Wet Encounters Ch. 14

INTRODUCTION TO READERS

WET ENCOUNTERS is a novel-length story of love, lust and betrayal that takes place on a tropical Pacific island during the second half of the twentieth century.

It's seventeen chapters pivot around a single event that takes place when two people are forced to take refuge in an abandoned cabin when they are cut off by rising floodwaters.

During the three nights they spend together, they discover things about themselves and the regular occupants of the cottage that will destroy their previously stable lives.

The big question is, can anything be saved from the wreckage that remains after the floodwaters recede?

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

With breakfast out of the way, we carried out a bit of housekeeping - removing the soiled towels from the bed and replacing them with the ones we'd washed; washing the sheets we'd had soaking in the bathtub; cleaning up the bathroom after Juanita's little golden shower episode; and cleaning up the coffee and broken cup and spilt coffee from in the living room; and one or two other things - before settling down to a game of Squatter.

She had suggested another game of gin rummy but I had already decided that the only way I would sit down at a card table with her would be if I had her as a partner. She was a shark.

Having said that, she also cleaned me out at Squatter. After almost three hours, she had taken everything I had owned. I'd started out a wealthy sheep and cattle grazier and, by two o'clock, had ended up broke. Once again, she agreed to let me pay off my debts to her in 'kind'. This time, however, she wanted something more than mere kisses.

Before heading to the bedroom, where it was agreed that I would offer up the first instalment of my debt repayment plan, I checked the floodwater levels.

After ensuring that our visitor hadn't returned, I went out onto the front verandah. From there, I would not only be able to gauge the rate of rise or fall - I expected the latter - I would also be able to see what cloud cover remained. As I looked westward, I had a clear view of the seven-thousand-foot-high mountain range with only their peaks enshrouded in cloud; which was typical of most days. After the heavy rain, the air was so clear that they looked to be only a few miles away.

Smatterings of blue sky were visible above our cabin as the cloud lifted and dissipated and the wind had dropped. Rather than coming from the west, it was now blowing in from the coast and the rain had stopped. Everything appeared to be returning to normal.

A glance down at the stairs showed me that the water level was beginning to fall; I'd estimate it had dropped about eight inches since I'd checked from the back steps, a few hours earlier. 'If it continues at this rate,' I thought, 'the cabin will be sitting on dry ground by nightfall. We should be able to cross over tomorrow morning'.

This was the first chance I'd had to check on my truck - It had been impossible to see past a hand held in front of your face when the rain was in full downpour - but all I saw was an empty space where it thought it had been. I leaned out over the verandah rail just in case it was just outside my line of sight. No luck. It was gone.

Its loss was a disappointment. It was a special build dual-cab and I'd waited almost twelve months between placing the order and taking delivery. I wasn't surprised, however. I was half expecting that it would have been washed away when the floodwaters covered the little peninsular upon which it had been sitting.

"It looks like we'll be able to cross the creek tomorrow morning," I said to Juanita as I went back into the house. "But unless it is shallow enough to drive your truck through, we'll have to hike up to my homestead. It looks like the floodwaters have taken my vehicle.

"Still, it's only a couple of miles so shouldn't take us more than twenty minutes."

"Oh, Matthew," she said, her voice filled with sympathy. "I'm so sorry. Do you think it's completely gone?"

"I might find it caught up in the plantation," I answered. "But if not, it's been washed down to the big river. If that's the case, it'll be somewhere out on the reef by now. If I find it in the plantation, I might be able to rebuild it. If I'm lucky, though, the insurance company will pay for a new one. The bloody thing was only a couple of years old.

"Anyway, it's no good crying about something I can't do anything about. Tomorrow's another day. And we'll have enough to worry about before I can do anything about my truck."

Juanita wrapped her arms around me and held me tightly against her.

"This last couple of days have been filled with highs and lows," she said. "Rather than worrying about the lows, which, as you keep saying, we can do nothing about at the moment, let's think of the highs.

