The Island Pt. 03

Someone else would have to take them off the island and search their clothes and bodies for identities.

They finally got through on the radio and was given a "Well done!", but then told they would have to wait for the regular supply ship due in about three weeks to get the corpses and the surviving man off the island.

As usually they felt lost and forgotten and not even sinking a U-boat could get anyone on shore off their fat backsides.

They were one bunk short, so they had to share. The one getting up left her warm bunk for the one coming off duty, and they were back on their six-hour rotating schedule again.

The following days they tried to wash the oil off their boiler suits and skin.

Not all came off and they were left with big patches on both skin and clothes.

Fortunately, they had two boiler suits each as the one they had been wearing during the night's events were not a pretty sight, and the smell of diesel and smoke could not completely be washed out of them. No matter how hard they tried.

They also serviced the cannon. Pulled the 'pipe-cleaner' as they called the long rod with a cotton padding wrapped around the end, through the barrel. Oiled all moveable parts and tried everything out. It seemed to be as good as before. Not that it was very reassuring. Lillian claimed that the first shell had gone wide beside the aiming device and the other two had been pure lucky hits.

The Lewis had jammed when almost through the second magazine. They made an attempt to plug it apart but a shell case was firmly stuck in the breech and the movable parts were no longer functioning. The heat from firing might have deformed them.

Eventually they wrapped it up and hoped they would get a replacement when the ship came.

The sailor slept for almost a week and the rasping breathing from his oil-filled and burned lungs made it hard for them to fall asleep.

He also had periods with cold fever. That made them take turns in sharing the bunk with him to keep him warm.

Although it was summer, the badly build uninsulated and corrugated roof hut was cold.

Sea mist seemed to creep through all cracks and windows, and the pot-bellied stove they had for heating was most often more of an illusion.

Maybe it was due to the fact that they only had damp peat to use in it. It was never able to do more than make the temperature inside tolerable.

At first, they were not very positive towards the sailor. Melanie, who had lost her whole family in the bombings at the beginning of the war, was the most negative of them.

He often had nightmares and even though they could not understand what he said, they all took turns in holding his hand or stroking his forehead when the demons seemed to rage inside him during sleep.

They had tried to dry out the contents of his pockets. Among them were two photos: One of an elderly couple that they assumed was his grandparents, and one of a younger

couple that they figured out were his parents. Both photos were almost washed out and it was hard to see any details, but he clutched them in his hands most of the time.

Eventually even Melanie realized that he was just another young man caught up in the vortex of war.

Finally, the supply ship arrived and took the bodies and the survivor off the island.

They got a fairly modern Bren gun as replacement for the Lewis and all hoped they would not have to use it, or fire the cannon again.

Things resumed to normal but after a few weeks Lillian found out she was pregnant.

It resulted in a lot of gentle mockery from the other three, but they all accepted that she had not just been lying close to the sailor and kept him warm, or maybe kept him more than warm.

They made her take a long walk around the island, when the supply ship came every month. Especially as her condition began to show even though the boiler suits made them all look like stuffed animals.

The last month of her pregnancy she did her watch guard stints from behind the sandbags by the cannon. She simply could not get up into the observation tower and none of them wanted her to fall down in an attempt to try.

It took more than 24 hours of hard work for her to give birth. The other three assisted as best they could, and no one slept during the labour.

Finally, they stood with a small, adorable, red-haired, and freckled girl in their arms, and almost fought over who should hold her.

Lillian named her Pax and they all agreed it was a very suitable name.

Their stay on the island lasted for almost another three years. In the end they felt more forgotten than ever as the war had ended a good while back. There was nothing to keep a lookout for, they had stopped the daily reports by the radio and they just hung around and did nothing except care for the baby.

Therefore, Pax had four mothers, and they always competed about who should tend the little dictator in their midst.

The last day on the island finally came and they had a small party with whatever

supplies they could manage to rustle up.

The ship took them to the village and a demolition crew remained on the island.

