Chapter 2

"I'm pretty sure she has, all she would have to do is look in the mirror. Those girls ain't ugly and that's for sure"

They walked on into the office and Ireni said, "What do you think Levy"

"I think I've died and gone to heaven, I sure got lucky this time"

"Come on El I need to teach you drive a boat"

Sandy said, "Don't fall for that, you need to sit in my lap bullshit Elke"

I had her turn toward the islands and we spent a while going through about anything she would have to do, then went back to get some lunch. After lunch I showed her how to fill the gas tanks and told her that we had decided a long time ago not to park one over on the long dock without filling the tank. Then I took her to the shop and we went out on the patio where a big time sanding party was going on. I took her to one that was sitting on the cradle and pointed out all the gouges and scratches. Then I showed her one that Rachel was working on with an orbital sander and let her watch a few minutes then got her a sander and paper and got her started on one side of the hull and I took the other. I stopped and checked what she was doing every 5 or 10 minutes, so far it looked good. She learned the difference between 80, 120, 180, 320, and 400 grit paper, which to use for what, and how to feather a scratch and not sand into the glass.

Rachel yelled at me, and told me that they didn't let a new girl sand for over an hour the first few days, that they would hurt all over if they did. Then she took Elke and showed her how they had a hose hooked up for a shower to get the dust off. Everybody stopped and watched her shower until they realized what they were doing then went back to work. I rinsed off and we walked out on the dock

"EL, I usually keep clothes in the boat and in the apartment. I don't ever remember needing to dress up on the boat so I leave my uniforms in the apartment. Also do you want to sleep in the boat or in the apartment"

"Wherever we happen to be is fine with me. Can we drive the boat some more"

We hit the shower then had some more driving. She wanted to see where the divers were so we went looking. It was deep water day for the students so it was the end of a cycle. I showed her where to find them at the first of the cycle and then we went around to the reef. The boats were scattered out a bit and I could tell that she was looking for, probably, Brende. I explained that the instructors were diving and a couple of the drivers would be holding the boats in position and watching for anything dangerous which usually meant some crazy boat driver zipping through the area.

"I need you to learn to dive because I have a project coming up and I will need your help to do it"

"What are we going to do"

"I want to place solar powered buoys along the taxi paths so the taxis can run a little later with out much danger to themselves or the customers. It wont do a damned bit of good to tell Brende not to run late because she will run as long as she has enough customers to make a profit. We've needed lighted buoys for a long time because someone is always getting caught out after dark or in the fog. I want you to contact the Coast Guard and find out if they have a problem with it and if there might be any funds available to help buy them. We wont charge to install them. I'll find out who's off cycle and get them to teach you to dive. They can teach you in 3 or 4 hours working one on one"

We waited on the dock for the boats to come in and Elke said they were all crazy driving like that. She was ready with the gas hose and we finished getting them fueled pretty fast. Brende and Twilia waited on Elke to finish and they walked toward the dive shop in a deep conversation. A few of the students wanted to know who the new girl was and I told them it was just a girl from the bakery come to visit. The certificates were signed and handed out and Jimmy's girls hauled them to the city.

Then all the instructors and drivers wanted to know what Elke was doing here. I told them she was my new sidekick and I needed somebody to teach her to dive tomorrow. Jaime and Roma were both off so they said they would teach her in the morning. Joci took her to get some gear and everybody wanted to know if she was going to make pies for us

I heard Elke telling how Heidi had sent the girls to get her clothes and pushed her out the door and told Levy not to bring her back or she would break his legs. They thought that was the funniest thing they ever heard. I could see Elke yawning and wondered what time she and Heidi had to get up to cook all those doughnuts and fried pies for Heidi to deliver. She was telling them no more 4 O'clock doughnuts for her, but they told her now it was 6 O'clock diving.

