Under the Milky Way

Daniella said nothing more about the fact her daughter and best-friend's son were cuddled up together on the beach, and she turned and went back up the dune towards the house.

"I guess the cat's out of the bag then," Duncan said, blinking his bleary eyes in the morning sunlight.

"I guess so. I'm goin' back to sleep."

Duncan and Sophie snuggled for another hour, their heads hidden under the blanket, then walked their sandy bodies back to the house. Their mothers and siblings didn't say a word while they went about their business of cleaning the sand from clothing, showering separately, then crashing together on the living room couch in front of the old TV.

They felt everyone's eyes on them but acted casual as if spending the night together on the beach was the most normal thing in the entire world for them. And no one said a thing, accepting what they already knew; that Duncan and Sophie were deeply in love, which was the most beautiful thing.

~0~

Epilogue

Friday 21st of February, 2020

The Pacific Highway was like an old friend to Duncan, especially this northern stretch of motorway on which he drove his black Audi Q5 from home near Tweed Heads. Conscious his familiarity with the road might cause him to slip into complacency, he mentally reminded himself to concentrate.

To the west he noted Wollumbin, the familiar sleeping warrior-mountain, with the last rays of sun glinting off the great warrior's summit nose. He drove past fields of sugarcane and pastures which suffered from both drought and then flooding rains earlier in the year, then past the turn-off to his mother's farm, where his Nan and Pop were now buried side-by-side.

He helped his mother out whenever he could, generally maintaining fences to ensure the agisting cattle and horses were in their correct paddocks, providing his mother an income over the past eleven years since his Pop died and passed the farm onto Beth.

A melodic tune from local band Skegss burst from the car's stereo; the chorus proclaiming, I guess I'm not getting any younger, younger, young once then you're old forever...and he felt the familiar wave of nostalgia wash over him.

"I'm definitnely not getting any younger, that's for sure," he mumbled to himself, but smiled at the familiar mountains out his driver's side window, the landscape of sugarcane and cattle rushing past.

"Huh, what'd you say?" Sophie looked across to him from the passenger seat.

"Oh, nothing, my love. Just muttering to myself."

"That explains everything," she said with a grin. "Talking to one's self is a sign of mental illness, you know."

"It can be," he smiled at the road. "But it's also healthy to talk to one's self now and again."

"Mummy, is Daddy sick?" Robbie piped up from the back seat, across from his sleeping sister, Aggie.

"You're so perceptive my little one," Sophie said, leaning around the seat to smile at her son. "But no, Daddy isn't ill. I was making a joke."

"Was it a funny joke?" Robbie asked, and Sophie smiled back, almost laughing.

But Duncan answered, briefly looking into the backseat through the rear-view mirror with a smile of his own. "No, mate, your Mummy's jokes are never funny."

"You're a funny joke," Sophie smiled at Duncan. "And you're mine."

"Your mum's a funny joke."

"Your mum's a...lovely human being. And don't be so mean about my mum!"

"Did Daddy say something mean about Grandma?" Robbie asked.

"Jesus, he doesn't miss a thing, does he," Sophie whispered as softly to Duncan as possible, knowing Robbie's exceptional hearing probably heard anyhow. To be sure, she said to Robbie, "No, darling, Daddy was joking too."

"You and Daddy's jokes are terrible," Robbie said with a huff, frowning and folding his arms crossly across his chest.

Both Duncan and Sophie laughed, and Sophie said, "He's got us there."

"We'll have trouble with him in the future, I bet," Duncan whispered softly.

"Takes after you, I reckon."

"Nah, Soph, he's you to a T."

"I can't wait to see Grandma and Grandpa, and Nana!" Robbie said, changing the subject and mood as only kids can. "Are we almost there?"

Sophie looked around, noting they were now bypassing the town of Ballina and she turned in her seat again to give Robbie another smile. "Not far now, my darling. Soon."

It was twilight as the familiar road began winding its way beside the Richmond River and more fields of sugarcane. Up ahead the tall stacks of the sugar mill glowed silver in the moonlight, indicating they'd reach the turnoff in a few minutes. After the turn-off, Duncan kept the car below the speed limit, increasing his chance of stopping for any wildlife who might hop unexpectedly in front of them on the long stretch of road through the bush to Evans Head.

In the darkness they drove into the beachside town, which was always different-but-the-same in Sophie and Duncan's memories: different because they knew the older town from their memories and childhood photos and Beth's home movies, but the same because they'd come here often and knew each change so intimately they barely noticed.

