After a few straight in-and-out runs, Hana takes the rope and runs out to the left, swings free of the ground, curves out, then left to right across the sky, spinning slowly, until she comes back in to the right side of the trunk. Round the horn. It looks lovely. “Let me try that!”

“Okay. Take off hard.”

He does, but leaves the ground before he gets that last push-off step in. Oh well. Flying, here, spinning in a great circle, long seconds of a deep dream-flying calm. Coming back in he turns to face landward and notes that the tree trunk is going to—oops—

He just manages to turn sideways as he crashes into the tree. He tumbles to the ground, stunned.

He’s lying in leaves. Hana has rushed over and is crouched over him. “Jim! Are you okay?”

He pulls her down and kisses her, surprising them both.

“Well, I guess you are.”

“Not sure, though. Here—” He kisses her again. Actually, about half his body is sore indeed. Right ear, shoulder, ribs, butt, thigh, all of them are pounding. He ignores them all, pulls Hana onto him. The kiss extends off into a long sequence. Her hands are running over him very gently, making sure he’s still all there. He reciprocates, and their kisses get a lot more passionate. Time out to breathe.

They’re in a great drift of leaves, between two big roots that run over the hard ground. Leaves, whatnot—it’s probably better not to investigate too closely. The leaves are dusty, dry, crunchy under them. They’re lying side by side now, and clothes are giving way. In the dark Jim can just barely see her face against his, nothing more. The lack of visual stimulation, of the image, is disorienting. But that look on her face—all shyness gone, that small inward smile … his heart thumps, his skin is flushed or somehow made more sensitive, he can feel better, the rough uneven ground under his good side, his bad side throbbing in the cool air, crackling leaves, her hands on him, their mouths, whoah—when has a mere kiss ever felt like this? And it’s Hana Steentoft, his friend, here; the distance gone, the inwardness turned out onto him, the friendship suddenly blooming like a Japanese paper flower hitting a bowl of water. It’s exciting! They make love, and that’s more exciting yet. Jim’s body goes into a kind of shell-shocked mode: such a sequence of intense sensation! He mentions it to her at a certain still interval and she laughs. “Better watch it, you’re going to be wanting to crash every time before you make it.”

“Kinky indeed. Can you imagine it? Getting intimate—oh, excuse me—”

“Stand up and run straight into the wall—”

“There, okay, I’m ready now.…”

When their giggling subsides, Jim says, “I’ll only do it with you. You’ll understand.”