Another wonderful day in grad school.  I was on my way back to my empty apartment, with papers to grade and some homework to do.  

After I crossed the intersection, with just a few hundred feet to go to my place, I passed an old Quonset hut.  It looked pretty plain and unassuming.  I had heard it was owned by the art department but knew nothing else about it.  I had never, in all my weeks of passing the place, seen anyone going in or out, or around it.

Until now.

She was leaning on the post outside which I always thought was an old hitching post, calmly drinking from a large ceramic cup with interesting designs on it.  She was about five foot nothing, with dirty-blonde shoulder-length hair.  She wore some beat-up sneakers and a pair of blue overalls stained with some sort of powder.  Baggy though they were the overalls did not hide her fairly sizeable breasts, or a shapely rear end.

I slowed as I walked by.  She looked over and our eyes met.  For a few seconds, we simply stared, her very coolly, and me probably looking pretty ridiculous.

"Well," she said in a pronounced accent which I think was Australian, "you coming over or what?"

I walked over, in a quick stride as I consciously tried to hide my nervousness.  

"You must think I'm some sort of creep," I said.

"No," she replied, "I've seen you walk by several times."

"Really," I said, "why haven't I noticed you?"

"I'm not seen unless I want to be seen," she said with a grin which made her look exceedingly cute.

Being an adult of fairly limited means in the small-talk department, I had no witty retort.  Instead, I asked, "What goes on here? I've always been curious."

"Art," she said.

"What kind," I asked.

"All kinds," she said, "want a tour?"

"Yes, I would," I shot back.  I wasn't shy about that – I was now really eaten up with curiosity about the place – and this astonishing petite woman.

We walked through a very beat-up door.  At first, I was in a machine shop – it was arranged like one and even somewhat smelled like one.  But after a few moments, it was clear this was no machine shop.  In about the middle, there were several easels set up, with a man and a woman painting at them.  Everything else looked quite unfamiliar.

"This is the darkroom," my small tour guide pointed out, "and that's the printing press.  You can see the paintings, and there's a metal-working shop over there.  And over here is where I work."

She was leading me to opposite the easels.  Even in my limited knowledge of the art world, I recognized potter wheels, and there were half-finished sculptures on several tables.

"This is fascinating," I said, "but, I haven't introduced myself.  I'm Lance."

"Elkie," she kind of threw back, then talked to a guy in beat-up overalls who was passing by.  I was afraid he was a boyfriend, but after conversing, he left.  Elkie walked over to a sculpture and put her hands in some water.  She picked up a tool and began working.

The sculpture was a person, but very stylized.  The body was one continuous shape with the feet and head, and two arms stuck out in different directions.  At first glance, it looked kind of ludicrous, but if you looked for a moment it was fascinating.

I leaned on a table opposite where I could see what she was doing.  Her hands flew around the object, which was taking on more form and movement under her hands.  The entire process was amazing to watch.  Soon, I left the table and leaned across her worktable to get a better look.

I must have sat there for a half-hour, watching her work.  Elkie said nothing but was completely mesmerized by what she was doing.  At long length, she stepped back, splashed water on her hands, and sat there drying them.

"Amazing," I said, "I've never watched something like this."

Elkie smiled a very warm smile.  She put the towel down and looked at her sculpture.

"It's impressionistic, of course," she said.

"Yes," I replied, "but I'm not going to pretend to know anything else, other than it's quite good.  Is it supposed to be something, or reflect an emotion?"

"It's you," she said, smiling.  To my surprise, she came over and held on to my arm while we both looked at the object.

I was really at a loss now.  "I don't know what to say," I said finally.

She smiled up at me (she was quite petite) and said, "It's tall, and a little ungainly, but always in motion and moving as if the world is rushing by.  It's also rather handsome."

We smiled and looked at each other for a time.  Finally, on impulse, I said, "I'm starving.  Want to get something?"

"Oh yes," she said, "wait here."  I was going to offer to drive her to where she lived.  Instead, she disappeared behind a curtained-off area.  In a surprisingly short amount of time she re-appeared.  This time, she was wearing a pair of close-fitting jeans, and a nice blouse which showed off her bosom.  She had combed out her hair and had even put on some makeup.  With her hair back I could see that she had quite large and dark eyes.  The effect was mesmerizing.

"You're beautiful," I said, completely forgetting myself.  She laughed a short laugh, which broke up the awkwardness, then came over and took my arm again.  I took this as a cue to start moving, so I threw my backpack over my other shoulder and walked out of the building with her.

We walked slowly to my apartment where my car was parked in front.  It's an old white blue Dodge.  She stood admiring it for a moment while I unlocked the passenger seat and opened it for her.  She didn't get in as much as slip in, for she was in before I expected, and I stood there like a dumbass before closing her door.  I took my place behind the wheel and backed out.

"Where to?" I asked.

"Giovanni's?" she proposed.  It was an Italian place on Sutter road.  A little pricey, but that was totally not a concern at the time.

