Chapter 64: The Honeymoon Vacation! Part 7

Where There’s a Will There’s a Way!

July, 1985

[I thought Greg was going to shit a brick when he saw me stuffing my face in epicurean ecstasy! “Un-freaking-believable! Charlie, you’re INCORRIGIBLE!”]

It only got worse, when Mike saw it and said, “Wow, that looks delicious! CJ, you the MAN. Can I get one of those?”

Greg just rolled his eyes, “Ughhh. If ya can’t beat ‘em, may as well join him.” And he got one too.

Our entire family group from last night sat down together for breakfast.

Looking around, I began realizing that many of the boat crew were pretty close to the island crew. Tom, Allie, John and Jackie were sitting with Roberto, Mei Lee, Hector, Lanie, Manny and Kiki. They were all giving each other shit and laughing and joking around.

Jose, Henrique, Keiko and Molly were in the kitchen as were Tammy and CJ.

Ray, Iris, Mom, Dad, Sam, Melissa, Stan, Adam, Lori and Melody were sitting together and seemed to be having a serious, but good natured conversation.

Ed, Gracie, Bill, Sally, Emmy, Lanie, Miguel, Leah, Brandy, Bobbi and Arnold were also sitting together. They all appeared to be comfortable with each other and cheerfully chatting away.

Even though there seemed to be some hard feelings yesterday, there was no sign of any real animosity now.

I couldn’t help but ‘eavesdrop’ on Dad and Iris. I was very curious on what they were talking about.

I wasn’t the only one. Jessica, Mary, Jamie and Linda were ‘in there’ as well.

Sam, Melissa, Adam and Lori got up and went somewhere and Iris was giving us the ‘come-hither’ signal with her finger.

Dad, Stan, Melody and Iris were grinning. I took that as a good sign. Jessica and Mikey were as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof. Jessica was nearly hyperventilating.

“Time to put on your ‘Big-girl’ panties, baby. Do you know what you want to do?” I flashed.

She let out a long breath, “Yes, but I’m afraid it won’t happen!?”

Mike solemnly promised, “I’m right here with you my sweet angel. They’re NOT going to take you away from me, no matter what. Even if I have to go home and live with my parents. I’m NEVER leaving you, Jessie!” Jessica was nearly in tears.

I noticed Iris winking at me and grinning. Stan had put two large tables together and we all sat down.

Mike had Jessica’s hand in a loving death grip.

Stan looked directly at Jessica, “First things first. Jessica, Melody tells me that you’ve been hanging out with her crew for most of this cruise. She also says you’d be a natural for her crew. Would you like to join them?”

Jessica gasped, and was nodding her head, but looking intently at her mom and dad. Iris was trying to hold back a smile, but Ray was just looking at her, stoically.

“Yes! More than anything in my life!” She was smiling, but seeing the look on her dad’s face, brought her down some.

Stan cleared his throat. ‘Okay. I already know that Melody and her crew would welcome you with open arms. There ARE two problems with that, however ... one, you haven’t graduated High School yet and two, you’re only 17. You can’t be on my crew without a High School diploma. That’s non-negotiable. AND, since you’re not yet 18 years old, you’d have to have BOTH of your parent’s signatures, saying that you had their permission.”

I saw her shoulders slump in defeat. She was looking at Mike, Iris, Ray and Stan, nervously, but, hopefully. Mike cut in, “I’d like to go back...”

Stan stopped him, and Mike looked upset. “Mike, before you say something you might regret, let me remind you, we ALSO have an UNWRITTEN rule, that no crew member can be in a committed relationship with another crew member! I KNOW there are relationships among several other members of the crew. I overlook that, as long as their relationship doesn’t get in the way of them doing their jobs. Are YOU going to have a problem with Jessica being with our guests, even though you’re in love with her? Jealousy can be very destructive if it gets in the way of you two doing your jobs.”

Mike was shaking his head, “Sir, I’ve been ‘in love’ with Melody since before I started working here, you know that.” He was blushing and Stan was grinning, choking back a chuckle.

“That never got in the way before. Yes, I think Jessie is much more than a lover, but, we’ve talked about it. We both know that sex and love and ‘being in love’ are totally different things. Her beliefs are even stronger about that than mine! That’s why I KNOW she’s my soulmate. I can assure you, sir, that jealousy won’t EVER be a problem. That’s not the way we roll.”

