Inside were two bottles of dark rum, one of Scotch whiskey, and two squat bottles filled to their sweet golden seals with fancy-schmancy French brandy. He grinned. Nowthiswas worth something.
He sat in the sand, his knees up, and leaned back against the trunk, then broke the seal on the whiskey and took a swig. “Ahhhhhh.” He toasted the rising sun. “Good stuff. Burns all the way down,” he muttered, then took another long pull. He coughed and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Things were looking up.
“Whatchadoing?”
He whipped his head around.
Theodore stood behind him, about ten feet away, eating a banana and rocking on his bare toes.
The trunk blocked the kid’s view, but Hank shoved the bottle in the sand and stood up anyway. He didn’t want him coming closer. “Where are the others?”
“By the coconut trees.” Theodore finished the banana and craned his head to see better while he chewed. He swallowed, then asked, “Where’d you find the trunk?”
“In the water.”
“What’s in it?”
“Nothing.” Hank slammed the lid closed.
The kid’s eyes grew wide and round. “Why are you naked?”
Hank looked down and mentally swore. He shoved the lid back up. “I was swimming. Say, kid, wanna do me a favor?”
He nodded.
“My clothes are down the beach. Behind you. By that grove of coconut trees. Go and get ’em for me.”
“Sure!” Theodore spun around and ran down the beach.
Hank gathered the bottles in his arms faster than he could deal himself an ace and shoved them under a thick hibiscus bush near the rocky edge of the beach. He covered them with some sand and then rushed back in big, loping steps.
By the time Theodore had returned, clothes flapping behind him, Hank sat on the trunk, trying to breathe slowly and evenly.
The kid handed him his clothes. He took them, turned around, and stepped into his pants. He heard the kid gasp.
“What are those purple marks on your back?” Hank tied a knot in the piece of rope he used for a belt. “Whip marks.”
“They whipped you in prison?”
“Yeah.”
“Do the marks still hurt?”
“Not anymore.”
“Did it hurt then?”
He shrugged into his shirt and buttoned the second to the last button, the only button. “Yeah.”
Theodore was quiet for a minute, then asked, “Why did they whip you?”
“Nothing better to do.” Hank started walking down the beach. “Let’s get outta here.”
“What about the trunk?”
He turned around and scowled down at the kid. “What about it?”
“Aren’t you gonna take it back?”