It was about a fifteen-minute drive.  At length, I said, "I feel like I've been ambushed."

Elkie laughed a long, happy laugh, which was wonderful to listen to.  "Oh you have," she said, "I've been plotting this for a week.  You're kind of predictable, you know."

I chuckled.  "Some women find that attractive," I said.  She mmm'ed' in agreement and looked out her window.  At length, she took a sketchpad out of her bag (yes, it was a bag, not a purse, and seemed to contain a great many things).  She quietly began quick-sketching things we passed;  an advertising sign, a motorbike, even a mailbox.  

"I detect an accent from the commonwealth somewhere," I said, in a rare try and cleverness.

"New Zealand," she said while continuing to sketch.  I glanced over and saw she was now sketching me.

"Really?  That's amazing.  I'd love to see New Zealand sometime," I said.

"No, you wouldn't," she immediately rejoined, "nothing but sheep and mountains."

I mmm'ed agreement, then asked, "Been in the states long?"

"Three years," she said while putting away her sketchbook.  I'm glad she did this for I wasn't navigating, and this was a cue to start looking for the restaurant which was immediate to our right.

We had a long dinner.  Being the middle of the week, the place wasn't very crowded, so we must have sat there for two hours.  As we ate, Elkie opened up more and talked about little else but herself for most of the time.  

She grew up in a small town in New Zealand.  Her father was a postman, her mother a housewife.  She said there was nothing to do, nowhere to go, and she hated it.  She turned to sketch and sculpture literally to pass the time and became good enough that she won a local contest and got to go the finals in Auckland.  She came in first and won a scholarship to study in America.

The scholarship wasn't worth much, so she applied to only Midwestern universities instead of the more expensive ones on the coasts.  She chose my school because it had an active fine arts department, something I wasn't aware of.

The scholarship paid for her classes and paid her a small stipend, which she augmented by selling her sculptures at art stores in the city, and by doing odd jobs for artists in the area.  She lived in a variety of places;  at the moment, she was living in the art Quonset since she hadn't been able to find anything else.

It was a fascinating story, and by the end of our long meal, I was quite smitten with her.  I've always had an affinity for unusual people; maybe because I'm such a usual person.  

Finally, it appeared the proprietors wanted to close up, so we walked outside after I paid the check.  We had polished off a bottle of mediocre wine (Elkie drank most of it) so were feeling fairly loose.  When we entered the car, Elkie looked at me and said, "So, are you taking me home?"

"Sure," I said, quite bowled over.  I had never had a woman make that suggestion to me.  While we drove home, Elkie took out her sketch pad and began sketching me again, this time taking more time about it.  She had just finished when I pulled into my driveway.  

She didn't wait for me to open her door but was waiting for me when I got out.  She took my arm with both hands as we walked to the door.  Opening it, we went inside.  Elkie released my arm and took a long look around.

"This is quite nice," she said as she began exploring the place.  She poked her head in the bathroom, then went into the kitchen, and finally the back porch.  She inspected everything thoroughly, then walked purposefully back through the kitchen, turned sharply, and marched straight into the bedroom.  Once in there she stopped, looked around, then raised her arms above her head and took a long stretch, which really accentuated her very large bosom.  She turned left and right a few times with her hands on her hips, then turned to look at me.

"You want to get naked?" she said smiling.  She had her hands clasped behind her and was half-turning away from me in a very feminine pose.

I'm pretty sure my mouth dropped open, for she put her hand to her mouth and giggled.  She walked over to me and stood on her toes, and pulled my head down, and gave me what I can only describe as the kiss of a lifetime.  Her mouth and tongue seemed to take over my mouth, and my member began to come to attention.  She backed away.

"Well?" she asked.

"Sure" I replied.  What the hell else was I going to say?

Elkie turned and took off her blouse with one motion.  

"Hand me some hangers," she said, and when I produced them she put her blouse on one.  She then quickly shucked out of her pants, which she hung on the other, then handed both to me, apparently to hang up.  I did so while she sat on the bed and began taking her stockings off.

"You're lagging behind," she said while looking up briefly.  Wordlessly, I unfastened my trousers and dropped them.  I was shucking my sweater and shirt when Elkie stood after taking off her stockings and quickly slipped out of her panties.  She then quickly unsnapped her bra and let that drop to the floor.

The sight of her took my breath away.  I had thought she was kind of plump when we met, but it was clear she was more curvaceous and in all the right places.  She had nicely rounded hips framing a sparse lady next.  She had a bit of a tummy, but her skin was white and smooth, with almost no blemishes of any kind.  And her breasts, oh my, how do I describe Elkie's breasts?  They were large, round, and full, and hung down a little way, with small cherry nipples and large areolas which covered almost the entire front of them.  To this day I have not seen the likes of them on another woman.

Seeing me staring at her, Elkie raised her hands' palms up and began a slow turn.  Her ass was another miracle of nature;  full, round, plump but not large.  Her legs quite smoothly merged into that wonderful ass.  

