Green Legend of Dead Lake

What I Learned from My Summer Internment With Grandpa
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4835-5474-7
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 440 Seiten

This coming-of-age ghost story blends fact and fiction to create a roller coaster tale, taking you from the 1800's through the 1960's. With dozens of photographs, a nautical chart, and missing and torn pages, this book will sometimes read like a treasure map leading to the two sunken ships and the mystery that surrounds them.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Green, R. B.

Leseproben

Chapter 2

Death Row

I sat in the blue plaid airplane seat staring out the window into the dark night. My parents had walked me on and gotten me settled. They said they would wave to me from the huge window at the gate. Now here I was, at the rear of the plane with my window facing some baggage trucks. I was sure my parents had already left.

Below me on the tarmac was one of those guys with the long orange flashlights that direct planes. He was juggling the lights as he waited to direct our plane. I smiled to myself and thought of a plane coming in to land. The pilot would see three crazy, orange lights flipping around in the dark, just before he crashed and burst into flames. Maybe my brothers could be on that flight.

After an eternity of staring at the blur of blinking lights outside, the plane began to lurch backwards. Slowly, some little vehicle was pushing us out, away from the gates. As we swung away, the window at the gate finally came into view. It was empty. My parents were not there and my summer had officially begun. Off to the side, the man with the flashlights signaled the plane, then darkness filled my window.

An evil, sour-faced stewardess ran the plane and its dozen or so occupants. It was nearly empty and I sprawled out across two seats. This seemed to annoy her and she took her time fulfilling my needs, and I had many! I needed a continuous flow of ginger-ale, peanuts and a deck of cards to satisfy me completely.

A year earlier, my class at school had taken a train trip to Williamsburg. Two buddies, Troy and Jay, had spent the overnight ride teaching me various poker games and in particular, shuffling and one-handed cuts.

I sat in my plaid seats and practiced my craft, much to the delight of my stewardess. Apparently, she was an avid poker player. By the end of of the flight, she had sat beside and befriended me and later stood at the gate with me since my grandparents were running late on the pick-up.

A few minutes later, they trotted up to the gate, huffing and puffing. My grandfather gave me a huge grin, “Hiya partner! How was your trip?”

My grandmother did not say a word to me, but directed herself to my stewardess. “We’re so sorry we’re late! I hope you didn’t have to put up with him too long?”

My stewardess smiled at me, “No, Bobby and I are old buddies.” She handed me an unopened deck of Bicycle playing cards and said, “thanks for the tip.” Then she winked.

“Tip! Oh my, do we pay you anything?” Nana popped open her purse and started to plow through it. “A tip. Howard, do you have any change for the woman?”

The stewardess backed away, “No ma’am. No tips, he’s ready to go and he was a pleasure. Bye-bye Bobby.” She turned and started back toward the gray door that led to the plane.

“Bye, um… Miss…” But the door had shut.

My grandmother scowled at Grandpa. “Well, she was a hussy!”

Grandpa ignored her and looked down at me. “Did they feed you?”

My Grandmother licked her hand and started straightening my hair. “Look at him Howard, he’s all skin and bones. Of course they didn’t feed him.”

I shrugged her hand away, “I ate some peanuts on the plane.”

Grandpa started walking. “Well come on sport. Let’s go get your bags and then we’ll stop somewhere and get you a bite for dinner.”

We went outside to a little area where they put the baggage on display and I pointed out my two brown suitcases. They were the ones that were super-pass-me-downs. Mom and Dad weren’t using them for their trip to Europe and my brothers refused to use them for camp. They sucked. The aging leather and canvas was cracked all over. Faded round and triangular stickers signaled visits to far off places. The kind of places I would probably never get to go, because I was here… in Florida… with Grandpa and Nana.

Grandpa picked up the bags and started off into the parking lot.

Nana scurried after him, “Howard, please wait for me.”

I followed in silence. My life was officially over. Fortunately, the walk was short as the tiny parking lot was almost empty. I dragged my sneakers through the packed grey sand as we arrived at the large yellow Buick with a convertible top.