Stan smiled and looked at Jessica, “And do you agree with what he just said?”

She put on a tight smile, “Yes! Yes, I do. Before I even met Mike, the whole family, Charlie, Bob, and Sis explained to me about ‘Inclusive Love’. I’d never heard that before, but, I know how Sis feels about Bob and everyone else and THAT is how I feel, too! I’m not sure why, but I need a lot of sexual relief. Just like Mike does. And, just like my family here, (she was pointing at my family) I love making love to anyone who isn’t afraid to love me back. I also just enjoy having sex with people who I know are clean and won’t give me any diseases. I REALLY want this job, because, well, it’s what would give me the most satisfaction. Everyone says you should find a job doing something you love. Well, I LOVE THIS.”

Stan was smiling, Iris was nearly giggling and even Ray was now trying not to smile, but failing miserably. Stan asked, “Iris, Ray, do you have some questions for these two?”

Iris said, “Jessica, I know how frustrated you’ve been for the last few years. The maturity you’ve shown by NOT getting sexually involved with anyone until you turned 17 has been admirable. I don’t want to see my baby leaving home and your dad feels the same way. But, we also know that you’d never be happy doing what everyone considers a normal type job, either. Seeing how happy you’ve been here with Melody, Mike and the whole crew has done a lot to sway my position on this. IF, and it’s a big if, you can get your High School diploma; I think we could sign the waiver for you. I DON’T mean a GED, but a real diploma. Are you willing to do whatever that might require?”

Jessica was shedding tears of joy, “Yes Mom. I’ll do ANYTHING I have to do. But, how can I do that? It’s too late for summer school.”

Ray could have knocked me over with a feather. “Well, Jess, it seems that your principal just so happens to be one of my golfing buddies. There’s still more than a month before school starts. Let me see if I can’t get you the two books for your classes and if you can read them and study on your own, maybe he can test you out of them? You might need some help, but Stan says he might have just the thing for that. Stan?”

Stan was biting his lip, but, grinning. “Yes, I might. Charlie wants to see my Sanctuary Island for the orphans I’ve managed to collect over the years. I want you and Mike to go with us. I have several teachers who can supervise your studies and give you tests, to ensure your progress.

“The yacht is going to be dry-docked for almost a week after we get it back to Miami so the hull and keel can get properly repaired. I want you to go home, get your school stuff together and ship some clothes and other personal items to the address I gave your parents. I’ll even let Mike go with you to help. Will you be willing to bust your ass to study and pass the test?”

“YES! I’ll make you and my parents proud.”

Mike grinned, “And I’ll be on her sweet little ass to make sure she gets it done, too! I promise.” Jessica was now squeezing the life out of him with a hug.

Stan smiled, “Okay, then, as of right now, you are on temporary probation as one of my crew! As soon as you pass the test, you’ll be off probation and welcomed as our second newest employee.”

Jessica’s eyebrows furled, “Second newest?”

“Yes, Tammy asked me last night if she could apply for a job. It seems SHE has a bit of a thing going with CJ. I thought she was going to faint when I told her what the salary was. She’d asked if it was per month, and I told her, it was per WEEK.” Once we get everything settled, we’ll have a celebration and formally get you two on the payroll.”

Iris asked, “Um, just what will Jessica be getting?”

Stan grinned, “$750.”

“Per month?” Iris asked, incredulously.

Stan shook his head, “Oh no, that’s per week.”

Iris gasped, “Holy moly, Ray, sweetheart, I may have to apply!”

Ray could only shake his head, “No shit! That’s more than I make. You need a couple more?” He said chuckling.

Stan chuckled, “And with tips, it could nearly double.”

Everybody’s eyes nearly bugged out of their heads.

Melody said, “Yes, any tips handed directly to the person, are theirs. Then, if someone just says it’s for the cruise, it’s divvied up between everyone. There are several groups that have tipped $3000, plus given out individual tips on top of that. With the new skills my crew has learned from Charlie and his friends, well, let’s just say many of our clients are going to be VERY impressed and SUPER happy!”

