All Aboard Andi's Dream Ch. 04

Poppa was delighted to see them, which was a bit of a surprise. Mommy told them that when poppa was fishing to stay away. "Good afternoon sweeties! Did you have a good nap?"

The twins nodded their heads, but to be honest; they weren't sure if they had a good nap or not. They slept through the whole thing. Poppa put the straws in their juice boxes and, handing them back, he said, "Mommy and Aunty Macy are up front. You can stay here and help fish, or you can go up to the front with them."

Daddies are handy, thought Madeline; they can open anything. Poppa Paul opens the biggest cans and jars for Miss Yi. And even though "helping fish" was fun because they got to hold bait fish, she wanted to see mommy and Aunt Macy... wait! He said AUNTY Macy!

"It's AUNT, Macy!" the girls shouted at nearly the same time.

"Aunty Lucy is aunty; Aunt Macy is aunt!" exclaimed Sandy.

Paul grinned. He knew their aunt/aunty rules; he was just trying to get a rise out of the little tykes. "Ok girls, I'll take you up front." Then to Mr. Donald, "I'll be right back Don." He had a hand full of papers that he handed to Mr. Donald, then he led the girls up to the galley. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Did you guys make your own sandwiches?" He surveyed the damage to the luncheon setup, which was quite extensive.

They nodded enthusiastically and displayed their creations. Both of their faces and hands were covered with excess Miracle Whip, but as far as Paul knew, this was the first time the twins had made their own lunches.

"Good job, but let's clean up the counter here before Yi sees the mess." Paul first wiped their smiling faces, then put the lunch meat back in the plastic bags, resealed the condiments and cleaned up the scattered lettuce, cheese, and bread, then wiped the countertop clean. "Would you like some pickles, too?"

"Yeah!" their eyes opened wide in anticipation. "But not the big yucky ones," warned Sandy.

"We want the cute baby pickles," Madeline added.

Paul grinned and put a few sweet baby gherkins in two sandwich bags. "There, now let's go find the ladies." He tapped the intercom and said, "Hey baby, the twins are up and want to come sit with you."

Andi replied, "Give us a moment to get decent..." then after a pause, "Ok, we're ready." Paul smiled. The women were tanning and probably putting their bikini tops back on. Macy had mentioned to Andi that a sunny day in a Western New York winter was as rare as chicken teeth, so they were working hard to get incredible tans to display at the up-coming Woman's Ministry meeting.

The girls weren't allowed alone on the side deck between the salon and the foredeck, where the women congregated to drink wine, talk, and tan. And with a juice box in one hand and a sandwich in the other, and a stuffie under their arm, there was no way they could safely navigate the twelve-inch-wide walkway, especially with the boat rocking. Poppa Paul gently convinced them to hand him their juice boxes and stuffies, and to hold their sandwiches in their right hand as they stepped out on to the narrow walkway. Now with their left hand free to hold the railing and with Poppa Paul gently guiding them, they made the trek forward where they found momma, Aunt Macy, and Miss Yi.

"Hi babies!" momma said, smiling. "Did you have a good nap?"

Sandy and Madeline nodded, their standard answer to that question, still unsure what constituted a good nap vs a bad nap.

"Come sit here with Aunt Macy, Miss Yi and myself. Did poppa make you lunch?"

"They made their own sandwiches," said Paul as he handed the girls their stuffies, juice boxes, and pickles.

"Really? I'm so proud of you!" Andi hugged her daughters. They nodded vigorously, but they didn't talk because their mouths were full of sandwich.

"Hey! I'm the chef on this barge," said Yi. "let me check this out..." She took Sandy's sandwich and inspected it carefully. "Good meat to cheese ratio, excellent mayo coverage, proper crust alignment... I'd say that this is a well-made sandwich. You may put me out of a job, little one!" Sandy grinned with joy as Yi handed her sandwich back.

Madeline took a bite of her sandwich and handed it to Yi for her inspection. "Cheese on white bread, a brave choice in its rustic simplicity. Let's see what we have here... American cheese, a very patriotic option by the way, Wonder Bread, the favorite of 5-year-olds across the nation, and what's this? Miracle Whip! That's a confident choice for such a young chef! My hat is off to you, Chef Madeline." She handed the sandwich back to the grinning five-year-old, who was beaming with pride.

As soon as Madeline got her sandwich back, she dashed forward to join her sister at the bow. The twins were watching over the side, hoping to see some dolphins join them in their dash across the blue Atlantic, then Sandy turned around and yelled, "Mom! You're bare naked!"

