The Librarian Her Daughter and the Man Who Lost His Head

by Sam Lee Jackson

  He howled and went over sideways.

  “Shit,” he cried. “Shit, shit, shit,” his face all crunched up in pain.

  “Oh my God!” Dawn screamed and knelt down beside him. “Are you okay? Are you okay?”

  She looked up at me with anguish. “You didn’t have to hurt him!”

  “What is wrong with you girl,” Dahlia said.

  Eddie smiled at me. “No good deed goes unpunished.” He picked up his PBR from where Dawn had set it on the bar. We all followed him back to our table. Jerry continued to writhe and moan.

  Our hamburgers were cold, but we began to eat them anyway. The French fries were soggy. We watched as Dawn struggled to get Jerry to his feet, and help him out the door. As they went out the door, she turned and gave me a very dirty look. I couldn’t help but shake my head. As they went out, the sailor, who had struggled with his boat, came in.

  “I don’t get that girl,” Megan said. “Jackson and Mr. Bragg tried to help her, and she acts mad at Jackson.”

  Eddie chuckled. “I had many years on the force in Chicago, honey. The situation every patrolman hated was a domestic call. A man and wife fighting. Or for that matter, lovers of any kind.”

  “Those two are lovers,” Megan said, looking out the door. “Eew.”

  The sailor had turned to watch Dawn help Jerry, then turned back and looked around. He seemed undecided as to what to do. Eddie waved at him.

  “Hey, Pete!” Eddie called. “Come meet a neighbor.”

  The man smiled and made his way across the wide floor. He was probably twenty years older than me but infinitely younger than Eddie. Eddie pushed his chair back and stood. They shook hands.

  Eddie indicated me. “This is Jackson. He lives on the Tiger Lily at the end of the dock. Jackson, meet Pete Dunn.”

  “So you are the Tiger Lily,” Pete grinned.

  I stood and shook hands.

  “Yes I am. One and the same. Pleased to meet you.” I indicated Dahlia and Megan. “These are the Martin girls. Dahlia and her daughter Megan.”

  “My pleasure,” he said.

  “You are welcome to join us,” I said.

  “Thanks, maybe next time, I was just picking up a couple of things from the store.”

  “What TV show?” Megan said.

  “Beg pardon?”

  “Megan, mind your manners,” Dahlia said.

  “I told them you wrote for a TV show, but I guess I never asked you which one,” Eddie said.

  Pete shook his head. “You probably never watched it.”

  “That’s safe to say,” I said. “Eddie doesn’t watch TV.”

  “Good for him,” Pete said. He looked at Megan, “It was called Survival of the Fittest.”

  “I’ve seen that,” Megan laughed. She turned to her mom. “You remember that. Those people out in the middle of the woods, some kinda commune or something, but they’re always fighting and doing stuff to each other. Some of them were kinda mean.”

  “Which is why I’m here instead of there,” Pete said.

  “What’s that mean?” Dahlia asked.

  “Well, I wrote it, intending for it to be a serious study on how a small community can survive without modern materials. Supermarkets, electricity, etc., but the powers that be saw they could get better ratings if they pitted these poor souls against each other. So now, they think up ways to get these folks to stab each other in the back. The nastier the better.”

  “Do you still write it?” I asked.

  He shook his head, “No. My ideas didn’t fit the direction they wanted to go. I owned the concept so they bought me out. And I bought a boat, and here I am.”

  Eddie looked at Megan. “Now you see why I don’t watch television.”

  “I thought it was funny,” Megan said.

  “You and a couple of million viewers,” Pete said.

  “Are you here full time?” I asked.

  “For the time being, I thought I would try my hand at a novel.”

  “I want to read it,” Megan said.

  “Wonderful, my first sale. But I have to write it first.”

  “What’s it going to be about?” Dahlia asked.

  “Damned if I know,” Pete said. He turned to Eddie, “You know, while you are here I’m wondering if you could look at my little boat. It doesn’t always want to respond to the rudder.”

  Eddie stood up again. “Sure.”

  “What’s the name of your sailboat?” I asked.

  “The Mosquito,” he said. “When I’m out there all alone, that’s about as significant as I feel.”

  “That’s why you bought it,” I said.

  He smiled at me, “Yes, yes it is.”

  Dahlia stood. “We have to get going also,” she said. “We’re meeting Aunt Betty at Norterra and Megan has stuff to buy.”

  “Lucky Megan,” I said.

  Eddie followed Pete out.

  “Thanks for the boat ride, Jackson,” Megan said.

  Dahlia stood for a moment looking at me, “Me too,” she said. She touched my arm, “Thanks a lot.”

  I watched them as they left, and as they went through the door I heard Megan say, “I didn’t think boys were supposed to kick.”

  43

  I called Blackhawk. He told me Elena had decided she wanted him to take her to Prescott shopping, so Diaz and his problem were on hold. She loves her aunty but shopping is shopping.

  I dug the paint brush out and, in a couple of hours, I finished the job topside. I was cleaning the brush when my phone beeped at me. I can’t even describe the sound it makes when I have an incoming call. Whatever the default tone is. Some genius at the phone factory decided this was the one. It made me wonder what kind of drugs they do at the phone factory.

