He sat in a café, peering off into the populous that was the foreign city before him, which he was sojourning to by awful mistake: his ticket to the next city had expired. Europe had been his home for the past three weeks, as he traveled, going from youth hostel to youth hostel, paying with exchanged cash he had saved all through high school. First had been London, an exciting four days in which he visited all of the major attractions, met some other teenagers his age, and partied and drank, and all of those fun things. He moved on to France for three days, and didn’t like it much; he thought it was too boring and artsy. More excitement was definitely on his wishlist. After that, it was Spain, then Germany, then Italy, and now, on his way out of Italy, he found himself in what he thought might have been Prague, but he was not sure. Czech had not been a kind language for him and had barely managed to consummate the purchase of the coffee he now stirred with a plastic spoon he found in his pack that he must have gotten from some airport relocation of McDonalds where the employees were all bilingual and professional. Laughing at this as he reflected his memories of the foreign McDonalds restaurants, he looked down at his coffee thoughtfully, and then drank it, as it was not hot, but room temperature. It tasted mezzo-mezzo, but it got his senses back to where they should be.

 

On his body was his black Radiohead shirt with the words, “Hail to the Thief” emblazoned on the back and a design covering the chest. He left the café now, in his mind the mission to find a roof under which to stay for the night. Locating what he thought might be his chance, he entered a poorly cleaned glass door into a lobby. The exchange rate from American dollars to Czechoslovakian currency had made him immediately upper-class, and so when he saw the immaculately designed rugs and the polished brass sidings to the walls, he was not frightened to ask for a room. So far, through his journey through Europe, he had stayed in cheap youth hostels and camped on recently-made friends’ floors or couches. He had quite a bit of money left, so he figured he would indulge and room in a nice hotel. But he encountered a problem.

 

“I’d like a room please, just for one.” His voice added an imaginary question mark to the statement, as he did not expect the man behind the desk to respond. Oh, he responded. Just not in the way he needed. The man behind the desk spoke in his language, quickly, and seemed to be asking him something, but he couldn’t figure it out.

 

“English?” Our hero tried, but the man behind the desk shrugged. After another useless volley of unintelligible words, he was about to give up, when from behind him, he heard a lovely female voice speak to the man quickly. Then she turned to him and said in a refreshingly American accent, “You wanted a room for one right?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

She took our hero’s money and gave it to the man behind the desk, and the man behind the desk took a key on a plastic triangle off of a wall with many brass hooks and gave it to the young man before him. He turned to the girl, who was standing with the top of her head at the level of his chin, and said, “Thanks. And who do I owe the thanks to?”

 

“My multilingual mother, the traveling Henrietta Marks.” The girl rolled her eyes, as if embarrassed by her maternal provider. “But as for right now, you can thank Ellie Marks.”

 

“Ellie,” he repeated. “Thank you.”

 

“Eh, no problem,” Ellie said, shrugging and smiling. She made no attempt to walk away and end their meeting, however, and instead turned her body around and lifted her elbows so she was resting on the counter of the front desk, her legs crossed out in front of her as she stood, her hands dangling off the marble ledge. “You’re American, right?”

 

“How did you guess?” He asked, playfully.

 

“Well, I was making sure. You might be Canadian,” and a playful smile illuminated her face. This brightness seemed to emanate from her. Dishwater blonde hair cascaded down from her scalp and over her shoulders, down over two modestly sized breasts. “A lot of Americans, while traveling through Europe, tend to let on that they’re Canadian rather than American, so as to curb the common European dislike of those from Ole Miss USA. I do it all the time. Instead of Ellie Marks of California, I’m Ellie Marks of Manitoba.”

 

“That’s a really good idea,” he said, and then he motioned. “If you’re not doing anything, I’d love to have a conversation with someone who speaks English as well as I do.”

 

“Eh, why not? I’m here alone as well, actually. The minute I graduate from high school, the traveling Henrietta Marks sends me on this life-discovering journey through Europe alone, just as her mother had done for her. Not that I haven’t enjoyed myself.”

 

“Alone as well, huh? And how do you assume that I’m here alone and not just getting time away from the parents?” And while they walked down the hall toward the elevator, she commenced in a detailed description of him, carefully noting the backpack being of the traveler’s make, the small suitcase, the messily unclean hair (“which isn’t looking bad from my side of the elevator”), the “lost” look, everything.