By this time, I had undressed as well, leaving us both quite naked.  Elkie smoothly walked over and took my swollen member in both hands.  She caressed it and smoothly stroked it while looking up into my eyes.  Her hands felt like velvet.  After a couple of minutes, she took my hand and walked over to the bed, where she sat down with her legs behind her.

I laid down on the other side of her, and she reached over and continued stroking my member.  She was supremely skilled at handjobbing, and I was thoroughly enjoying myself.  I thought she was going to keep masturbating me until I ejaculated, but instead laid down and spread her thighs apart.

"Now let's have intercourse," she said.  I smiled and reached over to my bedside table where I had some condoms in a small drawer.  Seeing what I was doing she took my hand to stop me.

"I have an IUD" she whispered.  That took care of pregnancy, I thought, but not STDs, but at this point, I could care less.  I moved over between her thighs, and Elkie took my penis and guided me to her vagina.  She rubbed the helmet up and down between her labia minoris several times, then grasping it by the shaft inserted it into her vaginal opening and pulled me into her.

I had never had the experience of a woman inserted me in all the way, and the feeling was incredible.  Elkie's eyes narrowed to small slits and she pulled her hand away.  I took over and inserted my member its entire length, which brought a long indrawn breath from her.  

"Make love to me, Lance.  I want to have an orgasm with you," she whispered.  I began a rhythmic in and out, slow at first and then speeding up.  Soon Elkie was rising to meet my thrusts, and her breathing was heavy and was in time to our ins and outs.  

As our intercourse increased in intensity she grasped her breasts, putting her hands under them and moving them in time with our thrusts.  She had made no sounds other than her breathing.  Finally, she yelled out, "Oh yes, oh yes!" and let out a long squeal which seemed to go on for a minute or so.  She opened her eyes, took a couple of deep breaths, and put her hands over her head.  She was looking up like she was expecting something.  All at once, she closed her eyes and let out a series of long moans as her body writhed back and forth.

About this time, with my next thrust, I ejaculated.  Normally, I have some warning, that feeling going up my spine first, but I guess I was so distracted by Elkie's extended orgasm that I didn't notice.  I was so startled by the sudden jet of man spunk that I cried out, which brought a look of concern from Elkie, then s small laugh as she realized what was happening.  She gave little moans of appreciation as I grunted loudly while pouring a river of semen into my small partner.

Quite spent, I fell off of her and on to the bed beside her.   We both panted like we had run a marathon.  Elkie had her arms over her head and smiled at me.  

"That kind of caught you by surprise," she said.

"Yeah," I panted, "that's never happened before.  I guess I was too taken by your extended orgasm."

She looked up at the ceiling and laughed.  "Yes, I like to take my time and enjoy it," she replied.

Elkie came over and snuggled close, putting her head on my chest.  I stroked her hair.  After several minutes, she got up suddenly and put her hand to her crotch.

"Bloody hell," she said, "you poured Niagara Falls into me.  I'm leaking everywhere."  Just to emphasize it was feigned irritation, she giggled, then rolled off the bed and went into my bathroom.  On the way, she scooped up her panties.

She was in the bathroom for several minutes.  Finally, I heard the toilet flush and she emerged wearing her panties.  They seemed a little full at the crotch;  I assumed she had a roll of toilet paper there.  I soon came to realize Elkie had a rather small vagina compared to most women, and whatever went intended to come right back out.

"Do you have an extra pillow?" she asked.  I had to get up and fetch it from the top of the closet, as she was much too small to reach it.  She took it, and we climbed back into bed.  Elkie immediately went under the covers, fluffed the pillow a few times, then laid down on her side turned away from me.  I had expected some conversation, or cool down, or something, but in a few minutes, her breathing indicated she was asleep.  This would be the regular pattern with Elkie; after sex, she would have a few minutes of snuggling, then she was ready to move on to something else.

I woke up the next morning with the sunlight.  It was Thursday, and I didn't have classes until after lunch but had to attend the class I grade for at 10 am.  Rolling out of bed, I suddenly realized Elkie wasn't there.  I put on a pair of briefs and quickly walked around the small apartment.  She was nowhere to be found.  I went to the door and looked out, and realized with some alarm that my car was gone.

I went back to my room and picked my pants off the floor, and noticed my keys were indeed gone.  I put on a t-shirt and sweats while I considered the import of this latest development.  I wasn't angry or panicked, actually, just more bemused than anything.  

I went into the kitchen and poured a glass of OJ.  I was considering my next move when I heard the car pull in the driveway.  I opened the front door just as Elkie was retrieving two bags from the passenger seat.  They turned out to be two bags of groceries, and after kicking the car door shut she swept passed me with only a sweet smile and made for the kitchen.

This wasn't going to be an average morning, I thought.  I followed her into the kitchen as she began unpacking the groceries.   She began wordlessly handing me things to put away, which of course I did. She started opening cabinets.

