"Calm down, just private people down here, that's all. Let's ask around some more, someone's bound to help us. Hell, everybody in Galveston Bay can't be so rude. Can they?" The girls looked at each other and started laughing at themselves.
"We'll see, won't we," Susie chuckled.
Two hours later, they were again asking themselves what the heck was going on in Galveston Bay. Every person they approached around the area either didn't speak English, had never heard of Sue Hall, or simply ignored the pair. And to make a bad situation worse, there were absolutely no road or street signs in the harbor district. Depression was quickly settling around Susie, but Courtney was not one to be put off so easily. They were leaning on the car, sipping on bottles of water, exhausted from their fruitless search in and out of every store and restaurant around the harbor.
"I don't give up too easy, in case you haven't figured that out. There must be someone who is willing to help. Maybe we need to offer a bribe," Courtney said.
"We'd probably get arrested," Susie murmured.
Courtney's face brightened at Susie's comment. "Well shit. We're so stupid. We walk around for miles, coming off like bill collectors, cops, or private detectives, no wonder nobody wants to talk. If this was my old neighborhood, I wouldn't talk either. Would you? See what I mean, we're outsiders, poking around about one of their own. No way are these folks going to let us in on anything. Good for them. But we got us a secret weapon, don't we?"
The question seemed to confuse Susie, who stood staring at her friend. "Bernie, you airhead. Bernie's a cop. Cops are like brothers. They stick together. Galveston has cops. So we call Bernie, and he bails us out. Easy."
She pulled out her cell, punching in the numbers for her husband’s police department office in Houston. After waiting several seconds, Bernie came on the other end. "Hi handsome, how they hangin?" she purred into the mouth piece.
Susie listened to the one-sided conversation, smiling at the easygoing affection between her two newest friends. As she listened, she wondered if perhaps these two people, two strangers who had opened up their home and their hearts to her were perhaps the best friends she had ever had. As Courtney talked, Susie compared this friendship with that of Tammy and Jody, wondering if Courtney had been right, money was playing too much a part of her life, wondering if she was capable of being any other way. Maybe it was time to grow up.
As Courtney disconnected, she smiled. "We're in luck. Bern knows a Galveston cop, Roy Higgins, a detective who used to be on the Houston cops. He called him on another line, told him we were here and needed a friend. He should be along in a few minutes."
It was no more than five minutes when a gray car pulled into the lot and stopped next to Courtney's convertible. A man rolled the window down, leaned out and called, "Courtney?"
"You bet," she replied.
The man got out of the car, slammed the door, and put his hand out to the woman. "Roy Higgins, glad to meet you."
Courtney introduced Susie, explained briefly what they were doing at the harbor and the reception they were getting, and asked him if he could help. The detective, dressed in a rumpled brown suit, white shirt open at the neck, and no tie, looked like he had just crawled out of bed. He was a tad under six foot, brown balding hair and hazel, sad-looking eyes. It looked to Susie like Detective Higgins could stand to lose twenty pounds and lift a few weights. He had a permanent smile on his face, contrasting sharply with those eyes. She wondered briefly which was the real giveaway to his unhappiness, then decided it must be the eyes.
"I can understand you running into a brick wall down here, these folks just might be the most clannish people on the face of the earth. You gotta understand, about half these folks come to the Bay to get away from something they don't like in their lives, bad marriages, shitty jobs, parents, spouses. Whatever it is they're hiding from, Galveston is about as good as place to come as any in the country. It takes an awful long time to be accepted down here, but once you're in the loop, hell, it's like being back in the womb. Ain't nobody gonna give you up down here in the Bay. That's what they're all counting on."
"Look, Detective Higgins, I don't want to go around prying into these people's business, I just want to know what she's doing so I can go home and let my family know she's all right. I don't even have to talk to her. Just see her, or have someone tell me what it is she's been up to these past several years, that's all. Simple."
Courtney looked at her like she was crazy. "You don't want to meet her, talk to her? All the trouble you've gone through, we've gone through, and you want to see her for a second? Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm positive."
