I’m entering the editing and ordering stage of writing Sounds Of Soldiers. Today I started printing out all the first draft chapters I’ve written so far (including some bits that weren’t finished and haven’t made it to the blog yet). AbiWord on the Elonex did some wierd things to the formatting, so it’s a more involved process than I’d like.

When the printing is done I get to sit with a red pen, tidying up phrases and writing notes whilst working out the order the chapters should be read in. All the while I’ll be doing some research. I’ve just ordered Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air and The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience to go with Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century. It should all prove to be quite interesting.

There may be more first draft snippets on the blog, as I fill in the gaps I spot. But they’ll be irregular. Eventually there will be an rtf file of the results of my first go through at revision and then evolving versions until I make the final version available to buy/ try to sell it to a publisher. Stay tuned.

Notes This one slots in quite early, and contradicts an already published bit.

I’d got into the habit of lying in. So last night I set the alarm on my organiser for a sensible time and vowed to get up with it.

In the chilly dim of morning that doesn’t seem like such a good idea. Especially as it’s waking Sally up. She’s gently strolling up the slope to full consciousness- no sudden leap to wakefulness for her. There’s a reaction to the noise, gentle stretching. She tries to roll onto her back and rubs against me as she does. She has wonderfully soft skin.

My organiser’s in my trousers, which are on the floor on Sally’s side of the bed. I’m up against the wall, so I either have to sneak out of the bottom of the blanket or over the warm naked girl. I decide to take the scenic route.

I’m halfway over, and obviously enjoying it, when she comes fully awake.

She looks scared for a moment as I come into focus. Then she looks confused. Eventually her gaze travels down and she laughs. “What’s all this in aid of?”

I nod toward my trousers, “Trying to stop that before it woke you.”

“Nice work on that. I’ll get it.”

She pushes me back toward the wall, so I take the covers with me. I’m rewarded with a morning moon as she leans far over for my trousers. Rather than fuss through the pockets she just tosses the garment at me. “Sort it out then.”

“There.” It’s a tough device. It’ll survive the flight back to the floor.

She clambers back onto the bed and stretches out. I push the covers down and join her. It’s still colder in the air than I’m used to, but I’ll live with it. She lays her head on my shoulder. “Are you getting up then?”

“I’m already up.” She shakes her head, then steals a glance at the subject of my poor joke and smiles.

We lie in silence for a while. I try to match my breathing to hers, but I swear she keeps changing rhythm every time I get close. Just when I think she’s gone to sleep she stretches again then runs a hand through her pubic hair.

“It’s a bloody forest down there. How did you ever find anything?”

“Oh, that was easy. It was just down….” She bats away the hand that was heading for a landing below the forest.

“Naughty.”

We lie for a little longer. After a while I pull the covers up to our chins and we both drift off for a while.

An hour later we’re both awake again. “I really should get up.” she says. “I’ve got a commission to complete.”

“Okay. I’ll get up if you get up. Ready?” We sit up together. “That wasn’t so hard.”

With a squeeze of my arm Sally gets out of bed and heads for the bathroom. Resisting the temptation of warm blankets I pick up my clothes and head for my own room.

It takes the morning to unpack what little I’ve brought and find homes for it all. The last time I was anywhere long enough to do this with confidence the room was owned by the French government. Hopefully I haven’t fucked up my chances of staying here by fucking my landlady.

It’s lunch time. I head downstairs to see how much stew there is I can reheat.

We didn’t make any effort to tidy up after last night’s meal, so there’s some washing up to be done. It’s as I’m putting the last bits onto the drying rack that I feel arms around my chest.
“We should talk.” she mumbles into my back.

“We should.”

“Okay.”

She doesn’t say anything for a while, so I stroke the back of her hands. “What should we talk about?”

She releases her grip on me, but takes my hand and leads me through to the living room. We sit on the sofa and don’t talk.

“I keep wondering what Keith would think.” Sally manages after a long minute.

My first thought for an answer is probably too flippant, so I store it and start again. “He might not be so happy. He was your brother after all.”

“You could never tell. Some of his closest friends, I got the impression he’d kill them before letting them touch me. Others…….” she shrugs and lets one hand land, and stay, on my thigh. “You, the subject never came up.”

“If we can’t rely on your brother we’ll just have to make it about the way we feel.”

“I guess.”

“How do you feel?”

I can see her fighting the urge to go “You first.” She leans in closer. “I haven’t had sex for a long time. I liked it. No. I loved it.” I’m waiting for her to go ‘But’, but she just moves closer. “I’ve got muscles that ache that I’d forgotten I even had. And I want to do it again.”

Some time later Sally stretches out on the floor, naked but for a sock. I’m still mostly clothed, but I have been giving her a lot of attention. “I love it when a guy goes down on me. It always makes me come.”

“I noticed the forest has been trimmed.”

“You caught me out. I already knew what I wanted, so I prepared a little. There are condoms in the front pocket of my dungarees. I think the commission can wait.”