 

“I know my travelers,” she said with a smile that dinged like a Colgate commercial when the elevator came to a halt and the doors opened. Together they walked down a brightly lit hallway toward the corresponding number on the key’s plastic triangle. When he opened the door, Ellie peered in. “Wow. Your room’s better than mine.” And she was right: a wondrous suite was laid out before them, split into two rooms, and then a bathroom. A grand king-size bed was in the next room, and this room had large windows overlooking the city (which was beginning to obfuscate with the coming of the evening) and a large TV by a gas fireplace. “Ritzy. And to think it cost you, what? A hundred American dollars?”

 

“For a night, yeah. I’m only here until then; I wasn’t supposed to stop here. My ticket expired or something. I didn’t really understand what the guy was saying.”

 

“Where are you going next?”

 

“Back to Deutschland,” he said. “I decided I’m going to stay there until my money runs out, then I hop on a plane at the Frankfurt airport and jet home.”

 

“And where is home?” Ellie asked him, leaning relaxed against the open door, tilting her head and looking at him in an almost affectionate way. He told her it was Eugene, Oregon. “Well that’s not far away from me. I’m from Northern California, up by Mount Shasta, you know. That isn’t a terribly long drive. Unless you’re going to go to college in Maine or something.”

 

“Nah, just going to go the U of O in Eugene. Stay home, have free room and board with the parents until I save up enough for an apartment.” They now sat comfortably on the giant sofa, the gas fire lit, the TV off, and the metropolitan soundtrack of Prague leaking in through the windows. “What’s the college plan for the traveling Ellie Marks?”

 

Throwing her head back, purposely dramatic, she said, “Oh please!” then brought her head down to smile at him kindly. “I haven’t decided yet. Perhaps U of O.”

 

“Really?” he asked.

 

“Really.”

 

“What peaked your interest in U of O of all things?”

 

“Oh, I think you did,” she said, widening her smile and laughing. He smiled too, and then it faded into an open-lipped nothing as he looked at her deeply, going from her eyes, to her lips, to her eyes, to her lips, and back again two or three more times. Ellie’s head tilted again in that sweet, sexy manner, and she brought herself up from her laid-back position against a giant pillow on the sofa, and sat with her back straightened, and one foot crossed up by her left thigh. When Ellie did this, she looked at him with inviting eyes, also wearing the open-lipped nothing on her mouth. He leaned forward and softly kissed her, and she kissed back ever so gently. A hand gripped hers and held it delicately as both rested on her luscious thigh.

 

Tongues then broke through the lips and danced between teeth in a romantic slow dance to the music their lips were orchestrating. His strong hands went to her smooth, thin waist and pulled it forward and her arms wrapped around his shoulders and the kiss continued for a minute or so. When it finally broke, Ellie looked at him, just as shocked as he was, and he smiled wonderfully, and she smiled back and kissed him hard, pushing him onto his back on the sofa, so she was lying on top of him. Her hands went to his chest and she massaged it, looking him in the eye while she felt his thin chest and rubbed her fingers over his ribs as if she was playing a harp. Behind them, their toes, now without shoes and socks, played together and the denims of their jeans rubbed. Under her tummy, Ellie felt a hardness swell.

 

“Now what have we here?” she asked. He was too shy to answer. “Does this excite you?”

 

He was no liar. “Yes, yes it does.” He gulped. “And, uh… you? Are you excited by this?”

 

Ellie Marks repositioned herself so she straddled him, her jean-covered knees now up by his ribs. She crossed her arms in front of her and grabbed the bottom of her top, and yanked up ward, ruffling her hair, which messily fell over her bra-covered breasts. The clasp was in the front on this particular bra and so she looked down at it, put her fingers to work, and undid it, yanking the undergarment from her shoulders, and discarding it. Her breasts were medium (he guessed a high B-cup or a low C-up), and tiny, dark red nipples were right in the right spots. They were hardened. “Does this answer your question?”

 

Stuttering, he said, “I think so,” and his two hands went to her now-bare waist and stroked the silky, white skin all the way up to the ribs and down.

 

“Have you ever been with a girl before?” Ellie asked.

 

“One or two,” he replied. “But we didn’t have sex or anything. I don’t think I saw one of them naked at all, and the other, only about as much as I’m seeing of you right now. But that was their problem. If I had had my way, I would have at least had oral sex or something.”

 

“Really!” Ellie exclaimed, excited and grinning wide. “That surprises me! Attractive young man as yourself, so inexperienced! Well, then, I won’t lie to you; we’re in the same boat. I’m a virgin as well.”

