AWAKENING DESIRES

By Stanley V. Collymore

LOOKING BACK OVER THE ALL TOO FLEETING but highly exciting events of her summer vacation Stephanie tried bravely but unsuccessfully to contain the gnawing pain of regret and fill the aching vacuum caused by desires deep inside her, and which sprang from the new and totally unexpected experience she’d so recently tasted.
         In retrospect everything had happened so quickly. Her father, Peter Goldsmith, having consulted with her, had reluctantly decided to send her away to finishing school in Switzerland, to be a lady. She was seventeen and had lived alone with her managing director father, boss of a multinational electronics firm, ever since she was eight years old when her mother was tragically killed in the crash of the light aeroplane she was piloting.
         Not unnaturally, the bond between Stephanie and her father was a strong one given the circumstances. And as he watched her grow up into the beautiful young woman she’d become Peter was filled with both happiness and pride - a situation reinforced by the fact that Stephanie as she got older came increasingly to resemble her dead mother.
         Even so, it was time to put aside the past and think positively about the future - Stephanie’s future. And although he realised it would be a terrible wrench for both of them to be parted for such a long time, Peter knew that what he was suggesting was the right thing and Stephanie, trusting him implicitly as she always did, agreed.
         “I hope you don’t think I’m trying to get rid of you,” Peter joked.
         “Of course you are, admit it,” Stephanie replied. “It’s all part of a sinister plot to get me out of the way and bring some other woman in here, isn’t it?”
         “You’ve guessed,” Peter said in mock defeat. “Yet here I was thinking that I’d fooled you by being so clever, and that you’d never find out.”
         Stephanie laughed: the soft contours of her lips naturally parting to reveal her pearl white teeth, her eyes liquid pools of merriment.
         “You’ll never be shot of me that easily,” she announced.
         “Oh really?”
         “No! ‘Cause I’m stuck to you like glue.”
         “One never parts voluntarily with a precious gift anyway,” Peter quipped.
         “Maybe not. But what if someone should steal it?”
         “Then the owner I would say is honour bound to strive to get it back. That’s providing, of course, he values it as much as I value you.”
         “Is that what you’d do, fight for me?” Stephanie asked.
         “With my life,” Peter replied. “Until, that is, you want to and then decide to go off of your own free will to lead your own life.”
         Stephanie who’d been sitting next to her dad threw her arms in an encircling embrace around his waist and hugged him tightly.
         “That isn’t about to happen for a very long time,” she promised. “And even then I’ll still be your darling little girl.”
         “I hope you’ll stay that way,” Peter smiled engagingly; adding teasingly: “But when love beckons promises made in one’s carefree moments have a habit of being forgotten just as quickly as they were made.”
         “This one won’t be,” Stephanie said seriously.
         Peter patted his daughter’s head affectionately.
         “I believe you,” he laughed.
         “Good,” Stephanie replied cheerfully.
         “Changing the subject,” Peter said matter-of-factly, “It seems that I’m going to have to make a trip to the Caribbean - Barbados as it happens...”
         “Are you thinking of setting up operations there?” Stephanie interjected.
         “I’ve spoken to some of the other directors who think as I do that there could be possibilities there for a business like ours. So I’ve arranged a business trip to meet some of the local chaps that might be of great assistance to us. Want to come along?”
         “Yes please!” Stephanie cried enthusiastically. “When do we go?”
         “In a week’s time.”
         “How long for?”
         “I haven’t quite decided yet,” Peter confessed. “But I thought that once I’d got the business end of things out of the way you and I could perhaps make a holiday of the rest of the time available to us. A few weeks in the tropics don’t sound all that bad, and the break would do us both the world of good I think. What do you say?”
         “Love the idea!” Stephanie exclaimed.
         “Good, it’s settled then.”
         The Boeing 747 British Airways flight from Gatwick was routine, touching down at Grantley Adams International Airport eight hours later. For Stephanie, by no means a newcomer to air travel having flown on numerous occasions abroad with her father, the thrill of coming to Barbados, a country that she’d never before visited but one she’d nevertheless heard so much about, was total. And as the giant aircraft banked on its final approach to landing and made its perfect descent with the island’s south coast in full view, she leaned heavily against the side of her seat and peering unblinkingly through the widow beside her watched in fascination as the panoramic landscape beneath her unfolded gloriously before her very eyes.