Duncan's Pop's old holiday house wasn't the same either, where he and Sophie, together with Kate and her husband Nick, banded together and bought the place from Beth, paying for renovations several years before. They'd maintained the basic plan and some of the old structure, if only to keep the essence of Pop's fishing shack, but now the house sported an airy architectural modern look, inside and out, including separate bedrooms for all the adults. They'd also replaced the gravel driveway with a concrete one, in which Duncan now parked.

"Grandma! Nana!" Robbie cried out as Daniella and Beth appeared on the front deck.

Sophie opened the car door for Robbie, who ran up the steps into his grandparent's arms.

"Little fella couldn't wait to see you," Sophie said to her mother and mother-in-law while she opened the car boot to collect their luggage. "Apparently he's been talking about you two to his teacher and friends at school all day!"

"I've been thinking about you and your sister all day too," Beth said to her grandson while receiving a huge hug from the boy.

"Mummy picked me up from school and spoke to Mrs McGowan."

Beth looked at Sophie. "You didn't go into work today?"

Before Sophie could utter a word, Robbie answered for her. "Mummy said the courts were adjourned for my birthday weekend and she was allowed to come home early! Daddy couldn't come home early though, because he was kept back in a meeting. He told Mummy the big boss is a seal. They thought I couldn't hear, but I could."

Beth, Daniella and Sophie broke into laughter, as Robbie ran to Daniella's arms for a hug. Beth raised her eyebrows at Duncan. "Your boss is a seal?"

Duncan, who was pulling a grumbling one year-old Aggie from her booster seat, turned with a chuckle and said, "Imbecile, not seal. Robbie doesn't miss a thing."

"You were exactly the same at his age," Beth said, gesturing towards her almost-six year-old grandson.

Hardly missing a beat, Robbie continued, "Daddy told me the hospital let him off for the entire weekend and other doctors are looking after all the sick people so he can spend the time with me on my birthday too!"

"The boss can't be too much of a seal then," Beth, said, winking at Duncan.

"You're a lucky boy, Robbie," Daniella replied to her grandson with a beaming smile. "Your mummy and daddy love you very much. How about we let them get organised and go find Grandpa. He's about to cook us some sausages."

"Yay, I love sausages!" Robbie's enthusiasm was infectious. Daniella took Robbie's hand, while he spoke continuously about nothing in particular.

"Lucky you!" Daniella nodded at something her grandson told her, leading him inside while Beth smiled at their grandson's expressive and endless flow of dialogue.

Duncan chuckled at his son's precociousness as he held Aggie, kissing her cheek and speaking softly to her. "Will you look at your mother? Still a vision of beauty if I ever saw one."

Sophie laughed. "First it's talking to yourself and now you're having visions, you senile bugger!"

"Tunnel vision," Duncan said, giving Sophie a cheeky smile. "For you, my gorgeous."

"Awww, you...I can't even..." Sophie's words failed her, hand held over heart and her smiles coy with love. After all these years she couldn't have hidden her glow caused by her husband's endless affection, even if she'd wanted to.

Duncan smiled at the loving effect he had on his wife, plus revelling in the rare victory of having rendered her speechless, while Beth approached, reaching for Aggie.

"Where's my little girl," she said, taking Aggie from Duncan's arms. "Daddy can help your lovely Mummy with the luggage, can't he?"

Duncan handed Aggie over and smiled at Sophie, who stood there smiling back at him in adoration.

~0~

After dinner, Beth and Daniella offered to put their grandchildren to bed, while Sophie's father insisted on cleaning up the mess the kids made at the dinner table.

"Love, why don't you two go and relax," Terry said, popping an old tape into the ancient single-speaker cassette/radio sitting on the modern kitchen bench. He pressed play and The Warumpi Band began belting out their classic song, Blackfella/Whitefella, but Terry turned the volume down so as not to disturb the settling children down the hall where the enclosed veranda used to be. He sang quietly while he worked. "Blackfella, whitefella, It doesn't matter, what your colour. As long as you, a real fella, as long as you, a true fella..."

But Sophie began helping her father remove the dishes from the table, so he put out his hand and lightly patted her wrist and interrupted his singing, saying, "No, no, no! Like I said, you and Duncan go relax because we have things under control here."

"You sure, Dad?"

"Yes, Love," Terry laughed. "Take advantage of us. It's what we're here for."

