we were in the snow-melt-fed Kern River, I thought even less of his idea, and Stephan was reconsidering it as well. So we didn't stay in any longer than was necessary, and to our credit, we were quiet about it. We both gasped when we first went in and our teeth were chattering all the way back to our tent, but near as we could tell, everyone else was still asleep. We sure hoped so. We hoped all the Scouts were sound asleep just like we were the morning before. Sound asleep, all snug and warm and then, at six o'clock... just barely past daylight... we were startled almost out of our wits by Dalton's morning wake-up call. A cover of "The Final Countdown", blasting away on his boom box. It's not an absolute necessity, but to even begin to appreciate the impact this had on us, you should now go to YouTube and enter "Toy Dolls, The Final Countdown". It only lasts three minutes and two seconds. I especially liked the six second Guitar Hero-type riff that occurred just before the final kazoo player was apparently squashed flat.

Really. Kazoos. So with that going on, there was no way I could stay grouchy, not with everyone else laughing so hard they were about to wet themselves - but then, first thing in the morning, you almost always need to pee anyway, so we could have. And we probably would have wet all over our sleeping partners and our sleeping bags while we were at it, but we managed to scramble outside before any of that happened. Only we didn't have time to look for our clothes and apparently none of the other Scouts had the time either. All of us had slept naked... apparently...

We didn't know if any of the others had slept with someone else or not, though. And even if they had, it still could have been fairly innocent... in spite of our circle jerks....

Only then came the flag football game followed by the initiations, so never mind.

But no, we'd not ever heard of The Toy Dolls either, so there was another group to investigate, and as far as we were concerned it was worth the effort. In fact, if Mozart was close to being the way he was portrayed in "Amadeus", then I think he'd like them too, their cover of "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" notwithstanding. But even so, Monday morning we were going to ask Elliott to let his station wagon roll down just a little closer, and then we would blast everyone awake with some Bulgarian music.

Stephan's the one who discovered Elitsa & Stoyan. This was in New York, not long after we first started hanging out together and I started falling in love with him, but the thing was, I'd had very little luck finding any Bulgarian rock groups I really liked. Wikipedia only listed thirteen groups, and up until then, not much had caught my fancy. Only I'd never thought of just entering "Bulgarian music" into YouTube's search box.

So this also isn't an absolute necessity, but I don't think it would hurt anything if you were to return to YouTube and enter "Elitsa & Stoyan, Water". It's not like The Final Countdown with kazoos, but if you're like me, then first time, there could still be some WTF moments. I think it's fairly awesome, though. And that's in spite of the fact that it was on Eurovision (2007), which is a lot like American Idol, which to me is usually the kiss of death. In terms of my liking it, I mean. I hardly bother with American Idol.

But, anyway, I pulled some clothes on and started walking up to the station wagon, rehearsing how I was going to wake up Elliott, only by the time I was about fifty feet away it dawned on me that he was awake already and he also wasn't by himself.

"If the Trailer's Rockin' Don't Come Knockin.'" I figured there had to be a country song title like that, and sure enough, there is. It's by Billy Joe Shaver, but I haven't found it on YouTube. It might be decent, though, because Billy Joe is considered to be part of the outlaw country movement...

But that's beside the point, and the station wagon wasn't actually rocking, but I could hear them easily enough. As in "Oh oh oh oohh"... and all that, so even though I was tempted to look inside, common decency along with an instinct for self-preservation caused me to stop in my tracks. But I recognized Dan's voice. I didn't really know, but somehow I suspected he was on the receiving end and it sounded like he was enjoying it. Seriously, there's sweet pain and then there's almost seven inches and pretty big around, so who wouldn't? Not that I know for sure, but...

Well, I wouldn't have minded listening for awhile longer, but I didn't know how close to the finish they were. It sounded like they were getting close, though, so with a shrug and being as quiet as I could possibly be, I started back towards our tent. I glanced at my watch. It was 5:44, so under my breath I said to myself... obviously... "They'd better be getting close, because by six everybody's gonna be wide awake again. Every damn body!"

