I said, “No. Bebe, I can’t take over. What would I do? Allie and Christie belong with me. The Others don’t belong with me. The Breeders don’t belong with me.”
Bebe looked dejected and stayed quiet for several minutes.
Then, she said quietly, “Who does belong with you? How do you be one of those?”
I had compassion for the girl suddenly. She was afraid. She wanted shelter.
I said, “Bebe, tell me about yourself. As long as you’re here, you are safe. Tell me who you are.”
Bebe said, “Um, OK. That’s fair. So, I guess you mean start from before. OK, I was, well, I was in Hawaii with everyone because I was a junior Volleyball coach. I just graduated from college and got a job at the university as a junior coach. I was a physiology major. I was 22 when it all happened.”
I said, “That was 18 years ago.”
She said, “Really? OK. So, we got on the new plane and they said we were going somewhere safe. I think I heard rumors that it was Australia…or Antarctica. Somewhere with no volcanoes. We just barely got away. We crashed and we washed up here. Since I was older and a coach, they kind of made me a leader. Um, there’s five of us now. The other girls are…they like each other more than me. Or, they like each other more than I like them. It’s fine. It’s hell. It’s all crap. Especially now. The rules are all out of whack now. What’s the plan, Coach?”
I cocked my head and looked at her.
She said “Look, that’s how it is. Coach, Kong, Mr. Wizard, I don’t care.”
I waited.
She exclaimed, “OK, I’m scared shit-less and I’m tired and I’m just about ready to give up and die or get mushed. Hell, mushed might be better than this. Oh shit, I hope they didn’t hear that.”
She lowered her voice and said, “I gotta stay where they can see me. But I better be quieter. If I leave, they’ll go join another tribe.”
She looked horrified at me, and said, “Shit! Two girls died in the past two days. They just walked into the water and swam until they sank. We found them later, face down out in the middle. It’s really bad.”
I said, “Bebe, do you think that this is my fault?”
She stared into my face, and said, “No. It’s not your fault but it is your doing. You have a plan, right? I don’t care about Coach Brown. He was a cruel bastard. I think he changed after he met you. It sucked something out of him. Like he was mushed in his own way and seeing you like woke him up. I don’t give a damn about the Others. They can all go to hell. We trade with them but it’s like we’re they’re slaves or something. We have to report and do what we’re told, or they don’t leave us alone. But those rules are gone now. Do you see that? You do, right? So, you have a plan.”
I said, “Bebe, I do have a plan. I’m going to make things safe for my family. Then, I’m going to make sure that we are emotionally secure and healthy, as much as possible. Then, I’m going to create new rules, and everyone is going to live in a new society that’s different than what you have been used to. But I’m not the King. I didn’t come here to take over.”
Bebe went wide-eyed and nearly yelled as she said, “Why the hell not? Why not? Look, somebody has to run stuff. OK, OK, sorry, I didn’t mean to yell. OK, OK, look, you say you want to make things safe, so you have to make rules and people have to follow them if it’s going to work, right?”
I said softly, “Bebe, a King needs an army to enforce his will. I don’t have an army and I don’t want one. And I won’t have one. The plan has to be one that doesn’t need a king. I know how I’m going to do it but I’m not taking over for Coach Brown or anybody else.”
Christie laid her hand on my arm and said, “Florin, what are you going to do? How will it work? I trust you. We’ll listen. Bebe wants to be safe. That’s what you want too. For us all to be safe.”
I sighed and said, “Not everyone will be safe. Bebe, I don’t want to sound cold-hearted, but I can’t just take over and force everyone to do what’s right. OK, wait a second for me to think for a minute.”
We waited and I took a few breaths and said, “Look, girls, I can’t and won’t take over. But what I will do is carve out my own tribe and make sure that we are safe.”
Allie said, “So, the ones we talked about. The girls we talked about.”
Bebe looked from one to another of us expectantly.