"Where's your fry pan – oh, here it is," she said, as she busily pulled out the pan and began opening a package of what I think was bacon.  Finally, I had had enough, and held her by both shoulders and looked directly at her.

"Elkie, last night was incredible.  Are you going to pretend it didn't happen?" I said.

She smiled and kissed me warmly.  "Of course not, lamby, it was marvelous.  And so I'm making you breakfast.  I assume you haven't eaten?" she replied.

I released her while she opened the package and began emptying them into the pan.  My confusion turned to curiosity.

"Mmmm…what are those?" I asked.

"Lamb sausages – you'll love them," she replied, "especially how I make them."

I would come to find there was a grocery on the west end of town which carried international fare and catered to the university's many international students.  I would soon find out just how many types of foods could be made from sheep.

Elkie whipped up breakfast pretty darn quick, even though it was eggs on some sort of bread with a mystery sauce and of course lamb sausages.  It was all extremely tasty, and I figured I wouldn't need lunch.  I noticed the clock said 8 am.

"Oh, ahh, honey," I said.  She turned and smiled at me from the kitchen – I realized it was the first intimate name I had called her.

Brushing that off, I said, "I have places to be today.  I have to grade some papers and get to a class at ten.  Then I have classes this afternoon."

"Oh, that's fine," she said happily, "I'll clean things up, you just do your work."

With that, I pulled out the papers and started grading them.  Fortunately, it was a cut-and-dried assignment so it didn't require a lot of concentration.  I was halfway finished when Elkie walked out of the front door.  I was mildly annoyed she left it open, figuring she was on her way to the art Quonset and was about to get up and close it when I heard the car door slam, and she reappeared carrying a large armload of clothes.

"Hey," I said, more confused than anything, "what are you doing?"

"Moving in," she said, walking by me and laying her clothes on my bed.

By this time I don't think anything could surprise me anymore.  "Did we discuss this?" I yelled at her in the bedroom.

She emerged and said, "No, but don't you think it's a smashing idea?"  Sometimes Elkie used very British expressions, although she denied they were in any way British.  "I could cook for you," she went on, "and could offer sexual favors in lieu of rent."  I would come to enjoy her frank method of speech, although it was an acquired taste.

I sat and stared for a time.  I, in fact, liked the idea of her moving in but felt I was losing control of the situation.  "I really would like to be consulted about things like this," I finally replied, grasping for how I should handle what was going on.

Elkie came over and sat on her legs on the floor beside where I was sitting, and looked up.  She looked at the ground briefly, then back up at me.  The entire pose was surprisingly submissive, considering what had just transpired.

"Lance," she started, "I know I'm a bit of a bulldozer.  I've been that way most of my life, which is why my father and I never got on."  She grimaced briefly, then continued, "I like you, I think you like me, sex is nice, and I do need a place to stay.  It all seems to work nicely.  If you like I'll leave, but I'd like to stay not just because of the location, but because of you."

I turned in my chair and put my hand on the side of her head.  "I like the idea, but I'm kind of afraid," I said, "I don't know where this might end up."

Elkie turned her head and kissed the palm of my hand.  "I'll take my chances," she said.  She got up to head back to the car.  

I thought, then spoke up as she was almost to the front door.  "Oh, and if the phone rings and it's my parents, tell them you're just overdoing homework or something.  I don't want to go around with my mother about a female roommate."

Elkie laughed.  "You Americans are really quite cute, you know," she said over her shoulder.

At about 3 pm, I came back from class.  I often went to the department building to shoot the shit with other grad students, but on this day, I was anxious to see what my apartment might now look like.

When I came through the door, there was loud humming coming from the bathroom.  The living room had been rearranged.  The long sofa was now opposite the window, and in front, there were some chairs, an easel, and a table covered with sketching implements.  I put down my pack and looked in the bedroom.  My desk had been taken over; on it were some art books, binders, and on the bulletin board behind it was tacked up several sketches and some photos.  A camera hung from the corner of the bulletin board.  

I turned as I heard the bathroom door open.  Elkie emerged, with a towel around her waist but completely topless.  She was briskly drying her hair with another towel, neither of which was mine, a fact of some curiosity.  She stood in the doorway looking down while she toweled her hair, her magnificent breasts bouncing up and down as she did so.  I was completely mesmerized by the sight.

"I hope you don't mind the desk," she prattled on as if nothing unusual was happening, "it didn't look like you were using it.  And I needed to set up a place to finish my sketches where the light was good.  I think you can still see the telly from the short couch."

I wasn't listening but was completely taken by her breasts.  I walked over in front of her just as she looked up from her toweling.

"Oh bloody hell," she said, looking down at her semi-nudity, "I forgot I was only half-dressed."

I put my hands on her shoulders.  "You know, I never got the chance last night to enjoy those quite incredible breasts of yours."  My hands slipped down from her shoulders and I caressed the sides of her bosom as Elkie threw her hand towel away behind her and pushed me further into the bedroom.  We stopped near the bed, and I dropped to my knees and buried my face between her breasts.  She sighed happily.  I drew back and removed the towel from around her waist, leaving her gloriously nude.  I then took one breast in my mouth as I began caressing her lovely plump bottom.