We left for the apartment and she followed me into the bedroom and started pulling off her bikini so I guess that was settled. Damned she and Brende were put together from some mighty fine parts, and then she fell asleep on me. Not only did she fall asleep on me, when I woke up she was gone. So I got up, got ready, and went to eat breakfast, and there she was cooking. Hmm mm, I'm going to have to look in the secretary operators manual, I think we got some part of it wrong.

She did give me a pretty smile and blushed a bit so I think we are going to reschedule some of it. I wanted to talk but the dinning room was filling up fast and she was scrambling eggs with one hand and turning sausage with the other, so I filled my plate and moved on. Jimmy's girls would bring the customers at first light and the madhouse would begin. Hey I had a happy thought, after we get the light buoys in they can get here earlier, maybe I better run that past the instructors first

Twilia and Brende set down with me and started telling me two things at the same time. When I would understand something one of them said, I would comment. And then I heard Brende say that Clawdy told her that the bed was big enough for all of us. I hope that don't mean what it sounded like. Elke brought her food and set across from me and talked to both of them at the same time about different subjects. Then Sandy set down and told me she needed to take some new employees information to the bank and that two of the girls from the boatyard were moving to the dive team and would replace Brende and Twilia. Then she told me that Brende was trying to tell me something. I turned to Brende in time to hear her tell Elke that if she was sure it would be alright then we would. Then Jaime told Elke that they wanted to get gone before the students got there, and everybody got up and started taking their dishes to the kitchen. Twilia reached over and got mine and I wasn't even finished. I grabbed my coffee cup before she got it, got a refill and cut through the office to the shop.

I saw Andy and Marko looking at something on the workbench so I walked over and Andy said I noticed you were having a hell of a conversation with the girls and then he about choked to death laughing.

"Damn Levy you are just too easy, don't you know they had that shit planned"

"What the hell for"

"I don't know but I bet you agreed to something that you wouldn't have otherwise"

"Probably, I bet she wanted some more boats" and I laughed with them.

After the divers cleared out I went to the office about the time that Sandy was leaving for the city. I told her I needed to use the computer and she said fine, Ireni or Joci would get the phone.

I finally found what I think I want in the way of buoys so I called them. I explained that I was in Belize so I didn't need to comply with a lot of rules and then told the guy what I wanted to do. They have some 24" foam floats that are covered with a plastic material that had 3 loops on the bottom for tying to the anchor. I asked if two cinder blocks would anchor it and he said that the foam would support about 50 pounds of weight and the shaft and light weighed around 4 pounds. The shaft is about 30" long and has a round plate on each end. You screw one end to the float and the other to the light and then the light would meet the 24" above water rule. They had the screws, Ni-Cad batteries, and rolls of poly rope to use on the anchor. He started at about $160 per unit but I told him I needed to do better because I wanted 200 of them. He finally came down to $108 per unit without batteries or rope, the batteries would last through about two years of daily recharging, and I told him I would show the pictures to the person working with me on the project and call him back later today or in the morning if we wanted them.

Then I called the Coast Guard guy that we had dealt with in the past. He told me that it was a great idea but it would take 20 years to get any money out of his people. I told him that if I bought them and installed them could I get written permission. No problem with that, just come and get it. I decided I needed the permission in my hand before I ordered anything.

I thought while I was waiting on Elke I would go try to catch Herb at the islands. I found him and we talked it over and he is going to have the guy who makes the pilings for him make the anchors for us. They will be one foot square and 6" thick with a piece of stainless rod bent into a loop stuck in them. They wont need to be pretty so he is going to slip some rubber hose over the stainless rod before they sink it in the concrete so that it wont wear the rope from wave action. He didn't know what they would cost but it would be fair. I asked him how he was doing on Lena's project and he told me they had been over by the mainland looking for some easy dredge dirt and they ran into yards upon yards of pure white sand. They were finished driving the pilings and had started filling it with dirt, rock, and sand.

Elke came back from diving and was happy so I guess she'll get her certificate. I told her we need to go see the coast guard and she might want to put on some shorts and a top. I was just going in shorts and T shirt. We saw Sandy shortly after we left Caulker and waved as we went by.

