by Ron Foster
Otto took off towards Gauge and Esmeralda’s cabin and Hobe retreated to his boat cabin to make sure he could get everything stowed away properly so his unexpected passengers had room.
“Whoa you all, Hobe said he don’t have much battery capacity so you can’t be getting all crazy with the lights.” Otto said to the wild eyed decorators heading his way carrying cardboard boxes full of Christmas tree lights and other festive ornaments.
“I could maybe lend him a battery or two and rig something better.” Gauge began before Otto said he didn’t think that would fly with Hobe because for whatever reason he didn’t like anyone working on his boat but him and that they had time constraints to get on over to the party that should be kicking off soon.
“We can just put lanterns under paper bags or wrapping paper and make Chinese lanterns, that won’t drain his batteries, none so he can’t object.” Ava said thinking tea candles or some other safer way of lighting might fly with Hobe’s ‘captain of his own boat’ theories.
“Hell of an idea, lets grab a bunch of lanterns instead!” Gauge said ready to get the show on the road but really wanting to talk to Hobe to find out what his sudden decision to leave the safety and security of Our End of The Lake was all about.
“I got it! Just you wait and see!” Esmeralda said smiling slyly before taking off at a run back to her cabin leaving a confused Gauge in her wake hollering “Do you need any help?”
“No I got it!” Esmeralda called back over her shoulder and left everyone milling around wondering about this or that idea to decorate the boat and why the hell was Hobe leaving until she returned breathlessly back all a quiver and happy grins.
“What’s in the box, Esmeralda?” Otto asked as everyone gathered round quite interested and involved personally to see after she put it down.
“You didn’t bring that inflatable “Cecil the sea Monster” pool float with you, did you?” Gauge asked thinking about some of the more outlandish ways some folks did up their boats like parade float themes.
“Nope but I would of if I had thought of it. You wait a minute; this is going to be mucho cool, we going to put a shiny dress on that sailboat!” Esmeralda said smiling devilishly with glee.
“A What? Now wait a minute now I told you all we can’t be thinking about over doing anything today and he don’t need no curtains draped off his bow” Otto objected.
“You are one silly man Otto, I know Hobe don’t want no real dress on his boat, that’s not what I meant but it was the only description I could think of offhand. I got some Christmas icicles that will be perfect and they don’t need any electricity to shine! They aren’t the loose kind you throw on a Christmas tree’s branches, they are the long banner skirt type like you put on the front of a mantle on a fireplace!” Esmeralda said showing off the bundles in the box as everyone caught onto her neat decorating improvisation for the boat parade.
“Well I will be damned! I forgot all about them things.” Gauge said giving his honey a hug for the bright idea. “Those things are perfect for this party! Good deal, baby!” Gauge said as everyone gushed over the great new decorations.
“He certainly won’t be expecting these; you keep him down in the cabin while we put them on the boat, Otto.” Ava told her mate.
“I will give it a try but Gauge might have to help head him off at the pass if he decides he wants to come topside and see what you’re doing and wrestle with him a bit!” Otto said not relishing the thought of being locked down in the hold with an anxious Hobe wanting to get out and see what was going on.
“I will help you push back down the hatch and corral him if need be, Otto but that boy can be kind of feisty!. Since he is leaving, I believe I got him an appropriate little going away present that might help you out and keep him below decks for a bit.” Gauge said producing a quart of Aristocrat Vodka and several packages of MRE lemonade.
“That will do it, he ain’t moving nowhere for awhile but remember he has got to get us over there and all the way back so you ladies keep him slowly sipping instead of swigging on that liquor or we all might end up sailing to Mobile with him if he gets a wild hair on the way back.” Otto said chuckling.
“It won’t take us long at all to get this boat all sparkly and fit for showing off!” Ava said and smiled at Esmeralda.
Everyone piled on the boat like a bunch of buccaneer pirate boarders and commenced to put their plan into place. Otto kept Hobe down in the cabin and after one attempt of him to come out of the hold, Gauge just sat on the hatch until it was time for the unveiling. Rather than send the whole bottle down with Otto and Hobe, they kept a mason jar of it for themselves to partake of while decorating and by the time the bottom dwellers of the boat met the topside mates everyone kind of had a very light buzz that made this magic moment even better.
“What do you think of it, Hobe? Do you like it?” a bedazzling smile from Esmeralda greeted Hobe while Ava scooted closer to Hobe to hug him and hush any anticipated objections.
“Why it’s magnificent!” a totally surprised Hobe said upon careful happy inspection of the impromptu decorating efforts.
“We are going to be one of the finest looking boats around I bet!” Gauge said with a smile.
“Better get ready to get under way, Hobe, we are running late already.” Otto declared.
“Well if everyone has got everything, I am ready to cast off.” Hobe said and commenced the process to set sail.
