Chapter 98: Aftermath. Recovery in Caribbean

Mark

I was horrified by the accident Elsa had with the Cessna Citation. I could care less about the plane; that was insured and even if it weren’t, I’d just buy another.

What bothered me to the point of tears and great anxiety was almost losing Elsa. During the whole event I cried for fear that the worst might happen. There had been times I couldn’t breath I was so choked up. I knew we had some of the best minds in the aviation community worrying about getting her down safely. Further, Elsa had accumulated a couple of hundred hours of flight time in the Citation, knew the plane inside out and backwards, had practically memorized every manual associated with the plane, and drilled continuously for emergencies. It was what good pilots did, and she didn’t want to be just good, she wanted to be the best.

After the airport fire department got her out of the plane, I held Elsa’s hand almost non-stop until bedtime, and then held her tightly to me lest she slip away into some nightmare revolving around the crash. I think she felt the same way. We were loving, and I tried to be a comfort to her. I don’t think either of us slept much. We both relived the accident from our own points of view. Not surprisingly, the idea of sex didn’t ever raise its head the night of the accident. I was just so glad she’d survived.

When we finally got home Tuesday night, Elsa called her parents. It was a touching call. Cindy had talked to them earlier, even before the crash about what Elsa was going through. Since she was also a pilot she could explain a little of what her sister was going through. Later, Cindy had let them know that Elsa walked away with only the psychological scars of the traumatic event. Elsa spent a long time on the phone with them, often telling them she loved them and thanking them for raising her to be the person she was. There were a lot more tears. I think she realized how close she’d come to wiping out completely.

The next two days of Elsa’s time were totally consumed with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). She was grilled about every aspect of her trip to Las Vegas and the flight home, especially her preflight of the aircraft, taxiing, and takeoff. When the government wasn’t talking with her, Cessna and Avemco, the insurance company, got their pound of flesh interviewing her. Early on, I had my personal and corporate lawyer glue himself to her side for all of those meetings and conversations. She was grateful to have that kind of support.

In the end, months later, Elsa was absolved from having the terrible label ‘Pilot Error’ attached to her record. She had properly preflighted the aircraft in Las Vegas, and there was even a security video of the tarmac that showed her checking the gear by getting under the wing and observing and feeling all the key parts to ensure nothing was wrong with each landing gear. The cause of the gear malfunction remained uncertain, but one theory was that a piece of debris on the runway had been kicked up in a way during takeoff in Las Vegas to damage the gear mechanism. Both the FAA and NTSB applauded Elsa’s efforts to remediate the situation, and then the way she handled the aircraft right up to when it stopped eating dirt and landing lights beside the runway and spinning around under her butt.

I declared a holiday starting on Saturday after the accident. Elsa had been released from further interviews by then, but everyone was still a little on edge. I wanted to go to St. Croix, and so we planned a seven-day trip leaving the next day. I made it a command performance for the family members to the extent that I could guilt-trip the other family members. Every one of us went.

Elsa had calmed down enough by that point, we thought she was whole again. She pooh-poohed the idea of seeing our psychologist friend, Sarah Slarinsky. She explained that all the retelling of the story to all the government and insurance agencies was therapeutic and cathartic. She was over it and eager for a vacation.

The weather forecast for the week I wanted to go away was for cold, clammy, and wet in the city. St. Croix would be beautiful and I could hear the sand and surf calling to me.

Fortunately, it was also school winter vacation week so Tori could come with us for the first time. I worried about how Tori would fit in our midst given our sexual behavior. She was still underage, so I wanted to tread carefully on this count.

Before we left, Melanie and Sheila had a long talk with Kate about our behavior around Tori, specifically how she wanted us to behave in terms of our usual nudity, our hooking up, our exhibitionist and voyeuristic behavior, and our predilection with sex and often group sex.

Kate went off and did some research, and then I saw her having some long talks with Tori who was almost ready for her eighteenth birthday. Tori had become quite adult in the months she’d been living with us. She was aware of the sexual undertones of the family, but except for a couple of accidents when she came home unexpectedly she hadn’t tripped across any other public exhibitions.

We were all wondering what would happen after Tori’s eighteenth birthday. She’d openly let it be known that she wasn’t a virgin, and that she had liked most of the sexual encounters she’d had while in high school. Further, she was a younger version of Kate, and we all hoped she’d become available and enjoy our lifestyle. That said, we all remained deferential to Tori, and watched for Kate to provide us any steering on how to behave with her daughter.

The night before our flight to the island, Kate, Tori, Mel, Sheila, and Elsa came into my study as I was gathering some papers and portable technology so I could do a little work at the villa. Kate set the stage, “Mark, I wanted you to hear our plan for Tori on the island to get your thoughts and hear any issues.” She turned to her daughter and said, “Tori?”

Tori shifted forward in her chair so she was on the edge. I could see she put on her ‘adult’ façade. “I just want to say I am looking forward to seeing St. Croix and the home there. I’m also aware of what has gone on there and elsewhere when you haven’t had a ‘virginal’ teen around. You know I have had sex – a number of times, and there’s no mystery about what goes on. I’ve even watched some porn. Mom knows, although I think she wanted me to wait. I say that because I know all about the birds and the bees, and the tab A in slot B kind of stuff. I’m also aware of the emotions that develop during sex and the flow of hormones in kids my age that might couple sex and love, when that wasn’t the intention of one party.

