Kal, Male, 36

	- Narrator, disaster survivor and castaway

	- 6'1, 190lbs, straight, shoulder-length dark-brown hair

Bailey, Female, 13

	- Disaster survivor and castaway

	- 5'0, 100lbs, golden-brown tanned skin, shoulder-length light yellow-brown sun-streaked hair

Keekah, Female, 14

	- Young teen on Isla Gale

	- 5'2, 115lbs, mocha-brown skin, waist-length mostly-straight black hair

Gale, Female, 42

	- Survivor on Isla Gale

	- 5'5, 130lbs, dark tanned skin, waist-length dark reddish-brown hair

Over the next few weeks, the four of us became a family. Not just four people thrown together and, by necessity, cooperating and surviving and enjoying what each had to offer. No, I mean a family in that we felt like we'd always been together, cared deeply for each other, shared and nurtured and supported each other for the good of the group.

No doubt, it was not a 'normal' family, whatever that is. The four of us regularly had sex, sharing each other's bodies in ways that most families never would (or should.) Gale was a real champ. Her positive attitude was infectious, not that Bailey or Keekah really needed it, but on days when I felt myself being drained of energy and a melancholy air threatened to encircle me, Gale's jokes, laughter, and experience kept me upbeat and kept us all moving in positive directions.

As her weight came back, nicely filling out her curves, so did her memory. Not all of it, but more and more she started to remember parts of her life before the island. Some good, some not so good, but she was so thankful to recall anything that she welcomed each and every time she paused and could bring back a name, or a place, or a moment she'd known as a child. It was an amazing thing to watch.

Gale really did fill out nicely. Her stick figure appearance when we first met her at the shack had transformed into a fit, lean and muscular woman whose rich, tan body jiggled tightly in all the right places.

Keekah's body, too, had grown mature. Her breasts grew some, became rounder, more full. Her hips took on a bit more curve. Her face sharpened a touch, looked more a young woman than a young teen.

And Bailey. Oh, my sweet Bailey. Puberty ran fast over her body in those weeks. She grew an inch or two, gained some weight. Her breasts grew larger, lost their conical shape, though retained the delicate puffiness of a young woman. Her pubes grew in rich and dark brown, covering her Mons and trailing away along her labia. Her legs and butt became muscular, defined, sexy as hell. Her ass especially looked amazing as it rounded, tightened, became heart-shaped.

Even I changed a bit. I fully recovered my strength from my injuries of weeks before and added back weight and muscle. My tan darkened. I let my hair grow long, brushing my shoulders, though I often pulled it back in a ponytail. Bailey liked it that way, so I had no desire to cut it.

It was more than just bodies that changed over those weeks. Gale's garden was doing better than hoped. The weather had been fairly mild but it rained hard several times a week, enough to supply them with a constant source of water. The plants were growing quickly, and even the stubborn tubers were doing well. Barring a devastating storm, we were going to have a rich harvest in the coming months.

Gale's vanilla finished curing and was delicious. We used it sparingly to flavor our coffee, cocoa, and even the rum. My fish drying technique worked great and we had several dozen pounds of it stored safely away for emergencies. The smoking technique never quite worked for long-term preservation, but it was tasty and we often made a large batch to eat for several days.

We had about ten straight days in November and December where we caught no fish. No matter what we tried, nothing took the bait. The crabs and shellfish were as abundant as ever, so we suffered not, but we never did understand what happened to our most filling source of calories. One day, we caught nothing, and for a week and half had the same success. They did come back eventually as if nothing had changed, and we were once again pulling in as much as we could eat by mid-December.

We dried vegetables of all kinds, too. Peppers, beans, even some of the thick celery-like stalks. Gale and Keekah seemed to have a knack for preserving things, and with the dried fish and veggies, we were starting to build up a solid 'worst case' storage of food.

Some of our 'first world' food still remained, but most of the denser stuff was gone. We'd finished the cakes, almost all the packaged foods, were down to just a couple of small jars of jellies, peanut butter, and similar items. We'd been incredibly lucky to have such a boon to our calories and to our variety of items to choose from, and I knew we'd soon miss having such a luxury available.

Still, the end of November and most of December was calm, peaceful. It stopped feeling like survival and started feeling like normal. Between the four of us, we managed to keep ourselves with plenty of water, calories, and shelter without exerting a great deal of effort. I knew harvest season, followed immediately by a new planting season, would be a couple of weeks of hard work, but that was still a while off. For the time, our family was settled into a routine that left us a lot of time to talk, to grow and learn, and to do more than barely survive.

