Chapter 6

Once breakfast was finished and things cleaned up, I got on the radio to see what the weather forecast looked like. From the report I received, the storm was expected to end overnight tonight and nothing new in the way of storms for at least 4 days.

“Well, do you think you’ll be ready to make a trip to the main island the day after tomorrow?” I asked Jennifer.

“I thought the storm was going to end tonight. Why do we wait another day?” she asked.

“I’ll show you tomorrow afternoon. Until then, just trust me,” I replied and Jennifer smiled.

We spent the balance of the day as we had the previous day – talking, playing cards or board games and eating the occasional meal. I discovered that Jennifer loved puns as much as I did and between the two of us, we were often in stitches with laughter. Of course Maggie had to be fussed over and played with.

At one point I asked Jennifer about her family. “I don’t know much about any other parts of my family - I guess they’d be what you’d call my ‘extended family’. My mom and dad...” Jennifer started crying and I took her in a hug. “If it’s too painful, don’t talk about it but once we get to the main island the police and others are going to want that kind of information.

Jennifer nodded and wiped her eyes and looked at me. “I know, it just hit me again, that Mom and Dad aren’t here anymore.” She went and got a tissue to wipe her eyes, then came back and sat down.

“Mom and Dad were both only children and both sets of my grandparents are now dead.” Jennifer paused to wipe her face again before continuing. “Dad talked once about a cousin or something but I don’t think he’d ever met that person. Mom never talked about any other family members. I kinda think that maybe there was a fight or something and Mom and Dad just ignored the rest of their families other than their parents.”

I got rid of her tissue and got her a new one then she continued.

“Last year I started noticing things about Mom and Dad. I noticed that if mom was doing something and Dad went past her he’d lightly touch her – on her arm or shoulder or cheek or wherever – and Mom would do the same. To me, these didn’t seem to be sexy sorts of touches but touches of love. I noticed this because I never saw that happen, or at least not very often, with my friends’ parents.

“Maybe ‘cause they didn’t really have any other family, they just did it to remind one other that they were together. I think they were really, really deeply in love with one another. They acted like they’d been married for 50 years or something. I started watching my friends’ families and noticed that while Mom and Dad had people they were friendly with, they didn’t have anyone that they were real close to. I guess they figured the three of us were all they needed.” Jennifer paused again and started to quietly cry. I held her and let her cry onto my shirt and even when she stopped crying, I knew she needed to be held and cuddled.

As I had expected, the balance of the day and the evening was very quiet. I didn’t try to start any conversations but when Jennifer felt like talking we did. Finally bed time came and I made my bed up again on the floor. Jennifer didn’t say anything but as she headed towards the sleeping area, she asked me to help her undress.

When I got to her, she’d gotten everything except her bra off. I managed to get it off and helped her get into bed getting a nice eyeful of a young girl’s charms. “Can you give me a goodnight kiss?” Jennifer asked and I did as she asked then headed back out to my bed.

The next morning I woke up to see Jennifer, wrapped in a quilt, sitting in the easy chair watching me. “Good morning sleepy head,” she said. “I thought you were never going to get up.”