Philip's hands gripped the steering wheel of the camper. With map, cigarettes, and cash stashed in every hiding place he was ready for three months of freedom. The camp gate opened, the soldier on guard saluted his hero as a gesture of respect when he drove through. Little did he know this was his last time through the gates. Fate had other plans for Philip.

After an overnight stop in Paris and a chance to touch the Eiffel Tower, he headed for the Spanish border. A few hours later, he was at his starting destination – Spain, just south of Barcelona on the east coast.

He pulled up just in time for lunch. The place was packed with girls wearing tiny bikinis, and the subject of mating was high on his to-do list – the right girl, of course. He walked along the seafront and spotted a restaurant he liked the look of. A bikini babe shot over to him. Philip thought, These girls don't waste time here. She smiled nicely and said, "I can get you anything your heart requires." Philip nearly choked. He had a dumbstruck look on his face. She really meant it. His eyes fell on her chest, then suddenly looked up and gave her his direct look. She smiled and said, "I'm the waitress, Sally. I'm learning English." "Ah!" Philip said. He got it! Totally lost in translation. Damn! He thought, as Sally showed him to a table. He surveyed the landscape – it was sizzling. As he sat down, he thought, I'm going to love this place.

He could feel a slight breeze coming off the sea. He wasn't thinking about girls but more about how to get his ass in the air. This place had everything: sun, sea, romance, flying and metal detecting beaches. He had plans to make. He wanted to metal detect the beaches late in the evening to avoid the crowds. Metal detecting was not about the money - he had enough of that. It was the thrill of the find. He was also happy to see if he could find the owners of lost property. He wanted to play a game of trying to live on what he finds – see if it can pay the bills. It was a big adventure for Philip.

Philip was in the mood for some local wine and pizza. Something with chicken, he was thinking. Philip wasn't counting but it took six minutes and twenty-four seconds for a girl to get the courage to sit down next to him. The problem was, the waitress Sally, had asked if it was okay first. This was confusing to Philip and didn't know what to make of it? He said, "Hello." She said, "Hello," back. Then an awkward silence. She was wearing a t-shirt. Philip decided as there were so many beauty queens about in bikinis, the ones wearing tshirts were on the back shelf. She just lost out. Anyhow, quiet girls weren't Philip's scene. He was into the faithful type who could slap someone if needed. He felt a little smug now his girl profiling skills were taking shape. It was still a work in progress. He took some comfort in the idea he could make minor adjustments here and there to the image he had.

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He finished his pizza and as he stood up steadying himself, he realised the local vino can give a boy a kick. He headed back to the camper, grabbed his glider, and headed down to the beach. Getting set up grabbed him some attention from the tiny bikini crowd, and of course, he tensed his muscles strategically at the right moments. Within minutes, he was up in the air, moving upward rapidly and out over the deep blue ocean. It wasn't long before the people became nothing more than little specks in the sand.

He circled the beach over and over to get oriented to the area. It was different flying in the Med compared to the Black Forest. The sunlight was brighter and you could dehydrate faster. You really needed to cover up or load up with sunblock. The sun was starting to set. It was time to head for the camper and put the kettle on. Paragliding certainly attracted a lot of attention.

Back at the camper, he cleaned himself up, made some salami sandwiches and a nice cup of tea. Philip jumped as the sound of bang, bang, bang on the camper pulled him rapidly out of his thoughts. It was Sally. She shouted, "You have to take me up with you one day! I just have to do it. Can you do that?" Philip said, "For sure I can, but in exchange, you have to show me around and introduce me to some of your friends." Sally agreed, "You are so on. Tonight I have to go to college, but tomorrow I'm off the whole day." "Tomorrow it is. You'll see me around here." Said Philip. Sally smiled, waved, and skipped off.

The next day came, and Sally had the time of her life in the air. She invited Philip to her home for an evening meal. Philip walked in the door and was greeted by her mum. She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. One of Sally's sisters walked up to him stark naked and kissed him on the cheek too. Judging by the size of her breasts Philip placed her around eighteen. Sally's mouth sounded like a machine gun, rattling off in Spanish her big adventure of the day. The other sister walked into the room, also naked, greeted Philip, then sat down at the dinner table. He judged her as a little older.