Higgins let out a sigh of relief. "That's easy," the cop said. "I would really hate to have these folks think I crossed the line and gave one of them up. But I also owe Bernie quite a few favors, a couple of real big ones, and cop-to-cop favors come first, before anything else. I think I can answer most of your questions right now, and if we're lucky, you can satisfy the rest of your curiosity real soon. Let's go grab a bench by the water and take a load off, my feet are killing me. That shit they used to say about flatfoots, true story in my case, I got the flattest feet you've ever seen," he said, laughing, leading them to a bench overlooking the harbor. A 75-foot private yacht was entering the harbor, the blue and white paint glistening in the sunlight, two uniformed crew-members preparing the lines for docking.
"Pretty, ain't it? I think the Bay is about the prettiest place on earth. When I decided to run away from Houston, there wasn't no doubt where I was going to go. But that's another story." He pointed, the girl's eyes following his hand, a Coast Guard patrol boat in the distance, the orange and black chevron on the side of the hull identifying it.
"Coast Guard cutter on dope patrol. Those are some brave dudes, there, Coasties are," he said. "Folks don't have a clue 'bout what those guys go through...hell, they're hero's every single day."
"You know Sue Hall, don’t you?" Courtney asked bluntly, getting tired of being jerked around all afternoon.
"Sure, everybody down here knows her. Susie's not a local, as in a person born down here, but she's been here for a long time, ten or fifteen years, enough to be a solid part of this community. I'm not sure about that, you know, how long she's been here. Might as well be a local. She was here when I got to Galveston. If it's important, I could find out. But that's not what you want, is it?"
"No, I think I know about the time she came here. That's not important. How do you know her?" she asked quietly, finally getting some answers.
"You're kin to her, aren’t you?" the detective asked.
"Yes." She hesitated before answering further. "A cousin. Why?"
"Hell, you two could be sisters...there's a real strong resemblance. I imagine that's what she looked like when she was a kid. Same white-blonde hair, same eyes. Christ, what a resemblance." He was looking at Susie closely, admiringly, making the girl become slightly uncomfortable. He finally looked away, back out toward the water.
"Anyway, I could give you the official answer, that it's my job to know everybody in my town, and that would be a partial truth. But between friends, I've had a crush on the lady for years. Still do. I'd hang around that store of hers for hours, drinking gallons of coffee every day, getting fat on donuts, trying like hell to get her to go out with me. Never even got to first base. Then, when she saved enough money to buy that boat, I knew wasn't no man on this earth who could ever have a piece of her heart. That belongs to the ocean. That girl was born to skipper charters, that's all there is to it. And she's the best there is, at least in these parts." He was gazing out at the blue water, his voice trailing off as his mind drifted.
Susie was looking at the detective like he was talking a foreign language, confusion written on her face. "Wait a sec. I'm not sure we're talking about the same person here. What store are you talking about? You said you hung around her store."
"Sure, that bait shop down there," he said, pointing to the little store where Susie and
Courtney had taken their coffee and jelly donut break hours earlier, the place where the little girl had reared up on them. "It wasn't nothin' but an ol' bait store, one room operation when Susie first bought it, didn't even have an indoor john. Every few years she added a little bit to it, the snack bar, then the gas pumps on the dock, then a real kitchen. And finally indoor toilets. Place does a good business now, enough so she spends most everyday taking charters out in the Gulf. Leaves Randy to run it."
Susie was stunned, her mind trying to calculate her projected worth at age 33, how much of her various trust funds would legally be in her name by that age. Roughly 45 or 50 million dollars and spare change, she thought, with much more coming in every five years. Plus interest. So what in the hell is all this about saving to buy a boat.
"And she operates a charter boat?" Courtney asked. "That she bought from her profits at this bait shop?"
