Houseboat

by Paul Shadinger

  When we got there, the owner, a pleasant woman named Alice greeted us. Alice was a large round woman with rosy cheeks and curly white hair who was all smiles, and she just looked like a dog-breeding person. She explained to me how I was not going to pick out a puppy, instead, we’d sit on the floor, interact with them, and one of them would pick me. That was the only way she was going to allow me to adopt one of her dogs. Since I knew what she was telling us was a truth, I agreed.

  When she opened up the cage, a pile of wiggling puppies greeted us. Seeing all those beautiful puppies made my eyes water. So to avoid any embarrassment I had to look away quickly. Sharon seemed to sense how I was feeling, and she slipped her arms around me and hugged me. As I’ve said before, there’s a reason she’s such a damn good nurse.

  Alice, Sharon, and I got down on the floor, and the puppies came bounding out of their cage. There were black dogs, chocolate colored dogs, and two of them were blond, which I was told is called buff colored. One of the blond male puppies went at once to Sharon, and started to paw at her leg, wanting her to pick him up. Sharon picked him up and held him in front of her face. Once the puppy was close to her face, he kept lunging forward, trying to lick her, and when she finally tucked the puppy under her chin, you could hear the grunts of happiness across the room. I couldn’t tell who was happier between the two of them since they were both grunting.

  I noticed one little female chocolate-colored puppy with pale tan eyebrows waiting off to one side. The other puppies seem to have pushed her off and when I stuck my finger out towards the female, she carefully licked the tip. As I pulled my hand back towards me, she followed my hand. Once she was beside my leg, she put her paws on my thigh, and tried to pull herself up. I helped her out, picked her up, and sat her in my lap. I looked over at Sharon, and saw the puppy she’d picked up was now fast asleep in her arms.

  Finally, the one in my lap grew restless, and tried to stand on my legs, wanting to gain access to my chest. I lifted her up, and once she was close enough to my face she reached up, and started to chew on my mustache. This was exactly what BJ had done when she was happy and content with me. A sob escaped from deep within me, and I could feel the tears flowing down my face. The puppy stopped chewing on my mustache, and started to lick away the tears running down my cheeks. Her rough little tongue lapped at the tears, bringing even more tears to my eyes. There was still a big hole in my heart left from losing BJ, but this little critter in my arms was trying her best to fill the void. As I sat there, holding the puppy, I felt I’d found my new dog, or more correctly, my new dog had found me.

  I asked Alice if she’d consider letting us purchase two dogs, since it was plain to see that two of her puppies had adopted Sharon and I. Alice seemed touched by my display of emotion at the new puppy and remembering BJ. Alice smiled at me, and replied, “I think these two might have the best homes out of the entire litter. I’d love for the two of you to have them. I’ve never seen a puppy go to a new owner more quickly than those two went for the two of you. It just proves that the puppy will pick the new owner, not the other way around.”

  Now as we tried to step into the truck, we had to force our two puppies to move from Sharon’s seat to mine. Then I had to fight with them and coax them to move, so I could get inside the vehicle. Once we all settled in, Sharon and I endured some licks and kisses from the two of them. They needed to show us they were happy we were back. After all, we must’ve been gone at least ten minutes. Since mine was the color of a coffee bean, I’d taken to calling her Beanie. Her full registered name was something like Cinnamon Mist the Sixth, or some such thing, which I knew I’d never call her. To me she was now Beanie or Bean for short.

  As I sat in the truck petting my puppy and looking at Sharon, I realized how happy I was with my life right now. I don’t know what I did to deserve such a good life, but I was at peace. Moreover, the main reasons I was so at peace were sitting next to me, and curled up in my lap.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  When I pulled up to the gravel parking place, I saw Walter coming out of the woods. After I got out, he came up to me, and I extended my hand. He pushed my hand away, and wrapped his arms around me. “God, am I glad to see you. When I heard what happened, I was so worried.” As he pulled back, I saw tears in the corners of his eyes.

  “You have to know by now, I’m indestructible.” I joked.

