Aurora - Blood Moon Epilogue

Shucking the sleeping bag down to his waist, the old man stretched, groaning, then took the steaming brew. Diamonds glittered in the early morning sun as Beck stood, countering the heave and roll of the deck beneath her feet. She tossed the hood back, her wild platinum hair in disarray. "Are we there yet?" she asked, blue eyes taking in the horizon.

"Been and gone." Watson said and took a sip of coffee and winced. "I didn't want to wake you. Here. Did you put rum in this?"

Beck winked. "Thought you might need a bit of a heart starter. After last night. Dirty old man. You scored the hat-trick."

A wave broke over the bow and spray pelted the transparencies. Beck cringed, giggling as she caught a few glancing drops. "Don't get your fancy knickerbockers all wet." Watson said, nodding at the cape. "I won't get anything for it on eBay."

Beck opened the mantle wide, revealing her stark-naked body underneath. "This stuff's indestructible you know. Strong as steel."

Watson's eyes made it as far as her thigh gap, opened up to a four-finger span by the splay of her feet. Bordered by her pussy lips, all pink and plump, her slit was visible, a little slice of heaven framed in gold. "I swear to god, Moosh."

Beck looked herself over. "What?"

Watson slurped his coffee, casting his mind back. To England. Sitting on the tail gate of a borrowed white Range Rover in the twilight. 'Know what I'd like? To see you wearing it. With nothing on underneath. As the sun comes up on Aurora.'

He shook his head. "Nothing."

Beck reached out and stroked his jaw. "Back in England. Remember what you said?"

"That's EXACTLY what I was thinking." Watson exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "Will you stop reading my bloody mind?"

Beck gave her lips a salacious lick. "But it's such a good read."

"Adults only. You keep out of there."

Beck snorted with derision then turned her gaze back to the horizon. "How far to go?"

Rummaging through the tangled bedding, Watson pulled on his daisy hat, now faded by sun and crusted with salt. The two had become inseparable and Even Beck, once so disparaging, saw it as de rigueur. "Shouldn't be too far now." he replied then downed another mouthful

"Where are the binos?"

Watson dug binoculars from under the tarpaulin. Kneeling beside him on the seat, Beck braced her elbows on the cockpit moulding and peered through the glasses. "What's her bearing?"

"'Bout forty-five off the bow." Watson said, pointing. "Should be visual any minute."

"You blind old bat," Beck muttered, twiddling the focus, "how can you see through these things?"

Silence settled over the world, underscored by the sound of Aurora making way- windrush over the sails, the singing of the rigging. The thump of waves hitting the hull, the hush and gurgle of whitewash. Beck drew a breath and opened her mouth to speak, then shut it again, peering at the distant horizon, her body swaying counter to the yacht's pitch and roll. Inhaling again, she bounced up and down in excitement. "There it is! There it is! Wyvern! I can see it!"

Watson took the binoculars to see for himself. He could barely make out a shapeless mass on the horizon, and was about to voice his doubts when Aurora lofted upwards and he caught a glimpse of waves breaking on the reef. "Well would you look at that," he smiled, "she done snuck up on us." Turning away, bare-chested, bottom half still swaddled in the sleeping bag, Watson studied the chart plotter. "Yep. That's her. alright. Bang on time."

"This is gonna be so cool." Beck said, lifting the cape and straddling his legs. "Running around the island with nothing on. Diving for crays. Champagne and weed and green fish curry. Just like old times."

"Old times two-point-zero at least."

"And we get to meet Macca's new boyfriend."

"Poor guy." Watson tutted. "I wonder if he knows what he's getting himself into."

"Or who for that matter." Beck said, offering Watson a breast. "You're not jelly, are you Dommy? Your little playmate's got a new beau?"

Sucking her little conical tit into his mouth, he teased the nipple fully erect and gave it a nip. "Like I've got time?" he said, watching goosebumps spring up on her skin.

Beck shivered. "I wonder if she'll share?"

"Now, Moosh," Watson admonished, "don't go getting your hopes up."

"Why not?" Beck sniffed. "I always do."

