Free Paradise - Part One (The Erotic Adventures of Sophia Durant) by O.L. Casper

Mostly all I could hear was a loud wind. There was no sign of anyone. I checked the map on my phone once more, then I checked for a signal. There was none. Pocketing the phone and removing the binoculars from the car, I began to cut a path through shrubs then trees as I made my way to the cove.
    There was nothing unusual about the shrubs or the jungle. In fact, it hardly seemed like a jungle at all. It seemed a lot like any forest in North Florida and the climate was the same, humid and warm, although with a strong wind that was only getting stronger. The sun was obscured by low hanging clouds and I could see a storm brewing in the direction of the Atlantic before I got into the jungle.
    Something rustled in the grass and I stopped. Not two feet ahead of me I saw a large all black snake, probably a Water Viper, about six-feet-long and six inches in diameter at the thickest part, shoot right past me in the grass. This made my heart rate soar, immediately the fantasy emotion went right out the window and reality set in. I began to question what I was doing and almost panicked. I wasn’t especially afraid of snakes, but of that kind I was, and I didn’t know what else I faced in this grass and these bushes that I couldn’t see until it was too late. I did all I could do, I fortified my heart and carried on. As I made the decision, an image flashed in my head like a flashcut in cinema: the scene was my parents’ house in North Florida and in it, on a table, was a red British mug bearing a crown, which read underneath: “KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON,” all in caps like that. Then I saw a multitude of snakes in the bushes in my mind’s eye. Deciding that it was better to look straight ahead than down, I kept my head up and moved quickly for the sea. After a moment I calmed a little and realized what an adventure this all was, then just focused on getting to the beach and, from there, walking north to the cove.
    Feeling a little like I was in a Tintin comic, I crouched down into some brush as I came to the end of the jungle. Crouching and walking forward, I soon was walking on solid rock and could see the Atlantic. I walked up to the edge of the rock where it dropped off, not far, about thirty feet, to where the waves crashed against it down below. The water was greener than that of Anse Lazio and darker too, indicating greater depth. I would follow the cliff edge north till I found the cove.
    I walked north for what I thought a considerable distance, all the while peering out ahead, looking for the first break in the rock which might lead to the cove. The wind picked up and I suddenly found myself gripping the pockets in the rock to stay close to the ground. As I worried about possibly being blown down to sea and breaking my neck on some rocks near the surface, I began to wonder if this whole episode was worthwhile and questioned my motives. Once I was determined to do something, I usually did it. The only thing that ever stopped me was some unforeseen circumstance that unalterably blocked the desired course. Now, with a violent wind raging and storm clouds rolling in, I began to wonder what had brought this all about. Did I really need to know what Stafford was doing on this somewhat secretive meeting? Yes, of course I did or I would not be me. But what indeed went on beneath the surface?
    When I was seven, my father received a magazine in the mail and I went to grab it out of the stack of mail on the kitchen table only to hear a booming voice behind me. “Sophia.” I turned to find my father glaring at me. I was terrified I had done something wrong, but unconsciously I kept my hand on the magazine. “Let go the magazine,” he said in his stiffest commanding voice. Frightened, I let it go and ran outside to play. But the curiosity of what the magazine was would not let my mind rest and that weekend, when my father was gone and my mother in the garden, I went into his study and straight to the mahogany desk where I had seen him