         After clearing customs Peter and Stephanie were met as arranged by Colin, a representative of the group Peter would be having talks with, and in the chauffeur-driven car provided for their use were taken to a residence on the west coast of the island.
         It was love at first sight for Stephanie - the sights and sounds of Barbados. And on reaching the villa that would be home for her and Peter during their stay on the island her very first act after being introduced to the maid who would look after her and her dad and then shown where her room was, was to take a casual stroll along the silver-white sands of the expansive beach immediately outside the villa.
         There as the gentle, rolling waves of the Caribbean Sea washed her feet and skittishly erased those footprints which carelessly strayed too near their grasp she knew instinctively that she’d found her paradise; that she would love it in Barbados. And as her thoughts started to roam freely in the idyllic setting that was everywhere around her, softly and involuntarily she heard herself humming the Harry Belafonte Calypso Island in the Sun, and vowed there and then that Barbados would for her be indeed just that.
         The following morning Peter had a business meeting to attend and knowing that he would be tied up for most of the working day had asked Colin to take care of Stephanie. Colin agreed. And having first made sure that Peter got to his meeting on time he dutifully returned to carry out his obligations to Stephanie.
         Dressed in casual summer wear that gracefully highlighted her classic, English beauty Stephanie was on the veranda of her temporary tropical home when Colin’s car pulled into the driveway; and as it came to a halt she watched him get out, her eyes closely following him as he made his way towards her.
         “Hi,” Colin greeted her affably, as he climbed the first of the steps leading to the veranda and the object of his attention.
         “Hi,” Stephanie replied breezily. “Dad got there okay?”
         Colin had reached the veranda and was now standing facing Stephanie.
         “Yes,” he replied. “Now it’s your turn to be served. What do you want to do?”
         “Enjoy myself, what else?” Stephanie said playfully.
         “But of course,” Colin replied amused. “Any suggestions?”
         “Plenty, as it happens. Although I have a feeling that the ones which I have in mind might not meet with your approval,” Stephanie teased.
         “Try me,” Colin encouraged.
         “Very well then. Now you’ve asked I’d like very much to get myself an all-over tan,” Stephanie announced. “But since it’s virtually impossible to go topless in Barbados without courting trouble from the authorities it seems that I’m saddled with an intractable problem right from the start unless, that is, you can fix it for me. And if you can’t, then I’m afraid my other suggestions are unfortunately all going to be way out of line.”
         “That was just your first suggestion,” Colin began before Stephanie interrupted him.
         “Yes. But how do you know the others aren’t just as provocative?”
         “Are they?”
         “What if they were? What would you say?”
         “That you’re plucky.”
         “For making outlandish suggestions or for wanting to carry them out?”
         “For being candid,” Colin replied. “Anyway, I already took it for granted that you weren’t just saying what you did for effect - you don’t strike me as that kind of person. So anything that you do say I would imagine you actually mean.”
         “Is that so?”
         “Mmm-huh,” Colin cooed soothingly.
         Stephanie smiled embarrassedly briefly lost for words, her cheeks reddening in the process as Colin had looked her straight in the eye as he spoke.
         “Are you always that direct?” she asked on regaining her composure.
         “There’s no other way to be,” Colin answered. “Besides, it gets results.”
         “Always?”
         “Depends.”
         “On what?”
         “How determined I am.”
         “I see,” Stephanie replied. “And how determined are you now?”
         “Do you really want to know?”
         Stephanie smiled and gave a relaxed shrug of her shoulders.
         “Perhaps not,” she said evasively though not altogether convincingly so; but as she spoke a hint of disappointment had creased Colin’s face. Stephanie saw this and instantaneously recognised the negative effect that her words were having on him, which was wholly different from the effect she really wanted them to have. Quickly she decided to do something about this.
         “But I’m not averse to surprises,” she added encouragingly.
