Page 2 of Day

Chapter One

Present Day

Leon

A hot burger, a shower, and a full night’s rest: the perfect picture of heaven for me.  I’d been on the ship for a month, and all I could think about was having a big, fat burger from that chain fast food restaurant.

I gave the guys on the boat a nod goodbye as I grabbed my bag that held a month’s worth of my life and walked off the big crab boat.  They’d made a show about us once, something about it being the most dangerous job in the world. It was definitely that and then some.

But it paid what I needed, and most things that would kill a guy on the boat wouldn’t end me.

The marina was mostly quiet, only the little waves hitting the sea wall could be heard around.

Just the way I liked it.

A small smirk graced my lips when my girl came into view.

Lily Blue.

My forty-foot sailboat.

I’d been living there since I turned twenty, ten years ago. She looked like she could use a little elbow grease to clean her up since I’d been gone. Barnacles were growing on her underside. I groaned, thinking about going under to clean her.

“Another day,” I told myself. They could wait. They could always wait. After I showered, my main goal was a burger then I’d take her out into open water. She needed a break from the dock.

I opened the door to see nothing had changed. The marina manager, Tony, kept an eye on her and had a key to air out the inside here and there, making sure nothing was off.

Obviously everything was good in my absence.

Lily Blue was my only girl, and all I needed. She had a small kitchen with all the appliances, a dining area behind it, and a long bench seat with blue cushions to match the booth ones.

I’d set up a small flat screen to the side so I could watch TV from anywhere in the small living quarters.

I walked into the bedroom in the back and set my bag on the bed, the only furniture in the room besides a small table and shelf to the right of it. I grabbed a towel from the closet to the left of the bed and peeled off my clothes, adding a trip to the marina laundromat to my list of things to do after food.

.

My shower was big enough for my six-three frame to move around freely. I’d given up extra closet space to have it that way. I turned on the faucet and waited for the water to warm. Thankfully my heater was still working well. I jumped in and closed the shower door behind me.

The grime that came off my skin from the month-long trip swirled down the drain, and I just stood there, letting the water work its magic on my muscles. I dragged myself reluctantly out of the spray when it started to turn cold, and dressed in a pair of jeans and an old sweater. The weather was starting to chill, and it was always slightly cooler on the water. I looked at myself in the mirror before heading out. My blond hair needed a cut, and my beard a trim. But otherwise I looked like the normal, all-American man. My brown eyes looked tired, and if that wasn’t a clear sign that I needed a break then I didn’t know what was.

I thought about my friend Charles, and decided to give him a call tonight and see if he wanted to go when I took Lily out to sea.

Despite the fact that I paralyzed him from the waist down, he remained my closest friend. No giving up on life, or our friendship. I owed him everything. I worked hard and paid for all his medical expenses. He was all I had. Even my parents abandoned me after they found out what a freak their son was. No more pro-football future, in their eyes, spelled failure. I was nothing more to them than the disappointed promise of a life of luxury.  My grandparents had taken me in for my last year of high school, and now they were retired by the beach in Florida. They deserved it, after everything.

Charles always said I was better off without parents, and over time I’d finally swallowed that pill, accepting that it was their loss.

I opened the window in the kitchen to air Lily Blue out a little more, grabbed my wallet, climbed up the four steps then closed the door to the cabin.  Tony must had taken a power washer to the deck, because she looked pretty clean. I passed the helm, and the small, three-person, cushioned bench and took the step off my boat to the dock.

When I looked up from my boots, my gaze fell upon three people sitting at the picnic table closest to my boat.  Two men and one woman. Odd. The blond man looked at me and held up a white bag with my preferred burger chain restaurant logo on the side. What the hell?

“Care to join us?” he asked, and while the thought was tempting, I would just go get the burger myself. This was bizarre.

“Pass,” I called out.

The woman peered at me and smiled nicely. I felt myself walking toward her, and before I knew it I was standing in front of them. The need to talk to them was strong inside me.