Chapter 17: The Girlfriend

Rachel and I didn’t come down for dinner, so Archara sent us up something, but we never got around to tasting it. Instead, Rachel had finally tasted the forbidden fruit of sexual intercourse. After our second time, I demonstrated my healing powers and she was ‘game on’ from there. Our sessions of love making were interspersed with dialogue, as she explained how she had avoided sex throughout college and her two years working for the General, having buried herself in her work, while hiding from guys behind the convenient shield that was General Botello. I was right in that she thought that Spanish guys were ego-driven misogynists, but it turned out that I was wrong about her age, as I would discover later.

Finally, we climbed in the large shower and gently washed each other. She claimed that my healing had done well for her, but I was wiped out from all our exertions. Then we went back out on the owner’s private cockpit and wrapped ourselves in blankets and talked as I healed myself.

Rachel told me more of growing up in a commune, and some of the characters that lived there. She talked fondly of her father, yet I could tell that something kept her from proclaiming her love for him. I surmised from our conversations that Rachel had a strong sense of nurturing with just a small streak of rebellion. She even told me a little about his other two wives, one of them younger than she was.

In each of her relationships she described, she was the caregiver. The one who looked out for others. It was at her insistence that their mother removed all three daughters from the commune life and when she spoke of General Botello, it was with an eye towards protecting him. Almost worshiping him.

I also surmised, either by instinct or intuition, that she had been searching for the right man to give herself to for some time. And when she found that person, she would give herself completely, holding nothing back. I wasn’t sure how to handle that. At nineteen, I had already loved and lost, and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to go down that road again so soon.

But Rachel kept saying that she would accept whatever I was willing to give and she was willing to wait on me. Just as long as she could stay near me.

She also told me that I was free to continue my relationships with the other girls on board. She said that she understood what their parents were talking about in allowing them to explore their sexual natures without the danger of falling in love or getting hurt.

She was, by far, the most complex woman I had ever met and I barely understood where she was coming from. But I thought that she was dynamite in bed, even with so little experience, and that she was a joy to be around.

Around midnight, we went down to the galley and scrounged up something to eat. Then we went back to my stateroom and made love one more time before we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Wednesday morning, I left Rachel asleep and went to the bridge to finally began learning to how to handle my Bering 120.

Admiral Craig was manning the bridge and immediately began teaching me all the basics. A lot of it I already knew from previous passages, but there was much I didn’t know. After I had the basics down, he left the bridge, telling me that he would return to answer my questions.

I didn’t really think any serious questions would come up, but in less than an hour, I was already wishing him to return. But it was Captain Alfred that returned and I spent the rest of the morning asking more and more complex questions. This wasn’t like taking apart and re-assembling the watermaker or changing the engine oil. I had begun to see the complexity of how all the systems meshed together and how to manipulate those systems to get peak performance from the boat, such as running at cruising speed on one engine or how the inverters worked.

Late in the afternoon, Captain Alfred sent me to eat and rest. He instructed me to be back at ten o’clock that night.

When I returned to the bridge at ten that night, Captain Tony began my navigation training and introduced me to celestial navigation.

Finally, about two in the morning, he sent me to bed with instructions to return at nine in the morning. Rachel was in my bed when I got there, but she was sound asleep, so I didn’t wake her.

Thursday morning she was already up and gone when I made my way back to the bridge. That pattern continued until Saturday morning when, after dressing, I steered us into the marina at Funchal. And after filling the fuel tanks, I docked her alongside Pier 7, shut down the engine and then headed to the galley for a late breakfast.

Rachel was sitting there with Anna. Everyone else was getting ready to go ashore for some shopping. Our plans were to anchor here for a few days, and then when we were ready, to take off across the Atlantic for Nassau.

“Why don’t you ask him?” Rachel said to Anna as I sat down to eat some fruit and toast.

“Are you really sure you don’t mind?” Anna asked Rachel.

Rachel turned to me and said, “Anna’s has been feeling a little sad and she thinks that some time with you would make her feel better.”

I looked at Rachel as if to ask if she was sure. She just nodded her head towards Anna. I smiled and said that I thought it would be great.

Anna looked at Rachel and said, “Oh! Thank you!”

“Just be sure I get ALL the details later!” Rachel said as she rose, hugged the girl and then left the salon.

“I think your new girlfriend is so-o-o nice!” Anna gushed.

I did a double take as I realized the description our relationship had taken on. I was going to have to have Archara, or god-forbid, my mother, set me straight later.

“Would you like to go to my cabin?” I asked.

“Let’s go to mine,” she replied. “That’s where the baby oil is. And Fleur went with the moms, shopping.”

At the mention of baby oil, I knew what Anna had in mind. For some reason, Anna loved anal sex. This was the third passage I had sailed with her on and I don’t think we had ever had straight sex yet.

And we didn’t this time either!

I was sitting in the sun on the stern cockpit when the ladies returned carrying boxes and bags and pulling one of those canvas wagons, loaded to the brim. I got up to help carry everything onboard through the port side access

“Where’s Rachel?” I asked.

“She took the girls and went to that big department store to look for clothes. They should be back in an hour or so,” Archara said. “Did you and Anna have fun?”

“Anna was exhausted when I left her sleeping in her cabin,” I told her. “Say, do you have a minute to talk with me?”

“Go ahead,” my mom told Archara. “We’ll take care of putting everything away.”

We found a seat in the salon and I began to describe what had happened with Rachel on Tuesday. I didn’t really care if the other ladies could hear me, I just wanted to understand what was happening.

“What did she think of you healing her ... ah, coochie?” Archara asked suddenly.

I just turned red in the face. I hadn’t meant to get THAT personal.

“So THAT’S why none of the girls seem to be no worse for wear,” my mom cracked as she walked out of the galley.

“So Rachel says she wants to stay near you, but isn’t putting any claims on you for now?” Archara stated. “And all the girls are calling you her boyfriend?

“That’s what Anna said, but what does that mean?” I asked.

“It probably means you shouldn’t overthink it, for now” Archara said. “Rachel has spent the last three days talking and getting to know everyone. She seems very friendly and appears to be taken with you. She says the pink planet told her how to speak to you in her mind. I know she’s been practicing, but have you heard her yet?”

I just shook my head negatively.

“Well, it seems that she has found what she was looking for, although what that is, I’m not entirely sure. She seems not to be the jealous type, if she’s willing to share you, but you need to sit down and discuss her parameters with her.”