I said, “I guess so. Yeah, I guess so. I wanted to wait on this until we were more settled. Bebe, I can tell you part of the plan, but I want you to keep it a secret. You want things to work out. It will work out best if you keep it a secret.”
Bebe looked frightened but said, “OK. A secret. I can do that. I don’t tell anybody. OK.”
I said, “The atoll is pretty big. There’s plenty of room for what, 120 people? If I remember my geography, there used to be over 200 little pieces of land here. Some are just barely big enough to lay down on but there’s plenty of room for all of us if we try. I have this island for now. It’s big enough for now. And you women, They, have your islands for now. And the Breeders have their island for now. The problem that I see is the Others. The Others have the bulk of the resources and all of the power.”
I sighed and continued, “I’m going to have to take that power away from them. And that means that I am going to have to make them move to a more remote island. Bebe, do you talk to the people in tribes besides yours?”
Allie said, “Bebe and the women like her talk to everybody. They know everything.”
I said, “Good. Bebe, if you want my help, I want you to do something. I want you to tell Them, your people, to go into hiding. I would want you to check with me every few days and from now on, you spread the news that I tell you, not what the Others tell you. But you have to be careful to only tell what will help us, even if the Others find out. You can’t say, ‘Florin is the King and he has a plan’. You have to say, ‘things are bad and we need to hide and stay out of it. And we need to think about what we want to do if Florin asks us for help’. Then you need to let me know what they say. You don’t have to but if you want to help me, that’s what I need for now. I need to know what people think about what is happening and about me and what the future should be like.”
Bebe said quietly, “I’ll try. I don’t think that They will listen. I understand. Don’t say anything that can be used against us. It’s us now, right? Me and you guys? We’re allies, right?”
Christie said, “Of course. Florin has a plan. He wants you to be safe.”
Bebe said, “But not everyone will be safe.”
Allie said, “It’s their choice. Bebe, send me the Vegetables.”
Bebe looked surprised and said, “All of them? Yeah, that makes sense. But no one will come here. Everyone knows that this is your place, and no one can come here.”
Allie said, “Vegetables can come to the island at that end. Two islands away from us. They can stay there. Tell them to gather food and stay there if they want to.”
Bebe said, “What about me? I guess I have to do what you say and tell everyone.”
I said, “You don’t have to. You can if you want to.”
Bebe said, “OK. Thanks. This is awful. This is bad. The rules are all gone.”
Allie said, “No. The rules are changing. Rule one: everyone stays away from this house. Rule two: Vegetables can come live two islands away if they want to. Rule three: the tribes of They go into hiding unless they want to align themselves with the boys. Rule four: you come back and tell Florin what is happening every three days, or sooner if it gets really bad. Rule five: you don’t go give up and get mushed or die. That’s the most important one.”
Bebe looked at Allie and then at me.
She said, “OK. Um, thanks. Yeah. Thanks. OK, so, there’s some others who say that it’s your fault and they plan to come fight you.”
I said, “Then before you go into hiding, go tell everyone that I’m coming to trade day again. When is the next trade day?”
Bebe said, “Day after tomorrow.”
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I said, “Good. I want to fight them in the circle again. Say that it will be best if everyone sees me get beaten and sees how powerful the new leaders are. Make it sound like it’s really important for the fight to be in public and that it will make the new leaders look good. Bebe, did you see me fight before?”
Bebe said, “Yeah, I took you in my canoes.”
I said, “Oh. I didn’t know who that was. I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying that much attention.”
Bebe looked puzzled and said, “Why not? Do you forget? Like a Vegetable?”
I blushed slightly and said, “No. I didn’t remember because I tried not to look at you. You are very beautiful and I wasn’t used to seeing beautiful naked women and I thought that I shouldn’t look at you very much.”
Bebe laughed and said, “And what about now? You don’t seem to have a problem with it now. It is funny, isn’t it. I do feel slightly naked now. I haven’t noticed that for a long time.”
Allie said, “But it’s a really good feeling, isn’t it?”
