Windswept Shores

by Janice Seagraves

  “Then I don’t suppose he had kids?”

  “I reckon not.”

  “Did he have any family?”

  “There’s a sister who still lives back in Oz. She’d send him a care package every now and again.”

  “Is that where the vegemite came from?”

  “I reckon it did,” he agreed, lifting out another layer of clothes. “G'darn, waz this?”

  “What did you find?” Megan peered around his shoulder.

  “Pictures.” He pulled them out. “It’s Bill, only younger.” He looked them over. “Here he is with a woman.”

  “Sister or girlfriend?” she asked, taking it from him. “Oh, it says on the back, William and Jeanette Campbell.”

  “Jean’s his sister,” Seth said. “Here he is in a military outfit. He’d been a digger. This ‘un is him with oldies.”

  “His parents perhaps?”

  “I reckon so. Here's another one of a spunky girl.” He showed it to her. “Wait a tick. There a newspaper clipping stuck to it.” He carefully worked the old yellowed newsprint free. “It’s about a car accident.”

  “Did someone die?”

  “It says Miss Sally Foresight D.O.A. after a head-on collision with a road train.”

  “What’s a road train?”

  “A semi which pulls several trailers.” He carefully folded up the paper again.

  “The girl must have been his sweetheart,” Megan said.

  “Um-ah, don’t reckon.” He shook his head.

  “Do you think he came to the U.S. to get over his loss?”

  “Sounds like a yarn to me.” He gathered up the pictures.

  “Maybe we should keep those.” She reached for the photos.

  “What fer?” He looked at her hand, but kept the pictures.

  “In case we ever get off this cay and back to civilization, we can send them to his sister.”

  “Here, mate.” He handed them to her. “You can have a go.”

  “Okay.” She took them. “We need a place to keep them until then.” She pulled out a drawer on the built-in end table. Megan pulled something out. “What’s this?”

  Getting a look at what she held, Seth rubbed the back of his neck. Gawd, she wasn’t supposed to find that.

  “Seth?”

  “Um-ah, I gave ya that so you could sleep after I had a go at yer leg,” he finally admitted.

  “This is Oxycontin.” Megan glared at the vial. “It’s prescribed to William Campbell.”

  “You needed the rest. Bill said he could always sleep like a baby with a couple of those in him.”

  “I can see why. This is a very addictive pain reliever.” She scowled.

  “Aw, yer only had it the one time.”

  “Seth, you lied to me,” she chided. “You told me it was aspirin.”

  “Gaw, Megz, are you trying to have a blue with me?”

  “A blue?” She blinked up at him, the same way she always did when he said something she didn’t understand.

  “A fight.” He continued to unload the drawers.

  Megan sat down next to him. “I guess I was,” she admitted. “I always fought with Jonathan.”

  “I reckon it’s a habit, then,” he said, but kept working. Anger went through him, he didn’t want to fight with her, nor could he look at her right then. “But I want you to use your block about one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I’m not Jonathan, I’m Seth.” In one swift motion he got up, taking the box with him as he stalked away.

  ~* * *~

  Megan watched him leave. Great, I either hurt his feelings or I pissed him off. I’m not sure which. She put the prescription bottle back in the drawer as she shuffled through its contents. She found a letter. It had an Australian address with the name Jeanette Potter. She opened it up to read a few lines. Dear Bill, I miss you. I wish you’d come home to visit me and the family.

  Seth walked back in the room with the now empty box. “What yer doing?”

  “It’s a letter from Jeanette. If she hasn’t moved, this is her address. If we ever get out of here, I can send those pictures to her.” Her gaze went back to the letter.

  “Reckon so,” he said, watching her. “Are you gonna read his letter?”

  “I’m just making sure it’s really his sister.”

  “Pull your head in, Megz, and don’t be such a sticky beak,” he scolded while he jerked open another drawer.

  Her mouth dropped opened as she frowned at him. “Did you just accuse me of being nosy?” Anger went all over her. How could he accuse me of such a thing?

  “Fair dunkum did,” he snapped as he pulled out more clothes, throwing them in the box.