         This timely intervention worked magnificently. And although she didn’t glean this immediately from the subsequent conversation she had with Colin the look in his eyes nevertheless said it all.
         Finally it was reciprocally agreed that they would go for a drive to the Scotland District and along that region’s East Coast Road, and in the car on their way there Colin gave Stephanie a potted history of this enchanting area. He also commented on how beautiful it was, emphasising the fact that it was quite different from the rest of Barbados.
         Sitting beside him and quite relaxed in the open-top convertible, sun glasses on and her long, blonde hair blowing wildly in the wind Stephanie listened intently to what Colin was saying, secretly happy that her genuine interest in him and what he had to say was really pleasing him.
         Then in the light-hearted mood that immediately followed they advanced their journey eastwards, the densely populated and urban west coast area quickly giving way to a conspicuously rural and scenic landscape that consisted of green fields of sugar cane and open countryside.
         At Farley Hill, and with the surrounding terrain tapering off to the summit that marked the boundary between the parishes of St. Peter and St. Andrew, Stephanie found herself gripped with an overpowering excitement she was unable to restrain as she marvelled at the remarkable sight that exploded before her.
         For down below and particularly from this vantage point, and as far as the eye could see, Nature’s exquisite craftsmanship and skilfully manifested at its very best was universally at large; evident in the lush, green valleys and the majestic hills that criss-crossed them; the neat, brightly coloured homesteads made readily accessible by a cornucopia of arteries of assorted roads that fanned out across the countryside; and the expansive and unbroken Lakes Beach which stretched out for miles into the distance towards the traditional fishing village of Bathsheba - itself bordered on the leeward side by a series of undulating sand dunes, and on the windward side by the sapphire blue waters and white-crested waves of the mighty Atlantic Ocean.
         “Oh, just look at that!” Stephanie exclaimed in utter delight, deeply impressed by the fabulous landscape exquisitely served up in front of her eyes. “It’s beautiful, absolutely beautiful!”
         Colin concurred, delighted by her response. And as he drove on, taking them through the hamlets of Shorey, Walkers and Belleplaine, stopping periodically on the way to point out significant landmarks like the historic St. Andrew’s Parish Church and the then 211 year old Alleyne Grammar School, Stephanie’s happiness, fully evident as it was infectious, rapidly increased by leaps and bounds.
         So that by the time she and Colin had detoured through the picturesque Lakes Village nestling peacefully at the foot of the chalk white cliffs of Chalky Mount and had reached the East Coast where they finally stopped she was already in the kind of receptive mood where deep-seated emotions stirred by sexual fantasies take over and reason falls sharply behind.
         East of Barclays’ Park and sitting atop the sand dunes there are dense clusters of tropical grape trees sculptured into perfect canopies by generations of prevailing Trade Winds blowing in from across the expansive Atlantic. And nearby are several rock pools where it’s quite safe to pleasurably bathe and gratifyingly indulge one’s self for hours at any given time out of the hazardous reach of the many treacherous currents that routinely stalk this coastline; and it was to one of these that Colin, who knew the area well, took Stephanie.
         Earlier and now decidedly motivated by the exciting time she’d anticipated for both herself and Colin, Stephanie had rather temptingly and quite enthusiastically changed into a visibly striking, semi-transparent bikini that simultaneously hugged and accentuated her curvaceous figure. Colin had also donned his swim shorts. And as they both walked along the beach their voices locked in animated conversation Stephanie, blissfully intoxicated by the truly magical world of wonderment around her, that she was delighted to be in and which she was determined to utilize further and consume even more liberally from Nature’s bounteous offerings to her, threw herself unreservedly into the spirit of the occasion. And in league with this new but highly stimulating and thoroughly infectious spirit of tropical adventure which had agreeably seized her she quite suddenly and with girlish enthusiasm broke into a run and raced excitedly along the beach.
         “The last one into the water is a mongoose!” she cried.
         “Why a mongoose?” Colin shouted after her, quickly following her example.
         “It’s the only Barbadian animal that I can think of right now,” Stephanie called back.