  It was Dahlia.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “I know we just saw you, but I was wondering if you don’t have a policewoman to take care of, if you were busy tonight?”

  “She’s just a friend,” I said. “Honestly, just a friend. Let’s see. Tonight I was going to shine my prosthetics.”

  There was silence.

  “Oh,” she said. “You’re kidding me.”

  “I have no plans. In fact, the thing I thought I was going to do got canceled. What do you have in mind?”

  “Well, Megan is in a rush to get back home. I think she’s got a boyfriend. So she’s going to ride back with Aunt Betty, which leaves me on my own. So I thought maybe we could meet for dinner?”

  “You don’t know if Megan has a boyfriend?”

  “We are at the age where we don’t talk about such things. Give her a couple of years and she’ll be spilling her guts. It was just an idea. If you can’t make it, that’s okay.”

  “I think it’s a great idea. How about this? I’ve got two prime filets in the freezer. Why don’t I cook here? Medium rare, baked, asparagus? I even have some Ben and Jerry’s for desert.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t want to put you out.”

  “Really, it would be great. I think Danny’s running the shuttle, just have him bring you out. We could watch TV after we eat.”

  Again, the silence.

  “One thing you need to know,” she said. “I don’t kiss on the first date.”

  “I can respect that,” I said. “How about we hold hands and watch the moonlight?”

  “How can a girl resist moonlight?”

  44

  There was little conversation as we attacked the meal. As promised, we both polished off a cup of Ben and Jerry’s. She scraped the last of it onto her spoon, licked it off, then dropped the spoon into the bowl with a satisfied clatter. She leaned back with a smile and released a small belch.

  “Oh my, excuse me.”

  “In some cultures, a belch at the end of the meal is a sign to the host that the meal was satisfactory.”

  She looked at me and smiled, “How do you know this? From the Travel Channel? Oh, that’s right, you don’t have a TV.”

  “Experience firsthand,” I said.
I slid out of the booth and collected her bowl. As I put them in the sink, she moved up behind me and reached across to start the water running.

  “I can get this,” I said.

  “In my house,” she said, “the cook doesn’t clean.”

  “Does Megan cook?”

  “Megan orders pizza.”

  “So Megan does the majority of dishes?”

  “Pretty much.”

  I moved out of the way. I opened a drawer and extracted a dish towel. Or, what passed as a dish towel on my boat. As she washed the dishes, I dried them and put them away.

  As we finished, she turned and said, “That was a wonderful meal.”

  “I don’t know about wonderful, but it was filling.”

  “More than that,” she smiled.

  I looked out the starboard portal.

  “The sun is down,” I said. “We have some pretty spectacular sunsets out here. How about we go topside and enjoy it?”

  “Sounds good.”

  “More wine?”

  She picked up her wine glass and drank the small amount that remained, then handed it to me.

  “Just a taste,” she said. “I still have a drive tonight.”

  “That’s disappointing to hear.”

  “I told you about me and first dates.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  I poured an inch of wine in the glass and handed it to her. I drained the bottle in my glass. I wasn’t driving. I led the way through the master stateroom to the stern. The air had cooled and it was quite pleasant.

  The ladder to topside was slightly canted but still steep.

  “Let me go first,” I said. “If I follow you up, with you wearing that little dress, I might get a glimpse of paradise.”

  She laughed. “You boys are so easy.”

  Up top, I pulled two chaise cushions from the locker I keep them in. I pulled the chaise lounges into a position for optimum sunset viewing. We sat side by side and the sunset, while almost finished, was living up to my expectations. We settled into a comfortable silence. The only sound was the gentle lap of small waves against the neighboring boats and dock.

  After a while I looked at her. She was staring out across the water. The slight breeze was gently moving her hair. Occasionally, she would reach up and move it back behind her ear. Without looking, she reached over and took my hand.

  “Can I ask a personal question?” I said.

  She looked at me.

  “You can ask.”

  “Megan’s father. I notice you both use the name Martin but I understand that is your maiden name.”

  “It’s my only name.”

  She hitched around to look at me.

  “Megan’s daddy was a sweet young boy I had met and was dating when he decided it was his patriotic duty to join up and go over to the Middle East and protect America.”

  She looked back out over the water for a moment.

  Without looking back, she said, “In a moment of passion we decided to consummate our love for each other before he left. It was one time. It was all it took. He was killed the first month he was there, and I was pregnant.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

  “No, no, it’s okay. To be honest, I didn’t really know him that well.”

  She looked back at me. “Now it’s my turn. Earlier you told me the story about your parents having to go to your school. How old were you when they died?”

  “About a year older. Car crash. A policeman came and took me out of my school and drove me to the hospital. He wouldn’t tell me why. Or maybe he couldn’t, maybe he didn’t know. They were both gone by the time I got there.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  I shrugged, “Stuff happens.”

  She nodded. “Shit happens to everyone.”

  That made me smile.

  “No relatives? Aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters?” she said.

  “None,” I said. “I never knew any grandparents.”

