“My Ship Comes In” is the fourth story, a novella, in T.K. O’Neill’s Northwoods Pulp Reloaded release of three short crime stories and this longer story.
Carole Loraine Stivers Waverly, to be exact, my little flower child, in all her swirling confusion and beauty.
I was happy to see her and ecstatic to reunite with Mike.
Carole and I had been quite the couple. I don’t think we spent one night apart for the first three years of our marriage. We fancied ourselves like John Lennon and Yoko Ono, even had their album cover on our bedroom wall. Two Virgins—that was us.
But when the marriage fell apart, it was gone in a hurry: seemingly happy at Christmas—separated by the Fourth of July. Went from lovers to haters in one hell of a hurry. I guess it was my fault but sometimes I’m not so sure.
It’s clear to me now that I was trying to bring back the past. If only I’d been smarter or tougher or richer, maybe I never would’ve brought them to Florida. Could’ve kept them out of this mess, if only I’d been strong enough to make it alone…
Chapter 2
Out here on the sand, the waiting is tearing me up. The more I worry about the boat, the more I start to think about Carole and Mike: how much I miss them. The thought makes me hurt, a sad, sick sort of pain.
My only escape from this lonely prison is to go back in my mind and try and see where it all went wrong. Drift back to the edge of disaster and see where I slipped off.I can see now where our life began to change, how I let certain things push me in the wrong direction.
We were doing okay there in the beginning. Had a decent apartment and a semi-normal life and Florida seemed okay. I was staying clean and had a job as a tennis instructor at a resort and spa in Clearwater that was paying the bills. The three of us seemed reasonably happy.
Then I had one bad break. A real bad break…
Slipped on a leaf playing in a money doubles match, broke my leg and couldn’t work anymore. Had no health insurance or financial safety net. But there were plenty of pain pills around.
(To be continued)
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