Chapter 18

“Aaaa HEM!” squeaked Madeline. “AAAAAA HEM!!!” When she finally had everyone’s attention she yelled, “Mommy says, ‘Play with relax Frankie in Hollywood’!” and she went back down the steps below deck.

It was Gus who was able to translate Madeline’s orders to “Play ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes To Hollywood” so he went to the control iPad in the salon and selected the old school club rocker and soon the yacht was rocking to the old hit.

Relax, don’t do it When you want to go to it Relax, don’t do it When you want to come

First the twins entered, dressed in silver dresses that hung down to their knees and silver hi-top sneakers, each carrying a silver stuffed unicorn which hung on their shoulders with a silver rope like a purse. They danced their way to the top of the stairs. There they stopped, struck a pose that had all the men laughing, then danced their way over to papa Paul. They were followed by Macy in a silver sequin minidress with a plunging cowl neck that plunged all the way past her navel, revealing just a hint of her small, firm breasts. She turned slowly to show that in the back ... there was no back. John gasped. This backless minidress exposed more of his beautiful black wife than most of her swimsuits. The contrast between the shining silver sequins and her dark skin was startling, and the black miniskirt practically matched her skin tone. It was the hottest thing John has ever seen her wear. Still dancing with the tune, she stepped aside, and Andi came dancing up the stairs wearing the identical dress, instead with copper sequins.

Andi was dancing with her hands above her head, her hips gyrating in a way that made Paul want to take her right then and there, he didn’t know how her round full breasts didn’t pop out as she danced, but he wanted to learn the magic behind that wonder. The copper sequins contrasted against her snow white skin marvelously, like the silver contrasted against Macy’s dark skin. When Andi turned around, it looked like she was only wearing a black miniskirt. Her hair covered the collar, and Paul could see clearly her narrow waist sweep out to her delightful hips, just as a cello is shaped. Does Andi even know that the hourglass shape of her back is the most erotic sight he ever saw? He made a mental note to inform her of that.

Andi stepped aside and was dancing with her girls when Lucy came up the stairs. She was dressed in the same dress as Andi and Macy, but with gold sequins. When Gus saw her, his mouth went dry. She was dancing to an inner beat, far different from that of the song playing on the ship’s speakers. Her hips swayed gently, and her hands were held low, rocking to something soft and quiet. The dress showed off her abdominal muscles and when she turned, her back and shoulder muscles were clearly spectacular. She turned and gestured to Gus, beckoning him over to her. He stepped up to her like a man in a trance.

Lucy put her left hand on his shoulder and pointed up to the ‘missile toast’ hanging from the roof with her right. He looked up and smiled and before she knew it, his fingers were twined in her hair, and she was being kissed like she had never been kissed before. He dipped her back just enough. The feeling of this made her feel dependent on his strength to hold her through the kiss. She moaned with the feeling of the joy of giving up her control to this man and held him even tighter.

When they broke the kiss, they both gasped in surprise at the intensity of it. They were so into each other they didn’t hear the surrounding applause. “How long can you do that?” Lucy gasped.

“Not one moment less than what you need,” Gus smiled, “and as long as you could ever want.”

“I may hold you to that,” sighed Lucy as their lips met again.

Now that everyone was on deck, they all gathered at the galley and Pastor John led them in a prayer of thanksgiving for the passing year, then, begging for a blessing on the meal and the hands that provided it, they headed for their tables.

The table setting was beautiful. It included silk flowers and candlelight, but the men almost missed it entirely. Their eyes were glued to their women in those ultra-revealing club dresses they wore. Facing forward, Macy sat between Paul and Gus, with Paul to her right, facing aft. John sat between Andi and Lucy, with Andi to his left. A small heavy folding table was set up for the twins and Bitty nearby, so Andi and Paul could watch them.

The conversation was naturally about the baby born on Andi’s Dream; “Lucky Andy”. The story of the rescue was told and retold from everyone else’s point of view with “Hawkeye” Gus in the Crow’s Nest, providing pictures on his tablet of the events as they were retold.

