Manpot's Tales of the Tropics (7 page)

Unlike the infamous Jimmy Buffett song "Fins" ...she
didn't come down from Cincinnati…Beverly came down from Sturgis,
South Dakota.

Now having a name like Beverly in a town like Sturgis
was tough enough for this young lady…but she found those winters,
with the icy wind barreling down from the Black Hills, even tougher
to handle.

She enjoyed her little town ...especially in August
when twenty five thousand crazies would descend on it for the
annual" Bike Week", but it was time for this young lady to go
searching for her dream.

It was dream where the only ice she'd see would be in
a cocktail glass...

She'd read her copies of "Islands" and " Caribbean
Travel and Life" until they were totally dog eared and she
endlessly searched the internet for that job in paradise ...The
Caribbean was the place she was going to be…but there were so many
islands beckoning her name ...

Beverly realised quickly that her best chance of
landing work was on an American island ...and her best chance of
landing work on an American island was probably on St Thomas, in
the US Virgin Islands ...a major tourist destination.

She heard about all the tourists and she heard about
the crime rate but the one thing Beverly liked about St Thomas was
it was so close to many other islands with names right out of a
pirate book…Tortola, Jost Van Dyke, Norman, Cooper...and
Anegada.

As the icy wind beat against the windows of her tiny
apartment in Sturgis on a frigid late October night she dreamed of
jumping on a ferry in shorts and T shirt with a back pack and a
cold beer and tracing the footsteps of Blackbeard through those
magical islands...He had found treasure in those islands and
Beverly was sure she'd find her personal treasure there too...

Every day Beverly e mailed bars and restaurants
looking for a job that would at least get her into the area she so
desperately wanted to be.

Finally...it came…an assistant manager/ bar tender at
a bar and restaurant in the capitol of St Thomas…Charlotte
Amalie...

Beverly had to be there within a month for the start
of high season ...and had to find a place to stay and, probably, a
beaten up island car to get around ...

Now Beverly did not have a lot of money and quickly
realised that flying down would cost her hundreds of dollars ...and
she'd have to get to Sioux Falls to catch her flight...

She counted her cash and spending the money on the
airfare would leave her close to broke…but she bit the bullet and
bought the ticket. Friends said they'd give her a ride to the Sioux
Falls airport ...and two weeks later she found herself locking her
front door in Sturgis for the last time and dragging her duffel
bag, containing all her worldly possessions, into the back of her
friend's car.

Time to start the next faze of her life.

Her instructions were simple ...arrive in St Thomas,
jump in a cab and ask the driver to drop her at "The Petite Pump
Room" above the Tortola ferry dock…order a cold drink and wait for
Rick to arrive. If he's not there in an hour ask the bartender to
call.

It all sounded too good to be true...

Nearly twenty hours after leaving freezing Sturgis,
South Dakota Beverly found herself staring out over the waters of
Charlotte Amalie harbour.

It was easy to ignore the mega cruise ships moored at
the massive dock far to her left. Instead she sat on the balcony of
"The Petite Pump Room" with a Red Stripe in her hand, watching the
sea planes take off and land…and sailboats motor slowly out of the
harbour heading towards St John and the British Virgin Islands. The
tropical sun warmed her frozen limbs and she had never felt more
alive in her life...

Suddenly she smelt something even more intoxicating
than the trade winds…fried chicken. Beverly realised she hadn't
eaten during those twenty hours of travel…and that smell of fried
chicken made her tummy rumble.

She looked in her wallet ...there were a few twenties
a couple of fives ...and a dozen ones. She ordered the fried
chicken,

Minutes later she tucked into her plate of fried
chicken and fries covered with Matouk's hot sauce .It was the best,
most exotic meal, she could ever remember having.

As she washed the feast down with her second Red
Stripe she suddenly became aware of someone calling her name.

She looked up and there stood her new boss, Rick. He
was suntanned, weather beaten…and looked very inch the beach bum he
truly was.

"You must be Beverly", said Rick, as his new
bartender/assistant manager tried to wipe the chicken grease from
her face.

