Chapter 68

When we were little ... littler, Mom sewed up a lodge with a double needle commercial long arm Singer that she bought when Levi’s abandoned the US of A. It had never been used. Something about the machine wouldn’t do what Levi’s needed it to do. So, rather than ship the batch of 200 to China, they sold them pretty darn cheap. Mom and Mr. Shingle ... he of the Frogmorton General Store ... bought two. I wonder if the machine is still at the house?

Frogmorton is gone ... National Forest now. We didn’t sell the house.

I wanted to see if Burt’s tipi was as well made and comfortable as Mom’s.

Yup.

Untie the lines and out the channel and sailing north ... against the wind ... again. We were going back to Ludington. More tacking practice for Junior.

We checked in with the Coast Guard ... not playing their games. We explained about our absent passengers ... they left us at Pentwater ... and keeping Burt ... he stayed. I mean ... Junior might be the ruler of all she surveyed ... but she IS cute ... and legal ... and Burt was interested. If she had expressed an interest in women ... he might have let it go ... but she hadn’t. I mean ... who could she trust?

I said, “You have a watch. I have a watch. What do they do?”

“You don’t know?”

“Cyn damn near drowned the first time she tried it. Then she got sick ... and ... well ... we all did ... and we were ... quarantined ... for weeks ... but ... umh ... nobody we knew ... died ... exactly. There’s a disease named for us ... like that stuff some cruise ships get ... I think that’s the reason she sluffed it off on me when I ran away.”

“Where were you?”

“New Zealand ... Auckland.”

And there was nothing for it but the whole story. Bea and Burt were fairly fascinated ... not about the watch ... New Zealand. Remember ... Bea is Beatitude ... I think the Mayor is a nut ... and my name is Surprise. Go figure.

A pickup stopped and Bea’s sister, Missy, hollered,” Where are you guys going?”

“The park,” Bea said.

“State?”

“Yes.”

“Climb in ... I’m heading that way. Hi Burt. Party at your house tonight.”