One day after giving his dog Spot a bath, he decided to give one of the cats that hung around in the barn a bath.
Dave laughed as he remembered how the cat’s eyes grew large as he carried it over and held it above the washtub.
Then his smile faded as he remembered the pain he felt when the cat expressed how it felt about getting a bath.
He had never realized how a little kitty could suddenly turn into such a vicious animal. It was the last time he ever tried to give a cat a bath.
“We can teach him,” Joey said.
“I think they also have a rule that dogs and cats aren’t allowed on the beach. The beach is just for people,” Dave replied.
“OK,” Joey replied.
Maggie looked at Dave and grinned.
Dave drove them back to the Pelican Post and parked the car.
Joey put Morris in on the couch to enjoy the air conditioning and because he was worried that Morris would run away if they left him outside.
As well as Morris had been eating this week, Dave knew the cat had no intentions of going anywhere.
In fact Dave probably couldn’t chase the cat away even if he wanted it to leave.
They went to the office and Nicole gave them three beach towels and two beach chairs that the motel kept for residents that wanted to go to the beach but didn’t have their own beach gear.
Nicole didn’t have any sun tan lotion to give them, but Dave and Maggie weren’t worried about getting sun burnt.
Living in Starke without air conditioning, they all had dark tans and were in no danger of getting sun burnt.
They spent the afternoon on the beach.
Dave relaxed and listened to the sound of the waves breaking on the beach as he kept a close eye on Joey.
Joey enjoyed getting wet and visiting all the other people on the beach, especially the ones with snacks.
Maggie spent her time reading.
Midafternoon, they took a walk on the beach and waded in the waves.
By 3:00 PM most of the people on the beach had wandered away. There weren’t many people on the beach today to start with and soon they found they had the beach all to themselves.
As they were drying themselves off with the beach towels, two ambulances and three police cars, all with their lights flashing, sped past them on Gulf Drive, heading in the direction of the north end of the island.
Dave and Maggie stood and watched them fly by as they disappeared up the road.
“I wonder where they are going?” Dave asked.
“I bet something happened up near the pier,” Maggie replied. “I wonder if it has anything to do with those dead bodies?”
Dave didn’t want to get that conversation started again.
“What do you say we go back to our unit, get cleaned up and go out to dinner?” Dave suggested.
“I don’t know Dave,” Maggie replied, “I think we should save our money. We have some left overs that I can heat up.”
“Dinner is on Gulf Coast Construction tonight,” Dave smiled. “It’s a welcome to the family present from Mr. Jenkins.”
“A what?” Maggie asked.
“I forgot to tell you yesterday,” Dave replied. “Mr. Jenkins offered to keep me on after our project here is done. When I said I would be happy to stay on with his company when we were done here, he said I should take you to The Lazy Lobster for dinner on him to celebrate.”
Maggie ran over and hugged Dave.
“That’s wonderful,” Maggie said. “We’ve been waiting for something like this forever. I’m so happy for you.”
“I’m happy for both of us,” Dave smiled. “Now maybe you can quit that job at Wal-Mart. We might even be able to move down this way and get out of Starke.”
“Maybe we can rent a place here on the beach?” Maggie said excitedly.
“I don’t think we would be able to afford that,” Dave laughed, “but if we can find a reasonable place out near Route 75 we could drive here every weekend.”
Maggie hugged Dave again.
“Well, how about we go to dinner?” Dave asked.
Maggie looked up, “Where is The Lazy Lobster? I don’t think I remember seeing that place.”
“It’s right off the south end of the island on Longboat key, “Dave answered. “It is a few blocks down after we cross the bridge onto Longboat.”
“That sounds great,” Maggie replied, “but I don’t have anything nice to wear.”
“Neither do I,” Dave laughed, “we go as we are, only cleaner.”
Maggie laughed, “Let’s go celebrate. I don’t know why you didn’t tell me about something this important yesterday?”
“Sorry, I forgot,” Dave said.
“How could you forget something this important?” Maggie added.
Dave smiled, he knew why he forgot. Maggie was so excited about her book and the dead bodies that last night he could barely get a word in otherwise.
“After dinner we can take another ride and see if we can get you a look at what I dug up yesterday,” Dave said instead.
Dave took Maggie and Joey’s hands and they all walked happily across Gulf Drive and back to the motel.
After they showered and made sure Morris was comfortable on the couch, they all got into the car and drove south on Gulf Drive.
The bridge to cross over onto Longboat Key was only two miles away at the southern tip of Anna Maria Island.
There wasn’t much traffic and they arrived at the bridge in only a few minutes.
But they were surprised when they reached the bridge.
The drawbridge was standing high in the air.
In front of the bridge were two army trucks. There were about seven armed men standing out in front of the trucks.
“Now what?” Dave asked out loud.