  Walter grinned at me, “Bullshit, remember I was the one who loaded your sorry ass on the chopper back in Nam.” And we both laughed. When I introduced him to Sharon, I felt stunned at the way he held out his arms to her. I’d never considered Walter as a feely-touchy kind of person, but he wanted to hug both of us. Sharon seemed to think nothing about hugging him back, either. She tipped her head back and looked up at Walter. In his gruff voice, I heard him tell her, “Looks like both of us have saved this bum.”

  Sharon smiled up at Walter, and murmured, “Yes, but it would seem that he also has saved both of us as well. You seem happy here, and I know I’ve never been happier since we’ve been together.”

  Walter by now had noticed the two little dogs pawing at his legs, and he reached down to pick one up. So we introduced him to the two new members of our family, as he hugged and scratched both of them behind their ears. When he finished becoming acquainted with our new puppies, we headed off for his cabin. Because the dogs’ legs were so short, Sharon and I didn’t have a problem carrying the two most of the way to the cabin. But I was happy to have Beanie in my life and it didn’t matter.

  Thien was standing on the deck when we arrived. She went to Sharon first and the two of them hugged each other for a long time, and then finally stepped back. Both of them were a little misty eyed. Thien spoke first, “I’m so glad to see Matt has somebody in his life. The last time he was here, I could tell he wanted you, but was afraid to do anything about it. For all he’s done for Walter and me, I love him just about as much as I love Walter. However, I’ve been so sad for him. He has such a large heart, and he really does need somebody there.”

  Sharon smiled and hugged Thien again, “Matt told me he’d talked to you about me the last time he was here. I thank you for helping him understand how I feel about him, and how he feels about me.”

  Just then, we heard a baby crying inside the cabin. Thien walked over to the door, and picked up the small infant. Without giving it a second thought, Thien opened her blouse and moved a breast to the baby’s mouth. The baby stopped crying at once. Thien brought the child back to where we were all standing. Without removing her breast from the feeding infant, she turned, so Sharon could look at the baby’s face. Looking up at me, Thien said, “This is Matthew. Matthew Chan McLaughlin.”

  I felt stunned. “Why did you name him Matthew?”

  Thien smiled, “Because without you, there would be no baby or cabin. Walter would probably be dead from a drug overdose. I’d be living back in Seattle, sad, because Water was dead. Everything that’s here is because of you. What other name could we call our son? This is the son you helped create!”

  It seemed that my eyes were leaking again. Ever since the afternoon in the lighthouse tower, my emotions had become very difficult to keep in check. The baby had released Thien’s nipple and she handed the baby to Sharon. Thien stepped up to me and wrapped her arms around me and softly told me, “I want to thank you. Thank you for what you did for Walter. Thank you for bringing Sharon here to meet us and thank you for being such a wonderful person.”

  With tears brimming in my eyes, I looked down at her. “I don’t know if you’ll ever understand, but helping Walter was something I needed to do. More than just saving my fat ass, he allowed me to help a person do something. I never expected anything in return, I just wanted to help Walter. I had no idea it would turn out this way. You with the baby, the cabin, and you helping me see I really needed Sharon in my life. I’m the one who owes.”

  Thien’s eyes were now brimming as well, and she reac
hed up and pulled my head down. Her lips were soft and gentle on mine. The kiss had passion, but not of a sexual kind. I could feel in her kiss how she felt about me. It was a strange kiss, but I understood why she kissed me, and what it meant. Her voice was just a whisper, “I love you Matt. For everything you have done for us, I love you.” I was happy I had the two of them as friends.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  With his great talent in woodworking, Walter had built two large oversized chairs which were sitting on the deck. The chairs were amazingly comfortable and now the two of us were sitting with our legs stretched out, watching the sun slip behind the far mountain peak while turning the clouds various shades of pink and orange. Far in the distance, we could hear the soft soothing sounds of the pounding surf. A lone eagle had just soared overhead for a few moments, given a mighty screech, and then headed off to its nest somewhere. The evening was one of great beauty and comfort. I’d brought a bottle of excellent scotch with me, and Walter and I were working on making a serious dent in it. He leaned over and handed me the pipe packed with some of his special homegrown, and asked me, “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about how things ended?”