"That reminds me, what were you girls talking about this morning"

'The girls that are replacing them want their room so they want to move into the extra bedroom until they move to the island. I told them to just ask you but they wanted to use wizard magic, it was fun and they had you so confused that you would have given them the whole L Team and not known it"

"OK, but don't let them slip anything important by me, and if you think it will make me mad, better tell me before they get in trouble"

"I'm sorry about last night"

"I thought it was funny, I would have told the girls but I knew they would carry it too far and maybe hurt your feelings"

"I think it will take me a week or more to adjust to the new hours"

"Well if you need any help staying awake tonight just let me know"

"Oh I intend to"

Elke tied us up at the cost guard dock and we went in to see about the paper. I introduced Elke as EL of L Team Marine. He jumped up and shook her hand and was so very happy to meet you and all that. She asked if he had written permission for the buoys. He jumped up and got it for us and walked us all the way to the boat telling "EL" how much he appreciated all the hard work she had done for Belize.

"Levy that was mean, but lets do it again if we get the chance"

We had to stop and tell Heidi all about "EL" of L Team Marine. She thought that was hilarious. Then she told me since I now had both her sisters that she really needed a bigger van and somebody to make the deliveries. I told her to start looking for a van and a driver, But she wasn't getting her sisters back. Jimmy had told her that the oldest boy at the farm was a good driver and could be trusted with the money, he was also smart enough to not let anyone pull any fast counts on the money.

We got back to Caulker in time to see two girls coming down the stairs from the apartment. They thanked us for letting Brende and Twilia move in with us because now they could share a room. I guess it was a major shuffle of girls when one wanted to change rooms so Rae and Rachel didn't let them move over minor arguments or just because they wanted to. I told EL that I might need to take a look at the room situation and she told me I would be better off to stay out of the dorm politics.

"Politics, what do you mean politics"

"Levy you can go over there and discuss it with them if you want to but I know better than to try to use logic on a dorm full of teenage girls. I'll go wait in the office, and I'll get a first aid kit ready to help you with your scratches and bites"

"I've never seen any of them act like that"

"And you never will if you stay out of their business and let Rae and Rachel take care of their dorm"

"Do the instructors have the same rules"

"No they tend to swap rooms more often, and I think there are a lot of group activities for those who are inclined to do so"

"Brende and Twilia involved with it"

"Yep, you are having a hard time believing that they are grown and only have to answer for what they do. I'm not saying that they are wild or any worse than other girls their age but you better start thinking of them as adults. They are going to do what they want and learn about life just like all the girls in the world have since forever"

"It's still hard to believe they do stuff that I had no idea about"

"Did you know that Lila teaches any of the girls who want to learn, to fight. I've heard there are some Bad To The Bone Bitches in our group"

"How long has she been doing that"

"I think she started teaching Roma and Jamie when she first came here. I think all of them are at least good at it"

"Where do they do it"

"Leta had a big room in the back of the dorm set up for them. It has mats on the floors and walls, I've never been in it because you have to go all the way to the back and I've never needed to"

"Maybe we can get some matches set up and charge money for people to come and watch"

"Yeah, like I said, I'll wait in the office"

"You're a chicken"

"You're a dumb ass"

"I still can't figure out why I didn't know about all this stuff"

"Because Leta didn't want you to. If I see that you are unaware of something I will tell you unless it will hurt someone for you to know. If that happens I will talk to the person and see if I can get them to tell you. It just seems to me that you need to know what's going on in order to do a good job of taking care of the employees"

I suggested that we see what Mercedes had for dinner. Elke wanted to wait on the boats and help fill them or help exchange the air tanks. I told her to help with the tanks and I would gas them up and we could trade next time we helped. After dinner I had Elke look at the buoys to get her opinion, I had not thought about light color but it was decided for me that the violet and the red orange looked really good together and that maybe I should get a few extra lights just in case, so a total of 250 of the floats, rods, and lights. She pointed to a charger that would charge 12 batteries at a time and said get two of those and we would start pre-charging the batteries when we got the shipment. I decided to get four and a total of 600 batteries at a dollar each. 3 one thousand foot rolls of rope and we had spent a little over 25 thousand and I didn't know the freight charge so I would still have to call him in the morning.