So it was a dilemma. I mean, you know I told Stephan once back inside the tent. I popped in, a little out of breath because once I was far enough away, I'd started running, and Stephan asked, "So is he going to?"

Of course he was still talking about our planned wake-up call, so in reply I think I said, "Um... well, I didn't really have a chance to talk to him."

" Oh, " said Stephan, "Why not?"

" Because he has company.... Dan, I think."

Then after a moment or so of dawning recognition, Stephan started, "Are you saying... what I think you're saying?"

So maybe only partial recognition, but I glanced at my watch again, and it was 5:46, so: "I really didn't get close enough to see, but I sure could hear, and it sounded like Dan and from the sounds of things, I'd say they were fucking.... I think Dan was on the receiving end, and if he was, he was enjoying it, but-"

" Holy shit!" interrupted Stephan, "Ho-ly, fuck-ing... Think we should warn them? That unless they want everybody to know about it, they'd better hurry it up?"

So that was followed by some dawning recognition on my part. Of course! We had to be adult about this. Dan in particular, might be embarrassed at first... if we managed to get there while they were still at it... but he'd thank us later.

Or at least he wouldn't be able to hold it against us too much, because we were only trying to help.

I still wasn't sure about that, though. Obviously, because I asked, "Do you really think we should?"

And if that wasn't bad enough, I then had to add that they were at least a hundred yards away and once The Final Countdown started up, none of the other Scouts were likely to be paying any attention to the station wagon anyway. To be honest, there are times when I think my prefrontal cortex is a little too advanced.

" Yeah, well, they might still hear them, " said Stephan stubbornly. His prefrontal cortex is disturbingly normal.

And mine isn't really that far advanced, because in spite of its transparency, I finally had to agree with his logic. They could have been making more noise than Miss Honeywell did in Porky's, and we still couldn't have heard them. Once Dalton's boom box came to life, there was no way. Even in the early-morning silence, we couldn't hear anything... not from our tent, we couldn't...

Only, then at 5:49, we did. We heard them approaching, talking quietly. So we didn't pop out of our tent and say anything like: "You're up early this morning!" I don't think that would have worked out too well, because our voices would have surely given us away. And theirs would have sounded fairly strange because...

Well, for starters, as they were hurrying past our tent, we overheard Dan ask Elliott, "Is it always like this? The way it feels now, I'll be in this robe all day!" Then Elliott said something in reply, but we couldn't catch that. Probably something about it only being that way at first.

So once they were out of earshot, Stephan whispered, "Now I'm glad we didn't go."

" Yeah, me too, " I agreed.

Only, it was still a dilemma, because whether we should have felt that way or not, now we were feeling guilty. That, and possibly a wee bit squeamish, because even though we'd read stories in which the after effects of first time anal sex had been mentioned, we'd only had fairly minor problems. That's one advantage of being relatively small, I suppose, but Elliott's wasn't small at all, so urgently I whispered, "I think it might work a lot better for Dan if we decide to wear our robes today, and we're telling Carlie and Earl that they have to too even if we can't tell them why right away, and I think we'd better hurry!"

And so with the sky turning pink and Dalton's wake up call mere minutes... possibly even scant seconds away... we raced to the station wagon and in no time at all we were in our robes. We grabbed two more for Carlie and Earl, then we decided while we were at it we might as well put on our Frank the Bunny heads, and we also grabbed two Bugs Bunny heads for them. We wanted to divert attention away from Dan. Well, away from his bottom, actually, but I took a deep breath and...

Doodle-do-do, doodle-dut-dut-do, doodle-do-do, doodle-dut-dut-do... or something close to that... The Final Countdown started sounding off again.

So there they were, in the middle of the river, looking back over their shoulders as the Scouts came popping out of their tents, all of them naked, and most with their morning boners. So of course that raises some questions as to what the ones without boners might have been up to, but no matter, because both Dan and Elliott were looking concerned. But they were also trying to act normal. So that resulted in them looking guilty as sin and even more concerned.