“Ever since I met Mama Giardino, that’s been my dream,” said Andi as she wistfully looked at the picture of her, Paul, and Lucky Andy, “to have a boy, Paul’s boy.”

Paul reached across the table and took his wife’s hand. “We’ve only been married a week,” he said, “let’s relax, take our time, do it right, and have a lot of fun.” Andi smiled across the table thinking of all the possibilities... “And besides, it started before you met Mama. Don’t you remember? After church on the day, you met Macy and John. I was showing you the house, and you selected the bedroom next to the master as a nursery.”

“No, before that, before we went into the house,” Andi started speaking slowly. “We were on the porch, and I had this vision, a dream I guess, of the twins playing on the porch, pulling their baby brother in a wagon.”

“Danny,” said Madeline as she re-arranged her dinner setting.

Andi turned to the kids’ table. “What did you say?”

“Danny,” said Sandy again. “Our baby brother’s name is Danny.”

“MY baby’s name is Paul, just like poppa,” said Madeline, with an ‘in your face’ wrinkle of the nose to Sandy. “Your baby’s name is going to be Sierra.”

“MY baby is going to be born first, your baby is going to be late, and I’m having a girl!!” said Sandy, standing up. Madeline then stood up, and they discussed their differences using TwinBabble® until Andi spun around.

“Use your words! If you can’t do that, then sit down and be quiet so people can eat their dinner.” The twins sat down, but they sat silently, looking like they were on the edge of tears. They loved talking to each other in their own language and hated being told to “use their words”. Andi quickly softened. “If you don’t use your words, Bitty won’t understand what you’re saying.” That made them smile a little.

John was startled by what the girls had said. He turned to his sister-in-law. “Do they do that often?”

“Do what?”

“Make predictions like that.”

Andi sighed. “Sometimes they talk like they don’t know there’s a difference between the past, the present, and the future. And if this is a prophecy, it’s a self-fulfilling prophesy because I’ve told them in the past that if they have a baby brother, his name will be Danny. They’re really good at forgetting that I said ‘if.”

“So, this business about naming their babies Paul and Sierra, and Sandy having a girl before Madeline has a boy?”

“I suppose we’ll find out in about 18 to 25 years from now,” Andi thought for a moment and said, “They once told me I’d marry a snowman ... or did they say THE snowman.” Andi sat and tried to remember for a long time.

The first course was a delicious lobster bisque made with the meat from the lobster’s small legs. It was accompanied with a gouda covered French bread crustini. Yi came to the table to bask in the compliments, and she asked Andi, “I was going to make the kids Chicken McNuggets, is that ok with you?”

“Yes, but if they get addicted again, it’s your fault, you’ll have to deal with the withdrawal symptoms.”

“Pardon ma’am?”

Andi finished a mouthful of the bisque and said, “Gosh, back when they started eating solid food for real, I got them McNuggets to try, and that is all they would eat, breakfast, lunch and dinner. It went on like that for about 3 weeks. I had to cut them off. They cried for a week.”

“And is there any relevance to Strawberry Shortcake Babies?” asked Yi.

“I got them Strawberry Shortcake dolls when they were born,” said their Godmother Lucy, “as they grew older, they dragged those babies everywhere, even fought over them. What ever happened to them?”

“Those things were loved to death before the twins turned two. I had to send them to the great strawberry patch in the sky,” said Andi.

Ye felt like she was in a Twilight Zone episode when she looked over at the kids’ table and the twins gave her a “Told Ya So” look. She was terrified to ask, but as she cleared the dishes with her parents, she asked, “When did they start to walk?”

“Like talking, they were late bloomers at walking, too. But when they started, they just stood up and walked...”

“And danced,” added Lucy. “They were dancing to everything. I remember because I was there for your birthday.”

“Yep, that was quite an interesting week, we couldn’t shut them up or tie them down, so yeah, they started walking at about two and a half years.” said Andi, “Why do you want to know?”

“Can we talk later over coffee ... or maybe gin?” Yi looked over to the kids’ table again, and the twins were innocently eating their cheese sandwiches.

The next course was prime rib au jus, roast potatoes, collard greens, and grilled lobster tail. Just before service, Yi took the lobster tail which she had undercooked slightly before the ice water plunge, then she put them on the grill just as she started service.

