Chapter 13: A New Normal

Thursday

“So, what’s the plan for today?” asked Babs. She had called both Brenda and Liz and invited everybody to breakfast.

Liz shrugged. “More of the same. We’re just goofing off. We’ll probably just go down to the beach for the day.” Bob simply nodded along with his wife.

“How was your picnic? Was that last night?” asked Brenda.

“No, before that,” answered Bob. “Monday night.”

“And Tuesday morning,” added Liz, looking a little sheepish.

“Oh?”

Bob grinned and Liz said, “We fell asleep on the beach. We didn’t wake up until we heard the maintenance guys coming through with a sand buggy. It was kind of embarrassing, actually.”

Steve smiled. “Really? Tell us more!”

Liz blushed. “We weren’t actually dressed. Things got a little crazy before we fell asleep.”

The others all laughed at that. “From what I’ve seen, that’s pretty much par for the course on this island,” said Steve.

Babs nodded. “There’s three parts of the beach here. Here at the resort, it’s topless. Down past the sign it’s clothing optional. Keep going and you go around another little bend past some rocks, and that’s where it really gets crazy!”

“Crazy?” asked Brenda.

“Well, Tully and I are getting a little old for that kind of silliness, but down there it’s like party city. Not only is it nude, it’s anything goes, right there on the beach, with anybody and everybody watching and joining in.”

“Wow! Really?”

Tully nodded. “The first time I saw it, I was like ‘Holy-dooly! Not for me, mate!’ I’m a one-sheila sort of bloke! Babs looked like a stunned mullet when she saw what was up!”

Babs nodded along with her husband. “We’re not prudes, but down there’s an entirely different kettle o’fish. Tully keeps me well-rooted just fine all by himself.” She reached over, patted him on the back of the hand, and smiled.

Steve looked at his wife as he tried to decipher the language. “Want to go down to the end of the beach and check on the biology there?” he asked.

Brenda’s eyes popped open wide. “Not on your life! What in the...” She stopped when she realized he was teasing her, and the others just laughed. “Sure, Steve, go on down there. Just don’t expect me to refrain from sampling the rest of the biology when we go!”

“So, today? Your schedule, not down the beach, I mean.” asked Liz.

“I’m finishing my research. I’ve got another site I want to visit, and then I’ll be back after lunch,” said Steve.

“And I want to do a little more shopping and work on my tan,” said Brenda. “We’re going home on Sunday. Friday and Saturday are just vacation, no more work.”

“We’re leaving Saturday,” said Bob.

“Friday night we’re going to the Ha’aina Male’ Experience,” said Babs.

“The what?” asked Liz.

“The Ha’aina Male’ Experience. It’s a recreation of the islands’ origin story, sort of a mythical history of the islands. It’s a lot of fun, but it runs pretty late. You probably won’t get back until very late Friday night. Certainly, not until well after midnight.”

“Then, no, we’ll need to pack and get some sleep. Maybe some other time. This place is pretty neat. I can see us coming back here for a vacation in the future.”

Bob laughed. “We can leave Junior with your parents and come back by ourselves, maybe head all the way down to the end of the beach.”

Liz giggled. “Wow! Aren’t you the adventurous one! Who are you and what have you done with my husband?”

Babs looked over at the Olivers. “Friday night? I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.” Tully smiled and nodded with that sentiment.

Steve and Brenda looked at each other and shrugged. “Sure, why not,” she said. “What are you up to today?”

“Not much. Probably go down the beach and work on our tans, and then go back to the room and work on something else. This place is pretty good for that sort of thing.” The others all laughed at that.

After breakfast, the three couples split up, heading back to their rooms to prepare for the day. Both the Cramers and the Winstons put on swimsuits, packed beach bags, and headed down to the beach. The Olivers had a different plan. Steve dressed in what Brenda called his ‘ Indiana Jones outfit’, khakis, long-sleeved work shirt, and boots. Brenda dressed much more casually, in a knee-length skirt, t-shirt, and flat sandals - and nothing else. “Definitely liking the look, Bren. Want to wish me luck, you know, a special way? Some motivation, as it were?”

Brenda simply laughed. “We start doing that, neither of us will get anything accomplished! Later, after you get back. No motivation, but maybe some congratulations.” Steve gave her a theatrical pout at that.

Once ready, they left their room and walked hand-in-hand down the hall to the elevator bank. In the lobby, Steve asked, “Want me to give you a lift into town?”

Just as he asked, the shuttle bus turned into the driveway. “No, I’m good. You do your thing and I’ll take the shuttle into town. When do you think you’ll be back?”

Steve shrugged. “Early afternoon, maybe two or so.”

“Too late for lunch. I’ll grab something in town. Have fun and take care.” She stood on her toes to give her husband a quick kiss and went out to the shuttle. Steve needed a few minutes to sort out his equipment, and then headed out for some final samples. What he had been learning over the last few days had him curious, and he wanted to check some more spots for lava lava flowers and puka puka plants.

Brenda didn’t give another thought to botany after waving goodbye to her husband. She rode into Haka Nuva on the shuttle and then walked around for a bit. She came across a new store and something she saw in the front picture window made her curious. She went inside and began walking slowly through. While it had the requisite touristy t-shirts and souvenirs, it had some items which she hadn’t really given much thought to earlier in the week.

Brenda’s attention was drawn to a rack of fancy dresses. She’d already picked up the casual clothing she wanted, but these were dresses that were suitable for an intimate dinner or a nightclub, not that she and Steve did that any longer. She realized they hadn’t gone clubbing since before Heather had been born. Would Steve even want her to wear something like what she was looking at? Or was he an old stick-in-the-mud married man, just like she was an old married woman? She wondered if she and Steve could keep the magic alive like the Winstons had?

