Bunny became suspicious after talking to Olive. A cold fear gripped her as she searched the other abandoned adobes and finding nothing, began walking towards the Sea Stud.
There was a calm to the sea that belied the fury of the days before. The tide was coming in and the Stud rocked gently as water began to find its hull. Bunny's heart set up such a pounding that she thought it surely would break through her chest. Her throat constricted and went dry as though she had tried to swallow a mouthful of dust. She didn't want to confirm what was in her mind. She didn't want to see what she was walking across the barren bleak beach to see.
Pete heard the footsteps first. He shook sleep from his eyes and listened; on guard.
The cabin door opened and he saw Bunny's legs descending the ladder. It was too late to do anything. He lay there naked as sin. He looked to see his daughter next to him. His mouth opened in surprise, his jaw hung slack.
Cathy wasn't there!
He let out an audible sigh of relief just as his wife came fully into view.
"Well, my fine cock," exclaimed Bunny, "just what in hell are you doing here naked as a jaybird?"
Pete laughed. "I-I must have dozed off," he said, quickly glancing around the cabin to see if his daughter were indeed gone. She was.
"Yeah, but who was here with you?" Bunny asked suspiciously.
"Hey, why the third degree?"
Bunny looked around the cabin suspiciously, her nose wrinkling as if to sniff out the spoor of her husband's visitor.
"Because I couldn't find you or Cathy anywhere this morning," she said.
"Oh." Pete let out a long sigh.
"So? Was Cathy here with you?" She was almost in tears.
Pete looked' at her a long time. "The storm's over," he said, noticing how calm it was and quiet.
"You didn't answer my question."
"Do you want me to answer it?" His voice was soft.
Bunny broke into sobs then.
Pete got off the bunk and went to her. He took her in his arms. Her body shook with the force of her sobbing. Pete held her tightly and gradually her sobs subsided. He kissed her on the cheek and she looked up at him.
"Oh, Pete, let's go home," she said.
"Yes, Bunny. Let's go home."
He dressed and they left the boat after he made sure the anchor was secure.
"We'll have to get moving. That tide's coming in pretty strong."
"Good, This crummy island is too damned primitive," said Bunny.
"Yes," agreed Pete. "It's very primitive."
Cathy had awakened and was horrified to see that it was almost dawn. She had managed to get out of the bunk without awakening her father, dress, and go back to the clearing. From a clump of bushes she had seen her mother searching for her. She had waited until she saw her mother go towards the boat, then dashed to the adobe where Olive was.
"Boy, are you in trouble!" Olive told her.
"Why?" Cathy asked innocently.
"Your old lady was looking all over for you."
"So? She'll find me when the time comes."
"I know what you did," said Olive ominously.
"You do?"
"Yes. I guess there's nothing I can say. I wish I could do it with my father. Did-did he get mad?"
"No," said Cathy. "He didn't get mad."
"Man, that's wild!"
"Let's not talk about it."
"Okay. You're right. We each have our own memories, I guess," said Olive looking wistfully out the window.
"Yes, Olive, that's right. We each have our own thing." Cathy felt a twinge in her cunt just thinking about it.
Jim and Darlene were dressed and drinking coffee by the time that Bunny and Pete arrived back at the adobe. They seemed to be looking at each other with different eyes. Pete thought they looked like a couple of people in love-for the first time.
"Well, you ready to go back?" Pete said to them.
"Anytime you are," said Jim cheerily.
"You bet," agreed Darlene.
"Well, give us a shot of coffee and we'll get loaded right away. The boat's fine and the sea's calm."
They all laughed and Darlene gave Pete a wink. He winked back.
The Sea Stud was loaded by ten o'clock and the hull leaks repaired by eleven. At half past, the island began to diminish in size as the boat and the six people pulled away from it. Each of them stood looking at the island, wrapped in his own thoughts. Soon, it disappeared over the horizon and they met with blue sky and water heading back to San Felipe. Pete stood on the flying bridge alone until Bunny came up and put her arm inside of his.
"Hi there," she said.
"Ahoy, sweetheart."
"Pete?"
"Yes?"
"There's something I want to say to you."
"Go ahead, Bun, but be careful you don't dredge up something better left undredged."
"I know. No, I won't. It's about us, though, you and me and Cathy."
"Okay," he said.
"Well, I've been thinking. She's a young girl and looks up to you. I don't know what happened, but I've noticed she looks at you differently today. And I remember you always talked about incest."
"Yes, I said it was natural in all of the animal kingdom. As a form of training and emulation. Man has formed some pretty strange taboos about it."
"Right. Well, I think you may be right. I know I don't have the awful feeling about it that I thought I'd have. Is that good?"
Pete turned to look at her. He gave her a kiss. "You're damned right that's good," he grinned
"Hey you two up there!" shouted Darlene from below. "What's going on?"
"None of your business," said Bunny good naturedly.
Darlene made her thumb and forefinger into an “0."
Then she turned to her husband. "Jim, those two taught both of us a hell of a lot."
He pulled her to him, his arm around her waist.
"I know," he said. "I'm grateful."
"You want to go downstairs?" she teased.
"You mean below. Hell yes!" His face was beaming.
Cathy and Olive watched Darlene and Jim go down in the cabin. "I bet I know what they're going to do," said Olive.
"Yes, and don't you wish you were down there with them," said Cathy.
"Boy, you sure got wise in a hurry."
"Yes," sighed Cathy, "I sure did, didn't 1?"
The Sea Stud made its way slowly over the gentle waves, unhurried, like something sure of itself and older, wiser, like the masked sea it rode.