She cried out a little as I began sucking, transitioning between full-breast engorgement to my tongue darting around her small nipples.  She began moaning as I continued, her moaning increasing in volume as I began running my fingers between the crack in her ass while I lifted one breast with my mouth.

"Oh… bloody… hell…. that is so lovely," she gasped.  She spread her thighs and put one hand between her legs and began stroking herself quite vigorously.  I continued feasting on her breasts, alternating between running my tongue over them, caressing the ends of them and her nipples, and full-breasted sucking.  After about ten minutes of this, Elkie yelled, "Oh yes, oh yes", her clear signal for a coming orgasm, and began the squeals she emitted the night before.  

Finally, Elkie took my head in her hands and lifted it.  "Disrobe and lie on the bed," she ordered, "I'm going to perform oral sex on you."

That sounded pretty damn good, so I quickly shucked out of my clothes and laid down as instructed.  Elkie laid over me and gave me a long, deep kiss that filled my mouth.  She then ran her tongue down my neck to my chest and began darting her tongue around my nipples, which was an incredible feeling the way she did it.  Finally, she kissed her way down my stomach to my member.

She started with a quite detailed tonguing of my knob, which went on for about five minutes, interspaced with Elkie looking up at me with a quite pleasing expression.  She then began running her tongue up and down the entire shaft before locking on fist around my shaft to her mouth and beginning up-and-down full fellatio.  The combination of her smooth fingers and warm mouth was exquisite.  Finally, after looking up at me for several seconds, she released my member, put both hands on the bed, and began head-bobbing, taking almost my whole member in my mouth with each downward motion.

This time, I felt the old feeling up my spine, and a few seconds later shot a huge column of semen into Elkie's small mouth.  She stopped her head-bobbing and locked her lips around the tip of my member as I emptied my seminal vesicles.  Her eyes got rather big, and finally, she opened her mouth and a huge glob of man-spunk went all over my member, running down it and onto my crotch and tummy.  Elkie breathed deeply and laughed out loud.

"Damn it all," she exclaimed, "you're a regular fire hose.  I couldn't keep all of that in my mouth."

I was still breathing after the exertions of my ejaculations.  "Thanks for trying," I said with a chuckle.

Elkie was rubbing my semen off of my member and all over my tummy.  "We'd better clean you up," she said.  She stood and tugged on my limp member.  "Come on, love," she said, and I stood while she led me by the penis into the bathroom, then pushed me into the shower.  She came in, turned on the water, and proceeded to give my genitals and tummy a quite thorough cleaning.

While she did this I got another quite huge erection.  "Oh, I don't think you're empty," she said happily.  She put some flower-scented lotion she had brought into the shower on my member (body wash, I came to find out;  she used it so the pumice in the soap wouldn't hurt my member) and proceeded to give me a quite incredible lubricated hand-job.  

I leaned up against one wall of the shower as Elkie cried out, "Oops, here comes a gusher," and just then another column of semen came out, this one hitting the door of the shower stall.  I had never had two orgasms that close together and felt quite spent.

Elkie was laughing.  "I think I might have finally pumped you out," she said.

I bent over and gave her a long kiss.  "Tonight, I'll put it back in your vagina and find out," I said.

She smiled.  "It's a date," she whispered, then in a louder voice said, "can you do me in a doggy position?  I rather like that."

So that night after dinner, Elkie went in the bedroom and knelt on the bed with her head on a pillow and her ass in the air, with her honey pot warm and moist in front of me.  I fucked her quite vigorously while she touched herself, and we both climaxed at the same time.  So much of my semen dripped out of her that I had to get a towel to mop it up.   

Life with Elkie was never dull, and it always kept you guessing.  She didn't keep regular hours, and sometimes I would come home and find her not there.  I would walk down to the art Quonset and find her hard at work on a marble piece.  She would focus on a piece with almost maniacal intensity, so much so that I could stand there for an hour and she wouldn't notice me.  Once I bent over to compliment her on a piece and she knocked me in the forehead with a sculpting hammer and yelled, "Out of my light, dammit!"  After that, I simply did my thing and waited for her to surface again.

I could never quite figure out where I stood with her.  One night, she would make me a wonderful meal (I couldn't, to this day, identify some of what she made, but it was all damn good, so it was probably better I didn't know) then we could make love and she would make me think I was the most important thing in her life.  The next night, she would come home at 3 am, undress, then shove my sleeping body with both hands while yelling, "Move the bloody hell over!"

One evening, while we were cleaning the dinner dishes, she asked, "Can I borrow your car for a few days?"  I, of course, said yes, but asked where she was going.

"Oh, just here and there," she replied.  The next morning, before sun up she and the car were gone.  