"Okay, sure. Aggie slept the whole drive down, so I suspect she'll be up for a while longer yet, so maybe Duncan and I'll go for a walk and let you oldies handle the crying." She gave her dad a little smile.

"No problems, Soph. Nothing we haven't done a thousand times before. Your kids are easy though, compared to some. I remember what a handful you could be at bedtimes, little missy."

"She still is," Duncan said.

Sophie poked her tongue at both her father and husband, causing the two men to laugh.

~0~

"We've done pretty well for ourselves, Duncan Ross." Sophie gave his hand a squeeze as they walked barefoot on the cool, wet sand. "Even if I do say so myself."

"Yep. We got lucky I suppose."

"Luck?" Sophie sniggered. "Luck has nothing to do with it. It was all hard work on my account, making sure you made it through uni."

Duncan laughed and squeeze her hand in return, knowing she told a part-truth, because she'd always inspired him, bringing out his best. "Couldn't have done it without you, Soph."

"I could've done it without you," she said with a chuckle, bumping her hip playfully against his as they walked. Her tone turned serious as she continued. "But I wouldn't have wanted it any other way."

The waves broke to their right as they walked north, the Pacific Ocean rushing up the sand to bubble and swirl near their feet. She wore an ankle-length native-blossom pattern dress, long and flowing, and he still wore formal dark work trousers. Several times when exceptionally large waves broke and pushed towards them, they were forced to move quickly up the shore.

One wave caught them off guard and Sophie hitched her dress up, while the bottom of Duncan's trousers were soaked by the familiar touch of the cool salty ocean swirling around their feet. She laughed as he looked down, staring at his wet trouser-legs among the swirling bubbles, and he laughed too.

They were happy and she squeezed his hand and stared into one another's eyes for a while, then Sophie leant into Duncan, gently kissing his lips. He kissed her back with equal tenderness, a little hint tongues softly touching, and another wave caught them, swirling around their feet again, wetting the hem of her dress and further soaking his trouser-legs.

They laughed at their foolishness, then walked grinning, hand-squeezing-hand up the beach, heading towards the exit track through the dune. Duncan sat in the sand on the edge of the dune and said, "Let's sit here for a bit, eh? I think our mums will still have the kids up reading or chatting."

Sophie sat at his side and placed her head on his shoulder, watching the waves break against at the shoreline. "Thank goodness for our mums."

"Delegating parenting to the grandparents is the best," Duncan agreed.

"It's what grandparents are for."

"Robbie will be so excited for his birthday and all his cousins arriving tomorrow morning. He probably won't get to sleep for a while. Will be fun to get him out in the surf with his new body-board though."

"Our own little grommet," Sophie said, smiling, squeezing Duncan's hand.

Duncan smiled too and kissed Sophie's hair. He whispered, "I love you, my beauty."

"Hmmm." The sound she made was one of contentment.

He put his arm around her and they sat in silence for several wave breaks against the shore, and then many more. When Duncan broke the silence, he spoke softly, saying, "Hey, look up."

"Wow, so magical."

The Milky Way shone like a million sparklers, its wide arc spreading across the sky. The two lovers sat in silence, watching the spectacle they'd witnessed many times, yet always left them in awe.

Sophie broke the silence this time. "Reminds me of another night down here on the beach, nineteen years ago."

"Oh? Do tell."

"Would you believe I took the virginity of some handsome bloke on this very spot while the stars watched over us?"

"Hmm, did you now?"

"I sure did. He came along when I was upset and we built a fire and he spoke very sweetly to me and made me all better. We made love on the sand, then slept there till morning."

"Must've been one lucky fella, coming down to the beach here to find an angel and gifting her his love. But I think you're a little out by the location, because it was two or three metres over there," He pointed to their left, "So it wasn't on this very spot."

She laughed and squeezed his hand. "Trust you to remember the exact spot. You probably know it down to the millimetre."

"I'll never forget."

"Probably put the coordinantes in your GPS." She laughed, then rested her head on his shoulder again, speaking softly. "You know our discussion last week?"

"The, ah, family discussion?"

"Yeah," she whispered, "The family discussion. I'm pretty sure I'm fertile right now. Want to go halves in another baby?"

Duncan gave a little laugh. "Didn't we decide having another means we'll be outnumbered?"

"Yeah, but this is why we live reasonably close to both our parents, silly!"

