Chapter Six: Part One

For nearly fifteen kilometres, Carrie and Dee had followed Edison’s sedan along a series of well-maintained but unsealed tracks. Their sedate pace gave them a chance to appreciate the scenery as their route took them around wooded peaks and through unspoiled valleys. Edison pulled to one side and waved them by when they broke out of the trees and onto a picturesque shoreline bathed in the early morning sun. Kate and Dominique’s faces beamed at them from the rear seat of the car as they motored slowly around, and Edison pointed to the area where Carrie could best turn around. Needing to drive straight off the vessel’s ramp at their destination, vehicles had to reverse aboard.

Carrie backed the van towards the waiting flat-bottom barge with the same confidence and precision that she did everything else. The tyres growled and pinged as they pushed through the irregular volcanic gravel of the shoreline before climbing over the lip of the lowered ramp and rolling silently over the worn steel of the deck.

The barge’s rumbling note changed; no longer pushing against the shore, it gently backed away before turning and moving off. In the still morning air, the clean smells of the forest behind them gave way to the richer estuarine scents of the foreshore. The shape of their destination was intermittently visible in the centre of the large lagoon as the strengthening morning sun dissolved the thick banks of mist still clinging to the water.

Standing at the front of the barge, their destination became clearly visible for a long moment and Dee and Carrie stared at the twin peaks of the island, one a little larger than the other. The saddleback between the tree-covered ends was the lowest point of the island’s profile, rising just over five metres above the surrounding water. The island’s otherwise uniformly steep and rocky shore was broken by a picturesque little beach in front of the saddleback.

The rocky shoreline itself was predominantly a two to three-metre cliff, irregularly littered with large and small boulders. Gentle slopes led inland from the raised edges of the island, growing steeper on the sides of the central domes of each end; rising some forty and fifty metres above water level respectively. Slim, upright spires of granite dominated each dome on their rear and outside quarters. Remnants of the volcano that had given birth to the island, the natural obelisks more than doubled the height of each end.