“Yi, this is spectacular!” said John, “You have done yourself, your parents, and the American Culinary Institute proud. I sure hope you made sure there is plenty for yourself and your parents.” Facing aft, John couldn’t see that the Carlson family were eating the same meal at the breakfast bar right behind him.

“Don’t worry about that,” said Sunny around a piece of prime rib and waving a bone in the air.

By now the sun had fully set and the sea was dark, the candles flickered at the tables and the combinations of lighting possibilities on the yacht made the surrounding sea look mysterious and beautiful, the underwater lighting changed colors making the sea glow blue, then green, then orange, and all combinations through the spectrum. “Look at that!” gushed Andi. “It makes me want to drop this dress and dive right in.”

“I might join you,” said Macy, rising from her seat.

“Brother, aren’t you going to do something about this?” asked John.

“You mean that you are asking me to stop my wife of one week from taking her clothes off on our honeymoon?” Paul cut another piece of his prime rib. “You need to rethink your priorities, little brother.”

“No, I was talking about this empty wineglass in front of me.”

“Oh! A thousand pardons,” said Paul as he grabbed the bottle of sparkling grape juice in front of him and poured some for his brother. “How silly of me.”

Deflated, the girls sat down.

Everyone’s clothing stayed on for the rest of the meal, including little Bit-na, who constantly complained about how scratchy her starched uniform was and said that she was going to take it off and eat in her underwear. For dessert, Yi served a tart cherry sorbet, Andi’s favorite.

The group got up soon after and helped clear the table and then moved into the salon where bottles of champagne were iced down and waiting for them, and other libations and mixers were at the ready. Stan turned down the lighting, allowing the candles to fill the room with their romantic light. The candlelight flickered off the garlands and other decorations. A program of music, trivia, and silly occurrences from the past year were playing on the TV, and the twins and Bitty were already in the mood, dancing to the music while holding cans of soda.

Macy gestured to Andi to follow her below deck. They ended up in the master suite. “After midnight, I’m going to do it,” said Macy. “did you bring it for me?”

“I’ve got everything you need, including a douche to clean,” said Andi, pulling a plastic bag out from under the bed. “You should use the douche now, and then...” she rummaged through the bag, “use this little gem.” She held up a black vibrating butt plug like the one she used on her wedding night. “Just let Monsieur Vibrant Noir work his magic on you and you won’t be able to wait for midnight.”

“I liked the way you put it; ‘My last virginity’, I can’t wait to give my last virginity to him,” smiled Macy. “Thank you, sister,” and she gave Andi a kiss on the cheek, and then, after a pause, a small kiss on the lips.

“Just keep in mind, if it hurts, you’re not using enough lube. You might think that it feels like pooping in, but it’s not pooping, it’s your man, your lover, and he’s taking his pleasure with your body, just don’t let him get too carried away,” smiled Andi who realized she was talking herself into a night of anal play too, “you need to take pleasure in his body too.”

“Merci beaucoup ma belle soeur,” said Macy with another tiny kiss, and she slipped into the VIP suite to prepare for her man.

Up in the salon, Lucy and Gus only had eyes for each other. “You really like it?” asked Lucy she said, showing off her dress.

“Doctor Kocsis, I am crazy about you. I don’t know if I could be trusted with you ... You really need a safe word.”

“A what?” said Lucy with a laugh. “You’re not going to tie me up.”

“You can use it in the middle of one of my puns,” grinned Gus.

“Amadeus.”

“Amadeus?” asked Gus.

“That’s my safe word,” said Lucy. She remembered Andi told her she had a safe word, ‘teddy bear’ and she had to use it. And to Andi’s shock, it worked. Paul stopped whatever it was which required a safe word and just snuggled with her.

“Our safe word is Kabob,” said Macy. “We haven’t used it in ten years but when we did, I left him alone and we cuddled.”

“John used the safe word?”

“Oui, I was very ... excite and he had an interview to prepare for.” That about sealed it for Lucy. She was sure that if anyone understood how a safe word works, it would be Gus.