Chapter 7

Mandy was convinced that Professor Simpson would have brought her dirty dishes back to the galley as promised, but she went up on deck to collect things anyway, so she could get a load of dishes done right away. She moved around the deck, putting dishes in a gray plastic tub. About half the people ignored her, busy with their work. But the other half smiled at her and said how wonderful dinner had been. Amy was sitting Indian style on the deck beside some coral samples, writing in a notebook when Mandy approached to get her dishes. There were still several bites left on the plate.

"Are you finished?" asked Mandy.

Amy looked up and smiled. "Let me get those last morsels. This is too good to waste."

She put her pen down and reached for the food with her fingers, scooping them into her mouth in a decidedly unacademic manner that, nonetheless, pleased the cook. Mandy picked up the plate, and then saw another nearby and got that too. She left the tea glass where it sat, because it was half full.

"Does our nudity bother you?" asked the woman, licking her fingertips.

"What?" Mandy looked at her in surprise.

"Does it bother you that we decided to go topless?"

"No," said Mandy. "I've seen it before. You're not the first customers to do that."

"Oh," said Amy. "I just thought..." She didn't finish.

"What did you think?"

"Well, you have the body for it," said the woman. "I thought if you were used to it you'd have joined us by now."

Mandy blushed.

"I don't have the body for it."

Amy laughed. "Believe me, nobody would complain if you were dressed like I am." Her eyebrows rose. "Perhaps I should have said un-dressed like I am."

"I don't think my uncle would approve if I did that," said Mandy.

"Bob?" Amy's eyes smiled along with her mouth. "Bob appreciates beauty just like the rest of us." She held up a hand to forestall Mandy's response. "Of course you don't have to do anything that would make you uncomfortable. I just wanted you to know we appreciate the freedom to do this, and I'm glad it doesn't bother you."

"Thank you," said Mandy. "I need to get these washed." She hefted the tub of dirty dishes.

"Of course," said Amy. "Thanks again for a delicious dinner."

"You're welcome," said the girl.

Mandy took Bob a plate of food after he failed to show up to get his own. He was on the bridge, monitoring radio traffic on a storm that was brewing to the east of their position.

"Thanks," he said, digging in immediately.

"Uncle Bob?"

He looked up, but continued to chew.

"Is there any chance..." She stopped and blushed, but went on. "Is there any possibility that Professor Simpson is a..." Again she couldn't finish. Bob just waited. Finally Mandy got it out in a rush. "I think Professor Simpson might have hit on me!"

That got his attention and he tried to swallow and get his mouth clear. Mandy tried to give him more information while he did so.

"I mean she wants me to call her Amy, and she said I was beautiful and that I had the body to go nude like them. She wanted to know if it bothered me that they were doing that and kind of suggested that I could do it too. At least I think that's what she meant."

Able to speak now, Bob didn't. Instead he seemed to be thinking about something. Finally he spoke.

"Well, I happen to know she likes girls ... but I also know she likes boys too."

"So she's bi," said Mandy.

"Yeah," said Bob.

"What should I do?" asked the girl.

"That's easy," he said. "If you don't want the attention, just tell her you don't. Any time somebody asks you to do something, or suggests you do something that makes you uncomfortable, just tell them it makes you uncomfortable and that you're not going to do it. Plain and simple."

"She said something like that too," said Mandy. "Well she said I didn't have to do anything that made me uncomfortable."

"I doubt she was coming on to you," said Bob. "I have a hard time believing she'd go for someone like you."

Mandy looked hurt. "Gee, thanks," she said.

He laughed. "What I meant was I don't think she'd try to seduce a sixteen year old. There's nothing wrong with you. You are every man's wet dream." He blinked. That hadn't come out quite like he'd intended. He tried to cover. "What I mean is that while she might be attracted to you, she's in a position where it would be somewhat foolish to enter a relationship with a girl your age. She's a smart woman and knows that. If it will make you feel better, though, I'll speak with her about it."

"No!" said Mandy instantly. "I'm probably being silly, and I don't want to hurt her feelings, or make her think I'm some kind of freak for thinking that."

"You're not a freak, Pumpkin," said Bob. "Didn't you say she said you had the body to go naked? That's not your every day garden variety chit chat."

"Promise not to say anything to her," insisted Mandy.

"Okay," he said. He looked at his food, and then looked back up at her. "You're probably right. I mean you are beautiful, and you would look great..." He stopped. It was obvious he'd been about to say "naked" and that was confirmed when his face darkened. "however you're dressed," he finished with a croaking voice. He cleared his throat. "You need to batten down the galley tonight. We could get a blow from the east and if we do we can't ride it out here. I'll have to up anchor and get away from the reef, which means we could have a rough night."

"Got it," she said. "I'll be back for your plate later."

"Good stuff," he said, forking his mouth full again.

"Thank you," she said sweetly.

On her way back to the galley, though, all she could think about was his comment about her being every man's wet dream.

Every man's wet dream.

And Uncle Bob was a man.

Bob gave the team a warning at five-thirty. Some of them were already rotating in to get something to eat, but divers were still down. When he saw Amy and Rupert together he approached them.

"We've got a squall bearing down on us from the east," he said. "Based on the radio traffic from boats out in it, it could toss us around. We need to move away from the reef to ride it out."

"How long do we have?" asked the dive master, no doubt thinking about how he was going to get his divers out of the water.

"I'd say an hour max," said Bob.

"I'll just go down and get them," said Rupert, picking up a set of air tanks.

Within a few minutes he was overboard, on his way to shepherd the divers back to the boat. Bob started to go back to the bridge, and then paused.

"Mandy's locking things down in the galley," he told Amy. "If your people are going to eat - and that might not be the best idea - they need to do it quickly so she can finish up."

"How bad is this going to get?" asked the professor, frowning.

"It won't be anything the boat can't handle," said Bob. "I'll steer into the waves as much as I can, but there's going to be a lot of up and down for a while."

"Hmmmm," she said. "Up and down. I wonder."

"Wonder what?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said. "I just had an idea of how that up and down motion might be put to use, that's all."

"Well good luck," said Bob. "I'd secure all the gear down below. There's no telling what the wind will be like and waves may come over the side."

"I'll see that it's taken care of," she said.

By eight, when there should still have been an hour of daylight left, it was dark as pitch. The wind had picked up and was cutting the tops off the waves. It wasn't raining yet, but the exterior surfaces of the yacht were soaked with spray anyway.

The researchers had retreated to their cabins. Bob was at the wheel, nosing the yacht into the wind. Mandy, with no other place to be, was on the bridge with her uncle. At first she tried to lie in bed and read, but the motion of the boat made that too difficult. Feeling car sick, she got up and took the waves with her knees, standing beside Bob. Seeing her there, he gave her tasks to do, including reporting their GPS position to him occasionally, and giving him updates on oil pressure and temperatures of the engines. Bob could have done all that himself, but she needed something to do as the storm got worse and worse.

Down below, Amy put her theory to the test. She hypothesized that, if one had something to take his or her mind off the lurching motion of the boat, then sea sickness would be staved off. What she had in mind was Rupert, flat on his back, with her riding him, letting the motion of the waves do all the fucking. John and Dawn watched for a few minutes and then tried it themselves. It worked rather well, until the men came. While they recuperated, the women tried to keep them interested by forming a sixty-nine and slurping away at the men's creamy offering. Then, to spice things up and keep everybody at a peak of interest, the women switched partners and they started all over again.