Only then... It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's... ?!!??

It was us to the rescue! Racing by in our choir robes with fixed, sinister expressions. It must have been surreal.

Due to having no peripheral vision, though, we couldn't see Carlie and Earl, so we still had their robes and masks in hand once we reached the bank of the river. Behind us, some of the Scouts had apparently recovered from their initial shock, because we could hear them behind us, so...

Stephan started wading out without bothering to take his robe off first, so I did too. I'm not sure why, but I did.

So there we were, looking kind of dumb, although at least we were holding the three extra robes and the two Bugs Bunny masks up out of the water. (Dan left the one he'd been wearing on the bank, but apparently Elliott had walked down naked.)

Only, Dan started moving further away from us, looking both guilty and perplexed.

Then, even though Elliott had to know it was either us or Carlie and Earl, he started moving away too. So...

"It's us, " I explained. My teeth were chattering.

Well, Elliott was looking none the less perplexed, but, "Natty? What do you think you're doing?"

" I'm freezing my butt off, " I chattered, but...

" We were going to get a CD out of the car, so we accidentally heard you, so we know why you don't want anybody knowing about it, but if you put this stuff on, then maybe they'll start thinking about something else, " said Stephan.

So there had to be an explanation somewhere, and the way I was looking at it, it was better him trying than me. I still hadn't thought of anything.

But whatever, it was out in the open, and both Dan and Elliott stopped with looks of dawning recognition. That, and resignation... I suppose...

Actually, it was eerily reminiscent of the scene in Godfather II in which Michael says to Fredo "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!" and of course Fredo didn't think that was good news, so I quickly added, "We've done it too. We know how it can be, all right?" Not that we'd had any problems of that magnitude...

But expressing some empathy would still be helpful, I thought.

Finally, though, Elliott found his tongue. "So why are you bringing us those robes out here? Are we supposed to put them on out here in the water?"

" Um... well... we were sort of in a rush... actually..."

Then I trailed off, but: "All right, lets wade across to the other side, " said Dan at last, "even if we still have to get back across... but under the circumstances... I guess."

And so we did and Dan and Elliott climbed out of the water almost directly in front of us, only that's when we decided to glance back to see if we were being followed. And as near as we could tell, the other Scouts were planning on joining us... but only after they were dressed like we were. I mean, they were all running towards the station wagon. So there were robes enough, but only one more Bugs Bunny head and three sets of clip-on rabbit ears.

How they worked that problem out was very much beside the point, though, because we were were on one side of the river and they were still on the other.

So we quickly got out of our wet, clingy robes, and after drying off as best we could with one of the extras, we decided to go naked. Except for our masks. So if anything, it was even more surreal than before, because Elliott decided to put on one of the Bugs Bunny masks, only he didn't bother with a robe either. But Dan decided he'd be more comfortable in a robe and he also thought at least one of us ought to have some peripheral vision, so he didn't wear a mask. And then...

We started hiking. In the middle of the wilderness, three of us hiking along in nothing but rabbit masks and our wet squishy shoes. One is well-endowed, but without any body hair, while the other two are still developing, but at least they have some pubic hair. Then there's a fourth boy dressed in a choir robe but without a mask, and he looks like an Eagle Scout. It's not easily defined, but somehow, he looks the part. I guess because he so often looks earnest, only now he was in the company of three disturbingly naked boys, casually hiking along, probably scaring all the wildlife practically to death...

And that is almost as surreal as anything you can possibly imagine. Soo...

After a couple of minutes of strolling along in silence, I could stand it no longer, and I ventured, "You know, this is almost surreal."

" It certainly is, " agreed Dan.

Then Elliott decided to join the conversation. "I've been thinking about it... and I still haven't quite made my mind up... but I'm thinking about staying here. Well, in Bakersfield, but..."

Then he looked over at me and Stephan and finished, "I don't want to put the rest of you out, because God knows, I never would have made it this far if it wasn't for your help, but you understand why, don't you?"