  I knew this was going to happen eventually, and I felt prepared as much as I ever would be. “I think I know where you want to go, and being honest with you, this will be the first time I’ve really honestly talked about it with anyone. Anyway, I think I’m ready to talk about what happened.”

  “Well, I can see Sharon recovered.” Walter commented.

  “Yes, and you’ve no idea how worried I was.” I replied.

  “I know that Hollis shot your two police buddies, as well. How did that turn out?”

  I took a long pull on the pipe, and handed it back to Walter. I let the smoke slowly release from my lungs, feeling the high spreading through my body. “Jeff L. has recovered, and he’s up for captain.” Walter looked over at me and grinned, giving me a thumbs-up. “They’re considering Frank for the Chief of Police position since the old one has retired, and I think he’d be an excellent chief.” Walter took a big puff, and handed the pipe back to me.

  “Sakol recovered, then took some time off and went to find Lan’s father. I heard from Jeff L. that he found the father up in Canada. I believe he said somewhere in Vancouver, British Columbia. The last I heard was that Sakol was considering retiring from the force. I hope not ‘cause he really is a great cop.

  “Jeff L. said Sakol was having some problems reconciling in his mind his relationships with people like Mouse. Sakol’s problem is he’s not really a black and white type of person. He sees shades of grey, and if you’re a cop you need to keep your perspective more black and white.”

  I paused a moment, as I lit the pipe. A long pull ensued, and then I continued, “Speaking of perspectives, I’ve had to do a lot of soul searching.”

  “About what?” Walter asked.

  “Revenge. About what I did up in the tower. Is revenge always wrong? Did I have a right to become Hollis’ judge, jury, and executioner?”

  Walter held out his hand for the pipe and I handed it to him. Pausing before he lit it, he remarked, “I think you’re asking the wrong person, Matt. Why would you ask me?”

  “You knew them both, what they were like, and you understand how Hollis was able to do the things he did. I just wonder if you can condone righting an injustice outside of the law. I want to think that Hollis drove me to the point where I killed him or knifed him. But now that I’ve thought it through, I know I went up into that lighthouse with the specific intent of making sure I got my revenge. I’ve admitted to myself that I wanted him dead and that was what I set out to do. And it bothers me. I thought I left those things back in Nam.

  “I knew if they took Hollis back to Seattle alive, the feds would have snatched him away, probably set him up someplace new to keep him quiet about the past, and he’d have just died peacefully. Maybe. Anyway, the bottom line was I wanted my revenge, and well, as I said, it bothers me. A lot.”

  Walter grunted, and I could tell he was going to say something. I reached over, took his arm, and told him, “Its okay. You’re the only one I can think of that I could tell this to, and who might be able to understand. After some of the shit we did in Nam, well, it seems a bit odd how upset Hollis made me. But I had to tell you.”

  “Thanks, Matt. And I really do understand how you feel. Anyway, finish your story.”

  “By the time they got Hollis’ body back to the morgue in Seattle,” I interrupted my story, “Hey! I almost forgot. You should have seen how fat Hollis was. I bet he was pushing a good 300 plus, and I heard it was a real bitch to bring his body down from the tower.” Walter laughed at the image of them moving Hollis’s body.

  “Any idea what happened, I mean for him to become so heavy?” Walter asked.

  “No, I’ve no idea, and I guess we’ll never know either. It wasn’t from overeating, because Denny boy was dead. This was fat put on over a long time.”

  “Sounds like if you hadn’t ended things when you did, a heart attack would have taken care of him sooner or later.”

  “Anyway, I was right about one thing. There were several government agencies there to take possession of the body. Surprise!” We both laughed. “This didn’t surprise me in the least.” I said with a bitter tone in my voice. “Frank knew it was going to happen, and had resigned himself to that fact.

  “Since it was just Hollis and me on top of the tower, and Hollis wasn’t in any condition to say my story wasn’t true, I just lied, and told them I shot him in self defense. No one ever said anything about Hollis’ empty pistol next to his leg, or that another empty pistol was on the stairs behind me.

  “When I was in the hospital, Sakol came to my room to ask me how it ended up in the tower. So I carefully let him know I was aware I shouldn’t have gone up there, and I knew what was happening when I pulled the trigger. I told him I knew I had a choice when I shot him. Sakol nodded his head, told me the conversation never took place, and I haven’t seen him since.”