We did make up for going to sleep early last night. I heard Brende and Twilia open the door and say whoops wrong room and laugh. It didn't seem to bother Elke she just kept on doing what she was doing. I looked up at her but she just smiled, leaned down and kissed me.

Elke woke me when she got up and said she would use the shower in the girls room, she didn't want to shower with me because it would take to long. She walked out the door naked and I heard her yell as she went in their room telling them to get up and get going. Damn this girl is fine, I'm not letting her get away. I showered and dressed as Twilia walked through on her way to use my shower. I guess those girls just don't wear clothes in the house. Oh well, I don't think I'll complain about it, might upset somebody.

At breakfast I asked Sandy if she had a business credit card. She did but told me she also had mine, it was in the office safe. I told her we had figured out a way to not have to rush so much on Certificate day. She reminded me that we were not rushing for us, we were doing it so the taxis could make it to the city before dark. I explained what we were going to do with the lighted buoys but she was having a hard time understanding how we were just going to hop on a boat and throw them in the water. I guess she will just have to wait and see.

We called in our order for the lights and then laid a map on the big table and started working on the routes. To and from the city was almost a straight line, and from the taxi dock on Caulker, to San Pedro Ambergris was another straight line. Figuring the shortest usable routes around Caulker to the islands and to Chapel Island was going to be more a matter of how you wanted to do it. There were no straight line routes to them. We would be working with water depths of 8 to 20 feet with most of it in the 10 to 12 foot range. Getting good GPS coordinates using google earth was going to be a pain.

"Hey Elke why don't you call the Captain over at Coast Guard and see if they have a plotter or something to give us the GPS coordinates. Tell him we can bring him a map and show him what we want to do"

She called him and I heard her say, "Thanks Eddy, we'll bring it over in about an hour"

"Eddy"

"Yep, we are the beggars this time so we will be nice to them"

Elke wore her bikini to the Coast Guard office, hopped off the boat and tied the lines like she knew what she was doing. We could see them watching us through the window. Elke marched in like she owned the place and went around Eddy's desk leaned over his shoulder and laid the map on his desk and showed him what she needed. He yelled at a couple of people and had her tell them. Then most everyone in the office was working on "EL's" buoy project. I talked to the secretary that had typed up the tittles for the salvage boats and she told me that if a boat looked like it was abandoned by drug dealers and not a really like new boat that it got used for target practice or demolition practice because they only had dock space for two boats.

I caught Elke and told her if she could work it into the conversation to tell the Captain that we were a bit short on salvage work. She nodded then a few minutes later when someone said something about not a lot going on, she said yes, that the only reason we could do this project is because we were short on work for the salvage and rebuild crew. The Captain said he might be able to help her out. I thought yeah and you will personally deliver them to her, but hey, that's fine we wont have to go get them.

"Bye Eddy, thanks so much, maybe we can work together on other projects in the future" and we were gone.

"El, you should be an actress"

We stopped to see Lupito and he told Elke that it was sure nice to see her. She wiggled her butt and went to the bakery and I told Lupito what we were going to do and that I wanted a chair sort of thing on the outside right front corner where I could drop the concrete anchors then tie the rope to the buoys. I needed foot braces and I would drop it between my legs. I wanted to feed the rope over the rail of the boat so it wouldn't burn my leg. These anchors will weigh 60 pounds each so someone would be handing the anchors and lights to me and another person driving to the GPS location. We decided to fit in onto the treasure boat as it had the best GPS unit. He wanted me to drop it off tomorrow and he would get something going on it.

