Silkie asked me to drive her to the ferry in Anacortes, so that she could visit her friend, Leo. On the way to the ferry, she told me about him.
" Leo was my lover, when I first moved to Bellingham, before I met you, before I met Chris. I've told you about other guys who treated me like shit, but Leo isn't one of those guys. I don't know if he likes me as much as I like him, but he was always really nice, really funny. I met him when I went in to get my guitar fixed. He had this little shop, down by the water, where he fixed instruments, and where he made those wonderful banjos?"
" He is in Friday Harbor now. His brother is a blacksmith. Leo works there sometimes, but mostly he is making banjos, singing in the coffee house there, giving banjo lessons to who ever wants one. I want to buy one of his banjos, get a lesson, maybe sing some Carter family stuff with him. I love that..........".
"Tom, I want to have some sex with him. Okay, okay, a lot of sex. You know me by now.. Do you want to come with me?"
"Please..........."
"I know I didn't tell you before, but Annette is in New York, please, please come with me, I want the three of us, like a threesome, in a bed."
"Silkie, you love your threesomes, don't you?"
"Oh yeah, I do, like with you and Chris, that was really special, like forever, but Tom, I've never been with you and another man.........would you like to do that with me? Please?"
"C'mon I know this is a surprise, but I saved enough for your ferry ticket."
"I've told you a lot of stories about sex, well, Leo is not as crazy as some other ones, we were friendly, I was at his house, next thing I knew my clothes were off and my the soles of my feet were parallel with the ceiling. Sometimes I like guys who are aggressive, but Leo isn't like that. He took his time, I loved that, he ate my little puss till I was screaming bloody murder, he fucked me so nice, so steady and sweet. I couldn't come from fucking then, but I came so many other ways, my toes didn't uncurl for about three hours."
"So I've been thinking how it would be if you and Leo were doing me. I know how he is. I know how you are. I want to come, you know what I mean:

"Tom and Silke and Leo
In a tree
F,U,C,K,I,N,G
ME!!!!!"

Silke collapsed in giggles and covered her face........." I feel really excited and silly about this.Ummmmmmmm,ummmmmmmm........both of you kissing and touching me. It is a nice thought. I want to make it happen. I haven't been with two guys that I really like in a long time. I've never tried to make something like this happen"

We left the car at the Anacortes dock. We were sitting in the shack where people buy their tickets and wait for the boat to arrive. It was cold, blustery, the wind, a solid 20 knots out of the north, gusting to thirty, sky the color of concrete blending toward asphalt.We were sitting with our knees and hips touching. Silkie was actually quiet for fifteen minutes.

"Do you want to try something Tom?"
"Silkie. I don't even know if the boat is going to leave the dock today."
"Well, if it does, I want to try something on the boat..."
"Knowing you, I have an idea...........
" Look at me, Tom. What are my eyes and this big smile telling you?"
We were surrounded by other would be passengers in the cold drafty shack.
This was the kind of setting that Silkie liked to have when she talked about her love affairs:
a captive audience.
"Tom, you know that stuff we did, I can't quite talk about it here ( by now, everyone in that waiting room was hanging on her every word), you know what I'm talking about, you know, I never did that with Leo, we never even talked about it but the thought of being with you and him kind of makes me think that way ....(if anybody did not have a newspaper, book or magazine to put their face in, they found one). Silkie's voice became a whisper, her lips against my ear:
" I'm horny to do stuff like we did with Chris. I think I might scare him if I get too out there, but you know, once things get going...... "
The blast of the boat horn stopped our conversation.

The Washington State Ferries, particularly this one, on this day, were not the best place for sexual intercourse. We were bundled up for the rough weather. After a search, we located a women's restroom, kind of hidden away on the car deck. Everything on those boats was designed to be seaworthy. It was all steel, stainless steel and gray paint.There were no soft edges. Sex for me starts with, at least, the idea of soft edges. The only soft edges were part of her. She was completely covered, from her wool hat, to her pea coat, down to her jeans, boots and long underwear.

We got into a stall, closed and bolted the door.
"How do you want to do this?"
"Doggy"
"C'mon, Tom, fuck me, I want it right now........."
She lowered her jeans, her long underwear and panties and bent over the toilet bowl. We were trying to keep our feet. I was a long way from an erection. Her butt cheeks were wet. They were cold. Other parts that needed to be wet or warm weren't.
" Tom, fuck me with it, c'mon.............."
I wanted to. With Silkie, I always wanted to. A soft penis bumping awkwardly against her cold buttocks as we held onto the wall, but I really wanted her............
"Okay.........."
"No, I can't get.......".
"Tom. That's my back, baby........".
"Ouch..owww...Jesus watch your elbow............."

We tried again with Silkie sitting in my lap. In this case the motion we needed was supplied by the motion of the boat negotiating Rosario Strait, but the erection I needed was nowhere to be found...........
Our attempts at illicit mad love in the women's rest room, stall five, on the car deck of Washington State Ferry "Quinualt" in near gale sea conditions dissolved into laughter. The blow job that followed wasn't much more successful. Neither of us could keep our balance long enough for penis and mouth to mesh so that anything like fellatio could occur. When Silkie tried to grab with two hands, we both lost our balance, fell right onto the cold wet steel deck.

So much for romance...............