The Pirate Queen's Castle

"But I still miss our time with Penny." She said sadly.

I agreed, "I miss her a lot too." I didn't have words for how much I missed our Pretty Unicorn Princess, even after half a lifetime.

My fingertip traced a circle around the edge of Kelly's shoulder tattoo, "At least you still have the penny here. And I must say, mister Lincoln never looked so good." I kissed her shoulder.

She sadly thumped my chest a few times, "I miss her so much! The three of us were incredible together!"

I offered, "Let's try to find her! We finally have the money and the time now. After our vacation, we'll go to the police, or a private investigator, or somebody, and try to track her down again."

Kelly jumped out of bed and started getting dressed, "Forget the Bahamas! I don't want to be without Penny another day! Let's go!" I agreed, but I was still tired from work. She had her jeans and bra on by the time I sat up in bed. She pulled on my hand. "Let's get moving!"

I mumbled to myself, "Oh no, I've created a monster!"

Kelly overheard and responded, "But you know you love it! Put on some pants and get going, buster!"

-

We looked up a private investigation firm and went to their office. The detective said, "So all you have on her is an address and a picture from nearly 20 years ago? This will be a challenge, but we'll do the best we can. Sorry for the bad news. Sometimes we get lucky, but sometimes these things can take months. Or there's a small chance we may never find her. Rest assured, if we haven't found her in 90 days, you get half your money back but we keep looking." Kelly sadly mumbled, "We don't care about the money." Kelly and I held hands as we slowly walked out.

The next afternoon, we got a call from the PI. He said he had some information for us and asked us to come back to the office. I was surprised that we didn't get a speeding ticket or crash into somebody, as Kelly drove there like a maniac.

The PI gave us the news, "I found her. Or ... almost her? The computer says the image is a 96 percent match." He showed us an image on his computer screen. It was Penny! Kelly and I both gasped.

The picture was Penny wearing a light blue dress, almost exactly as she looked in high school, except she had strawberry-blonde hair instead of pale blonde. The same body, the same face, the same adorable little gap between her upper incisors.

The PI continued, "This was posted last week on a social media site. Metadata on the image shows it was taken 29 days ago near a little town in Oklahoma."

I stated the obvious, "29 days ago? That can't be right! Penny looked like this when she was 16! But that was nearly 20 years ago?"

Kelly exclaimed, "We've gotta go meet her!" She turned to the PI and asked, "Can you send somebody to find out if it's really Penny, or who it is? And maybe look after her until we can get there?"

He typed a little and thought aloud, "Jones, perfect, he's really good!" He answered Kelly, "We have an affiliate two hours from there. I'll have an investigator there tonight and I'll print you a large copy of the image."

We left the office with a rolled-up poster-sized picture of the beauty we loved. I heartily agreed with Kelly, but a small bit of my mind still sadly thought 'Bye bye Bahamas'.

At home Kelly started searching for a flight to get us from New York to the town in Oklahoma. I rolled out the picture of Penny and stared. After a few minutes I made a shocking discovery and my jaw dropped. "It's not Penny! I'm so sorry Kelly, but it's not her. It's not our Penelope!"

Kelly was distraught, "What? What do mean it's not her?"

I pointed to the left foot of the girl in the image. She had a small, almost triangular red birthmark atop her left foot. "Penny didn't have any birthmarks."

Kelly remembered, "And Penny hated wearing blue...she said 'Yuck! Blue is just for boys'"

I remembered something that would be quite unimportant at any other time. I pointed at Kelly's shoe. "But you have the same birthmark!" She hurriedly removed her shoe and we saw the birthmarks were the same! "I think the girl in the picture is my daughter!" We hugged and cried from joy, supporting each other.

Kelly looked ready to move mountains as she said, "If there's no flight that will get us there tomorrow, we're buying a plane!"

-

))) 6 PAGES REMOVED DUE TO WEBSITE CONTENT RULES (((

-

I pleaded, "Come on Kelly, just once more! Please! Please? For me?"

Kelly grumbled, "Ok, ok, but this is the last time! Checking your suit three times in one morning is enough!"

"Thanks, you're an angel! I want to be perfect for Penny. This is so important!"

Kelly rolled her eyes, "It's still perfect. If she's anything like the three of us were when we were 18, you could wear trash bags and she'd still throw you to the floor and make out with you in the middle of the restaurant."

I smiled as I remembered, "Yep, you're probably right. Since this is one of our hotels, if Penny's willing, I might just do that to her today."

