Freddy Anderson’s Home: Book 1 (10 page)

Chapter 14
Bodyguards

T
he car dropped me off at the inn. The difference this time was that Colleen stayed with me. As I went into the inn, Becky and Johnny were waiting for me.

“How did it go?” asked Becky. “And who is this?” she inquired with just a hint of jealousy.

“This is my bodyguard. Colleen, this is the beautiful Miss Becky Crain and her brother, Johnny Crain.”

Becky’s eyes gleamed, and I could feel her crush on me increase. Colleen shook hands with the two of them.

“Where’s your mom?” I asked.

Johnny motioned toward the kitchen.

We went into the kitchen, where Mrs. Crain was kneading bread, and Carroll was at the oven, checking on the pies. “Hi, Mrs. Crain. The navy SEAL team has been assigned to watch and protect me. I’ll need to rent a room for my bodyguard, if that’s okay with you.”

She had a great big smile and said, “Sure it is, sweetheart. The room adjoining yours is empty. Can you please show her where it is, dear? I’m up to my elbows right now.”

She sure was making a lot of food. There were pies, breads, rolls, pastries, a stew, and huge roasts baking. This was going to be a big dinner for a lot of people. I said, “Sure, and thanks.”

As soon as we left the kitchen, Colleen said, “I don’t think this is necessary. We’ll be changing watch often enough that the room won’t even be used.”

“Actually, the master chief and the lieutenant thought that this would be better, and I agree. The room is not the most important part of staying here. The meals are included, and most of the time I will be eating here. Please don’t tell me that navy SEALs don’t eat. I’ve watched your team for the past two days, and you change watch every eight hours, like clockwork. When do you eat in that time? Also, why watch me at night if you know I’m sleeping? The media lost interest once I won my emancipation, and few know where I am. The risk is minimal. We agreed that sleeping right next door is good enough. In short, I’m doing what the lieutenant and I agreed on. Another benefit of making it look like you’re my friend is that it will make it easier for the townspeople to get used to you. This is important if you want to be with me. I don’t want the townsfolk to feel intimidated, and you must admit, some of you are extremely intimidating.”

“I understand,” she said with a smile.

“Good. I also do not want to be awakened each time you change watch, so it was agreed that the watch stays the night. Now, that doesn’t mean you can have pajama parties.” I looked up at her with a smile. She was looking at me in shocked silence, but it changed to a smile when she saw I was kidding.

I showed her to her room and pointed out the amenities—clock radio, TV, dresser, bath. Colleen said, “If I go to sleep on that bed, I may never wake up. I may not want to.”

I saw Becky at the door, just watching and listening, and I asked, “Where’s Annabelle?”

“She’s in the front room, playing Chutes and Ladders by herself. She’s trying to keep her mind off waiting for Daddy.”

With excitement, I said, “Chutes and Ladders is a great game! Let’s go!” I took Becky’s hand and headed downstairs. I could feel Colleen’s mirth. When I saw Annabelle, I knew she wasn’t happy. “Hi, Annabelle!” I greeted her. “Mind if we join you? I love to play Chutes and Ladders.”

She got up and gave me a big hug and said she’d love to play with me. Becky and I sat down, and Johnny came over to play too. Colleen went to the front door, where she could look outside and keep a watch on us at the same time.

“Chutes and Ladders. Another game.”

Everything went black.

“Master?”

“Chutes and Ladders. I can see on the screen that it is a game, but what are chutes and ladders in real life?”

“I believe that a chute is a form of downward passage that allows people to descend quickly. A ladder is an item used to climb back up.”

“I knew it. They are trained from an early age to traverse all kinds of terrain. Look at all the games they play, and everyone has a winner and a loser. Every living room must have training equipment, and these games are the start. Military trained from birth—no wonder they are so difficult to fight on the ground. Continue.”

Chapter 15
The Fleet’s In

W
e played the game for about an hour, and then the church bells rang. Everyone got up and headed for the door. Becky grabbed my hand and ran with me out the door. She seemed very excited and said, “Daddy’s coming home!”

Outside, things were getting busy. The whole town was on the docks, setting up supplies, preparing for repair, and refueling. I looked out to sea but saw nothing. Of course, I knew about the curvature of the earth and realized that someone was up high, keeping watch.

Becky explained everything to me. Most of the children were on the beach. Everyone older than age fourteen was on the docks, working. Becky pointed out the weighing and separation area, the cleaning and scaling area, the freezing area, the preparations for trucking, the people setting up smokers, and the dock supervisors who would pay the fishermen. Boat crews were preparing to work on the boats, doing cleanup and repair. Repair included paint, motors, nets, and lines—anything for the smooth operation of the boat. Apparently, they had radioed ahead that it was a great catch and that they needed to go right back out. People were stacking food and cooking fuel on the docks, out of the way of the fish preparations. Becky made it very clear that getting back out to sea was important, but the current catch was the first priority.