So now you know why I decided to the describe the situation just prior to Elliott's bombshell as being almost as surreal as anything I could possibly imagine, because this was well beyond that. Other than saying that it seemed that way, though, I'm not going to bother explaining why, because if I did, then I'd probably be trying to explain surrealism to back up my argument, so it wouldn't be much longer until we'd be mixed up, and we really wouldn't want that. I mean, we don't, right?

It sure seemed beyond surreal to me, though. Elliott was declaring his love for Dan... or at the very least, that he was seriously smitten... only saying that while in a Bugs Bunny mask made the occasion seem a lot less solemn than one would normally expect. It was hard to tell if he was really being sincere, for one thing...

So I thought it would be a good idea to keep my mask on as well, and apparently Stephan was of the same mind. Would it do if we looked disappointed? Probably not. Upset? Of course not, but such a look might have briefly crossed our faces if unmasked. Relieved? It had crossed our minds that we were still at least a thousand miles from Seattle, and that was only if we stayed on the Interstate all the way, so number one: Interstates are boring and number two: we were losing faith that his car could even make out of California without breaking down again anyway.

Or what if all at once, we started laughing? We'd be desperately trying to fight the urge, but sometimes, that's like trying to stop yourself from sneezing.

So. There we were. Then Elliott cleared his throat and said, "I guess you're wondering what happened with Markus." (In case it's been forgotten, Markus was supposed to be his one-and-only in Vancouver.)

In a somewhat muffled tone of voice, Stephan answered, "We weren't going to mention it, but yeah, that's one question." Me, I was afraid to say anything. I was trying to act serious.

And so was Dan. He's good at it normally, but: "Do you know how many more questions you might end up having?" He looked both pensive and happy, as though he still wasn't sure all this was happening, but...

"I have no idea, " I replied as quickly as I could. Not quickly enough, though, because I started giggling, and it soon became something else entirely, and it was also contagious. None of one of us were immune, but Dan was so affected he ended up wetting his robe.

So of course this had a sobering effect... on him, not on us, and then we heard the others heading our way...

So that ended our performance art. Dan yanked his robe off, the rest of us ripped our masks off so we could see better, and even though we weren't sure why, we started running.

Well, Dan said we were trying to lose them because we wanted some privacy for awhile. So okay, that sounded interesting, as in: We? Oh boy... For what?

So first: for awhile, we did lose them. It was simple enough, we reached a fork in the trail. One way went on up a mountain, the other led back to our camp and since he was fairly sure the others wouldn't immediately think of us going back, that's where we went. Back to camp... to our tent, actually...and on the way, another question was answered.

We had been wondering if Dan's bottom would be showing any signs of what he'd been up to and how bad it would look. Morbid, prurient or whatever, we were curious. So we were following behind... because after all, he knew where he was going, but we didn't, and when he had to climb over a fallen tree, it was obvious enough, but not gawd awful-looking. There was some bruising, but it wasn't like the Mark of Cain or anything like that. So we didn't ever mention it. At least not to Dan or Elliott.

And I also don't think I'll be mentioning it again in this story. So...

Once back at camp, we very uncharacteristically put some regular clothes on. Dan seemed to be more relieved than the rest of us were. Stephan and I... well, we thought it was fun being naked all the time, but we were about to have a private discussion, so we went along with it. If it was to be private, then we wanted to hear as much as we possibly could, and we knew that the rest would be back soon enough, so there was no time to waste. So first...

No, wait. That would be secondly... or thirdly...

Second was seeing Dan's mostly unmentionable condition, which wasn't quite as significant as we thought it would be. Then third was learning that we weren't about to engage in some more sex. Not that anything was specifically said about us not doing it, but if you're putting clothes on. then it seems obvious enough, and believe it or not, we were fairly relieved about that as well. In the future, we'd certainly take even more sex under consideration, but not right then, because we'd almost overdone it. Pretty damn close.

But we could at least talk about it, we're always up for that, so...