Kelly laughed and shook her head, "Nope. I love you, but you're a coward. I know you won't." She laughed some more. "But once we're in private, oooh baby! We're gonna need some fire extinguishers in here!" Kelly patted my back, "It's time, mister Big Business Man. Go get her!"

As I turned to leave, Kelly opened one of her overabundance of suitcases and out of the corner of my eye I saw something poking out. Was that a feather? I thought, "Nevermind, this is important! It's Penny!"

I made sure I had a copy of the silly "contract" we sent Penny in my pocket. We would share a good laugh about that. I walked over and had a seat. I had reserved a small wrought iron table on the patio, overlooking the woods and the river. Very nice. I ordered a coffee and eagerly waited for Penny.

A few minutes later, I saw a lady hobbling on a crutch, with casts on her arm and lower leg. She had her fine blonde hair tied in pretty braids. She looked at me and asked, "Karl?" I saw her face for the first time in over fifteen years and my heart melted. It was HER! It was my Penelope! After all those years, how could she be even prettier than I remembered! Her growing smile filled me with joy.

I got up and went to help. "Penny, I'm so happy to see you! Or is it Jenny now?" Penny looked happy, but also very uncertain. I was also quite flustered, "Uh ... um ... can I give you a hand?" I helped her to her seat. "I hope coffee, waffles and fruit is ok?" I knew Penny loved waffles with fruit.

I snagged a passing waiter and ordered. He said, "Very good, sir." and headed to the kitchen.

Penny was happy to see me, but obviously very worried about something. "I ah, just had some questions about this contract thing?"

Being a serious businessman, I reverted to a serious business tone to recover from my nervousness. Instead of being playful and loving, I was formal and uptight. STUPID! I had probably interviewed a hundred employees in the past few year, and fell into my usual routine. I took the contract out of my pocket and glanced at it. I answered her, "Sure Jenny, I'll be happy to go over all the details. I'm sure we can find a way to adjust anything you're not happy with." Instead of joking about how silly it was, I started going over the terms, as if it was a serious deal. STUPID!

Naturally, Penny thought I wanted the 'contract' to be serious. Her mood and facial expression suddenly changed from nervous to angry. "Reading this thing, you want to pay me to give nose rides and wash your sausage?"

Too late, I realized my huge mistake. I tried to interrupt, ""No! Wait!"

She vented her outrage. "What do you think I am! I loved you! Now you want to treat me like some kind of CHEAP WHORE!"

"BANG!" She hit the table with the cast on her wrist, turned to leave, and started getting up.

I frantically apologized, "Wait! I'm so sorry! We still love you! It's not a real job, it was a joke! Please!"

She sat back down and pulled out a long white cigarette. "Just shut up and let me think a minute!" She lit the cigarette and took a puff.

Smoking was stinky, dirty, unhealthy. Penny smoked now! Gross! But I watched her full moist-looking lips with the perfect light purple shade of lip gloss on them, the sucking motion of her cheeks. Why was I getting horny? She looked out at the river, and her anger seemed to diminish slightly.

My attention was subconsciously drawn to the way she held the cigarette with her slender fingers, and tapped it with her long red fingernail to knock the ash off into the ashtray. Such long slim fingers, and pretty, long, red fingernails. It made me think about the last time all those years ago, when those same fingers were tickling Kelly's nipple, and her other hand was down my pants ...

Penny asked me something. I was so focused I didn't hear it. NO!!! What did she just say??? She had asked me something, but I didn't know what! My brain couldn't find any words! I had to say something!

She intently stared at me, offended and hurt. She was waiting for me to say something. She growled, "Well?"

"I..."

Just then, the most incredible thing happened. A tall, pretty, red-haired woman with long legs and big boobs rode in on a skateboard! She was wearing full 18th century sea garb, a sword belt, and a pirate hat with peacock feather plumage.

Penny and I both exclaimed, "KELLY?"

From halfway across the restaurant, she pointed at me and yelled, "Avast and belay, ye scallywag!" The skateboard rolled up to our table and Kelly stepped off. Penny and I both looked in amazement, with our mouths hanging open. Kelly removed her hat with a big flourish and bowed. She looked at me with contempt, removed her sword belt with saber, and put it on the table with a "CLUNK". She ordered, "Mind this, ye scurvy dog!

She stared into my eyes as she took off one of her leather gloves. "You besmirched the honor of this fine lass?" "WHACK!" She slapped the side of my face with it. I realized I deserved it.

