The Wounded Hawthorne Family

When the kids left, Julie and I unpacked and looked about our temporary home. Chris had definitely chosen well. The suite was larger than most, a little larger than the size of an average two-bedroom apartment. I didn't like the fact that our bedrooms were separated but I'd insist that they keep their door open at night. The suite was also full of amenities; a small kitchenette, a balcony overlooking the beautiful lagoon and a very large bathroom with a huge roman tub.

We finished unpacking quickly, and then both got dressed for the beach. Julie told me to turn around and wait for a few moments. She had bought a new suit and wanted to model it for me before we left.

"Ok." she said.

I turned around and beheld a vision. The new suit was of course very sexy, a peach colored one piece that made her look great, but as usual, it was the little extra things she did that took my breath away. Julie is an artist when it comes to make up, and had chosen colors and a general style that matched the suit perfectly. A pretty, tropical flower that also matched the suit now hung in her hair and I couldn't even remember her picking it. When my lovely wife saw the stunned look of breathless appreciation in my eyes, she smiled, stepped forward into my arms and kissed my lips lightly.

"Maybe we could make this make this a special trip for you and me too." she murmured in a voice filled with the promise of more unbelievable sex.

"Oh Julie, we have to remember that we came for the kids."

Julie looked down her smile gone "Yes. Ok. I know. The kids, ok. I'm sorry. You know how the sea makes me ..."

"Yes I do. I was at that second honeymoon too remember?"

She smiled then laughed, kissing me lightly once more

"Don't be sorry my love. We'll plan another trip, just for us. Maybe -- three months ok?

"Really? -- Ok."

We kissed once more, this time deeply.

"Oh what the hell." I announced throwing my sunglasses aside and picking her up in my arms.

No incest fantasies this time. No sinful role-play. Just great sex -- as always.

I smiled as we made our way toward the water. The beach had plenty of handsome young men and pretty, single young women to choose from. I was sure that kids would forget all about this recent incest fixation if we played our cards right. I looked out over the beach looking for them. Julie pointed out Lizzie's bag under an umbrella and we walked to it.

Then I saw them, out beyond the surf along a sand bar. Chris and Lizzie were playing and frolicking, totally enjoying the sun and sea. But they were alone, not a soul around them for many yards. I looked for Gwen but could not find her. Then, suddenly she popped up from under the water right in front of her little brother. Chris grabbed her and at once, they moved into a deep kiss. The kiss ended and Lizzie moved forward and kissed Chris as well, before turning to give Gwen an equally deep, but slower and softer kiss. I had only heard them on an intercom before, but now I was seeing it. True, it was only kissing but it still made my heart pound. I looked over at Julie as she stared fixedly at our children kissing intimately in the glittering blue sea.

I walked over to the water's edge and called for them to come sit with us on the beach. They heard me and kissed each other once more before moving in toward the shore. I assumed a pose of anger as they approached.

"So you guys just break your promises?" I yelled out over the crashing surf before they were ashore.

"We didn't break our promise." Gwen yelled back. "You said no sex Dad. You didn't say we couldn't kiss."

There were people about and I didn't want Gwen to say any more. "Ok. Ok. Shhhhhhh!" Did they have to be so shameless about it? "Come sit with us on the beach."

We situated ourselves under two big, colorful umbrellas. Julie produced a bottle of sunscreen and we applied it to each other as we people watched. People of all shapes and sizes passed by, walking slowly passed us in the cool, wet sand near the shore. Whenever attractive, young people passed by, Julie and I would point them out to our children.

"Oh look at that one Gwen. He's cute." Julie gushed

"Ewww Mom he is not cute." Gwen replied, her face sour, "He's looks like a turtle."

"A turtle?" Julie laughed, "No he doesn't. He's got a great body."

"I guess ... I think Daddy is much cuter"

I nudged my son "Hey Chris, Look at that babe over there"

Chris shrugged. "Yeah, she's ok. Her boobs are too big."

I leaned over to whisper to him, "What are you talking about? She's got a great pair man..."

Chris chuckled a little then simply shrugged again.

Julie tried to get Elizabeth interested in a handsome young man. "Look at him Lizzie, doesn't he look like one of the Bigstreet Boys"

Lizzie laughed, covering her eyes, "That's Backstreet Mom and no he doesn't. Chris is way cuter."