 

He mocked her playfully. “Really! Attractive young woman as yourself so inexperienced!” And they laughed and kissed some more, and her warm breasts came to his chest and the hard nipples dragged up and down the plain of his abdomen as she moved her body up and down. Before he realized what was happening, Ellie let out a slight sigh, which could have been a moan with some voice to it. Then it hit him: she was dry-humping him, bringing her clothed crotch to his hardened and covered member and applying pressure to stimulate her.

 

“I’m not as inexperienced as you think,” Ellie said, moving down his body and bringing her chin so it was resting in the basin of his bellybutton. “Remove your shirt, please.” Without hesitation, Radiohead came off of his top half. “Don’t worry. I’ll handle this half.” He was a bright young man, so he guessed at what she meant. She had performed oral sex on a man before. Soon, his pants were down around his ankles and her fingertips were lightly stroking his hairy inner thighs. Light kisses were being planted on his penis, up from the base, on the head, down the side, and then to the testicles, where he nearly jumped at the surprise attack of her tongue on the right one. Giggling, she asked, “Like this, do you?”

 

“Uh-huh,” he replied, nodding as elatedly as he could, given the simple bliss he was now receiving. After more kissing, then licking, Ellie soon, with her right hand, pulled his member upright and wrapped her warm, wet mouth around it, slowly stroking it with only her tongue and cheeks.

 

“Now, I haven’t done this much,” she said, withdrawing for a moment. “Let me ask you, are you the sort who practices in the art of masturbation?”

 

“Yes,” he said.

 

“Me too, good. So you aren’t so estranged to the feeling of pleasuring yourself.”

 

“No, I’m not.”

 

“Good. Then you shouldn’t come if I do it this way. My last boyfriend (I haven’t had many) taught me how to make a boy come by oral sex, but I don’t want this to be over yet. Unless you want to come in my mouth, of course? We do have all night, and I could wait until you get hard again.” Hearing this sweet girl talk this way nearly made him come on her neck right then and there. Ellie Marks had struck him as the strong and smart type, the kind who would have sex, but methodically, without many words, retreating to the more animalistic manner of human mating. But her love for words and her candid demeanor proved otherwise.

 

“And what possible use for a hard penis would you have, traveling Ellie Marks, except to suck on?”

 

“To tell you honestly, I would very much like for the both of us to lose our virginities on this night, in this city, in this hotel room. Together. I had seen you momentarily in the café across the street, and had found you very visually appealing.” Now it was an American reenactment of some British battle of words and vocabulary and grammar. They were showing off their linguistic skills. For these two young people were very smart in the ways of the language and had many wise thoughts. “And don’t you think I want to do this just because I find you attractive, kind sir. I find myself emotionally attracted to you as well. And to tell you honestly, I think I may be falling in love, though we’ve only just met. Does that sound unrealistic to you?”

 

“No, not at all,” he said, finding that he was feeling the same way about her. He told her this, and she smiled.

 

“Then I feel we were brought together,” Ellie said. “We must have been. Another candid thought I’m about to relate to you: I think we should continue our travels together. I had no real plans, and in order to keep you in this continent for a little longer with me, I have a set of grandparents that live in Germany, where you will be welcomed to stay with me, if you’d like. Then you won’t have to worry about lodgings. Only food, therefore, prolonging your stay on this romantic getaway we seem to be unfolding. Are you particularly adverse to any of the suggestions I’ve presented?”

 

“No, in fact, I’d rather enjoy being with you.”

 

“I’m glad,” she said, smiling lovingly at him and looking deep into his eyes. Then she gained back her college-instructor-demeanor and said, “Now! There is this matter of this erection I hold here in my hand. And the question is for you now: to come in my mouth, or not to come in mouth. That is the question.”

 

He chose the former; he wanted to come in her mouth. So instead of using her mouth only, she wrapped a firm hand around his staff and used her own saliva as lubrication to jerk him off into her lips. His penis was of a more-than-average size, stretching outward roughly six-and-a-half inches and had a circumference of approximately four-and-a-half inches. So it was fairly large, but Ellie’s mouth handled it expertly. The soft spot right below the (circumcised) head was about as far as her mouth would reach with her hand blocking the rest if her progress, and that spot was licked terrifically with her tongue at every stroke. Soon, his crotch began to experience that ever-familiar feeling. He warned her (though he didn’t feel he needed to, but out of politeness, he did) and she stroked longer and faster and harder until a long and steady stream of seminal fluid sprang from the head of his cock and reached far back into her throat. Ellie moaned a tiny, girlish moan, the vibration of which on the penis of her mouth seeming to have a sensual effect, and did her best to swallow her gift. Almost hungrily, she swallowed the last of the semen, and then inspected the surrounding area for drops that might have escaped. She found none.

 

“I must say,” she said after a minute of breathing silence. “Whatever diet you’re on is giving your seminal fluid an extremely agreeable taste.”

 

Not really sure how to respond with more than a simple, “Uh…thanks,” he said what he could.

 

“And not to mention your size, darling. My god, this is definitely the largest penis I have encountered.” Ellie let go of him and allowed his penis to soften. Crawling up along his naked body, she laid her head on his left breast and spoke to him. “Now comes the test. If you’re a normal boy, sexual thoughts should not be running through your mind right now. Well, not with the power to stimulate you, now that you have had an orgasm.”

 

Still a little breathless, he said. “I guess I’m a normal boy, yeah.”

 

“Okay,” she said. “Now, normal boys who are just after a girl for the purpose of pleasure and nothing else, can not easily lie and tell them they feel romantic feelings for them post-orgasm, unless, of course, they actually do have romantic feelings for them. So tell me how you feel about me.”

 

He looked down at her, and saw that she was now looking up at him, waiting for an answer. “I do feel for you, Ellie,” he said. “I find you a remarkable girl who I’d love to get to know better. You’re a wonder to speak to, you’re beautiful inside and out, and I enjoy being around you. Talking with you this afternoon, it really put me at ease.”

 

“I know you’re not lying,” she said. “I know liars, and my boy, you are not one of them.” He really did not mind someone his age (they were both nineteen) calling him “my boy.” But her sensuality had not subsided, as the only pleasure she had received was from dry-humping him, so she had to continue. “You said I’m beautiful inside and out, didn’t you?”

 

“That I did.”

 

“I bet when you said inside you didn’t think of physically inside did you?”

 

“No, I can’t say that-”

 

“Well, now it’s time for you to judge me on the inside, really see if I am beautiful.” And Ellie Marks stood up off the couch and removed her jeans and panties together, and he saw a tiny patch of black hair between her milky white thighs. Then she came back to the cough and sat against the left armrest, facing him, on her back, and she spread her legs for him. “Come,” she said. “Come closer, take a closer look.” And he did, turning over on his hands and knees and carefully approaching her. Between the white skin of her buttocks was a mound of pink skin, small, barely touched (except by herself).

 

“Beautiful,” he said to Ellie. “Gorgeous.”

 

“Thank you,” she said. Her thin belly was particularly worth beholding. She began to rub it, her abdomen, and one hand went to her left breast, where her fingers pinched her nipples. Then the hand that massaged her abdomen went to her vagina, where she spread the lips a bit and located her clitoris. Before this boy she barely met, she practiced one of her most sacred rituals, one of her most secret, private moments she often shared with her self. Carefully, she masturbated, both on her clitoris and on her nipple, and her eyes closed and her mouth opened, and she began to breathe heavily. “Touch me,” she told him and before she could take another breath, another hand was fondling her soft spots. “Put a finger inside me,” Ellie said, and he did. And she began to writhe with pleasure, letting out whispers of “ooh” and “huh” and things of the primitive like. After a while, she stopped and opened her eyes and looked at him. “And how is your penis doing?”

 

“I’m hard again, if that’s what you’re asking.”

 

“Good,” she said. And then she became very serious, and hiding, it seemed, a timidity behind her resolute expression. “Now, would you like to do this act of love on the couch, or on the floor, or on the bed, or in the shower, or-”

 

“On the bed,” he said. Ellie smiled wide and rose from the couch. In school, she had been a swimmer, so her body was thin and supple, and he grew very in love with it. Standing there, she looked at him, waiting. “Well come on, silly, I can’t just masturbate in there. You have to get up to. Come on.” These last two words came in an indelibly sensual whisper that compelled him upward. Once on his feet, he felt a little dizzy, but then gained his stature and followed the angelic naked young girl into the next room. Her buttocks were firm and the separating crack between the cheeks went high, and gave her a very attractive look from behind. Firm thighs, lilywhite, moved like heavenly bodies through the sky of the room, and then she did something that etched his love for her into stone. Ellie Marks turned her head over her shoulder and looked at him so lovingly as she entered the next room, smiling with only her lips. He took his steps slowly into the next room and when he reached it, the bedside lamp was already on, and Ellie was already on her back on the bed, wonderfully made with a lush, white down comforter.