“Use your outboard, Hobe and get us over there quicker, me and Otto will chip in and replace the gas for you.” Gauge stated wanting to hurry up and get on over to the Landing and see other friends and other festively decorated boats.
“I will replace it myself seeing how nice you all were to get me all doo-dadded up, well then this rides on me! I will get us their shortly, hang on!” Hobe said and fired up his outboard to make the most haste to the boat docks.
“What are you going to do over at Rendezvous to make extra money? You got a plan except fishing for Boudreaux’s fish market?” Ava asked referring to Hobe’s usual job of running long trot lines of hooks to catch 30-40 fish at a time to fill the bellies of the lake workers and trading post store.
“Well I got me an idea on that but it’s a secret for now. That idea is also going to depend on how much flour or corn meal I can talk out of Silas on credit.” Hobe said toying with Ava who was one of the best Bakers the clan had.
“I am not understanding you, Hobe, well maybe I am. Are you maybe planning on doing a big fish fry? Where you going to get all the oil you will need to fry with?” Ava asked thinking about one of the rarest commodities out there these days because most of what was found left on a store shelf or in a home had long gone rancid. Her and the trading post had an understanding about getting first dibs on any Crisco that was found or any cans of lard that Roland’s trade wagons hauled in after first frost after hog rendering when it became available for trade.
“I ain`t getting into your shortening or oil supply so don’t you worry yourself about that none. I will tell you all about it later, I still have a few looses ends to tie up on my idea first. I was going to come to you to ask your advice or your directions, maybe later anyway. It’s an original idea; I won’t be stepping on any toes or competing with your businesses, could be you want to duplicate it after I am gone.” Hobe said with a wry smile and refused to answer any more questions.
“Hobe if we win the gift certificate for best decorated boat you best remember your friends!” Otto said snidely.
“I can never forget you all! Dang it, you all are getting me all choked up again and making it hard to leave to parts unknown! Somebody get me another drink and you all get ready to be smiling and partying on the deck when we pull up to the docks! Got to make us a good impression if we are going to have the chance to win that hundred bucks!” Hobe said switching from moodily depressed to excited and jubilant over one last hurrah with his friends.
6
THE FLEET IS FORMED
“What do we hav
e cooking today, Roland?” David asked the old cowboy standing at a picnic table over by the big cook fires.
“Five dollar or better a pound beef if you ask me. But don’t worry I ain’t charging you that much. I signed the ticket and put it on the books at on the hoof price of a buck a pound or $832 you owe me plus 300 pounds of Jerky at $4.00 a pound so I will give you a deal and make it an even $2,000. I don’t know what the hell that is in Bernie bucks, you calculate it and have that banker of yours Weatherman figure it out and give me half silver or gold back in exchange after rendezvous.” Roland said advising David of the tally.
“I ain’t never complained about your prices, can’t afford them sometimes, but I ain’t never questioned the price you put on beef you raised yourself. I appreciate you letting me have that steer at wholesale and butchered it up for us. I always wanted to try my hand at cattle ranching but not at the scale you do it and not in this grid down world. Have you been having any problems with any rustlers or the government trying to get a hold of your cows?” David asked.
“Nah, rustlers leave an outfit like mine alone mostly. Too many guns and itchy trigger fingers to be pointing at them that might have you in their sights if they thought otherwise. Now as for the government, I am hopefully far enough back in the county not to get noticed. We ain’t seen no official anything let alone an agricultural inspector for years now in our area. You ever decide to try your hand at playing cattle baron you give me a holler and we maybe can help you get a start. It ain’t near as easy or as safe as it looks, you know.” Roland said tipping the brim of his Stetson hat back to look at the man more closely.
“I already told you I know how hard it is. Do you need any hired hands for anything or you already got enough?” David asked.
“Well I am always looking for somebody that can ride a horse or knows about fixing a tractor and plowing a field. Don’t suppose you got any of those do you?” Roland asked curiously.
“Nah, if I did I would keep them around here, we kind of short handed on skilled labor. I got my relief crew all rounded up for you though if you are going to let some of your hands off to attend Rendezvous.” David said looking forward to getting a pretty good amount of change from renting out his relief crew. David had assembled a unique set of individuals from his occasional efforts of running a day labor service that were trained and practiced in the finer arts of running various aspects of a farm lacking laborers. He had two relief cow milkers that he rented out if some farmer was sick or hurt and couldn’t see about taking care of a dairy herd; a couple folks that knew about animal husbandry and could double as vets as well as perform midwife duty if their wasn’t anyone else to call upon; hay cutters if you had to use a scythe because there was no machinery or gas, etc. if needed. If anyone had enough of an orchard or a field within range of a trade wagon you could get seasonal pickers, he pretty much had you somebody from his “employment agency” that could fill in or do a task for you if you had a buck to spend.
