Chapter 10: Causes

Tony had completely forgotten about Dave until the group returned to the boat and saw him sitting on the back deck drinking a beer with Jerry. As the girls went below to bury their treasures Tony walked over and shook his hand. "Hey Dave!"

"Hi Tony. Um, no offense man but I thought you said the girl was here."

Tony was taken aback for a second. The difference between the bedraggled girl who had showed up that morning and cute, clean, well-clothed (in Tina's clothes), and bespectacled girl who had just walked past Dave was striking. Without glasses she probably had no idea what Dave looked like either given that he was never able to approach her closely. "She just walked right by you Dave," Tony said.

"Huh?"

"The girl with the glasses, that's Cheri."

"Dude the girl at the beach didn't wear glasses."

"Nope, she broke them a while back. She sure needs them though. We just got those for her at the mall."

"You took her to an eye doctor?"

"Yeah, my sister noticed that she was having a hard time reading the paper. So we stopped by one of those eye places in the mall and got her checked and some new glasses. She's getting contacts too but we can't pick those up for a few days."

Dave looked like he wasn't completely convinced.

"Hang on Dave," Tony said and turned to go below.

When he reached the salon he shouted "Girls."

Six different voices came back at him from the area with various answers.

"Can I get Cheri to come up please? I need to introduce her to someone."

"Can you give us a minute? She's changing clothes," Rebecca called back.

"Sure Sweetie, there's no hurry." Tony shot back and headed back out and sat down next to Dave.

"She'll be up in a minute. The girls took her out and bought her all new clothes. They threw almost all of what we brought back here earlier out anyway. I'm not sure why we bothered."

"Why?" Dave asked.

"Why what?"

"Why do all that for a girl you hardly know?"

"I told you Dave, she's Rebecca's cousin. The redhead that walked by, that's Rebecca, she's my girlfriend so that pretty much makes Cheri family." It was kind of hard for Tony to convey. Glasses, contacts, and an eye examination probably amounted to two or three weeks of pay for a lifeguard. The total amount had tripled by the time the girls were done shopping.

"Look Dave, you're sitting on a fucking yacht. Money is not an issue here man. If you were in my position you'd the same. You and your friends did make a point to look out for her. I just have more resources than you do. The whole rich thing is pretty overrated until something like this happens then I appreciate it a whole lot more."

That seemed to get through to Dave but before he could answer Anita walked up and plopped down on Tony's lap. She batted her eyes at him and said, "Hey there sailor, want to show a girl a good time?"

Jerry, on the couch on the far side simply lost it immediately and doubled up in laughter. Dave's eyes got wide for a few seconds until Jerry's reaction proved the joke in Anita's actions.

"Um, Anita meet Dave. Dave this little minx is Anita. She was in the way of my boat the other day and we had to drag her aboard to keep her from denting the hull. She has apparently been spending entirely too much time with my girlfriend and my sister."

Anita to her credit showed some courtesy and jumped up looking sheepish. "I'm sorry Mr. Dave, I was just joking with Tony. I hope you don't think badly of me. I was just having some fun with Tony. He's kind of easy to tease."

"It's OK Anita, I wondered at first but I realized it was a joke. Really it's nice to meet you. I read the article in the paper today. I guess you think a lot of Tony now don't you?"

Anita smiled. "Well at the time he scared me, but once I got a chance to think about it, well he's my hero now." With that she settled back into Tony's lap, this time facing Dave so he would be included in any conversation."

"So," Tony said. "Did you buy anything today or did you just help Cheri shop?"

"Well, I wasn't really looking, but Rebecca found me a bathing suit."

"Uh-oh. Was my sister involved in picking out this bathing suit?"

"Well yeah," Anita said as if it should be obvious to any but the male gender.

"Oh shit!"

Jerry was laughing again.

"Language Tony! I'm an impressionable little girl you know!"

Tony chuckled. Anita was at an age where she used 'little girl' when it suited her purposes but she certainly didn't think like one. "So," he said. "If your mother sees you in this suit, can I expect to merely be mutilated or just plain dead?"

Anita brought her left index finger to her lips and seemed to ponder the question then let out a theatrical sigh. "Dead," she said simply.

Jerry howled with laughter and Dave joined him.

"What's so funny up here?" Rebecca said as she walked onto the deck. She was followed by Cheri and Tina.

"We were discussing the one thousand ways I will be tortured slowly to death if Jan sees Anita in a bathing suit that you and Tina picked out."

"Hey! You haven't even seen it yet!" Rebecca retorted.

"So I might have a chance to live?"

Tina giggled. "Well, no, probably not. Sorry bro."

The exchange actually had the corners of Cheri's mouth turning up a bit.

Tony stood up planting Anita solidly on her feet. Dave stood with him. Cheri was even further transformed. She was wearing an orange sundress that stopped at her knees. Her earlier pony tail was gone and her straight dark-brown, almost black hair was brushed back behind her falling to the middle of her back. There was a hint of makeup like Tina and Rebecca wore at school or out for an evening. While Tony had noticed, it had not registered earlier that Cheri was part Asian. Deep brown, almond shaped eyes weren't at all hidden by her stylish new glasses.