" So about Markus, " started Elliott, "I guess you're wondering what happened, right?"

Only a little, we were. Markus was still in Vancouver, what we were really wanting to know about was what happened in the station wagon. How did it start? Who confessed first? Who made the first move? How did the other person react? What kind of move was it? Did it hurt like fucking hell at first? So many questions, but...

" Well, yeah, that's one question, but...okay, what happened?... I thought you were getting along pretty good with him." If I like the person, then I almost always try to be polite.

" He's turning into a control freak, " started Elliott. "I already had the feeling that he could be like that... sometimes... but..." (deep breath) "Well, I didn't say anything, but you remember when I said I didn't know if it was going to work out or not?... When I was thinking about calling it off?"

" Yeah, we were wondering about that, " said Stephan.

" Well, what I didn't say was, I'd sent an email to Markus. I told him where I was and that I'd had some car trouble, but I'd met some very cool dudes and one of them knew a lot about cars. I've never said anything about all of you being gay, though, because if I ever did... well, let me put it this way: He emailed me back, and from the tone of it, I could already tell he was pissed, because he said he'd loan me the money for a bus ticket, but he didn't think I should stay. You know, in Oxmar. It sounded like he was jealous.... And like he didn't trust me." (Snigger.) "And I don't guess he could."

Then Stephan started to say something, but he got no further than "Um..", then...

" The thing is, though, " continued Elliott "he'd already had lots of experience. The whole nine yards. He told me all about it. See, he'd had a boyfriend for more than two years, but they broke up. So to make a long story short... er... than it could be... I checked my email when we were at the motel in Barstow, and I had another from him. It was short. 'Are you or are you not? Your decision.' So the more I thought about it, the more pissed I got, even if I didn't let on to you guys about it. And if he ever found out I was in southern California, for God's sake... I mean, seriously..."

And he trailed off. But Dan put his arm around his shoulders and said, "Right now, I'm hoping he sticks around, and if I have anything to do with it, he will."

So I didn't know if it qualified as a perfect storm or not, but I could at least see a complication. It was only August 3^rd and my mom wasn't going to be in Seattle until the 29^th.. We could be there a few days early and she'd probably take care of a motel room for us, but if we arrived... oh, say, about three weeks early...

Probably not.

And, of course, we also had to think of Carlie and Earl for two more weeks... although we could continue camping out in the area we were in... even if we might not want to spend the entire time camping with the twins and Dalton... because that could lead to even more complications...

So I really had no idea where I was supposed to start, because I was also hoping for some more details on what happened in the back of the station wagon.

But then Stephan cleared his throat, and he asked Elliott, "Just out of curiosity, does everybody here know about... all of us? The way things have been going, it's not like it matters, but still, we're curious to know who knows what, all right?"

So in reply, Elliott mused, "Who knows what. That's not very specific, Stephan, but as far as I know, unless you've told them yourself, nobody knows about you two. But it's like you said, I don't think it really matters."

"It doesn't, " Dan assured us.

So that sounded fairly hopeful... maybe... but still, "So okay, how many know about you, then?"I asked Elliott.

He shrugged. "Just Dan so far. And you guys, of course, but-"

"If it works out, then if anybody asks, we'll tell them, " finished Dan.

"But only if they ask, " amended Elliott quickly, "and we'll still be keeping the details to ourselves."

So that didn't sound so hopeful, although...

"And before you ask, " continued Elliott, "I don't know how many know about Carlie and Earl, but they're not making it much of a secret anyway."

So the very first thing that flashed into my head was, "Uh oh, " but...

"Explain, " said Stephan.

So. Saturday afternoon, while we were off with Chase, Todd and Dan, either Jaylen or Jayden just came right out and asked Carlie and Earl if we were sort of like gay. I mean, Elliott had trouble telling one from the other, but no matter, that's how one of the twins put it. Sort of. Soon as the twins were mentioned, though, Stephan decided to put his mask back on and I followed suit. We both caught that "we" part right away, so just to be on the safe side...