"There're no boys here," Andi defended herself.

"Yeah," said Madeline, "Miss Yi is bare naked too. You can see her pooter, and so is Aunt Macy!"

"Why?" Sandy didn't have a problem running around with no clothes on. She liked to do that after a bath, mostly to embarrass her mother. It was fun. But there was no bath or swimming here, so why?

"We're tanning," said Miss Yi as she rolled over on to her stomach, taking up most of the port side lounge.

"What's tanning?" asked Madeline.

"When you let the sun cook you a little, your skin turns dark," said momma.

"Like Aunt Macy?"

"They wish," grinned their Nubian Aunt.

"Even Aunt Macy's skin gets darker when she lays out in the sun," said Andi motioning the girls to come over to her for a coating of suntan lotion, which was hard to do as the girls were more interested in inspecting the women's tan lines.

"Why do we need that goop?" demanded Madeline, as she turned up her nose at the suntan lotion. The smell of coconut didn't appeal to her.

"So you don't get burned," said Andi as she wrestled with her slippery child.

"Aren't we supposed to get toasted?" asked Sandy.

"Tanned, you're supposed to get tanned, silly. This will keep you from getting burned," smiled Andi, as she applied lotion to Sandy's cheeks and forehead.

"Remember when Uncle John made you pizza rolls?" asked Macy as she applied lotion on Madeline.

"Yeah," said the girls in unison. Their first lunch with Uncle John was a disaster. Burned pizza rolls and weak strawberry Kool-Aide.

"This is so the sun doesn't turn you into one of Uncle John's pizza rolls," said Macy with a playful smack on Madeline's butt. "Now put your floaties back on."

Just then, Miss Nicoletta appeared wearing a sarong and carrying a small cooler which contained wine, ice, and a few juice boxes for the twins. "Look who woke up in time for the party!" she said cheerfully. The twins looked up from the remains of their sandwiches and looked around to see who Miss Nicoletta was talking about. "I'm talking about you two silly girls! Your daddy told me you made sandwiches; did you bring enough for everyone?"

Sandy shoved the crust of her sandwich into her mouth and shook her head, but Madeline said, "He's not my daddy, he's my poppa."

Miss Nicoletta tried to make sense out of that statement, but it's been a long time since a 5-year-old was part of her life and she gave up on trying to figure out Madeline's hierarchy of parenting. She let her sarong float to the deck and reclined with a practiced ease and immediately the conversation returned to the men in their lives. "What is it that you were singing last night?" she asked Andi.

Andi rolled her eyes and smiled back. "I think 'How great thou art' was one."

Macy whooped with laughter and Yi turned her head and said, "Good one, boss."

Andi got very serious. "I want to apologize for my... my uh... I'm sorry that I ruined everyone's vacation. I didn't know how to deal with those videos. I couldn't live with everyone seeing them."

Miss Nicoletta patted Andi's leg. "Poor dear. I, for one, do not need your apology. I couldn't dream of living with that kind of embarrassment. But Paul says he will correct it and I believe him."

"Chère sœur," said Macy, "Dear sister, if nothing else, now you know that Paul's love is true, that he will fight to keep you, and if he can't have you in his life, he will not live without you."

Yi rolled over onto her back. "You are a selfish jerk."

"Hey!" shouted Macy.

"Wait a minute," said Justice Atherton, "is this the right time?" she asked, pointing at the twins.

Yi reached out with a casual sweep of her arm and snagged Sandy as she danced by, jumping in rhythm with the surging of the boat. "Yeah, I can understand you're embarrassed, and I know Paul can't live without you, but did either one of you think of these munchkins?" With that, she started tickling Sandy. Madeline jumped to help tickle Sandy and ended up getting tickled as well.

"I... I didn't want to live in the world where their mother has porn videos splashed all over the internet."

"That's just it, you didn't want to live in that world, but now here you are, living in that world. But you almost sentenced them to a world where their mother got good and drunk, then committed suicide. Not a thought about these guys." There was dead silence for an endless second, then Yi began tickling Sandy again. "Right goof-ball?"

Sandy shrieked under a fresh assault of tickling, but Madeline asked, "What's a suicide?"

"It means you simply lose your head, goof-ball number two!" and Madeline was soon curled up in a ball, whooping and giggling like her sister under the tickle assault from Yi.

"Do you think that was an appropriate remark?" asked Miss Nicoletta quietly.

