Resume

- James and Coral had been together for five years. Their daughter, Delphine, was nearly four and was their pride and joy. She was a mixture of both of their good looks. James had a golden tan over a lightly muscled body without any tan lines. His hair had yet to show any sign of grey. Coral had the beauty of well oiled mahogany with aristocratic features. She had a well honed physique that many much younger women would have been proud of, with her breasts held high on her chest. Maria, her older daughter had inherited the blond hair of her long dead father and a classical beauty from her mother.

Delphine was called Delphine at home, but her little sarong was covered with seahorses, so Seahorse is what she was called normally in the manner of the Island.

James and Coral were as much a pair as they had been when James had been asked to ‘name’ Maria.

Maria had been happy to be betrothed to one of the few suitable boys in her group. He was named Carlos, but was previously known as Flying Fish during his early life as a girl.

Harriet had been ‘named’ and betrothed to Fernando, and they now had a baby known as Cuttlefish from the pattern on her sarong. That was, when she could be convinced to wear it!

James had received emails from the post-graduate anthropology student who had been resident on the island for a year. Soph, (or more correctly Sophia), sent emails regularly as the completion of her thesis got closer and closer. After more than a year James received a large attachment to a email containing a copy of the thesis with a request to see if there was anything that needed to be edited. If he felt confident, would he please write a foreword to the Thesis?

James spent two days reading through some 80,000 words. The many illustrations of the sarongs and their wearers brought back many happy memories from the past.

In the end, James thought that the thesis was very worthy, but also very dry. The people were observed and the patterns on the sarongs were recorded in minute detail, but those people were alive and vibrant and ran and laughed and made love. They were not these desiccated models who had just one moment of their lives recorded, analysed, then abandoned.

He managed to bite his tongue a little, and wrote some fulsome praise for the detail and the thoroughness of the research and how the research would add to the knowledge of island populations in years to come.

He sent it off with a sincere expression of hope that it would help get the thesis accepted for the doctorate.

Apart from brief acknowledgement and thanks, James heard nothing more from Sophia.

———————————————————————————————————————————-

James had moved up in status in the little community on the Island. He was now on the village Council. The Council were concerned that the solar farm that had been given in a fit of generosity by the national government on the mainland, had not thought to consider any maintenance of the solar panels or their infrastructure.

One panel failed and then another. It was getting difficult to maintain the electricity supply for the island, and it would certainly fail if any more panels stopped working.

Nothing was heard from the Government in answer to their request for help, and the villagers were getting seriously concerned about the lack of maintenance.

It was a great surprise when the Mayor got a message to say that a resident service engineer would be arriving on the Island on the next steamer in about three weeks time.

James was really surprised, when he told Coral that evening. “Not only a visit, but a resident engineer. I cannot believe that the solar farm needs a resident engineer. Perhaps we will find out more when they arrive. We must get the bungalow at the solar farm ready for whoever it is.”

Eventually the old steamer arrived with any visitors, or returning residents, and all the goods that had been ordered a month before. There appeared to be only one passenger.

James couldn’t believe his eyes. The only passenger was Sophia. She was five years older, of course, but it was still Soph. Her long blond hair was just the same, but it was tied back in a loose pony tail. Unlike the Bermuda shorts which was her uniform as a student, she had a bib and brace over a white Tee shirt. Both had the logo of the National Energy Company on them.

Even in his shocked state, James recognised that Soph must be the long awaited solar farm engineer.

“I am bewildered.” James said to the blond apparition.

The apparition was ordering that a large crate to be removed from the ship’s hold by two deckhands. It also had the logo of National Energy on it.

“I never thought I would see you again.”

“I have a lot to tell you. Many things have changed in the last five years. As you can see, I am the new service engineer for the Solar Farm.”

“I can see that from your uniform, but how?”

“I will tell you the story as soon as I can, but I need to get my equipment up to the bungalow and stored.”

“The bungalow is ready for you. It has been thoroughly cleaned since the installation engineers moved out nearly 20 years ago.”

“Come down and have dinner with Coral and me this evening so we can talk. You haven’t had a chance to meet our daughter called Seahorse, or Delphine.”

“I shall be happy to join you for dinner. I don’t have a sarong yet, so it will have to be my bib and brace.”

“I still have your old sarong from when you were a student. You didn’t get much wear out of it, as I remember. I think it is still wearable. You can change when you get to us, if you would like to. I am sure it will be more comfortable for you. I must go the see Maria to warn her that we have a guest tonight.”

James looked back briefly and saw six of the most muscular men from the village struggling to move the large crate up the hill to the only stone-built cottage on the island. The unused path was overgrown and they were probably regretting offering to carry the crate. It was too large for the donkey cart that was the only wheeled vehicle on the island.

Fortunately the bungalow was not as far away as the solar farm itself, or the team of more or less willing young men would have been seriously overwhelmed if they had had to carry the crate ten miles to the north of the island.

Eventually they succeeded and Sophia paid them for a couple of drinks each at the bar. She said afterwards that they seemed happy with the transaction.

After knocking out four pins the create opened out to form a small workshop with hand tools clamped in place, a lathe and a vice on a work bench. A ladder had been strapped to the outside in a groove made for it.

The water butt outside the cottage was already full so Sophia could boil a kettle of water and have a good wash before unpacking her collection of work clothes which including steel-toed boots and a hard hat in National Energy colours, with La Ingeniera printed boldly on the front.

She was required to wear underclothes with some Kevlar woven in, under her overalls for her own protection, but not when she was socialising. Her reticence of the past was discarded and she donned a knee length cotton skirt and sandals with a pale blue teeshirt, and that was all.

The wind swished round her bare legs and tickled her pubic hair. It made her laugh. I am home now, she said to herself.

Coral saw her coming and ran over the beach to give her a big hug.

She noted the unfettered breasts, but politeness made her refrain from commenting. She also noted that the sun was shining from behind and the skirt was not as opaque as Sophia had thought.

“Welcome. I thought we might never see you again, Soph. You have changed so much, and yet, in some ways, not at all. Five years older but just as beautiful. Unfortunately the old sarong is past any sort of use. It would disintegrate if you tried to wear it.”

“I thought that would probably be the case. I came prepared and am wearing no more than I would in a sarong.”

“I could sense that when we hugged. You are welcome to take the shirt off if you want to. As you know, it is quite normal to be bare breasted here.”

“Give it time and I am sure I will be comfortable to be bare breasted, but I am happy as I am for now.”

“Fine, let us go and find James, who is looking after Seahorse, our daughter.”

James took in Soph’s appearance in one look and came to hug her with Seahorse in tow. The little girl was lifted up to be inspected, and was passed into Soph’s arms without any fuss.

“This is a lady called Soph. who is coming to live on the Island. She used to live here some years ago and has come back.”

Seahorse just looked on and wiggled so she was let down onto the floor.

She went back to her toys.

“I think you are accepted an being just ordinary.”

“I am glad to be ordinary, I think?”

The walk back to the bungalow was only a few metres and they were soon sitting in the bungalow which had now got some more comfortable seating. During Soph’s previous visits there had only been plastic upright chairs.

“Can we offer you a drink?” James asked.

“What have you got? I never did get used to the local fruit beer.”

“We have some cans of imported lager, and a bottle of reasonable white wine, a Chablis I think.”

“How do you keep things cold?”

“We now have an insulated cool box that can be plugged in. It does a reasonable job.”

“Then I shall have a white wine.”

James unscrewed the top, and poured three glasses.

“Now please put us out of our misery. How is it that you are back here again?”

Soph took a large slurp of the wine. “This is good, she said. Perhaps wine is easier to obtain than it was five years ago.”

“I was still in contact with you when I got my PhD, but that is when things got difficult. It was made clear that the University that awarded my PhD in anthropology couldn’t offer me any sort of lectureship or even a research postdoc studentship. There was simply no money.”

“So then I applied to numerous other Universities and grant awarding bodies. I have over a hundred rejection slips to show for it.”

“Simply, I had to change career as there would be no work in anthropology in the foreseeable future.”