From the water, Alegria looked like a simple, wooded island in the middle of a lagoon. Only the faintest plumes of smoke rising from near the high points of the domes on either end of the island suggested any form of habitation.

~~~~~

Catherine and Dominique sat in the back of the town car with Edison and Juanita in front. They watched the barge heading out into the lagoon until a drifting cloud of mist obscured it from view. Dom touched her shoulder, and using her shortened name for the first time in company, he said, ‘Welcome to our Xanadu, Kate. Welcome to Alegria.’

Juanita turned to kneel on her seat. Grinning over the centre console, she extended her hand and said, ‘Hi Kate, I’m Nita. You know my other love, Dom. My true love remains, as always, Edison.’

Kate laughed and played along. ‘Katie-J, pleased to meet you all,’ she said, shaking Juanita’s hand.

Juanita added in conspiratorial tones with a wink, ‘None of the drinks here are watered down, either.’

Their passage was twenty-five unhurried minutes from start to finish. Circling wide around the larger eastern end of the island, Kate surveyed her surroundings. The morning mist had burnt off enough to allow her to appreciate the full scale of the lagoon and surrounding shoreline. Alegria stood in the centre of a body of water nearly six kilometres across and nine long. Both the island and the wooded mountains encircling the lagoon looked pristine. She could only catch the barest hints of structures on the island, all set well back from the shoreline in the woods. No obvious signs of settlement on the surrounding shore were visible.

Seeing the observations on Kate’s face, Dom explained. ‘We own all of the surrounding countryside for between twelve and fifteen kilometres from shore.’

Edison continued. ‘The lagoon is an ancient volcanic caldera. In the shallower south-western end, the water is nearly twenty metres deep. The north-eastern end is regularly sixty metres deep and nearly ninety metres in its deepest parts. The island is a central remnant of a new eruption that essentially fizzled inside the old caldera before becoming extinct.’

Kate considered the information for a moment, assessing the unusual topography with her engineer’s mind. ‘Except for the spires, the land looks relatively flat, not really a classically volcanic shape.’

‘You’re right, Kate. The volcano that formed the island blew up and its bulk slid to the south-west. After that, it lacked pressure, more oozing than erupting in the end. Under the water on the northern and eastern sides, there are the steep slopes of the classic volcano shape, but as the volcano lost power, it lifted just enough low-velocity magma to seal the landscape as it is today before the geological hot spot closed or failed. At least one huge steam explosion cleared out the eastern end, which is why it is so deep. An explosion, maybe the same one, fractured the caldera’s rim at its northern most point and opened the lagoon to the sea. Fast forward with a few millennia of weathering and erosion, and here we are. Seawater comes into the lagoon through the Race with each tide, forming a horizontal waterfall. Three primary rivers feed fresh water into the shallows behind the south-western end. The lagoon has a huge bio-diversity; the water over the shallows is brackish, and the deep end is salty enough for most ocean species.’

‘I can’t see any structures out there,’ Kate said, indicating the surrounding shoreline.

Juanita said, ‘Our extended family choose to live subtly as custodians of the land. They ensure the privacy of all here.’ In answer to Kate’s questioning look, Juanita touched the scars on her head for Kate’s benefit, saying, ‘All are loved, loyal and trusted.’

I am going to find out about those this weekend, Kate promised herself. A thought struck her. ‘How many people do you mean?’

‘Alegria, the surrounding land and the island, is home to forty-four permanent inhabitants, including thirteen born here,’ Dom said.

‘We’re here,’ Edison warned just moments before the barge lurched as it bumped against the shore. With its engine revving to hold its position against the island, the vessel’s ramp lowered to let them off. We and our, not mine and yours, Kate noted, filing the thought away for future consideration.

They drove a short distance and pulled into a large, semi-subterranean garage with a sod roof that effectively made it all but invisible to any casual observation from the water or air. The men transferred their luggage into the tray-back of a buggy that looked like a stretched out golf-cart before climbing onto it themselves. Kate asked, ‘Why not leave the cars on the shore?’

Edison recited automatically, ‘What can’t be seen, can’t be noticed.’ He paused before saying, ‘Sorry Kate. We have privacy here and the vehicles could arouse curiosity if noticed on the shore. From time to time, we get lost and not-so-lost hikers through the surrounding countryside. With the vehicles here, there is nothing to arouse interest.’

‘We?’ The question tumbled out before Kate had the chance to censor it. She looked at Dom, hoping she had not crossed a boundary. His face was relaxed and a smile brushed his lips.

Dom said, ‘It’s okay, Kate. ‘We’ is all of us. One of ‘my’ companies might be seen to own it on paper, but Alegria is ‘our’ home. All shares are held in perpetual trust and give every person here equal standing.’