It was, in fact, five days before she returned.  Not being able to get to the store or laundromat, I was quite out of food and underwear by the time she returned.  She came back in the middle of the night and spent a couple of hours posting sketches she had made on her easels in the living room.  They were of mountains, valleys, and old houses, so I think she must have gone to the foothills.  When I asked her the next morning about her trip, she simply said, "It was quite marvelous," and left to go to the art Quonset.  A couple of hours later, I walked down and looked in the door, and she was hard at work on a clay piece.  I knew better than to disturb her and went home.

She made several trips like this in the year we were together.  She never spoke of where she went or what she did, but always returned with a large group of sketches and would spend several days sculpting new pieces.  From her sketches, I could reconstruct her travels;  in addition to the foothills, she also went to the river valley, the plains of a neighboring state, and even as far as two states over.  As far as she went in as little time as she was gone, she must have driven for days at a time.  I'm fairly certain she also slept in the car, for during each trip, my pillow and a couple of blankets would be missing.

One weekend, a buddy of mine from high school was over visiting.  Elkie was out on one of her car trips, and I had kind of a hard time explaining the girl clothes in my closet and the fact that my car was gone.  In the middle of the night, with my friend asleep on the couch, Elkie came in and did one of her 'move the bloody hell over's' in my bedroom, rather startling my friend.  The next day, Elkie came out of the bedroom wearing nothing but a long sleepshirt, which she often did.  She was very friendly and made all three of us breakfast, but my high school buddy felt pretty awkward, as the sleep shirt left little to the imagination in terms of Elkie's breasts.

When we had dinner or went out, she talked constantly, but it was mostly about cooking, or gossip about the art department, or such things.  She would talk about things she encountered on her trips, but sporadically and individually, so I couldn't put them into a context or even which trip they applied to.  Many times, she would simply cuddle up on the couch and sit quietly next to me for an hour at a time while I watched TV or read.  I began to get the feeling she was very emotionally needy yet very private.

I slowly started to figure out what might be going on with her.  One night, I awoke to hear a type of keening in the middle of the night.  Seeing Elkie was no longer in bed, I followed the sound to the living room.  Elkie was curled up in the corner under the window where her sketch nook was (my name for it).  She was crying profusely and intermittently making a kind of high-pitched wailing.  I tried to put my arms around her and she shoved me away with a vicious scowl on her face while making a sound somewhere between a howl and a hiss.  Confused, I sat on the couch and watched her.  After about a half-hour, she got up and went back to bed.  When I confronted her the next day she said, "Mind your own fucking business," and walked out.  I didn't see her again for two days.

Another night, I woke up to find her slapping me viciously while screaming, "no…no…no…no," and crying.  I was reluctant to try and restrain her, since I didn't know what that might cause her to do, and since the slapping wasn't especially hard, I simply rolled into a ball and let her go.  After about a minute, it stopped, and she rolled over and appeared to go back to sleep.  About five minutes later, she was wide awake and shaking me.  Rolling over, I found her pulling her sleep shirt off.  She laid down and said, "Lance, come over here and fuck me."

She was lying down with her thighs apart, breathing heavily.  Not knowing what else to do I shucked off my briefs, laid between her thighs, and penetrated her vagina, which was surprisingly wet.  She reached orgasm pretty quickly, and after I had ejaculated inside her, she leaned over and kissed me while I was panting next to her and said, "Thank you, love."  She put her sleep shirt back on and went back to sleep.  I'm not sure if she was conscious that we had had sex, for the next morning, she was quite cross about her sleep shirt and the sheet under her being soaked with my semen.  Usually, she would get up and clean out her small vagina after I had cum inside of her.

After a few months, one night when we were about to make love, Elkie sat up on her elbows and said, "Let's try something a little different.  When you're about to cum, pull out and tell me.  I'll sit up and stroke you and you can have a little squirt on my belly."  That sounded fine, so I did as I was told, pulling out as the old feeling went up my spine.  Elkie went up on one elbow and quite skillfully stroked my aching member until I gushed a huge wad onto her belly and breasts.  Afterward, she smoothed the mess all over her.

"Don't want it dripping everywhere," she said then, getting up she said, "Easier to clean this up and out of my twat," and padded off to the bathroom.

Episodes like this made me wonder just how 'experienced' Elkie was.  She behaved like she had years of sex behind her but after a while began to behave like a newlywed.

With all of her idiosyncrasies and secrets, however, after about six months, I had to admit to myself that I was falling in love with this odd little New Zealand girl.  Besides her excellent lovemaking skills (which were improving all the time), she was so affectionate, free-spirited, and was actually rather patient with my own shortcomings.  She never did anything to interfere with my studies, and it was rather plain that she very much wanted me to succeed.  Finally, one night I decided to just confront her.  As much as life with Elkie was wonderful, I just couldn't go on not knowing what this all might be leading to.

One evening, on a Saturday, I had just sat down to watch TV when Elkie finished some sketches.  She came over and curled up next to me like she often did.  We sat for a minute, then I turned off the TV and scooted back from her.  She looked up, curious, and surprised.