         Colin laughed and quickened his pace. But despite his determined efforts to reduce the distance between them and overtake Stephanie at the same time, she was much too fast for him, for the advantage she’d given herself easily paid off and she effortlessly reached the ocean first where, giving gravity a liberal helping hand, she fell precipitously into its embrace, letting the refreshing and crystal clear water, so compelling irresistible, fully envelop her body.
         “I wouldn’t call that fair,” Colin complained weakly before immersing himself too in the pure, limpid water which Stephanie was already making the most of.
         “Tell me something that is,” Stephanie laughed.
         “Oh there’re lots of things,” Colin countered jovially.
         “Yet you can’t name me one,” Stephanie teased, at the same time devilishly scooping up a double handful of water which she directed and skilfully succeeded in landing squarely on her target’s face - the recipient of this pleasurable assault being only a few feet away from her at the time.
         Anticipating Colin’s response and to effect a chase Stephanie then started to swim away but was soon caught. However in the light-hearted tussle that promptly followed she quickly broke free and laughingly ran on to the beach with Colin in hot pursuit. There after a playful exercise of catch-me-if-you-can that lasted for a couple of minutes Stephanie finally allowed Colin to do just that, without making her submission too obvious of course.
         What followed next was as welcomed as it was predictable, so natural was its progression; so gratifying the opportunity it offered. A joint sun rising unstoppably, heralding for Stephanie and Colin a new dawn in the process.
         Afterwards with the absorbing interlude of fast-moving intimacy between them and which served as a harbinger to their hearts most cherished desires reciprocally negotiated Stephanie - her own awakening long triggered by Colin’s presence but begun in earnest the moment he pressed his lips firmly against hers - slowly, almost involuntarily closed her eyes as she felt and accommodated the intensity of his lips’ passion, and with her emotions fully charged willingly surrendered herself to him.
         It was a proffered invitation which Colin manfully accepted, his dexterous and intimate exploration of Stephanie’s breasts and every other part of her that he could reach feeding the enervating sexual hunger generated by him and which now raged uncontrollably inside her, forcing her to abandon what inhibitions she still had left and, in the lusty exchange of carnal intent that followed, respond in like manner as himself.
         “Oh I do so much want you Colin,” Stephanie breathed passionately. “Want you so much. You’re driving me crazy - ever so crazy for you!”
         Then glancing down at herself amidst the throes of carnal ecstasy that furiously rocked her young, vibrant and virginal body noticed that Colin had fully bared her left breast: its succulent, white nakedness conspicuously swollen, erect and in sharp contrast to his dark-brown complexion, standing out prominently, a direct result of the continuous and detailed attention it was being lovingly given.
         Without a word but simply responding to the burning fever that threatened to consume her Stephanie instinctively reached back and helpfully unclasped the hook of her bikini top, letting the garment fall unhindered to the ground.
         “Take me,” she pleaded urgently, grabbing hold of Colin’s hand and directing it to the waistband of her bikini bottom. “Make love to me.”
         Rarely are expectations of an entirely new experience realised in the pursuance of the act. And for Stephanie and Colin their combined, gentle fall mattressed on the surf-washed sand beneath their crumbling feet huge expectations did arise and of such a magnitude and strength that nothing short of a super-human effort on both their parts could possible have fulfilled theirs.
         In the end though everything worked out just fine. The shrill, triumphant cry of lost maidenhood emitted by Stephanie that punctuated the air with its unblemished clarity and immediately afterwards was followed by repeated and vocal expressions of unrestrained joy, underscoring what was already an undeniable fact: that for her the crossing of her personal Rubicon had indeed been an unqualified success.
         Late that evening and with the setting sun lighting up the western sky of this paradise island in a blaze of colour the two lovers, their intimacies given full rein to and wantonly played out on land and in the sea, got dressed and reluctantly leaving the East Coast began their journey homewards.
         The weeks that followed her graduation to womanhood were halcyon days for Stephanie and Colin - there being no holding back for either of them. And every opportunity they got to be alone they took and utilised it to the full. So much so in fact that Peter realising their involvement and concerned about the consequences for his daughter’s involvement decided to raise the matter with her.
         “Yes, I’m sleeping with Colin,” Stephanie answered candidly when her father put the question to her outright.
         “Is that wise?”