“Anyways, here’s what I’d like to have happen. I’d like you all to not change your normal behavior. I understand that you spend most of the time naked or topless, and I will probably adopt that as my preferred style of dress. I want an all-over tan, and it’ll just be like living for a week in a nudist colony.” She grinned. “Mom said as long as I wasn’t the only one naked, it was fine with her.”

Kate nodded but rolled her eyes indicating that she was being highly indulgent of her daughter’s planned behavior. I wondered whether this ‘compromise’ had been hers or Tori’s. In any case, I knew I wouldn’t mind in the least seeing the flawless body of someone her age.

“I also want everyone to feel comfortable having sex in the open, either as a couple, a threesome, or any other combination. To enable that, spare any of you embarrassment at my presence, and remove any concern, I can make myself scarce at those times when I see them developing. Just so you know though, I may watch but you won’t know it. I may also go on a five-mile jog down the beach or workout in the villa’s gym – Elsa told me about the great facility you have there and showed me all the pictures. I know there’s a lot to do what with the sail boats, beach, pool, and everything.”

Tori looked around at each of us. “Is that OK with you? As I said, mom and I have talked and come to this point. Personally, I’d just as soon be a full participant, but in the islands the legal age without restrictions is eighteen and I don’t want anybody going to jail just because I have an itch that needs scratching.”

Kate smiled and nodded, reaching over and holding her daughter’s hand. She too looked at the others in our circle and me. I thought she was worried about us judging both Tori and her.

I shrugged and made sure to speak as though this was no big deal. “I’m fine with this Tori. I wish you were older too, but I guess under the circumstances this is reasonable. You’ll have to take care of your own urges. You only have a few more weeks and then you can have sex and vote, but usually not at the same time.” We all laughed, and I took that as a good sign that the tension had been broken.

Tori smiled and volunteered, “I have a helper that mom gave me a couple of years ago. His name is Bob, and it stands for ‘battery operated boyfriend.’ We love each other providing I have an unlimited source of D-cell batteries.”

I nodded and teased, “Very adult, and very legal.” I tried to avoid laughing. I turned to the adult women, “Can you make sure that everyone knows that Tori is off limits for sex at the villa but that she’s willing to be eye candy. That’ll be about the same as here in the condo, but she’ll be more in our midst at the villa. It still wouldn’t hurt if we were a little more private in our sexual exploits despite Tori’s admitted voyeuristic tendencies.”

Sheila acknowledged, “Consider it done.”

I insisted that Elsa fly pilot-in-command of the large Boeing 737-700, and I had John Morris, the head pilot for all Worthington Industries, fly as check pilot for her, both to give her confidence and to assess her skills as she came off the days after the crash less than a week earlier. He gave her an A+ rating after the flight in every aspect of her flying, including her attitude and acceptance about the various elements of the crash, which he’d grilled her on during the flight. She couldn’t have asked for more or a cleaner bill of health.

John left the plane and the rest of us at St. Croix, and took commercial flights back to the city. Cindy and Elsa would fly the 737 home at the end of our vacation week. He was also overseeing the repair work on the Cessna Citation in the repair facility at city airport.

Lucas had kept a 24/7 guard on the villa and kept caretakers there as well; he did bring some extra security on the plane. One of the things widely known in the Caribbean about nicer homes is that if the home isn’t guarded the possessions inside will soon disappear. If it’s in or part of the house and someone wants it, it’s gone.

As for personal security, Izzy’s kidnapping was still an evident concern, even though the men who did the crime were in jail and had an example made of them that was widely communicated around the island’s fifty thousand inhabitants via radio, television, and other media. Lucas still preferred that our bodyguards be close-by, but had acquiesced to the wishes of the others for invisible protection.

We had fun showing off the St. Croix villa to Tom, June, Kate, and Tori, who had not seen the large home before. Tom had seen the villa we’d previously rented, but not this one. There were a lot of oohs and aahs as the various features were shown.

Less than a half-hour after our mid-day arrival at the villa, nude bodies started to appear around the pool on the various chaises. Soon almost everyone was either tanning on the patio, in the pool, or down on the beach. The ability to swim outside at The Meadows was still at least two or three months away until spring became summer, and the water temperature in the river and pool moderated.

June and Kate appeared at my side looking quite fashionable. They were nude, but wore colorful gossamer sarongs around the lower half of their bodies that amplified their sexuality. I could see through June’s wrap to her womanhood. As I’d confirmed a week earlier, she had gorgeous breasts. She gave me a seductive grin and walked to one of the loungers beside the pool to sun.

Kate’s sarong was open in the front framing her pubic area and the tuft of hair she kept there to entice the audiences at Club Infinity.

I got kisses from Kate, “Wow! You’re beautiful, but what will Tori think?”

Kate grinned, “I think she’ll believe she has a pretty cool mom. She does know what I do for a living, you know. There aren’t many secrets between us, and my exotic dancing is not one of them.”

A voice from behind me said, “I do think my mom is cool and sexy, and she also has great friends and family.”

I turned as Tori slunk across the patio also similarly dressed in a gossamer sheath wrap covering her lower body – kind of. Her young breasts shimmied as she walked to join us.

Tori smiled coyly as she came up to me. She kissed me on the lips.

Kate smirked, “And I guess my daughter can be as arousing as I can. Isn’t she stunning ... ooooh, I’m glad you think so.” She surreptitiously rubbed one hand down the length of my tumescent shaft.