David was kind of smart about how he went about setting up his agency as he referred to it. When he first arrived after bugging out to the lake he had asked everyone about what they did in their past lives and what skills they had from their childhood or otherwise that might be useful now. Then everyone sort of started cross training for the survival of the community and learning each other’s skills. It wasn’t like a hundred years ago when you had pretty much everyone capable of riding a horse, lots of folks familiar with farming and raising livestock etc. or mending farm equipment, no, most people had mostly never even been exposed to or knew anyone who knew anything about such anymore and it was all Greek or a mystery to them about how to accomplish. Plenty of accountants, secretaries, fast food workers and computer geeks but those talents were worthless these days. The lake had lots of retirees, old people you know that weren’t worth a whole lot when it came to physical labor but they were reservoirs of knowledge and lost skills often times and everyone had to eat so school sort of became in session as a necessity for learning such practical means of survival and partially a part of on the job training effort by David took fruition to teach what was now modern day or real day survival for the environment and social conditions they found themselves under.
David had proposed that since schools of old offered employment assistance under their contracts, he would do the same if he was in some way compensated as the school was formerly remunerated for the effort and expense of helping folks out for a few weeks until they got the hang of whatever it was they were learning to be a productive member of this new society that they all found themselves thrown together in.
That’s when the so called “Academy of Sea and Land’ got thrown together. The sea part was kind of a joke because they were two hundred miles from the coast but the old retired scraggly bearded navy captain who was now referred to as the “Admiral” had assured everyone that the water safety and navigation skills they learned were translatable to blue water oceans and so it was included in the name.
David had finagled being Dean of this so called ‘university of life on the lake’ by pointing out his organizational skills as an accredited emergency manager made him the likely choice for all the different departments to coordinate all the various departments in the academy along with all the first responder units needed to facilitate the safety and security of this facility. Most folks agreed to that logic at first and besides he had been sort of doing that sort of thing all along so not too many objections were made.
Next was the choosing of department heads etc and that subject got fiercely debated and the board had to get reelected or give up their slot every year to please the sometimes fickle community. It was thus the first government per se of the Our End of the Lake community got started. Worked out pretty well mostly because it gave people new authority and self worth as well as gave David something to do with several of the older and wiser men and women and show the community the respect and value they should place in these people. The various other generations were more difficult to deal with and place but somehow it all started to work out as everyone sort of self filled this or that position or showed they excelled in some form of talent.
There was a pecking order of sorts and group votes but other than that everyone was free to do as they liked just as long as nothing you did interfered with the collective. Most folks liked community projects, others preferred to be more independent and stay on the fringes more to themselves.
Hobe was like that and when David saw his boat sailing in all decked out for the going away celebration he was surprised because the man had told him that he wasn’t going to make this one for business and personal reasons.
“He must have heard Boudreaux was over here instead of down at the trading post.” David mused wondering how Boudreaux was going to take the news about Hobe wanting to move on.
“Where was that man anyway?” David thought glancing around to see if the old man of the bayou was anywhere about until Roland commented he would take on David’s entire relief crew if they could settle on terms.
“ Oh sure, we will figure out something, you want to look them over first or we just settle on a daily rate for 15 or 20 people as general hands?” David asked spotting Boudreaux over by Troy at the fire probably trying to talk him into adding more spices to whatever was cooking.
“I guess I could use the extra 5 people if you got them, these people mostly the same crew I used last year?” Roland asked laughing and pointing at everyone led by Guage and Esmerelda doing the flamingo dance, as David called it (actually the Flamenco) around on top of Hobe’s boat for their grand gaudy entrance to the landing.
“Ha! Ha! Looks like they having themselves some fun. Who’s he got on board over there? That looks like Gauge and his wife… Ah I see Otto and Ava, too.” David said waving as someone caught Hobe’s bowline and pulled them in closer to the dock.
“They be up here shortly I guess. Hey did you hear Hobe wants to go independent?” David asked.
“No, I hadn�
��t heard that. What’s Boudreaux say about that? Why does Hobe want to cut ties with him do you think? He pretty much works independent as is.” Roland asked scrutinizing his friend for more details.
“He said he wanted to move on and go visit Florida is all I can get out of him.’ David said looking back over to Boudreaux who looked like he was going to head his way or go down to the dock and meet Hobe.
“That news ain’t going to set very well with Boudreaux at all. What the hell did Hobe lose in Florida he wants to go looking for?” Roland said in his way of stating he couldn’t imagine why anybody would leave here to go to parts unknown in Florida.
“I dunno, last I heard anything about north Florida was they got hit by a hurricane couple years back but all the tourist areas been a ghost town for sometime. Maybe he thought of something to salvage down there he thinks he is going to get rich off of.” David speculated.
“To each his own but you know how it is out there, if you ain’t got no friends to back you up often times you ain’t going to last long.” Roland said wondering now on what valuable commodity might one day appear in the trading post.
