Balance of Power Shifted (6 page)

Getting out of the car and opening the trunk, I helped Bill with extracting his luggage from the cramped cargo area.  It came out harder then it went in.  With all this junk, I figured we would make one of those rare uses of the elevator. The elevator was close to the loading doors for obvious reasons.  Pulling the gate across the doorway
, Bill hit the button for the top floor.  As we started to rise, he said, “That looks new” as he nodded in the general direction of my mini gym and dojo. “Yeah” I said, “the job had me sitting in front of computers all day or on flights all over the globe and I really needed to work up a sweat every now and then.”  I will give you the tour later.

Grabbing Bill’s heavy bag
, I left him with his smaller ones as well as his backpack and PC.  We carried everything to the spare bedroom and just threw it on the floor.  The spare bedroom and bathroom were just slightly smaller versions of my room and bath.  Heading back to the kitchen I grabbed a couple of cold Bass Ales out of the fridge and popped the caps with my official fake old fashioned brass Pepsi Cola opener.  About 10 minutes later Bill came out of the room carrying two plastic bags.  “I almost started to drink your beer and it’s probably warm by now,” I said.  “That’s right; you’re used to it being warm since you can never keep up with the real men,” Bill responded lamely.  “Screw you bud you know I’ve left you sleeping under the table when we went head to head in the past,” was my retort.  Laughing, I asked him what was in the bags.  The big bag he said is my laundry and I have to warn you it is rank.  No girls to impress while out to sea.  The other bag is what I want to show you.  Let’s head back downstairs so I can get the stink out of my clothes and I will show you something really cool.

While Bill was loading up his
laundry, I was loosening up on the gym mats and taking a few shots at my heavy bag.  Solid right, BAM, left right combination BAM, BAM, moving to my left I let out three quick solid jabs WAK, WAK, WAK.  I took a full step back and I let loose with a roundhouse kick with my right leg and connected with the bag about neck high of an average person with a deep resonating THUMP, jerking the bag violently on its chain.  Bill had already moved over to one of the many workbench surfaces and flicked on a bright fluorescent desk light.  He dumped an object still sealed in a large zip lock bag on the table from the larger bag it was originally stored.  He also took a quart bottle of Ethyl alcohol out of the same bag and two more zip locks.  Getting curious, I looked more closely at the object.  Just visible through the clear bag was what looked like a rubbery object with a pale green tint in about a quart or two of liquid.

Using the original bag to protect the workbench surface, Bill unzipped the other
bag, reached in, took out the object and laid it on the larger plastic bag.  “This Rico, is a never before seen aquatic plant that grows somewhere around 1500 feet below the South Pacific Ocean’s surface.  My professor cannot find anything comparable and wants me to send this to him ASAP.”  “How did you get it,” I asked.  “I am probably breaking about 10 points in my non- disclosure agreement by telling you, but we salvaged parts of a crashed Navy plane from about 1500 feet under the sea and this came up with the biggest part.  The weird thing was that when I first picked it off the plane, it gave me such a jolt that I actually dropped it.  Since then, other than a slight tingle, I haven’t felt anything.”  Peering even closer, the plant appeared to be almost like a silicone mold, similar to those squeeze toys they used to sell.  I also noticed there was just a faint brine smell similar to those smells experienced by people living in coastal areas.  The surface was interwoven and formed an interconnected mesh.  It was certainly nothing like I had ever seen before.

Searching around the bench area, Bill came up with a carpet knife and ceremoniously cut off a 4
-inch by 6-inch piece of the plant.  Still looking down he said, “This is just in case it gets lost in shipping.”  Grabbing one of the bags, he asked me to hold it open.  When I had pried it open, he took the larger piece of plant and dumped it in the bag.  Next, he grabbed the alcohol, and warning me not to breathe the fumes, dumped the entire contents into the bag.  “Hold that thought” he said to me as he jogged over to the laundry sink and filled the alcohol bottle about a third the way up with water and then when he came back, dumped the new contents of the bottle into the bag.  He saw me looking at him and he just said that is was a simple preservative.  Draining a little of the preservative out into a small plastic bag, he put the smaller specimen in there.  Taking the larger bag from me, he eased out any air pockets and had me zip up the bag.  He next put it into a second zip lock and leaving some air in it to act as a cushion, zipped that one up. 

