Understanding
Part Fourteen - Honeymoon
By Cimerene
cimerene@gci.net

John held open the door to the outside of the plane and let Kerry exit first. She very carefully grabbed the handrail and glanced around at the lush scenery. This was not what she was expecting. She looked around the small airport to the palm trees swaying in the light breeze. She could smell the ocean from here. The air smelled heavenly. It's absolutely beautiful here, she thought. But she still had no clue where "here" was. 

She looked at John. "Well, where are we?" 

"On a private island, off the coast of Hawaii," John said quietly.

"What do you mean 'private'?" Kerry questioned him, suddenly very suspicious.

"Um, my family sort of owns it." John mumbled softly. 

"Are you serious?" Kerry asked John.

John was starting to look extremely uncomfortable. "Well, I don't own it, but well, my family sorta…” John stopped, not sure how to tell her. His carefully prepared speech flew right out the door. 

"John, how can you sorta own an island?" Kerry snapped at him.

"Gamma spoke to Aunt Karen and she suggested we stay here for our honeymoon," John began, before realizing he had just managed to confuse her even more.

"John, you've lost me again," Kerry told him. "Start at the beginning," she said patiently. 

John sighed; he was making a hash of things. "My aunt Karen owns this island!" he told her bluntly. 

"The whole thing? Are you sure you don't mean just a few acres of it?" she replied. Surely she couldn't own the entire island; it looked rather large from the air. Maybe he meant she owned some land or a condo or something here. 

"Um, actually, no. I mean she owns the whole thing!" he replied. 

"The entire island?" Kerry asked weakly. She shook her head. She would never get used to this, she thought. She had married John because she loved him, not because he came from a wealthy family. Sometimes she had even forgotten he came from a wealthy family. Then again there were moments like this.

A small jeep was waiting off to the side of the road. An elderly looking man was waiting inside it. As they approached, he climbed out of the vehicle. 

"Mr. John," he began. "I haven't seen you in years! Martha will be right pleased to see you. She has supper ready at the house."  He beamed upon John, obviously pleased to see him. "And you must be Mrs. Kerry?" He indicated Kerry.  

John smiled at him. "Jake, how are you doing? You look great." He smiled at the elderly gentleman, then indicated Kerry.  "Jake, please meet my wife. Kerry, meet Jake. He's been here since before I was born." 

Jake just smiled. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Kerry," he said in a booming voice. "Now hurry up, we need to get home. Martha has dinner on the table for us." 

As they walked along, Kerry whispered to John, "Who's Martha?" 

John whispered back, "His wife." 

Jake gestured for them to move towards the jeep. Kerry wondered what the house looked like. So far, nothing that had happened since they were married had gone as she had expected. John smiled and herded a bemused Kerry towards the jeep. 

Jake looked like a real character, she thought. But he seemed nice. She was still enchanted with the scenery. The road was bumpier than she wanted, hence the jeep. She wondered if the roads ever got washed out in the spring by floods, remembering that had happened where she lived in Africa several times. But then she decided that since it wasn't her problem, it wouldn't matter much. She glanced over at John. He must be proud of himself, she thought. She knew she would never have been able to plan a vacation like this. That explained the cat-among-the-canaries look she saw on his face.

Kerry was looking intently at the wildlife along the road. They passed a rather large bird that she swore looked like a peacock.  She wished they would slow down so she could look at it more closely. She was staring behind her towards the bird when the jeep slowed down, then halted. 

"John, did you see that bird? I swear it was a..." 

Kerry turned around and was stunned. John had made sure he was watching her face. He didn't want to miss seeing her expression when she saw the family home. 

"A CASTLE!" Kerry exclaimed! Her words and thoughts became one. "The family home is a castle?" She repeated to herself.  John smiled at her. I knew she would love this, he gloated to himself.

She had always wanted to see one close up. She could see the turrets, the gray walls, the stunning architecture. It even had a bridge.  It was absolutely stunning. The dark gray walls even had ivy climbing all over them. The whole thing was picture perfect.

"How in the world..?" she said, still in a state of shock.

"Do you like it?" John said anxiously. 

"It's perfect."

****** The next morning ******

John rolled over and kissed his wife. "Wake up, sleepyhead," he told her softly. 

"Why? I'm on vacation!" Kerry exclaimed. It figures the first time I get the urge to sleep in, in ages and you want me to wake up, she thought. She rolled over and ignored him. 

"Hey, princess," he teasingly told her. "Wake up, we have things to do today!" 

"The princess wants to sleep," she said, and proceeded to pull the light covers back over her head. 

John smiled and wrestled with her to get the covers back. "Kerry, wake up. C'mon, I have a surprise for you." He smiled. He knew that would do it.

