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Jill was at a loss for words. She opted to remain silent. Shauni frowned in a sudden thought, "How can our government let this stuff go on? It IS still going on, right?" she answered her own question, "It HAS to be or why else would the Institute be so secretive about their training programs for dolphins.. There's got to be a reason why those activists have been causing trouble over there for so long... Man, there's got to be an easier way than using animals for military research and development." Eddie Kramer came walking by with a bag of popcorn. He had overheard part of their conversation. He held out the rare snack. "Found a packet that no one else knew about.. Want some?" Jill dug in eagerly. Eddie noticed Shauni's unusual lack of interest in the buttered morsels, "Shauni?" She didn't hear him, eyes growing full and moist. Jill spoke up around a crumbly mouthful. "She's worried about the dolphin." "Oh, " Eddie nodded. He turned to his fiancee and hugged her from behind, waving the steaming bag under her trembling chin. "MMm, don't these look good?" he snatched up a few and held them to her mouth, "Come on, eat me." he said in a tiny cartoon voice, pleading in baby talk, "Eat me, Shauni, plleassse..." Shauni's face showed a whisper of a grin. "There you go, " Eddie said in a normal tone, "Got one out of you that time. I love your smiles. I never get sick of them. Come on, quit worrying about poor ol' Flipper. She'll soon be safe at home." "At home just in time to be a living bomb!" Shauni countered. Eddie scratched his head in confusion, his attention was already half back onto the Oakland game, "Shauni, don't make such a big deal out of all this. Some animals.. are... are just meant to serve man." Shauni scoffed, eyes blazing. "As pieces of meat to torture and maim all for the sake of science?" Eddie covered his mouth in horror. ::Oh, boy.:: he thought. ::Now, I really opened up a can of worms.:: He tried to reiterate, "I didn't mean that. I-I- I'm just as opposed to rabbits and mice being used to test new make up products as ..as..as you are." He smiled at his own reasoning ability, "And I'm sure that there are plenty of roles that dolphins fill that are good, too. Am I right, Jill?" The blonde woman looked up from a volley ball game on TV, "Hmm? Oh, yeah, uh, plenty. The Navy had a dolphin in the sixties, named Tuffy, who was actually a deep sea "lifeguard" of sorts. He used to carry a rescue line to divers who became lost in the murk around a sea station and showed them the way back to Sea Lab in just a few minutes. Tuffy was creditted for saving twelve lives." Shauni brightened measurably. "Really?" she sniffed. Jill nodded vigorously. "Absolutely." "Maybe that's what our dolphin does and maybe that's why they want her back so badly. Cause she's so valuable." "Could be. Could be." Jill touted, happy that Shauni was perking up. Shaui began eating what was left of Eddie's popcorn. She got a far away look in her eyes. "Yeah, that's what she does. She saves lives. Just like me.." Sitting behind her, Eddie got a little too enthusiastic over the game. "Way to go, team! What a way to blow them to smithereens!!" Shauni's smile paled into a shocked look and she erupted into tearful, sobbing keens. Jill slugged Eddie with her magazine, "Way to go Mr. Psychology, now you've REALLY cheered her up a whole bunch!" Eddie regarded his co-workers with a genuine dismay and he promptly enveloped Shauni in a deep hug, stroking her hair and murmuring reassurances. "What?! What did I say now? Shh, baby. Easy. Don't cry. You know I hate it whenever you do that." "It's the old social foot in the mouth again, Shauni, so give him some slack. Guys are completely clueless to that genetic blunder because a little of their gray matter was sacrificed solely for the inclusion of more muscles. They know not what they do." Jill sighed, in whispered confidentiality to her young rookie lifeguard. Shauni laughed and nodded, reaching for a kleenix. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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*************************************************************** From: "Clairissa Fox" <canaryyello01@yahoo.co.uk> Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 07:53:06 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Shirt Trick... Shauni had made it back to Tower 34 just in the nick of time. It was three o'clock on the nose. Eddie had gone on patrol and had left her alone for a short time. She glassed the water with a practiced sweep. The rip current had died to harmless swirls. The alert, was over. It was easy to relax. Even the swimmers sensed the sea had become calmer, for they laughed and splashed louder than ever among the tide's incoming waves. Shauni scanned for trouble spots and looked to the slate stone jetty in a routine check. She delighted in what she saw. The errant dolphin was there spouting streams onto three kids at the jetty's foot. A woman in a wheelchair was with them but she remained well away from the edge of the steep rock piles. Shauni noticed that one of the boys was Mitch Buchannon's son, who wasn't supposed to be out by that part of the beach. Shauni shrugged, she didn't know why Hobie wasn't allowed to hand around the jetty neighborhood. He was playing it safe enough by staying on the cement causeway. The blonde lifeguard put on her sunglasses and refocused her attention back to the shallows in front of her tower. She made a mental note to ask Hobie how much fun it was to play with and feed a tamed dolphin. She couldn't help but feel a little envious. ::Oh, well.:: she thought. ::There'll be time for that later.:: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- They had run out of fish from their third bucket. Hobie felt that Cory