"It's a shame, it is" Louise stated as she settled back in the plane seat. Evie clung to John as he tried to untangle her from him so he could lift the carry-on bag into the overhead locker "Why did the four of you decide- two to Tahiti and two to ..... Where are they going again?"

"Lou I've told you a hundred or more times now. Richie and Paul are going to the Virgin Islands" John finally managed to get Evie to go to Lou, he was favourite these days.

Louise was always stop this, stop that with the bub but John let her get into any old thing. Much to Louise's horror Evie had spread lipstick from one end of the kitchen to the other just days ago. All John could do was snigger and reprimand Lou for leaving her bag down on the floor then cuddle Evie while Lou was stomping about trying to clean all the mess.

"Trust Paulie, the Virgin Islands. Won't be many left by the time he's run rampant" Louise grinned at her joke "Oh no he won't, Janes going, right? hmmmmm" Louise didn't see Jane much. What with Janes hectic high-flying life as an actress, staying at far flung locations like Surrey and Yarmouth, note the sarcasm.. Jane was never about.

Louise felt inferior to Jane and that in itself was a recipe for disaster. John tended to tell Paul to clear off on the odd occasion Jane was in town. She was a bit iffy with John too, he felt she thought she was better than his humble self. Lou was trying though, calling Jane and asking her how she was when she was in town or going to the shops and lunch with the girls.

Lou was also trying to gain some sort of hold on her life, everything had gone to pot when she had Evie, no longer working Lou felt like she was a dead weight around Johns neck at times. He never breathed a bad word about her mooching but Lou wanted to get into the photography again as it could be done with the lads and she could sell the images too- bonus!

She snapped a picture of Evie blowing a raspberry at John then took the large camera from around her neck, dropping it carefully to the floor, the leather strap anchored to her leg.

"Paul won't be getting any air to his genitals this trip!" John spoke that revelation rather loudly and laughed at his joke as George turned about in his seat with a deathly stare.

Pattie the new girlfriend sat beside him, tugging at her bottom lip with embarrassment.

John and Lou were so going to scare her to death George had thought to himself as he climbed the steps to board the plane. Lou had already been teasing John in the motor on the way to the airport. Teasing John about going without for the entire duration of the flight because the toilet compartment on the plane wouldn't accommodate their own brand of shenanigans.

George glanced at the ceiling- Lord give me strength .... and a chip butty, well some nuts at least. Could do with some nuts and a soda right about now. George stared at the in-flight newspaper and then glanced over to look at his travel mate. Pattie smiled and George fell a little more in love with the pretty model.

***

"You sorted a babysitter didn't you, Louise" George played peek-a-boo through the small section of seat as he interrogated Louise "I'll mind her for a bit but Pattie and I are not being your personal babysitting service"

"Oh, I thought Pattie would like that, wouldn't you Pattie? Evie liked your pig tails the other day" Lou teased George, Pattie wouldn't say no, especially since Lou was Georges sister and she wanted to be seen in a pleasant light.

"Louise" George grumbled.

"She's only joking George. We have a sitter sorted.. super skinny sexy sitters in shorties sorted successfully" John laughed as he spluttered out the tongue twister with Lou smacking his arm about the sexy sitter bit.

"Please shut up Lennon I've a headache and the wheels haven't turned yet" George muttered as he rolled his eyes and apologised quietly to Pattie. She had been laughing at Johns antics though.

***

Once landed at their stopover destination of Hawaii, Pattie and Lou seemed to bond over sarongs in a Waikiki shop then teased the boys when they drove up to the north of the island to a secluded beach where no one knew who they were, but it was great really, John and George reveled in the anonymity of it all and made complete ninnys of themselves trying to surf on long-boards they had hired.

The transfer was hours away and after surfing they ate at a local café and drank from coconuts with umbrellas poking out of them which Lou took delight in tucking in her hair throughout the afternoon.

Finally arriving at Papeete a sailing boat was already waiting for the four adults and Evie to board but it seemed as soon as they got out of the harbour the water turned rough and choppy. The boat, stunk of diesel and having been freshly painted, had the added stench of paint too. The two couples couldn't go below because of the fumes, so they lay on to the deck. Tired from the long hours of travel, they were all quickly asleep thankfully, as the boat rocked side to side. Little Evie was well secured in her playpen come cot, she slept fitfully too.

But soon after eating breakfast the next morning....

the mood changed ......
John and Lou were feeling ill...

and puked everywhere.

"Oh my god John that is so disgusting" Lou was dry heaving just watching John chuck his stomach contents up, she had left her's somewhere south of their current position which was about two kilometres off the coast. The waves and constant rolling of the boat was not helping the situation and they still had a half day to go to get to the relative safety of the cove they were to be anchoring in.

"Just a minute, wasn't I the one bucketing water up to swab the deck like bloody Horatio Nelson when you lost your entire breakfast not more than ten minutes ago!?"

"Hoartio Nelson had lackeys for that you dunce"

"Well he did it when he was a youngin' before all the battles, before losing his eye, leg and arm and, and ..... What else did he lose?"

"Ummm..... his life ...." Lou rolled her eyes seconds before joining John in hurling up clumps of what must have been last Fridays roast dinner- they hadn't eaten carrot since, so there was no other explanation.