Well, we thought it was a good idea. Because if they weren't going to give us any details about what happened in the back of the station wagon, then we weren't going to let them in on what we were thinking.

So there. So... returning to Carlie, Earl and the twins... and also Dalton, as it turned out... what Earl said in reply was: We weren't really really gay, but we were sort of. And that was a good answer, because you could easily say that all sixteen of us were in the same boat. Sort of. But then the twins and Dalton asked if Carlie and Earl minded sharing their tent with them that night...

Only Carlie said, "Well, maybe some other time."

So me and Stephan glanced over at each other. With our masks on, it should have been inscrutable enough, but maybe our body language gave us away. It's hard to tell, really, but that's when Dan asked, "So I take it they've approached you with the same question? In so many words?"

I shrugged. "In so many words?... Possibly."

But I was interested in some more information, so: "I guess they might have been leading up to something like that... maybe... but it seems like you're almost assuming that they approached us, so now our question is, are they openly gay? I mean, if they are, we're not holding it against them, but are they?"

" Umm... they're... I think the problem is, they're becoming a lot more open than before. We've known them almost forever, and in no way have they ever been effeminate, but lately, they've been progressively more open. Not to the extent of... well, for want of better term... it's not that they were ever trying to convert us, but..."

In a word, yes. Or, in just a few more words, (but still not as many as Dan ended up using, because seriously, he wasn't leaving many stones unturned), yes, they were open but not blatant about it.

But why was this a problem? Well, at first it wasn't. Not while his dad was the Scoutmaster, although truth be told, sex wasn't discussed anyway. Only then, fate started intervening. See, one fact Chase didn't bother mentioning when he was telling us about Dan's dad resigning because of politics was: At the start of the year, their original Troop had to disband because the sponsoring church no longer wanted to have anything more to do with the BSA because of their discriminatory practices. I mean, if I ever start attending a church, then a place like that might not be so bad, because they welcome everyone, regardless of social status, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. (Although if your sexual orientation happens to be homophobic, then I don't suppose you would be so welcome)...

But that's all right, because Mr. and Mrs. Homophobe wouldn't feel comfortable in an environment like that in the first place.

So... returning to my original subject, Dan's dad did in fact resign due to politics, but it was really nothing more than collateral damage. The unintended victims are still likely to think it's fairly major, though, and that's how all the Scouts looked at it. Because as Dan put it, whether hopelessly square or not, they all loved being in the Scouts, soo...

They went in with another troop, sponsored by another non-denominational church. This church welcomed everyone regardless of social status, race or ethnicity, so possibly thinking that the church wasn't too worried about sexual orientation... that they simply forgot to mention it...

... And for sure, three out of four is better than only one or two out of four, but...

Soon enough, they began to think otherwise. So in that respect, Bradley saying that their new Scoutmaster was turning into a stupid holy roller wasn't entirely accurate either, because he already was!

To be fair, though, he might not have been stupid. For example, J.R.R. Tolkien was in no way stupid, and if I'd been alive back in his time and if I'd ever had a chance to talk to him, I would have been in awe... but at the same time, avoiding the subject of religion would have been a very good idea.

So even though I'm once again tempted to not avoid the subject now, I guess I should. Avoid it.

So okay, then. To summarize, Dan hadn't come out yet, but he was thinking that he should. Maybe. Eventually.

And as of right then, the misguided Scoutmaster was unaware of Dalton and the twins' sexual orientation, but since they were being ever more open, it was only a matter of time until it started hitting the fan. If you're against masturbation, you're almost certainly against all the really fun stuff as well. He'd probably even be against skinny-dipping. So in conclusion, they were once again under the flag of their first troop, even though it had been disbanded. We were right in the middle of a revolution!

Well, maybe just a rebellion, but that's when we heard all the others again, so that ended our private discussion because they'd been trying to find us and now they had. And then...

They captured us. After all, there were twelve of them and four of us. It was only a little past eight and they weren't planning on heading back to civilization until that evening. so...