She smiled, hugged Penny, and kissed her cheek. "Make me the happiest pirate ever and marry me!" She pulled a large diamond ring from her pocket and got down on one knee. "I love you! Will you marry your Pirate Queen, Pretty Princess Penelope!"

Penny was totally shocked and took a moment to gather herself. "I... uh... I... I wish I could! I love you! I wish I could so much, but I can't." Everybody in the restaurant gasped. Penny seemed close to crying. Kelly and I were both heartbroken.

Penny took a last puff and crushed out her cigarette. She stared at me. "I can't, because I promised my daughter that if I ever got the chance, I would marry her father. The big dumb jerk." She weakly punched my shoulder, smiled, then hugged me with her good arm. She asked, "So will the stupid Knight Champion of Good marry me?"

Tears flooded my eyes, and my throat closed. I was in shock. I couldn't speak. I nodded, then nodded some more. The crowd applauded. The three of us hugged and cried with joy for several minutes. Kelly slid the ring onto Penelope's finger, then quietly said; "I thought he might mess it all up. I set his cell phone to stream audio, so I could listen in."

Penny giggled and happily replied, "I'm glad you did!"

-

Penny followed us to our hotel suite to talk privately. Kelly mentioned, "You don't have to worry about money or a place to stay anymore, Penny. This is one of our hotels. As in, we own it." They were walking behind me, so I don't know how Penny reacted. I'm sure it was good, because I heard her inhale sharply in surprise.

I did overhear an interesting tidbit in the elevator. "... butt golf is when somebody naked bends over, you take a bunch of golf balls, and you see how many you can ..." Penny was bright red as she declared, "OK! OK! I get it!"

Back at our room Kelly started to undress and said, "Let's get a little more comfortable". I helped Penny sit in a plush armchair, put my suitcoat on the back of another chair, and started to take off my shirt.

Kelly pulled off her frilly, puffy, old-style blouse. Penny exclaimed, "Kelly, your tattoo! Wow!" She traced the outside of Kelly's penny tattoo.

Kelly lightly kissed Penny's lips, "Yes, I really love you! I've thought about you every day since we were kids." They hugged, then Kelly helped Penny move over to the bed and start undressing. Penny saw the unicorn tattoo on my shoulder and pointed at it. "Karl, a unicorn!"

I turned to Penny and said, "You know how I feel about unicorns, but I love you enough to carry one the rest of my life."

Penny choked up and smiled. We kissed deeply as I gently hugged her. She tasted like smoke, but I didn't care.

Kelly asked her, "Do you need to do anything the rest of the day?"

"Cindy gets done with school at 3, but nothing 'til then, why?"

Kelly took out a rope and started tying my right hand to the bedpost. "Since the dumb jerk upset you so much with that contract, I think it's only fair if we capture and torture him, for old time's sake?" Both girls laughed maniacally. When she finished tying my other hand, Kelly took off her panties, kissed them, and stuffed them in my mouth. Then she took a real, very scary-looking sabre from her sword belt and cut my boxers off me.

Penny glanced at the clock and grinned wickedly, "Only four hours? I guess that'll have to do!" She plucked a long feather from Kelly's hat and moved towards me. She licked my lips, flicked one of my nipples with a long red fingernail, and teased; "Don't worry, this will only tickle for a REALLY, REALLY LONG time! MUWAHAHA!"

My opinion of that day? Hours of feather tickle torture, peaking, and teasing, interrupted by a trio of mind-blowing orgasms? On average it was okay, in the way a hurricane averaged with a forest fire is ok. But we had our Penny back!

-

I woke up still exhausted. I was alone in the hotel bedroom. I looked at the clock, waiting a moment for my eyes to focus. It showed 6:30. NO! I was supposed to be up at five! I jumped up. Kelly and Penny were gone! Our suitcases were gone! Other than my shoes and clothes, the room was empty. I went to the bathroom to take a ferocious piss and looked in the mirror. I looked, and felt, like a war crimes victim.

I had rope burns on my wrists and ankles. There were bite marks all around my nipples, several hickeys on both sides of my neck, my belly and crotch area was covered with dried bodily fluids, and my hair was a mess. Every muscle from my neck to my ankles ached. Was that? Yup, two different colors of lipstick, all over my face, thighs, and chest. I showered, combed my hair quick, and threw on what remained of my clothes. My boxers were in the trash. Kelly had cut them apart with a sword! I was still tired, but I didn't feel hung-over. WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON?

I took a step into the suite living room, and saw my daughter Cindy sitting quietly watching tv. She looked up and smiled. "Momma said to bring you to the trailer when you woke up. Her and Kelly are over there, packing stuff up."

