The Spiets family is out on a picnic, in the foothills around Mt Ika. Jack and Addie have wandered off, and they're exploring some abandoned sheds in an old rundown orchard. Across a small ravine is another clearing, and some young fellows seem to be doing the same thing over there. But who knows, they could be up to anything.
Addie rejoins Jack behind one of the weathered buildings.
"Vick, those guys were whistling at me." she says, with a conspiratorial glance, and showing a trace of pride.
Well, thinks Jack. So what? You're telling me that as if you're half expecting I should take you over there or something. Or you want me to leave and you go over. What's with you? Is it so flattering? From that distance they could barely tell that you're female, you know.
I could imagine it was me, over there; what would it mean to me? A whim, a joke, a dash of daydream! A momentary lapse of manners just for fun, from the bushes.
"Yeah?" he replies, frowning a little. And no more is said. They slowly wend their way back to join the others.
Now why would she feel that way. Almost as if she accepted an obligation to them. They gave her something? A bond, an agreement was implied initiated cemented by a wolf whistle?
Presenting Is this what was established millennia Ago, that just by wanting her, a male Attracts a female so, that she inclines To go to him although he is a total Stranger? By way of such a simple and barely A symbolic sound? And she, a younger girl, Supposedly a timid child, afraid Of strangers and of all the outside world As girls are trained to be, so blatantly Responds to such a call! It is amazing.
To think, a male and female in the woods; An elemental paradigm, an AdamEve encounter, down to bare essentials.
Peripheral, the closer ones, just family, Just friends. A safety back in case it doesn't Work; in case the call is blemished by Some civilized contaminant, a lust Less muted than the native woodnotes wild…
The anonymity vouchsafed by that Ravine could hide a multitude of sins.
How could you, even in your heart, respond This way, Addie, presenting from afar!
Jack is back in the mill every summer. He works on the pond usually, floating the logs to the winch ramp, selecting what will be cut next. This is easy work, and he enjoys it.
From this vantage point he can see the logging trucks as they drop their loads. These trucks haul log length wood, not tree lengths such as the larger companies are starting to transport.