 

“It’s very soft on my skin,” she said, letting her timidity over losing her maidenhead shine through a little bit more like a morning sun through slit blinds. He crawled onto the bed and immediately, she spread her knees for him, and he came between them, leaning down and planting a passionate kiss on her lips. “You don’t need to worry,” she whispered. “My mother lost her virginity on her lonely Europe trip and so she packed me with a wide variety of contraceptives. Including emergency contraceptives. I want my first time to be as nature intended, without the use of some polypropylene prophylactic. Agreed?” And her professor’s demeanor diminished and she looked him square in the eye and said, “I want you to come inside of me.”

 

Only a nod, and then he positioned his hips on hers, and took a few breaths. She was moist and well lubricated down South, and he put the head of his penis into that moistness. Ellie’s eyes closed and she lay there waiting, biting her bottom lip. Slowly, and more slowly, he pressed his penis into her and her breathing became sharp. Whispers of “ow, ow, ow, ow” came, but she did not allow him to retract. Keeping his steady push forward, or inward I should say, he soon came to her hymen. Demanding in a surprising tone obviously brought on by fear and pleasure, Ellie said, “Break it.”

 

And it was done.

 

Ellie let out a whine and cringed her face in pain, gritting and baring her teeth, and he tried to pull out from her for fear of hurting her more, but she brought her heels up and clamped him in his position. “Don’t…move…love…” she said. “Stay right where you are, and thrust. Slowly. Gently. Please,” Ellie said. “You’ve got to counter pain with pleasure.”

 

And so he did. Ever so gently, he thrust his entire length into her and came out halfway, and then repeated. Slowly…slowly…slowly… Her insides felt so warm and tight that he was not sure how much longer he would last. The walls of Ellie’s vagina were hugging his penis, clutching it, squeezing it, half voluntarily for the purpose of sex, and half involuntary for the purpose of cringing in pain. Steadily, he continued to make love to her, and he watched her face fade finally from her grimace, to an expression of ecstasy.

 

“You can speed up now, if you like,” Ellie told him through her panting.

 

So he did, but not much. Ellie’s heels were still on his behind, pushing him in with every stroke. “Oh,” she said, “oh, my, your pelvic bone, oh, your pelvic bone is, mm, rubbing against my clitoris. Oh this is wonderful. Please don’t stop. Please don’t stop this…until you’ve come inside me.”

 

He kissed her and put his chest on hers, feeling her breasts on his chest, squeezing against them. They were making love and Ellie thought it was beautiful. Her hands went onto his back and rubbed it up and down, and she put her right hand in a cup and put it on the back of his neck and scratched (almost too hard) his lower back with her fingernails. “Oh my god,” she was saying. “I never thought it would be like this. Oh, oh, oh…” And much to his surprise, she spasmed, her arms flailed out to he side and her back arched. Her heels finally disengaged from his buttocks and kicked upward. Learning his lesson and not pulling himself out of her, he asked what was wrong.

 

“Oh, nothing,” Ellie replied, between huge gasping breaths. “Nothing is wrong. Everything is right. That, my dear, was an orgasm to rival all orgasms. And I couldn’t help notice that you’ve,” and she paused, trying desperately to become the wordy, intelligent college professor again, “that you’ve…um…stopped. Please. Do go on.”

 

And while he did, she spoke. “Oh, I love you. I don’t care how long I’ve known you. This is love. Any man that can make me come in the most invigorating orgasm of my nineteen-year-life deserves my love. Please don’t stop, please, don’t. Keep going. Keep going. Come inside me. Come inside me.”

 

Ellie spasmed again with her second orgasm, letting out a ecstatic scream this time. And when the orgasm seized control of her vaginal walls, it tightened them and squeezed the young man’s penis and he could hold no longer. Long streams of semen shot back into her vagina and he shook, trembling against her. They lay there for a long time, breathing, holding on another. He did not go soft, however, and they wound up making love again. This time, Ellie turned them so that she was on top and she took him, riding him into ecstasy one more time before their energy left them and they fell asleep together.

 

The next day, Ellie purchased a ticket for the same train as her new love, and they rode it all the way to Germany, where they spent two and a half more weeks, dating, getting to know each other, and yes, making the occasional love. They went back to the states together and Ellie Marks enrolled at the University of Oregon with him, and they stayed together for a very long time, eventually marrying. Until the end of their lives together, they never forgot the day they met in Prague, and the instant love that swept them.

 

THE END