Rebecca hadn't been herself lately. She was smiling less and from time to time I heard her weeping for seemingly no reason at all.
She wouldn't tell me what was wrong. She kept saying I couldn't understand.
Even our Saturday night arrangements were affected. When the group of black men came over to ravage her violently, she usually let them have their way with her as they please. And she usually loves it. It puts her in a good mood for the entire week.
But now she seemed to be getting bored of them. During their sessions, she was far less vocal, and the next day, she was back to tears.
It's not like the Saturday night sessions had died down in terms of ferocity. (I still didn't know how she could take so many of those big strong black men for hours at a time.)
Rather the opposite. Rebecca had started motivating the men to be even more violent and aggressive with her. As they were pounding her with all of their might, she would insult them and make them furious. (The police questioned me about it after a noise complaint was made, but I explained the situation to them, and after sharing a laugh at my expense, they left in a hurry.)
One day I heard her crying in the bathroom. I knocked lightly on the door.
"Can I come in, honey?" I asked.
"Yes," she said softly.
Rebecca was leaning against a wall and her mascara was smeared all over her face. I sat down next to her.
"Want to talk about it?" I asked.
"I miss them," she replied.
"Miss who?" I said.
"Them," she said.
"On the island," she continued.
I nodded my head.
"The guys that come over, they're not real," she said. "They're not like them."
There was quite a distinction between the two. Although the men we invited over to our home every Saturday were thuggish and large and strong, they were civilized to some degree. They weren't complete animals like the men on the African island had been.
"Can we go?" she asked. "Can we go back?"
I just put my arm around her. She leaned into me and resumed her tears.
"I miss them so much, sweetie," she said.
"I know, I know," I said softly as I ran my fingers down her hair.
The conversation could have stopped there but for some reason I felt like I had left an awkward silence.
"It's dangerous, you know that," I reasoned.
"But you'll protect me," she whispered. The words barely made it out of her mouth.
"I will," I replied, wanting to comfort her. She had a long cry on my shoulder and eventually managed to get up and out of the bathroom.
The next Saturday, the men didn't come over. They usually came over at 8 PM and stayed until 3 or 4 AM. The clock struck nine and I got up to check in on Rebecca.
"No show?" I asked.
Rebecca was on the bed and under the covers.
"I didn't want them," she said miserably. "They're not the same."
I walked over to the edge of the bed and stood there. I didn't want to get too far into her personal space at such a vulnerable time.
She peeked her head out of the covers, saw me, then kneeled on the bed and walked on all fours over to me.
"Can we go?" she asked softly, in the most innocent voice she could muster.
"I don't know, honey..." I replied. I knew I couldn't protect her from an entire island of African savages and we would be completely at their mercy if we returned.
"Can we at least look?" she asked. I agreed, because I had actually gone to AirBNB and other rental sites to see if there were any rentals available on the island. There weren't.
So we hopped on the computer and looked around. Rebecca took the lead. She came to the same discovery as me: there were no rentals available on the island anywhere.
But then she zoomed the map out, which I had not done. There were one single rental available on the mainland. Rebecca clicked it.
The listing had a few pictures of the residence, which was OK, but nothing spectacular. They had also included a few pictures of tribal African men on the listing. To abide by the terms of the website, the men were obviously clothed. But you knew what they were trying to imply.
We looked at the description.
"Cheap price close to boat call for info!!" it read. Usually listings for vacation rentals were longer. I guess this one sort of booked itself.
We Googled the address and it was apparently a new getaway spot that had been established within the past year. The website didn't give much information, but said that they catered specifically to white couples, in very discreet language. We could read between the lines.
Rebecca grabbed the mouse and started booking a trip for next weekend.
"Wait, what are you doing?" I asked.
"We need to go," she replied, not looking at me.
"Whoa now," I said, putting my hand on hers to stop the mouse from clicking.
She shook me off and got up angrily. She started shouting at me. She never does that.
"I need this, okay!?," she screamed. After her emotional outburst her face changed and she started sobbing.
"I'm so sorry," she said. "It's just so hard."
"I know, sweetie," I said. We held each other in a warm embrace for a few minutes.
When Rebecca gets all lovey-dovey with me, I fall for her all over again. She was sad and this would make her happy, I told myself. I found that my arm was reaching over to the mouse. I finished the checkout process and confirmed our trip.
Rebecca looked up and saw the screen. She stared at it for a second, reading it. Then her eyes lit up and she broke into a big smile.
"Really?!" she asked me excitedly.
"Really," I said in a fatherly tone. I liked taking care of her any way I could.
The next week passed slowly for me. The anticipation of our getaway was immense. I found myself packing and re-packing my suitcase constantly, imagining what might happen. I ended up packing the basics: clothing, toiletries, snacks, and two large containers of vaseline, just in case.
Rebecca was in a bubbly mood all week, finally coming out of her bout of depression. That made me happy.
The day finally arrived and we took our flight to Africa. Once there, we took a private car all the way to the rental location. This residence wasn't private like the last one was, and I wondered if anyone else would be staying there.
We arrived and a large fat black woman with dreads came out to greet us.
"Welcome!" she exclaimed, and gave us both hugs.
"We hope you enjoy your stay. I will lead you to your room," she said in a thick African accent.
"Anyone else on the property?" I asked. She looked back.
"No, they have all gone to the island already," she replied with a small smile. Was she trying not to laugh at me? It was almost dark out, so I was wondering when they'd be back.
Rebecca and I went to sleep shortly after. We were exhausted from our travels.
Rebecca shook me awake the next morning. She was already dressed in her favorite yellow one-piece swimsuit.
(That's a real picture of her wearing it on the cover!)
"How do I look?" she asked.
"Amazing," I replied. It was true. The swimsuit displayed her fit bubble butt a good amount of cleavage. It wasn't slutty, but it was certainly provocative.
I hadn't had coffee yet but I was suddenly wide awake after remembering where we were and what we were about to do. I jumped up and got dressed myself.
I felt excited. I grabbed my bag and we headed downstairs in a hurry.