Brenda left the store without buying anything. She looked into a few more but did not enter those that sold nothing but t-shirts and beach towels. Some had other clothing, from swimsuits and beach cover-ups up to skirts, tops, and dresses. She thought about what Steve had said about a fantasy outfit for her, something halter-topped and very small. She shook her head at that thought, but it kept coming back to her as she looked at some of the dresses. Then she saw a small dress in white linen. It was halter-topped and was barely mid-thigh length. She took the hanger off the rack and held it up against her in the mirror, and blushed bright red and put it back. No way could she ever wear something that small! Still, every few minutes as she walked through the shop, her eyes kept stealing back to the dress. The idea was ridiculous, though. After circling the rack several times, she finally succumbed and picked it up. She could barely meet the salesgirl’s eyes as she laid it on the counter and opened her purse for a credit card.

She picked up a few more items at another store, and then had lunch at a small open-air seafood place near the beach. After that, Brenda took her packages back to the resort. Steve still wasn’t back, so she opened the bags and dumped everything on the bed. She blushed again at the purchases. In addition to the linen mini-dress, Brenda had picked up a calf-length wrap dress that was sheer and dipped very low between her breasts; underwear would be impossible! She hung the two dresses in the closet and then looked at her other items. One was a large tube of Island Delight Lotion. She had to agree with Babs that it was the best suntan lotion she had ever used. After less than a week in the tropical sun she had lost her tan lines and hadn’t burned. The other item made her blush. She had picked it up in one of the more risqué shops, one which had several bins with different size puka puka roots. She had purchased a short and stubby root with a wide barrel, a narrow base, and then a wide flare at the bottom. The bin had been labeled ‘Back Door Locks - Just give him the key!’

Ever since the afternoon Steve had surprised her with a sensual massage followed by anal sex, Brenda couldn’t help but wonder whether she would go through with it again. She still had some typical hang-ups, but it had certainly been enjoyable. She had snuck onto Steve’s laptop at one point to google ‘anal sex’ and found some sites that she clicked on. The thing that kept being mentioned was the need for some preparation. She took the final item from her morning’s purchases, a home enema kit, and headed into the bathroom. She wanted to get ready for when Steve returned, but she didn’t want him around while she prepped. She had never done anything like this before and wasn’t sure if she would get it right.

Steve drove back to the resort as intrigued as when he had left. He had stopped at several locations, and it seemed clear that thelava lava orchids had a symbiotic relationship with the puka puka plant. They only grew together, and never apart, but the specific link was not clear. Like many orchids, the lava lava plant was a vine that grew along the ground and climbed almost any tree or plant, including the stalks of the puka puka plant. In his sampling trips on the other islands, he had seen neither lava lava plants nor puka puka plants. All the flowers and roots, which were common elements in the Maltesano Island culture, had been shipped from Haka Nuva; they were the island’s only export. More accurately, they were two of the island’s three exports, the third being raw puka puka oil, which was shipped to Maltesano, where a local factory mixed the oil with palm and coconut oils and created the Island Delight brand of suntan lotion and massage oils.

Another factor also nagged at the scientist. Put bluntly, his sex drive had been increasing for weeks, as had his wife’s. Both he and Brenda had enjoyed their physical relationship, but ever since they had landed in the Maltesanos it had been increasing. Now, on Haka Nuva, it seemed to have gone into overdrive! He knew, intellectually, that he and his wife weren’t love-struck and horny teenagers any longer. He was forty and she was thirty-nine. Their regular sex life was a combination of oral and straight sex every other day, or maybe both days on a weekend. They still had a lot of passion and tried to get away together for parents’ only vacations when they could, and they had a little more sex then, once in the morning or during the day, and once at night.

Ever since they got to the Maltesanos, things had amped up tremendously. Twice a day had been a minimum on the other islands. On Haka Nuva itself, it was at least three or four times a day! If anything, the pace was increasing! It was now once or twice just in the morning, before even getting out of bed, another one or two during the day, and then another couple of times at night. It wasn’t just when they got back to their room, either. They were fooling around down in the Clothing Optional section of the beach, sometimes in the water and sometimes up in the jungle. They were doing things and talking about things that would never have made it to the table before. Talking about their fantasies? Anal? Topless and nude sunbathing? They just didn’t do those sorts of things back home!

Could one thing have something to do with the other? Could the local botany, so distinct to the islands, have something to do with sex? Or was it the fact that the local population seemed to spend so much time fooling around, and their behavior rubbed off on everybody else? Or was there some sort of third factor involved? He just didn’t know. More than anything else, he wondered what research, if any, had been done at the University of Maltesano on the lava lava and puka puka plants.

When he returned to the resort, he grabbed his gear and headed directly to the elevators. He was feeling tired, sweaty, and dirty; he needed a shower, a cold drink, and a nap. Hopefully, Brenda would be there to help with all three items. He let himself into the room and dropped his stuff on the table in the corner. The room was empty, but then he noticed the patio door was open, and his wife was sitting out on the patio. He went to the door and found her sitting on a chair, topless, and reading a book. “I love the view from up here,” he commented.

“Oh, hi, honey. Yes, it really is nice, isn’t it?” she replied, setting her book down and looking out at the ocean.

“Absolutely, and the scenery is nice, too,” he replied.

Brenda blushed and rolled her eyes. “Very funny.” She looked at him closely. “What in the world have you been up to? I thought you got those samples on top of the dirt. “What’d you do, decide to push them up from below?” Steve was very dirty.

“Ha ha! No, I collected them the normal way. I just managed to fall on my ass about three times.”