The cannon and ammo and anything useful were taken away. Small explosive charges were placed inside the hut and at the foot of the observation tower.

Then they left the ruins, sailed away and silence once again reigned on the island.

The captain and the crew were more than amazed as they were dispatched to take four women off the island, but found an extra and very small person as well.

Lillian and her friends had carefully hid the baby and any traces of her whenever the supply ships had come by.

Now Pax looked like a copy of the rest. One of the less oil-soiled boiler suits had been cut and sewed to a very good copy of the ones they wore. Size very, very small.

Lillian had nowhere to go. Her parents and family were not talking to her since the baby had been born, but the landlord of the Inn hired her as barmaid and gave her and her baby a room.

Her three friends returned to different places inland.

She was definitely not liked by the villagers. Everyone knew she was an unmarried mother and soon rumours of her illegitimate daughter being the result of an alliance with an enemy soldier spread.

She was tolerated behind the bar, but when she walked the streets of the village people crossed to the other side of the road. She had no friends except the Vicar.

Same with Pax, as when she started in the village school, she quickly learned to defend herself as she was a favourite target for mockery and teasing of the nastier kind.

Chapter Twenty-Nine - Present Day

by o_girl © 2024

One sunny afternoon in summer, Trawler came visiting like so many times before.

He often dropped by as he felt more than welcome, and was relaxed and happy in the company of the two women and their two friends on the island.

He most often went away with a knapsack full of the produce the women made on the island: Veggies, eggs, an occasional chicken, or steak - and of course a few bottles of Sunny's strong cider.

He never asked for anything and they were happy and proud of what they had achieved on the island. They gladly filled his knapsack and they never forgot that he was the first friendly person they had met when they arrived at the village.

This afternoon he walked along the usual path but when he passed the enclosure where the two Icelandic ponies usually resided, he saw a strange sight that made him stop for a few moments.

Inside the enclosure a woman was riding a sulky, but it not with a horse in front. It was another woman. A lot like a horse though. Blinkers and a feather sticking up from the top of her head, a black bit horizontally in her mouth, tight corseting, bare breasts with small bells in nipple piercings, a tail and a pair of full-length boots that ended in hooves.

The woman in the sulky was also in some kind of shiny, black outfit and directed the one in front with reins and a long whip.

The couple made elegant figures of eight and circles in the enclosure.

Trawler was used to the women of the island being a 'bit strange', but this was something else.

He pulled himself together and walked up to the house.

Being polite as always, he knocked on the front door and got another surprise.

An almost naked woman opened.

That is, she had some kind of mask covering her head leaving only her eyes free, a shiny collar with a big padlock round her neck and her breasts were lifted and parted by a very, very tight black corset.

She was on high black heels and more shiny steel around her ankles and wrists.

She stepped aside and signalled with an arm for him to come inside.

Slightly shaken he made his way to the roof, where Brynhild and Sunny were sitting in each their recliner and having a small table with a glass carafe with cider between them.

"Hello, Trawler. How nice to see you. Come sit and have some cider, please!"

Somewhat bewildered he dumped his heavy body on to a beach chair.

Sunny poured him a large glass of cider.

"So, what's going on here! I am a bit surprised, I must admit?"

Both Sunny and Bryn giggled...

Bryn almost choked on her drink and as she was recovering Sunny said: "This is Bryn's BDSM weekend. She has invited likeminded people to come and enjoy themselves.

Sorry if it shocked you."

"Not at all. I have seen most anything. Just not prepared for this. Where's Aino and Essi?"

"They are busy making a discovery ditch along an old oak tree in a corner of the island. Maybe one of the last secrets here? Although we doubt it will be. Oh! And we found a WWII construction at the edge of the island. Would you like to come have a look?"

"Not really. Actually, I have been there before and knew of its existence." A dark cloud seemed to come over Trawler's face. He paused for a minute, then spoke: "Maybe, as you are the best friends I have ever had it is on time I told you about myself?"

"Please do. If you so please. No obligations of course."