One of the books that had arrived with the boat was a compendium of Charles Darwin's work which included The Voyage of the Beagle. Bailey was immediately interested when I told her about it and she read it every moment she could, moving on to consume Darwin's other works as well. There were a few other science books in the collection, and she devoured those too. I loved that she found it so interesting, and it helped me immensely to keep her education moving forward.

I encouraged Bailey to start a book, in the spirit of Darwin's, describing what she found on the island. We had several large untouched notebooks and scrapbooks, and her interest in nature and science had her constantly checking out the wildlife around us. The thirteen-year old started cataloguing all the animals and plants she found, describing them, noting their habits and patterns, even giving them names, like 'Keekah's heron' and 'Blood Wing Gull' and 'Fast Black Snake.' Keekah was a decent artist and drew pictures of each one Bailey entered, and before long, they had dozens of birds, crabs, fish, lizards, hares, and all the other critters in the book, and many more of plants. My young wife was a gifted naturalist, and her book became quite a fascinating bit of field work.

Keekah's ability to speak and understand English crossed a threshold during this time. She still had to go slowly at times, but she could participate fully in our conversations and could convey her thoughts very clearly for someone who had only had a few weeks of practice. Even her usage of the foreign consonants had become impressive. Bailey picked up a little more of Keekah's language, as well, but not to the point of having full conversations. I had no luck doing anything similar, and with the brown-skinned girl becoming comfortable with English, I found little need to do more.

We saw nothing at all of the outside world during that time. Heard no bombs. Saw no dead bodies. No more horrible drawings. I was quite glad that our island was once more isolated and undisturbed by whatever was going on everywhere else.

December 25th rolled around and it was midday before I thought to mention that it was Christmas. Gale's reaction was a shrug.

“Not religious?” I asked.

“No... and definitely not Christian.”

“Me either. So what do you follow?”

She shrugged again. “Nothing much. I trust what I can see, never saw the point in worshiping anyone or anything that couldn't be bothered to show up and have a drink with me first.”

I laughed. “Yeah. I grew up Christian, but in high school I had already figured out it was just a lot of mythology heaped on people who didn't know better. A useful tool for those who held control. A silly bunch of nonsense to those who looked at it logically.”

She smiled, “pretty much sums it up for me. Oh, I dunno, I suppose there could be something, but... One of the memories that came back to me recently was a rainbow I saw when I was in my twenties. Was with someone, can't quite remember who she was, who said, 'what marvelous proof that God loves us!' I thought it was the dumbest thing I'd heard in a while. I knew how rainbows worked, and it didn't take divine intervention to make it happen.”

I shook my head. Gale continued, “what about Bailey?”

I stopped, said, “you know... I've never asked her. She's never prayed that I've noticed, or mentioned anything religious, guess I always assumed she was non-religious like me. Seems like a good day to bring it up.”

She kissed my cheek and moved back to the fire to check her pot of stew. The girls were bringing back linens that they had washed in the surf, then treated with clean water, heading for the trees where ropes were tied off for drying things. I kissed them both as they passed, playful giggles on their lips.

I gathered a bit of fallen deadwood and piled it with the rest against the front of the boat. The girls finished hanging the linens and Keekah made her way back down to the water with a piece of soap. Bailey caught my eye and joined me near the cookfire, taking my hand and leaning into my body as she kissed me.

It was still strange and amazing to realize she was wife. Sure, I knew I was still technically married to Kate, and the ceremony wasn't legally official off the island, but I'd long ago accepted that Kate was dead and that my life was different now. Bailey was my wife in every way that mattered, and it still thrilled me to touch her, to see her smile, to know she loved me as deeply as I did her.

I poured us water and grabbed a couple of banana-fruits and we sat munching as we watched Gale tend to her stew.

“Today's Christmas. Didn't really think about that til a bit ago. So... uh... Merry Christmas?”

Bailey smiled at me, said, “uh... yeah, you too. Guess there's no Santa this year, huh?”

I laughed and nodded. “Never was, unfortunately.”

“Yeah, I know. My mom never pretended there was. Pretty silly, I think.”

“Did you celebrate Christmas?”

“Nah. Mom was Jewish, me too, I guess. Never really talked about it, though.”

“Ah. What do you believe now?”

“About what?”

“I dunno,” I looked around a moment, “religion. God. Faith. All that.”

Bailey thought quietly before speaking. “I dunno.”

I smiled. “That is a perfectly rational answer.”

“What do you believe?”

“That we're lucky the stew is almost ready. I'm starving!” She pinched me lightly, giggled. “I have no belief in Gods, Bailey. Any of them. I don't value faith, I don't believe in revelation as a source of knowledge, and I seriously doubt that an invisible diety 'out there' is a force in our lives. I've seen no evidence, no reason to hold to those beliefs. I always saw most religions as damaging, brainwashing otherwise decent people into believing fictional stories as fact. Outright frauds in some cases.”

