Sophie and Dad Go Downriver

CHAPTER 1

The day was steaming and Roy Drum was tired and irritable when he arrived home to find his wife Trudy was out and as usual her over-fed dog ignored him.

Daughter Denise, who hated her name and wearing only panties, entered the kitchen.

She said dully, "Want a cold beer?"

"Jesus Denise, for put some clothes on. I'm your father."

She tossed him a beer anyway and he fumbled the catch.

"Has their been doubt that you are my father? Was that what you and mum were shouting about last night?"

"No I'm your father and your mum got mad when I said it was too hot for sex."

Denise's mouth dropped. "Do you and mum still have sex?"

The reply was to go and dress.

"Don't you like these daddy?" she said, scowling, and cupping her breasts.

"They're okay."

"As good as mum's?"

"Better."

Denise looked pleased and sat with a Coke.

"Mum's gone to stay with her parents until you become reasonable again."

"Oh crap. Not that again."

The 18-year old trickled some cold Coke between her breasts in a vain endeavor to cool off.

"Go do your homework and stop wasting your drink."

She sighed. "Dad don't be a jerk. You attended my graduation last week remember? I await going to college and most of my friends and all the half-decent guys have left town."

They sat in silence.

Denise knew her father was thinking. He kept stroking his chin.

A couple of minutes later he pulled out his phone and called someone.

"Ivan it's Roy. Something's come up. I need to go away for eight days. You run the company in my absence and refer any problems you have to the chairman. I'll send a confirming email to the chairman and Dot and all executive staff. Here's my daughter's phone number to contact me if you need me urgently. I'm not taking my phone."

He listened to something Roy said and thanked Roy and cut the call.

"I didn't say you could have my phone."

Roy said he wasn't borrowing it.

"You are coming with me on an adventure I did with Mary Royce when we were eighteen. You and I will do everything Mary and I did... er apart from the sex."

"Oh the sex will be okay daddy. I'm not anticipating a sex-free summer."

Roy snapped enough of that talk and told her to take the dog over to Mrs Smith who adored the little pile of absurdity and to leave a note for her mother saying where the dog was and they'd be back on or about the 24th.

"The dog's name is Rufus in case you have lapsed into dementia."

"You have a cruel tongue, just like your mother."

"I take it I have no say about going on this fucking adventure?"

"Correct and watch your foul mouth young lady."

"Oooh young lady am I?" she said, bouncing her breasts.

Roy sighed and went to send the memo.

Denise returned from Mrs Smith's with a bag of home-baked brownies. She found her father in the garage with the two kayaks down off their hooks, two paddles and camping gear spread out.

He unlooked the steel cabinet and pulled out his rifle that he placed beside a box of ammo.

Looking theatrical and big-eyed, Denise said, "I'm not coming back. A lonely grave awaits me."

Roy scowled at her and said to pack enough clothes for a week and handed Denise her backpack.

"Oh just six panties will suffice."

When she returned Roy said to check everything he had spread out to make sure nothing was missing.

When he returned with his backpack loaded Denise said, "We need to buy a dozen gas canisters for the camp stove if you want to eat hot food."

"Oh good girl."

"So I'm a good girl now?"

Roy sighed.

"I've also added our PFDs (personal flotation devices)."

Roy smiled and kissed her and rubbed her hair. "Do you wish to be called Sophie on this adventure?"

"Oh yes daddy and when we return could you once again try to get mum to agree to that name change."

"If she's still around. She may be hiding behind a divorce lawyer."

Sophie (no longer Denise) said: "That's unlikely. Mum knows she's on to a good thing. Are you sorry Mary what'shername went off and married someone else?''

"No because then I mightn't have had you as my daughter."

"Oh daddy," Sophie half whimpered.

They loaded the Toyota SUV and were seated, about to set off when Sophie handed her dad one of Mrs Smith's biscuits and he groaned and slapped his forehead. "We haven't loaded food for when we go downriver. Out and let's sit in the kitchen and think of what else we should have packed."

They added Sophie's battery charger for her phone and two torches and canned food and two can openers.

"So we are going downriver?

"Yes. We'll go to Brunner and stay the night in a cabin. We should get there by midnight. In the morning we'll have breakfast and then someone will take us upriver and drop us off and return the Toyota to Brunner."

"Who?"

"Whoever's available."

No one was about and no lights were on when they arrived at Brunner Staging Post just outside the boundary of the 360,000-acre National Park. They found a cabin with the door open and found it vacant.

"God I'm tired," Sophie yawned. "Ooops this cabin only has a double bed."

"That will be okay. Just don't hit on me."

"You're dreaming daddy."

Not long after dawn Roy left his sleeping daughter and went to the store.

Although the guy packing shelves had a beard, Roy thought he looked like Ted Bishop who might still be alive.

"Tommy Bishop?"

"Yeah pal, who's asking?"

"Roy Drum."

"The name's vaguely familiar."

"Twenty years ago when you were a kid of fifteen you were taking my girlfriend of that time and me upriver in your dad's Jeep and the motor blew up when we were a mile from Bitter Creek tributary. You radioed for a tow vehicle and they took Mary and me up to the launching place before returning to tow you home."

"Jesus Roy, I remember. God she was pretty with big tits. Who have you with you this time?"

"My daughter."

"Oh bad luck. Boring nights at the camps."

"No she's a great kid and will chat and sing for me."

"Christ is this pretty filly with great tits approaching the store your daughter?"

"Yep."

"Should I take her downriver for you?"

"Did you not marry Tommy?"

"Oh yeah. I'm married with two young kids."

The introductions were made and Tommy took them through, saying his wife Susan would cook breakfast for them and make lunch packs for them for that day.

While breakfast was cooking and the two females were chatting, Roy told Tommy which cabin they'd used and paid for 12 stove gas canisters and six freeze-dried dinner food packs to supplement their tinned food. Roy suddenly remembered they had not brought anything to light the gas stove with and so asked for a pack of three disposable cigarette lighters.

Susan, with the two kids aboard, dropped them off forty miles up fairly straight but rising forest tracks on the slope of the mountain range that were maintained as private access for park rangers and fire fighting crews.

After everything was unloaded, Susan kissed father and daughter warmly and told them to have fantastic fun and keep safe. She turned the Toyota expertly and then began the return to the historic staging post where 150 years ago horses were changed for fresh ones when prospectors and supplies were being transported to the goldfields seventy miles across rugged country to the northeast.

"Well let the adventure begin," Roy smiled. "God it's great being away from the business and being back here."

"And well away from my mother."

"Nah, she's okay. She just feels the need to blow off steam now and again."

"How often do you two have sex? It hadn't occurred to me that you guys still do it."

Roy rubbed his chin thinking about answering that question.

"She'd like it twice a night, perhaps more."

"God is my mum a nymphomaniac?"

Roy sighed. "I think when we were young she came close to being one. She describes sex as one of her few true pleasures in life."

"Well I know now why you have managed to remain lean."

They laughed and put on their wetsuits and booties.

"You should wear this gear in bed with mum. Then you'd be safe from sex, all sex," Sophie giggled.

Roy sighed wishing he'd kept his mouth shut.

Roy had packed the kayaks meticulously but it was still necessary to make adjustments to have both craft in good trim.

As the paddled off Sophie said, "It's two years since I've been sea-kayaking with you."

"Three years."

"Will this journey on this winding river be boring?"

"You have to be joking," Roy said, and began taking Sophie through safety procedures should they tip out.

"Are we to negotiate rapids?"

"Lots of fast-flowing patches and some real whitewater plus two falls but we will portage from above both falls."

"Can't we live dangerously and shoot both falls?"

"From memory one is five feet high and the other drops at least twenty feet in three stages. In both instances they are non-navigable because the water bounces on to rocks at their base."

"Oh portage sounds good."

They paddled leisurely, going with the slow river flow although they speeded up through the occasional easy rapids, Roy giving Sophie basic instruction because she was used to only sea kayaking."

"This is fun," she said, after going through the first rapids. "When will we go though faster rapids?"

"According to the map that is superior to my memory, not until tomorrow."

"Oh how boring."

They were padding quite closely. "Omigod," she whispered, stopping paddling.

Roy had already spotted them: ten white-tailed deer.

The deer were on alert but stayed at the edge of the riverside clearing watching them. The two kayakers remained motionless.

"Oh that was just one of the sweetest things I've ever seen," Sophie enthused. "Almost as good as having dolphins or Orcas (killer whales) around us at sea."

"We may see goats on rock faces on Day Three."

"Will you shoot them?"

"No while you were away packing I put my rifle back in the cabinet thinking if I shot a wild pig and had it strapped to the bow of my kayak for a few days, that might have rated as the lowlight of this adventure for you."

"Oh you are such a good daddy."

The rested on the river bank a couple of times to avoid leg cramps and about noon pulled the kayaks out on to a sand bank where Roy lit the camp stove to boil water for coffee. Sophie stripped off and went swimming.

Roy watched her wade ashore and was surprised. When she came up to take the offered towel from him he said casually, "How long have you been shaving down there?"

"Since I became sexually active."

"I hope you're on the pill?"

"Yes and I've had lectures including being warned to always insist that condoms be worn. That's what mothers do."

"Your mother did all that?"

"Yes daddy, my mother and your wife. She does have some use doesn't she?"

He looked away without answering.

"Do you think my pussy looks attractive?"

Roy strode off to the camp stove. "Your mother, my wife, is very useful and a strength to our family and I'd like you to acknowledge that. And please don't talk to me about your... your thing."

"I was only winding you up daddy. You always sound like you're in command and look impressive when I get your nostril quivering when you are wound up. My mechanical daddy, tick-tock, tick-tock."

Roy grinned. "Coffee."

"Please."

"Go around nude. I don't mind you walking around showing your tits, pussy, bare ass and great legs."

"Oooh daddy. I'll unpack the chicken and salad rolls."

The riverside picnic was lovely against the background of birds singing and the lapping of water against the sandbank and they were warmed by the sun and enjoyed the absence of even a breeze."

"Why doesn't mum like the outdoors as much we do?"

"Because she was brought up in a city whereas I grew up on a sheep station and right from when you were young I introduced you to beaches and the bush and when you were a little older I began taking you and your doll Sophie kayaking."

"You remember my doll?"

"God yes. When she was left behind somewhere you ranted and then wouldn't talk to us for two days and then we found the new replacement doll pulled to pieces and dumped in the trash can."

"I still love hearing about that. And you blamed mum for not checking Sophie was in the car with us and she blamed you."

"Yes and that was another of our great rows."

"Long before that time you refused to go kayaking with me for almost two weeks after I rejected your suggestion to get someone make a proper PFD for Sophie."

"Yes and according to that well-worn story you tossed Sophie into the water to test whether she would float and when I jumped into the water to rescue her that tipped you out and your new camera sank into very deep water, never to be see again. Well that served you right being so uncaring about Sophie."

"I'm sorry for giving you a hard time over the loss of Sophie dad."

"It's okay. Look, I've been thinking. I'll write to your college asking for you name as registered to be changed from Denise to Sophie."

"No I'll never change it without mum's consent."

"Not even when you finish college and perhaps live away from home?"

"No."

"I admire you for that Sophie."

"Thanks dad. Come over here and kiss me and play with a breast."

"Pack up while I check that we're not taking in water into our storage compartments. And get some clothes on."

"Oh naughty girl Sophie. You've pissed daddy off."

She caught her father's grin.

CHAPTER 2

As Sophie paddled in the lead downriver she thought she knew this would be an adventure. Her dad didn't bother with boring things.

That Tommy at the staging post for instance. God the way he'd looked at her. She knew she was being mentally undressed and had felt her nipples and stomach tighten.

And the deer, oh those gorgeous deer. They really were wild animals, not like the deer in Wakefield Park. She'd had trees and birds identified for her and when they went through the narrow channel of Gabriel's Gap in really swiftly flowing water she'd felt exhilarated and screamed and heard the echoes and looked back to see if her dad was laughing but he was waving and yelling and she'd turned to spot a submerged rock just ahead of her and had paddled furiously to avoid it, adrenalin flowing hugely.

And yet when they were swept into almost placid water and her dad came up beside her all he said was had she enjoyed that. In the unlikely event of her mum being in that position, she would have been ranting at her for being so stupid. Well that would be her mum letting off steam whereas her dad knew she felt guilty and stupid and was happy to leave it at that.

Sophie heard her dad whistling tunelessly and that was a good sign. She aimed to get him to have sex with her tonight.

Um did she?