She wasn't Tony's type only in the sense that he didn't feel the attraction to her like he did to Rebecca or someone like Rachel or even, he had to admit, Tina. His thought was that she transcended cute and took it to adorable in some way. Though she was taller than Rebecca she was still a petite girl and that added to the whole package.

"Who is this stunning creature and what happened to the girl that showed up at my boat this morning?" Tony asked.

Cheri did something then that astounded them all. She walked straight to Tony and kissed him on the cheek and said, "Thank you Tony." It was the first time she'd let a male within four feet of her since the incident in the morning.

"Cheri you know that you're welcome. For now this is home OK?" She nodded and began to tear up. "Cheri please, um, I wanted you to meet Dave. Dave is a lifeguard at the beach near where you were staying. When Jerry and I went to get your stuff we thought he was going to kill us. It seems he and the other lifeguards have been looking after you as best they could. I had to promise him he could see that you were safe so he'd let us leave the beach alive."

"Oh! That was you?"

"Not just me um, Cheri, right? All of us have been doing what we could. There are three others that work that area. Tony told me, but I wanted to make sure. I feel a bit like an ass now. They really are taking care of you right? You don't need anything?

Cheri whispered in Tony's ear, "Hold my hand please." Tony took her right hand in his left and followed as she took him the two steps toward Dave. Silence fell over the entire boat as she reached up to Dave's shoulder and tugged him down and kissed him on the cheek. She was shivering almost uncontrollably at that point and had Tony's hand in a death grip. "Thank you Dave, and please tell your friends I said that. I'm OK now I think." Cheri lost her nerve at that point and released Tony's hand and ran headlong back below with Tina on her heels.

Rebecca walked up to Dave and wrapped him in a hug. Dave was a little tentative until he looked at Tony who just gave him a nod so Dave returned the hug. "Thank you Dave, we didn't even know she was in trouble until this morning. I'm glad there were some nice people watching over her. Other than having no place to go nothing really bad has happened to her since she's been here."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare her like that."

"No, no, it's OK. You definitely didn't scare her. She's had a rough time at home. She's learning that not all guys are like her stepfather but it may take some time."

"Well I won't pry, but I'm pretty sure I'd like to get my hands on that guy."

"Get in line Dave," Rebecca said releasing him. "I think you're number ten, right after Anita." Everyone smiled at the thought of Anita flailing away at a fully grown man.

"Oh you're all smiling now, if I see him I'm going straight for his balls!" Anita said.

That got a chuckle from everyone until Tony interrupted. "No Anita, don't do that. Leave his balls for Rebecca. Her knees are made out of fucking titanium!"

That got a bigger laugh, especially from Rebecca. Dave laughed but did look a bit confused.

"Yay!" Anita squealed. "Are you guys finally going to play some music?"

Tony and Jerry were bringing some of Jerry's drums up on deck. He certainly couldn't bring the whole set with him on the boat but he had brought enough to practice with.

"Yep, at least unless someone complains. Most of these boats are empty as far as I can tell so we should be alright."

"Man that's a long walk," Dewayne grumbled. He and Kyle were heading back to their condo. As a bird flies the condo was only three hundred feet off of Kalliste's bow. But because she was berthed at the farthest end of a four hundred foot dock Dewayne, Chrissie, Gwen, and Kyle had to walk a third of a mile each way to get to the boat.

"Hey wait," Tony said. "Why don't we just give you Too?"

"Hmm, isn't that a lot of trouble?"

"Not as much trouble as making that walk three or four times a day for the next two weeks."

'Too' was actually 'Kali Too!' Bubba had come through in finding a Chris Craft runabout that was slightly less than fourteen feet in length. She came complete with an ancient twenty-five horsepower Evinrude outboard. The boat and motor were actually a couple of years older than Kalliste herself. She neatly fitted neatly atop the rear of the cockpit in a cradle that Bubba had actually built at the marina. The hull had been painted to match Kalliste with the top left in gleaming varnished mahogany. It never occurred to Tony to actually name the little tender but Tina and Chrissie had put the name on the back in the same flowing gold script as the larger boat. Under 'Kali Too!' in barely readable letters was written 'my momma is' and underneath that in the flowing gold script was Kalliste. Not exactly what Tony would have chosen but he kept his mouth shut and smiled.

"Alright, let's do it then. I'll get everyone up top," Dewayne said.

It took almost everyone to disconnect the lines and utilities while Tony started the engines and inched Kalliste out of her berth. The davits, when stowed, fit nearly flush along the sides of the cockpit. They telescoped upwards lifting the little boat out of its cradle then arced backwards neatly dropping it over the stern.

Tina appeared once Dewayne had gotten the little craft disconnected and handed him the 'Captain's hat'. "Captain Dewayne," she said. Dewayne chuckled at her, but being a good sport he put the hat on. Then she raised one arm skyward with her finger pointed out and shouted "Launch the fleet!"