Philip noted that Sally's mum hadn't said anything about the daughters' nudity, like it was normal in their house. Sally suddenly realised Philip was British and they don't do 'the naked girl walking around the house thing' there. What was Philip to think? Philip looked at Sally and said, "Well, are you going to strip too?" She laughed, "I hate to see a mess in your pants on the first day, maybe I'll leave it till next time you come around." Philip laughed and said, "We have an expression, 'When in Rome...'." Sally butted in and said, "Yeah, well this isn't Rome – it's Spain, so get over it quick. Those two,” looking at her sisters, “might just get offended if they have to cover up." Philip laughed and said, "It's fine. What's for dinner anyway?" Sally's mum had prepared a beef stew with salad. Philip was starving and couldn't wait.

The conversation soon turned to Philip and his plans, with Sally translating. He said he wanted to go down the coast and maybe over to Majorca as his mother was there. But life was still an open book. The sisters broke out in a flutter of Spanish. Sally translated, "It's not good going south. You have gangs from Northern Europe just looking for opportunities." Philip asked, "How long has it been like this?" "Since the Berlin Wall came

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down. They are just free to come and go as they please." "And the police?" Philip asked. Sally's mum threw her hands in the air. Sally said, "They are probably overwhelmed. Then there's corruption, plus they have their hands tied with rules, and so the story goes. We just have to adjust our way of life so we don't get caught up in it." Philip wasn't aware of the situation. Sally said, "You are safe around here. They know this community has its own rules and laws." Philip liked that. He always put people who could stand up for themselves on a higher level.

Despite what was said about going further south, Philip wanted to go. After all, he had a few tools of his own in the camper. He'd installed a dead switch, and unless you knew where it was, you couldn't start or hot-wire his baby. Philip could nearly rewrite the book on being streetwise and always lived to learn more. Turns out Sally had a boyfriend. That was cool. She knew everything and everyone, which made her a big asset. After the evening meal and long conversation, Philip retired to the camper.

Philip had seen a nice beach and wanted to paraglide over for a walk and swim. That was his simple mission order for the day. He landed on the beach not far from a little restaurant, packed his glider up, and headed for the sea. Within a moment, he was splashing around checking out the fish. It was time for a walk, let the sun dry him off a bit, then lunch. He walked a little down the beach, kicking the surf when his attention went to two giggly white girls walking towards him. There was something not right – FUCK! They were NAKED! Then it hit him – HE WAS ON A FUCKING NUDIST BEACH! And it was testing his willingness to experience life – after all, he was British – the Brits wear clothes. That's what he was used to. Somehow walking around naked didn't feel quite right, even though the girls looked good.

Philip grabbed his glider and headed for a place he knew was safe – the skies! He got back to the safety of his camper and took it easy until sunset. He grabbed his metal detector and headed down to the beach. The thing couldn't stop beeping: coins, chains, rings, wallets, bottle tops, and more bottle tops. He even found a pair of false teeth – guess nobody missed them. He called it a day just past four in the morning, then headed for the camper to count his stash. It added up to just over eight hundred pounds sterling, not including the gold chains and rings, which he popped into a tin and hid in one of his secret hiding places.

Philip decided on a different type of adventure today. He was going on a girl hunt to catch himself a looker. He'd already been working on the one he called 'the jogger'. Every morning, like clockwork, he would see her walking down the path and shortly afterwards run past him on his way to breakfast. The first few days, he intentionally ignored her, like she didn't exist. Then the next couple of days, he played the 'I see you' card with a straight face. Then a few times she got his half-smile. Yesterday was the wave, smile, and hi. She'd said hello back. Today he was moving in. And like clockwork, she was walking down the path. He was greeted by a cheeky smile and little wave. During the previous breakfasts at Sally's restaurant, he had timed how long she had been jogging for,

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the speed she ran at, and the potential distance covered. The minute hand landed on the moment. It was time to jump into action.