  I fiddled with the pipe some more, and handed it off. “Turns out Slim was going to become a silent partner with Wheeler. Slim had a new S Corporation all set up to fund the deal. When Slim heard there could be problems with the city, he told Wheeler he wanted to back out of the arrangement. Wheeler had been on the phone all day trying to keep Slim from backing out on the day they shot Slim. When Wheel found out about Slim’s demise, because he was so involved with that business deal with Slim, he was sure he was going to become a suspect in Slim’s death. All he was trying to do was distance himself from the entire mess. Wheel was just lying through his teeth. I think he’ll have to pay a fine to keep out of jail, but the upside of it all is things have worked out with the city, and Wheel gets to keep his marina.

  “Wheel has sold me a space, and because of that, I now have permanent moorage. Scott thinks he has a buyer, or maybe even two, for the houseboat. In addition, it also turns out that one night when one of the other tenants was coming home late, he actually saw Dudley Bell sneaking away from the houseboat after he’d ransacked the place looking for a will.

  “I don’t know how Hollis found out that Slim had a daughter, but once he had that knowledge, he told Dudley about Jennifer. At that point, Dudley was desperately trying to see if he could find a will to see what it said. His hope was that if possible, he could destroy it before Jennifer could do anything about it.

  “As for Jennifer, she’s back in Europe with her two lovers, and she ended up with all of Slim’s money. Well, not all of it. Turns out, she felt she owed me something, for all I did. I tried to tell her I really didn’t want any of Slim’s money. Since she had planned on giving Bottomsley some of the estate, she ended up creating a trust fund which puts a vulgar amount of money every month in my bank account.” I was still trying to find a way to tell Walter I was going to split the monthly checks and give half to him. Call it a start on a college fu
nd for Walter’s son or something like that. I just knew that I wanted to share it with Walter and Thien.

  The sun was now gone, and the two of us just sat in the dark on the deck in silence. We could hear Sharon and Thien in the cabin talking and taking care of little Matt. Bean was lying there curled up in my lap asleep, and the other puppy, Max, was asleep in Walter’s lap.

  Walter leaned over, and placed his hand on my arm again. “By the way, I don’t know if I’ve ever really told you how grateful I am?”

  “About what?” I asked.

  “I know you were under some pressure to tell the police how you learned about Price and Hollis. For doing that for me, I’ll always be grateful. You already know how grateful I’m about the rest of everything.

  “You’ve no idea how happy I am things have turned out so well for you. Matt, you deserve it. I still have the bad dreams, but when I wake up Thien is there. As she holds me between those silken thighs of hers she makes things all better, and I now have new memories to replace the old bad ones.” Walter leaned over, we touched glasses, and we both took a deep sip of the excellent Scotch we were drinking. Walter continued, “I hope Sharon does the same for you.”

  I wasn’t ready to share this with Walter, but Sharon had already done that for me, and best of all, I knew she’d do it again. It was after my episode in the lighthouse with Hollis, when I’d killed him and after they had released Sharon and me from the hospital. A few nights later, I had a really bad dream. The dream involved Hollis and Price, and even Walter was part of the dream. We were all back in the jungle, and when I woke up I was screaming, shaking and bathed in sweat.

  I don’t really know how Sharon did it so quickly, but suddenly I was aware she was on top of me, and had her arms and legs wrapped around me. She was kissing my face, telling me it was okay, that she was there for me. At first, it was her soft voice that helped calm me. Then I became aware of her sweet nakedness wrapped around me. She started to move her hips back and forth, and I could feel her wet womanhood moving across my cock, the friction causing me to grow hard. Once I was firm enough to enter her, she reached down, and aligned my erection to slip it inside her. When she pushed her hips down on me I slipped inside her, and I could hear her whispering in my ear, “Fuck me, baby. Feel me, feel my love. Push it in, deep, deeper, yes, just like that. Fill me, remember this, this is now, this is real. The past is gone and you are okay. Think about me. I love you, I love you, oh God, NOW!” She cried the last word loudly.