“I had also been through two entirely unsatisfactory relationships, and had never really got over the happy time I had had during my year here. I realised that coming back was something I really wanted to do, but I had no way of achieving it.”

“It was purely by chance that I was looking at a website for jobs and there was a vacancy written in Spanish, but needing a bilingual solar service engineer here. The money was rubbish, but there was training and a home provided. Being isolated from what is regarded as a civilised society and needing fluency in both languages was obviously a problem for the advertisers.”

“My High School Diploma had physics as a major, and that was enough for me to apply. I applied and was given the job as long as I gave up my US citizenship. That was not anything I valued, so I am now a citizen and the job came with a five month training program on the mainland. Now I am here.”

“I am the resident engineer on this island and have to be able to travel to the four islands between here and the mainland to check on their installations, but once the problems are solved I should have plenty of time to enjoy life here.”

“You must have thought about it during your training but as a permanent resident, you can be ‘named’ and betrothed.”

“Yes, I have though about it a lot. I will adopt a sarong as everyone does here, except when I am at work. Very sensibly, I have to wear Kevlar reinforced garments when I am working on the solar panels or in the transmission equipment. Kevlar is an excellent electrical insulator and would give protection in a fall from the panels. It also protects me against any sharp instrument trauma.”

“I guess I will be the only person on the island (except the doctor) who needs washing powder for clothes on a regular basis!”

“I think you probably are.” James said with a laugh.

“So how are you both getting on.” Sophia asked.

“We obviously have Seahorse who is much loved by us and we have Coral’s adult children, who have given us grandchildren. I still work as a programmer with the company I worked for when you lived here. The salary is enough to live here very comfortably. I have a faster internet connection now, and a more advanced computer with two screens, but I have had to learn how to program in another digital language.”

“I am also on the island Council which is why I have patch of purple on my sarong.”

Coral is kept busy helping Maria, and Carlos with the two grandchildren.

Coral had obtained three Snapper fillets direct from one of the fishing boats that plied the shallow waters near the Island. She grilled them with a little oil, a scattering of oats and a variety of herbs. They were laid on a bed of locally grown salad that had been drizzled with a dressing made with raspberry vinegar.

It was delicious, and a plate of small cakes made of locally grown coconut was the desert.

“How did you make such a delicious meal when you didn’t know anything about me until the ship had docked?”

“A quick trip to where the fishing boats land their catches and then I nipped into the polytunnels where the salad crops are grown. It was only ten minutes for the meal to cook. I am glad you enjoyed it.”

“I did. I shall have to improve my culinary skills now that I have my own bungalow on the Island.”

“I am sure that you will manage to do anything you set your mind to doing.”

“I would like to think so, but time will be the test for that.”

James went round with the wine again, and the bottle was soon empty.

“How long do you think it will take until the failed panels are producing electricity again?”

“It is difficult to tell, without seeing the panels. It may just be a matter of resetting a circuit breaker, but there may also be electrical or storm damage. The transformer building has a screen with a diagnostics display. I shall look at that first thing tomorrow morning and take it from there.”

The sun was setting as they finished their meal. Coral had gone off to put Seahorse to bed, and there was a beautiful sunset over the bay, with the golden orb visible through a screen of palm trees.

Sophia spoke quietly. “I never saw the beauty of this place when I was here before. It was just a means to an end. I am really glad that I have been able to come back again.”

“We are very glad to see you again, and will be even more glad when all the solar panels are working again.”

“I will get one done at a time, but I don’t anticipate that there will be anything that I cannot repair with my portable workshop.”

“I think your young men must have rather regretted offering to carry the workshop up to your bungalow. Perhaps a bit less bravado and more evaluation of the weight would have been in order!”

“I must go. It is getting dark and I only have the little light on my phone to light my way home.”

“Do you want me to lend you a more powerful torch?”

“It should be fine. The path is very clear now and I have used the phone to light my way many times before. Next time we meet socially, I shall have a sarong and will let my chest feel the breeze.”

“I shall look forward to both events. Have you thought of a suitable design for your sarong?”

“I thought something with thunderbolts and lightning on it.”

“That would certainly be different from the normal!”

“If I am wearing Kevlar impregnated bras and knickers during the day with a bib and brace, then I think something short and of striking appearance would be in order.”

“Just how short are you thinking?”

“About the same length as this skirt.”

“That would not leave much to the imagination! You will have any unbetrothed men queuing up.”

“Maybe that is the idea!” Soph laughed as she stepped off the veranda with a wicked grin.”
Coral came out as Soph left.

“She seems to be on a man hunt!”

“Yes. Wearing only a sarong that is little more than a wide belt is something of an invitation.”

The following day, James walked up to the solar farm and Soph was at the top of a ladder with an inspection hatch open removing one of the faulty panels.

When Soph seemed to have stopped, James called up.

“How is it?”

“This one needs the mother board removing and I will need to do some diagnostics tests on it to see if I can repair it. Mostly it is simply a matter of replacing a transistor or capacitor. Components are physically quite large on these motherboards with the large voltages generated by the solar panels, but I cannot tell yet. I will isolate this panel and take the mother board back to my workshop.”

“Are there any other panels that may be simpler to restore?” James asked with a worried look.

“There is not much point attacking these problems at random. The diagnostics available to me just shows whether a panel is working, partly working or not working. The rest is up to me.”

Later in the day James saw a tired looking Soph walking down the path to buy some food and to order a short sarong from the ladies who designed them. She was still in her daywear. The path to the solar farm was several miles and at the end of a busy day the walk added to her weariness.

“How did it go?”

“I got that first panel up and working. It was a capacitor that had fused, and the panel had gone into automatic shutdown. There are just five more panels that are fully failed, then another five that have a partial fail with two of the three sub-panels working. Often those are more difficult to sort out than if the whole panel is out of commission.”

“Even one panel back online is a bonus. Well done.”

Soph wiped her brow with a grubby hand.

“It is hot work up a ladder all day in the sun.”

“Make sure you drink enough.”

“I will certainly do that.”

“I was wondering whether to make my bib and brace outfits into shorts. The Kevlar keeps my abdomen protected and the steel toed boots are essential, but I would wear shorts or even a skirt without it being unsafe.”

“You might be able to shorten the legs of you overalls to make shorts whist remaining safe, but I am not sure how safe you would be with just a miniskirt on, with you up a ladder!”

“Silly, I would have the Kevlar knickers on. They would protect me from prying eyes.”

“I don’t think it would need prying eyes. It would be a full-on display!”

“Point taken. I need to maintain some of my modesty.”

“I am not sure living here encourages modesty. All of us know what everyone looks like from us swimming, but it is a matter of time and place.”

“Yes I am sure it is.”

“Before you go, James. I have allocated a month to be here to fix all the panels then I need to go on a tour of the other four islands that I am responsible for. They have small arrays, but I am sure they need attention. How should I get to them. You can see St. Bartholomew from here, but Santa Cruz, Queen Isabella Island, and Saint Christopher are a day by boat to get to each of them.”

“I think you will need to hire one of the fishing boats for several days to do the round trip. I don’t know much about the other islands. When I have travelled to the mainland, the steamer has only stopped for an hour or so at each of them and one couldn’t disembark. ”

“There is no set accommodation for me on any of them. I can get in touch by satellite phone but that is all.”

“How many of your tools will you need on these visits?”

“I will take a few motherboards with me, and just swap them over with any duds. Saint Christopher has a very old installation that will need a lot of TLC to keep it going.”

“I think the best thing would be to hire one of the fishing boats for several days. If National Energy are paying, it would be easy to hire one, even if our island was short of fresh fish for a day or two.”

Soph agreed with the idea and would approach the captain of one of the fishing vessels in a week or so, but with St. Bartholomew being closer, she thought the best way was to go when the weather was calm. The journey each way would take about four hours and if nothing too serious was wrong, then she could be home again after a rather long day.

The captain was called George and was surprised when Soph approached him with her proposition.

Yes, he would wait for the right day and then would take her to St. Bartholomew and would wait for several hours until she was ready, and would then take her back.

