Salty Sky by Seth Coker Read Free Book Online Page B

had been reading.

    JOE KNEW THE trainers’ plan didn’t include the girls staying in their own stateroom. Who could resist the primate grunts that passed for their discourse? He grinned at their disappointment from the first night.
    Joe reflected on a good day. During the ride to North Carolina, he spent a lot of time with the nurses, and the trainers kept to themselves. As they headed to port, the sky was sunny, but the waves grew larger. The captain said the first hurricane of the season was six hundred miles to the east. Joe kept wondering what about being around a beautiful woman made the air a little clearer and the sun a little brighter.

    THAT AFTERNOON, WHEN the boat had docked, the girls changed into shorts, sports bras, and running shoes. They found a jogging path around an elementary school on the island near some marshes and did a couple of loops. The path was busy with joggers and dog walkers. A field hosted folks tossing Frisbees. On a concrete basketball court, men played five versus five, with extra players waiting for the next game.
    They stopped at a public boat ramp in the shadow of a drawbridge connecting the island to the mainland. It was two hundred yards and several socioeconomic levels from the marina. There were kids crabbing in knee-deep water. Old black men sat on five-gallon buckets, fishing with cut bait. Flat-bottomed metal boats and fiberglass ski boats queued up to get out of the water. Men backed trailers attached to pickup trucks onto the ramp and snapped at their wives as they tried to load the boats onto the trailers. The men from every boat without children dumped empty beer cans into the open-top trash cans in the parking lot.

    IN THE EVENING, Joe and Tony walked across the bridge. They found two stools at a busy oyster bar with seven-foot-high ceilings and ordered two pounds of steamed shrimp, cornbread, and longnecks. The place did good business. After dinner, they bought a pack of Winstons and another round. They tipped out and went to the front porch to watch the busy two-lane street and sidewalk.
    The trainers and the nurses were gone when they got home. Joe came across a small urge to track them down and have a couple of nightcaps with Ashley.

    THE TRAINERS WERE in their tight black uniforms, cologne applied and waiting by the time Ashley was ready to go out. The girls hadn’t seen much of them that day. Occasionally, Gino tried to awkwardly claim possession of one of Ashley’s friends. The intent seemed more a signal to his friends than to hers; her friend was, aside from polite interaction, unresponsive.
    Generally, the guys spent the day in their staterooms watching movies, only coming out to sunbathe for a couple of hours. Now they were drinking vodka tonics. The captain poured pinot grigio for the girls, and they had sunset cocktails while he brought out a tray of snacks.
    For dinner, they went to a seafood restaurant. A five-piece reggae band played the outside seating area, where there were around thirty people eating dinner and listening to the music. Ashley wondered how much the guys in the band were making for these couple of hours; they were really good. How many times did U2 play for thirty people before they started selling out football stadiums? Maybe that’s how her business would have to start.
    After the band finished, the girls walked back over the bridge to the island marina. On the way, they passed the trainers, who were following their ears to a dance club across the street. Back on the boat, the girls locked their cabin door and were asleep before midnight.
    A secretive knock woke Ashley and her friends. She looked at her phone: three thirty in the morning. The knock became less timid. It grew persistent, even a little angry. The girls, used to sleeping in hospital break rooms, covered their heads and went back to sleep.

7
    ON SATURDAY MORNING , Barry went for chicken and biscuits and Jay stocked libations while Cale prepped the vessel. He lowered the