HELPING THE NEIGHBORS
Joe and Doreen Hogan were having dinner with their neighbors, Craig and Julie Hawkins and their 18-year-old son Alex, a big boy-man 6’7″ tall. Alex was a placid, very likeable, affable boy who had only stood out in high school because of his size, not being the brightest bulb on the tree academically. He seemed to have a natural affinity for animals, his 4 dogs, mutts all, following him everywhere, running between the legs of his horse as they’d ride for hours through the nearby forest.
“I need to clear a couple of dozen trees from around the cabin to make a larger fire break,” Joe was saying. “With the drought that we’ve been having, the fire danger is really high.”
“I could help you with that, Mr. Hogan,” Alex volunteered, brushing his unkempt, longer red hair from his eyes.
“You wouldn’t mind?” Joe asked. “It’s quite a bit of work. It would take 2-3 days to cut them all down and chop them into firewood.”
“I think that it would be fun,” Alex said. “I like your cabin, up on the mountain with that great view.”
“You’d have to let me pay you,” Joe said. “I wouldn’t feel right just letting you help me.”
“That’s okay,” Alex replied. “I really don’t mind.”
“Do you have any objections?” Joe asked Craig and Julie.
“Of course not,” Craig replied, proud of his son, knowing that he didn’t have a malevolent bone in his body, all his life helping anyone that he could, especially animals. He knew that Alex’s seeming slowness was nothing more than a careful consideration of whatever was happening, always curious about new things and never reacting hastily or rashly, always calm in the face of everything, something that he got from his mother.
“A handsome boy like you should be enjoying yourself with the girls, not chopping down trees,” Doreen said, touching on a sore spot with Julie who lamented Alex’s seeming indifference to any sort of a social life with people, always preferring to spend time with his dogs and his horse.
“Girls aren’t interested in me,” Alex said without any rancor, just a quiet, indifferent acceptance.
“Of course they are,” Julie said. “You just don’t realize it. You’re exactly what any girl would want, a nice, tall, polite young man.”
“Give the boy a break,” Craig said. “When he’s ready, he’ll be fine. I don’t mind that he’s not like the rest of the kids these days, rushing willy-nilly into relationships.”
“Can I bring the dogs?” Alex asked.
“I wouldn’t dream of separating you from your dogs,” Joe replied. “How about we get started tomorrow after breakfast?”
“Okay,” Alex agreed, grinning.
Doreen Hogan was a tall, buxom, flaxen-haired woman with pale grey eyes of 42 with generous hips and thighs who sat squeezed between Joe and Alex in their F-250 pickup truck while the 4 dogs were happy in back, sticking their heads out to lap up the air rushing by as they drove up into the mountains the next morning after breakfast.
Joe Hogan was a few inches taller than his wife at 5’10” and fairly heavy-set, his blonde hair buzz cut above his pale blue eyes. As was his wont, Alex enjoyed the ride in silence, letting Joe and Doreen carry on a non-stop conversation. Arriving at the cabin after a 40-minute drive, Alex exited the pickup, followed by Doreen scooting out, Alex blushing when he saw most of her thighs as her dress rode up.
The dogs were already running around, checking everything out as Alex grabbed the bags from the back and took them into the cabin, Joe bringing the big cooler with their food and drinks. The log cabin was a single room with a single king-sized bed, the entire structure built from the trees that Joe had cut down to make the clearing in which it stood, one side of the clearing looking out over the tree-filled valley below, the other three sides surrounded by the forest.
“Let’s have a beer, then we can get started,” Joe suggested after showing Alex the trees that he had tagged around the cabin to be cut down.
“Okay,” Alex agreed, always pleased when someone treated him like an adult, which having a beer was to him, having only turned 18 a few months ago and now legally able to buy alcohol, though he only really enjoyed a nice cold beer from time to time, never having ever drank enough to feel the effects of the alcohol, something that his parents had warned him about.
For the next three hours, Joe and Alex felled the marked trees, quickly stripping off their shirts as the strenuous work heated them up. When Doreen finally called them to lunch, they were more than happy to take a break.
“When we remove all of these trees,” Joe explained as they ate, “even if a fire encroaches and burns the others, when they fall, they won’t reach the cabin. Keeping a 10′ perimeter of stony ground around the cabin should protect it, even in strong winds with the trees of the forest blocking it somewhat. Of course, conditions could get to where nothing in the world will protect it, but this way at least we’re giving ourselves a better chance.”
“I like the breathing room it gives you,” Alex commented. “With the trees too close, it feels a bit crowded. This will be much better. You’ll have more light, too.”
Another few hours of work saw them complete cutting down more than two thirds of the trees that were marked.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty bushed,” Joe said, wiping his forehead with the back of his forearm. “Why don’t we call it a day? We’ve got all the time we need.”
“Okay,” Alex agreed, shrugging, knowing that he could have continued for hours, having found a rhythm swinging the long-handled axe.
“Let’s grab a couple of beers,” Joe suggested. “Then I’ll show you something new that we discovered recently.”
“I thought that you boys were going to chop the whole forest down,” Doreen said when she saw them reaching into the cooler for beers. “You don’t have to finish it all in one day, you know.”
“That’s it for today,” Joe said, taking a big swig of his beer. “Alex here is like a damned machine, thwack, thwack, thwack,” he said, imitating the sound of an axe biting into the trunk of a tree. “I’m going to show him our new discovery,” he said.
“I’m sure that he’ll appreciate it,” Doreen said, smiling. “You go ahead and I’ll join you in a few minutes.”
“Come on,” Joe said, heading into the forest, quickly intersecting a small, faint game trail and following it until they suddenly came out onto a small glade that was only 12′ wide and 10′ deep, surrounded on three sides by the forest, the other side seeming to be on the edge of the mountain itself, looking out over the valley. But what was the most interesting was the kidney-bean shaped pool of steaming water, thick soft grass growing right down to the surface. The pool itself was perhaps 8′ wide and 5′ across at its widest point.
“This will soak the soreness out of our muscles,” Joe said, sitting down and removing his heavy hiking boots, then his jeans, revealing that he wore no underwear, his cock thick and heavy hanging down in front of him.