         “In what way?” Stephanie asked.
         “The AIDS risk for one thing,” Peter explained.
         “Colin is a fastidiously clean, healthy and very responsible young man who I trust implicitly dad,” Stephanie said confidently.
         “But you’re so young.”
         “I’ll be eighteen in a month’s time dad. That puts me way above the legal age of consent; or have you forgotten that?”
         “I know,” Peter conceded. “And I shouldn’t be interfering.”
         “That’s not what I’m implying dad,” Stephanie replied supportively. “Actually, I’m deeply flattered by the interest that you’re showing in my private life. Honest! But frankly, well aware as I am that you know me like you do, I don’t know what it is that’s really troubling you.”
         “How emotionally involved are you with Colin?” Peter asked.
         Stephanie drew a deep breath as she began a swift search of her mind for the right words that would effectively encapsulate her evolving feelings for Colin and at the same time answer her father’s question
         “I like him a lot,” she readily admitted. “But I must confess that right now it’s far too early for me to say whether I really love him or not. Why do you ask?”
         “Just be careful love, that’s all,” Peter warned.
         Stephanie smiled warily.
         “Is that the perennial, fatherly warning to a teenage daughter or has it anything to do with the fact that Colin in black?” she asked pointedly.
         “Good Heavens no!” Peter replied promptly and reassuringly. “The question of Colin’s colour never crossed my mind for a single moment. He’s an excellent young man: bright, ambitious and very likeable. And I do like him. I’m merely exercising my privilege as a father, that’s all.”
         “In other words you don’t relish the idea of becoming a grandfather just yet - right?”
         “Right,” Peter repeated.
         Stephanie laughed.
         “Then stop worrying for it won’t happen, not yet anyway,” she said positively but with absolute certainty. “Neither am I, unprepared as I am for a deep emotional relationship, about to run off and get myself married.
         “I’m simply enjoying myself which, by the way, girls every bit as boys are, are perfectly entitled to do. Even those put down for finishing school and earmarked to become ladies of the realm.”
         “Point taken,” Peter replied. “I just hope it was worth it.”
         Stephanie smiled engagingly.
“Believe me it was,” she said honestly, a glow of satisfaction eagerly lighting up her face and unconcealed desire brimming effusively from her eyes. “It couldn’t have been any better, even if I’d scripted the entire scenario myself.”
         “That good eh?” Peter remarked.
         Stephanie nodded in delighted affirmation, a winsome smile flashing fleetingly across her faultless face the pristine confidence of new womanhood frankly exerting itself.
         “Then you’d better make the most of it my girl. It might be a hard act to follow when you get back to Europe,” Peter suggested.
         “Dad!” Stephanie scolded playfully but deeply flattered, then lovingly reached out and planted a lingering kiss on her father’s cheek. “You’re not supposed to say such things openly. Not to your daughter anyway.”
         Peter laughed.
         “Who’s the one being embarrassed now?” he asked light-heartedly. “Besides, I thought that honesty was what you were into to. Or is that just a one-way street?”
         “Just kidding dad. And thanks for being so understanding.”
         “Don’t mention it my dear. After all, isn’t that what a caring father is supposed to be about?” Peter declared. “Besides, you seem to have forgotten that I was young once.”
         “You don’t say,” Stephanie teased.
         All too soon for her the critical day of Stephanie’s departure arrived. The flight from Grantley Adams International Airport was scheduled to leave at twenty one hundred hours that night and Colin was at the airport to see her and Peter off.
         Predictably he and Stephanie had spent most of their last day together where it all started - down on the island’s East Coast. And as Peter checked in at the British Airways counter attending to the pre-flight details for both Stephanie and himself, the soon-to-be-parted lovers wandered arm in arm through the departure concourse oblivious to everyone and almost everything but themselves.
         “I shall miss you,” Colin said softly, breaking the silence between them.
         “And I you,” Stephanie replied. “I’ve had a really wonderful time here, thanks to you. And now I don’t want to go but I have to.”
         “I know,” Colin agreed. “I feel the same way about you leaving.”