Heidi wanted to get uniforms for her bakery like the dive shop wears. I told her that was fine but they would show all the flour hand prints like the one on the back of Elke's bottom. They both yelled and Elke was dusting her bottom. All the girls were laughing and I told her that if Ernie ever moved out of the picture I had a job I wanted to offer her. She said it was beginning to look that way and she would keep me in mind. Damn I didn't know that, I thought it might be time to go home.

On the way to Caulker I asked Elke what was going on with Heidi. She thought for a minute and I thought she wasn't going to answer.

"Levy you are her boss and you should know but she's my sister so I'm only going to tell you the parts that I don't feel are too personal. Heidi has not had a day off since you bought the bakery equipment. Ernie is way past tired of waiting and there is a very pretty and nice girl that moved into the apartment next to his that has plenty of time"

"That's all I need to know. Are Julie and Rita able to run the bakery"

"Yes, if they get the van and driver from Jimmy, they can handle it. Jimmy would have to take care of the banking but he has to do it for the farm anyway so it wouldn't be a great problem. He spends most nights at the bakery and he has at least a dozen people at the farm who are capable of running it and shipping the produce"

"Have you heard Clawdy say anything about what Lena has her doing"

"I think she helps Kate and works some with Rubi and Dani. She goes to your office once a day to check the bookings and e-mail"

"I think we should send Heidi to help Clawdy for a while"

"Levy you can't do that"

"Elke please don't take this the wrong way but I want to tell you something that Leroy told me when I objected to the job he wanted me to do. It's my damned company and I'll say who works where. She has spent most of her life watching out for you, Brende, and Jimmy and she needs something different for a while. If she wants to go back to the bakery, she can go. I need you to talk to her tomorrow when we take the treasure boat to Lupito and I'll get Jennifer to keep an eye on Julie and Rita"

At dinner Brende told me that she would like to take two of the boat drivers for her taxi company. I was more shocked by who she wanted than the fact that she wanted them.

"I can understand Jaybird, but Abby is so quiet and if you said Boo to her she would probably jump off the boat"

"Why don't you go over there and tell her that and I'll set here and watch you get your ass kicked. Lila can just barely handle her and some of the others wont even get on the mat with her"

"Oh"

"Yeah Oh, a big Oh, is it going to be a big problem? Jimmy has several girls that would like to move to diving and he always has new ones needing a place. You did tell us that it's best to use local girls when you can"

"Do you think she can talk to the customers, what if one of them act up"

"I'm sure some of them will after drinking beer all day on the island but if they don't set down and shut up they will wish they had"

"And then we get a visit from their lawyer"

"Levy she will be the Captain of the boat, she can handle trouble any way she wants to because she will be the law on that boat"

"You mean I could whip Elke's ass on my boat and get away with it"

"If you ever whip my sisters ass, you might live through it but you ain't gonna get away with it"

"I'm just joking Brende"

"I know you are that's why you're still setting in that chair"

"You could really do that"

"I can do anything I need to Levy"

"Well then you can take whoever you want. No wait, I better change that, you can have Abby and Jaybird, But, only after you have the replacements trained"

"Levy you better start watching over your girls a lot better than you have, because you have 6 replacements that have been here for over a week. Everybody has been helping run the place while you were off in whatever La La land you were in for a while. As soon as we saw Leta was going to bring it crashing down we started working to hold it up. I heard you say once that if this place goes under, so do the hopes and dreams of a lot of people"

"Wait a minute did you say 6, where do the extras fit in and what's going on"

"Just some extra girls that can be used for drivers or any other job that needs done, The only instructors you are losing is Twilia and me, everything is under control"

"That's what Leta said, and you know for a fact that she lied to me, so I think I'll ask around if you don't mind"

"Levy, Levy, if I didn't love you so much, and wasn't afraid Twilia or Elke would cut my head off I would break your arm for doubting me"

"Yeah well you and the rest of your crew need to help with a little project I have coming up, and bring any of those extra girls you can shake loose because our shipment of lights is coming Air Freight and should be here in two days. We'll pick it up at the big airport and I'll put your lazy ass's to work"

Brende went to talk to some of the divers about tomorrow and as soon as she left Elke and Lila set down. Lila was wanting to know if I was pissed at her for teaching the girls to fight. I told her no, and she said she started out just trying to boost Roma's confidence, then Jamie joined in, then a few others wanted to learn and then all of them started trying to take each other down and she had to teach them to keep them from hurting each other.

