Chapter 1: Arrival on the Island

I have always seen movies and read books about people who led "double lives," like spies, serial killers and so forth, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect that I might one day experience their world in a fashion so incredible that only a person with a super imagination could believe!

It all started about a year ago when I went on a camping trip with my best buddy, Ron. Ron and I had always enjoyed outdoor spots that very few people knew about. We had gone to various wilderness areas in the Southern United States, never ceasing to marvel at the just how far away from humanity we could get. Caves, canyons, mountain crags... you name it, we went there!

This time, we had planned an excursion to an island off the coast of Florida that had been designated a National Wilderness Area. It was so deserted and inaccessible that we actually had to charter a boat to drop us off on it, directing the captain to pick us up after a five day stay.

We talked with our boat captain on the way out, and he informed us of the myths and legends associated with the island. He told us of a mystical tribe of Indians said to have once inhabited the place. Supposedly, they were the remnants of the Aztec tribe conquered by Cortes way back in the early 1500s. When the conquistador had arrived in their Mexican city, the Aztecs were known for their peace-loving artistic way of life. They worshipped a female sun god, and for them, life and all its pleasures were gifts to be cherished and revelled in. Once Cortes had massacred their leader and their people, most of the Aztecs that were left were forced into a life of slavery and slow assimilation into the culture of their Spanish conquerors. Only a few remote pockets of Aztecs refused to bend to the harsh ways of their uninvited guests. One of these rebellious bands supposed fled to the north into what was to become the U.S., taking with them their mystical charms designed to reinforce their religious and social beliefs. This band, said our captain, eventually found peace on the island that was to be our destination. There they lived happily for about a hundred years, growing more and more dedicated to their faith in the feminine sun god and the wonders of fertility and joys of the flesh that she had bestowed on them. They believed, said the captain, that all earthly things were originally female in nature, and thus there was no greater honor than to be a woman in their tribe. Various stories had been told by sailors of the time of the incredible, almost mystical beauty of the female inhabitants of the island. People who had supposedly been shipwrecked on the reefs surrounding the island had been taken in, nursed back to health and shown only love and compassion by these perfect specimens of femininity.