It was only just over two weeks before the message came. The day before had brought good catches, and the Island would not go short of fish if there was none for one day. The shop had been warned and the whole village knew before long of the trip. One old couple asked if they could come too. They hadn’t seen their daughter and grandchildren for several years.

“Of course you can come too, as long as you are ready to return when I am ready.”

“The old couple readily agreed and used precious coins to use the satellite phone to reach the General Store on Saint Bartholomew and the message was passed on.”

It was an early departure when the tide was right for the sailing. Soph and her equipment were stored under an awning on the foredeck. It made for a pleasant four hours travelling over a smooth sea as the island of Saint Bartholomew grew larger and larger. The Captain was chatty.

“How often do you visit the other islands?”

“Very rarely. I grew up here and fish from here. There really isn’t much point in going there unless there was a better market for my fish. They have one or two boats that work from each of the islands except for St. Christopher, of course.”

“Why of course?”

“St. Christopher has a very small population and all of them work at the hotel. Food is delivered from the mainland for the rich people who visit, and nothing is produced on the island.”

“How did you get on as a child here?”

“Just like everyone else. I grew up as a girl and was called Angel, after the Angelfish. It was just normal until I changed into what you see now. Calloused hands and a large beard!”

“Do you know if the same thing happens to children on the other islands?”

“I know it does on St. Bartholomew, but I have never asked on the rare occasions I have been to the others.”

“It seems that there might be a serious problem if this either of the islands has a very small populations with no one to marry.”

“We do have men and women from the other islands visiting here, and also going to the mainland to look for partners, and I have also seen adverts put in the newspapers on the mainland, but don’t know if they bring any good results.”

St. Bartholomew was smaller than their Island, but the vegetation was the same lush green. It had a small population of fishermen and copra makers. The old couple had managed to find enough western clothes to make them decent. Apparently St Bartholomew residents did not have the same attitude to clothes, or the lack of them.

Eventually they tied up at a little jetty and the elderly couple were flooded with hugs and kisses by their daughter and sundry grandchildren. There was promise to return as soon as the hooter on the fishing boat sounded.

Soph climbed the overgrown path up to the transformer housing and managed to open a rusted padlock to reveal equipment that had not see the light of day for years. How it was still working could only be a matter of imagination.

Soph set to work and plugged her diagnostic equipment in and even more surprising was that all the panels were working except for one, so Soph swapped the panel over and all the panels lit green, showing that they were powering the village supply. The rechargeable batteries for night use were covered in dust and bits of spiders webs, but were also in working order although on full charge they only held 70% of what they held when new.

Soph cleaned the batteries and greased the terminals, and was pleased with the result.

She managed to lock the transformer housing after lubricating the padlock, and went to check the array. She was surprised to see that several of the hatches at the back of each panel had been opened rather crudely with a hammer and what appeared to be a screwdriver. The motherboards didn’t appear to have been interfered with. She repaired each hatch with all weather tape and the doors were held shut against the weather.

Nearly four hours had passed, so Soph hurried down the overgrown path to the little harbour where the fishing boat waited. On the way she saw the village mayor and spoke to him briefly. No one, she emphasised, should open the inspection hatches at the back of any panel. It was dangerous, and the village might have no power.

“Please find out who did this, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I don’t plan to come back for nine months or so.”

“The mayor assured her that the culprit would be found and that no one would open the covers again.”

The hooter on the boat was sounded and the elderly couple and their daughter rushed down to the quay and continued hugging and kissing until Soph had to persuade them to part.

They all arrived back after dark had fallen, but the Captain agreed that the trip was worth his while and that he would do the round trip of the other three islands over two days soon. He assured her that there would be suitable accommodation on Queen Isabella Island as his sister lived there and she could accommodate a lady, like Soph, and feed her appropriately.

And so, in about three weeks the big adventure began. Soph sat under the tarpaulin on the foredeck as the little fishing boat chugged over a millpond of the sea to Santa Cruz. She was able to read a novel on her tablet for much of the time. There was a tiny population there and only six solar panels. All needed a clean but they had nothing wrong with them, so Soph was soon able to move on a further four hours to Queen Isabella Island.

The Captain was as good as his word, and Soph was looked after for the night by the Captain’s sister.

During the meal Soph was chatting to Irene, the Captain’s sister.

“What made you move here from the Island?”

“Firstly, it was because my husband was based here and we met on the Island, but it made sense to come here. It was also because I was not keen on my children all appearing to be girls in their early years. I like boys to be boys and girls to be girls.”

“Did it make any difference, moving away from the Island?”

“No, both my children appear to be little girls, but they are not old enough yet to see if either of them changes into a boy.”

“So, do you think these transformations are to do with inheritance or the environment?”

“I don’t know, but the changes on maturity are just the same here as they are on your Island. That is not true the further down the island chain as you get closer to the Mainland. There are still changes, but there are also boys born as boys. The populations are small and it is difficult to make any judgements from such small numbers of children being born on St. Christopher.”

Queen Isabella Island’s array was larger and after a good breakfast Soph had to start servicing the panels at dawn to get it finished by lunch time when they would need to go on to Saint Christopher.

Two panels needed reconditioned motherboards installing, and a general tidy up was all that was needed, so the little vessel was able to do another four hours to reach the last island.

A young man asked for a lift to St. Christopher, and the Captain’s sister supported him, so Soph was joined under the canvas on the foredeck for the another several hours.

Hugo, the young man, was good looking in the way that all the residents of these islands were good looking. He had a mass of almost black curls that was quite feminine in style. He spent much of the time sweeping them out of his eyes. His eyes were sultry and could almost be mistaken for purple. There were laughter lines that surrounded his eyes. These emphasised his tanned skin. His face was angular and spare with a sparse beard and his neck was long and elegant. His clothes were standard for any young man in the area, with a pair of slightly worn Chinos and a coarse blue shirt in some sort of cotton. The old straw coloured Espadrilles emphasised his careful foot care. He had an expansive smile and seemed knowledgeable about the area.

During the journey Soph got to talk to him.

“Which island do you come from?”

“The Land, The same one as you.”

“I haven’t seen you there.”

“You have only been back a few days. When you were resident as a student I looked very different.”

“Are you saying that you have been through your transition since we last met.”

“Yes, I used to hang around James’ bungalow with my friends. We all had a crush on James.”

“You were there when they made love for the first time. What did it mean to you to see them making love?”

“It was almost like jealousy. We knew that it was just normal, but wanted it to be us lying there, all the same. The school was very careful to teach us how to accept the changes that were going to take place in us, but you don’t really accept that information completely until it happens to you.”

“How did you first get an inkling that you were turning into a boy?”

“It started about two years ago with an increase in muscle mass. I wanted to exercise more and preened in front of the girls who were already matured. They thought I was funny. Next came some body hair and the short vagina I had sealed up. There was a lot of itching and my mother got some cream made from coconuts that eased that, and stopped me wanting to scratch.”

“Suffice it to say, that my groin took some months before I looked as I do now.”

“What was the meaning of the baskets of flowers that you cascaded over James and Coral when they were making love?”

“That wasn’t tradition or anything. We had been taught about the mythology of how the Island had been populated millennia ago by a warlike race who came in outrigger canoes from far away.”

“The women were so violent and warlike that they needed calming before any babies could be made. The bed of flowers was a way of calming them enough to stop them trying to kill their suitors. We couldn’t make a bed of flowers, but in our child minds we could add the flowers. We got told off for making a mess, but there were good natured smiles from many in our extended family over our efforts. We had never heard of confetti but I think there are parallels. I understand that confetti was originally a fertility ritual in Europe with small symbols of good luck.”

“How do you feel about being a man now?”

“I am content. Looking back on it, there were signs before, but I didn’t understand them for what they were.”

“How do you feel about your classmates who developed as girls.”

“ I get on well with my male classmates, but we are not really a group any more. I am friendly with the girls who have matured, but have a sort of sadness that I cannot be one of them any longer.”

“You have been named, so are available for betrothal.”

“Yes, but I really don’t feel any desire to become betrothed to anyone as yet. Maybe that will happen, or maybe not. I really don’t know. My mother and father have been looking at the family histories and have been advised that I would need to find a wife from one of the other islands or the Mainland. No girls are sufficiently distantly related for it to be safe for me to marry them.”