  “It sounds like you’re the one who wants a fight.” She shoved the letter and photos in the drawer, slamming it shut.

  “Naw, mate.” He glanced back at her. “I call a spade a spade.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Megan said, her voice rising. “For your information, matey, I wasn’t being nosy. I’m trying to be helpful.” She gritted her teeth.

  “Just keep out of Bill’s shit.”

  “Fine,” she shouted. Snatching up her suitcase, she stomped out.

  “Megz, Megz,” he called after her.

  Megan set a foot in her camp-chair when he ran up behind her.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Home,” she snapped.

  “This is yer home.”

  “Not yet, it’s not,” she told him. “I haven’t got my stuff moved in.”

  He grabbed her arm and pulled her around. She staggered, yanking her foot out of the chair to keep from falling. “No need to chuck a spazz.”

  “I’m not throwing a fit. I’m leaving in a huff. There’s a difference, you know.”

  “Not from where I’m sitting,” he corrected her. “Ah, ya duffer! I tried not to have a go at you, but I got agro, seeing you going through Bill’s stuff.”

  “But, why?” she asked. “Can you explain it to me, please?”

  “He’s gone,” he admitted, “He’s my mate, not yours.” He studied her a moment. “I never told him this, and now I can’t. But Bill had become a second da to me.”

  “Oh, I understand.” She sat the suitcase down beside her. “Why don’t I just stay out here till you’re done, alright?”

  “No worries, mate, I’ll get her done.”

  “Okay.”

  He hesitated a moment longer. “You won’t shove off?”

  “I won’t.” She wiped off the chair, and then sat down.

  ~* * *~

  “Orright, Megz, you can put yer things in now,” Seth told her a short time later while he set a box down on the deck.

  “Okay.” She stood up. He took her suitcase as they walked back into the captain’s bedroom.

  “These are pretty tight quarters,” Megan commented as she carefully refolded and slipped her things in the drawers.

  “I reckon they are.” Seth leaned against the doorjamb, watching her.

  “We’re going to be cheek to jowl living in here.”

  “Right.”

  “We’ll need to respect each other’s space and the times we need to be alone.”

  Ducking through the doorway, Seth crossed the few feet that separated them, and took her hands in his. “Megz, I don’t want to be alone.”

  She sighed at the intense expression in his eyes. “Still, there will be times when you will get tired of me.”

  “Bloody hell, Megz. I’m not Jonathan.”

  “No, you’re not, but it’s only natural to want some time alone. We just got into a fight, didn’t we?”

  “I reckon so,” he said. “But I want ya and nobody else.”

  “Who else is there? There is no one else here, but you and me.”

  “I reckon we two will just have to do.”

  Megan finished putting away her clothes. Seth followed her out to help get the supplies she kept in her tent. On a return trip, she stood, staring down at her pots and camp-oven kept by h
er small campfire. “We should cook here to save on fuel for the generator. You said you only need to run it to juice up the battery for the fridge, but how long can the fuel last?”

  “Bill filled up in Mexico, the tanks mostly full. I reckon if we’re careful, it’ll last a while. What about the shower?”

  “We’ll use the water fall and the pool,” she said, thinking about it.

  Seth looked thoughtful. “I reckon we can go ahead and use the shower. I can rig up something that’ll use gravity to fill the reservoir from the billabong, that’ll save the petrol, too.”

  “How do you normally refill it?”

  “At the marina, there’s a water pump used for filling the reservoir, but a separate one for the septic. If me hose is long enough, I can siphon water from the pool to fill it up.”

  “When did you want to do it?”

  “Not right now, luv. It’s bloody hot,” he said, wiping the sweat off his brow.

  “With the recent rain, it’s really humid. How about a swim?”

  Seth glanced out at the surf rolling up the beach. “Blimey, in that? The seas a bit rough for a swim, though not too bad to go surfing.” He looked wishfully back at the waves.

  “You got a surf board?”

  He yanked his eyes back to her. “Yes, in the small bedroom, but I reckon I’ll spend the day with you, luv.”