Mike said, “I claimed over $100,000 on my taxes last year and I only claimed half of my tips. I make a bit more than Jessica, but I’ve had 6 raises too. Jessica will be getting those too, eventually. We DO have to claim what Stan provides for room and board. We all live in a small apartment complex in Miami. Stan doesn’t charge us any rent, so we have to claim the value on our taxes. That’s so Stan can write it off. Stan DOES pay for our tax preparer too.”

Stan added, “They don’t get a lot of time off, however. I shut down for two weeks over Christmas, as well as for a week in the late spring. Besides that, it’s a few days here and there between cruises. Sometimes cruises are back to back, with just a day in between to get the boat ready for the next cruise. That’s when they usually stay in the apartments, to give their ‘sea legs’ a chance to get back to normal. They also do the most physical work then. Bringing on supplies is hard work and everyone has to help. We have a local crew who cleans and polishes the boat, does the laundry and things like that. They only get ten bucks an hour and it’s just piece work.”

Stan then had us get dressed for our trip over to the other island. We took his hydrofoil, as the water was very shallow. The water was crystal clear and we could see the coral reefs and fish quite clearly. The Sanctuary Island could be seen from the docks and we could almost have just swum over. It was about ¾ of a mile away. It was Stan, Iris, Mom, Bob, Linda, Greg, Jessica, Mike and me. Mary and Jamie had already been there and Greg went just so we could talk about a few things he wanted to discuss.

When we disembarked, it looked like a small village. Stan said there were currently 25 kids, between 3 and 18 years old. The youngest were children of the teachers. Jennifer was the head teacher and the mother of a 5-year-old boy. She greeted us and gave us the history of the place.

She told us how Stan bought the island at the same time he bought the big island, seven years ago. It was thought this island was uninhabited. It wasn’t. When Stan was building the structures on the resort island, he took a canoe over to check out this island. That’s when he discovered several homemade shelters with one 35-year-old lady and her 5 kids. Her kids were 8. 9, 11, 13 and 15, all girls except the 13-year-old. They had been kidnapped and managed to escape overboard in the middle of the night, undetected. She saw the trees and took a chance, knowing her kids were good swimmers. She explained to Stan they were only about 300 yards away when they jumped ship.

Stan offered to get her home, but she begged him to just let her stay. She was from an island near the Azores and she didn’t want to go back. She volunteered to work for him, sleep with him, or anything else, if he’d just let her and her kids live there. The island had banana, orange, lemon, coconut and lime trees. She only needed fishing equipment and she could survive forever. Well, that and water. She had been collecting rain and dew for drinking. Stan felt for her and built her a couple small buildings, had a very deep well dug and gave her seeds to plant a garden. Her name was Bonita and her kids were Amy, Maria, Molly, Pablo and Kiki, youngest to oldest. I raised my eyebrows, figuring the ‘Molly and Kiki’ from the other island were one and the same. Stan smiled, then had Bonita explain.

She told us how Stan never tried to hit on her for sex. He let her and her kids work on the island, doing maintenance, sweeping floors, tending the huge garden and other chores for money. Bonita would sometimes cook on the island, bringing her kids, when ‘guests’ weren’t there.

Two years later, when Roberto was hired, he told Stan of the plight of some people he knew in Mexico, who were villagers on the Yucatan peninsula. The drug cartels were using the villagers as slave labor and raping the women and children. Stan offered to help and Roberto contacted his brothers, Manny and Hector. They gathered over 30 women and children and they made plans to escape.

Stan had his first yacht, a 55-foot motor launch and waited just off shore, where Roberto told him. Manny and Hector showed up with 50 people! They made 6 trips with a large rowboat and when Manny and Hector got aboard, they took off. There were a total of 7 men, 12 women, 22 girls and 9 boys. Roberto, Manny and Hector among them.

It was very crowded, but they managed to get away clean and the cartels had no idea where they’d vanished to. One of the women, Juanita, was a school teacher and was bilingual. That’s when Stan got the idea to start a school and had several more, bigger buildings built. The villagers were mostly farmers and ranch hands and were more than eager to work the garden, (which morphed into a farm) tend the cattle and chickens and half of Stan’s bigger island became a working farm. Over time, many of the refugees became American citizens and moved to Florida.

Stan created the rest of his big island, to use as a port for his ‘swinger’ cruises.