She took in my thoughts and surprised me with the maturity of her question. “And after life? Is there anything? Anything you believe in?”

I shook my head. “Not in the normal sense, no. One we die, that's it for what we consider ourselves. Our thoughts, our memories, our values. Each one of us is here a brief time, and we should cherish that, but once it is over, there is nothing more. Our atoms, the various particles and energies that make up our bodies, those go on much longer, but even they, eventually, will likely breakdown or change over time. I don't believe there is anything after death for us beyond that.”

Bailey held a measured expression for a long moment before replying. “I wanted to believe in something more, when I was little. I thought heaven or something like it might be wonderful. I don't want to die... and it scares me a little to think about not existing... but... I see no reason to believe in anything either... Doesn't that make you sad, too?”

I smiled, replied “Not at all. Sure, I don't really want to die and not exist, either, but knowing there is nothing more, knowing that this is the one shot I have to enjoy what I do have, means I embrace the present and do everything I can to make the most of it. Just like what we've done on this island. We don't know if we'll ever see the rest of the world again, but that just means we have to preserve the beauty and the joy we've found here. Nothing else matters.”

“That's a good way to put it. Yeah... I like that.”

I kissed her forehead and Keekah rejoined us just in time for dinner. We all ate our fill of the crab and fish stew, enjoying the fresh peppers and peas that packed in around small chunks of white meat. After eating, we passed a joint and talked about science, philosophy, morals, heady stuff that we'd had no real mental space to explore until that moment. Gale had holes in her memories but still held surprising volumes of knowledge about a wide range of subjects. Even Keekah offered her thoughts at times and I was aware of the way her language skills helped me feel even closer to her than before.

I had always celebrated Christmas. Not that I was religious in any way, but I enjoyed the excuse to party, to bring friends together, to throw silly decorations around the house and watch movies from childhood holidays. It was always a nostalgic moment at the end of each year. It was a tradition that ran in our family.

On the island, I felt no urge for nostalgia. I'd left that all behind when I fell from the cruise ship. My new family held no need for those customs, to join in those memories. We had made so many of our own that the values we shared created a new kind of nostalgia, one for days and weeks past, not years. The experiences the four of us had had on the island.

The night was warm by the time Gale yawned and excused herself for the night. Keekah joined her and left Bailey and I holding hands as we walked to the shore and waded in to our knees. We kissed and I realized that my conversations with her that day had grown yet another connection between us. I understood her better, and she I, and I felt closer, more deeply in love with what I saw.

Her hand slid down my back and grabbed my butt, holding me against her. She whispered in my ear, “I'm getting pretty tired, too, but I'd love to feel you inside me right now...”

I moaned my agreement and fondled her ass. The way her body had matured left her butt cheeks with a heavier feel, a softer curve along her hips and down to her legs. They felt wonderful in my hands as we kissed.

I turned her around, moved her up the sloping sand a bit. Bailey smiled and bent over, putting her hands into the water to brace herself. My dick was almost fully hard and I ran it up and down her crotch, loving the way her new hairs tickled and teased my length.

I spit in my fist and coated my cock, sent another down to lubricate her vagina. She was already creamy, slick, her body ready for my penetration. I slipped inside my thirteen-year old wife's tight cunt and heard her groan through the contact.

Her grunts became louder as I held her hips and moved my length in and out of her slippery, tight teen pussy. Bailey's body shook as I thrust into her, her taller frame and mature curves jiggling slightly with each movement. I heard her moan and her head raised as I picked up speed, moving in and out of her body and approaching climax.

Sperm raced up my dick as I bottomed out in Bailey's vagina, shooting out forcefully. I ejaculated and groaned in pleasure, squirting my hot semen into the thirteen-year old's wet pussy. Bailey shivered as I came in her, moaning with me as my climax slowed. I held tight against her, the heat from her labia soaking against me, her channel clenching and twitching as it milked the last drops from my penis.

I raised her body up, keeping myself inside. Bailey's mouth was open, panting. I slid a hand to her clit and found it hard and straining. I stroked it rapidly, felt her little body shudder and tense, and quickly brought my young teen wife to orgasm.

Bailey's cunt spasmed, drooled on my penis. She forced me out after several long contractions, sperm flowing from her vagina and down her inner thigh. She quickly turned around and kissed me deeply, wrapping her arms around me and one of her legs as well. We fell back in the surf and kissed well into the night before drying ourselves and making our way to the bed to join Gale and Keekah in a comfortable sleep.