Kate nodded, looking around as they drove uphill through the light woods along a path just wide enough for their cart. They parked next to a large structure with a thick and irregularly thatched roof covering a cavernous, semi-enclosed space. Long tables ringed the interior and an unlit fireplace was in its centre. Juanita touched Kate’s arm as they alighted the cart. ‘This is Alegria’s maloca, Kate, our communal space. We share our meals here. We will have a little fiesta today, probably kicking off around lunch time…’

Juanita fell silent, smiling as she peered through the shadows of the interior space. Kate followed her gaze to see two men in casual clothes leaning against a handrail in the sunshine on the opposite side of the maloca. As her eyes adjusted, Kate recognised the serious young man from the opera. He was sharing comfortable laughter with a tall man. Blinking, she realised he had to be the son of Mason and Madison, his smiling face was a perfect blending of their handsome features.

Juanita took Kate by the hand and led her through the maloca to the two men. ‘Kate, this is my son, Juan-Carlos.’

The young man gave Kate a respectful embrace with only shoulders touching. ‘Welcome to Alegria Kate. You have already made my sunny day an even brighter one. You know it’s not fair, don’t you?’

‘Sorry, what’s not fair?’

‘That you look as stunning in jeans and a shirt as you do in an evening gown.’

Seeing the cheeky twinkle in Juan-Carlos’s eye, Kate knew exactly what Edison had been like in his youth. And he called Dom a rogue! No wonder it took someone like Juanita to tame him.

‘Thank you, Juan-Carlos. It is good to see you looking less serious,’ Kate said. His easy smile showed a ready sense of humour that warmed her heart instantly.

‘Please, call me JC. That night was the first time Pops here let me take full lead.’ Kate glanced at Edison and saw a very proud father beaming love for his son.

‘He did okay, for a kid!’ Edison said, throwing a slow, looping punch, ducked by his son, and returned in a practiced ritual.

Rolling her eyes in mock exasperation, Juanita told Kate, ‘They keep doing that faster and faster, all testosterone and machismo.’

A resonant voice caught Kate’s ear. ‘Until one of them bowls the other backside over breast. A regular occurrence with paras!’ Juan-Carlos turned, ducking one last looping blow and slapping Edison playfully on his stomach before they briefly embraced, laughing.

Juan-Carlos said, ‘Kate, this is Ricardo Myers, Rick to those who can tolerate pongos long enough to get to know him.’

Kate took stock of him as he pouted in a pantomime-worthy display of ‘hurt-feelings’ at Juan-Carlos. He was tall, taller than Dom by four or five centimetres, in his early thirties, and seriously fit by the look of him. He brightened as his eyes swung to meet Kate’s, and his smile was almost physical in its effect on her.

‘Catherine, it is an honour and a pleasure to meet you. I see the extensive praise heaped upon you has failed most heinously to do you any justice in person. Please, call me Rick.’

His voice! Entranced, Kate stammered a response; one she later hoped had made sense. Her next clear memory was of smelling food cooking and racing off to help Dee and Carrie, only to find herself unemployed for the duration of their stay. Dom and the girls were smiling at her. ‘You are our guest, Kate,’ Dom said with his cheekiest grin.

Looking around, Kate saw three women in the cooking area just beyond the maloca, all of a light olive complexion, similar to Juanita’s. The eldest of the three looked as if she could be Juanita’s sister. Carrie was in her own foodie-heaven, already nose-deep in exotic containers as they were opened for her by the youngest of the three, a delicately featured girl in her late teens. Dee and Carrie had been relegated to the role of ‘guests’ for this meal.

The aromas were already intoxicating and everyone congregated around the oven pit, interested to see what was cooking. A large joint of meat was roasting on a long spit at one end, a bed of fiery embers shimmering beneath it. Racks of vegetables and other meats lined the edges of the pit, barbequing slowly. Every few minutes, one of the ladies basted the sizzling and crackling haunch with a large bunch of rosemary and other leaves dipped in aromatic oil. There was enough food to feed thirty or forty very hungry people.

After introducing Kate to the new ladies, Dom said to her, ‘Many of our friends from the shore join us for either our first or last meal. Normally our first.’

Juan-Carlos broke in. ‘I apologise in advance for the noise and chaos you will be exposed to. Have you ever experienced a fiesta, Kate?’

‘I was in Mexico during Cinco-de-Mayo celebrations a few years back,’ she said. Kate’s honeymoon still held many nice memories that didn’t involve her ex-husband.

Rick laughed. ‘Then you may be slightly prepared.’ Offering Kate his arm, he asked, ‘May I show you to your cabin, m’lady?’ His unaccented voice was the only sound she could register. Kate just nodded. Her body had decided all on its own to take Rick’s offered arm, noting how solid and muscular it was under his shirt. Rick looked at Dom. ‘Birch cabin?’ Dom nodded and his ever-cheeky smile widened as he nodded again in farewell before turning back to the outdoor kitchen area with Juan-Carlos.

~~~~~