He smiled, absolutely wanting another child with Sophie, and besides, they'd already agreed the week before. At thirty-seven, Sophie wasn't getting any younger and they decided the sooner the better. Kissing the top of her hair again, he said, "Okay, you've convinced me."

"Wanna do it on the beach, Doctor Ross, like old times?"

"Sounds great, your honour."

"Hey, I'm not a judge! Not yet, anyway."

"The jury's out on that one."

"You don't even make sense, you dag."

"Just saying you're highly judgmental, that's all."

She laughed. "You're not judging your words too wisely, husband."

"Sure, wifey. Hey, let's move two metres to our left."

"Isn't it two-point-five metres?"

"Two-point-four-seven actually."

They both giggled, shuffled across the sand, then kissed, their mouths joining with passion, tongues touching, hands feeling familiar skin and curves. The palm of her hand lay over his heart for a couple of throbbing beats, before moving across his shirt which he'd diligently ironed at their home the previous night, but was now crumpled after a long day's work as a renal consultant at the hospital's renal unit. Sophie fingered his top button and whispered, "Let's open this up, Doctor Ross."

Duncan's hand too began unbuttoning Sophie's blouse, but not removing it, for there was a fresh breeze and he didn't want her to be too cold. As it was he could feel her skin was covered in goose bumps, growing in number when he gently nuzzled his lips against the soft rise of her breast above her bra, which he deftly removed with one hand at her back.

"Oh, God, Dunc," she moaned when he kissed her hard nipples, tongue rolling over them, lips gently sucking at her areolas. She loved the way he sucked and kissed her breasts, every bit as much as he loved doing it to her. Enjoying his lavish attention, her hands found his belt buckle, loosening it and unzipping his fly, then they both worked at removing his trousers, pushing them down his legs.

"What's this then," she whispered, brushing the sand off her hand onto her dress, then taking hold of his erection.

"It's my big, fat cock," he whispered.

"It's my big, fat cock," Sophie said, flashing him a smile before going down on him, taking his big, fat cock in her warm mouth.

The sight and feel of his beautiful wife sucking his dick caused the adrenaline to flow, his breathing increasing with the excitement while he pulled at her underpants from beneath her dress. Wrestling them down her long legs proved more difficult than he'd expected because she moved and wriggled while running her lips up and down his length, giving him pleasure shivers. She wasn't helping him in the slightest, and when her lips slid up to the top, she kissed the end of his knob, and giggled playfully. "Having a bit of trouble there, Doctor Ross?"

"Only the usual. My wife's being a handful again."

"My husband's more than a handful. More than a mouthful too, if you must know." She giggled before slipping her lips over him again, slowly moving them down his length, taking him in till his cock-head nudged the back of her throat.

"Sophie, my love," Duncan gasped, now looking down at his wife's hair, a mix of dark and light curly tendrils, joined recently by an increasing amount of grey, cascading from her head about his belly and groin. He reached out and touched the back of her neck, lightly tracing his fingers over her skin. Sophie sucked him hard from base to tip, her tongue all over him, and her technique was sensational as usual, but he wanted more of her. "I love what you're doing to me, my love, but my years of medical training tell me there is no way we'll make a baby using this method."

Holding his saliva-wet shaft and looking up his body while gazing cheekily into his eyes, she tongued his knob for a moment longer, her bottom lip resting against the tip of his bloated organ. He chuckled because she looked comical in the moonlight, and she smiled because making him laugh was her desired effect. Playful sex was their favourite kind of sex.

"Hmmm," she moaned, "You and your use of facts. But do you have something for me up there better than what I have down here?" Her voice was breathy and she slathered her tongue slowly from his cock's tip to base and back.

"You'll have to come up here and find out."

"I look forward to cumming up there," she smiled and gave him another round of licking.

Back when they were new at loving, Sophie came quick and hard every time they fucked, which was usually several times a day back then, and Duncan joked it was his natural prowess as a lover, which he genuinely began to believe. But over time they heard the tales from their female friends, most of whom confided to Sophie, of their frustrations with sex, of not orgasming through penetration, or how clumsy and selfish their lovers were. But also through Duncan's studies in medicine, they'd come to the conclusion Sophie came easily and harder than many women. "Turns out it's my natural prowess as a lover," she'd once said to him with a breathless sigh after several thumping orgasms one morning, his shaft buried deep inside her, on the verge of climaxing himself, back in their rented terrace share-house in Sydney's inner-west during their university years.