Andi sighed. "From the nanny of my girls, it's a perfect remark. She is absolutely right." Andi got up and walked over to where Yi, now sitting up, was still tussling with Sandy and Madeline. She sat down next to Yi and suddenly had Madeline on her lap. "Thank you, Yi, you were absolutely right to remind me of that." She tickled Madeline's ribs until the little moppet curled up in a giggling ball and slid to the deck.

"You mean I'm not fired?"

"No, of course not. You said what needed to be said."

Yi let out her breath and visually relaxed, even though Sandy was still crawling all over her. "I thought I was totally canned."

Andi put her arm around Yi's shoulder and pulled her close. "Not for telling me the truth." And she gave Yi a kiss on the top of her head, which was quite a stretch because even sitting down, Yi was still over half a foot taller than Andi. Yi closed her eyes and leaned her head against Andi, and sighed. She suddenly felt awash with a feeling of being "at home" with Andi, and Paul, and the twins. Suddenly Andi cleared her throat in a way that sounded like she was trying to get Yi's attention. Yi opened her eyes and saw the twins staring at them, their little noses wrinkled in annoyance.

"What do you two want?"

Sandy put her little fists on her hips. "Are you two going to get all kissy?"

Yi and Andi looked at the twins for a moment, then suddenly Macy snorted and started laughing, as did Miss Nicoletta. "Kissy?" demanded Andi in mock anger. "Wait until I get my hands on you. I'll tickle you until you piddle!"

As Andi lunged at the girls, they squealed and dashed toward the bow. Stopping suddenly and looking down into the Atlantic. Andi's Dream was no longer slicing through the ocean at a spirited 25 knots. The yacht was now nearly still in the water. The twins suddenly cried out, "We stopped!"

Then Madeline pointed, "Land GO!"

Sandy frowned. "It's Land YO!"

"Go!"

"Yo!"

They glared at each other for a moment and shrugged and looked over the side.

Andi stood and looked around. "I guess we did stop. The guys must be starting to fish again."

Miss Nicoletta had her pulled on her shorts and blouse. "It's my turn to land a fish. Donald and Paul have both caught nice fish this morning."

"I wanna watch."

"Me too!"

"Ok, get your swimsuits back on, and your floaties!" Andi pulled on a wrap, then helped the girls get dressed, collect their empty juice boxes and stuffies, then led them back the port side walkway to the salon. When they entered the galley, they found Bitty waiting for them.

"Hurry up! We're going to catch a sailfish!" the young Asian girl cried.

"Cool! What's a sailor fish?" Sandy asked.

"She didn't say sailor fish, she said sail-ING fish."

"SAIL fish!" cried Bitty, trying to be heard over the twin's bickering.

"Fish don't have sails!"

"Yes, they do!"

"The sail would get wet!"

Andi tried to settle the argument, but it was too hilarious, especially when Madeline demanded to know how the sail fish didn't get tangled in their sail's ropes. Having watched her poppa and Uncle John sail boats around Miss Nicoletta's island, Madeline thought she was well versed in the art of sailing. Every time Andi tried to say something, one girl would come up with another argument that made her laugh. Never try to break up these girl's arguments after 3 glasses of wine, she reminded herself.

Finally, Paul ended the squabble when he quietly stepped up behind the girls and demanded in his drill instructor voice, "Are you young ladies trying to scare all of my fish away?" The girls suddenly stopped arguing, startled by his quiet yet forceful voice. The twins actually snapped to attention for a moment. Then they broke down in giggles, seeing that it was just poppa that startled them.

"She said that fish have sails!"

"Their ropes would get all tangled!"

Paul stood straight, glaring down on them, attempting to emulate their current hero Dwayne "The Rock," Johnson with a cocked eyebrow. He held up one finger, and they went silent. "If we hook a sail fish, you can come down and see it..." The girls started to bounce and cheer until Poppa said "BUT... we will be down on the swimming dock, so get your life jackets on, and stay up here until we say you can come down. You can watch from up here or upstairs on the bridge if you don't bother Captain Stan and momma. Ok?"

"Yes, poppa." Madeline punctuated her agreement with a salute.

"Ok, let's get to it! Put your stuffies away, put your empty juice boxes in the trash compactor, and get those life vests on and maybe Mr. Donald and I will let you catch your own fish. Step lively sailors!"

As the girls scrambled to follow orders, Andi melted in Paul's arms. "Mmmmm, I love a man in uniform." She sighed as their lips parted.

"A polo shirt, Bermuda shorts, and deck shoes aren't actually a uniform."

"It's that voice, it's gets me all warm... and moist..." and she followed that with an even more passionate kiss.