“Does it worry you that you might not be able to have an arranged betrothal?”

“No, but I don’t know how to befriend girls. In the last year of school we had lessons on arranged marriages and the welfare of the Island community. No one told me how to be a boy or a man in the big World outside. No one has taught me how to ‘pick up a girl’ or how to keep her interest. We don’t use money in any real sense on the Island, so I cannot give her gifts or provide a good income on the mainland if I had to live there.”

“So why have you taken this journey?”

“I wanted to spend some time on each of the islands to see if there were any suitable girls. It would be so much easier not to have to travel to the mainland.”

“Have you thought of advertising on the Internet or in newspapers on the mainland?”

“I haven’t got to that point yet. I would have to save up for some time to get the money for even one advertisement.”

“Would you like to see who is advertising on one of the mainland sites?”

“Yes, I don’t have Internet at home. Thank you Sophia.”

“We will look as soon as we get to St. Christopher island, but from what I know, the resident population of St. Christopher is very small. Wife hunting is unlikely to be fruitful there.”

“I know, but it will take me ages to learn Spanish and that is all that is spoken on the mainland. St. Christopher is my last chance.”

Hugo insisted on calling Soph, Sophia, so Sophia she became to him.

Saint Christopher was little bigger than Saint Bartholomew and had a tiny permanent population, but they were close to the mainland and more ships visited the pretty harbour. The houses were painted in pastel colours and with the blue of the sea and the green of the palms it was picture perfect. There was a small bijou hotel on the island that catered to weekend trips for wealthy mainlanders, so there were two arrays of solar panels. The hotel had its own array, but maintenance was on contract to National Energy, so this was also on Soph’s patch.

Fortunately the installation of the hotel’s separate array was recent, and their system needed nothing except for Soph to plug is her diagnostic computer and to give the array a clean bill of health.

The computer analysis gave a false impression because one of the last tasks was to check that the tanks of diesel fuel were still full. The circuitry had a back-up system in case something went wrong with the panels. If the batteries went flat then an auxiliary generator would kick in and provide power to the hotel for a day or more.

The tanks were almost empty.

Soph plugged her diagnostic computer in again and saw that the diesel generator had been running for much of each and every Saturday night for some months.

Clearly the solar panels were not storing enough for whatever event the hotel was running on a Saturday night, and it would need to have extra solar panels fitted.

Soph went to the Manager of the hotel and gave him an account of what she had discovered.

Firstly he needed to get a new delivery of diesel oil delivered or the hotel would run out and his hotel would be plunged into darkness.

Second he must either stop what he was doing overnight on a Saturday or have extra solar panels fitted.

Apparently the hotel was becoming known for its Casino and it was running throughout the weekend twenty-four hours a day.

The Manager seemed very worried. “I am under instructions to keep the Casino open throughout the night at the weekends.”

He used his phone to make an emergency order for 400 litres of diesel oil to be delivered within hours. The cost would be high but the cost of the hotel and casino going dark would be much higher both in money terms and in their reputation.

“I know that the diesel generator is really only for emergencies. I will make strong representations to the owners to install another six solar panels and associated batteries at the earliest opportunity.“

“I hope all goes well with the business in the six months before I come again. Please check the level of fuel in the tanks weekly and top up as necessary.”

“I don’t do installations, but if you need me back inside the six months before I do a routine inspection, you will need to pay for my transport.”

The manager seemed grateful that she had done her inspection in the nick of time and offered her a card that offered her an overnight stay with room and board for a midweek stay.

She pocketed the card, but knew that her employers would not allow her to take up what would be seen as an inducement.

The village system was the oldest that Soph was responsible for and it was rather careworn. She used all her remaining motherboards to prop up the ageing solar panels and recorded that the storage batteries were down to 30% efficiency. The array needed a major overhaul if the village was to remain with power for very much longer.

She left it working, but doubted that it would last for many months. The local Mayor was warned about the imperfections of his system and was asked to make a strong case with National Energy to give the system a major upgrade.

Hugo had apparently finished his fruitless search for a mate on St. Christopher’s and asked for a lift back to Soph’s Island. He had been a good conversationalist on the first leg of their journey together so she was happy to agree.

The sunset was spectacular as the little vessel trudged across a millpond like sea. There was just a gentle susurration as gentle wavelets washed to and fro on a beach in the middle distance. This was combined with the engine noise and the occasional call of a seabird.

Soph was satisfied with her tour and could relax for some hours before the fishing boat moored up at what passed for a harbour on her Island. The sea was welcoming so there was time for a quick swim before she needed to trudge up the hill path to the engineer’s bungalow.

Hugo had the same idea, but swam some hundred metres away further along the beach.

Sophia wondered what he looked like when he was swimming naked. It gave her a frisson of excitement when she looked at him in the distance. Bronzed and fit. His luxurious hair very nearly out of control, but an essential part of him none the less.

Would he answer her needs as much as his own?, she wondered.
He was certainly beautiful, but too young, too inexperienced, too uncertain, and hopelessly driven to find a bride; but she would be genetically ideal of course?

“She decided to invite Hugo up to her bungalow to look on the Internet for suitable brides.

When she was dressing after her swim, she reasoned that her shirt was long enough to act as a dress with the Island’s mores, so she left the overall and the Kevlar bra off. No one she spoke to seemed to notice that she was only wearing a shirt and she enjoyed a gentle breeze which wrapped her in cooler air.

Her case seemed heavier than before and she was only half way up the hill to her bungalow when she had to stop for a rest.

Hugo, it seemed was on hand, and jumped at the chance to help her with the heavy case.

He carried it easily.

“I am sorry I was watching you going up the hill with all your equipment. I couldn’t help noticing that you had nothing on underneath your shirt. You are very beautiful. It was amazing watching your buttocks move with such an easy rhythm as I followed you.”

“I think I deserved that. I know no one cares too much about what one wears here, but there will always be an attraction between men and women. I can see from the outline of your Chino’s that you enjoyed the view.”

“I am not used to wearing trousers. A loose sarong is much better for hiding these things.”

“Don’t be embarrassed. I shall treat it as a compliment.”

“I know I am gauche and naïve, but you are pretty. Is it beyond possibility that we could get together.”

“Not impossible, but I am very aware that partners need a mutuality, or they are not equal partners. If it is unequal then one becomes too dependent on the other. On the mainland there are opportunities to have a fling or a bit of sexual fun without any commitment on either side. Here any liaison becomes serious very quickly.”

“I wouldn’t want a fling. I know that my earning ability would be very small in a money based Society, but here I can live well.”

I have an idea that may work. You look attractive and have good English. I wonder with a bit more confidence if we could produce an Island Vlog which would give you an income and attract more visitors here?

“I must talk to James and Harriett, also the Mayor and the owner of the boarding house who is called Marty, and also the bar owner, Gracie.”

“Tell me about a Vlog. I have never seen one.”

“A Vlog, in this case means that you put a diary of your days onto the Internet. The camera is either held by someone else, or you have it on a clamp of some sort, a selfie stick if you like. For 30 minutes or more a day, you tell an unknown audience about your life here. You take them fishing with you or to the bar. With permission you might show a naming ceremony, or people swimming unashamedly without their sarongs. You might show how the sarongs are made, starting with the retting tanks and some of the meaning of the symbols. You can also show beautiful sunsets or show them round the small boarding house here.”

“It depends upon how comfortable you are in front of a camera, which may just be an upmarket mobile phone or something a bit better. You build up a relationship with your unknown audience and either they pay a small sum each to view the Vlogs or a company shows adverts at the same time and you get some money from them.”

“I think it is difficult to immerse ourselves in dating sites for you, because of your remoteness and lack of hard cash, but building a relationship with an online clientele is much more manageable, and a personal relationship may follow quite naturally. If people know about the Island, and see it as an unspoilt destination for an extended holiday, then who knows what may happen?”

“You can give details of how to get here. What the nearest International Airport is, how to fly down to the local airport on the mainland and how to get here on the steamer with the time needed to complete the return trip. Show interviews with the boarding house owner, the bar owner and the shop keeper to make it clear that visitors are welcomed.”