  “Okay, get your swim trunks on. I’ll take you to the swimming lagoon.”

  “Swimming lagoon?” His eyebrows went up.

  “It’s great for swimming.”

  “Orright, luv, I’ll get my cossie on.” He grinned. “You got a bikini to slip into?”

  “Yes, I do,” she said with a blush.

  “I reckon it’ll be worth the swim just to see ya in a bikini.”

  ~* * *~

  Seth tripped over a large piece of driftwood. “Darling, the going would be easier if you’d stop staring at me,” Megan chided.

  “Yer an eyeful in that cossie, luv,” he told her in an admiring tone of voice.

  “Oh-um, thank you, but can you keep an eye on where you’re going? I don’t think I can catch you if you take a tumble.”

  “Sure, luv.” He looked down at his feet a moment, then back to her, promptly tripping over a clump of seaweed.

  Megan sighed while she switched her basket to her other arm, taking his hand. “Look straight ahead. We’re almost there.”

  With the tide out, the lagoon had separated from the sea by a strip of land. It looked almost like a pond with very little waves. The water was so clear, the sun reflected on the pristine white sand at the bottom. Small fish swam around some kelp which had gotten thrown in by the recent storm.

  “Your right, this is a nice place for a swim,” Seth said, pleased.

  “I love swimming here, but you can see it’s slowly filling in. One day it’ll just be land.” She took off her sarong, tossed it in her basket, then set it on the sand. She waded in, sighing when the cool water covered her body. Seth dived in, then swam across and then back. Megan made a leisurely breast stroke around the lagoon.

  “If I had me a net, I could catch some of those fishies for dinner.” Seth paddled water while he gazed into the pool.

  “Don’t you have a net on the boat?”

  “We usually use fishing poles.”

  “No, I mean to net the fish after you reel them in.” She swam over to him.

  “I don’t reckon you know the difference between fresh and salt water fishing, mate.”

  “Okay, what’s the difference?” She splashed water just in front of him.

  His smile twisted to the side. “When you fish in the sea, they're a mite bigger.”

  “Okay, smarty pants, how do you get the fish into the boat?”

  “You use a big stick with a hook to pull them in.”

  “Oh, I think I did see that somewhere.”

  “Probably, you accidentally lit on it when ya flipped through the channels on the box.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” Megan agreed, but then swam to the shore. She sat in the shallows, rubbing her knees.

  Seth soon joined her. “Ya orright?”

  “I ran around too much yesterday. Now my knees hurt.”

  “Today’s activities probably didn’t help ya, either.” He smiled as he rubbed her back. “Ready for more?” Her bikini top fell off into her lap.

  “What are you doing?” She made a grab for it.

  He snatched it from her. “What yer afraid of? There’s no one to see but me. I want to see yer white pointers.”

  “Give it back,” she yelled, reaching for it. “I don’t have any sun block on my breasts. I’ll get sunburned.”

  Seth held her top above his head. She got up to grab for it. “Hmm. Pashing distance,” he said, admiring her bare breasts. He grabbed her around the waist, pulling her close enough to kiss them.

  “Stop that.” Her sternness dissolved into a fit of giggles. She hugged him around the neck, looking down at him. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “Love me?” He looked up at her with his arms still around her waist.

  “Of course I do.” She smiled at him. “Let me get some sun block on my breasts since you want me topless.”

  “Orright.” He let her go.

  Megan walked the short distance to her basket and knelt down to place a hand on the warm sand, reaching for her sun block. Something wet landed next to her, causing her to jump. Staring down at the crumbled material for a startled moment, she realized it was her top wrapped around Seth’s shorts. She felt hands on her hips before she could move.

  “So, do you want to have a naughty?” Seth asked while he ran his hands just under the band of her bottoms. “Me donger is hungry again.”

  Megan looked back over her shoulder. Seth was in the buff while the body part that he referred to was hard. “I can see that.”

  Seth grinned until his cheeks dimpled. He patted her bottom. “I wish these were thongs.”

  “Why?”

  “I could see more of your bum that way.” He ran his fingers under the leg elastic, and then abruptly pulled her bottoms down.