Trawler took a very deep breath, then leaned back in the seat and said:

"My grandmother, Lillian was posted here at the end of the war. There were four of them staying at the place you have just found. It was an observation post between here and the mainland."

Bryn and Sunny fell silent and looked at him intensely.

"They were here for several years, and not much happened, but one day a damaged

enemy U-boat tried to sneak by in surface mode. They blew it out of the water and a few years after the war, they actually all got a medal. For whatever that's worth. I still have it somewhere."

"Oh! So, your grandmother was a war hero. How fantastic, Trawler."

"Not really. My grandmother got pregnant by the only survivor from the U-Boat. He was badly injured and died shortly after in a shore hospital. I have tried to find his relatives but they were in one of those cities that the Allies bombed to rubble at the end of the war. So, the trail went very cold."

"What happened then?" They both leaned over and Sunny grabbed Trawler's hand and squeezed it.

"Well. Lillian went ashore after the war with her bastard daughter: Pax. She got a job as a bartender and a room in the Inn at the village, but they all gave her and her daughter a hard time.

The landlord used his position to demand 'services' from my grandmother and when my mother, Pax was 15, she gave birth to me.

He apparently could not keep his nasty fingers off her as well.

I grew up in that Inn and I can assure you it was not pleasant.

As soon as I was 15 I escaped to sail on a merchant ship and I have been over most of the world.

Some years ago, I came back and found that my grandmother had died.

They would probably have preferred to dump her outside the churchyard walls, but if you go there you will find her and my mother's grave in the far north corner of the graveyard. I ensured a proper stone when I came back."

Both girls had tears in their eyes and Sunny pressed Trawler's hand so hard the knuckles went white.

"Poor you!" They both said.

"Not so actually. I bought the Inn very cheap from the landlord on the deal that he would go away and never come back and I would keep quiet about his perverted behaviour."

Bryn exclaimed: "You should have killed the bastard. Would have served him right!"

"Maybe, but while I was away I had gotten a little sister: "Bellus", which is Latin for "Pretty". I bought the Inn and gave it to her. The landlady, you have met is in fact my younger sister. The only condition I required was that I always have a room at the Inn and my private corner in the public room. Bellus found a nice man by the way. You have met him: The landlord. Decent chap!"

Tears were now running down both woman's faces and Bryn leaned over and held him tight.

"Oh! Poor, poor you, Trawler. What a life!"

"It was not all that bad. I have seen strange and foreign places, and had a good life. Now I just want to sit in peace in my corner at the Inn and watch the world pass me by."

"Well. You have four friends here and you are always welcome - of course. As long as you can tolerate that we are happy perverts of the kind that does not harm anyone against their will."

They dissolved in laughter.

"You know that we want to document the history of this small island, Trawler. Would you mind if we include the story of your grandmother and her friends in some anonymous context?"

"Not at all. I feel you are touching on a few very human subjects with this and I am certain that you will treat my story with respect. Just don't ask me to go have a look at the ruins from back then."

"Don't worry. We won't."

At that exact moment, a young woman that was almost naked apart from the leather cuffs on her ankles and feet and the collar around her neck appeared and knelt in front of Trawler.

"You look like you could do with a slow massage, Sir. May I be of service?"

Trawler politely declined, but then the girl said: "I do a very relaxing foot massage. May I offer that to you, Sir?"

To that, Trawler agreed and they all enjoyed the setting sun while Trawler got his feet worked on as they had never been worked on before.

When the girl took her washbasin and towels and walked away, Trawler said: "Who was that. It was just about one of the most pleasant experiences I have had for years?"

Bryn and Sunny giggled: "She loves to be of service and she's very good at it. Nothing sexually, just makes herself and her 'victim' feel very much relaxed and at ease."

"Oh! She sure did that, but now I need to get back. The sun is setting and I will wish you two a very good evening - and thank you for listening to me."

Chapter Thirty - The End [Sort Of]...

by o_girl © 2024

The island life was back to the usual routine.

Bryn mostly tended the garden and animals, and scuba-dived around the island.