“Make it clear that you can hire fishing gear, or snorkels and flippers at the shop.”

“Interview the owners of the fishing boats and give prices for day hire of the boats and the types of fish that can be caught from the beach.”

“If we can get a waterproof housing for a camera then videos can be made of the fish and other sea animals near the beach.”

“It all sounds wonderful. Do you think I could pull it off?”

“I think it is only you that can answer that question. You have an easy way with words and it may work. We can do various practice runs using a dummy phone, before spending any money. I am sure that the various shopkeepers and the community could come up with enough money to buy a suitable camera that would link to one of our satellite networks.”

The mayor and the various business owners were all in favour as long as numbers of visitors were kept small. It was emphasised that the lack of amenities would keep people away who wanted flush toilets and three haute cuisine meals a day. The steamer only had eight cabins with shared facilities, and two of those only had a single berth.

And so it was that Hugo stood on a beach of white sand with palm trees in the background and a brilliant blue sky surrounded his head and shoulders. He was wearing a brand new sarong in striking colours. His hair was luxuriant and oiled into coils. His teeth would have glowed if they could, and his grin was irrepressible.

His speech was unhurried and he described the view enthusiastically. On this first Vlog, no one was naked or even topless. He walked along the shoreline showing a variety of the bungalows and their occupants waved enthusiastically to the camera.

Before the fifteen minute Vlog was over, Hugo had explained what would be happening in succeeding Vlogs, and that the messages were free at present but there would be a minimal charge imposed soon.

Registration was opened online and there was a steady trickle of people who did just that.

The counter on the website showed that 23 people viewed the Vlog that first day, but after a week it was nearly 60.

In the second Vlog, Hugo introduced Marty and the viewers were shown the quite limited facilities at the boarding house with its five bedrooms. Marty said he cooked all the food from local ingredients. Soph was surprised to see that Marty had made a Menu card to show viewers. During the year she had spent there, she had always eaten whatever Marty had found locally. It had always a voyage of discovery!

In the third Vlog, Hugo showed the beach with distant bathers, all of whom were clearly unencumbered with swimming suits. He explained that the sarongs disintegrated in water, so they had to be set aside when people swam. The numbers of viewers trebled with the naturist content, but unsurprisingly, no visitors managed the difficult journey to the Island in the first month.

So, about 200 viewers logged in in the first day of the following month to see the fourth Vlog. Hugo went to the bar and talked to Gracie. As usual, she was bare breasted. Even though she had only a vague idea of what a Vlog was or why she was being interviewed, she answered Hugo’s questions honestly about the local fruit beer, and the prices of imported drinks. The bar looked enchanting with its backdrop of a beautiful sunset, and fairy lights strung up under the thatched awning.

Partly because she was nervous, and partly because she laughed a lot, her ample bosom followed her laughter. Many of the viewers commented on her mobile bosom, only a few on the high prices of her drinks.

After six episodes of the blog, the first travellers arrived who acknowledged that they had come because of the Vlog.

Marty welcomed them with open arms but they hadn’t understood that there was no way of paying for anything using their phones or credit cards on The Island. James had to be brought in. He accepted a payment into his bank account on the mainland, and the couple were given a booklet that showed their credit, and notes were made as it was spent. It was crude as a method of payment, but effective with goodwill on both sides.

Subsequently, it was made clear on the website that highlighted the weekly Vlogs, that the island was cash only.

Dale and Marion were what you might call middle aged hippies who had enough money to travel the World whenever they felt the need. They soon embraced the liberal clothing requirements of the island and even enquired about living there, but their tourist visa was explicit. When their holiday time was up, they had to leave with the promise that they would explore the possibility of getting a residency visa. It never happened, but they did leave a nice first review on Trustpilot.

Marty went into overdrive redecorating his few rooms and installing a group of four compostable toilets where two would be in use at any one time. It replaced latrines with buckets which was offensive to anyone except the most hardy.

The next couple made the local minister overjoyed, because they attended his Sunday morning service in their sarongs, and sang the hymns as lustily as the locals. Jim and Martha were longtime naturists and sorted out the conventions of what to wear when, within hours of arriving. They visited the poly tunnels and were able to suggest some new crops that could be planted there to give greater variety in the Islanders’ diets. They also made sarongs with no specific pattern to add to the stock of visitors’ sarongs that were for sale at the shop.

They were regular attenders at a non-conformist church in their home town. Before long, the chapel on the Island was twinned with their church in Ohio.

A new stock of postage stamps were obtained so that visitors could send postcards home, and a new stock of cards was delivered that were not faded from years in the strong sunlight waiting for a sale. The fact that the mail left the island at the same time as they did, and would arrive at its destination some time after the visitors had got home, didn’t seem to matter.

Eventually the small post office made money by selling and delivering philatelic items with the unique postmark of ‘Nuestra territorio’, or just selling stamped postcards that had been ‘Cancelled to Order’ for visitors to take home with them.

The numbers of visitors gradually increased until the little boarding house was full for much of the time, but with no more than ten visitors at any one time, the 4000 islanders hardly noticed the incomers. Most of visitors stayed near the beach, or were taken on foot on various walks across the Island. Some went beach-cast fishing or hired a boat for fishing, but the bar and the other shops did well and everyone seemed happy with the arrangements.

Visitors to the Vlog site increased steadily, but were never over a thousand and Hugo could maintain contact with anyone who messaged him for individual information.
Katie and her parents, Doug and Moira arrived without letting Hugo know. They had been looking at the Vlog over the months, but had only lurked in all those months.

They just arrived on the steamer with a booking for a week at the boarding house.

Hugo visited the bar on the first evening after the arrival of the steamer to meet all the new visitors. Some he knew from exchanges of messages over the months, but Doug, Moira and Katie were late additions and had taken up the last vacancies at the boarding house for that week. They had had to fly for two days to get there and then three days on the steamer.

Marty had managed to get a single bed into the largest of the bedrooms to make a treble.

Hugo saw the unusual party and went over to see them.

Doug stood to greet Hugo. Hugo looked exactly like his image from the Vlogs in a sarong, but the three visitors remained in their western clothes.

Doug introduced his wife, Moira and his daughter Katie.

Katie had been crying. Her eyes were red and the neck of her shirt was damp.

Hugo didn’t know what to say. His repertoire of comments didn’t cover a weeping girl who was just starting a holiday.

“What are you looking forward to during the next week?”

Hugo thought this was a suitably bland thing to start a conversation with.

“Katie is upset because we came away to help her forget a particularly hurtful situation of her and a boyfriend of many years. Katie and Bob were ideally matched, or so it seemed, but he eventually moved on to another girls and is now engaged to be married. The breakup was very sudden and Katie is very upset. We hope this long journey to such an exotic place will help her to get over the break-up.”

“Katie has been looking at your Vlogs since you started them and has said on several occasions that she would like to come here, so we thought that it would be something we could do together, that was her choice.”

Even though Hugo had been a girl until quite recently, it was normal in his World, for relationships to be planned. He was very unworldly in terms of unplanned relationships and really the situation did not ring alarm bells that it should have done.

He tried to ask Katie what she was looking forward to doing, now that she had seen all the Vlogs.

Katie looked down as a tear dripped down her pretty nose. She managed to answer between snuffles that she was looking forward to the beach and snorkelling in the shallows.

“We have a very good selection of brightly coloured coral reef fish that you will be able to see with just a mask, flippers and a snorkel. You can hire those from the shop in the morning or even buy them if you wish.”

Doug offered to buy Hugo a drink, but he excused himself until later as he had to greet the other new visitors. When he was able to return to Katie and her parents, they had clearly been talking.

“We came by booking very late, and Marty was very good squeezing in the extra bed into the room but it is very squashed. Are there any alternatives?”

“There are certainly residents of the Island who have spare rooms, but it is getting quite late to sort that out for tonight.”

“We quite understand.” Doug said.

Hugo was immediately aware of his loneliness on the Island and did what might be regarded as something very stupid with a pretty teenage girl who was on the bounce from a failed relationship.