"We've found each other. We've survived a major flood. We've been well fed. We've managed to keep warm. We've slept in a relatively comfortable bed. And, did I mention that we'd found each other?

"Oh, and I've learned how to have my temperature taken without a thermometer. I've learned how to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation" And I've learned what it will feel like if I ever have to be rescued by a lifesaver and have to be helped to swim to shore; or across a flooded river.

"My God! I hope that if that ever happens, I don't have an orgasm in mid-stream. That would be embarrassing; not to mention dangerous.

"Oh, and did I mention that I had found the man I will love until my dying day?"

"I believe you might have mentioned it once or twice," I answered. "And I have to agree with you. What's the loss of a truck when you've found the one person you didn't even know you were searching for?

"I suppose I'm a bit of a realist. Having grown up in parts of Australia where we had to make do with what we had or go without. There was no point in dreaming about what might have been. I've always been adventurous, though, and I've never been so closed-minded that I wouldn't look over the next hill. I have, however, accepted my place in the general scheme of things.

"Even when I met and felt an instant attraction for you, I switched my emotions off. You were married to James and I wasn't about to interfere with that. Besides, I was married to Liz, whom I loved, and I had two beautiful little girls. There was no way I was about to throw that away, just on the off-chance that you felt the same way about me as I thought about you.

"From what you have already told me, you felt the same. And you handled it the same way; although I must admit that I couldn't for the life of me understand why you seemed to have taken such an instant and, seemingly, intense dislike towards me. I'm such a likeable fellow.

"Anyway, those barriers were destroyed as soon as I put my hands on you in the cabin of your truck. I knew as soon as I touched you and felt the charge of electricity that passed between us that pragmatism was bullshit. I knew in that instant that you and I had been searching for each other since time began and that I had suddenly discovered the woman I would love forever."

Juanita lifted her face to me as I finished my little speech. It was covered with tears. I bent my head down to hers and gently kissed them from her face before joining my lips to hers. Our kiss was filled with so much passion that I felt Juanita's legs give way. I bent down and picked her up in my arms and carried her towards our bedroom.

We made love for an hour before we both fell asleep. It wasn't the rushed, exploratory love we had been indulging in during the past forty-eight hours. That had been fucking. We had been satisfying our lust. This time, our lovemaking was of the gentle, passionate kind. We took our time to properly explore each other. It was baby-making love.

I don't know whether the baby-making aspect of our lovemaking worked but I was reasonably sure that, if Juanita's eggs were receptive, between our lust and love, there would be three of us crossing the creek tomorrow.

It took me a few minutes to work out where I was when I woke. I had been in a deep sleep and had been dreaming about playing with a little girl I didn't recognise. She had the same caramel-coloured skin and black hair as Juanita. Unlike Juanita's brown eyes, however, hers were hazel. She must have been a little more than a year old because she was running around but she was still a bit unsteady on her legs.

As I emerged from the fog of my dream, I could hear a voice calling my name. It was a man's voice and it was also calling for Juanita. I recognised it as James' voice. He seemed to be some distance away.

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed. My eyes snapped open as I realised that it was James' voice. I dived out of bed and ran towards the kitchen, where I threw on my shorts and pulled my T-shirt over my head.

"What's going on?" Juanita asked as I ran into her coming from the bedroom.

"Quickly!" I said. "Throw your dress on and come out onto the verandah. James is over on the other side of the creek and he's calling us.

"It also might not be a bad idea to run a comb through your hair before you come out," I said with a smile on my face. "You look like you have spent the past few days having the shit fucked out of you." As I was speaking, I ran my fingers through my own hair, silently thanking Liz for insisting that I keep it reasonably short.

I glanced at my watch as I stepped out onto the verandah. It was four-thirty. Juanita and I had been marooned here for almost forty-eight hours. As I looked across the river, I could see that James had given up and was walking back towards the vehicle he had driven down to check the creek level. The fact that it was my truck raised a flag. But I'd have to come back to it later. There were more important things happening that needed my immediate attention.