As he paid the bill, he looked down the path and saw her coming. She saw him too. He moved closer to intercept. Philip put out his hand, indicating for her to stop, and gave her his best warm, friendly killer-smile. She stopped to meet him. His opening line was, "You're British?" "Yes, my name's Penny." She came straight out with her name. Philip knew the trick was to just keep her talking about real easy stuff. "Are you on holiday?" "Yes, I have an apartment here." Now she's trying to impress. Then she got in there first. "We should have coffee!" She didn't even say, 'Some time'. Philip went in for the move, "I'm free now!" "I just live over there," Penny said, pointing to her apartment. Philip just headed that way without being asked.

The apartment had an amazing view of the beach and everything going on. Penny said, "Help yourself to coffee, I'm just going for a shower. Oh, and make me one too." Philip heard the shower go on while he was surveying the kitchen then something caught his attention. Penny was standing right there naked. She said, "I don't usually do this. In fact, I've never done this." Philip said, "Me and you both then," as his t-shirt hit the ground. He picked her up, walked straight into the bedroom, and threw her on the bed. What happened next had more energy in it than a lightning storm.

Penny looked at Philip, she put her hands to her face, and said, "I shouldn't have done that!" Philip thought to himself, but she wanted it. What did I do wrong? What do I say? What do I do? "Really?" He said. There was a notable pause as they both just looked blankly at each other. "You must think so little of me." She said. He paused and thought to himself, what's going on? Is this her way of ending it all and kicking me out? He slid quietly out of the bed, got dressed, and left the apartment, leaving her on the bed crying her eyes out. It was time for a cup of tea then check-in with the birds in the sky.

The cup of tea was abruptly interrupted by another crazy. It was Sally. "My mum's making pizza for you tonight at 5 o'clock. My sisters want to see you. Then you're taking me to a Spanish bar." He didn't get a chance to say anything. She'd gone. Philip was thinking of moving the camper to another destination just in case his new psycho ex-girlfriend, of a whole three hours, came around to let his tyres down or give it a new paint job. But first, he took to the serenity of the skies with his glider and then moved the camper to a better location - even more tiny bikini girls to check out!

It was off to Sally's place. Philip knocked on the door. Sally opened it just wearing a pair of briefs. Philip checked her out and said, "I'm so pleased you put the time into finding the right outfit for tonight." Sally just laughed. Her sisters Gabriela and Isabella were, as usual, totally naked. They couldn't give Philip enough kisses. Little did he know he was about to walk into a trap of biblical proportions. Gabriela asked Philip what he thought of the way she looked, doing a cute pose for him. He said in a conservative way, "Very nice." Isabella then pushed in and said, "And what about me?" Philip said, wait for it, here it comes, the fuck up of all mighty fuck-ups, "You look good," in a slightly different tone of

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voice. Yep, the fight that broke out because Philip hadn't learnt the golden rule to treat all girls equally when in the presence of girls, was explosive. Something had already been festering long before Philip came along; he just pressed the magic button that had the word 'BOMB' written on it.

That was the end of pizza night and drinks with Sally. She had to babysit the two satanic witches. Philip was feeling just a little bit emotionally bruised. He could handle a battlefield with real bullets much better. He sat on a wall and had a think, looking out to sea, and all of a sudden cheered up, for he realised that you treat all girls equally.

He got up with a confident swagger, went over to the hottest girl he could find, and started chatting her up. You see, Philip was a fighter, a learner, then master of his game. He liked this girl. Her name was Ingrid from Germany. He took her over to a restaurant, got some local food and started drinking the local vino. Over time, he asked all the right tactical questions to make sure she was more a good girl than bad. Ingrid ticked all the right boxes, and after more wine, Ingrid's guard melted away. A couple of hours later, the camper van was bouncing in all directions.

The next morning, they had breakfast, and Philip took Ingrid flying. He'd totally moved on from the screaming match at Sally's. But, he exchanged one girl problem for another. Ingrid was going back home the next day. As she left, she gave him her address which was miles away from the camp in Germany.