I said, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”

“Exactly,” she responded.

These people were experts at what they were doing. Everyone worked in unison, and there were no arguments. Though the work was hard and time-consuming, they were all happy, in anticipation of the great catch.

I stepped back to look at the overall picture. A great catch meant more work and a better income for the fishermen, and in this case, it looked like more money for everyone. If everyone who was on the docks made more money, then the stores made more money, and the town thrived. I wondered what it was like when the fishing was not so good.

“Becky, this is great!” I said enthusiastically. “Do they ever have a bad year?”

Becky’s radiant smile vanished and a frown came to her face. “One bad year is not too bad,” she said, “but two bad years will hurt everyone. It’s not so bad for us. Mom has the inn, and that makes enough to support us, what with the hunting parties that come through in the fall, but when fishing is bad, the whole town suffers. Mommy does what she can by feeding people and passing out food. We eat a lot of soup and stew that Mom prepares all year, just in case. We work at canning food and keep a large amount of supplies ready, year-round. Some people have to close up their shops, as no one is buying, and some left after we had two bad years in a row. Mom said that three bad years would close the town and put us all out on the street.” Now she smiled again. “But we don’t have to worry this time. Dad had a great catch, and that means the boats are full to the top rail.” The bells clanged, and she jumped up and down. “They’re in sight of the tower now. They’ll be here in about an hour.”

Sure enough, about fifty minutes, later six boats came into sight. They were bigger than I imagined and sat low in the water. The people on the docks were still very busy, but the children were getting impatient.

Becky said that the boats still had to dock and then unload before her daddy would come home. It would be another hour, and dinner would be late.

“Interesting sight,” Colleen said.

“Yes, it is. This town works well together. I can see why they don’t want live-in strangers.”

“It’s not so much being a stranger,” said Colleen, “as your possibly causing fishing problems. The army used many boats that polluted the waters. They wanted this town shut down so they could have increased staging areas for their war games, full use of the docks, and more housing for army personnel and families. They constantly ran through the fishing nets and created havoc whenever they were here—and they did it on purpose. The townspeople have accepted you, Freddy, but they’re still worried that you may somehow pollute the area south of here even more.”

“I get the message loud and clear, thanks. I don’t intend to do any damage, but I’ll be extra careful.”

The boats were pulling up to the dock now, and I could see the salmon from the beach. The kids, including Annabelle, were waving toward one of the boats. Johnny was at the dock, waiting. The name on the boat was
Daddy’s Dream
. I pointed toward the boat. “Is that your daddy’s boat, Annabelle?”

“Oh yes,
Daddy’s Dream
. Isn’t it a wonderful boat?”

“Yes, it is. How long has he been out?”

“Oh, forever.”

Becky interjected, “The boats were in just last week—a fair catch but low poundage, not much meat. Now that the salmon are running, things are picking up, but they need several good catches like this one to keep the town going. This is a good sign, but it’s just the beginning. The people will pay bills at the local stores with this catch. The next catch will stock the shelves, and a third catch would give them a little extra to make repairs to homes and possibly have a nice Christmas. A fourth catch would be put in savings in preparation for a bad year. This is the first good catch this year. All others catches broke even—enough to stock the boats for another outing, but that’s about it. That leaves the wives and children living off the little they make in the town or using the credit at the stores.”

“They don’t make money off tourists or anything else?”

“Very little. Fishing is it. Your staying at the inn will make our family enough to make it through the winter, even with bad catches. Paying for two rooms is going to be great. It will take a lot of pressure off Father, but he will still be doing his best for the town. Notice that almost the entire town is here?”

“Yes.”

“Many of the people will not get paid for helping out,” Becky said. “They do it because the town needs the help. If the town had to employ people to do all this work, they would be sitting around most of the time, doing nothing. There would not be enough money to pay them, and the cost of the fish would be sky high. Instead, they all work for the common good of the town. Most have everyday jobs, but who is going to be at Betty’s Diner right now? Maybe a few military people, but that’s it. The base isn’t that big, only three hundred people. They eat on base and do most of their shopping at the exchange. There are no real reasons for the military to come into our town when the other town has restaurants, movie theaters, a small mall, a bowling alley, and the main highway leading to other places. The choice for them is at the crossroads coming out of the mountains—ten miles west to this town or twelve miles east to the other one.”

I said thoughtfully, “No one is in the town, so no one is buying anything—no shoppers, no one eating, no one needing building materials. The store owners are left sitting alone. Being here and helping makes them part of the town, and the town will take care of them, if and when the need arises. Say no one buys anything for a long time, and they have no food.”