Dan and Elliott betrayed us, is what happened, because in particular, Dan didn't want to be stripped again. See, they went after Dan and Elliott first. Well, Elliott didn't care, so even though he put up a fairly convincing act, he was naked soon enough. And they'd pulled Dan's pants almost all the way down, but he was still hanging on for dear life and then he yelled, "Stop it! Now!"

So taken aback, they did stop. Only after jerking his pants back up, he explained that we'd captured them. Me and Stephan in our sinister looking Frank the Bunny masks had them under our power, but if they were to strip us... we'd lose all our power.

So, okay. It sounded fairly juvenile, but we didn't have much choice, so it wasn't long until I found myself tied to one small tree with Stephan tied to another beside me. But the tribe members were all still in our robes and both Dan and Elliott were dressed as well. I had the impression that Elliott would have just as soon gone naked... once past his initial shyness, he'd practically turned into an exhibitionist, but apparently Dan was of the opinion that he should be acting half-civilized for awhile, so we were the only ones naked, and we were tied to two trees facing all the others with Elliott camcording away.

At first, though, the ones dressed in our robes just ran around us in a big circle. They did until Dalton's first musical selection was over. And once again, I found myself wanting to know more, as in: "All right, I haven't heard that before either, but I really do like it, " but even though Stephan was almost as intrigued as I was, he thinks I'm going a bit overboard with all my musical references, so...

So I'll stick them in at the end of this chapter in the form of a postscript, then. That way, if you really want to, you can simply ignore it.

And yes, I also realize that I've just shifted from one time frame to another, but then I wasn't in a position to key in very much while I was tied to a tree, all right?

So, returning to us being tied to a tree, once that first number came to end, everybody just ran off. Except for me and Stephan. We couldn't go anywhere because we were still tied up. So of course we were also hoping that they didn't plan on leaving us that way. We weren't too worried...

But we were limp. Partly because we really had almost overdone it the night before, but also because being left there was a bit deflating.

But they were back soon enough... in their ceremonial loincloths. Except for Dan and Elliott. They were still in their civilian clothes. But yes, Carlie and Earl were now in league with the others.

So once again they started dancing around us, and this time it was much more frantic. In some cases, almost spastic, because they were dancing to... another group we didn't know anything about, but for now, I'll just say that it was very up-tempo, fast almost to the point of being downright frantic, and that's how the Scouts were acting, so under the right circumstances, it could have also been frightening.

But at the same time, anyone could tell that we were getting more interested, because by time that was over, we were sticking straight out. Frantically running around in loincloths was leaving almost nothing to our imagination, but we still weren't all the way there.

Not until the grand finale. "Body Electric" again. I've since seen the video and it's the one with footage from the 1927 movie Metropolis in which Brigette Helm is belly dancing and trying to act hypnotically seductive. It didn't take much to inflame one's passion back in 1927 - apparently - but it wouldn't have affected us unless...

Dalton and the twins were doing it.

That affected us. Greatly.

But then the dance ended and without much ceremony, they untied us and then they fell upon us and administered the coup de grâce and it didn't take long.

Dan looked envious and it served him right.

But the question was...

Was that dance just for us? (Yeah, I know. Duh.)

But still...

several questions, then. Myriad. Almost. For example: did all the other Scouts know about this? Did that mean they knew all about us? And if they did...

Who blabbed?

But honestly, the possibilities suddenly seemed...

Well, actually, it looked like we'd soon be in the middle of yet another dilemma.

This is the postscript you do not have to bother with unless you really want to.

Dalton's first selection - the one with the swelling finish lasting from 2:27 to the 3:52 mark was "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" by The Shondes. It's really good and one of my fondest ambitions is to be having an orgasm while the finish is in progress. Hoping that it'll last for a minute and twenty-five seconds...

Well, that might be a bit much, but I'm still trying. Imagining it isn't really a problem, though.

Then secondly, the selection which led to the Scouts dancing frantically was "Fast and Frightening"- L7. I still haven't made my mind up about them.