Philip was soaking in the Spanish atmosphere when Mario introduced himself and his various adventure activities, including scuba-diving. This was right up Philip's street. Mario was a cool-looking gigolo, a real laugh and lady's man. They instantly hit it off as friends.

Mario was a Scuba Diving Instructor. He took Philip out and taught him how to dive. In exchange, Philip had taken Mario flying. Mario had a super-hot sister called Daniela, but Philip was not going to cross that line. The problem with Daniela was that all of Mario's friends had the same point of view of not crossing the line, so she was feeling a bit on the ravenous side, lacking sexual attention.

Meanwhile, back at the camper, the sunrise was starting to liven things up. Philip had a big breakfast and made a packed lunch for himself. The weather conditions for the day looked amazing, and he wanted to get an extra-long-distance flight in, and check out some of the more remote beaches further south.

No time was wasted taking flight. He could travel a distance of about sixty miles in five hours, have lunch, then head back. The scenery was to die for, and time soon passed. Something caught Philip's eye in the water. It was a structure that wasn't natural. He moved in closer. It wasn't a ship, but was definitely man-made. He was about a hundred feet above the sea when it struck him. It was a plane! Wow, what a find!

The plane was about ten feet below the surface of the water. It had been hard to figure out

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because it had a wing missing, and the other wing was sticking upright. Philip was extremely excited. He landed on the nearby beach to have his packed lunch. It really was a hard-to-get-to beach, so it was possible nobody had ever found this plane. He was eating his salami sandwich, chewing on a radish, looking at the tip of the wing move above and below the waterline as the sea ebbed and flowed. Philip made a very careful study of his map and put an 'X' on the exact spot of the location. He took to the skies again, this time heading back. He'd gotten nearly sixty miles out. He didn't care about that any more. It was straight to Mario.

As he got closer, he saw Mario's boat about a mile off shore. He decided to fly in. Mario would just love that. Mario's boat had a huge roof perfect for landing. It was both a sun deck and shade for those that didn't want the sun.

Mario blurted out in his Spanish accent, "What the fuck, you crazy lunatic!" He then threw his arms around Philip and said, "You're so fucking crazy! I love you!” Philip was laughing whilst packing up his paraglider. Quite the audience had arrived on the sun deck, including Mario's sister, Daniela, who had a smile from ear to ear. Mario introduced him to everyone, and they all shook hands except for Daniela, who needed what felt like the world's longest hug. Guess the girl was making a point.

Philip swiftly got Mario down below to give him the news of his find. Mario's eyes nearly popped out. He was having an excitement overload. The two hatched a plan; it was simple. Ditch all the passengers as soon as possible, fuel up, grab some supplies, and get back out there. Mario invited Philip to stay on his boat for the night.

After something to eat and a few drinks, Mario said, "Good night," and winked at Philip. Philip didn't know if that meant, 'You're my friend and can't wait until tomorrow,' or 'You best take good care of my sister.' After the door shut behind Mario, Philip counted in his head, one, two, three – he got to three. Daniela jumped on his lap, threw him down on the couch, and kissed him to death. No words passed lips. Her bikini top fell off, and Philip had no control or understanding when the bikini bottoms had departed her curvy body. The temperature of the water around the boat was rising rapidly, and there was no sign of it slowing down.

Philip woke up in Daniela's bunk. She was smiling at him. Mario banged on the door, "Ten minutes and we are there." He had already set off. Philip shot up on deck. The beaming sunlight kicked in his allergy and he started sneezing from the bright light. Mario looked at him with both hands on his hips and said, "The gods are punishing you for playing with my sister. I said it, right. It's out in the open and we can all move on, okay?" Philip smiled and said, "Okay."

The binoculars were out, and Philip pointed to some rocks, "The plane is about fifty feet from the rocks. The water on our side is deep enough for the boat if we go in on this angle." Mario yelled out with excitement, "I see the tip of the wing just sticking out!" The anchor splashed as it dropped into the sea. Mario couldn't wait. He didn't even put his

Philip Jonathan Lloyd

wetsuit on. Daniela's job was looking after the boat.