Lanie was one of the older girls who had been rescued. Bonita explained to us that Stan was NOT happy when he learned that many of his farmers had been working the swinger scene on the side. The ‘oriental’ girls, Mei Lee, Leah and Keiko were all from Hawaii and had been hired to be the swingers ‘companions’. Lanie and the boys had snuck over on their own. The original supervisor of the entertainment allowed the guys to participate, when one group of swingers had an unusually high percentage of women, (HORNY WOMEN) and begged to ask Roberto, Henrique, Hector, Manny, Jose and Juan to participate. What group of horny 17 to 25-year-old guys would have said no?

(My main concern, previously, was whether or not Stan coerced the young women into participating.) Lanie assured me, that she and Kiki, after finding out what was going on over on the big island, begged to be allowed to participate too. A couple years later, Molly joined them

Subsequently, they were all tested for VD and found to be clean.

Stan told us that, at one point, the Coast Guard had checked him out. Upon finding what he was doing to be honorable, they had dropped off several more girls over the last few years, who had been rescued from pirates. The Coast Guard was glad to have a safe place to deposit children, who weren’t American citizens. He also picked up a couple more adults to be teachers and consultants/counselors for the kids.

As surreptitiously as I could, I touched a few of the adults and kids to verify everything I’d been told. They were all affirming that Stan was a good and honorable man. They were all confirming that the young girls were just naturally curious and eager to explore sex. (I guess, someone seeing Jessica, might wonder the same thing I was.) The kids, (girls and boys) were all given an extensive sex education and the girls were put on birth control, usually the IUD, shortly after their first periods.

Jennifer and Bonita introduced us to Juanita and a short stocky guy who they called Conrad. Conrad was the general education teacher and was one of Stan’s guests, who took an interest and stayed on the island as an employee. He was going to be Jessica’s tutor. He took her inside the school building, where many kids were hard at it, studying everything under the sun. He was using an education plan, set up specially for home schooled children.

He opened a catalog, where Jessica identified the two books she was sure her school was using for Economics and Social Studies. Conrad told us they were the most commonly used texts and if she couldn’t get a copy from her school, she could borrow one of his.

He did something that I found curious. He pulled out a final exam for both classes and told Jessica to do the best she could. He explained that while she probably wouldn’t pass, it would identify which parts of the texts she needed to study and give her an overall idea of what was involved.

While she was taking the test, he told us what she was taking was a standardized test that the federal government was trying to get all High School Seniors to take. Illinois wasn’t using them, so she wouldn’t be cheating, if he allowed her to keep it after he corrected it and made notes on it.

He told us that Florida DID use the standardized test and that’s where his current class would test to get their diplomas. He assured us that 95% of his students passed their tests and received diplomas.

Jessica was definitely smart. She scored 77 on the Economics test and 82 on the Social Studies. In Florida, that would be a C+ and a B-. 70 was passing. She did that without ever reading the book! He told her, as a tip, to write down the quiz questions in the back of each chapter, then, to answer them while reading the chapter.

That was another very interesting idea. He felt confident that the Illinois schools probably took their final exam directly from those questions.

There was one thing I had to wonder about. I noticed a bunch of younger kids down on the beach swimming and playing volleyball. Nothing unusual, EXCEPT that they were all nude! The kids I saw in school all had shorts and t-shirts on. I had to ask. “Bonita, why are those kids down by the beach all naked?”

She smiled, “They’re in P.E. class. We are very progressive here. You see, our students are divided up, not by age, but by whether they’ve reached puberty or not. We keep them segregated by that. We all feel that the human body is not something to be ashamed of. We’ve considered having everyone always be nude, but, our building isn’t adequate to keep the prepubescent and post pubescent kids totally separated. So, we decided to just go nude for P.E. and health/sex education classes. Those ARE segregated, mostly because the younger kids might be more inhibited with the older ones around. We’ve found that by introducing them to nudity as a routine event, they can become accustomed to seeing themselves as normal, with or without clothes.

“I know the Bible thumpers back home would freak out”, she said, “but, for some of them, sex would be outlawed altogether and reproduction would be limited to hospitals and test tubes!