"James!" I shouted, cupping my hands around my mouth to focus the direction of my voice. I saw him stop and start to turn. He didn't seem sure about whether or not he'd heard anything.

"James!" I shouted a second time; this time, a little louder. He heard me more clearly and started looking around, trying to identify the source of the sound. His eyes finally settled on the cabin. I raised my hand and waved at him. He caught the movement and I saw him start to smile.

"It Juanita there with you?" he shouted, imitating me by raising his hands to cup his mouth.

"Yes, she is," I yelled back at him. "She'll be out in a minute. You know what women are like. She had to stop and make herself beautiful." Whether intentionally or not, I left out the, 'for you', part.

I don't know how much of what I said got across to the other side of the creek but he nodded his head anyway. Obviously, he was frustrated at only catching parts of our conversation because he started to walk towards the water's edge.

"Stop!" I shouted. "Crocodiles!"

He received that message loud and clear and quickly backed away from the danger.

"Would you bring my shoes out when you come, please, Juanita?" I asked, turning my head so she could hear me through the screen door.

Carrying my sandshoes, I saw her stop just inside the door and take a deep breath before coming out and handing them to me. She then looked over to the other side of the creek and, with a pleasant smile on her face, waved at her husband.

"James," she called across the water, "how lovely to see you." Her higher-pitched voice seemed to carry across to her husband without the need for cupped hands.

"Thank God you are all right," James shouted back to her. "I've been worried sick."

"You needn't have been worried," Juanita replied. "Matthew has taken good care of me and had kept me amused. Is John all right? Is he safe?"

"Yes, he's fine," James said. "I left him at home with his nanny. I didn't want to have to worry about him while crossing the creeks to come to your aid. She'll take good care of him until we return."

While they were talking, I sat on the top step and tied my shoes.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Juanita asked. "If so, I'll have to get my shoes. It would probably be a good idea if I were to put my panties on as well. As you might have noticed, this dress doesn't cover much."

"No," I replied. "You stay here. I'll explain to him that the tank-water hasn't agreed with you and that you need to be near the toilet. I just need to get close enough to him that he can hear me when I warn him not to attempt to come over to this side of the creek until I've had a chance to check the depth and condition of the crossing. He needs to understand that I'm not about to do that until the water level has dropped another three or four feet.

"He also needs to understand that whenever that happens, I won't be doing it in the dark; not with crocs the size of the one that camped on our front verandah about. I intend to tell him that I believe it will probably be mid-morning before we will be able to cross.

I descended the stairs and walked down as far as it was safely possible towards the creek. I stopped about ten feet short of the water's edge. James could hear me better and, with our voices travelling across the water, understood what I was telling him; both about Juanita and about the crossing. As I watched him walking back towards the Toyota, I gauged that the creek level was falling much faster than I had thought it would. A plan began formulating in my mind.

Having returned to the cabin, I relayed James' protestations of love to her and passed on his message about how concerned he had been for her safety.

"He said that he would have been inconsolable if he'd lost you," I told her. "He also told me that he had finally managed to use his tractor to work his way up through his top plantation tracks and cross over into Harry's property, finally coming down along the main track to my place. He didn't actually say 'my' place, though. Instead, he called it Liz' place. He said that Liz had brought him up to date with the events as she knew them; which hadn't been much as she hadn't seen or heard from me since I left home on Wednesday evening. He told me that she had been worried sick but that she'd kept herself busy looking after the girls and seeing to the needs of my labourers.

"Apparently, as I'd suspected would happen, the floodwaters had forced them out of their compound. She had arranged for them to crowd in under our house and into the large shed I'd built for my truck. He couldn't help heaping praise on her for her strength, her compassion and her 'extraordinary' - his words - organisational abilities.

"Although he didn't quite say it, he gave me the impression that his trek had taken place this morning. He said that he had tried a couple of times to get down to the creek but it was only now that the floodwaters had dropped enough for him to get as far as he had.