"One hell of a charter captain," he answered. "She's the most honest, down-to-earth woman I ever met in my life. Simple, straightforward, probably the best person I've ever known. You know, a lot of people who own their own businesses, they get pretentious as hell, think their shit don't stink, pardon the expression. But Sue, she doesn’t flaunt it, even though she's probably worth several thousand bucks now, free and clear. The shops paid off, I know that for a fact. And the boat is probably pretty close to being out of the clutches of the bank by now. I figure she probably came from simple roots, hill folks maybe, and never lost that down-home disposition. One hell of a lady. Look, there comes the Traveler now. That's her boat. Pretty thing, ain't it."
They were watching a 45-foot sport-fishing vessel coming into sight, its white hull gleaming like a jewel, the boat riding the soft swell gently. It had a tall superstructure, the helmsman steering from the highest vantage point. As it moved toward them they could make out several men standing near the fo'c's'le, wearing the bright-colored shorts and shirts of vacationers. Six deep-sea fishing rods were affixed in side holders, spaced evenly around the boat. As it advanced closer to the dock passing under their vantage point, they could easily see down into the bridge, the pilot standing at the helm, a tall, deeply tanned blonde woman dressed in cut-off jeans and a bikini top, wholly confident in her handling of the craft, a strong, self-assured captain. They watched as she maneuvered the boat easily into its slip, the passengers dropping blue rubber fenders over the side, the vessel reversing its engines inches before touching the wooden dock, the entire performance a lesson in seamanship, the docking a gentle, perfect exhibition, a masterpiece.
Susie watched the scene intently, hypnotized by what she was viewing. I finally found her, she thought. I mean, I found me. In the future. Look how happy I look, how self-assured. Something seriously radical has happened in the last fifteen years. Suddenly, the front door of the convenience store slammed, drawing Susie's attention away from the boat. She watched the blonde teenage clerk run down the walkway, hollering at someone aboard the Traveler, her long, graceful gait that of an athlete, her thin legs stretching out easily, naturally.
The captain walked off the bridge, overseeing the unloading of her gear, gently giving orders, laughing with her passengers, at ease, a woman in a man's world. She looked up at the commotion coming in her direction, a smile breaking across her pretty, wind-burned face, waved at the tomboy, and waited, a daily ritual about to unfold. The youngster ran up the gangway, threw her arms around the woman, and the two hugged, excitedly talking and laughing.
Susie stood up from her seat next to Courtney, walking closer to the water, utterly confused, trying desperately to hear the conversation taking place below her, well out of earshot. At first she didn't comprehend the next words of Roy Higgins, the detective standing several feet behind her, making nothing more than a casual observation to Courtney. Something in the detective's tone made Susie turn back toward the pair, a question crossing her face.
"What did you say?" she demanded, excitedly. "What did you say?"
"What? Oh, about Randy. Just that Susie has about the cutest little daughter in the Bay. That Randy is sure a handful, more tomboy than any girl I ever did see. You ought to see her shoot a basketball. Pure natural ball player, that one."
Susie stood there, her mouth open, a look of amazement and wonder coming across her face. A daughter, she thought. My God, I have a daughter. As she turned back toward the scene below, for one brief instant she was staring in the eyes of her older self, seeing the smile on the woman's face as she hugged the child to her, the look one of absolute, unconditional love and protection.
Susie waved at the pair below her, waved at her future, at her daughter. I'll be back, she wanted to shout. Oh, I can't wait to get back. And then Susie was back in the fog, no longer in Galveston Bay. Her eyes were closed, a wonderful, content feeling overtaking her, a feeling mixed with the sadness of leaving behind her new life, her new friends. And Randy. Especially Randy.
She heard the voice of Rod, the boy asking Tammy if she wanted another beer, trying to open her eyes, finally succeeding. She found herself sitting in the exact spot, next to Andy, the fire shining brightly, all her friends staring at her as she came back to the present. A look of bemused innocence was on the face of her newest friend, the man Gretta called the Wizard, the one that Susie would forever think of as her friend.
"Welcome back," Gretta cried excitedly, knowing exactly how Susie was feeling, happy for her new friend, wanting to know more. "How was it, wasn't it wonderful. Did you find yourself?"