"Elkie," I said, "I've fallen in love with you."

I was looking in her face to read a response, but at first, there was none.  Elkie turned her head slightly and looked out at the street.  She sighed a couple of times, then she pressed the palms of her hands to her eyes as tears started coursing down them. She sat like that for about a minute.

"You don't want to love me," she said without removing her hands, "I'm all messed up.  My father used to beat me, two boys did things to me when I was sixteen, and I'm bipolar."

That was a lot to take in at one time.  None of that surprised me, though.  And my mother was an amateur psychologist, as well as being an RN, so I kind of knew what bipolar was.

"But that's all you," I said, "all of you.  And I love all of you."  The tears kept coming so I went on.  "I'm desperately sorry you've been treated so brutally.  It must be hard to trust anyone.  But I swear I would never raise a hand to hurt you, and would always love and take care of you."

She took her hands down.  The tears continued in a river down her face, but she smiled up at me.  "I know you would," she said, then she looked down, "I stayed here longer than I should have, but I just like you so bloody much."

I handed her some tissue from a box I kept next to the couch.  I found with Elkie around, I had frequent use of them.  Elkie wiped her eyes.

"I can't have children," she finally said.

Now, this caught me off guard.  I was genuinely surprised, and my face must have shown it, for Elkie looked at me, then looked away again.

"I was born with a condition – my vagina is too small," she said while weeping, "if I got pregnant, it would kill me and the baby."

She went on.  "My mother took me to a special clinic in Sydney when I turned eighteen.  The doctors there said nothing could be done, so I had my tubes tied."

I put my arms around her and pulled her close.  For once, amid emotional turmoil, she held me and buried her face in my chest and began sobbing as I had never seen her sob.  My shirt became soaked with her tears.

Finally, Elkie sat up and dried her eyes with handfuls of tissues.  She looked up at me.

"Let's go to bed," she said, "not to have sex.  Just hold me close."

I did exactly that, holding her so close I could swear our hearts started beating in unison.  I fell asleep sure that we would stay together.  

The next morning, once again, I woke up alone.  It was almost 9 am and I cursed myself for sleeping late on the weekends.  I didn't bother looking around the house for I knew she wasn't here.  I got up and looked out the window, and found my car was still there.  

It was then I realized to my alarm that the easels were gone.  Dashing about, I quickly found her clothes, and the stuff on my desk was gone too.  How she got all that out of the house while I slept was quite an accomplishment.

I sat on the couch for a few minutes, feeling empty at first, but then feeling quite angry.  She had no right to take this step without talking to me first.  I threw on some clothes and raced down to the art Quonset.  Walking in, I glanced around.  Nothing was going on at the sculptor's bench where Elkie worked.  I walked over to where the guy Elkie had spoken with the day we met was working on a large charcoal sketch.  Clearing my throat, I asked if he had seen her.

He looked at the floor and sighed, then looked back up at me.  "'Fraid she's gone, mate," he said in a cockney accent, "I took her to buy a car about two hours ago.  She paid cash for it, and loaded her stuff into it and drove away."

I nodded my head and glumly walked outside.  Needing time to think, I leaned on the horse rail outside and folded my arms.

I had two choices:  forget her, or go after her.  Forgetting her didn't seem attractive – I didn't believe we were through with each other, and I wasn't ready to go down without at least trying.  Going after her presented the seemingly insoluble problem of where she was going.

OK, I thought, I've lived with Elkie for eight months, I should be able to figure this out.  Now, she would want to put distance between us, but she also had to go to a university where she could transfer her credits because otherwise, her student visa would expire and she'd have to go back to Kiwi-land, which I knew she didn't want to do.  Also, she would have to stay in the Midwest since her scholarship couldn't pay for anywhere more expensive.  And it would have to be somewhere with a good art department.

OK, a good art department.  I then remembered the art Quonset had a small library of art books.  Would there be a guide to universities with art departments?  I went inside and rummaged around the small library, and found jackpot – a well-thumbed guide to university art departments.  I went to the part describing Midwest universities.  Top among them was K-state, OSU, Michigan, UT, and LSU.  Hmm… she told me once she thought Kansas and Oklahoma were 'uninspiring', and she didn't like the cold, which ruled out Michigan.  Texas was hot and dry  so she likely wouldn't go there (the last took some insight into how Elkie's mind worked).  LSU… yes!  That had to be it.  It stayed warm pretty much year-round and was a hop-skip from New Orleans and all that.  To get there she would need to go south.  OK, that's where she went.

I went home and immediately jumped in my car.  My first stop was the car lot, where I found the make and model of what Elkie had bought (Toyota Corolla, green, just her style).  A few minutes later, I was headed down the interstate as fast as I could without attracting the attention of the local hypos. If Elkie drove straight through I had no chance of catching her – she had at least an hour's head start.  But I had two things in my favor:  I didn't think Elkie would expect me to come after her, so she wouldn't be in a hurry, and like me, she couldn't function in the morning without food.  She hadn't gotten anything at home, and likely would have been in a hurry to get out of town, so she'd probably stop somewhere for breakfast.  As I cruised along, I scanned to road signs for fast-food places.