It went on like this for the next half-hour or so; Julie and I pointing out attractive young people, only to get lukewarm or worse, negative responses from our adult children. Then the kids got bored and ran down to the beach together to play in the surf.

"Well, that didn't work." I sighed

"I know. What are we going to do?"

"I have no idea."

The next couple of days were like an ordinary vacation. The kids lived for the beach and we all went out to nice island restaurants for dinner or brunch. But it didn't feel like a vacation. I was very worried. The kids saw how worried I was and tried to cheer me up by telling a joke or just telling me not to worry. For her part, Julie remained enviably calm. I always had been the worrier.

But how could I not worry? Our adult children didn't seem interested in anyone but each other. It was a relationship that was totally stagnant. As loving and exciting as it seemed to be to them and us, it would never grow and children would never be produced from it. They were still abstaining, but I knew they'd be back at it soon. I was at my wit's end.

Then on the third night it rained. It started out as a slow drizzle and grew throughout the night. In the morning it was coming down pretty hard. We hadn't turned on the television once since we had arrived. Chris flipped it on now only to find Hurricane Casey bearing down on the island. The fights out for that afternoon were booked, so there was no going home. We were stuck.

The winds were expected to whip up to near tropical storm force by the afternoon and by the next morning it would hit us. I thanked heaven it was a minimal hurricane and not a monster, but I knew we were in for three or four days of hard wind and rain. Chris and I clothed ourselves in plastic garbage bags and braved the heavy rain to run down to the small grocery store three streets up from the hotel before it closed. I bought groceries and a few hurricane supplies; canned food, a couple of hurricane lamps, candles, masking tape, a small radio, plenty of batteries, playing cards, a combination chess/checkers board, munchies.

When we got out of the store the fast moving clouds still looked ominous and in the distance we could see another squall rolling in, but where we were the rain had slowed to a light, temporary drizzle. The street was empty and except for the wind, which had also died down a bit, all was quiet. Chris and I walked together, carrying our groceries in our garbage bag suits.

"So Chris, what's it like looking after two beautiful girls all the time?" I asked in a slightly sarcastic, disapproving tone.

"I'm sorry Dad," said Chris.

"I'm not angry son. I'm more worried about you guys than anything else"

"I know." he paused. "Actually it's a lot of fun, but I'm embarrassed that you and Mom found out about it, even though I kinda knew it would happen one day."

At that moment, I wanted to yell at him for calling what they were doing fun. I didn't want this incest thing to be as natural or fun as it seemed to be for them. But I let the remark pass and continued.

"I know that Lizzie doesn't think what you guys are doing is wrong, but how do you feel about it? Do you think its wrong?

"Yeah, I guess so. You know Dad, we've all been dealing with the rightness or wrongness of all this for a while now. Gwen and I used to talk about it all the time and we really tried to stop a few times, but we always failed. Then when things started with Lizzie we kinda stopped talking about it for the most part and just had fun.

"Don't you find other girls attractive?"

"Yeah sure I do Dad. I just don't know how to talk to them that's all."

The wind gusted hard for a few moments and we braced against it, laden as we were with grocery bags. Then it was quiet again.

"Well That's easy son. You're a good-looking guy, you're smart, you've got a great personality. You just have to take a risk and talk to them."

"Dad, you really have no idea about Lambert. People really thought we were freaks there. They use to call us the Addams family all the time. There were rumors going around that the girls were witches. And we were like, totally better than all of them in every subject. It was stupid. There were a few girls that kinda liked me, but something always happened that made me think it was useless."

"I know Chris, but ..."

"You remember that time, I came home all busted up? That was over a girl. I talked to a girl in the cafeteria. She was really nice. I'd been wanting to talk to her for a while. Then after school, two really big guys from the football team beat the hell out of me for just talking to her. They told me that no Hawthorn freak was gonna move in on one of their friends girls."

"Yeah," I said slowly. I remember that... and some other stuff. I didn't know it was THAT bad though. Why didn't you guys ever come to us about all this? You just dealt with it on your own. We could've taken you out of that school."

The wind gusted.

"Dad, the next decent high school is like thirty miles away. We didn't want to bother you. Besides, I didn't care about them. Here I was with the two prettiest, smartest, most fun girls in the whole school and they both wanted to hang out with me."