Glancing around the room, Bill asked if I had any small cardboard boxes
and shipping tape. “I got just what you need,” I said and told him to grab the bag and follow me.  About 20 feet away was a whole bench area dedicated to shipping stuff, compliments of the previous owner.  Bill bent down, pulled out a couple of used boxes from under the bench, picked one and exclaimed, “This should do the trick”, and dumped the bag into it to see how it fit.  It looked to me to be perfect since it left little room for shifting around.  He must have agreed since he started to tape it up.

I let Bill drive to the post office as I called a local pizzeria and ordered a couple of pies.  My stomach was gurgling I was so hungry.  Bill had whined that I did not let him drive the Camaro and was now trying to squeeze the big pickup
truck into a spot about a foot wider than the truck.  He had to wiggle his lanky body through the door that only opened about 8 inches wide so not to scratch the Lexus next to him.  He was taking a long time, so I used my iPhone to see if I had any email or text messages.  Derrick from work had sent out and email to a number of coworkers informing them he was going to be at the ’Whine Not‘ club after 10 tonight. He suggested that if anyone wanted to join him to meet him there.  The Whine Not club was one of my favorite hangouts, because they usually had some good up and coming musical talent play there on weekends and tonight was no exception.  It was also only about 10 blocks from my place and I could crawl home if needed.

Bill came out of the post office in a bit of a prissy mood. 
Getting back into the truck did not help his mood, as he had to perform as a contortionist to get back into the truck.  Apparently, one of the clerks inside felt it necessary to ask about everyone’s family and pets while trying to process the mail.  With only two clerks, it really backed up the line.  Then he could not make up his mind regarding what service to use, register the package or certified delivery.  He told me in exasperation, “I just went with was most expensive.”  To cheer him up, I told him I was taking him to the Whine Not tonight, as a welcome home present with drinks on me.  This had the immediate effect on him that I expected.  He broke out in to goofy wide ass grin and we both said ‘Charlene’ at the same time.  Charlene was a server and barmaid that worked there and was as funny as she was good looking.  Whenever Bill was in town, they seemed to be together often.  They both had the same weird sense of humor and when both of them got together, everyone around them spent the night in stiches.  Of course being on a boat for a few months might have added to the breadth of his grin, Mike thought to himself.

Grabbing the
pizzas, we zipped up to the second floor and then climbed the spiral stairs to the roof where we dumped ourselves into a couple of lounge chairs.  The sun had already begun to set and the sky was showing some nice color.  Bill got up and went to the fridge.  Opening it up and with his head inside, asked if I was staying with the Bass, which I said “yes” to.  As he was opening them, I was putting my iPhone in the cradle to play music through the surround sound system built into the deck area.  “Thank God,” he said, “I am so tired of the playlist on my phone after listening to it for months.  I think I could listen to Rap at this time and actually think it was good.”

For the next couple of hours Bill told me story after story of his most recent trip.  It sounded like a fantastic vacation as he gave the details, but I knew that he worked his butt off on that ship 95% of the time.  His crewmates were all good guys and they enjoyed their infrequent port stops barely stay
ing out of trouble.  The skipper was hard-nosed about leaving them in jail if they screwed up and got themselves arrested.  Talk eventually turned to our friends.  We all were Facebook junkies so we were familiar with what everyone else was doing.  Bill finishing his master’s degree working on the boat, meant we were all out of school and now all into our careers…well all except Bill, who had to make a choice in the near future with two solid but different job offers on the table.  The biggest news items were, the engagement of Taylor and Kristen and Fiona getting her master’s in Computer Science with a minor in business administration. 

“Dude” I said to Bill, “I think I am going to head back in and jump into the shower.”  “What time is it my benevolent landlord” Bill asked? 
“Just around 8:30” I said.  “Yeah you’re right”, Bill responded, “Anyway I think my eyeballs are swimming about now.  If I wasn’t so relaxed I would have went in earlier.”  We extracted ourselves from out lounges, killed the music and let the motion sensor lighting take care of itself.