She took me by the hand and virtually dragged me the two blocks there. I wondered, "Isn't 16 a little old to hold your parent's hand?" I was confused, because as we walked outside, the sun was going down. The clock had said 6:30? Wait! That's EAST! The sun was COMING UP! I was shocked to understand I had slept OVER HALF A DAY!

Our suitcases were sitting on the sidewalk outside the trailer. We walked in as Penny closed the last of four new suitcases. They still had price tags on them. Kelly smiled and greeted us, "Right on time, Rip Van Winkle! I'll have the shuttle pick us up. Do either of you girls have any problems with flying?"

Penny said, "Neither of us have flow anywhere before."

Kelly reassured them, "It's kind of fun. I think you'll like it."

I scratched my head in confusion. I was still a little groggy from my extended sleep. "Flying? Where are we going? What's going on?"

Kelly chuckled a bit. "Don't you remember? You two are getting married! We're going to the Pirate Queen's Castle!"

I still didn't get it and asked, "Huh?"

"A ship captain can only marry people at sea! If you want to be married by the Pirate Queen, it has to be on her castle!" I still didn't fully understand, but trusted her and played along. On the plane I looked over at Kelly, still confused and wondering. She said, "I'll explain it again in Miami. Just get a nap."

After half an hour staring out the window, Cindy tilted over toward me, and fell asleep leaning on my arm. I followed her example. When I woke up, she was still leaning on me asleep. I thought, "Awh, that's so sweet."

In Miami a taxi took us from the airport to a marina. Kelly led us down the dock past a long line of boats. She jumped up and down and pointed. "There she is! There she is!"

The name on the back (STERN - STERN) of a large sailboat was being repainted. The workman moved away when he finished, and I read "SV PQ Castle" Maybe I'm an idiot, but I still hadn't figured it out.

Kelly explained, "Sailing Vessel PQ Castle. The Pirate Queen's Castle! I didn't just sit around the house on my days off, I learned to sail. I just need to pass an exam and get 20 more hours' experience, and I'll have a 500 ton and below Ship's Master license! I'll be a real Captain! I hired an instructor for the next week to make sure I have it down pat. He'll be here at five and once we're in international waters, I'll marry you two!"

Penny was amazed, "The boat is huge! It's triple the size of our trailer! You own this!"

Kelly put her hand on Penny's arm and said sweetly, "No, WE do."

I was the obligatory spoil-sport. "Um, Kelly? You bought this boat YESTERDAY? Uh, how much?"

She answered with information that meant little to me, "Don't worry, she was inspected last week. She's a thirty-meter sail yacht, with the latest radar, autopilot, and satellite navigation. She's got a reinforced glass and carbon fiber mast, and a spare, sleeps up to 18 plus crew of five, boutique galley, provision stowage for 90 days full up, twin diesels, and fuel bunkers for twelve hundred miles."

"Um, yeah, how much?"

"About what we made last month. Don't worry about it." Finally, something that made sense! Kelly showed us around the boat a little and said, "Penny and I have a few things to do before we leave. Cindy is out of school, so today she gets to be the teacher." She handed Cindy a couple of small booklets, 'Basics of sailing' and 'Safety at sea'. Kelly continued, "It's a big responsibility, being a teacher. I'm trusting you to make sure your Daddy knows all of that when I get back!"

Cindy cutely saluted and said, "Yes, ma'am!"

-

Kelly and Penny were away most of the day and returned with a pizza with everything but olives. Our favorite! We ate and Cindy walked her around the deck showing her what she had taught me.

Kelly held my hand and said, "Come below, we have to get you ready!" Two of the dock workers brought the last of our bags, and finished loading food and supplies. Kelly ushered me down to a bedroom (Stateroom - Stateroom! Landlubber!) and took off my shirt. She traced her fingers around my nipples, where the bite marks were. She asked me, "You understand what you did to Penny, and why we did this?" I sadly nodded. "Then you won't ever have to go through it again, because I know you'll never hurt any of us."

"Kelly, I'm so sorry..."

She cut me off. "No time for sadness, this is a wedding!" Kelly surprised me with a mirrored plastic suit of almost realistic looking armor, and helped me put it on. She buckled a scabbard and adult-sized plastic sword around my waist. "You have to see MY sword!" She took me across to another bedroom. Stateroom! Stateroom! If I forgot again, she would tease me with no mercy. She showed me an old, beaten-up scabbard, with a real antique saber in it. The initials PL were engraved into the handguard.