I shook my head. "Well, You're in college now. Aren't there pretty girls in college?"

"Sure. Look Dad, I wish you wouldn't worry. We're not dumb you know. We know that this can't go on forever."

I sighed.

As we walked on a little further, the rain died down almost completely for a few moments and everything stayed very quiet. The whole world seemed to move slowly for just a bit.

"Lizzie told us about what happened between you and her the other day." Chris said plainly.

"She did?"

"Yeah." he said slowly, looking ahead "She said it was pretty intense."

"Yeah. Well I guess I'm as guilty as you guys in a way."

Silence.

"She wouldn't mind it happening again."

I paused, "That... that shouldn't be." I replied, swallowing hard.

Another silence.

Hey Dad, did you ever think about your sisters or mom you know -- that way -- when you were my age?"

"Yeah, I suppose. Maybe a little younger. Mostly your Aunt Lisa I guess. But they were silly fantasies and they stayed that way."

Silence.

"Mom sure is beautiful."

This time I said nothing.

"She's like really beautiful."

"Yes she is. She's my wife Chris." I replied looking at him. At that moment, there was a very strong gust of wind and we bristled against it. Then, suddenly it was raining and we picked up our pace saying no more.

Gwen met us at the door when we got back to the hotel.

"It's getting stronger. Right now it's 90 miles per hour but it's getting stronger." she said.

Damn. We were right on the beach. I checked the big sliding glass door that led to the balcony and was thankful when I found that the hotel had installed storm shutters.

I had Chris go and get as much ice as he could and told Gwen to fill the big roman tub with water. I went to the front desk to get as many towels as I could, as Julie put up groceries and Lizzie watched the weather. After all of this was done, we all gathered in front of the TV in the little living room to watch the news. Lizzie gave us an update.

"They said it was strengthening quickly and that it would be at least strong category two by tonight. It's heading right for us too. It'll probably hit us about 7 or 8 tomorrow morning. The next update is in a half hour."

I looked at the time. It was about ten thirty AM. I looked at the satellite image of the hurricane that was heading for us. It was a massive storm and the island was already well within it's cloud cover feeling much of it's rain and wind. I worried mainly about how much this storm could strengthen in the next 22 hours. I knew that category three and above would be very dangerous. We broke out a bag of chips and waited for the next update.

"Shouldn't we move to the center of the island or something Daddy?" asked Gwen anxiously

"We'll be ok here Sweetie. This hotel is strong. Right Chris?"

"Sure Gwen, don't worry. Dad and I will take care of you defenseless females," He said pulling his sister close.

Gwen rolled her eyes and pushed him away "Defenseless. Ha!" she exclaimed

"My Hero." said Julie mockingly

"I'll especially protect you fair lady." Said Chris swooping his beautiful mother into a buccaneer pose. "I'll protect you Mom" he said, his face close to hers, looking in her eyes.

Julie laughed nervously and drew her face away from his as she reddened.

"Knock it off Chris" I said.

We opened up a bag of chips and munched. Gwen surfed though the channels until she found a sitcom rerun as we waited. Before long, she switched back to the weather station for the update.

The weather woman smiled professionally as she gave her report

"Hurricane Casey is well on his way to becoming a very powerful storm. The current coordinates position the hurricane at about 260 miles just south of due east of the island of St Thomas in the US virgin islands, travelling at 10 miles per hour in a west northwesterly direction. Current sustained winds are estimated at 105 miles per hour but conditions are very favorable for intensification and many models have the hurricane reaching category three status in the next 6 hours."

"Oh God, this is getting scary," said Gwen

"Shhhh Gwen. Just a second" said Chris, as the report continued.

"...computer models have the storm taking a more northerly track but for now it seems to be headed directly for St Thomas and then perhaps on to Puerto Rico."

"Turn it off Gwen. We'll see the next report in two hours. Find a good movie or something. And try not to worry so much Gwen, everything's gonna be fine." I said, trying to sound nonchalant.

She laughed. "You know I get that from you Daddy." she said

She was right. We watched a movie, played cards, had hot dogs and more chips and watched another movie. Occasionally we looked out the window only to see the wind blowing more fiercely as the rain blew in horizontally from the ever darkening sky.