"What?" she said suspiciously. 

John just smiled. "Well, if I told you then it wouldn't be a surprise." Kerry glared at him. This had better be good, mister, she thought to herself.

***** Later on that day ********

The waterfall was absolutely beautiful. They had been following the winding trail for a few miles. John had asked Kerry if she was okay so many times during the walk that once she had even pretended to hit him with her cane. Kerry wasn't worried too much. It was a nice day out, they had all the time in the world and that path was very recently swept clean. John had a small backpack filled with her lunch and was currently leaping from rock to rock. Sometimes Kerry thought John was more of a child than Madison was. 

"Maddy would like it here," Kerry said out loud. 

"I think so too," John replied. "But," he added laughingly, "She'd be angry with me right now, for not carrying a TV with me so she could watch it when we rest." 

Kerry laughed lightly. She could just see the look of outrage on Maddy's face. "Don't let me forget we need to call them tonight," Kerry told John. Sometimes, he thought, you'd think that Samantha was Kerry's cousin and not mine, the way they keep tabs on each other.

"How much farther?" she asked him. 

"Not too much longer. But then, the last time I was here was when I was 15, so I'm not sure," he said wryly. 

Kerry smiled; John looked so happy. He was clowning around, laughing, making jokes. You'd never believe that just a few short months ago he was close to dying. She determinedly shoved that thought out of her head. No gloom and doom, not today anyway! She thought to herself. 

"I can hear it now," Kerry said matter of fact.

John looked up from where he was balancing on two medium sized rocks. He glanced in the direction of the sound. "Yup, that's it. If I remember correctly we just go around that corner." They moved forward at a faster pace, determined to get to their destination.

The waterfall was large, it spread out over several meters, and it cascaded down a seemingly endless bank of rocks. At the basin was a large pool of crystal clear water. Kerry stared at it for several minutes fascinated. It was easily one of the most breathtaking sights she had ever seen. She watched as sprays of water seemed to jump and dance in the air before hitting the pool of water with resounding thuds. 

"It's beautiful," Kerry said.

****** Hours later *******

Kerry was lying on the ground, her hands propped up her chin as she watched sprays of water dance into the pool. She could never get enough of this, she thought to herself. Beside her, John was lying face up, watching the clouds drift by, amusing himself by finding shapes and figures in them. 

"Hey, remember your great-uncle's speech?" Kerry asked him. John smiled. His great-uncle had delivered the world's longest congratulation speech at the reception. Kerry privately thought that he would have made a great speaker for some United Nations function. She figured she would probably have scars the way she had to keep pinching her arms to stay awake while he was talking.

"He wasn't so bad," John replied, a bout of family loyalty hitting him. "It was the organist that was irritating." The organist they had originally booked had come down with a sudden family emergency. The piano player substitute had managed to mangle the Wedding March song about as badly as possible. But in some ironic twist he was able to play over 30 different TV commercials note perfect! 

Kerry remembered how happy Madison was to know there was music she could sing to. If she hadn't been so nervous, she would have killed him at the time.

******** Several days later *********

John and Kerry were eating lunch. They had risen late from breakfast and had gone for a leisurely swim in the ocean. John intended to take Kerry back to the waterfalls later on, so they could watch the endless sprays cascade down the mountain. So far nothing had spoiled their honeymoon. They had laughed, talked, argued and made love every chance they got. They were bickering over what to do next when the Martha came in and told John that he had a phone call from Mrs. Carter. John wasn't expecting to talk to his grandmother; he had spoken to her the night before to check in.  He wasn’t expecting her call again so soon. 

"Hello," he spoke into the phone. "Hi, Gamma," he said, sounding surprised. "Is something wrong?"

Kerry put down her toast. She wasn't sure why Millicent was calling, as she knew that John had spoken to her the night before. She hoped it was nothing serious.  John was silently listening. A look of dawning horror appeared on his face. 

"When?" he asked. Kerry watched him intently. John looked beyond worried. Whatever had happened, it was serious, that much was evident. As much as she wanted to grab the phone and ask questions she stayed silent and forced herself to wait. 

"We'll be there as soon as I can get the pilot to get the plane ready. Tell her to hold on for us." 

John's voice choked a bit as he said the words. Kerry watched him put the phone down. John reached for her and pulled her into a tight embrace, as if afraid she would disappear on him. 

Kerry looked up at him and gently touched his face. She was surprised to see tears in his eyes. "John, what is it?" John tried to say something but couldn't. He waited a few more moments, trying to compose himself. 
 
"Samantha's been hit by a car.  They're not sure if she is going to make it." 

End of Part Fourteen

If you have comments or suggestions, email me at cimerene@gci.net