Click

Neither Winona nor I were canoeing experts but neither were we total noobs. Grandpa had taken me out enough times that I knew my way around a paddle and I learn that Winona used to go out a few times a year with Russell and a cousin of theirs back on the Rez. I was glad for her experience as it allowed my to take my usual spot up front and cede the stern to the larger, stronger partner. As we set out from the Bella she too comments on our simpatico pairing.

“You’re a lot easier to paddle with than my brother.”

“Oh?”

“Even after his growth spurt the big Sasquatch insisted on taking the front.” She chuckles. “He was so big he had to kneel behind the seat. And I couldn’t see a damn thing! After he put on the weight we gave it up. He was just too big. I’d be sitting a foot out of the water!”

I giggle. “He d-didn’t want the back?”

“Nah.” She says. “He was used to the front. He’s a guy who likes what he likes. Not really good with change. And he always wanted his big sister in charge.”

Peering back over my shoulder I catch Winona staring off toward the left cliff face with a distant smile on her face as she thought of her younger brother. “You m-miss him.”

“I do.” She sighs. “Hey, maybe we could visit him on the way to your dad’s. They’re only a couple of hours away from each other.”

“M-Maybe. Have you told him about us?”

“Of course!” She laughs. “He’s happy for me and he’s really excited to meet you.”

I smile. “I c-can’t wait to meet him.”

Winona pulls in a deep breath then slowly lets it out as she take in the moment. And a fine moment it was. The azure sky, the calm air, the still water, the steady splash of the paddles and the wondrous surroundings all combined to sooth the soul. Deeper and deeper we glide between the ‘hands’ of Bon Mainz leaving the open sea behind us as the great stone walls of the island loomed to either side to leave us in deep shadow.

“You said you had things to show me that would blow my mind.” Winona says, awestruck. “Consider it blown. Wow.”

Without comment I grin to myself knowing that the best was yet to come. We paddle on and before long the slender rocky beach, the only way outside of a helicopter to actually get onto the island, comes into view.

“There.” I point.

“I see it.” Steering us right Winona points us for the beech and stroke by stroke we make our way.

After pulling the canoe up onto shore we peel out of our life jackets. Before I could grab it Winona nabs my backpack and puts it on. Always the gentlewoman she wasn’t about to let me carry a load, even a light one, while she walked unburdened.

“Hold on.” I giggle and pull her close. “Crouch d-down. You’re too tall.” She squats a few inches. From the pack I pull out my camera already set up with my telephoto lens for wildlife, and the smaller lens I’d brought for landscapes, and my camera harness. I zip up the pack and get geared up. The harness is snapped around my torso with the heavy camera hanging from my right hip and the extra lens in its case from my right.

Winona tries to hide her grin as she watches me. “Sexy! But I like your other harness better.”

“He he he. Me too.”

“Lead on.”

With me leading the way we start up the twisted climb along the well worn path that cut through the solid stone that would lead us to the opposite side of the island from were the Bella was anchored. Along the way life finally begins to show itself again, first high above hanging over the top of the crevice then lower as the vegetation crawled down the cracks. I point out some of the hearty flowers and insects that populated the island and a couple of times I stop to snap some shots, I was quite taken by the way the shrubs above was framed by the crevice walls and backed by the azure sky, but mostly we keep up the pace. I was cognizant of the time we had here before sundown and I wanted to get the good stuff. Coming around a bend we at last see a gap into open skies ahead.

I stop and turn to my girlfriend. “After you.”

She pauses to look at me then nods and hikes on. This being her first time I wanted her to experience this moment full **** without me being in the way. Knowing the sight that awaited her I am grinning from ear to ear as I follow close behind. Her reaction does not disappoint.

“Woah.” She gasps as she steps out onto the sunny West facing cliff shelf. After only two steps she freezes in her tracks as the full majesty reveals itself. “Wooooahhh!”

Nearly a hundred feet above the waves the myriad islets of Ehkolie’s tail stretched out beneath us with the vast main island looming beyond them. In every other direction lays the mighty Pacific and endless sky. Even I am in awe as the early evening sun warmed our faces and gave the whole breathtaking panorama a magical golden glow. From this vantage point I’d seen the morning light peeking over the island behind us to light up the landscape and it was a sight to behold, but I had never been up here this time of day before, at least not on a clear day such as this. It was magnificent!

Sliding in beside my overwhelmed lover I slip my arm around her waist and pull into her side. “Not bad, huh?”

“Sprout!” Her wide wonder filled eyes pan left and right. “I don’t know what to… Wow!”

My islander pride twinkles in my heart as she ogles my homeland. “Yeah.” I say as I lay my head on her shoulder. “Wow.”

For a few minutes we stand there soaking it all in, together. And in that sharing it becomes something more. Up here we seemed above it all. Up here it felt like we were the only two people on Earth.

We weren’t basking long before… “Wrrrooooorrrrrr.” …an eerie croak from above and behind raises our hairs.

As one we spin around. “Is this place haunted!?”

“No.” I grin. “A puffin!” While Winona is scanning the cliff face looking for it I already have my lens cap off and was snapping shots. Following the line of my long lens she soon spots it peeking down on us from an outcrop twenty feet above. “It’s a tufted puffin!” Click, click. I pad to my left for a better angle. Click, click, click. “Oh m-my God! This light is perfect.” Click, click, click. “He’s b-beautiful!”

“Heh. He looks like Grandpa.” Winona chuckles. “Those eyebrows!”

“He he he!”

Our feathered host gives me five whole glorious minutes with him. Five whole minutes! And I make use of every second of it. With the telephoto I get dozens of incredible close ups. When he fans his wings I literally gasp at the sight of him. Moving swifting, keenly aware that every second counted, I switch lenses and start moving around to get some wide shots as well.

“That’s it.” I whisper. “Oh, thank you M-Mr. Puffin. Thank you.”

Seeing me in my geeky euphoria Winona just stands out of the way and quietly watches. I was so lucky to have a partner that understood the moment. For her and Briar it was playing and talking about FoF that got their nerdy juices flowing, for me it was this. It was rush that I hadn’t felt since that Mountain Bluebird on the day when fate crossed my path with…hers.

Through my camera’s viewfinder the black and white avian spins out of the frame to be replaced by the pinnacle of nature’s beauty.

“What are you doing?” Suddenly self-conscious Winona laughs and tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “The bird’s up there.”

Click. The warm rays kissed her tan flesh, making it glow as her raven hair shone like onyx. Click, click. Her long, curvaceous, goddess body was not out of place in the grand scenery. Click, Click. Her smile, her lips, that long neck, that lean yet powerful body, her breasts, her hips, her denim clad bulge, those loooooong sexy legs, not only was she not out of place the surroundings actually paled next to her. Click, click, click.

“Avery!” She laughs and tries to wave me off, but my focus remains glued. “Oh! There he goes.” Click. The camera catches her looking up as the puffin went on his way. “You just lost your model.”

Click, click. “I f-found a better one.”

“Is that right?” She plants her hands on her hips and give me a look. Click. She sticks her tongue out. Click. “I’m not a bird.” Click. “Stop that! Ha ha ha ha!” God she was beautiful!

“Come on, Dommy.” I coo. “Work with the camera. Show me what you g-got.”

Her left brow rises in that sexy way it did when I prodded her dominance and she crosses her arms and juts a sassy hip out to the side. “You want me to show you what I got?”

“Mm hm.” I nod.

Click, click, click.