Solstice and the Spirit

A man's spirit often drifts aimlessly like a paper bag in the wind. It goes forward one time but when the winds shift it blows back the next time. If he's lucky, he finds a partner who senses his spirit is adrift and sets it on a course with them. Usually someone finds him attractive but they don't know why. Chances are a prospective partner might not see a man's spirit and cannot help it. But there may be someone who can.

Holly was such a person. Maybe it was from her part Ohlone Indian background that she could read a persons spirit, or it was her acute sensitivity to people's emotions. She had been thinking about Dave before he called her that morning. He didn't seem to have a purpose other than to come over and hang out with her.

"You can help me gather fresh pine needles for our Solstice rite", she suggested. He warmed to her but hesitated to ask for more detail. They agreed on a time to meet at her house that afternoon.

They went into the Presidio, the former army base turned into a national park. They walked under a  large stand of tall pine trees.  Holly and Dave collected fresh branches of needles in their shoulder bags. Pagans used greenery to welcome the new year. 

When they reached a bluff that looked out on the Golden Gate they stopped. The sun was setting in it's southernmost position of the horizon. The famous bridge was beginning to glow an orange-gold. He turned toward Holly, her cheeks were glowing a warm red from the brisk walk up the hill. He moved toward her and took her in his arms and kissed her.

A kiss was his way of telling her something when he was a loss for words. She sensed his mood.

She advanced the next kiss, pushing her tongue into his mouth. Yes, she was a "shameless whore", living with one young guy, her Tom, and flirting with an even younger guy. Dave liked her advances. He opened his mouth and sucked her tongue slightly, suggesting to her what he would like to do with her tender little pussy.

She caught his thoughts and became more curious. "Well," she broke away as she looked into his eyes, "are you up for it?"

"Yes," he said as they sat on a log and looked out toward the sunset. He fell silent.

"You want to tell me something?" she asked.

He lifted his hooded sweatshirt and the teeshirt underneath. "Check this out" he pointed toward the emblem. It was a small triskelion that had been cell-popped onto his thigh.

"How'd you get that? Was it Mary? Or, Jane?" Holly inquired. She knew someone had inserted the hundreds of needle jabs deep to his skin, burning his skin with searing little holes in the image of the BDSM icon.

"It was Em, the Fire Witch," he told her as if she knew the Domme that he had recently taken up with. San Francisco is a small town and people get to know almost everyone in the BDSM community.

"Is she a Witch with a coven?" Holly asked.

"Not sure," Dave replied. "She's called the Fire Witch because of her skills in fire play. I've been trying to figure out if she's Wiccan".

"And you like her?" Holly asked.

"Yes, much, " he replied. She looked at his expression and sensed his passion. She also noticed his confusion, his being adrift since Jane released him.

Although he was not much of a Witch, he sensed her recognition of his state. "But I want to stay with the Coven".

"We're not thinking of replacing you," she joked. "Are you joining us in the Solstice rite tonight?"

"Will you have me?" His plaintive voice did not disguise how much he wanted to be accepted by the Coven, to be given a new chance. He knew how the  members felt about singles, how unattached members broke the neutralized symmetry that the group preferred. Still, it wasn't entirely his fault that Jane left  him to go with a more attractive guy closer to her age. Although he hadn't attended any Pagan rituals since the summer Solstice, he had been with the other couples, Eric and Sara, Lisa and Goeff and Tom and her.

Holly would be pressed to argue that she didn't enjoy the many evenings Dave had been with Tom and her, how she delighted in beating her "boys" and having them service her in bed for the rest of the night. "You should come with us tonight," she said. "We'll have a surprise for you."

They walked back in the twilight toward the warm glow of the lights in the windows of the houses that lined the edge of the park. Holly had been Dave's "first" . She had introduced him to BDSM practices slowly, getting him to acknowledge his fantasies about being dominated and building up his trust in her. She began with one of his hands tied to a post as she tickled him. Then both hands were tied with some light flogging. Eventually he accepted being bound completely to her cross, table or horse as she inflicted pain on his body.

As they walked she learned more about Emerald and how Dave was hesitant to introduce her into the Coven until all the other members had approved. There would be questions about Jane and her roommate, Mary. And what was Dave doing with these women. Questions that Holly did not want to think about because she hoped that the group would continue to accept Dave.