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 Chapter 16

   Life was wonderful having Jennifer with me.  Periodically, I would ask
her if she'd decided when we would marry and always got the `Not yet'
answer.  No sense pressing her, just wait - after all, with the exception
of a piece of paper, we were already husband and wife.

   The summer of the year Jennifer turned eighteen, she convinced me that
we needed to build a new home on the site we'd looked at a while back.  As
a result of our discussions I could see that this was going to be a much
larger project than the reconstruction of the cabin or the building of the
addition.  While we started the process of salvaging logs, I started
putting out feelers for some sort of tractor to buy.  The distance from the
water to the new building site was much greater than at the cabin and I
didn't relish trying to get the logs up the slope the way we had in the
past.  In addition, the soil at the new site was much more conducive to
putting in a normal drainage field for a septic system.  That would allow
us to have more amenities in the new home.

   One day, I got a message to contact a fellow who had a tractor with a
bucket on one end and a backhoe on the other - just perfect for my needs.
Arrangements were made for me to go over to the main island and look it
over.  Jennifer of course came with me and went to visit Elizabeth and
Helen at the store.

   I looked the unit over and after talking to a couple of folks whose
opinion I valued, I struck a deal to buy the tractor.  The next issue to
deal with was how to get it to our island.  The seller had the solution for
me - his brother had a larger boat with a bow that could be dropped down to
allow the tractor to be driven on and off.  Better yet the brother had told
him that he would do it for nothing as a favour.

   I headed back to the store to pick up Jennifer and found a surprise -
Jennifer had acquired a kitten.  Seems that Elizabeth and Helen's female
cat managed to get out on them and found a tom cat.  The result was a
litter of three kittens who were now weaned and looking for a home.  How
could I not say yes when Jennifer said she wanted to take the kitten that
she was holding home.

   I wondered what would happen when Maggie saw Ralph (that was the name
that Jennifer had already given the kitten).  At first, Maggie wasn't sure
about this new addition to the family.  It wasn't long though, before
Maggie's natural maternal instinct kicked in.  Soon, where you saw Ralph,
you saw Maggie.  It was cute to see the two of them sleeping together,
Ralph curled up in a ball cuddled up to Maggie's belly.

   *****

   A couple of weeks after our trip to the main island, the tractor arrived
allowing Jennifer and me to start hauling the logs up from the beach.  One
day, since we had no logs left to bring up, Jennifer suggested we take some
stakes and string and lay out the new home.  I went out and gathered some
stakes, some twine and a 50 foot tape measure.  After some discussions and
measuring of logs we finally decided on the outside dimensions of the
house.

   "Okay, now let's figure out how we're going to divide this space up."
Jennifer said.  "Can we make this a 2 story building?"

   "Why do we need a second story?" I asked.

   "Why for the children, of course." came Jennifer's reply.

   `Children?  Good heavens, we aren't even married yet' I thought to
myself but wisely didn't say anything out loud.  "Well, I suppose we
could." I replied.  "Maybe we could put 2 bedrooms on the upper floor - one
at each end."

   Jennifer had a puzzled look on her face so I took a stick and drew out
what I was talking about.  Once I'd explained things on my drawing Jennifer
understood what I meant.

   Going back to our string outline, I marked out a space for stairs.  "If
the upstairs rooms are at either end of the building the stairs have to
come down here." I told her and showed her where I was talking about.  Once
that detail was in place we talked about where other things would go and
finally our plan was in place.

   I was looking off towards the ocean, envisioning what it would be like
to sit on the porch looking out.  I sensed some movement behind me and
turned to see a naked Jennifer laying a blanket out in the area where our
bedroom would be.

   "Hurry up and get undressed, I want to have our first fuck in our new
bedroom." she told me.  I laughed and soon joined her on the blanket.

   This was one of those `no foreplay, just fuck' sessions and it didn't
take long for both of us to come.  When we'd recovered, Jennifer got her
wicked smile on.  "We're going to do this every time a significant thing
occurs - when we have the foundation in place, when the floor is complete,
when the walls are up - get the picture?" I kissed her and laughed at her
suggestion.

   *****

   We'd got the foundation and floor completed (and of course suitable
rites were performed as each was completed) and we were well on the way to
getting the walls up.  Having the tractor with the bucket meant the two of
us could do a lot - one lifting the log with the tractor and the other
guiding the log into place.  It was slow work as we had to put the log in
place, mark where we needed to trim the new log so it sat down snuggly on
the previous log, take it back down and trim the unwanted material.  Often
this took several tries in order to get the tight fit that we wanted so
that the house would be wind and rain proof.

   We needed to get some lumber to frame the window and door openings so we
made a trip over to the main island.  The first stop, as always was to drop
Jennifer off at the store to talk to Elizabeth and Helen.  I got the lumber
and went back to the store to retrieve Jennifer and head home.  In addition
to being the town's store, it also had, in a little area at the back, the
town's post office.  As I expected, Jennifer had gotten the mail and had
discovered there were two letters for her.  One was from the Education
Department with her High School Diploma enclosed and the other was a letter
from Mr.  Dufor.  It was not uncommon for Jennifer to get a letter from Mr.
Dufor since she'd get one at least once every three months but normally
Jennifer waited until we were home before opening the letter.

   I noticed that this time, Jennifer had opened the letter and was sitting
there reading it with a strange look on her face.  "Ready to go home?" I
asked.  Jennifer folded the letter and put it back in the envelope.  She
looked at me and nodded but still had a funny look on her face.  `She'll
tell me when she's ready' I told myself and together Jennifer and I made
our way back to the boat.

   Usually Jennifer is a bit of chatterbox after visiting with Elizabeth
and Helen.  Being the focal point in town - everyone shops there - Jennifer
usually has some `news' about the goings on in town.  Today, however, she
was quiet, just answering my questions.  Finally we arrived back at our
island and while I unloaded the building materials, Jennifer took the rest
of our purchases up to the cabin.

   I finally got everything put away and the boat secured then went up to
join Jennifer.  I found her sitting at the table with the letter open in
front of her.  After taking off my outerwear, I went over to Jennifer.

   "Wally, look what was in Mr.  Dufor's letter" she said as she pushed a
letter to me.  "Mr.  Dufor got this in the mail with a note asking him to
forward it to me.  The letter is from the cousin I told you about.  Read
the letter."

   I took the letter and read it.  The letter writer, a man named Martin,
had only just discovered that Jennifer's family had died and was asking to
meet with her.  I looked at Jennifer and waited for a moment trying to
think of how we could accomplish this.

   "Well, dear, have you thought about what want to do?" I asked her.  "I
guess the first question that needs to be asked is do you want to contact
him at all."

   Jennifer sat there mulling that over.  I continued.  "You have his
address there in the letter and you could write him direct or if you wanted
to keep your location private, you could write to him and send it to Mr. 
Dufor and ask him to mail it."

   It took Jennifer a few minutes but finally she told me she wanted to
wait until tomorrow before she made up her mind.

   Jennifer was quiet that night and I knew the contents of the letter had
probably brought back the memories of her mother and father.  That night
when we went to bed, Jennifer hugged me tight.  "Wally, please hold me.  I
feel so sad tonight." Jennifer hadn't needed to ask as I knew that she
needed to be hugged.  We lay in bed in one another's arms for quite a while
until finally sleep over took both of us.