“I have a spare room. If you and your parents are happy with the arrangement, then you can camp out with me and come back here for the days.”

Doug and Moira looked at each other, and then at Katie.

“Would you be alright staying in Hugo’s bungalow?”

Katie was nothing if not scheming in a way that marriageable young girls trawl for young men who may fulfil there dreams of a marriage to a Prince Charming fantasy figure.

“I think I would like that she said. It will be good for you two to have some privacy for the holiday.”

“Where do you live Hugo?”

“I have a bungalow at the end of the beach, you can see it in the far distance.”

Katie showed far more speed that her parents would have given her credit for, and was soon back with all her clothes stuffed into a bag.

She kissed her parents and was out of the door of the bar before Hugo could say his goodbyes.

They walked briskly to the far end of the beach where the bungalow was squeezed in between two others.

“Show me around?” was the first request.

It didn’t take long. A living room with a small food area, and two bedrooms. The door to the bungalow did not close properly and there were no door at all to the bedrooms.

“Don’t you have doors?”

“No not really, they are expensive to get from the mainland, and no one really cares if we see each other without clothes. If I am busy here the it is normal to fold up my sarong and do whatever it is naked, and we always swim naked. The sarongs dissolve in water, so there is no alternative.”

“Don’t people wear swimsuits?”

“Why bother. At a guess I would think that any bikini you have in your bag is little more than string and a couple of small patches of fabric.”

“When you say it like that it seems to make sense, but I am not sure if I would be comfortable going naked in front of other people yet.”

“You can do exactly what you wish. Some visitors shed their clothes from the minute they arrive, and others never do. There is no rule you have to follow.”

“So are you going to take off your sarong now we are indoors?”

“Normally I would, but I don’t want to make it difficult for you.”

“I think you should do what you normally do. It is me that is the visitor here.”

Before I do that I must make you aware of the conventions that apply here. If both people take off their sarongs, it is normal for them to be folded side by side on the table. That shows that the two people are friends. If you were to put your clothes or sarong on the table folded up and then put my sarong on top of yours, then that is a proposal of marriage, and the woman or girl would be giving permission and encouraging the couple to make love.”

Katie smiled prettily and said without a moment's hesitancy that she wouldn’t do that, but the whirring of the cogs in her head said quite the opposite.

Hugo smiled and took off his sarong and folded it up and put it on the table. Katie, it seemed was wearing very little and her skirt and tee shirt were discarded in seconds. She folded them and put them beside Hugo’s sarong.

“I must get a sarong tomorrow”, she said dreamily.

Hugo and Katie sat for a little while on the shabby sofa and looked at some soap opera that Katie enjoyed.

“These are old episodes. You are about a year behind the TV stations at home.”

“I have no way of telling. It is what the TV station here provides. I don’t watch it very often.”

Katie had entered some sort of dreamlike state. She hummed tunelessly and ran her fingers up and down Hugo’s thigh with featherlike movements. Hugo could not be unaware of her ministrations, but he knew that Katie was opening a flood gate that she might not be able to close according to the conventions of the Island.

Hugo moved to hold her naked shoulders. “Do you know what you are doing?”

Katie just had a look of lasciviousness that clouded her common sense.

“Make love to me”, she said, without any reservation. “I have watched the Vlogs and have dreamed of having you between my legs.”

Hugo tried to call on reserves of propriety that he didn’t have and was totally overwhelmed by Katie’s demand.

Their lovemaking was unsophisticated. Their cries could be heard across the bay, and Katie’s parents could not have known that the guttural grunts and shrieks came from the daughter in a moment of being totally overwhelmed by her emotions.

The combination of Hugo’s naivety and Katie’s primordial drives had beaten any reserve either had, and when breakfast was imminent, Doug and Moira walked over to Hugo’s bungalow to see what was happening. What they saw was Hugo and Katie entirely naked, wrapped around each other and fast asleep.

Moira stopped Doug from blowing a fuse by holding her index finger over her lips and they tiptoed away.

“At a distance, Doug was on the point of exploding. That bastard has raped my daughter. I will have him gaoled for that.”

“Didn’t you see where their clothes were put?”

“No, why should I.”

“Here it means that if the boys clothes are on the top of the girl’s the she has accepted a marriage proposal.”

“How can someone become engaged after only knowing each other for minutes? It is ridiculous.”

“I don’t think you have the sense you were born with. Katie has been nubile for months. All her drives are towards marriage and a family. She yearns for that. Here we have a young man who has a position to uphold in this community. He also needs a spouse by the criteria of his culture. I was talking to him earlier. There is no one on this archipelago that is sufficiently different from him genetically for him to marry. He was singularly unsuccessful at finding a bride on the neighbouring islands and apparently dating apps were all in Spanish and he only speaks English. Normally potential brides would not think of travelling for days to see a potential boyfriend, but I was completely aware that this might happen if we came here.”

“You might have warned me. You arranged for us to come here for our daughter to be seduced by a local lad.”

“If there was any seduction involved, then I am totally sure that it was Katie doing the seducing.”

At this point Katie emerged with Hugo hand in hand and proceeded to wash each other in the shallows of the bay. They had eyes only for each other. To say that each was besotted by the other would have been an understatement.

After washing they emerged, and with constant laughter at some shared private joke, they approached Doug and Moira.

“I think you two have made a decision?”

“Yes I think we have, but we have to check several things before anything goes further.”

“Like what.”

“Getting a licence to stay here depends upon greasing the palms of various corrupt officials on the mainland, but it is not necessary if Hugo is a citizen and we marry here. I automatically become a dual national.”

“How did you find this out?”

“The Internet is very useful. I had researched all this before we left.”

“It seems very pragmatic. Doesn’t love form any part of a relationship.”

“Love follows on from the practical decisions about choosing a life’s partner.”

“Please put some clothes on, and we will all go and have breakfast to explore what all of this means for us.”

The breakfast bar in the Boarding House seemed all agog at the turn of events, but Hugo, Katie, Doug and Moira seemed strangely quiet. Their daughter had made a decision. They might not see her again for months or years if she could stay on the Island, as she clearly intended.

After breakfast, Hugo and Katie went to see the Mayor. They explained what they intended.

“If you just wanted to stay here without marriage, you would need to return to the USA, and make an application for a residents’ visa. It can take months and needs money to ease its passage through officialdom. If you marry here in our Church after being named and becoming betrothed by traditional means the you obtain dual nationality and can stay indefinitely.”

Katie was clearly overjoyed at the prospect. It had been what she wanted during all those Vlogs she had watched.

“Can we do those three things before I am due to leave in six days time?”

“You will need to see the Minister to arrange the marriage in Church, but it is easy to have a special naming ceremony tonight if needed.”

“Say yes, please … Katie pleaded with her husband to be.”

With a quiet smile and a nod, Hugo agreed.

The Minister was happy to oblige and for a modest sum he issued a licence for the marriage to take place the following day.

Back to the Mayor.

“OK a special naming ceremony tonight. You will need a child’s sarong and an adult sarong to complete the ceremony.”

Doug and Moira just shrugged. It was a cheap trousseau compared with a white dress and all the accoutrements.

That evening the village gathered for the naming ceremony.

Doug brought his daughter out to the side of the village square.

“I name this child Katherine Miles Harrison, known as Katie.”

Doug removed the very short sarong of a child, and Katie walked proudly over to the Mayor on his dais. “You are name Katie, and you are available for betrothal.”

Katie wrapped herself in the larger adult sarong and together she and Hugo announced their betrothal.

This would have been sufficient for two local residents. When the woman was pregnant the marriage was created automatically. Here the paperwork needed to be completed because Katie was a foreigner, but Katie and Hugo also needed to prove that they were living as a betrothed couple before the wedding.

They were guided back to Hugo’s bungalow and they each removed the sarong of the other. Katie folded her new sarong carefully, then took Hugo’s sarong. She also folded it carefully and placed it on top of her own.

The crowd applauded and left the young couple for their first time together as a betrothed couple.