“That’s bullshit and studies show that a healthy attitude toward nudity lets kids explore each other without shame or guilt. They are taught that touching is allowed, but only when permission is given first. No means no! By exposing kids to nudity early, we’ve found that at certain ages, they simply lose the ‘forbidden fruit’ aspect of nudity. They don’t see each other as any different, clothed or nude. By using this method early, as they reach puberty, they don’t go through that shy, timidity that many American children do. They experience a slight bit of that when they go from one age group to the next, but it goes away quickly.”

Just then, the girls that we rescued came running out. Karina came running to me and hugged me tightly. “You are hero, to me. Do you live on island?” She was pointing to the resort.

“No, little one, I’m just visiting. You speak English pretty good for only 3 days!”

“Thank you! Miss Viktoriya teaches me much. I like her.” With that she ran over, to give Linda a hug.

A tall brunette came up to me, “Hi, I’m Viktoriya. Karina is a very good student. She wants to learn so bad. You must be her hero! You’re the only one she’s hugged that I’ve seen.”

“I just found her and seven other girls chained to the floor of a pirate ship. My friends here were just as much her heroes as I was.” I was pointing to Bob, Linda and Greg.

“Yes, but, you were the one she spoke about. Do you know Russian?”

“No, not a word.”

Viktoriya looked confused, “Oh? Why did she say you could understand her?”

Greg was smirking, “Well, he used the Vulcan mind meld on her!?”

She giggled,” Like Mr. Spook? I’ve seen Star Trek!”

Bob laughed, “Yeah, he can be spooky alright!”

Viktoriya was giving me the Spock crooked eyebrow thing. “How does THAT work?”

I put my hand on her cheek, “To answer your next question, I’m not crazy and yes, I’d like to know you better too! Ahh, maybe just like Stan?”

She was blushing and looking at Stan, stunned. “How did you know that? I was just thinking it, but I KNOW I didn’t say it!?” She was pointing at Bob. “That IS how he say, ... spooky!”

Mike had been watching, “Charlie is a remarkable guy.” He was looking into her eyes. “Yes, he might be able to teach you too. If you need it, I won’t be far away either, maybe I can help?”

Viktoriya was nodding at him, looking stunned, but no more than I was! He had read her mind AND communicated back to her! She had been wondering if I could teach her. HE told her he might be able to help with other kids who only knew a language that no other teachers knew. HE never even touched her and never said a word! Now I was wondering just how much Mikey had ‘learned’ during our intense session! Everyone else too, for that matter.

Bob, Greg and Linda were wondering the same thing, also looking at me, dumbfounded. Suddenly, Greg looked like he was seven feet tall. Oh, wow, he was floating a foot in the air!

“Down boy! We’ve gotta find some secluded spot and check this out.”

Greg landed, staggering slightly, “YES! YES! I can do it! Wow, I wonder if I can move things too.”

Then I noticed a trash can floating. “COOL IT, BUDDY! I know you’re like a kid with a new toy, but ... get a grip!”

Greg ran over and hugged a VERY surprised Mikey. I chuckled, “What the hell are you hugging HIM for?”

“Shit, Charlie! Don’t you see? You’re a catalyst and I can amplify power, but, Mikey is like a high powered catalytic amplifier! We supercharged the fucker!”

“HUH? SAY WHAT? Have YOU been drinking?” I was giving him a stern, bewildered look.

I saw him pinching his thigh, trying not to laugh. “Jeez! We gotta get back so we can talk and check this out ... I wonder what else we can all do?”

“Okay, lets wind things up here and get back, just get ahold of yourself. PLEASE?”

The fucker grabbed his crotch and snickered at me. “Better?”

“Aaargh!” I could only close my eyes and shake my head. I saw Viktoriya, Stan and Bonita looking VERY confused. “Never mind my friends, we can get a little goofy sometimes!” I told them.

We told everyone how we were impressed with everything they were doing and bid Viktoriya and Bonita farewell.

Then we headed back for Stan’s boat, post-haste.

***

We arrived back at the resort shortly before lunch. Most of the gang was down at the beach, snuba diving or just catching some rays. Dan, Ted, John, and Jose, Miguel and Hector had a hot poker game going in the bar/dance area.

I flashed Dad, Sarah, Mary and Jamie, who were on the windward side of the island (West side in our case) and told them we were getting together on the leeward beach. There wasn’t anyone around and we wanted to check out our skills and see what had changed. Dad seemed intrigued with the idea, not fully understanding what we had done to enhance our abilities.