  “Can I help you?” She turned over to face him.

  He pulled them off, tossed them next to his shorts, then leaned down to her. “Oh yes, luv. I want to taste your budgie’s tongue again. I reckon it’s salty.”

  She spread her legs for him. Seth bent down to run his tongue around her folds.

  Megan gasped. “Is it salty?”

  “Yeah, luv, it is.” He grinned up at her, then went back to finish what he started.

  Megan reclined on the damp sand with a moan while he explored with fingers and tongue.

  “Get up, luv.” Seth tugged on her arm. “I want to give you a dolphin ride.” He sat down in the water with a pat on his lap.

  “Why do you call it a dolphin ride?” She straddled his legs.

  “It’s fun, invigorating, and you’re going to get all wet when the dolphin spurts his top.”

  “I thought you meant because we would be in the water.” Megan giggled as he slid into her. “Oh-oh, you’re in very deep.” She gasped, clutching his shoulders.

  “Don’t worry, luv, a few more times like this, then you’ll be able to take all of me.”

  “Seth, you make me feel like a virgin again.” She moaned.

  A moment later, they heard a squeal, and they looked up. A spotted pig ran across the space between the lagoon and the surf. “I wonder what that’s about?”

  “Don’t reckon.” His h and moved down to cup her ass. “Give us a pash.”

  “I’d give you one if I knew what it was.”

  “A kiss, give us a kiss.” He leaned forward to brush his lips against hers.

  A grunt interrupted them. They looked up in time to see a boar run down the beach kicking up water and sand when it crossed the same place that the smaller pig did.

  “That’s the one eyed pig that tried to get in the tent with me,” Megan said, watching the creature run down the bea
ch.

  “He had the same idea I did,” Seth said with a cocky grin.

  “Humph, you males all think alike,” she chided with a smirk. She kissed him, but kept her eyes open, watching the boar gaining on the smaller female. Then she deliberately closed her eyes, pressed her lips against one of Seth’s broad shoulders. None of my business what the wildlife does around here. She pushed it from her mind and moved with her lover until she tumbled into her release.

  Seth’s movements increased. He slammed into her, groaning as he climaxed. “Sorry, luv.” He rested his head on her breast. “That one wasn’t as nice for ya.”

  “It’s okay, darling, I still enjoyed it. It wasn’t your fault we kept getting interrupted.” She ran her fingers through his wet hair, leaning in to kiss him again.

  A wave came up and over the small section of beach that separated the lagoon from the ocean. It spread, mixing the fresh with the old. They could feel the water cooling. Megan stood up, gazing down at Seth. “Shall we have one more swim before we go back?”

  “If you’ll do it with yer top off.” He grinned, showing even white teeth.

  ~* * *~

  Walking back to the Dinki-Di, Seth complained with a glance at her bikini, “Why you put your cossie back on?”

  “I’m not comfortable naked,” she explained. “What if someone showed up while I’m undressed?”

  He gazed around, then back down at her. “Megz, no one is here.”

  “No, but you showed up not once, but twice, didn’t you?”

  “Um, yeah,” Seth muttered with a slight frown.

  “Can’t argue with that, can you?” She grinned. I love winning an argument.

  Seth’s head snapped up as he abruptly shouted, “Oy, get off me boat.”

  He started running down the beach with Megan gaping after him. “What the—?”

  “Oy, you Drongo, that’s not yowse, get off,” he yelled.

  Megan ran after him, but Seth soon left her behind. She stopped to catch her breath, her knees hurting again, but she finally saw what had him so upset. Oh, God, the spotted pig is on the Dinki-Di. Oh-oh, there’s the one eyed boar tearing through my campsite. Is he trying to find a way on to the boat, too? “Great,” she muttered darkly. “I can see this has become a running theme.”

  Seth grabbed a limb when he passed a clump of drift wood. While he swung it over his head, he called, “Cooee!” The sound carried up and down the beach. “Oy, you big wanker, rack off! That sheila doesn’t want anything to do with your ugly old donger.”