The following morning a crowd stood around the bungalow and looked on as Katie and Hugo washed in the sea. Then they wrapped themselves in their sarongs and a crocodile of residents and interested children guided them to the church. The crowd stood in the little church or round the outside where they could see inside.

The Minister hadn’t had to marry anyone formally for several years and took it upon himself to carry out every elaboration possible. No one had seen him in an academic gown, hood and a surplice, but soon enough the couple were able to exchange wedding bands and sign the register. Where the wedding bands had come from originally was anyone’s guess but it seemed that the mayor’s office collected them from deceased residents.

Copies of the documents were made and were translated into the Spanish dialect used on the mainland. Various photographs were taken and sent to disbelieving relatives. One aunt promised to come to the baptism of their first child, but didn’t know where she would have to come and how long it would take to get to the Island. She changed her mind when the journey was made clear.

All too soon it was time for Doug and Moira to leave. Inevitably there were tears, but it had become so easy to maintain contact through the Internet that perhaps the parting was less intense than it might have been in past decades.

Moira took her daughter aside.

“This has been very rapid and you are still very young. We know that when you have your mind set on something then it is quite impossible to dissuade you. We have kept our mouthes shut when we might have asked you to wait. Just know that if you need us we will come and be with you.”

“I know that Mom. I have had a brilliant childhood with the best of parents.”

“We cannot get over the fact that this seems to be love at first sight.”

“Why do you think I wanted to come here. I had fallen in love with the image of the Vlogger over the weeks. I would have been devastated if he had been different from his Online persona. He is everything I have wanted. I always wanted to live in a small, largely self-supporting community that is run on environmentally friendly principles.”

“You saying that does ease my mind a bit.”

“What will you do for a job?”

“I am going to do nursing training. That would be partly online, and partly working as an apprentice with the doctor here. Our nurse here is nearing retirement and I would like to take over from her. I will need to brush up on the local dialect of Spanish spoken on the mainland, but one of the residents has said that they can give me some lessons.”

“I will need to open a local bank account on the mainland and will move the money I inherited here. I will only need it for the fees for the nursing course and occasional trips to the mainland.

“That is a laudable goal. I hope it all works out.”

“What will you do about your nationality?”

“I haven’t given it much thought. The first thing is to get the visa in my US passport upgraded to a resident visa, after that I will wait until the renewal date on my passport and decide if I want either one passport, or both, or even neither. Both of us will need to travel to the Capital to present our documents to get the visa updated. We plan to do that in a couple of weeks.”

“We have made a booking with Marty for for a return visit in a year’s time, and will make sure that we are in contact every week until then.”

The little steamer could not wait, so after final tearful hugs, Doug and Moira left the Island for the next year.

Sophia, not surprisingly, was taken aback by the speed of the courtship and thought that maybe she would find a partner the same way through the Vlog. She had spotted immediately that Katie was a girl with a singularly determined streak. What she had, she wanted. She knew that she would be the dominant partner in her’s and Hugo’s marriage, and thought that Hugo would remain so infatuated with her and that the marriage would be a great success even if it was not a partnership of equals.

After two days of travel, and a week queueing up in various departments of the Capital City; together with some oiling of the wheels of Government using Katie’s bank card, Katie and Hugo had all their documents in order. The new bank accounts were easy with the correct documents and the visit to the college that would administer the nursing training was encouraging for a start in the new college year.

The Vlog showing their wedding had raised the number of subscribers to over 1000 for the first time, but Katie’s naming ceremony had been thought too personal to include in the Vlog.

During the journey back to their Island, she sketched out a new sarong with her married status included. It was not as short as Sophia’s but it helped to set a fashion trend amongst the younger women on the Island. The old design reached nearly to the floor for a married woman and encouraged little more than shuffling from place to place, but these new residents strode out across the land with purpose. A sarong that reached the knee was quite enough.

The Island - Part 3

Columbine

Sophia had the job of maintaining the solar panels on the several islands that made up the little archipelago that stretched off the coast of South America. She did the grand tour every nine months, and repaired motherboards, and maintained the domestic wiring to all the houses on the Island in between. The solar farm generated a high voltage but at a low current. Ideal for transporting electricity down a network of cables, but dangerous if touched. The cables from each solar array joined up at a hut and a main cable was slung on pylons down to the village where there was a step-down transformer to create a suitable voltage for the houses.

There was nothing unusual in these arrangements, but what was unusual was that there was no resident electrician on the Island. The community owned all the houses and allocated them by need. They bought reels of insulated copper wire and the various fittings and the local community paid her to carry out minor alterations and installations in the many homes on the Island. If new houses were built, it was Sophia who wired them up with an unsophisticated system of LED lights a small electric cooker, a fan and a couple of sockets for a cold box and computer and TV. A maximum of 10 amps per household. All the houses had exposed wiring and she could wire up a new property in about a day once the communal cable had reached a circuit breaker board.

It was often repetitive but satisfying work.

About once or twice a week she would trudge the several miles to the solar panel installation that was on the highest part of the Island in an area of badlands. There she would climb up to the top of a panel and check its function, but also to get the best view from the island. It was roughly teardrop in shape surrounded by a reef and she could see the waves break over the jagged rocks and coral formations that protected the Island from the mountainous seas that often pummelled the coast.

She saw in the distance, an expensive looking yacht that appeared to be in trouble. The vessel was more than two miles away from her, but even at that distance she could see the bow rise up as the vessel hit the reef. She also saw a tiny orange life raft leave the side of the stricken vessel and move away inexorably from the foundering yacht.

She had no means of raising the alarm from the solar array but almost fell down the ladder and did her best to sprint to the village. What normally took an hour took a quarter of that.

There was a warning triangle on the quay and she pelted towards it and rang the triangle for until people came out of their houses.

There is a foundered yacht that has hit the reef and the people on it have abandoned ship into a life raft. We need to save them.

The steamer was on the mainland and the fishing boats were out at sea. They were immediately contacted by radio, but would take an hour to get to where Sophia had seen the life raft from the hill top. The only alternative was a jet ski owned by the community that was rented out to holiday makers. Most of the rest of the community seemed too shocked to do anything, so Sophia raced towards the Jet-ski and hoped that the key was in its lock and it had fuel.

Luckily it responded to a turn of its key and she was able to steer out to the reef at about 20 knots. The orange life raft became visible soon after she left the jetty and it was only ten minutes before she was able to draw up alongside the life raft.

If the truth be known, the boy and girl on the life raft were in no immediate danger. They were inside the reef and were drifting rather slowly towards the Island on their own, without anyone’s help.

Their safety was one thing, but they were very distressed. They immediately pleaded for Sophia to search for their parents who had been with them on their journey, but the yacht had now sunk and the children’s father was easily seen floating face down in the sea.

Between sobs, the children asked Sophia to look for their mother. “Where was she when you hit the reef?”

“I think she was in the galley when we hit. I saw Dad fall and hit his head on the rocks.”

“From where I was on the hill over there, it seemed to me that the yacht hit the reef very hard and reared up before slipping back into the deepest part of the sea round here. I doubt if we can reach the yacht.”

“My main thing is to help you two now. Give me the painter on your life raft and I will tow you to the beach.”

Very slowly Sophia towed the life raft with its miserable occupants to the beach.

The mayor, and the doctor and the minister were on the beach waiting for them

“Well done Sophia.”

The two children it later proved were five and six. The doctor gave them a quick once over before releasing them to the care of the community in the form of the mayor.

“We need to recover the body of their father if we can. The yacht went off the continental shelf and is now in water perhaps a mile deep. I doubt if their mother’s body is recoverable, or any of their belongings.”

Sophia was the only person who was obviously female on the shore and as their saviour, as it seemed, they gravitated to her and were sobbing in her arms for much of the exchange with the mayor and doctor.

Even more to the surprise of the group on the beach, there was the sound of a Police helicopter arriving. As soon as it had landed further down the beach two heavily armed officers walked briskly over to the children’s group. They clearly spoke the local version of Spanish and were surprised that no one understood them except the indomitable Sophia.

She translated for the others.