"On the subject of which, how are you feeling? Has that old jade dragon been giving you stick?"

Beck hooked her hair behind an ear. "You mean Penny?"

Watson nodded. "Mmm hmm."

Beck screwed her face up, thinking. "Mmm... nahh... I sort of made it up with her. It's kinda hard not to, when you're ass-to-ass with a girl on the end of a double dildo. And Sook? I mean, who could be jealous of her?"

Watson winced as his cock struggled to break out of its confines.

"Anyway, " Beck went on, "after three months of having you all to myself."

"And what a time that was."

"You're not kidding. Anyway, while you're on your way to Tahiti. At least I'll know there's a responsible adult on board."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Well, Moosh, it's back to the real world soon. No more sleep-ins. No more running around starkers and diving for crays. No more green fish curries, no more weed. You gonna be able to handle it?"

"Of course I'll be able to handle it. I'm busting a gut, no offence. Not for the leaving bit... that bit sucks... but I'm champing at the bit to go flying."

"In your brand new jet?"

"Ooo yeah. With its brand-new paint job and brand-new interior. And my brand-new copilot."

"She's been unleashed?"

"Aisha? She's locked and loaded and raring to go."

"She's come a long way. From inmate of a country-sized insane asylum, to globe-trotting aviator."

"You better believe it." Beck said then looked furtively around. Leaning into him, in a quiet voice she said, "And that's not all. I caught her watching your video the other day."

"What video?"

"What video?" Beck rolled her eyes. "YOUR video. Of you and Pen fucking. What video do you think?"

Watson's cheek's pinked under the tan. "Aisha?"

Beck nodded. "Mmm hmm. And she was asking me. In the west, how many women is a man allowed to..." pausing, she gave him a wink, "..'have'."

Watson swallowed while Beck wiggled her hips, adjusting to the billy club nudging her crotch. "And what did you say?"

"I said, 'As many as he likes, as long as they're deaf, dumb and blind and not too picky'."

"And what did she say?"

"Not a word. Just stumbled around with her arms out in front of her, bumping into things."

Beck bounced up and down in his lap as the old man shook with laughter. "Oh, Moosh. Has anyone ever told you you're an idiot?"

"I tell ya, Dommy." she said, rubbing his earlobe between finger and thumb. "You open the cage to that little tigress. I'll be getting an early inheritance."

"She could do better than a busted-ass old yachtie, surely."

"Uh huh." Beck nodded, "But she couldn't do better than you."

"Do you think she'd be in it?"

"If I know my twenty-something virgins. And I do."

The radio crackled with hash, nothing intelligible, and Beck dismounted his lap. "I can see the palms on Wyvern Cay." she said, peering through the glasses again. "And... hang on... yep, I reckon I can see a mast. That's gotta be them."

Watson took the binoculars to see for himself. "I'll have to take your word for it."

"You old cloth eyes. You know what the day after tomorrow is, don't you?"

"Wednesday?"

"You old cloth brain. It's Sunday. Roger's birthday.

"Really? I wonder if he cooked us an engine."

Beck slapped him. "Don't be naughty."

"Why not? This whole re-enactment was your idea. Just remember. If they fucked that engine again, it's your turn to fix it."

"Pffft! As if. I'm gonna be busy. You too if I'm not mistaken."

"Is that so, Nostradamus?"

"Whoever that is."

"Some old dude who could see into the future."

"I don't have to. It's in the script." Stooped over the instruments, Beck tapped up the iPad. "Fancy some tunes?"

Watson checked his bare wrist. "Little early don't you think? The girls are still sleeping."

"Not for lo-onnng."

Dialling up a playlist, Beck stood waiting while the laptop did a shuffle. As the first guitar strains wafted into the cockpit, her jaw dropped. "No way."

Even Watson was impressed. "Listen, Moosh. They're playing our song."

The drums played in, then the vocals...

'You believe there's something else...

'To relieve your emptiness,

Beck picked up the lyrics, "And you dream about yourself,

"And you bleed and breathe the air..."