Maggie remained silent but studied the situation ahead.
They were about six cars in front of them.
Each car waited its turn to reach the front of the line.
When Dave reached the front, two soldiers in combat gear approached his side of the car.
Dave rolled down his window and looked at the soldiers.
“Is there something wrong?” he asked.
“Sorry, but I’m afraid you will have to turn around. No one is allowed to cross over to Longboat right now,” the soldier replied.
“Something happen down there?” Dave asked.
“I don’t know,” the soldier replied, “we’ve been ordered to turn everyone around at this point. All I can say is you will probably hear something about the reason on the news tonight sometime. That’s all I know except that no one is allowed to cross over the bridge for now.”
Dave looked at the armed men.
“OK thanks,” Dave sighed.
He turned the car around and pulled away from the bridge as the next car in line moved up to talk with the soldiers.
“Sorry Maggie,” Dave said, “I guess we will have to celebrate at The Lazy Lobster tomorrow.”
“That’s OK,” Maggie smiled, “I guess we will have more time here on the island to celebrate now that you will be working here on a regular basis.”
Dave looked at Maggie and smiled.
“But I wonder what happened on Longboat?” Maggie asked. “Maybe they dug up some dead bodies down there too.”
Dave laughed, “I hope not.”
“Since we can’t go out to dinner tonight, let’s ride up and see if we can go up to your worksite and look around,” Maggie suggested. “After we get back I can heat up our leftovers.”
“Hopefully that government team will be done with their inspection by now,” Dave said.
They drove back up the island and soon passed the Pelican Post. They stopped at the traffic light for the Cortez Bridge, the bridge they had crossed to get onto the island the day they had arrived.
At the intersection sat another two army trucks, blocking the way to get on the Cortez Bridge.
Maggie looked out on the bridge and saw the drawbridge was
standing high up in the air here too.
“Now this is starting to get creepy,” Dave said.
“This is what happens when the government gets involved in anything,” Maggie sighed.
When the light changed, Dave continued up Gulf Drive.
Not far up the road, two army trucks passed them coming from the opposite direction.
They hadn’t driven much further when Maggie pointed out over the beach. There were two ships anchored out in the Gulf out about a half mile.
“What kind of ships are those,” she asked.
Dave took a few quick glances as he drove.
“I don’t know,” Dave answered as he took a few more glances, being careful to stay in his lane and not run into any oncoming traffic. “They look like navy ships but I can’t get a good look while I’m trying to drive.”
Maggie stared out at the ships, “One of the ships is real long and the top looks flat. It’s the one on the right.”
Dave took another two fast glances.
“I think you’re right Maggie,” Dave said. “It looks like an aircraft carrier, but what would an aircraft carrier be doing in the Gulf of Mexico?”
“I don’t know,” Maggie replied, “What’s an aircraft carrier do anywhere?”
Dave suddenly slammed on the brakes when he realized the traffic in front of him had stopped.
“Why is traffic stopped way back here?” Dave asked. “We’re barely half way up the island.”
Maggie looked out the windshield and up into the sky.
“It might have something to do with all those helicopters,” Maggie said pointing at the two helicopters that were flying overhead.
“This is starting to get more than creepy,” Dave said, “this is starting to make me worry.”
“It’s the government,” Maggie said, “I knew they were going to try and cover this up.”
“This doesn’t look like a cover up to me,” Dave answered, “I thought cover ups were to be quiet. This looks like they are preparing to invade the damn island.”
“It probably started as a cover up,” Maggie smiled, “but you know the government always screws everything up when they get involved.”
Dave laughed, “Mag, I think you are going crazy reading all those books.”
Dave looked at Maggie and they both started to laugh.
“Just saying,” Maggie laughed.
They sat through more stop and go traffic until a block later they could see the reason traffic was such a mess.
At the next intersection sat a large tan camouflage colored tank. Two trucks sat on each side of the tank with the same color pattern.
A dozen soldiers manned the blockade in front of the tank and trucks.
After twenty minutes, Dave was finally at the front of the line as the soldiers approached his car.
Dave leaned out the window.
“I know, I have to turn around and go back. No one is allowed past this point,” Dave smiled, “but what is the Army doing here. I worked at the site where the bodies were uncovered. The police were here this morning turning everyone back, but why is the Army here now?”
A large soldier walked up to Dave.
“You know about the bodies?” the soldier asked.
“Yea, I am the project manager and the guy that dug up the bodies with my bulldozer. We called in the police to examine the bodies. The last I heard the government sent in a team to check things out,” Dave replied.
Who else was with you when you uncovered the bodies?” the soldier asked.
“Just the boss, Albert Jenkins from Gulf Coast, a friend of mine and two other workers,” Dave replied.
“Where are you staying?” the soldier asked as he pulled a pad and pencil out of his pocket.