         “Well, we’ll just have to write lots of letters and emails to each other as well as make the occasional phone calls until we see each other again,” Stephanie consoled. “And should you ever miss me to the point where you can’t take it any more then book a flight and come and see me. London is just eight hours from Barbados and Switzerland another ninety minutes or so away. I’ll be waiting.”
         “Do you really mean that?” Colin asked.
         “Of course I do,” Stephanie replied. “I wouldn’t be saying it otherwise.”
         “I don’t doubt you,” Colin said defensively. “It’s just that you’re so gorgeous and wherever you go you’re bound to have loads of admirers. So I wouldn’t blame you if you allow time and distance to push me out of your mind.”
         “You’ve nothing at all to worry about on that particular score or any other for that matter,” Stephanie said reassuringly. “And though it’s me who is saying it I’m exceptionally loyal especially to those I care deeply for. And it so happens I do care a great deal for you. I also want you to know that what happened between us isn’t for me just a holiday romance and nothing more - you’re far more significant to me than that and I’d like for it to stay that way.”
         To emphasize the point she’d made Stephanie reached up and tenderly placed the palm of her right hand against Colin’s cheek.
         “Whatever you do please don’t forget me will you?” she pleaded.
         “That won’t happen?” Colin responded as Stephanie drew ever closer to him and affectionately placed her right arm around his neck. “It would be impossible,” he added, “as I’m falling in love with you.”
         “Oh Colin,” Stephanie sighed wistfully, reaching up to him in the process with her lips.
         What followed next was magic as the two lovers unpretentiously and fervently responded to each other’s desires.
         “Why couldn’t you be on that plane tonight?” Stephanie asked when their lips finally parted. “Apart from the pleasure of having your company you and I could also have become members of the Mile High Club.”
         “What’s that?” Colin asked baffled.
         Stephanie laughed. “You’ve never heard of the Mile High Club?” she asked with disbelief.
         “No. So tell me about it,” Colin replied, his curiosity getting the better of him.
         “It’s an international association of air travellers who’ve all made love in an aeroplane during a flight,” Stephanie explained; adding tantalizingly: “Membership is automatic once you’ve done it.”
         “But how does anyone else know with absolute certainty whether or not you’re cheating?” Colin asked puzzled. “Seeing as how in ordinary circumstances no one - outside the two people involved that is – would be present to verify one’s claim?”
         “That’s the excitement of it all,” Stephanie replied. “No one actually knows for sure. But when you think of it why should anybody want to cheat? And if they do they’ll just be fooling themselves and no one else, so why bother?”
         “I see what you mean,” Colin agreed. “Must say though it sounds terrific fun, and whoever thought up the idea in the place first wasn’t only imaginative but hit on a brilliant idea as well.”
         “You really think so?” Stephanie smiled.
         “Yes, I do!” Colin answered with a grin. “And next time I fly I must remember to try it out.”
         “As long as I’m the passenger who you plan on making it out with,” Stephanie cautioned.
         “But of course, who else?” Colin promised.
         Colin’s jovial remark drew spontaneous laughter from the two lovers that alas was short-lived; for it was rudely interrupted by Flight Information announcing the boarding call for BA Flight 2154 to London Gatwick.
         “Oh God no!” Stephanie shouted. “Already?”
         “I’m afraid so,” Colin responded sympathetically.
         “No!” Stephanie snapped angrily in defeat. “Why does time always have to go so bloody quickly when you don’t want it to, but the moment you do because you’re being driven crazy by boredom and would be grateful if it moved on with a purpose it bleeding well doesn’t?”
         Incapable of providing herself with a satisfactory answer and frustrated almost to the point of tears by her present predicament Stephanie wrapped her arms tightly around Colin’s body and buried her face solidly against his chest, as moved by her grief he did his best to console her.
         “I don’t want to leave you Colin,” she cried helplessly. “I don’t want to go.”
         “I don’t want you to either,” Colin said, fighting back his tears.
         “Promise me one thing,” Stephanie begged urgently.
         “What?” Colin asked.
         “That you won’t forget me. Please say you won’t Colin.”
         “I won’t. I promise!” Colin agreed.