Becky added, “Actually, most of the store owners have husbands who work on the boats, but if the catch was lean long enough, then it would hurt them both, and so what you said is true. The few male store owners are mostly retired military. The gas station gets most of its money from the base, but it’s not much. The navy was going to put in a gas station on base, but the admiral protects this town and put a stop to it. He has land north of here and plans to retire there. We like him, and he wants to keep it that way. His wife works on base but does all her shopping and ordering in town. She is very much loved here.”

“How is my ordering stuff going to affect this town?” I asked.

“Depends on how much you order. A little won’t affect them much, but a lot would be highly welcomed, and the money would be put to good use. They won’t count on it continuing, so don’t worry about having to keep it up. Our people are very conservative when it comes to saving. Most of it will go into the bank for that time when fishing won’t keep things going. Some of it will go to repairs in the town. They’ve been trying to get the money to build a new school for years. The navy would help, but the town refuses to take charity.”

“A new school
 
… interesting.”

We were watching the boats, but now, Becky was watching me. “What are you thinking?” she asked.

“I was just thinking that there are a few things I could use too. Maybe I could use that information to do some good. For example, I may need a boat dock somewhere in this bay.”

“You might have difficulty getting permission for that. It’s one of the things the army wanted, and they were turned down.”

Annabelle looked at me and said, “You’re going to help us build a new school?”

I looked at her and whispered, just loud enough so Becky could also hear, “Annabelle, no one can know what I was just saying. Do you understand? If they find out I’m doing something like that, they may try to stop me.”

“If they stop you, then no new school?”

“That’s right, sweetheart.”

“I won’t tell. It sure would make my sisters happy. The school is cold in the winter.”

“Well, if you can keep this a secret, then we’ll fix that, okay?”

“I can keep secrets,” Annabelle insisted. “I’m keeping a secret that Becky loves you, so I can keep your secret too.”

I blushed slightly and said to Becky, “I think I need to watch what I say in front of this one.”

“I think that would be a good idea,” Becky responded, looking at Annabelle disapprovingly, yet with a hint of laughter in her eyes.

I could not believe how much fish was packed in ice on those boats. All six of the boat crews worked as one. They worked on two boats at a time, and when they were done with the first two boats, the crews all moved to the second two boats, and then the last two, until all of the boats were unloaded. Then they each returned to their own boats and started shoveling out the ice.

By the time the fishermen could come ashore and the cleanup and repair crews could go on board, it was turning dark. When Captain Crain, a big, rough-looking man with big eyebrows, came off his boat, he headed toward the dock supervisor. They talked for what seemed like an eternity while Annabelle was jumping up and down in anticipation. Finally, he started off the dock toward the inn. Annabelle ran toward him but then stopped short so she would not get that fishy smell on her. She started talking, and I don’t think she stopped until her daddy was entering a door to an outbuilding. When he saw his little girl, he wanted so much to grab her and hold her, but he didn’t. He just patiently listened and told her how much he missed her.

Becky said, “They don’t touch anyone until they’re scrubbed down. Fishing can be a smelly process, and going by the depth that they sat in the water, I’d say the hold was filled to the top. It was a great catch. This is a good time. Dinner will be ready just as soon as their baths are finished. The entire boat crew will be here only a few hours, so the wives are in the scrub house, taking care of their husbands in more ways than one. These men have a lot to come home for, and their women make sure they know it. Even if it’s a bad catch, the men know they’re loved.”

We went into the inn to wait with the children. I went into the kitchen and asked if I could help with anything. Carroll nodded. “Yes, bag these sandwiches and double-wrap them. When you’re done, put them into that cooler.” She started slicing more roast beef.

Colleen then took over the slicing, freeing Carroll to do other chores. While bagging the sandwiches, I watched Colleen work with the knife. She was extremely fast. I was expecting her to cut a finger off, and I saw Carroll was thinking the same thing. When Colleen passed Carroll more meat to put into the sandwiches, I could see the meat was sliced very thin and even. I think this put a little fear in Carroll, because she could only stare at Colleen.

“Carroll, please check that meat for bits of fingers and bone,” I teased. “Don’t look for blood because navy SEALs don’t bleed!” When Carroll saw I was holding back laughter, she started laughing. After that, everything was all right. She actually started singing a little. She had a good voice, and I enjoyed listening to her.

“Fishing. It sounds like illegal slavers caught a boatload of slaves and are planning on making a lot of money.”

“Master, I don’t think that fish are slaves. I get the feeling they eat them.”

“I don’t like slavery. We abolished it thousands of years ago. Still, we find creatures like these humans. Remember the Wansacks?”

“No, master.”

“The Wansacks were completely terminated, so it’s no surprise that you don’t remember. They took slaves, but like these humans, they ate more than they sold. Sad, and a good reason for complete destruction. Continue.”

“Master, I don’t think—”

“Continue!”