Bebe smiled and said, “I guess it is. Hey, They are really nervous about being here, so I better go. Kong, you can trust me. You know what I miss? What I’d really like? A hug. But don’t. It would freak Them out. OK, I’ll go. I’ll see you at trade day. Oh, do you want us there for trade day, or do you want us to hide?”
I said, “You better be there. The breeders too, if they want to come. But if things are as bad as you say, you should hide until then.”
Bebe said, “I’ll put out the word and let it spread naturally. Hey, good luck. I’m happy for you guys.”
Bebe stood up and walked into the water and swam out to her canoe where her tiny tribe waited. She really was very pretty.
I needed to rethink a few things. This was new information. Bebe, and the rest, probably, wanted a new king. I was absolutely not going to accept the position under the current circumstances. No way. My plan was to carve out my own kingdom, not conquer an existing one.
But my idea of a kingdom was very small. A very small, secure haven for my people. And my people was just me, Allie, and Christie. Except for one little wrinkle. At first it was just me and Allie. But Allie insisted that she was going to rescue Christie. Yesterday, Allie and Christie had set their sights on having six girls in our “squad”.
I had been opposed to the idea of expanding my family beyond just Allie and Christie when they had brought it up. I didn’t want or need more than the three of us. That is, I didn’t need more women in order to be happy as a family. But I was warming up to the idea that maybe we did need more to be truly secure here. Maybe we did need more on our “team” in order to do what needed to be done. And I had heard the stories from my Pops and maybe I needed more because Allie needed to rescue more. I had been utterly against it yesterday but now I knew that it was probably not only inevitable but rational. I needed a larger tribe of my own, and that meant more women. Not a lot. Not many. In fact, according to Allie, there weren’t many. But I needed to stay open to changing conditions, nonetheless. It made sense. None of this is exactly what I would have voted for.
OK, the natives were restless. They…oh shit, forget that stuff about they and others and all. Essentially, there were tribes of women, tribes of men, a commune of men and women living together, and a handful of unattached girls with no tribe at all. I guess that there were also some number of “mushed” men and women that “belonged to” the men’s tribes.
I asked, “Hey, when we were at the trade village, the guys who fought me were afraid of being mushed. How many mushed men and women are there? Do you have any idea?”
Allie said, “Each tribe maybe has one mush.”
I said, “So Christie was the one in Coach Brown’s tribe.”
Allie said, “No. She was in Coach John’s tribe. Oh, you thought because Coach Brown gave the orders.”
Christie said, “Mushed live with a tribe but don’t belong to it. They keep one but don’t own it. You go where you get told to go. Nobody cares where you live. But they only need one.”
I said, “So how many?”
Allie said, “Girls don’t get mushed very much. It was just Christie.”
Christie said, “There were four boys, I think. Maybe three. I don’t know.”
I was relieved to hear it. So as far as candidates for my kingdom, there might be just the three to five Vegetables.
We spent the rest of the day working around the house. Most of it weaving mats. The mats seemed like the most valuable thing that we could get to start with. We need protection from the torrential rains, and that meant mats for sound deadening. I showed the girls how to break the leaves into fiber bundles and how to weave the fibers into thin ropes. We used the ropes to sew the mats together to make larger carpets. When we had a few large carpets, I went to the roof and replaced the loose palm branches with the flatter and much denser mats that we had made.
Just before sundown, we were surprised to see two canoes approaching. I was concerned that some of the men had decided to accelerate the schedule and attack now, but it turned out that it was women. They stayed out 50 feet and once again, Bebe swam ashore.
She shook out her wet hair as she walked up the beach. Unlike Christie, Bebe had a fairly nice haircut. Apparently, her tribe had a pair of scissors, or knew someone who did, and they knew how to use them.
I smiled. I couldn’t help it. She was gorgeous and growing on me.
I said, “Bebe, it’s good to see you again.”
