Lambert Independence Girl

1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5439-8043-1
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 158 Seiten

Equal parts The Sun Also Rises, The Manchurian candidate, and A Confederacy of Dunces.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lambert, Matt

Leseproben

Chapter 2 Belize City, Belize, CA November 2017 Kevin had been flailing since Trump was elected and by his estimation, so was DC. He was a political consultant and lobbyist and both he, and his Logan Circle neighborhood, had enjoyed a good run during the Obama years. Being a political operative for Democratic initiatives made him dispensable after Trump’s unexpected election. Business was down, even when compared to more traditional Republican presidencies, and shops were closing in the liberal enclaves of the city. Bannon’s influence on decreasing the size of the federal government by simply not filling certain positions, and thus decreasing those walking about with disposable income, had just as much impact on business as the general malaise of the town after Clinton’s loss. The protest industry was the only thing doing well and some of Logan Circle’s spoils had moved to the Wharf and other parts of the city. All of this made him realize that he needed a vacation with some sun and water to clear his head. He thought about Miami, but the whole town reminded him of Ella, and he didn’t want to go to the Bahamas or Mexico for the same reason. He had been to Belize several times back during his backpacker days and enjoyed his time on Caye Caulker, so when he found himself with nothing to do right after Thanksgiving, he decided that it would be a good place to retreat and plan his next move. He was born Kevin Allen Faye in Arlington, Virginia in 1975 to lifelong government bureaucrats and had spent his entire life in and around DC, except for five years at the University of Colorado in Boulder where he graduated in 1998. While in Boulder, he had spent just as much time skiing Arapahoe Basin as he had studying political science, but since then his yearly ski trips took him to farther out I-70 to Steamboat Springs. His slight build on a 5’9” frame made him an agile skier and his green eyes and relative good looks kept his social calendar full. All that time working on his turns kept him out of the Ivy League for law school, so after a few years of working as a staffer on the Hill and volunteering for the Gore campaign in 2000, he enrolled in the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason and graduated in 2004. He spent a few years with Deloitte, worked at the RAND Corporation for a while, and had been at Wiley Rein ever since 2010 lobbying in the healthcare and information technology spaces. He also did a lot of freelance election and messaging work for Democratic candidates. He had arrived in Belize five days earlier and had settled down in a rental toward the south end of the Caye. The cottage was off the water but had a nice sitting area outside that was surrounded by palms, and had wi-fi, air conditioning, and even a pool. These such amenities were not common when he first visited here, when most of the accommodations were budget backpacker places along Front Street and the Internet Cafe was always bustling. There had been no pools on the island until Simon built one at the Seaside Cabanas around 2004. Kevin was astonished at the amount of growth that had occurred on the island, much of it in areas of the island that were once mangroves, and they had even started to develop the North part of the island across The Split, which was where the island was cut in two by the storm surge from Hurricane Hattie in 1961. What was once a creek had become faster, deeper, and wider every year until now it was held back by a massive concrete flood wall on the South side. All of this growth had complicated navigation greatly. Even though foot, bicycle, and golf cart were still the only modes of transportation, and the island’s motto was still “Go Slow,” there were now many more streets to navigate than the original Front, Middle, and Back Streets. What was once a fishing village that turned into a hippie haven in the seventies, was now a full-on tourist destination. At this moment, however, he was not on the Caye. He was back on the mainland in Belize City waiting on a friend at the Ocean Ferry water taxi terminal. Belize City is still a pretty rough place with pockets of significant crime and one of the few places you can still see open sewers. The port city was founded along the banks of Haulover Creek, which was used to float mahogany trees harvested from the inland forests to the Caribbean, where they could be loaded on ships bound for Britain. Recently, the area north of the creek had been converted to a tourist village with local goods, foods, and shops to entertain day visitors from the cruise ships docked out in the harbor. It was here, in the tourist village, where the newer water taxis, with Wi-Fi and air-conditioning, took