Once Upon a Night in the Marina

Wharfinger Yarns ……number Two

Part Three

The sky in the East was beginning to lighten and I was pretty darned tired, I’ll tell you. It had been a long night and a busy one. I started to make another pot of coffee when I heard a gentle rapping on the outside of the hull of my boat. It was the young man. “We have to leave” He said quietly. “WHAT! “ I blurted out. Dropped the coffee grounds and damned near scalded myself with the hot water. “You just got here, the baby’s just born and you don’t have any money. Why in god’s name are you leaving? “

“Well sir, those three old men told me that the mayor, Mr. Harold, may be looking for us. I guess he wants to try to take the baby away from us. It’s an old family problem. One of the reasons my wife and I had to leave in the first place. We gotta get away to another county so they can’t find us. “ “But, but, where you gonna go?” … I stuttered. “It’ll be alright.” He said, “The King brothers gave us some money. Everyone has been so nice to us. I don’t want to get anyone into trouble. We’ll be in another county later on, so everyone will be safe.”

I’d had a run-in with old Harold the Mayor a few times myself. It wasn’t hard to believe that he would do something rotten to these two kids. It was a hard thing to do, to just pick up their lives and go off to some strange part of the country. But to protect his family I sure had to hand it to the young man. He had a lot of guts.

The Wheezy old A-4 engine on his boat started, belched out some smoke and settled down to a normal purr. I untied the bow line and threw it on deck. Walking back to the stern lines, I looked up and there setting in the cockpit with the young man was that brand new mommy holding a bundle of old sweat shirt with “1987 America’s Cup” showing. She smiled at me and a faint cooing sound came out of the bundle. That old sloop backed out, swung around and was heading out. It was going to be a long trip for that family, but I had a feeling that it was going to be alright. They’d make out ok, I said to myself.

As the boat pulled out of the marina and into the main channel, I noticed that even though he’d put on his Navigation lights, He still had his anchor light on. Not very correct as far as COLREGS go, but what the hell, it was so bright that nobody would run into him. In fact it was so bright that as the boat pulled out into the channel that light at the top of the mast lit up the sides of the old abandon warehouse that stood next to the marina. It was so bright I could read the faded letters on the sign of the building. “Bethlehem Iron and Steel “.

The boat pulled away into and down the channel. I couldn’t see the light anymore. I climbed aboard my old comfortable Ketch and was about to brew up another pot of coffee when I thought I heard something. I poked my head out of the hatch to see what the heck it was. There in the dawn’s first light, sat perched on the spreader of my Mizzen was a gray dove, cooing.

Over the years, while walking my rounds, late at night, I sometime wonder what ever happened to that little family. Did they make it out of the county OK? I sure hope so. They were a nice couple of kids.

I wonder how their little boy turned out?

Part One | Part Two | Part Three