The official weather reports were staggered two-hour apart and we anxiously awaited each one. Casey continued to strengthen very quickly, fueled by the warm Caribbean waters; 110 miles per hour at 1PM, 115 at 3PM, 125 at 7PM. Then at 8:45, the power went out and we were left with two Hurricane lamps, candles, and the radio. The hotel suite became warm and humid without air conditioning.

At 9pm, we listened to the latest report. Unlike the pleasant smiling voice of the woman on television, the male voice on the radio was official and harsh. Chris noted the storm center's position on a map as the voice rattled off the coordinates; about 180 miles to our east. Then came the bad news, delivered in a harsh, no nonsense radio drone.

"Hurricane Casey is very dangerous storm with top sustained winds of 140 miles per hour and is continuing to intensify. The storm continues to travel in a west northwesterly direction at 10 miles per hour, though it is expected to change to a more northerly course in the next few hours."

We had been waiting in vain for that more northerly change for hours now.

Chris went to the sliding door of the balcony and slid it open a bit letting the cooler outside air refresh the room. Our suite was angled so that it didn't currently feel the brunt of the storm's wind, but I knew that this would change as the hurricane moved passed us. I listened to the wind howl for a few moments, becoming more worried.

Just then, we heard a loud crash and Gwen let out a little yelp as we all looked outside to see the thatch roof of a small cabana roll passed the hotel.

At 9:30 the front desk called saying that if the storm continued on its present path through 1 AM, we were to evacuate our suite and move to a large ballroom on the fourth floor.

It was an hour and a half until the next report.

I was of course concerned but also very angry with myself for being so careless and placing my family in the possible path of this dangerous storm.

The room was warm and dim, lit only by candles and a hurricane lamp. Everyone sat around, waiting. Chris offered a round of Gin and we all played. Then everyone got bored and the game petered out.

We waited.

"Alright." I nearly yelled, "Let's play some more cards then."

The sentence came off like an edict.

Everyone in the room went silent. Julie got up silently and lightly touched my shoulder as she moved into the kitchen to fix everyone some soft drinks. I had thoughtlessly driven the tension in the room a couple of notches higher.

"I'm sorry." I said, "I worry too much. It makes me grumpy sometimes."

"It's ok Dad," said Lizzie, "Gwen gets like that too sometimes."

"C'mere Gwen." I said, putting my arm around her as she sat next to me.

Then we all sat there silently again, listening to the growing storm.

Julie came back in a few minutes with the drinks and sat on my other side. I smiled at her gratefully as I took a sip and realized the she had slipped a little bourbon in with mine. Lizzie slid over to where Chris was sitting on the floor, and kissed him slow and full on the lips.

Emotion welled up in me once more, as I watched them. "Why don't you two just do it right here?" I said angrily, I was just venting, but perhaps I was a little envious of them as well.

Lizzie and Chris slid away from each other and Gwen slid from under my arm. They all looked at anything but me. Julie however, gave me a hard, disapproving glare. But I continued.

"That's what you want isn't it? To screw?" I asked in my most cutting tone, "Well, why don't you do it right here?"

I could see that the Gwen was starting to cloud up a bit but I kept right on.

"You've all brought shame upon our house." I spat. "You're disgusting."

"Paul!!" Julie exclaimed, cursing me with her eyes.

Gwen looked down sadly, but Lizzie just shook her head angrily at me. I felt like dirt. Real dirt.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I got up quickly and despite the raging storm, moved out onto the balcony. The winds were hard, almost hurricane force now, But our room was angled away from them so that I hardly felt them and not even a drop of rain fell on me. Surprisingly, Gwen followed behind and joined me.

"I'm sorry." I repeated. But my Gwendolyn simply shook her head and put her arms around me from behind in a very loving hug. I looked back out into the furious storm. Part of me wanted to retain this anger I had pointed at myself, to remain like a stone for her hug, but I couldn't. I turned around and hugged her, feeling my anger subside.

"Please come talk to us Daddy." she said looking up into my eyes. "I know how you feel. I'm just like you. I use to feel so guilty and so dirty. I worried so much for so long. Please don't judge us. Just come in and talk to us. You shouldn't be out here. C'mon, we'll tell you." She took my hand and led me back inside, sitting me down on the sofa, before sitting on the floor with her sibling lovers next to her.