By the time it reached the chorus, both of them were belting out the words, "HELLL YEAHH, I REMEMBER AURORA! HELLL YEAHH, I REMEMBER AURORA... ALL THIIIS TIME!"

A head appeared. Penny mounted the steps, rubbing her eyes, stark naked and still woolly-headed from sleep. "Da fuck?"

Beck took her hand, helping her up into the cockpit, then twirled her through a couple of revs and sat her down. "It's the Fooies." Beck cried, "They're playing our song. Mine and Damon's. And Aurora's."

Penny stifled a smile. "Is that what it was? I thought someone was being strangled. Which is kinda odd cos' I wasn't even up here."

"Gee..." Watson breathed, "Tough crowd."

"Not you, Beck." Penny hastened. "You sing like a bird.'

"A frikken' vulture." Watson growled.

"What's all the excitement?" a voice said. Turning, they saw a smiling young Korean girl, head and shoulders out of the hatchway.

"Damon was 'singing'." Penny said, making air commas.

"Is that so?" Sook asked, scaling the companionway to step naked into the sunrise. A massive 'L'-shaped scar, still quite fresh, zig-zagged down her sternum, then cut right across her lower abdomen all the way to her hip. On her back, a puckered skin- and muscle-graft, the size of a fist, she'd named 'Doug'.

Penny and Sook, Beck with her bite-marks. The old man's Scar-girls. The Patchwork Sisters, the Soul Survivors. Between the three of them, each shared at least one of the other girls' traumas. Forced prostitution, incarceration and child-abuse. Kidnap, privation, life as a runaway. Covalent bonds stronger than diamond. "I was about to call nine-one-one." Sook grinned.

"It's triple zero over here." Watson pointed out. "And while you're at it, tell 'em three brazen little hussies are abusing a defenceless old man."

"Don't listen to them." Beck said, jumping to his defence. "You can't help sounding like an asthmatic old rooster."

Sook wrapped her arms around him for a tentative hug. "Don't worry, Damon. I love a wheezy old cock."

Beck raised a hand. "Yo."

"Some of my best friends are wheezy old cocks." Penny concurred. "One in particular."

The radio came alive and voice crackled out of the speaker. "SV Aurora, SV Aurora. This is SV Rebekah. Do you read?"

Beck pounced on the hand-held mike. "SV Rebekah. SV Rebekah... SV Aurora, go ahead."

"I think we've got you on the radar." Bragg said. "If that's you. About five and a half miles."

"That's us! That's us!"

"Where's the Teacher?"

"Damon? Oh... he's busy being elder abused by three little sluts."

"Hussies!" Watson glared. "By three little hussies."

"The old boy wants to know if you've cooked us an engine?" Beck said, twisting out of reach as Watson made a grab for the mike. "For your birthday?"

There was a moment's hesitation and Bragg replied, "Would a cake do?"

Watson wrestled the microphone off Beck. "I said nothing of the sort, Rodge." he lied, as three female voices sang, 'Yes he diiiid!'

"She's still got the same water pump, you know." Bragg said. "The one you installed."

"Must have done something right."

"Beck?" Bragg asked, "You on the air?"

"Go ahead, Rodge."

"You still okay to come back to work? We've got a mission."

"Champing at the bit, Rodge. Six months is long enough."

Tanya took the mike. "Well get your asses into gear, boys and girls. Macca and Clancy have set up camp on the island. The Veuve is chilling and the boys have caught some crays. We're holding off on festivities till you guys arrive."

"One more tack and we're there." Watson said, climbing out of the sleeping bag to stand naked at the helm. "Wyvern two-point-oh, here we come. Moosh? Clear those lines and make ready to come-about."

"Let Penny take the wheel." Beck said, shrugging off the cape and lobbing it through the hatchway. "She's gonna be with you all the way to Tahiti, might as well get a little hand's on."

Stepping up, almost breathless with excitement, Penny wrapped her hands around the leather-bound helm. Arm around Sook, the old man looked from one naked young female to the other, and the other, a vision straight out of paradise. "When you're ready, Skipper," he said, "let's get this party started. Everyone good to go? Leeee-hooo!"