"Hey," Susie finally getting her voice. "Oh God, I'm back, aren't I. I'm sorry I took so long, you wouldn't believe it. How long have I been gone?"
"For about ten minutes, I think," Shauna answered. "You closed your eyes and nodded off. Not very long."
"Ten minutes. That is so weird...oh; it was so spectacular...and frightening. I was scared to death, so close to danger. But I got rescued; it was so neat, almost like a movie. I don't know how to describe it. Marvelous, wonderful. Thank you. Oh, thank you for that." She was looking at the Traveler, who nodded toward her in acknowledgment. She stood up a bit unsteadily, walking to the stranger, bent and hugged his neck.
"I didn't get to say good-by to Courtney," she said to nobody in particular, not even sure she spoke aloud.
"You'll have your chance." The words in her head, private words, for her ears only. She accepted a cold beer from Gretta, turned and sat back down.
"When did you change clothes? And where'd you get those spaceman shoes?" Tammy asked.
Susie looked down, noticing that she had on a pair of long jeans, a purple caftan, and those weird Nikes. Smiling, she made a mental note to pay back Courtney and Bernie Wharton the next time she saw them. And she was positive she was going to see them again.
24
Rod was restless, tired of waiting, growing increasingly resentful that the magician wasn't permitting him a wish. He believed, truly believed in the Wizard's power, could read it in the faces of Gretta and Susie, knew they had been through some sort of miracles, some type of supernatural experiences. He had known Susie since she was a kid, knew that she didn't buy into anything that wasn't solid. He was watching her face when she came back, could see the glow that encompassed her entire being. He looked toward the stranger, hoping for a sign, some indication that he could be the next one to go. The man seemed to be purposefully ignoring the boy, looking instead toward Tammy. Rod turned to the girl and whispered in her ear. "Let's take a walk. I need to get out of here for a while."
"Okay," she said, rising from her seat on the ground. Tammy wanted to spend as much time with Rod as she could, needed to let him know how much she wanted him. In the back of her mind, she desperately wanted Rod to make her pregnant, her last effort to capture her Golden boy. She was going to give him every opportunity to accomplish that task before the night was over, knew that if she didn't do something desperate, he was leaving and she would never be a part of his life.
"We'll be back in a little while," she said to Jody, the redhead wat
ching her friend with a look of contempt.
I know what you're doing, Jody thought to herself. And I know why. "Yeah, have fun," she said sarcastically. I've had just about enough of you, Tammy Pelfry, again to herself, looking toward Susie to see if her friend was thinking the same thing. Instead, Susie was paying no attention to Tammy or Rod, whispering instead to Gretta who had moved over to the blonde, away from Jody, their heads almost touching. They were giggling like schoolgirls, broad smiles on both of their faces. What in the hell happened to them, Jody wondered. I've never seen Susie so happy, no, not happy exactly...content, maybe? Fulfilled? Well, good for her. I love Susie, and if she's happy, I'm darn sure happy for her, she told herself as she watched Tammy and Rod walked away into the darkness, the girl taking Rod's hand, holding on to it tightly as they disappeared down the path.
"Everything doesn't necessarily turn out like we might imagine, does it, Susie Hall?" the Wizard asked, chuckling.
"Oh, but it does turns out the way it's supposed to," she answered. "It turns out in the strangest, most wonderful way."
"Yes, sometimes it does, sometimes it does. But sometimes I'm afraid it doesn't turn out the way we might prefer." Turning to look at Jody, he forced a smile on his face, his look one of kindness, understanding.
"Still upset with me, Jody Reed? Or can we become friends? I would like that very much. You and I have a few things in common. In fact, it might surprise you how much."
"What could we possibly have in common?" the girl shot back at him, venom in her tone.
"I think you'll understand before the night is over. I hope so, anyway," he whispered. "Would you care to see something in your future?"
"No. I think I'll pass, thank you," she replied, sarcasm in her voice. "I don't know what you're doing to my friends, what kind of carnival tricks you're playing, but it's not going to work with me."
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