Bo Zodeclown - Modeling Her Pleasures

She closed by asking him to say hello to Sandy for her. Steve balled the scented note paper up and threw it forcefully into the nearest gutter he passed. His anger was not for the fact Christine had become involved with another man or that she was so casual about disposing of her marriage after ten years, but the off-handed manner with which she treated Sandy sent him into a rage.

Going back aboard the boat he found that Sandy and Jerry, the college boy he'd signed on as crew, were down on the beach. He quickly poured himself a large drink and sat down to consider his life. When Sandy and the college boy crewman returned, they found him asleep in the canvas chair, with an empty bottle lying at his feet.

That had been a major turning point In the lives of both Stephen and Sandy. The next morning Steve took Sandy aside and asked her if she'd like to live on the boat all the time. He explained that her mother had gone away to live somewhere else and that they wouldn't be seeing her again. Steve also told Sandy that, unless she really wanted to go back to her school, from now on he would teach her while they lived aboard F the boat all the time.

Sandy's face was puzzled for a few minutes trying to comprehend her mother's strange conduct, but then she seemed to have arranged things to her satisfaction, and she smiled at her father.

"Daddy. I love you. Let's just stay on the boat and I'll be your wife. I can fix your food and wash clothes in a bucket and do everything."

Steve smiled at the beautiful little eleven-year-old child and thought to himself, Well, you can't do everything, darling.

Thus started a new life for the both of them. In late August, Jerry took off for the States, and Steve cast around for a new crew member. He decided never to go back to the East, and to simply have some of his personal papers and items: sent to general delivery in San Francisco. After that decision he felt free and clean inside at last. He wrote his publisher and informed him of his new marital status, and as soon as he received Christine's lawyer's letter, he signed the papers and in thirty days he was no longer married.

Steve made inquiries around the yacht club where he was moored about a possible hand to help him sail to California. He was introduced to several people who said they'd make the trip, but to his discerning eye they all showed faults that he didn't want to have to put up with for a month's sail. Finally, during the middle of September, Steve was seriously considering flying back to the States and leaving the boat until he could find someone who would be satisfactory. One night as he and Sandy were eating their dinner on the aft deck and enjoying the beautiful early evening sea breeze, a figure was seen walking down the long dock in their general direction. When the figure came under a light, Steve saw it was a middle-aged woman, in levis, sweat shirt, and windbreaker jacket. She was wearing a bedraggled pair of sneakers and a battered baseball cap covered most of her hair. When she stopped at his boat he saw that she was smiling brightly down into the boat at them.

"Hi there. Are you Mr. Lark? I was told I could find you down here and that you were still looking for a hand to help you sail her back to the States. Mind if I come aboard?"

Steve was sure she was going to ask him for the job, and he was just as sure that he would turn her down, but his, surprise and curiosity compelled him to invite her aboard and have a seat at their table.

Sandy, who had developed into a great little hostess, immediately asked the new arrival if she'd like something to eat or drink. The woman declined food but asked for a cold beer. Sandy immediately hopped below and returned a few minutes later with a cold can of beer and a frosted glass, which she expertly filled for the visitor. Sandy then piled their dinner dishes on a tray and excused herself to go below and begin cleaning up.

"That's some gal you got there, Mr. Lark. You must be pretty proud of her," the woman said. Steve noted that her voice was deep and mellow. He saw a face that had spent many days in the sun, yet it hadn't lost the fine features that had once meant an attractive woman. Her eyes were grey and her hair; now visible with her cap off, was bleached by the sun with a few noticeable streaks of grey in it. The woman appeared to be in her late forties or early fifties, and her hand, when he shook it, was firm and dry, but had not lost its feminine softness. She wasn't a calloused woman, simply a person who bad lived in the out of doors at sea a great deal.

Her name was Elizabeth Gower. She said that she'd been waiting for almost a month for a chance to sail back to the States, and that she'd just heard of his boat. It seemed that she and her husband had lived in Bali for almost ten years. He'd been a retired merchant skipper, and after leaving the tankers and freighters he'd sailed for forty years, he'd bought a sail boat a little smaller than Steve's, and he and his wife had sailed the world over for five years until they finally settled here on the island. About six months before Steve had arrived they had gotten caught in a Storm and lost one of their masts to heavy seas. In an attempt to bring the crippled boat into safe waters, Buck, her husband, had been knocked over the side and his life line broke. She said that she never saw him come up. She had managed to bring the boat home, but that she didn't have the heart to have it fixed or to stay here any longer.

Her story was a dramatic one and certainly spoke well for her experience and ability. Steve was a good sailor, and he knew how much it must have taken for her to bring a damaged boat back from a storm such as she described. He was also taken with her forthrightness, and open manner. There was warmth and confidence that radiated from the woman. He simply couldn't imagine sailing with her as a crew member.

"Look Ellie, I certainly don't doubt you're capable of taking on the job, but you're a woman, and while Sandy is female, it's a lot different living in close quarters with a small child than it would be living with a woman whom I don't think is going to be married tome when we set sail. I'm afraid it just wouldn't be very comfortable for you. Why not just fly back? You've said you don't have the desire to fix your boat up again and use it."

"Listen Steve, I love the sea. I just don't want to fix up the Tramp again. Buck and I bought her and sailed her together for fifteen years. I know that Buck is happy where-ever he is, and so I'm not that broken up inside. We had a good life together. I just don't want to go back alone, by boat or plane. Besides, I love the feel of this boat already, and I think I'm old enough not to blush if I see you in your shorts, or you catch me on the pot some night. Hell, we're both grown adults, and sailors to boot. We can adjust, at least I can, I really would like to sail back just this one last time."

"What are you going to do after you get back to California, Ellie?"

"I have a son there who's going to fix me up with a little place of my own over looking the Pacific. Buck and I bought the land years ago, and the boy has built a home there for him and his family to use in the summer. I'm just going to take it over and live there year round. I'll be able to keep busy, don't you ever doubt it. Hell, I'm a little salty, but I still can smell pretty good when I want to, and I can cook up a meal that would bring tears to your eyes. That's another reason you should take me on for this trip. You won't have to do all the cooking. I don't figure Sandy can do that much in the galley just yet. She's a little small to be able to even see the top of the stove."

Steve smiled. "You'll be surprised about that little gal. She may only be eleven, but she's going on twenty-one. I may have a precocious child on my hands if I'm not careful. She's been living with me on this boat now for almost five months, and she's beginning to get a little possessive."