Before she knew it he was sitting beside her ordering
a Red Stripe and a plate of fried chicken. She looked at him and he
smiled again.

"So…what do you think of paradise so far?" he
said.

Beverly tried not to stare at her new boss but her
first impressions were: his hair had been cut by a "Weed Wacker"…he
had an earring…he had long scar down the left side of his face…the
top of one of his fingers was missing …and he had a smile that lit
up the bar.

"Oh God!" she thought, "I could be in love."

Rick explained to Beverly how he hoped things would
work. The bar wasn’t opening for at least another couple of weeks
but he had work for her to do. There was a small guest cottage at
his villa over on the north shore where she could stay until she
started making money and could afford rent.

Rick had some business to take care of in Puerto Rico
for a couple of days so her first task would be to take care of his
beloved old sheepdog Shep.

They finished the fried chicken and Red Stripes, Rick
grabbed her duffel bag and walked Beverly outside to where his old
dune buggy was parked in the shade.

Soon they had escaped the crowded streets of
Charlotte Amailie and were heading over the hills to the north
shore...

Suddenly she saw the Atlantic Ocean spread out in
front of her glimmering in the tropical sun. Although she hardly
knew him she grabbed Rick and gave him a big kiss. He almost
swerved off the road.

Minutes later they pulled into the gravel driveway of
Rick's villa.

Well "villa" was a bit of stretch ...it was a funky
bungalow with a spectacular view of the ocean and Magen's Bay
below. Behind the villa was a tiny converted garage. Beverly's
guest house.

To Beverly it looked like the Taj Mahal.

Rick carried Beverly's duffel bag into the cottage
and dumped it on the bed. The trade winds blew through the little
house carrying a scent of jasmine and sea spray.

Rich very formally shook Beverly's hand…gave her the
spare key to the "villa" and told her to sleep well. He'd be back
in a couple of days ...so she could get settled in…and just take
care of his dog Shep.

The sun was starting to set as Beverly walked outside
and down a tiny path to the beach below. She couldn't remember ever
being happier as she watch the sun perform that perfect fast dive
into the ocean that it always seems to do near the equator.

And then she was given that most precious gift of
all…the "green flash." Few have seen the "green flash" and many
believe it does not really exist ...but to those of us who have
witnessed this amazing phenomenon of the reflection of the sun on
the water as it dips below the horizon, it's something you won’t
soon forget.

For Beverly it surely meant she had made all the
right moves and had finally found "home".

She slept like a baby that night as the breezes
cooled the room and the tree frogs sang her a tropical lullaby.

Just before dawn she heard Rick drive off to the
airport in his dune buggy ...but she rolled over and slept for
another hour.

Finally she awoke to a sun beam shining right in her
eyes ... It took her a moment to realise just where she was. She
pulled on a T shirt and shorts and a baseball cap and strolled out
into the morning sun.

Then she remembered...she must feed Shep.

She grabbed the house keys and opened the door...

There lay Shep…stone cold dead.

At first Beverly refused to believe it ...she shook
Shep and even tried to open his eyes. But Shep was one very dead
dog.

Beverly burst into tears...

Here she was in paradise…possibly meeting the man of
her dreams ...and now she'd killed his dog. Well she knew she'd
really had nothing to do with it ...but she felt like she'd killed
his dog.

Poor Beverly walked outside to try to compose
herself. Rick had left his cell phone number and she knew she had
to call him. This was not how she'd imagined her first day of
island life would be.

Finally she plucked up the courage to make the
call.

He was not only understanding...he was very
apologetic. Shep was very old and had not been doing so well for a
while. Rick felt awful that he'd left and now poor Beverly had to
deal with one very dead pet.

Obviously with the tropical heat she couldn’t leave
Shep there till Rick's return. Rick told her to take him to the
vet's and the good doctor would take care of things. Rick gave
Beverly the address, apologised again, and hung up,

It was then Beverly realised she had no
transportation and no way of getting poor Shep to the vet's.

She burst into tears again...