"George save me" Louise begged as she crawled toward her brother who was seemingly immune to the dangerous perils of the voyage facing that of his sailing counterparts.

Lou was on her belly crawling like a soldier through dense jungle trying to be invisible but Lou wasn't invisible though, nor was she silent. Her stomach growled and her face contorted as she realised George was smiling broadly down on her from his perch on the main sail thingy that you can sit on. You know they have them on all sail boats it's horizontal and everything; yeah right, that thingy.

"Go away Louise .... this here, what you two have, is what they call karma" George kissed Pattie and held her back from leaping off the main sail thingy to assist Louise in standing upright. "Karma -Keep Away Ralphing Muck Atrociously ..... nah it doesn't it means -"

"I know what it means you weasel!" Lou found a foot hold beside the coil of rope laying haphazardly on the deck and pointed at John "It means John and I did something to piss off the gods of puking"

"Hey! I was just following you Louise I would follow you anywhere and, here today, I follow you puking over the side" John sat leaning over the bow, he tapped the spot next to him "Come here luv, I think we're over the worst of it now, you've started fighting with George again" John wiped his brow with a wet towel and felt a little better after the dispersal of the contents of his stomach into the south pacific.

"You think?" Lou wasn't sure, if anything the last few minutes she had felt her stomach twirling like a duck on drugs- over under high and low it went. "So much for tropical romance and moonlit walks" Louise pulled her sunglasses off pouting and squinted at the blue sparkling water as it fled past them.

John draped an arm casually over Lou's shoulder and kissed her forehead softly, watching her struggling to smile even a little at the beautiful sea a few feet below their own feet. She didn't even baulk at the not very nice smell surrounding his person as she couldn't have been much better than John what with all the heaving.

"Dolphin! Dolphins!!" George yelled and stood up bouncing around on the mast thingy, Pattie joined him quickly, her hair flowing behind her and her bikini clad body a perfect picture of curves.

"The bloody dolphins are in the fucking water John not on the main sail thingy with George!" Louise smacked his arm. Just great! Lennon was wandering his eyes all over the Pacific's additional population already.

"I was admiring the view Louise, can look, not touch" John countered as he rubbed his shoulder.

"Maybe you won't be needing your glasses any more ....." Lou pulled her sunglasses down a tad making sure John was staring at her "cause you'll be completely blind by the time I'm done with ya!"

"Come on Lou you're the only girl, even all covered in filth and vomit you are the sweetest candy for me" John grinned as he kissed Lou's pouty lips, they turned towards the ocean, both a little grumpy with the way the holiday had started. John sat staring out, watching for the dolphins to breach the waves ahead of the boat and Lou pushed the hair from his eyes as she tried not to worry about other girls and her jealousy when there was more than one female - her- around.

She hardly ever went to the shows and with Evie, it wasn't the easiest of operations to sort a decent sitter and attend functions with John and the boys. Sometimes George would let slip that the place had been teeming with woman all wanting their own piece of the boys. Paris was the last place they had all been out to dinner and even then it had only been the group, Brian, Neil and Mal so Lou was well in the centre of Johns attention.

She was only mortal and she could see from the many press clippings, television reports and the way the boys returned some nights that the masses of female bodies were not only the problem. It was the female reporters, the gorgeous woman that got in the place with lots of money and connections and the specially selected young ladies that were invited to attend those functions and galas that Brian insisted were part and parcel of the bands promotion.

Lou cast an eye back over Pattie, so young, so pretty and fun, don't forget fun. Not a care in the world, no baby to hold her down, no stretch marks crisscrossing her tummy from being so large her skin stretched beyond rebound point. Louise tried to smile a proper smile- George, he'd noticed her glum thoughts chasing over her face.... her eyes worried, mouth turned down a little. He tipped his chin up in question. Louise waved and turned about to find the grey, wet and shiny skinned dolphins swimming right below her feet.

Squealing with delight at how fortunate she was to be so close, Louise's eyes crinkled and her emotions of the worry of minutes before fled somewhere far, far away. She instead enjoyed the wonderment of the moment. John swooped in for a lingering kiss and held her hand, it was like he knew she was adrift with worry, he turned her head and kissed a little more, softly on the lips, not caring about the illness and stink on her breath, just caring about her.

"Evie's awake" John darted his eyes between the girls and decided he would sort Evie, Lou was engrossed in the dolphins by her feet. "I'll grab her hat and bring her over"

Slipping a tiny life vest on Evie John rubbed sunscreen into her pudgy arms and legs. Settling a floppy pink hat on her head and doing up the ties so it would stay put. He returned to Lou and was rewarded with a beaming smile for his sorting of Eve.

Sometimes he thought Lou presumed he did it for brownie points .... so she would look kindly on him in the midnight hour but he didn't, well not entirely. Evie was as beautiful as her mummy and he wanted to look after them..... Then have heaps of sex with Louise.

As the perfect sun set they were finally anchored, a small punt shuffled them, their bags and supplies ashore.

Eight timber rustic looking huts sat stretching over the water, standing well apart, all vacant, all but the two John, George and the girls would inhabit for the duration of the stay. A small stroll away was a staff quarters with a small number of maids and cooks, guides and telephone.

They weren't in total isolation from the world, but as near as possible to it.

Welcome to Tahiti.

Just found this so though fitting to drop it here: