Enola needs to breed

The party raged on until sundown, or more specifically until the latest batch of Gregor's alcohol ran out and those partaking of it began to feel their soberness returning.

"I have something to show you," Helen said quietly to Enola. She took Enola by the hand and led her out of the Community Building. They walked to the edge of the village, stopping at a hut that had been destroyed by the last hurricane and yet now was fully repaired and ready for occupation. "This will be your home from now on, Enola."

"Why?" the younger woman asked, her tone one of obvious surprise. She had lived with Helen since the initial group of 'Atollees' arrived at Everest Island. She had been there to help with raising Hope and Ulysses, so much so that two called her 'Auntie Enola'. "Why can't I live with you and the twins?"

"You are a woman now, Enola," Helen told her, taking her hand again and leading her into the blackness of the smallish hut. "You will need a place of your own now."

"I don't understand," Enola pleaded. The darkness was interrupted by sparks from a piece of steel glancing off a flint as Helen tried to ignite the fish oil lamp. "I didn't need a place of my own yesterday, and I am no different. Have I changed so much in one day that I must be on my own?"

A spark caught on the oil and the shredded frond wick ignited. The room was filled with a yellow-orange light which grew as Helen adjusted the wick in one of the containers her children had retrieved from the ocean bottom off the island's shore.

"Not in one day, Enola," Helen said, moving the lamp to a shelf upon which ancient mirrors were arranged to cast the light out across the room. She moved to her 'daughter', took her by the shoulders, and looked down to her womanly body as she explained, "Not in a day, but over many days. Enola ... you are a woman now ... and it is time for you to do womanly things."

Enola's face was screwed up with confusion and disappointment. "I don't understand. What things ... what 'womanly' things."

Helen leaned forward and kissed the shorter woman on the forehead. She moved around her to the door, stuck her head out, and said, "Come in, please."

A moment later, one of the Community's males entered the hut.

Helen moved back to Enola, took the shapely teen into her arms, and whispered close to her ear, "It's time for you to lay with a man and make babies, my daughter."