She said, “Um, OK. Anyway, I thought that we should tell you. Um, I have two boats now. I told…I told the girls that we need to hide and we decided to join up, at least for a while. I think we’re all scared. Yeah, so, the boys are doing that too. It’s just three tribes now. Maybe just two, or maybe just one. The negotiations were still going on when I left. I told them that you are coming. They aren’t scared of you that they will admit to, but they seem to be afraid that the rules are changing, and the coaches are changing. Coach John has disappeared. Coach Holman says he quits and just sits there and doesn’t say anything. Oh, and the Vegetables, we found some. We’ll take them in canoes to where you said if they want to go. Otherwise they would take a long time to get there. I better go.”
She turned to leave, and I said, “Thank you.”
She turned back and squinted one eye and said, “You’re kind of cute,” and dove back in the water.
Allie, Christie, and I went back to the house. It wasn’t raining hard now, so we didn’t cover the windows. It looked like it was clearing up for a while. Well, as clear as it ever got, anyway.
CHAPTER Seventeen - Housekeeping
After dinner, Christie said in a somewhat mocking but good-natured tone, “She likes you.”
Allie giggled.
Christie chanted, “Bebe likes Florin, Bebe likes Florin!”
I blushed but I knew that she was right. Based on Bebe’s reactions to being with us, she clearly did like me. I had noticed the way that her pupils dilated at times as she looked at me and the way that she brushed aside her hair as if grooming herself as she sat with us. Especially this last time while we stood on the beach at the edge of the water. Had her nipples been erect? They had. Oh, but she had just been swimming. That was the only reason. Or it could have been. I couldn’t know if there was another reason as well.
Allie said, “Is she going to be a girlfriend too?”
Christie said, “I don’t know. How should I know? Allie, girls are dumb sometimes.”
Allie said, “Boys are dumb almost all the time but yeah, I know what you mean. Whose turn is it?”
Christie said, “I think it was mine. I want to try something.”
Before I knew what was happening, Christie had stretched herself out on her stomach between my legs and had her lips at my crotch. She grinned and held my flaccid penis in one hand and started sucking on the tip and stroking me with her fist. I moaned and my body responded instantly. It was sweet. I was taken by surprise and wasn’t prepared a
nd somehow that worked to make this a very calming experience.
It was like we were exploring. I could see Christie’s pretty face now and then when she would look up at me from her place on the floor. I leaned my back against the wall where I sat and simply enjoyed the feelings. The feelings of her shoulders on my thighs, the feeling of the sides of her breasts between my legs, the feelings of her fingers on my balls, and certainly the feelings of her mouth sliding up and down and circling my penis. Neither of us felt a need to hurry. Christie worked tenderly, using her tongue and lips to explore every sensation possible to both of us. She seemed to be paying as much attention to her own sensations as she did to mine. I could feel her savoring each second, caressing the roundness of her mouth with both the head and shaft of my cock. She tried different pressures and depths, different movements and speeds. She licked around the head, feeling me with different parts of her tongue and feeling the various textures provided by the various parts of my flesh.
Christie was in control of this and I gladly submitted to her experiments. She felt me with the tip of her tongue, and I felt her tongue touch and tickle me. The world had fallen away and all that was here was me and Christie and the touch of our bodies and our love for one another. There was no thought of Allie, or the cataclysm, or the local population. No war; no death; no rain; no worry. Just her body and my body. Christie’s hands roamed my sides and legs, and my hands petted her head and back. I was absolutely lost here.
The beautiful blond raised her head for just a second and looking into my eyes sensuously, breathed, “Let go,” and she went back to sucking at my penis.
It was still slow and tender, but I was glad that she was ready for me to finish. It had been getting more and more urgent to me that I release. I lasted another full minute but then tightened my grip on my lover’s head and let go. Christie kept me halfway in her mouth and had one hand around the base of my shaft; her other hand squeezed and massaged my balls as she swallowed my semen. It was glorious.
When Christie was done bathing me with her lips, she looked up and I invited her to climb up and lie against me on my lap.
The Dark Atoll Page 16