"He said that he knew the creek was still too high for him to cross but he thought he'd call out just in case you - we - had managed to find somewhere safe to shelter in or near the old sawmill. He actually said that he didn't think that the former mill manager's house would still be habitable.

"I explained to him that we'd managed to find a way to get in and that, with a bit of a clean-up, had found it to be a suitable place to take refuge. He didn't appear to be particularly pleased with that response."

"I'm just happy to hear that John is safe and that he didn't try to bring him out with him," Juanita said. "His nanny loves him and would die before she let anything happen to him so I know he'll be well looked after. It's probably going to take me weeks to get him back to his normal behaviour after a day or two of her spoiling him."

James' sudden appearance had disrupted the harmony that had built up between us. It had reminded us that we weren't really alone on this planet; that there were other people and other responsibilities we would have to face when we crossed back over to the other side.

It was only as I held her close to me that I realised just how intrusive, James' visit had been. From the time we had entered the cottage, we had been naked. Neither of us had felt any shame in that nakedness and the only time I had dressed was when I left the house. Immediately upon re-entering the house, however, I would shed my clothing. Naked was the order of dress in our little wood-cutter's hut.

That had somehow changed. We both seemed hesitant about removing our clothes. I began to understand how Adam and Eve must have felt when their eyes had been opened to their nakedness. We, like them, felt guilty. We, like them, felt ashamed of our nudity. Strangely, at that moment, I hated James more for that than I did for stealing my wife and her love.

We must have both been thinking along the same lines. As I held her, I felt her start sobbing against my chest. I didn't sob. The tears just ran unchecked from my eyes.

"Fucking bastard!" I shouted. I thought I had spoken those word on my mind but I was wrong. Juanita had heard my outburst. She lifted her head, an enquiring look on her face. She then looked into my eyes and saw the anger.

"What are you crying about?" she asked

"My tears are for you, my darling," I answered. "I'm crying because you're crying. I'm crying because of what he has done to you. But I'm also crying because of what he has done to us.

"It took every ounce of self-control I possessed to prevent myself from swimming across that creek and beating him to a pulp. I have no idea whether or not I was successful in hiding my feelings towards him or in hiding the fact that we had worked out who had been using the cabin.

"He wasn't as goods at hiding his feelings as I hope I was, however. I could tell by the look on his face that he was worried about how much we might have discovered about who was using the cabin and for what purpose. He knows that neither of us is stupid but he's not sure that we're bright enough to work out the implications of what we might have found. Liz, on the other hand, is naïve enough to think we'd never be able to put two and two together and come up with the right answer.

"Come on," I said. "Let's get these clothes off and have a drink; unless you'd rather remain dressed. If that's the case, I'd recommend that you do as you suggested earlier and put your panties on. You'd drive me crazy if you sat on the lounge in that dress without underwear. I think you'd find I'd have it off you in no time flat."

"Is that so?" she said. "In that case, I might just leave it on." Which is precisely what she did.

To maintain the mood, I left my shorts on but removed my T-shirt. I knew that she objected to the splinters that were still caught up in the weave of the fabric.

While she poured our drinks, I rolled us each a cigarette from James' supply of tobacco.

"I know you don't want water with your scotch," Juanita called from the kitchen but would you like some ice?"

"We have ice?" I asked. "Where did that come from?"

"From the ice-man, silly. He called around while you were off doing your wood-chopping or hunting and gathering; or whatever it is you do when you don your clothes and disappear into the wilderness.

"Yesterday morning, I had the firewood man. This morning, it was the ice-man. They both wanted immediate payment. You are going to have to leave me some money to pay these tradespeople, Matthew. Both the firewood man and the iceman are quite large and my mouth is sore.

"But you haven't answered my question. Would you like ice with your scotch?"

"I would love ice with my scotch, thank you, my dear," I answered, trying to hold back my laughter. A sense of humour was certainly not something she was lacking. It was weird, but it was just the sort that tickled my funny bone.