The shower felt good and help
ed shake off some of the lethargy from the brewskies.  Grabbing a pair of jeans, a NY Yankees tee shirt and a pair of leather boat shoes, I was dressed in 2 minutes.  While I waited for Bill, I cracked a cold can of AMP and took one out for him.  I became hooked on AMP back at Georgia Tech and it had helped me deliver all my work on time.  In addition, the Mountain Dew flavor was tasty. 

Bill walked out wearing jeans,
flip-flops and a yellow Tommy Bahama linen shirt.  With the long straggly hair his was sporting, he looked like a Jimmy Buffet reject from the Florida Keyes.  Without a word, he grabbed the can of AMP off the counter, popped the lid, and downed half of it without taking a breath.  Whew, that is just what I needed and then continued to finish the can.  Seeing that we had everything in order, we went downstairs, out the side door and headed for the Whine Not.  A couple of blocks later, I patted Bill on his back and told him, “Just so you know Bill, you already have one strike against your man card, so be careful you don’t get the other 2.  “What do you mean?” he asked.  “You looked like you were humping the truck today as you squirmed back into it at the post office,” I said with a laugh.  “Screw you,” he said with a grin and added, “I never liked that commercial anyway.”

A couple of minutes later we paid a five dollar cover
charge, which was normal when they had live music.  We wandered in towards where the bands played and headed to a bar on the right.  This place had six bars strategically located throughout the complex.  The place was bustling, but had not filled up yet and we were able to score two bar stools.  Both of our heads were going back and forth, as we looked for anyone we knew, but did not see anyone.  Keeping in character, Bill ordered a Margarita with a salt rim and I ordered my normal rum and diet coke. 

The band was originally from Louisiana and called itself Blue Flame. 
There were three guys and a girl in the band all in their early to mid-thirties.  They played good classic Southern Rock and the girl could belt out some Stevie Nicks tunes back from the Fleetwood Mac days.  I thought they were excellent since they did not just mimic the original bands but also put their own flare into each song and in some cases ended up being better than the original.  They had a good reputation and attracted a wide demographic of people from early 20’s to 40’s.  With shoulder length, auburn hair, Jesse, looked great and her hazel eyes, tight jeans and brown pointy-toed boots did not hurt any.  I must have tried three times to get her to come over to the dark side and hang out with me to no avail.  If she had said yes, I think she would have qualified as my first older woman.

An hour later the band was rocking, Charlene was cruising by every few minutes as she worked,
and Bill made up for time spent on the ship by talking to anyone and everyone.  Derrick and a couple of others guys from work showed up and joined us at the bar.  That is about the time the shots started flowing.  I really enjoyed times like this, the social aspect of hanging out with different people and enjoying good libations.  This went on for a couple hours with the last hour a bit of a fog to me.  I did remember Charlene grabbing Bill for herself, Derrick passing out in a booth, and me crashing and burning once again with my favorite singer Jesse. I think she would be disappointed if I did not try to hit on her every time I saw her.  Eventually I exited the bar, headed back to my pad, and crashed for the night.

M
y internal clock woke me up a little later than normal which means I missed the 8 o’clock mass at St. Thomas Church and would have to go to the 9:30 mass. This would normally not be a problem except my Spanish understanding skills were um poco.  The 9:30 mass was held in Spanish since the majority of people living in proximity were Hispanic.  Even though I spoke only spoke it a little, I actually enjoyed the mass and liked interacting with the parishioners.  I took a quick shower grabbed a cold Pepsi and nuked a bagel from the freezer, which in my mind constituted being the “breakfast of champions’. 

With about 45 minutes to kill
, I wandered downstairs with no particular goal in mind.  The bag that held Bill’s original specimen was sitting on the shelf next to the utility sink near a window.  The bright sunshine was managing to burst through the grime and bars on the nearest window and the rays appeared focused right on the sink area and the bag.  After walking over, the first thing I noticed was that the liquid in the bag was a much deeper shade of green than what I had seen yesterday.  Picking up the bag, I could see a small one inch piece of the plant that Bill had shown me which must have broken off.  Placing the bag in the sink so not to spill anything, I unzipped the bag and started to reach in to retrieve the piece.  The next thing I knew, there was a major jolt that went from my fingers to my shoulder causing me to jump back but not without first hitting my head on the wooden shelf above the sink and sending the shelf, laundry detergent and other cleaning aids flying all over the place.