"You know I'll be thinking of a way to use that voice in more interesting circumstances," he said as he opened her wrap slightly and peered at the rise of her full breasts.

"I sure hope so," she punctuated that with a quick kiss. "Now go catch me a fish, colonel."

"Tell Yi that we have a couple of eatin' fish on ice and let Miss Nicoletta know that we're starting to try for sail fish. Don said that she will want to join us. Oh, and we're moving close to shore, you girls may want to cover up a bit more."

"Aye aye sir!" Andi saluted with the wrong hand and stepped out on the port side deck to head forward and tell Yi, Macy, and Miss Nicoletta what Paul had said.

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"Fish on!" squealed Madeline, loud enough to be heard throughout the yacht. She started reeling in her catch as fast as she could crank the reel. "It's fighting me!"

Paul crouched down next to her. "Easy, or you'll shake him loose, reel him in nice and easy...."

Paul had set up the safety railings on the swimming dock and they moved in close to shore to catch some bait fish for their sail fish outing. They had netted a tank full of mullet and they let Sandy, Madeline, and Bitty try their hand at the rod and reel and they took to it marvelously.

"I'm hooked up!" called Bitty from the other side of the fishing dock and Yi bent to help her little sister. Andi and Macy watched with excitement from the fishing cockpit. They were so engrossed in watching the little girls fish that they didn't hear someone calling, "Ahoy!"

Andi turned to see a small fishing skiff had quietly pulled up alongside of them. On board the skiff was a smiling, well-tanned, blond girl along with a brunette girl and a tall, slim fellow. "Hi!" called Andi, wondering if they had bumped into her boat.

"I'm Daniella G, you know... Daniella G on the Big Blue Sea...?" she paused for recognition from Andi and Macy. Getting no glimmer of recognition, she pressed on. "I'm a professional sport fisherman and I do a series of YouTube videos. Can I come aboard and talk?" Getting an approving nod from Andi, Daniella stepped aboard.

"Foremost, I am an advocate of female anglers and I try to prove daily that fishing is for girls, too. Saying that, do you mind if I video your girls fishing and, if possible, use that footage in a YouTube video? They are so adorable! Then maybe a quick interview with the parents?"

"It's ok with me to video the twins," said Andi. "We'll want some control over what is put out there, no addresses or contact information or anything like that."

Sunny stepped down into the cockpit from up in the galley. "You still have permission to film Bit-na."

"Sunny!" Daniella and Sunny hugged like old friends, "I didn't recognize Bitty. She's grown so much!"

"Yes, she cabin girl on this cruise. She teaching the twins to catch mullet for sailfish later."

Daniella gestured to the two people on the small boat who then pulled out to video the three little girls fishing off the swimming dock. She then made sure she had everyone's name and asked if she could video them, do an interview, and she held a GoPro out at arm's length using a selfie stick. The camera was pointed back at her. "Ok, so I'm here with an old friend, Sunny Carlson. You remember the trip we shot with her and her husband, Captain Stan, a few months ago? If not, I'll link it in the remarks section below." And with that, she pointed down at the deck.

"We're here aboard the yacht Andi's Dream with owner Andi Jarecki and her sister Macy Jarecki, and their daughters are fishing off the fantail of this..." suddenly Daniella stopped, caught in mid-sentence as her mental gears engaged.

Sunny leaned over and whispered to Andi, "Watch this, she just realize where she is, who we are."

Daniella's eyes opened wide, and she cried, "This is crazeee! Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow! You guys rescued the Garcia family! This is insane! This is sick!"

"Is she mad at us?" whispered Andi to Sunny.

"Oh no, this is how she talk when she is excited, sometimes she swear."

"This is a-mayyyy-zing!" panted Daniella. "Can we do an interview on the rescue?"

All three women frowned. "Stop tape for a moment," said Sunny, pointing to the go-pro camera that Daniella was holding.

Daniella turned the camera off and said, "Just to show you I'm totally legit..." she took the memory card out of the camera and put the camera in the cleaning station refrigerator there on the fishing cockpit. "Ok, we can talk now," she said, holding up the memory card.

"You didn't have to go to that extreme," said Andi. "we just need to tell you that we are all professionals, and we can't really talk about what happened. A lot has to be kept in doctor-patient confidentiality."

"Oui," agreed Macy. "Sung-Mi is a registered nurse. She did a lot of the delivery. Andi is a pulmonologist who saved a life, and I am docteur en théologie, and docteure en psychologie so everything said to me by anyone is kept in stricte confiance."