“These officers are from the narcotics department of the National Police. The yacht that foundered was being tracked. The father of these children was a notorious drug lord and the yacht is thought to have been carrying many kilos of Cocaine. These officers had an electronic tracking device on board the vessel and knew what had happened when the tracking signal disappeared. The vessel must have sunk and be at least 1000ft below the water for the signal to be lost.”

“They were due to make arrests when the yacht met it’s counterpart from the United States sometime tomorrow night.”

At this point the helicopter took off. It had floats and was soon hovering near where the yacht had sunk and it was clear from the beach that the body of their father had been recovered and was fed into a dead bag for transport back to the mainland.

After these revelations, the Policemen’s actions took on a softer tone.

“We have a problem of two innocent children who have been orphaned today, but we also have a much larger problem in that the news of the death of their father and mother will trigger a turf war amongst the other drug cartels on the mainland and what is not seized by the other cartels will be seized by the government to pay for unpaid taxes. Not only are these children orphans but by the end of the day, they will be penniless as well, and because of their ancestry, they will be a target for any minor hoodlum who wants a bit of status in the dark corners of the Capital.”

“I am thinking on my feet here, and I really don’t know enough about your community here, but from the little I do know, you speaking only English, and being remote and largely self-sufficient makes you ideal to hide the children in plain sight for ever.”

“What I am proposing is that the media are told that both parents and both children died in the accident. There are no close relatives to question that, and the lack of three bodies is easily explained and cannot be challenged. The turf war will soon be over and a new criminal order will be established. The body of their father will be handed over and the heads of all the drug cartels will come and do homage to his remains and then fight over his assets tooth and nail. It may be a blood bath.”

“The village will be given an allowance for their upkeep. The steamer company will be told not to transport them ever, as they will have no identity papers. That will on pain of a huge fine. If they need medical treatment on the mainland for any reason the Mayor will have a telephone number and a code word, and an army helicopter will transport the child to a military hospital and back again after treatment.” What I am asking you to accept is that these children will receive new identities, and other than in emergency, they will live their lives out here.”

“When Sophia had complete the translation the Mayor, the Doctor and the Minister got together in a huddle.”

“We cannot put these orphans into a place where they will be staring down the barrel of a gun at every turn. They are not to blame for their parentage or their new poverty. At five and six they will soon adopt the customs here and we see no reason why they cannot live out their lives in the oasis of calm that is so different from the mainland.”

“Yes, we accept your terms and will do our best to raise these children as our own, with new identities until they are adults. We don’t see that we can restrict what they do when they are eighteen any more than we can our own citizens.”

“Yes, that is acceptable. There will be no adoption papers or fostering arrangements so there is no paper trail. The money will be a grant for improving something or other on the Island.”

“As regards the Government, these children died in the yacht with the parents.”

“If, even with all these precautions, a reporter, or thug from the cartels come sniffing around, then use that phone number and code word and they will be removed. The cartels will know that even with the waterproof bags that are used to transport drugs, that they will not withstand the pressures of the deep ocean a mile down. If there is any good in this, it is that those drugs are lost for good and will not do the harm they would otherwise have done.”

Both officers shook the hands of Sophia and the local representatives and there was soon the roar of the helicopter rotors that reverberated round the island until it disappeared from view over the horizon.

The two children still clung like limpets to Sophia.

“Now what.” , she said.

The Minister was the first to react. “Clearly the children have taken to you, Sophia, so I suggest that you look after them for a day or two. We will give you a credit note to use at the shop for food and so on. They will need anonymous sarongs for the time being, but those are easily available. The clothes they are standing in are not fit to wear. After a couple of days we can explain to a village gathering that the children were made orphans by the sinking of their father’s yacht without giving details of who they were. If there are volunteers, then they can be informally adopted and the adoptive parents can have access to the grant that is coming.”

“I am quite happy to help for a day or two and we will go to my cottage via the shop and choose some food that they like and, as you say two anonymous sarongs.”

The others on the Island Council agreed and the Mayor and Sophia guided the two children who were currently named Gabriele and Santiago to the shop where they chose sarongs and some mainland tinned food for a meal.

There was no one staying at the boarding house at that time. That was convenient and Marty promised Sophia and the two children a good breakfast the following morning.

When Sophia had guided the children up to her bungalow and had prepared a meal it all got too much and the children fell asleep as they were eating and Sophia tucked them into a shared bed in her spare room.

She was woken twice during the night when one or other of the children cried, but on the whole the night was uneventful.

In the morning both children asked when their mummy and daddy were coming back. Obviously for such young children, accepting the consequences of their bereavement was impossible, and Sophia had to explain very simply that their parents could not come back without saying any more. This brought more sobs, but eventually the tears dried up, and hunger got the better of them. The little band dressed in sarongs walked to the boarding house where Marty had put on a very good child centred breakfast.

A couple of children of a similar age had been primed to come and befriend Gabriele and Santiago but were surprised to find that they had names, rather than what was expected to be shown on their sarongs. The two visitors were star and palm tree, and wanted to know what the newcomers would be called?

This engrossed the two visitors and several minutes of discussion followed where Gabriele wanted to be called Squid. At just five years old it proved difficult for little Santiago to choose a name, but his sister reminded him that he liked a story of a giant clam from one of his story books, and he seemed to like that, so Giant Clam became his name.

Sophia quickly passed these names onto some willing volunteers who made the two sarongs before the following morning.

Next came the question of language. Sophia was one of the few people on the island who were fluent in the mainland variant of Spanish, so she started with a few words of English, but yesterday’s adventure made it difficult for the children to absorb even the words to help with their needs like … food and drink.

“Wait …wait … wait.” She thought. “There is time for all that.”

The next thing was that she had rushed down to the jetty when she saw the yacht sinking and had left her tools open on the solar panel array. They needed to be recovered. The children were fretful at being left and they couldn’t walk the long distance to the array and back, so the ever helpful Hugo agreed to go and collect them.

The TV occupied the children some of the time, but Sophia was worried about maintaining her work output, but she would need to wait until the meeting to decide the children’s futures. On the whole she enjoyed the children’s company and until they could learn English she might need to be involved anyway, even if it was not full time.

The next night was uneventful, but the children had to share a bed and when one was tearful it invariably woke the other. Sophia was short of sleep as a result, but had agreed to take the children for a final checkup with the doctor before the public meeting that evening.

With Sophia’s help, the doctor was able to give Gabriele a clean bill of health, but he was concerned that Santiago’s testicles seemed soft and he had some irritation in his groin.
“I think he is reverting to a female form under the influence of the Island. I cannot think how that could be happening, but he is clearly less developed between his legs than when he was rescued and certainly less that all five year old boys I have seen elsewhere in many years as a doctor.”

“Isn’t there a test for gender using saliva?”

“Yes there is but it needs stains and a powerful microscope to see the identifying Barr body in a girl’s saliva. I have sent ready stained slides to the pathology lab on the Mainland before, and the results come back as genetically female. Whatever happens here, provides a Barr body that one can see under the microscope in children who will eventually become male. The only way that can happen is in children that have XXY as their sex chromosomes, and those children would not have normal development and are invariably infertile. The developmental pattern here has never made any sense to me, but clearly there is a very strong environmental component that is expressing itself in Santiago or Giant Clam and it has started to affect him in only a couple of days.”

Giant Clam for his part was only getting used to wearing a sarong instead of shorts and a tee-shirt, and it often fell off. His sister, Gabriele adopted the garment very happily and seemed to be looking forward to meeting other children at school.

After the medical, Sophia took the children to the school and they were introduced to the other children just as new residents of the island. As they went out to play with the others, Sophia reminded the two class teachers what they needed to know about the events of two days ago.

The children would come to the school for mornings only for a week and then full time. It would allow Sophia to get back to work. The language problem was sorted out as a mother of one of the other children in the Early Years class spoke the Mainland dialect reasonably well and could help translate until the children were fluent in English.

James was aware of the circumstances of Gabriele and Santiago’s arrival as a member of the Island Committee. He talked to Coral after the helicopter had gone.

“Delphine is the same age as these two children. Should we make room for them in our lives as siblings for Delphine?” James asked.

“I wondered about that, Coral replied. I think we should.”

And so it was.