“Bobby, now kick off your feet before we get into your grandfather’s car!” my grandmother snapped. “And don’t track any of that filth into the house either.”

Grandpa tossed the bags into the trunk. “Bertha, leave the boy alone. He’s old enough to know better.” I knew better now; it was going to be a long summer.

We drove down Highway 17 through the darkness. After an eternity of silence we came upon a small stadium all lit up. Its parking lot overflowed with cars and I could hear the jabber of some voice on a loudspeaker.

“Grandpa, what’s that?”

“That’s the dog track.”

“What? They race against dogs?”

“They race the dogs against each other.” After a moment we had passed and the lights faded behind us.

“Like a horse race?”

“Sort of…”

My grandmother interrupted, “I cannot believe they ever allowed that place to be built!”

“Can we go there?” I asked.

“No! Absolutely not,” shrieked my grandmother.

“Bertha, you don’t need to yell, we’re all sitting right here.” Grandpa said. “Bobby they race those skinny little grey dogs called greyhounds around a track, and they bet on them.”

“For money? Like poker?”

My grandmother started in again. “Gambling. Next thing you know they’ll allow casinos and…”

“I know how to play poker.” I chimed in.

Grandpa looked at me in the rear view mirror, “You know how to play Gin Rummy?”

“Umm… I don’t think so…”

“Oh my goodness! Young man, there will be no poker playing while you are here in Florida,” Nana said through her teeth.

“It’s just a little Gin Rummy dear, there’s no harm in that…” Grandpa added.

Ahead in the distance, a Stuckey’s restaurant came into view.

“Oh goody,” said Grandpa. “Let’s stop here and get Bobby a bite to eat.”

“Howard, we have got plenty of leftovers at the house.” But Grandpa had already pulled into the dusty parking lot in front of the Stuckey’s.

“Bertha, it won’t take us but a minute and that way you won’t have to fix anything when we get home.” Grandpa hopped out of the car, opening my door for me. “Let’s go sport.” He trotted around the car and popped open Nana’s door, too. Nana got out and strode into the restaurant like a food inspector in a bad mood.

I followed. “Grandpa, I’m really not all that hungry. I had some peanuts on the plane. I’ve still got some.”

“Not hungry huh?” He walked in. The restaurant was more like a candy and souvenir store with a small dining area. On a side wall was a small ice cream counter. Grandpa made a beeline to it. “How about some ice cream?”

“Uh, okay.” How could I turn that down?

The little lady that had tried to seat Nana came over and scooped us some ice cream. I ate mine as I walked up and down the isles looking at plastic alligators and seashell ashtrays. A steel rack displayed various novelties. I admired the itching powder and exploding cigarette loads, but knew I’d never get away with buying them as Nana stood near tapping her foot. Besides, I had no money and no prospect of coming across any. I tried on some x-ray glasses and held my hand up to see. Everything was just blurry. It was the story of my life.

“So, you had room for ice cream after all, huh?” Grandpa interrupted my thoughts.

“Um, yeah.”

“Yes, sir.” He corrected me.

“Yes, sir.”

“And try not to say ‘um’ so much.”

“Um. Yes, sir.”

Now Grandpa smiled at me. “You know there’s always room for ice cream?”

“Uh…” I had no idea how to respond. Was this a trick question?

“There’s always room for ice cream, because it just melts and fills in the cracks.” He smiled.

I smiled back at Grandpa as he continued. “When you finish there, go wash up and head out to the car.”

I took one last loving look at the hand buzzer and hung the x-ray glasses back on the rack and licked my fingers all the way to the restroom. When I came out, Nana had already gone out and was sitting in the car like a carved stone. Grandpa was paying for our ice cream at the register. He had also purchased a small tub of pistachios with a few other items and the lady behind the counter wrapped them tightly in several brown paper bags.

Then we went outside in the dusty lot and watched the bugs fly around the neon light by the highway. Something dark and much larger than the bugs swooped in occasionally driving the smaller insects into a frenzy. Every now and then, the ‘ey’s’ part of the Stuckey’s sign flickered off for a moment and the roadside stop became ‘Stuck---.’ I thought of how I was now stuck here for the entire summer.

Grandpa came out and...