Chapter 15
Standing on the pier, looking at the last wisp of white smoke on the horizon, Vic chuckled. The two women beside him glanced up at him. "What is so funny?" asked the younger one.
He held her around the waist and smiled down at her sweet face. "Oh, you wouldn't understand, but I was thinking of a phrase from a hundred travel movies I've seen. It goes like this: 'And as they sailed off into the sunset ... ' Only that usually goes with a happy ending. I don't think too many people on that yacht are very happy. The women are battered, the men hung over, and the principals in the drama pretty dissatisfied with the deals they got."
The older woman, Isabela, nodded. "But the natives are happy," she said.
"Yes, things worked out pretty well here. Antoine has what amounts to a new hotel, and when word gets around he'll probably have a good little tourist business going once again."
"It will be good for me too. It will make life meaningful for me here again," said Isabela. "But I will miss you both."
"We'll be back every year or so,' Vic said. "As paying guests, of course."
"Oh no. We will pick up the bills."
He kissed her on her smooth cheek. "We'll see."
"You will go back to work for Sparling?" Isabela asked.
"I may or I may not," Vic answered, shrugging his shoulders. "It depends on what he offers me. He's obliged to take me back, of course. He's afraid to let me go with what I have on him. By the way, do you have the photographs?"
She went to the boathouse, reached up to a rafter and produced a parcel. She returned and handed it to him.
"Fine. And now we must go. On to Cat Island, and from there by plane to Nassau, and from there, home. Goodbye, Isabela. You have been very good to me-and for me."
"Goodbye, Vic. Take good care of her. I know you will be good to each other." She embraced him, and then Carmina, who held her mother very closely for a long moment.
Then they stepped into the shabby launch run by the gaunt West Indian and his son, paid him twenty dollah in advance, and pulled away from Topaz.
Isabela waved until they were out of sight. "And as they sailed off into the sunset," she said to no one in particular, a tinge of sadness in her voice.