Page 16 of Totally Shipped
My own parents were mostly a disappointment. They liked material things and exciting events, not small boys and untidy emotions.
Those were left to Nanny Clark.
She’ll care that I’m missing. My brothers will care, too.
My parents will enjoy giving press interviews about my disappearance. Amazing really, there wasn't an ounce of selflessness in the pair of them.
I imagine Malcolm will be coordinating any kind of search and rescue effort—he reminds me of Rex in a lot of ways, but with a liking for nicely tailored suits. And then poor Jasper—he was the emotional one. He’ll probably only tell his feelings to his ponies.
I feel like I’m a mix of my two brothers. None of us are like our parents—thank god.
One evening, when us boys were ten, eight, and seven respectively, our parents had taken us to an event at the polo club. It was a final of some prize cup, and Westhall Wipes were sponsoring the event. Nanny Clark had gone back to England for her sister’s funeral, so Mom and Dad were actually having to be in charge.
Sometime during the day, my parents had been invited to a New Hampshire house party by another one of the elite polo club. They’d taken off in his helicopter, completely forgetting about us.
We didn’t mind, and we didn’t let anyone know. Jasper was horse-crazy even at that age, so he had already found his way into the stables. We spent the whole weekend in the arena stables, eating junk food from the office fridge, playing cards, and feeding the polo ponies horse-nuts and sugar cubes.
One of the stable girls eventually found us. She was eastern European with enormous tits. She took us to her apartment, which she shared with two other stable girls. They made us have a shower (I’m sure we stank), then ordered pizza. We all watched The Forty Year Old Virgin on VHS.
Behind the scenes, Olga (our rescuer) had made some phone calls. Eventually a driver showed up to take us home, but still, it was one of the most fun weekends of my childhood.
I would never forget my child.Willnever forget my child. My baby was going to be the center of my life, along with Daisy, of course.
And yeah, maybe it wasn’t my sperm but Killian’s or Gray’s that had actually mingled with Daisy’s egg, but that didn’t matter. It was my baby—our baby.
“You ready?” I look up to see Gray offering me a bottle of water.
We are looking for things to aid our rescue, yes. But I also wanted to see if there were things that would make Daisy’s life comfier over the next few months.
“Yep, can’t wait. We've got a lot to look for. You coming Rex?”
Keyara and Daisy wave at him. “Come on, Uncle!”
“Alright, alright—jeez,” Rex groans, making me grin.
Fuck, I love my girls.
I wonder if our baby is a girl.
Everything is as we left it in the airplane glade—or rather ‘Jungle-Bush Intercontinental Airport’, as I want people to call it. No one else is picking up what I’m throwing down, though. Killjoys.
This visit, we are going to breach the cockpit of the plane. Up until now, we haven’t bothered. The front is completely stoved in and thick vines and thorny briars cover the entire nose and windshield.
But as we go in through the cargo hold, Gray is finally able to pry open the cabin door. A massive branch had been holding firmly in place, but with the aid of one of the iron fence poles and a lot of weight, the door is now open-ish onto the small, crushed space.
Gray, Rex, and I told the girls to hang out in the glade while we were opening the cabin, partly so they didn’t get hit by any of the pried-off door frame, and partly in case there was a skeleton to be found.
There was not—thankfully.
At first glance, what there was were various control panel instruments, the frames of the cockpit chairs, and a thermos (which looked amazingly intact).
“Babes! Come check it out!”
“What can you see?” squeals Daisy. It’s exciting; in the world of our jungle island, this is the only place to find any sort of man made goods. I pass back the thermos.
The girls ‘ooh’ over it.
“Hey, my turn.” Gray muscles me aside, and squeezes his giant body in the little space. We can hear him grunting, and eventually he retracts back into the hold, a big grin on his face.
