A Blast from The Past

Dad looked up from the piece of timber that he was banging a nail into. "Ben, I wasn't expecting you until later today."

"O had nothing better to do, so I decided to make an early start."

Dad gave the nail a final tap and stood up. "Come down to the office and let's get this over with."

"Coffee all round?"I asked as we walked through the reception area.

"I'll help you." Mum said. "Give these guys a little time to talk over what they need to."

"No, we'll wait for the coffee before we discuss business, because this concerns you two as well." Ben said. "Mine is white, no sugar."

"Four white coffees, no sugar coming up." I said as I headed for the kitchen off the office.

"Getting down to business, where we are at right now." He waited a few seconds while Mum and I absorbed the first person plural of that statement. We? "Few many years Jason has been salting his income from opals in low risk. Low yield investments. These have grown to a tidy sum, enough that, should he remain single, he would not have to work another day for the rest of his life. He has recently informed me that he is foregoing his single status for a family life, and from what he has told me, he is having no regrets. What this means is that, with the income from this caravan park, along with his income from investments, he will be able to take Margie, should she wish to accompany him, on a cruise to somewhere where there is water and vegetation. He suggests an Alaska cruise followed by a train journey across Canada and then a flight to the UK and Europe. All that is preventing him is, does Margie also want this?"

"Yes."

"And who is going to look after this place while they are gone?"

"At this time of the year, this place pretty much looks after itself, I can handle it on my own." I said.

"Well that you may, but, you can always say 'no', but I have volunteered my services to assist you." Ben said.

"Hold on a minute there, what if I can stand you hanging around?"

"This isn't happening today, I suggested that I should stay here for a week or two, to see if it can work."

"You mean a week or two so that you can work your charms on me. I'll have you know that I am not about to fall for the next half-way decent looking bloke that drops in."

"What about me? I'm already here and I'm a half-way decent looking bloke."

"Do you really think so?" I asked.

"Well, that's what I've been told."

"Just after you fed her seeing eye dog that is."

"Jason has told me a lot about you, about how, before he found out that you were his daughter, he was tempted to put the hard word on you. Having met you, I would have to say that I admire his taste in women, and, knowing him reasonably well, I just had to meet you and find out for myself. We could have had this meeting at my office."

"I make no promises. You'll have to be better than you think you are to be in with any sort of chance."

"Consider me warned."

"Interesting as this conversation is, we have work to do." Dad and Mum got up and headed for the door.

"I suppose that's my cue to be leaving." Ben shoved the papers back into his case and stood up.

"Not so fast. Let's look at this situation, it will be lunch time n an hour or so. If you drive back into Adelaide, you'll either have to settle for truck-stop food, or a very late lunch. You could always stay here for lunch, and if you so desire, head back to town afterwards."

"What will I do while I'm waiting to be fed?"

"You can help me with the accounts, and then we have some cleaning to do in a couple of cabins. There'll be a truck arriving soon to empty the bins, we need to make sure that everything that should be in them is there. Then if we have time there are lawns to mow and edges to trim."

"Wow, are you a slave driver or what?"

"If you want to help me while Mum and Dad are swanning around the world, you will have to do these things. I need to be sure that you are up for it, and won't up and disappear when it gets too much for you."

I have to admit that, once he got the hang of what he was to do, he applied himself with enthusiasm. "You know, talking to Jason, I've come to realise that there is more to this world than making money. I don't know what I would do with millions of dollars, enough for life's luxuries like food and a roof over my head would be fine. Living the life that you have here would be more than fine."

"More than fine?"

"More than fine if you're part of the life."

"Getting a little ahead of yourself, aren't you?"

"Planning ahead my dear, planning ahead."

"Don't get your hopes up, I might find you repulsive."

"Do you, find me repulsive that is?"

"Not right at this moment. But things can change."

He was standing close to me. His hand reached out and drew my face to his. Our lips touched. I made no effort to pull back from him, in fact a contented sigh escaped from my lips, I was in danger of surrendering to him. What the fuck, I surrender. My lips parted and my tongue pushed against his lips. They parted far enough for his tongue to join mine. My arms were around his neck and I pulled him close to me. We held each other for I don't know how long before parting. I needed to regain some control. "It's time to get lunch for the workers. Will you give me a hand?"

"Sure thing, anything for you."

We worked well together, collecting the ingredients for the wraps, assembling them, cranking up the coffee machine. All the while we talked. I opened it up; "Don't you think that we're rushing into this?"

"Not at all. A couple of weeks ago Jason came down to speak to me about what he had in mind when he located Margie. He was unsure of himself and scared of screwing things up. I encouraged him as well as I could given my lack of relationship experience. . . "

"You're kidding me, right?"

"No, I swear, I am atrocious with women. I was raised in a family where affection was very low on the emotion scale, none was shown by my parents, and no advice had been given before I reached an age where I could expect to interact with girls. My first attempts were met with failure, not only failure but disdain. I was made to feel little by the girls that I attempted a relationship with. When I went to Uni, my priority was to get my Law degree and a job that would make me enough money to get away from my parents. The degree I got, the job I got, but away from my parents I did not, at least one of them I did not My father left my other for a much younger woman who professed her love for him. He fell for it and her, married her and two years later divorced her when he found that she had transferred her love to a younger man. Until recently I felt that I should take care of my mother. But that has changed, she is now in a home for the perpetually bewildered, and doesn't even recognise me. For the first time in my life I am alone."

"You certainly don't give the impression of being a failure with women."

"You can blame Jason for that. The day before yesterday he rang me. I have never heard him so enthusiastic about anything as his news. 'Ben, I found her, I found Margie, and she has a daughter who is my daughter. I tell you, I checked into the caravan park where she lives and met this really nice young woman, who reminded me so much of Margie when she was younger. We went out to dinner and got talking, and for once in a long time I found myself attracted to a woman. The next night I almost made a move on her, but she said something that interested me, she told me that her mother wanted to meet me. Her mother is Margie, my Margie, and guess what, she never remarried, and she still loves me, even after all these years. I want you to come down so that we can sort out some legal issues that come from this discovery, and to meet her daughter. You will love her.' I was curious, how would he know that I could possibly love you? Then I met you, and Margie. I can see why he loves her, I like her, and you are so much like her that I cannot fail to fall in love with you. I have fallen in love with you."

"While I get my head around all of this, why don't you go over to the cabin and tell them that lunch is ready?"

He was back within minutes, but without them. "Lunch is not high on their priority list at the moment."

"Sit down." He sat. "I have been giving this some thought, and while I cannot say definitively that I have strong feelings for you, that I love you, I am prepared to give it a shot. Don't worry, if it doesn't work out I'll let you down gently."

"You won't have to, this will work, we will work."

He moved behind me, his arms around me and his lips on my neck, their touch sent tingles throughout my entire body. If he kept this up, lunch would have to wait. I took a cabin key of the hook in reception and grabbed his hand. Once inside I threw myself at him, forcing him back onto the bed. I don't seem to remember much about how we managed to both get naked, but as soon as we were I urged him into me. Not that it took much urging. He may have been a failure at attracting women, but with a little encouragement, he knew enough about what to do beyond that to bring me to a body trembling climax, a second or two before his. This had better work out, because in our rush to find each other, we had completely forgotten about precautions.

"Well, that's got the sex out of the way, better than I expected I must say, but relationships are more than sex, they're about an almost spiritual joining of two people, and that may take time."

"I agree, and time I have." Ben whispered into my ear as he pulled me close.

"No you don't," I said as I took his hand from my breast. "You strip the sheets off this bed while I get fresh ones, we can't leave this cabin smelling of us, we might have to put people in it tonight."

"If I didn't already love you, I'd be offended by your rejection."

"What rejection?" Her hand on my cock contradicted my assumption. "I'm just being practical, someone has to be."

"I can be practical where necessary, now get out of this bed so that I can strip the sheets off."

I made no attempt to move, I mean why should I, I wanted this moment to never end. But then the practical me over-rode the desires of the newly aroused sexual me.

"Stop." Ben said as I stood beside the bed. He slid across and sat on the edge of the bed in front of me. "I want to dwell on your perfection for just a moment longer." His hands caressed my body sending tingles up my spine. "Right, I've seen enough for now."

"Bastard." I said as I hugged him before scrambling into my clothes and heading for the door.We made up the bed and dropped the sheets into the hamper in the laundry, before heading back to the kitchen to find Mum and Dad munching their way through the wraps that we had prepared earlier.

"Where have you two been?" Mum asked. "I don't need to ask what you've been doing, it's written all over your faces"

"Then you know it all," Ben said, "you're not the only ones engaged in carnal pursuits." Mum looked from Ben to me and I blushed.

"We've finished the repairs and have left the cabin open while the paint dries." Dad said. "That gives us time to sit down and work out what happens from here."

"This is where we stand financially." I had a folder open on the kitchen table. "Jason has money invested in low risk, low yield bonds and other financial funds. I have looked into the finances of this caravan park," Mum was about to question what business it was of Ben's to go probing her business finances, but he held up his hands. "It's called due diligence, we have to forward plan, bear with me it's all good. "At present the peak season earnings are enough to keep the business afloat during the slack times, but not enough to carry out anything but essential maintenance. The earnings from Jason's investments will provide you with enough funds for improvements and equipment upgrades. If I'm going to be mowing the lawns here I at least want a ride-on mower." That caught Mum and Dad's attention. "Who do you think is going to help Jan to run this place while you two are off on your second honeymoon?"

"A bit presumptuous aren't you?" Dad said.

"You are going off on a cruise, it's already booked. Don't look so surprised Jason, you told me what you wanted, and as your business adviser, I went ahead and booked it to your wishes, all you have to do is to go to the travel agents with your passports and apply for the necessary visas."

"What passport?" I've never had the need for one." Jason said.

"Neither have I." Mum said.

"I thought as much." Ben said as he took the Passport application forms from his folder and handed them across. "Fill these in, get photos, and go into town to the DFAT offices and they'll do the rest."

The next day, it was a Friday, Ben and I had the opportunity to find out if we could work together. I needed him because we had a group of twenty coming in that had booked all of the cabins. They were joining a three day river cruise, and needed somewhere to stay the night and for a couple of days on their return. They came in by car over the whole day and set up folding chairs outside one of the cabins for some serious bonding, and drinking, and laughing. At six o'clock they all walked down the road to the nearest hotel for an dinner. We heard from the confines of our bed, that sounds really good to me, our bed, I think I'm going to have to say it again, our bed, their happy laughter when they came back.'

Saturday morning and they came to the office before they checked out. The deal was that they would all leave the gear that they didn't want to take with them in the one cabin so that, if we needed to, we could use the others if necessary. They placed the keys on the counter. "We'll see you Monday night." The guy that seemed to be the leader of the group said.

"Have a good trip." Jan said.

"It won't be our fault if we don't." He promised.

"Sounds ominous, I hope the rest of the passengers can cope." Ben said.

We cleaned up the cabins and were just getting lunch when Mum and Dad returned. "How did it go?" Ben asked.

"We seemed to spend more time sitting around and waiting than anything else. Efficiency doesn't seem to be a strong point in places like that." Dad said. I could understand him thinking that, as a miner at Coober Pedy, he would have had minimal contact with bureaucracy. "How are you two getting on, not at each other's throats yet?"

"Far from it, my man has been wonderful." I said.

"I wasn't referring to your sex life, what is he like at working around the place?"

"I have no complaints on that score either."