In no time, the boys were under and swimming to the tail of the plane. They could see it had been in the water for a long time, undisturbed. They swam along the top toward the cockpit. There was no apparent sign from that side of anything wrong. It was a twinengine passenger plane. You couldn't see through the windows because of the silt. They inspected the outside of the cockpit area. Mario made a note of the plane's number. They really wanted to get in. As they moved along the underside an open door presented itself. You could go in. As excited as they were, they both decided to go back to the surface, get more air, and bring some lights down. That way they could spend longer in the plane.

They broke the surface and the two boys exploded with excitement. Words just flowed. Neither listening to the other. Daniela had breakfast ready. She had timed the dive. They needed to wait an hour just to let their bodies handle the changes in pressure. Philip had been flying high the day before which, combined with a dive, was not a good thing. They had their breakfast and could no longer handle the anticipation . Philip got a kiss from Daniela in front of Mario. Mario smiled.

Back in the water, they headed straight to the open door. Philip let Mario go in first. Mario stopped dead in his tracks. There was a skeleton strapped in a chair. Philip laughed and nearly choked himself underwater. It was a passenger plane alright, and there were a few still strapped in, including the pilot and co-pilot. Philip thought it a bit strange nobody had ever found it. The plane wasn't hiding. It must have put out a mayday call with its location before impact – but then maybe not. The boys really wanted to find some kind of treasure or something exciting. However, reality didn’t always play ball. At least some loved ones will get closure. The boys headed for the surface. Romance was more on Philip's mind now.

They got to the top and put the equipment away. Mario hit the fridge and pulled out a couple of beers, handing one to Philip. "What do we do?" asked Mario. "We call it in anonymously with the location and leave it at that." Philip said as he cracked open his beer. Mario looked at Philip enquiringly, "Why anonymously?" "Maybe somebody didn't want them found. If I could find it and you got straight here, then it can't have been too hard. Anyhow, it's not a total loss. Once the authorities have cleaned up the plane, you will have an amazing dive feature to advertise. You can even boast you found it. And maybe there's someone famous down there. You can charge double. You know, Humphrey Bogart was found in this chair." Mario started to belly laugh. Philip continued, "Yes, and Marilyn Monroe was in this one. I can see it now: 'Join Mario's search for the skull of Fred Astaire! Six hundred and fifty Euros each, plus lunch'. And we had some excitement too, right?" "Yes, I suppose we did. But now I have to get back to the dock to pick up some passengers who've already paid up and are expecting a trip out. I was willing to ditch them if there was some treasure to be found." Mario shouted as he headed towards the bridge. "I understand," Philip replied.

Daniela grabbed Philip and pulled him into her bunk. The door slammed shut. They were

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naked before you could say the word 'sex'. She manoeuvred it so Philip was on top – and the show went on, right up to the point where the boat rubbed against the side of the dock. The party had to come to an end. There were paying customers waiting. Off to one side, a skinny-looking dude stood with a black leather jacket.

When Philip came up top, Mario grabbed him. He raised his finger to Philip and said, "That," he pointed to the skinny dude, "is Daniela's ex, and he always fucks things up. I beat the crap out of him once, and she never spoke to me for a year. Daniela's last boyfriend also beat the crap out of him. That totally went against him. It was like she was drawn to him even more." Philip shook his head, "Thanks for that. I will heed your advice. What help do you need?" "Just meet and greet would be nice, make people feel welcome." Said Mario. "I can do that." Said Philip.

Philip threw himself into the group and started chatting to everyone, keeping one eye on the skinny dude and Daniela, who was now talking to him. Mario shouted out to Daniela, "We are leaving in two minutes." She made a move back to the boat with Skinny tagging along. Mario stepped in front of him and said, "You are not welcome." Skinny stood still. Daniela walked on board. As she walked past Philip he asked, "See you tonight?". To this day, he's not sure he got an answer to the question. She didn’t show up. The next morning, Philip headed south. Things were about to get a lot warmer.

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