Occasionally she arranged BDSM gatherings and weekend parties for selected friends.

Sunny sorted and arranged the many finds Aino and Essi produced.

She also had an extensive correspondence with museums, laboratories, and University Institutes about their findings on their island.

Sometimes she would lock herself in her room for days and burying herself in the village records that the Vicar generously had loaned her.

Every evening they would gather on the roof. In summer very often in the hot spa, in winter under a foldable canopy with electric heaters.

Only in the worst snowstorms or autumn and spring gales they would stay inside for their evening time of relaxation.

Now it was summer once again and the nights were bright. Orion was chasing the Pleiades in his eternal star-outlined form across the dark blue night sky.

"A toast, girls! To us for all the things we have done on this island", Bryn lifted her frosted glass of cider. They all joined her and said as with one voice: "To us!"

"So, you dedicated detectives. Have we found everything and solved all mysteries here now?"

"By far. There's still a lot to be done," Sunny replied. "I have discovered that the village chronicles which the successive vicars have kept in very detailed form has a missing part from 1355 and about five years after, and it is not just because the pages have been torn out or lost it seems. There was no priest in the village in that period. I would like to find out why."

"And I need to open a wider trench by the old oak tree. I keep finding bits and pieces. Many of which seems not to be connected. I wonder what has been going on there", pitched Aino in. "I do know that there has been a fire as a lot of the jewellery and metal pieces have melted quite out of shape. If there had been one or more houses, they would have been made of wood probably, but no foundation or holes where supporting posts might have been. A house structure would also have left traces after a fire, but absolutely no signs of any permanent settlement. Strange."

"Well! I also still have things to do. Recently I got a ROV in as you might have noticed. I did a try-out at the pond. It is very, very deep, but at the bottom it seems there's a large pile of weapons, shields and armour. At first glance they look like they are broken. A typical offering. I need to fish some or all of it up with the ROV and have a closer look. It could be very interesting", Essi smiled.

"Ah! A ROV," Bryn said. "Then we can take a look at the reefs around here and maybe find the U-boat, Trawler talked about - and who knows what else".

Sunny pretended to strike Bryn with a flat hand over her head: "You'd better watch out for this one. She would want to go in the water and examine anything interesting and she has a somewhat loose and open relationship with her safety line!"

They all giggled, and Bryn blushed: "Just because I found something interesting at the dock once, Sunny. I assume we can have a cage that we lower, so I have a place to drop whatever I find. If anything."

"Look. The Northern Lights. It's so beautiful," Essi pointed to the sky and they all sat in silence for a while as the greenish pantomime went over the skies.

Then Sunny spoke again: "Just another little addendum: There's a couple of cannonballs stuck in the pier at the village harbour. They are on the outside which means someone has been firing a cannon towards the village at one point. I want to have a closer look at those as well.. I'd like to find out who and why. And then I have a suggestion: Why don't we all go the village on our next trip, and visit the churchyard. We can put some flowers on Lillian's and Pax's graves, and maybe do some weeding and wash the stones so it looks nice. I don't think Trawler has eyes for that, and it will make him - and us happy."

They all agreed and had another filling of their cider glasses.

"Since we are talking about that why don't we start a restoring project on the observation post." Aino looked from one to the other. "I am sure some museum will have a suitable cannon they will let us have and there must be pictures. Those observation posts were all over during the war. Maybe even some construction drawings can be found, so we will have an idea how it looked. It would be a nice landmark and a memento of those days and the four women stuck here for years?"

Again, they found that a very good idea. Told her to go ahead and find out as much as she could about their post and similar ones around the country.

"I am sure you are right, Aino. They must have erected them from some kind of 'blueprint' or standard for those things," as Bryn remarked.

"We have one thing, we have never talked about," Sunny said. "The lighthouse! Now that Tom has become a monthly guest when he tends the lighthouse, I suggest we grab him and see what tales he can tell of the lighthouse and its history. Could be interesting."

Again, they all agreed.