As the four of them were walking over, I flashed Dad all about our ‘training’ of Mike and how it had turned out. He freaked, when Greg told him he could now fly and move things. He really freaked when Mike flashed that he could read minds and even project thoughts to others who had no ability whatsoever!

My first concern was, now that so many people could communicate with us, how could we be sure they wouldn’t hear us now? I felt our new discoveries would lead, for instance, to Bill wanting more abilities. Or Melody, or Iris, etc.

Mikey surprised me, “I know I’m kind of new to this, but I thought about that when I wanted to talk to Jessie without Melody overhearing us. I get a picture of Jessica in my head and I draw a line to it. Then when I talked to Jessica, she’s the only one that hears me, at least I think that’s how it works for me.”

I saw him close his eyes, then after a few seconds opened them. Then he said, “I’m pretty sure, right now, the only ones who can hear us are all right here. This may sound weird, but when somebody talks to me, you know silently, I can see a picture of them. Right now the only pictures I see are just us.”

I closed my eyes, thinking about what Mike just said. I only saw pictures of the ten of us. I encouraged everyone else to try the same thing. After a minute, everyone was nodding their heads saying they were also sure our conversations were just between us. I wanted to do a test. I picked Jamie and told her to picture just her and I with a line between us. She nodded and I told everyone else to try to see if they could tell what we were talking about.

I flashed Jamie, “Now you and I can make love and Greg and Mary will never know!”

She giggled, “Yeah and we can fuck the hell out of each other and no one will be the wiser!”

We were both looking at Greg and Mary, knowing if they heard they would at least giggle at us. No response. I asked everyone if they heard what we had said. They were all shaking their heads and said they had no idea. We had everyone give it a try. That mental plan worked flawlessly, with everyone.

This would solve a lot of problems with eavesdropping. Mary wasn’t very happy with me as she was used to being in my head all the time. We experimented with several different things, since there were times when we wanted everyone to hear.

We also discovered that when we communicated with each other without using the pictures, it was just like before and everyone could hear. We coined a new phrase, ‘all in’ to summon just our 10 with open communication between us.

Now that we were sure we were alone, dad suggested that everyone try to fly. Within seconds, all of us except dad were hovering out over the water. The new ‘pilots’, which consisted of Greg, Jamie, Mary, Sarah, Jessica and Mike, were cautiously soaring around, gradually, getting used to their new abilities.

When Dad flashed, “Well, don’t I feel like the Lone Stranger down here!”, all the newbies started laughing and immediately splashed-down into the water. They got their first lesson that they needed to concentrate until they had a few more ‘sky-miles’ under their belts.

We’d been flying around for about 10 minutes when I had a picture in my head of Mary, Sarah and myself. Sarah flashed, “Charlie, Mary and I think you guys need to give your dad the power of flight. Look at all he’s done for us. He would never beg you, so Mary and I are doing it on his behalf. Please?”

I called an ‘all in’ and said it was time to land and talk some more. I decided to practice closed communication and pictured Mike and Greg and asked them what they thought about helping me to enhance Dad, so he could fly. They were cool with the idea. Greg actually admitted that Jamie, Mary and Sarah had all been lobbying him to bring it up if I hadn’t. I wasn’t the only one practicing closed communications.

Bob decided to join us and the four of us surrounded Dad. We must’ve looked like a gay convention, or a circle jerk, with Dad as the pivot man! I didn’t even have to tell him to look into my eyes. We all locked arms and, with Dad grinning like a kid on Christmas day, I pushed him, hard, telling him he now had the ability of flight and psychokinesis!

We’d no more than just pulled away from him when he rocketed skyward. He made a few passes out over the water, even doing a loop the loop and a barrel roll, before coming back and landing right next to us. He ran over and gave Sarah and Mary a very ‘non-daddy-like’ kiss, then looked at all of us. “Y’all can expect a little something extra in your stockings this year at Christmastime! Thanks guys, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”

We were all pretty thirsty, so we went back to the bar to get something to drink. On the way, I delved into my mind enabling Mary to ‘eavesdrop’ on me the way she always had. The only thing I added, was I’d see her picture when she was in there! By the time we reached the bar I heard, “Thank you, Sugar Bear. I love you and I promise not to abuse the privilege of your trust.”