  “How sad.”

  Again, I shrugged. I sipped the wine.

  “So, what happened then?”

  The sun was well down and it was beginning to get dark. The first stars of the night were becoming visible. I thought about what I would tell her.

  “I went into the system. Bounced around a lot. I wasn’t, what you would call, real cooperative. When I was old enough, a judge told me I could go into the service or into the prison system. I didn’t have the patriotic fervor Megan’s daddy had, but in my own way, I decided I wanted to save America. And I think, without realizing it, I wanted to save myself.”

  “Then you lost your foot.”

  “Yeah, after a while.”

  She was quiet.

  “Did you save yourself?”

  I shrugged. “Time will tell.”

  “Do you have any friends? Anybody in your life?”

  “You mean women?”

  “I mean anybody. No man is an island.”

  “John Donne,” I said.

  “That’s right.”

  “I told you I read a lot.”

  “Do you?”

  “Read a lot?”

  “No, do you have anyone in your life?”

  “You’ve met Boyce,” I said.

  “The policewoman that is only a friend. Anyone else?”

  “Well, there’s Eddie.”

  “That’s it?”

  I was silent.

  “There’s Blackhawk. He takes up a lot of space in my life.”

  “Blackhawk?”

  “Yeah.”

  “There is someone named Blackhawk?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Are you punking me?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “What is Blackhawk’s real name?”

  I was silent for a moment. “I don’t know. He was introduced to me as Blackhawk and that’s all I’ve ever known.”

  “Who introduced you?”

  “The Colonel.”

  “Colonel who?”

  “Just the Colonel. He was our group leader.”

  “Are you trying to piss me off?”

  I laughed, “No, no, not at all. All is true, so help me God.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “Not much to tell. I went into the service and I decided I wanted to be a SEAL, so I did that.”

  “I thought you said you were a Marine. You are a Navy SEAL?”

  “Not anymore. Even though some say, once a SEAL always a SEAL.”

  I looked out across the water. The far mountains were now just a dark jagged line across the horizon.

  She punched me on the arm.

  “You’re not leaving me with just that. I want to know about you being a SEAL.”

  I looked at her. The moon was up and the moonlight trailed across her face and I don’t know if it was just the romance of the moment, but she was lovely.

  “I made it through the SEALs and the next thing I knew they flew me across the country and that’s where I met the Colonel and then they trained me some more and hooked me up with Blackhawk and the rest of the team.”

  “What did the team do?”

  I set forward.

  “Okay, you’ll just have to believe me on this, but I can’t tell you. Most of what we were involved in was top secret.”

  “You’re a spy?” she said, incredulously.

  “Oh, no. Nothing like that. Nothing romantic at all. We just did work that bolstered the security of the United States. Most of it was completely boring. But we signed a pledge, under penalty of imprisonment, to never divulge any of the activity we were involved with.”

  “And you can’t tell me, or you’ll have to kill me.”

  I laughed, “You watch too many movies. No, I ain’t no James Bond. I was just a soldier doing what my country ordered me to do.”

  “So if this Colonel introduced you to this Blackhawk person, how did he introduce you to Blackhawk?”

  I looked at her. She was grinning at me.

  “He said,
“Blackhawk, this is Jackson. Jackson, this is Blackhawk.”

  She cocked her head and looked at me for a long moment.

  “So, what is your real name?”

  “Jackson.”

  “So that’s the name you were born with?”

  “Depends on your definition of born.”

  45

  She hit me on the arm again.

  “Now you are playing games with me.”

  The sun was down but the moon had replaced it. It wasn’t full, but close. Between the moonlight and the dock lights, it wasn’t just a romantic notion: she really was lovely.

  “No, not really. I’ve seriously always considered my life to have begun when I went into the service. Anything before that was pretty much wasted.”

  “That sounds sad.”

  “Not really. When did you really wake up and look around and realize your life had some purpose?”

  She nodded. “When Megan was born.” She looked back across the moonlit lake.

  We sat in silence for a while. We could hear voices from across the water. Not clear enough to make them out, but loud enough to make you wonder, again, about how far sound carries across water.

  “So this is all true? About you, I mean.”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “So that story Eddie told us up in Sedona, about the Ambassador’s granddaughter, that’s true too.”

  “All true. Except I’m not the hero he tried to make me out to be. I had a lot of help.”

  “Like who?”

  “Well, Blackhawk for one. Boyce, for another. The resources of the Columbian Consulate. The Phoenix Police Department.”

  She was looking at me hard. “Eddie thinks you are a hero, and you’re going to save Billy.”

  “He asked me to help. I’m not sure what I can do. I am no hero.”

  “Here’s something that Megan and I have talked about, are these bombings connected to Billy?”

  “That scenario makes sense, but I can’t prove it. I’m just trying to help Eddie.”

  “And if you can’t?”

  “I told him I would do what I could. I could fail.”

  “I like Billy, and it’s impossible not to like Eddie. I hope you can help them. I hope you don’t fail.”

  “Me too.”

  She stood up. “Unfortunately, failure is always an option. In everything. I have to go. This has been a beautiful night. Thank you so much.”