Episode 27: Building bridges

They came up for air almost at the same time. The girls were laughing but Hunter came up with a great loud 'GASP' before he too started laughing like an eight-year-old. For the next ten minutes, the three played like otters; wrestling with each other, swimming and diving together in a complex game of 'cat's cradle', totally unconscious of the fact that their naked bodies were in frequent and intimate contact (or, perhaps, was it rather that they finally accepted that physical contact was a pleasurable way of having fun that did not necessarily lead to a sexual relationship.)

After ten, fifteen minutes, they were starting to get tired and they waded back onto the beach. While they had been swimming, the cowbell had rung and the others had left to get dressed for supper. It was sundown and the three had the beach to themselves as they sat, skin to skin, watching the sun sink behind the mountains in the distance.

"I'm really sorry that I wasn't around to watch you grow up. I look at you and I see two grown women I barely know. I had wanted to care for you as best I knew how and I blew it."

"Father, how was it with Grandfather ... I mean, when you were young?"

"When I was a child, I never saw him. Once I was fifteen, he started to drag me along with him; I was with him in Asia, in Africa, in the Middle East, everywhere he had holdings. I hated it and I promised myself I would never do to you what I went through with him."

"But, what you did instead was not really any better ... Sure, you didn't drag us along with you but, at least, you had your father. All we had were servants."

"I had wanted to make sure you would never be in need..."

"Dad, none of the kids here or the families that we've met here have anywhere near the money we have," said Heather.

"But they all have loving parents, family and friends," added Karen.

"We were raised by servants and tutors," said Heather. "They were nice and all that but we've always known it was business."

"All money gets you are silk sheets and to be honest, silk sheets are pretty cold..."

"Yeah," added Heather. "It's much nicer to snuggle next to your boyfriend, naked in front of a fire, with nothing but a warm blanket to share and friends to talk to."

"What we really wanted ... no, needed were a parent and a home," said Karen.

"And we found it here, well ... at least the 'home' part," added Heather.

"We know you're a good person, we just want you with us," said Karen.

"Very well, my darlings ... I will think on what you've asked and what you've said. Camp has still two weeks to go and I, well, I have to reorganize some things if I'm to stay home more often. I have already missed out on ten years with my daughters; I wouldn't want to miss out on the next ten years as well because I acted too quickly."