         Encircled in each other’s arms Stephanie and Colin showered each other with affectionate hugs and passionate kisses as the seconds which would finally see them parted from each other ticked away and the other passengers made their way briskly towards the departure lounge.
         Time for the anguished pair had finally run out and the moment to say that last, personal goodbye was at hand.
         Understandingly waiting until it was over Peter, who had discreetly kept out of the way until now, drew alongside the twosome and placed a fatherly hand on his daughter’s shoulder.
         “We must go darling,” he said sympathetically.
         “Okay dad,” Stephanie sobbed silently.
         Turning to Colin Peter offered him his hand.
         “Thanks for everything old chap,” he said affectionately. “See you again soon, I hope.”
         “Thank you sir; I hope so too,” Colin replied courteously.
         It was far more than Stephanie could stand and flinging herself once more into Colin’s arms she hugged and kissed him passionately.
         “That’s to make certain that you miss me every bit as much as I know I shall miss you,” she said with an enforced cheerfulness when they finally pulled apart from each other. Then turning swiftly on her heels and choked with an emotion that she found utterly impossible to deal with half-ran into the enclosed area reserved for all departing passengers.
         “Try and understand her situation,” Peter said comfortingly to Colin. “She’s rather upset right now, as I’m sure you are. But if it’s any consolation at all she does like you a lot.”
         “I know that sir. And I feel precisely the same way about her,” Colin replied genuinely.
         “That’s obvious dear boy. And I’m quite sure that Stephanie already knows it. But I’ll remind her on the flight if you want me to,” Peter offered.
         Colin nodded his assent.
         With a final handshake Peter warmly took his leave of Colin who immediately afterwards instinctively moved closer to the metal barriers that constituted the outer perimeter of the restricted departure area. Stephanie, in the meantime, was standing near the entrance door of the departure lounge that would irrevocably separate her from Colin once she crossed its threshold. However, instead of going through it she ran back to where he was.
         “I think I’m falling in love with you,” she said softly, and kissed him gently on the lips. “I’ll call when I get back,” she added. “And don’t forget to write.”
         Then she was gone, as quickly as she came. This time for good.
         With customary efficiency the BA flight took off on time and Colin waited at the airport to see it go, watching intently as the giant 747 jet winged its way into the night sky and eventually disappeared from view over the blackened horizon, leaving him all alone with just his memories of Stephanie to appease him. Sorrowfully and with nothing else to do that he cared much to embark on just then he went home.
         Stephanie, in the meantime, having taken a while before she eventually settled down lingeringly from the window she was sat next to observed with intense regret and emotional anguish her aerial view of the island she’d come to love with the man on it to whom she’d entrusted her heart engulfed, amid the translucent brilliance of the tropical, moonlit sky that cruelly mocked her from outside the plane’s window, by the escalating distance which was rapidly and forever being put between them.
         Thankfully her dad had always insisted when they travelled together by plane that they sat in a non-smoking section of the aircraft something she’d never really bothered about one way or another before, but in the present circumstances counted it a distinct blessing she didn’t have to put up with the extra hassle of having people smoking around her, especially in the frame of mind that she was currently in.
         “Take care my love,” Stephanie prayed silently against the lulling backdrop of the aircraft’s engines. “We’ll meet again soon, I know we shall.”
         Then as the standard safety drill characteristic of every commercial, passenger flight got underway she disinterestedly allowed herself to be swallowed up by it all, for if she couldn’t be with Colin then the only thing that mattered to her at that very moment was to get home in one piece and as quickly as possible.
         Ten hours out of Grantley Adams International Airport she got her secondary wish - the two-hour ride home from Gatwick Airport amid familiar scenes along the way a great comfort to her.
         Now four months later and her active yearning for the quite handsome, twenty-two-year-old man who had so agreeably and robustly awakened her deepest sexual desires as never before still extraordinarily powerful as ever Stephanie in the middle of her weekend recess from classes carefully but quite lasciviously stretched herself fully across her double bed and with a grey Berne sky framing her bedroom window despite the hour of the day closed her eyes and trailing her hand sensuously over her partially clad body imagined that Colin was lying next to her.


© Stanley V. Collymore 1989.