McDonald's and Burger King were out – she hated both.  She wouldn't want a sit-down meal so Cracker Barrel was out.  That left only one real alternative – Waffle House.  We had eaten there before and she liked their scrambled eggs and bacon.  Just as I had this epiphany the sign for a Waffle House came up.

I glided down the off-ramp not expecting anything.  I pulled in to the parking lot and saw it – a green Corolla, sitting in front of Waffle House.  No, I thought, it can't be.  I can't be that prescient, can I?  But my uncertainties vanished when I saw a small woman sitting in the front seat, studying a map.

I knew this particular small woman pretty well and knew she would likely try and drive off, so as soon as I pulled in I whipped a hard left and pulled right behind the small car, tapping it gently with my bumper.  

Elkie looked up with a start, and I could tell she screamed.  I saw her start the engine, and heard it turn over as I got out of my car, but I knew she could go nowhere.  She was trapped between the parking curb in front and my Dodge.

I walked to the side of her car and saw her panicked expression turn to frustration and sadness.  She collapsed on the steering wheel and began weeping.  I went down and slowly opened the door.

"Go away," she screamed as she sat up.  She didn't stop crying but left her hands on the steering wheel and leaned back, tears streaming down her face.  I reached in, turned off the ignition, removed the keys, and dropped them on the roof of the Toyota.

Elkie stopped crying and looked up.  "Give those back!" she said in a loud voice, "It's my car."

"I know it is," I said, "but you're not going anywhere until I've had my say."

"It won't work," Elkie said, "I'll be horrible for you.  You're a decent guy and deserve someone who will wait for you at home and give you children.  I'm a disaster, I can't stay with you."

"You can't keep running away," I said, "you already ran halfway around the world.  How much farther can you go?  I love you and will take care of you.  I know what I'm getting into – it won't be anything conventional but so what?  I've had enough of conventional.  All I know is I want you."

"I'm all messed up," she whimpered.  She kept shaking her head.

"Yes, you have problems," I said, "but there are treatments and medications to help, and I'll be patient and care for you.  I know you can't have kids but we'll work through that.  Elkie, I'm your best chance for happiness.  You tell me I'm wrong.  You tell me you don't care for me and don't want to be with me."

She looked at me and looked down.  Her crying had stopped and she started sniffling.  I handed her my handkerchief.  She held it to her nose.

"Elkie, I'm a mature adult." I declared, "I'm going into this with my eyes open.  I know there will be bad times, but I won't back down or leave you.  I want you to be part of my life.  Haven't you wanted that all along?  Why else did you wait for me on that horse rail?"

"I know you'll love me," she said quietly, "but you can't tame me.  I'll still be me."

"Of course you will," I replied "I don't want to change you.  You'll need to make some compromises, like telling me where you're going and not bonking me with sculpting hammers..."  This brought a laugh, "…but I don't want to squash your creativity.  I want to help you so you can more fully express it."

Elkie got out of the car and wrapped her arms around my middle, burying her face in my chest.  We stood there for a time, then she looked up at me and exclaimed, "How the bloody hell did you find me?"

I laughed and stroked her hair.  "You like to think no one can figure you out, but I can," I replied, "I know too much now. You'll probably have to bump me off."

She laughed out loud.  "Let's go home," she whispered.

So we drove back home (she went first and I followed – not that I didn't trust her but I didn't trust her).  When we got back, she went right in and I followed her into the bedroom, where we screwed each other silly for the next couple of hours.  Afterward, Elkie made us lunch, and we sat across the table and talked.

"I guess I'll have to go to a shrink and all that," she said.

"We will go to a shrink," I said, "I know that won't be a cure-all, but we will work through whatever comes together.  You're not alone anymore."

She smiled hugely.  "I'm going to be a bloody nuisance," she said.

"I think I need a bloody nuisance in my life," I replied.  I thought for a moment, then went on.  "I know you hate going to class," I said, "how about we get married this summer.  That way, you can stop going to class and focus on your sculpturing."

Elkie stood, came over, and sat in my lap.  We kissed for a long time, then she looked me in the eyes.

"I accept your proposal," she whispered, "I can't give you children, but I'll give you everything else."

I took her home to meet my parents the next weekend, and on the way through the city, I bought her an engagement ring.  My mother never really did warm up to Elkie, but my dad and brothers thought she was great.  We married that summer, and her mother and sister flew out for the wedding.  We moved to LA after I graduated and she loved living there, so much so that we bought a small studio in Newport Beach.  

You see, in five years, Elkie McMaster became quite a famous sculptor, with her works selling all over the world.  And with that, we made enough to have quite a nice living.  Life with Elkie remained a challenge, and there was more than once I had to call the police to go and find her after she had wandered off and not come back.  But it was also very rewarding.