Now Shep was a big guy and weighed close to fifty
pounds but Beverly realised she had only one choice.

She walked to the guest "bungalow" dumped all her
belongings from her duffel bag and went back to the villa.

After about half an hour of struggling she managed to
get poor dead Shep into the duffel bag.

She grabbed a cold beer from Rick's fridge and tried
to compose herself. She had no idea if there were buses on this
island and she could not afford a cab ...even if she knew who to
call to get one.

So she stumbled outside into the hot tropical morning
dragging her duffel ...and Shep...behind her.

Slowly she started to head in the direction of the
vet's office. It was about ninety degrees and her T shirt was
already soaked with sweat.

About a mile down the road "Mongoose" was trying to
recover from a wild night out. His head was throbbing and he knew
the only thing that would help....a cold beer.

He climbed into his battered sedan and turned the
key…the engine barely turned over ...and then fired up. He wiped
the sweat from his brow and crunched the gears as he jammed it into
first.

"Mongoose" headed north and Beverly...dragging her
duffel bag and Shep behind her...headed south.

A minute later their worlds collided.

"Mongoose" was not paying much attention and he'd
drifted onto the right side of the road (they drive on the left in
the Virgin Islands). He looked up just in time to see a sweat
stained Beverly with a look of wide eyed terror on her face.

"Mongoose" screeched to a halt.

"I'm sorry ma'am", he blurted out, and "the sun was
in my eyes"

As the sun was rising from the east this was a bit of
a stretch but the best "Mongoose" could muster in his condition.
Then his eyes did the best job they could of focusing ...first on
the very beautiful woman in front of him ...then on the bag she was
dragging behind her.

"Do you need a ride?" he asked, knowing the answer
already.

"Oh...yes...really...yes," said Beverly.

Before she knew it "Mongoose" was out of his car and
the duffel, and Shep, were over his muscular shoulder.

"Man, what have you got in here?" said "Mongoose" as
he stumbled towards his car.

The question hit Beverly like a ton of bricks
...obviously she could not tell a total stranger the truth ...that
she was carrying the remains of her new boss' beloved pet down a St
Thomas street in ninety degree heat.

"Well, I just got here", said Beverly thinking fast,"
and that bag's got my computer and all my electronic gear in
it."

The next thing Beverly knew she was on the ground
getting showered with dust and gravel as "Mongoose" made his
getaway with his bag of "electronic swag".

He'd knocked her down and grabbed the duffel bag…and
Shep.

Beverly started to cry again...

And then she started to laugh...

"Mongoose" was hard on the gas heading down the road
believing he'd just scored a couple of thousand dollars worth of
high end electronic gear. What he'd scored was one dead dog.

Of course "Mongoose" headed straight to the local bar
where he left his car ...with the bag and Shep locked safely
inside. He left it there for five hours. The temperature inside the
car topped one hundred and thirty degrees.

Needless to say ...when "Mongoose" stumbled back out
of the bar he became aware very quickly that it wasn’t "electronic
gear" in that bag…He was in very smelly trouble and he knew it.

Now it's hard to feel sorry for a thug like
"Mongoose" but his come-uppance came in one sparkling moment. The
moment he decided to knock down Beverly and grab her bag.

There was only one thing for "Mongoose" to do. He
pushed the car out of the parking lot…down a ravine and set it on
fire.

Shep got his just cremation…and, in destroying the
evidence, "Mongoose" lost his most valuable asset.

Sometimes there is justice in this world...

As for Beverly ...Rick came back from his trips and
as they watched the sunset together, she got the courage to tell
him the tale.

The next thing she knew they were both laughing
hysterically.

When he finally got his breath back Rick said he was
heading over to Tortola the next weekend on the ferry ...would
Beverly like to come along? He felt it was the least he could do to
make up for everything the poor girl had gone through.

A few days later they took the ferry to Tortola's
Soper's Hole…they lunched at the Jolly Roger overlooking the water
...and then rented a car and drove over the hill to Bomba's
Surfside Shack. They sipped Bomba punch and looked out over Apple
Bay.