Chapter Ten: Part One
Nearing the end of the path, Kate could see the beach and the waters of the Shelf through the last of the trees. She stopped to look for a moment, examining the entirety of the Shelf’s unusual geology for the first time. The light, clean and slightly coarse sand of the wide beach led down into the protected waters of the Shelf, which was, in essence, a gigantic natural swimming pool over 900 metres across. Its boundary was encircled by a continuous wall of jagged volcanic rock that protruded from the water the whole way around. Dotted by resting water birds, the ridge physically separated the warm shallow waters of the Shelf from the deep, cooler, and sometimes choppy waters of the main lagoon.
When Rick and Kate came into view, smiles shot around the beach as everyone immediately noticed they were holding hands. The rest of the Big End’s population, along with Maria and Paz from the Village, were already there and scattered about the beach. Kate felt like she was approaching the set of a Hollywood ‘Hunk’ film. The men were all topless, their muscles glistening in the sun from recent exertions.
Edison and Juan-Carlos were crouched low, each stalking the other in what looked to her like a wrestling match in progress. Covered generously in sand, Dom and Mason were breathing deeply as they cheered and teased father and son alike. Watching them as they circled each other, it seemed to Kate’s eye that Edison’s and Juan-Carlos’ muscular bodies were almost exact copies, differing only in age. On closer inspection, their bodies bore a good number of scars as well. Looking at the other men, she saw that they too shared a similar collection, arousing her interest in their combined history.
They each held an arm behind their backs as they moved. Kate quickly guessed that they could use only one hand at a time to push on the side of an opponent’s shoulder or hip. Rick leaned in and said to her, ‘the goal is to grab the other person’s ankle.’ The contest was a test of skill and speed. Each leapt and rolled, trying to grab the other, whilst evading their own capture. Everyone was laughing and heckling as the combatants traded taunts and goads. Never looking away from each other, they blew grains of sand from their mouths whilst trying to get the other to commit to a course of action.
As they drew near, and startling Kate, Rick called out loudly, ‘Fighting over second place again lads?’ The grin on his face and tone of his voice was a clear challenge to both men. Father and son instantly slapped their right hands together in agreement and stood upright, inviting him into the fray. Rick stripped his shirt off in a single motion, stretched and jumped around for a few moments in warm up before crouching. Edison and JC readied themselves in response, and the contest began anew.
Dom invited Kate over with a cheeky smile and a wave. Winking outrageously to her, he loudly explained how Rick was the ‘second best’ amongst them at this old game. More often than not, it came down to he and Rick in the final round.
Edison and Juan-Carlos worked well as a team. Driven by training and instinct, Rick repeatedly leapt free at the very last moment as their fingers brushed his ankles, never quite managing to grab him. Kate marvelled at the deflections and counters employed by the men, each moving with fluid grace as arcs of sand flew high into the air. She caught the fresh scents of their exertion on the light breeze; a clean, masculine scent that spoke to her reawakening desires. I wouldn’t even have noticed that a few days ago, she thought with a smile.
The sun was overhead and casting clean shadows, highlighting the definition of the men’s muscles as they moved and faked. When father and son circled and leapt after a double feint, Kate was sure that they had him. Just as their fingers started closing, Rick vaulted upwards, twisting in mid-air. He flipped his body lengthways over his own shoulders and grabbed the ankles of both Edison and Juan-Carlos as he landed. Springing to his feet, he lifted their legs high in victory. As everyone clapped and cheered, he belted out a very acceptable rendition of a Tarzan call.
Natalie walked into view from the other side of the contest, her tanned body looking pin-up perfect in a bright-yellow strapless bikini. She called out in a clear and commanding voice, ‘Everybody warmed up? Blue – Yellow – Me – Back… Go!’
Like a shot, the five men were swearing under their collective breaths as they charged into the water, stroking hard and racing for the blue buoy. Natalie watched until the men were nearly two-hundred metres out, and about to round the buoy before she walked over to Kate with her hand outstretched. ‘Hi, you must be Catherine. I’m Natalie.’
Kate looked into Natalie’s eyes and saw no hint of any hidden meanings. Taking the woman’s hand, she said, ‘Hi Natalie. I am. I’m pleased to meet you.’
Natalie said, ‘Don’t you just love raw testosterone served by the bucket full!’ She smiled at Juanita who was walking down from the tree line to join them after packing her camera away. The three of them shared a joyful laugh and strolled to the water’s edge to join Dee, Carrie and Madison, who were happily chatting with Maria and Paz whilst watching the men powering through the water.
‘Madison, how old is Mason?’ Dee asked without preamble.
‘Sixty-two in a few months’ time.’
Carrie looked at her in disbelief. ‘Holy crap! I was thinking early fifties or late forties!’ Dee and Kate added their voices to Carrie’s exclamation. Kate looked hard at Madison in her bikini; her toned skin firm and her muscles still very evidently well used. The question on her face was transparent and Madison giggled at her. ‘I am sixty, Kate.’
The open mouths of the amigas brought laughter from the rest. Dee managed to stammer out, ‘My scale is right off because I was thinking well-preserved late forties for you.’
‘Thank you, Dee. I shall take that as a compliment.’
Dee said, ‘It is! It’s also an observation of fact in evidence. Okay, what about everyone else? How about I start, Thirty-one.’
The others looked away from the swimming men and smiled. Madison nodded at Natalie, ‘Forty-six,’ then towards Juanita, who was doing some deep bends and twists on the waterline, ‘Forty-five.’
Maria said, ‘I’m thirty-nine and Paz will be eighteen in autumn.’
Carrie chimed in. ‘Twenty-nine’. Kate finished, saying, ‘Thirty-one as well.’
Natalie looked at Carrie. ‘I assume you and Dee are lovers?’ Seeing a little discomfort on Carrie’s face, she added, ‘If it helps, I am openly bisexual.’
Dee grabbed Carrie from behind in an embrace and kissed her noisily on the cheek before they both giggled. She said, ‘We are indeed, Natalie. Kate was the first person I came out to, and we started preschool together. We met Carrie after high school, and we’ve been together ever since.’
Kate wanted the men’s statistics, and couldn’t contain her curiosity any longer.
‘Let’s see,’ Juanita mused, joining them as she stretched her shoulders, drawing her arms across her chest. ‘My teddy bear is fifty, Juan-Carlos recently turned twenty-five and… have I missed any one? Yes, Dom is forty-eight.’ Juanita was wiggling her eyebrows in a transparent baiting of Kate.
Laughing, Madison added with a wink, ‘Rick is thirty-four.’
A glance out over the water showed that the men had rounded the yellow buoy and were steaming in almost neck and neck, directly towards the beach to complete the 750-metre triangular course. Natalie said, ‘Excuse me for a moment,’ before walking into the water until she was standing chest deep.
The swimmers surged around her before racing back towards the yellow buoy. From his place in the lead, Dom stripped Natalie’s bikini top from her on his way past, taking it so smoothly that he was already away before she could react to its loss. Rick surged past him and into the lead as Dom missed a stroke rolling to flick Nat’s top back with a cheeky grin. The women laughed as Natalie retrieved and replaced her top. She walked back towards the beach, still smiling and shaking her head. ‘Boys!’ the contented look on her face said.
It took Kate a moment to realise that Juanita was now swimming with the men, and even sharing the lead with Dom and Rick. Natalie said to her, ‘Handicapping. Nita is a damn good swimmer, but the boys are nearly unstoppable over 1500 metres when they’re that fresh. Walk with me?’
Oh shit!