Friday, May 30, 2014

Danger Island Part Two

So there we were, The racist Burt sitting on the dock in his soaked clothes, staring at me like he was going to rip my throat out the first chance he got. Ralph was up in the bathroom with one of the guests, taking a shower and warming up. The boat with my friend Jack at the helm tied up with the other two people. They were a man and woman who both had the look of lifetime alchoholics, red blotchy skin, wrinkled skin,noses with broken blood vessels and, despite having been in the water for at least a few minutes, they smelled like Tequilla.

After he tied up and got out of the boat I waved Jack over to where I was still watching the ramp to the grounds to keep Burt from charging. I explained what Ralph said had happened and Jack Laughed "They didn't make much sense but those two that we just got said they hit something and the boat tipped over."


"Lots of stories," I laughed. At that Burt started yelling. "How come the N__ger gets to take a shower? What about us?" Pete and Jack and I huddled for a minute and decided that we had to keep them separated from Ralph so Pete sent one of the boat owners up to get Ralph out of the Bathroom and and bring him a back way back to the dock while Jack lead the rest up to the bathroom so no one would confront anyone.

The scraggly threesome went up the walkway with Jack and a few seconds later Ralph came down another path. As soon as he got to the dock he said he was missing his wallet. "It probably fell out in the water" I said." " I dunno. I think of them assh__es took it."

We decided to leave the rest of the group up in the bathroom until the Coast Guard came. The Delta is hot during the day but it's cold and foggy at night. Most of us were still wearing shorts and shivering there on the dock. I really wanted to go back to bed but this group seemed pretty sketchy and I wanted to make sure nothing happened. Suddenly I heard Burt yelling again from up the walk. "You can't keep us in here. We got rights." Suddenly Pete's radio crackled. It was the Coast Guard they were about two minutes out. We could actually vaguely hear the boat's engine. I yelled up to Jack to let them come back down.

As they got back to the ramp Burt almost immediately started to run down the ramp toward Ralph who was sitting, dejectedly on the deck. "I'm gonna kill you, you motherf__ker" I jumped up again to block him and he yelled "get out of my you n___er lover".
"you migh want to think twice about that." And I pointed at the Coast Guard boat that was now just a few hundred yards off shore. Several Armed men standing on deck. Burt practically deflated and just sat down on the ramp.  It really did feel like the Calvary arriving in the nick of time. I don't know how much longer I could have bluffed Burt with my tough guy act.

A couple of the Coasties got off the boat and talked to Jack who explained our end of the story and the stories that the group told us. The coasties just shook their heads and one of them said."typical Saturday night on the Delta."

They lead the group, Ralph First, followed by a a couple of sailors and then the rest. As the boat pulled out Burt was standing on Deck. He did one of those two finger pointing at his eyes then mine moves and shouted "I'm coming back." The Coastie standing next to him, looked directly at me gave me a small smile, touched a pair of what looked like handcuffs and shook his head as if to say "no way".

After they left I realized, with everything going on I hadn't peed in hours  so I ran up to the men's room. While I was washing my hands I glanced down at the trash and noticed something covered by a few paper towels. I reached in and found a wallet. It was empty except for an California ID belonging to Ralph.  One of them must have taken it from him and then hid it here, probably expecting to be searched by the coast guard.

The next day I was making breakfast in one of the outdoor cooking areas.We'd heard from the Coast Guard  I looked up and saw Jack come running across the lawn with a huge smile on his face.  He's one of the most serious people I know but he did an actual cartwheel. I laughed and asked him what was up. "Well first I just talked to Pete, the Coasties charged Burt with Piloting a Boat While Inxociated. But the big thing is the club is going to pay for our entire weekend for helping out last night." Those pancakes tasted especially good that morning.

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