It’s funny if you think about it. Two goons like us getting all this money. Charlie couldn’t stop talking about his girl Esmeralda and how much he was gonna give her. Esmeralda took some of it, sure, but most of it went to his Mom living in the loony bin and his little brother Marcos who’d been on the street his whole life. I took my part and went down the dock and bought a boat, this big long sloop. I’d go out at night with it and just float. Lean on the railing and look back at all the little lights sparkling off the bay.
Marcia came out once with me and a couple other girls but hardly anyone wanted to hear about the big trip up North I had planned. I’d always drop them back off at the wharf and watch as they walked away down the planks. My sloop floated back out to sea with me in it, determined to start a new life in the northern country and leave behind all the mooks and chumps.
My course started just fine- a light breeze from the South, skies bleached white. One or two gulls really high up. By noon I had my coffee and let the white sea and sky clear my head of all the crummy baggage.
But as I watched, the white water rose up out of nowhere and exploded like a tremendous hand above me, arcs of water like fingers crashing down around me.
Suddenly my boat was two hundred feet up. Then I was deep underwater, watching as a giant sea turtle came towards me through the splinters of my shattered sailboat. I reached out and took hold of the turtle’s fin. He drew me quickly through the current then turned to look back at me with the face of a wise old man. No more mooks, I thought, grinning, as he pulled me into the darker and darker water.
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