"So, just so I know, How many of them can kick my ass"

"Oh 8 or 9 for sure and a probably on 8 or 9 more. Levy you haven't talked to these girls one on one like I have and they wouldn't tell you anyway, but most of the local girls were brought up believing that they were second class people, I know you go out of your way to help them and make sure they have a chance in life. I'm just making sure that some asshole doesn't come along and take it away from them.

"Do you need a bigger practice room or those robes and belts and stuff"

"A bigger room would be good but we don't wear anything because it's more fun that way, and no, you can't join us, but we would sure like to have Elke"

"If Elke wants to, it's fine with me but I would prefer that she didn't stay the night"

Lila left and I asked Elke if she had anyone else lined up to talk to me. She laughed but said no so we headed to the apartment.

I woke up with my right arm paralyzed from someone sleeping on it and I could feel what I thought was Elke behind me. I started trying to get my arm pulled free and Twilia said "Quit"

"Get off my arm Twilia I think you broke it" I got my arm pulled loose and turned on my left side and put my arm on top of Elke and went back to sleep. The next thing I knew Elke was turning on the light yelling "get up, time to go to work" I told them to go ahead and get done in the bathrooms and pulled a pillow over my head. Then I heard, "Get up, your turn" When I got out of the shower the bed was made and they were gone so I went to the dinning room.

We still beat most of the dive students through the food line and I set down with Elke. I asked her if she was OK with them sleeping in our room and she said it didn't bother her so I guess we have some new roommates.

"Hey Elke do you think Eddy could get us an import tax break on the lights"

"I don't know if he has any pull with customs or not, I guess it's possible, I'll call him"

It was close to 9:00 by the time we got to the city and Eddy came through with a tax exemption for the lights and Elke got it in writing to give to the customs people. The shipment would be on tomorrows flight. Elke didn't seem to happy to stop and talk to Heidi. I told her that if Heidi got too upset we might have to figure another way to get her to take a break. Then I suggested that I wrestle her to the floor and lay on top of her while they found some rope to tie her with.

Heidi had just returned from deliveries and Jimmy was helping unload some freight for one of the islands so I called them both over to my favorite table and told them to have a seat.

"Heidi I need you to help Clawdy for a couple of weeks, so get Julie and Rita lined out with whatever instructions you need to give them. Jimmy and his man will take tomorrows deliveries and take care of the bank deposits. He can make whatever changes that are needed to get the job done, but you are going with us"

She was silent for a minute or two and I thought I was in for a fight. Jimmy had a grin on his face and said it sounded good to him but he might have to give Rita a spanking. Rita ran over and laid across his lap. Then Heidi said, "Rita, Julie is in charge. If I come back and find you two have made a mess of this bakery I'm going to beat the shit out of both of you before I send you to the farm. Jimmy get your hands off my help"

It took her another half hour before she was ready to leave. She had to talk to Jennifer about keeping an eye on the girls and make sure Jimmy had the sales book and bank bag. Then she had to go get a few things from her room. When I commented that she had not brought many clothes, she said she didn't plan on wearing any more than the other girls. And then I found out we couldn't leave because Lupito was working on the chair for placing the buoys. He waved me over and told me to try it out. He had used one of Jimmy's freight boats to fit it and it would work on any of them. I set down in it and he put his foot on it and bounced it a few times and pronounced it good. I moved my feet from the foot rests and stood in the seat and bounced a few times and told Heidi that this was where she should set but she wasn't going for it. Elke was showing her the controls and explaining how to drive the boat so I untied the lines and pushed against the dock with my foot and told Elke to take us home.