folks out to Caye Caulker and San Pedro. But Kevin still preferred the older water taxi terminal located at the mouth of creek, and with its older boats and cheaper fares, it tended to be used more by the locals. He was sipping a Belikin, while sitting by the open door in the departure lounge and looking at what many consider the heart of Belize City- the Swing Bridge. The Swing Bridge spans the creek and connects Albert and Regent Streets in the Southside neighborhood with Queen Street in the Fort George section of town. It is one the city’s busiest intersections. The bridge has remained in its original form since 1923, when it was constructed in Liverpool, shipped across the Atlantic, and installed at the edge of the Caribbean. It is about 120 feet long and stands about six feet off the surface of the creek. The sides of the bridge are metal, painted green and yellow, and rise from about four feet high at either end of the bridge to six feet in the middle. On both the upstream and downstream sides of the bridge are pedestrian walkways separated from the traffic lanes by these metal walls. Rather than operate like the more conventional drawbridge, in which the bridge deck draws vertically to allow ships to pass, this one swings on its horizontal axis and is powered by four men manually turning the bridge. Once turned ninety degrees and parallel with the banks of the creek, it allows passage for high masted boats out to sea or farther inland. Traditionally, this was done twice a day and took at least an hour. But now that the country was focused on tourism and has much less working boat traffic, the bridge is swung open only on special occasions or to let ships up the creek to weather incoming storms. When spending extended lengths of time on Belize’s Northern Cayes, there are some days when one spends a lot of time looking for something to do. Because of this, Kevin was not that annoyed at spending a second day taking the ferry to Belize City to meet his friend, Teddy Rose. Kevin had just arrived on the mainland about the same time the previous day when he got an email from Teddy showing him drinking a glass of wine on Kevin’s deck despite being too hungover from the previous night to make it to the airport on time. Teddy had then taken a cab to Logan Circle, and using his exceptional charm, talked the concierge at Kevin’s building into letting him into the unit. The email also informed Kevin that Teddy would be on the first flight out the next day. Kevin, finding himself with even less to do on this day, went over to the Princess Hotel and played some blackjack. He set a gambling limit for himself of $100 dollars (Belize) and he stuck to it. He pleased himself not only with his discipline of stopping after losing the equivalent of $50 dollars (US), but also with the realization that it only took him a few days to reacclimate to the sliding 2:1, Belize to US dollar exchange rate. Clarifying which nation’s dollars one is referring to, is one of the unique things about conversations in Belize, and occurs with almost every business transaction involving tourists. The other common tourist mistake that Kevin had graduated from was mispronouncing the word Caye, in a way that rhymed with his mother’s name Kay, to the proper version that sounds like the word key. After the casino, he took the water taxi back to the Caye, knowing that he would have to return in the morning. Despite his inability to get to Reagan National airport on time, Kevin almost trusted Teddy enough to figure out how to negotiate customs, immigration, and the harrowing cab ride from Goldson International Airport to the water taxi, but by coming to the mainland, Kevin could manage any more of Teddy’s travel challenges easier. If there was any annoyance with the Teddy situation, it came from within, given the fact that Teddy is not the person to invite if your goal is relaxation. Kevin was slightly disappointed with himself that he had once again drunk-texted a travel invitation to Teddy, who once again accepted it. But it was too late to worry about that now, and besides, Teddy always made things a little more interesting. With the birth name of Theodore Roosevelt Swenson, he was originally from one of those pockets of Minnesota that have direct lineage to Scandinavia, but he had been in Colorado ever since college, where he and Kevin became friends. He stuck around Boulder for a while but then settled in as a ski patroller at Steamboat Springs and was well known locally for his ability to ski that manky stuff down in Fish Creek Canyon. He is brash, loud, filled with energy (as well as alcohol and cannabis) and bad ideas. A mutual friend once told him to only believe the ski stories as “most of those are true” and “whatever you do, don’t let him owe you any money” and Kevin had pretty much stuck to those guidelines over the years. He stood well over six-foot-tall, had blue eyes and blonde hair, with a physique that Patagonia clothes are designed to actually fit. The only reason he...