"I tell, this woman is a slave driver, at it morning, noon a,d night. At least she has the decency t put salve on the lash marks." Ben had a broad grin on his face to tell them that he was joking,at least I hope he was joking. "I'm joking of course, she's the woman of my dreams." To emphasise the point he grabbed me in a bear hug and planted a definitely non=platonic kiss on my receptive lips.

"We get the message," Dad said, now how about rustling up coffee and something to eat for your mother and me."

I took the already prepared lunches from the refrigerator and we tucked in.

"What needs to be done this afternoon?" Mum asked.

"It's all under control. Seeing as you two are here, Ben and I are going home to catch up on some sleep/"

We did, eventually catch up on sleep, but not before some deeply satisfying love making. I'm glad that I never seriously went searching for a replacement for the bastard, I could have found myself with a husband and a lover, because there was no way that Ben and I could not be lovers.

A month later Mum and Dad took off on their trip that would keep them away for around a month. Ben and I had an efficient system in place, we would get going early, breeze through the jobs that need doing as well as those that were not urgent but were best out of the way. We usually finished around lunch time which left us with the afternoon free for other pursuits, if you get my drift. From experience most travellers arrived mid to late afternoon, mostly caravans or motor homes, so there was little more to do than register them and show them where to set up for the night, so we had the opportunity for some leisurely lovemaking just after lunch which would see us through until we got home, had a meal and hit the sheets. Life couldn't get much better than this, well, maybe it could, when Mum came home there would be no need for me to be there in the afternoons at all.

One thing that I have to give Ben, what he missed out on in size, he was average, he made up for with his new found gentle passion. I never failed to come before him, a far cry from the late and not lamented ex, who was all about getting his rocks off and to hell with me. One thing that I loved about this whole relationship was that we would spend time after the event doing not a lot more than whispering to each other while cuddling together. Sometimes this led to more love making, sometimes not, it was just a time of closeness, a time of bonding. "I have never been this contented in my whole life," Ben whispered to me. "I never realised that two people could be so totally at one with each other, I can't think why I never made the effort to get to know a woman before this."

"Could it be that someone had a plan for you, for us, to not find happiness with another until we could meet?"

"If you believe in predestination,then I suppose that could be the case, all I can say is that I have no complaints."

Mum and Dad arrived home looking refreshed and ready for whatever was planned for the caravan park. " "We have decided that we are not going to rely on grid electricity for the future." Ben said. "Each of the cabins will have its own solar panels and hot water services, Each of them will be connected to an internal grid system with battery backup so that even if the grid fails, we will not lose power. The office building will also have solar power, and we will have wind generators to provide additional power. This will mean a significant capital investment that we can write off against the business taxes. I will advance the money to pay for this. And I do not want the money to be returned, call it a grant. I have contacted the guy that installed the solar power for the accommodation at the mine, and he has given me a good price, as well as applying for a government grant, so it won't cost all that much."

"Can I be a part of this?" Ben asked.

"I thought that you'd be heading back to the smoke the first chance that you got. What's changed all of this?"

The look that he gave me was answer enough. "I have decided that being a corporate lawyer is not what I want to do for the rest of my life, and I've fallen in love with Jan, and want to be with her, that's if shell have me." The look that I gave him was answer enough.

The next few months were hectic to say the least, what with alternate power supply installations and upgrades to the cabins and grounds, and a visit from an accommodation ratings agency that saw our rating raised from 4 to 5 stars, and then the preparations for the next tourist onslaught.

A week or two after all of this began, Ben and I were enjoying our post coital calm. "Ben, my love, there is something that I need to tell you." I took his hand and placed it on my belly. "Do you remember the first time that we made love?"

"That moment is permanently etched on my brain."

"And do you remember that we got so carried away that we forgot about protection?"

"I'm not likely to forget that."

"You'd better not because that was probably what did it."

"Do you mean..."

"Yes."

The next morning, as we were replacing the furniture in the first of the refurbished cabins, I grabbed Ben;s hand. "Mum, Dad, we have an announcement to make. We are expecting." Mum kissed us both.