She did so wish to find what he was like, even more so since he'd revealed her mum was a sex bunny. God her mum always carried a look that suggested she was beyond that sort of thing, that sex was for other people. Sophie recalled the big fight they'd had when she requested to be put on the pill.

Her mum had ranted and told her to wait till she went to college.

Sophie had yelled why.

"Because you'll be more mature by then," her mum had reasoned.

"That's a load of crap."

That hit her mum's switch and she screamed, "Don't you dare speak to me like that."

Sophie knew she was being over-powered and knew that would leave her unprotected, unlike her friends. So she pulled out the cannon and said she'd asked what her dad thought.

As expected, her mum crumbled and took her to Doc Garcia next afternoon.

Doc Garcia had said, "And what does Roy have to say about this?"

"He's fully supportive," lied her mum but both mother and daughter knew that would be Roy's most likely stance.

Sophie thought what about girl's sex with her mum. It could be exciting now she knew her mum was or had been practically a nymphomaniac.

God her mum would almost experience cardiac arrest at being asked such a thing. Sophie began laughing so much her kayak almost became unstable.

"What's so funny?" called her dad.

"Oh I was just thinking what one of my girlfriends said. She was in the bathroom about to change her pad when her rude brother who never knocked barged in, saw the blood and vomited over the wall.

"And that's funny?"

"Well we thought so. Perhaps it was the way Jenny described the situation. We all know her brother is an asshole."

"Does you mother allow you to use that word?"

"Dad can you imagine me using asshole to her and surviving?"

There he was grinning again. Sophie thought perhaps it was that grin that had attracted her mum to him and his physical appearance from all that sport and her mum thought he could go all night in bed. Yeah that's how her mum would have picked him, a great grin and a powerful looking butt.

"Dad come over an give me a kiss without tipping me out."

"Why?"

"Because I feel horny."

"Young woman, behave yourself or we are going home."

"Daddy we are more that a day's paddle upstream against the current and there's no cell phone coverage at Bitter Creek Tributary to call Susan to come up for us, and it would be at least three day's hard paddling for cover the almost 100 miles to reach Brunner to get out of here in a hurry going downstream. I doubt if I could survive that. You are trapped with me daddy so enjoy it."

"Well you just behave, do you hear?"

Sophie ignored him and knew in a few seconds he'd be grinning and remembering he used to call her his little rebel.

* * *

Roy was in a dither. He didn't know whether to be horrified or excited. His daughter was acting as if she were setting out to nail him sexually. God was she cursed with her mum's genes that made her over-sexed?

He wondered what Sophie would be like at sex and what he could teach her. Whoa man, he cautioned, he was her father.

Roy groaned thinking they had five nights ahead of them being cooped up and Sophie keen to run around without clothes and probably asserting every few minutes she was horny.

What to do?

God he wished Trudy was with them because she'd handle it well, aware her daughter was a little scared of her. They would fight of course but Trudy would emerge as top dog.

But Trudy wasn't here to save him, er to put Sophie back on the tracks of propriety. Oh crap.

After four and a half hours on the water they reached Baldy Knoll, a campsite well above flood level although floods were not even remotely likely because the weather was fine everywhere at present. He thought about pushing on to the campsite at Butler's Bluff where there would be phone coverage and he could call in a chopper to take Sophie to Brunner and it could probably take her kayak as well.

But then a conversation flickered through Roy's mind:

Mum: Why are you home ahead of schedule?

Daughter: Dad was hallucinating, afraid that I was out to nail him.

Mum: Where you?

Daughter: No of course not but most of the time ashore he was nude and sporting an erection.

Mum: Omigod I'm off to instruct a divorce lawyer.

Daughter: But mum I want my daddy.

Mum: Tough.

Roy sighed and paddled into the landing ahead of Sophie.

"We need to unload and pull the kayaks up a bit."

"Yes of course and then lug out stuff up to the knoll."

"Yes it will take a couple of trips."

When the two-person tent was erected Roy said, "Er sleeping arrangements?"

"It will be steaming hot tonight," Sophie said thoughtfully. I suggest we sleep with just a sheet and nude."

Roy said triumphantly, "There will be mosquitoes."

His daughter said coolly she'd packed a tube of insect repellent leaving Roy wishing he'd packed a tube of girl repellant.

Then Sophie stunned him.

"Dad I also packed condoms."

Roy bleated, at least she thought that was the sound she'd heard.