“Why?” Dave asked beginning to get suspicious.
“My commanding officer might want to talk to you later,” the soldier replied.
“My friend and I are staying down at the Pelican Post Motel,” Dave replied, “but why is the Army here?”
The soldier put his pad back in his pocket and looked at Dave.
“From what I understand, some of the inspection team started to get sick,” the soldier replied, “Then I was informed all hell broke loose.”
“What does that mean?” Dave asked.
“Hell if I know,” the soldier smiled. “We were just told the situation here was more than the local police could handle. We were called in to keep order until someone could figure out what was going on and restore order.”
“I guess we can’t go up there then?” Maggie asked leaning into Dave and looking out at the soldier.
“No,” the soldier smiled, “and from what I understand you wouldn’t want to go up there.”
“Why not?” Maggie asked.
“Just turn around please,” the soldier said, once again looking serious.
“Thanks,” Dave said and turned the car around.
They started driving back towards the motel.
“Albert is supposed to call me Monday to let me know when we can go back to work,” Dave said quietly. “Something tells me we aren’t going to be going back to work very soon.”
“We better hang on to our money,” Maggie said as they passed by the soldiers blocking the Cortez Bridge. “We might need it.”
Dave looked at the blockade.
He had been promised other work with Gulf Coast if the Anna Maria Island project ran into trouble.
From what Dave had seen, there was definitely going to be a problem with the project here on the island.
With the bridges closed, he would not be able to get off the island if Gulf Coast called him to work somewhere else.
He began to get concerned.
He didn’t know what was happening, but something was starting to feel very wrong.
They arrived back at the Pelican Post a few minutes later.
Nicole was standing outside unit one holding Everly.
Adam was carrying some supplies into the room.
“Hi Nicole,” Maggie said. “Getting the room ready for another customer?”
“I wish,” Nicole smiled.
Adam came out of the room.
“No, we are staying in unit one tonight,” he said. “All the bridges have been closed down and we can’t get home.”
“Does this happen very often around here?” Dave asked.
“This has never happened before,” Nicole said, “and no one knows why.”
Dave looked at Maggie.
“If we can help you with anything just come on over and see us,” Maggie said.
Shirley walked out of unit two, “Hey, that’s my line.”
Maggie laughed, “I guess you have to stay here tonight too?”
Shirley laughed, “Yea, but I hope it is only for one night. I don’t think I can afford to stay here longer than that.”
Nicole laughed, “Don’t worry Shirley we can deduct the rent from your pay each week until you are paid up.”
Everyone laughed and headed for their rooms.
When Dave, Maggie and Joey stepped inside unit seven, Dave sat down under the air conditioner vent to relax.
“I guess we will just stay in and watch TV tonight,” Dave said. “Hopefully this will all be cleared up by morning.”
“With the government involved, Maggie smiled, “I wouldn’t count on it.”
Dave laughed and shook his head.
Joey ran over and picked up Morris.
Joey dragged the poor cat upside down in his arms as he walked over to the TV.
He turned on the TV and went back over to the couch and grabbed the remote.
Joey started pushing buttons on the remote.
“The TV is broke,” Joey said.
Chapter 6
Dave was awakened in the middle of the night by a loud crashing noise coming from out in front of the motel.
He normally would have been in a deep sleep at 3:30 AM, the time Dave saw on the clock next to his bed as he opened his eyes, but he and
Maggie had gone to bed early last night. He was well rested for this time of the morning or this time of the night, depending on your point of view.
After Joey claimed the TV was broke, Dave messed around with the TV for ten minutes, checking for loose connections or any other problem. His efforts to get the TV working again ended without success.
He knocked on Carl’s door to see if his TV was working, but as usual, Carl was over at the Bridge Tender.
Carl obviously had big plans for his long three day weekend.
Dave guessed that by now Carl had no idea where he was, let alone that something was going on up at the construction site. Even if Carl had been at home, he would have had no idea whether or not his TV was working.
Dave finally walked over to unit one at ask Adam if his TV was working.
Adam informed him that he suspected the cable must be out.
Adam said he tried to call the cable company but his call wouldn’t go through. He said he would keep trying and hopefully the cable would be working again before too long.
Adam said until the cable came back on, he and Nicole were just trying to entertain Everly so she would be able to go to sleep in the unfamiliar surroundings of unit one.
“Give her an envelope,” Dave had suggested, “chewing on an envelope should wear her out.”
Dave left and went back to his room, not sure whether Adam had appreciated his attempt at humor or not.
It could have been Adam was concerned about the bridges being closed and the fact they weren’t able to go back home tonight.
The entire situation was a little unnerving, but regardless, Dave and Maggie weren’t worried about going back to Starke. Especially since the room had been paid up for two months, they would be happy to stay here the entire two months for things to be cleared up.
Now It Begins Page 7