Chapter 25

“She IS narrower than she could be,” I said. “Using the commonly accepted one to four ratio she should have a thirty one foot beam. A racing cruiser might be that narrow. She’s thirty-six in the beam ... a faster hull than a one to three ratio but not as fast as a racing hull.”

“My living room isn’t this big.” That from Mr. Olsen.

Mrs. Olsen said, “I thought our house was big.”

And the backseat pre-teen said, “I wanna boat.”

And David said, “You didn’t just follow the bus, did you?”

“Nope, we ... that is ... my family used to summer here and I made a killing in the market and taxes being what they are ... I thought a summer house might make a good investment.”

“I’ll meet you at the Realtor next door to The Antler after breakfast,” Unca Dave said.

Junior and I left. I took her home with me. From the sounds coming from her end of the house, Auntie Surprise was ‘busy’ with her special friend.

Channel 8 (Grand Rapids) was having an Andy Griffith ‘spectacular’ and the ‘chicken guts stuck in the ships garbage disposal’ movie was on ... neither of us had seen it ... didn’t get to sleep until after 2AM. I gave Junior my bed and I took the ‘rec’ room recliner ... one of my favorite places to sleep.

Breakfast at the Antler is always an adventure ... todays special was two fish tacos. David had his ‘hohum’ same every day bacon, 2 eggs and biscuits and sausage gravy. Mr and Mrs Olsen had croissants. Miss ‘I wanna boat’ Olsen was adventurous and had the tacos ... same as me. Big breaded fillet of deep fried lake trout with lettuce, refried-beans and cheese ... with tarter sauce.

They were excellent.

Miss ‘I wanna boat’ even said so, “These are excellent,” she said.

“Yum,” I said. “We don’t get anything this good in high school.”

It was true ... school lunch was typically terrible throughout the country. Gawdawful is the term. But it was nutritious and conformed to the government specifications ... tasty was NOT a spec.

If one could choke it down it had all the culinary requirements help young bodies and minds perform in the manner the powers that be required.

<We do not!>

‘Wrong powers,’ I thought at them.

<Well ... we’ve tried it and it’s awful>

Just then ... Ma and Pa Olsen said, “We’re going next door to look at ‘listings.’”

And they did. McGaha Reality.

As soon as her parental units were out the door, Miss ‘I wanna boat’ Olsen, said, “Stop. Go back.” She was looking directly at me when she said it.

“How far?”

“‘We don’t get anything this good in high school’ ... that far.”

“I was hoping you’d miss that.”

“I didn’t.”

“I noticed.” “I’m a freshman.”

“You’re 11 ... almost 12 ... how are you a freshman?”

“She’s smart,” Frank said.

“Yup,” agreed Ernie.

“I see.”