had enjoyed feeding the dolphin more than the rest of them put together. Suzy acted differently towards her. Between mackerels, she always returned to a certain spot, just touching Cory's outstretched hand with her head, before racing off again after a tossed fish. It made him feel a little jealous. Chris and Carly had already become bored and had left for Baywatch HQ. He considered doing the same thing. "Wait a minute. Want to see something neat?" Cory asked him. "Yeah, sure." Cory looked around in her hand bag, not finding something, "I wanted to show you a trick that all dolphins can do with a little encouragement. I need something to wrap up one of these rocks down here by my feet." "You mean this rock?" Hobie asked as he hefted a grapefruit sized chunk of stone. "Umm. Hmm. " she accepted the boulder. Her grip was surprisingly strong, "Yep. Now I need a piece of cloth to put this in. Find me a scrap, and I'll show you something that'll knock your socks off." Unceremoniously, Hobie peeled off his shirt and presented it to his new friend. Cory blinked, "I can't use this. It's going to get wet." "That's ok, I can always dry it when I skate back home again for dinner." "All right." The crippled woman bound the stone within Hobie's red striped shirt. When she was through, she tossed the stone into the water beside the dolphin. "Now," she breathed. "Raise an arm over your head and pretend that you're throwing a baseball. Then tell Suzie to fetch the toy. She'll do it." Hobie was skeptical. He couldn't even believe he handed over his favorite shirt. He figured it was gone for good, so he had nothing further to lose by humoring her and doing what she asked, "Fetch, Suzie! Fetch the toy!" He swung an arm out over the water. Unseen, Cory put something to her mouth and blew. The dolphin moved. And dove deep, disappearing for several seconds. The sodden mass flipped out to land by Hobie's feet. The dolphin chattered happily. "Wow! How did she do that?" Hobie said, retrieving his soaking shirt. "Dolphins are really intelligent animals. Rather like a family dog." Cory replied. "But dogs have to be TRAINED to do tricks." Hobie insisted. "You've forgotten. Koko is tame." Hobie spent a minute wringing out his shirt. "I know SHE is, but ..what I want to know is h--?" A scuffle of thongs on pavement broke his concentration. It was Eddie Kramer, "I see you found the little daredevil everybody's been looking for. She gave the Coast Guard boys quite a chase." Hobie looked up and grinned, "Yeah.. Cory here says th--" "Who?" Hobie looked around. Cory Davison was gone. "She was here a minute ago." |
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Eddie fixed Hobie with an all business glower, "Uh, huh, and your shirt just happened to blow into the water way over here by the jetty on its own while you were just roller blading." "Well, ..ah,...no." "I'm waiting, then how did it get wet?" "The dolphin fetched it for me. She's real smart! Er,.. That woman, er, who's gone, ..wrapped my shirt up around a stone and.." Eddie was unmoved, "Sounds like a line to me..." "No, really! It's the truth!" "Hobie..." he warned. Hobie shut up. "I thought you were supposed to be a junior lifeguard. You know the dangers out here by the jetty better than anybody. Your dad isn't going to like this." The remorseful boy looked at his stocking feet. "So you're going to tell him?" "Maybe," Eddie said, hefting his can onto a shoulder, "Maybe not." Hobie looked up, a desperate hope in his eyes, "You mean?" Eddie interrupted him, "Provided that you are out of here in five seconds. I'm counting.. one,.....two...." Hobie scooped up his skates and made tracks, "I'm gone. Bye, Eddie." The boy disappeared instantly. Eddie shook his head ruefully, "Kids today; they'll do anything." He turned toward the sea and was greeted by a treble warble. He crouched down, "Hey ya, girl. Are you going to cause trouble for me?" The dolphin chirped companionably. Eddie smiled. "Yeah, well, I think I'll stick around for a little while." His instincts were right on. It wasn't too long before he was nearly run over by a cluster of excited children, cheering over their discovery of the famous dolphin from the new flashes. "Hey, hey, hey. Be careful, " Eddie warned, "Those rocks are slippery." He looked to the hyperactive creature by his feet. Then he laughed, "It looks like you're gonna be a pied piper to every kid in the neighborhood." The marine mammal leaped happily. "Ok, guess I can stick around and make sure you all stay safe." Eddie retreated to an open space to keep an eye on things. |
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************************************************************************ From: Jeremy H <skydivingstreaker@y...> Date: Thu Feb 17, 2005 2:44 am Subject: The Dawn Spell Trevor awoke the next morning in a cold sweat. All night he had dreamed of swirling water and of the beautiful woman in the surf. He turned to the clock on his nightstand and found that he had only slept three hours. He laid back down again.. Sleep came next to impossible. Finally, he got up and threw on a flannel shirt and a pair of Levi jeans. Trevor Cole walked to the beach to listen to the calming sound of the waves. He sat on a well known rock to watch the newly rising sun. The sky was a brilliant pale red behind him and the seafoam was dashed pink at his feet. He looked around him, surprised that so few people were enjoying the dawn, as he was. Trevor heard a splash to his left. With a sudden start, he peered out into the water. He was just in time to see a tail slide under the surface. He ran closer to the waterline, his heart hammering in his chest. ::Not again.:: he thought. But he saw nothing else. "A sea lion, yeah. That's what I saw." he said aloud. His head still hurt from his near drowning two days ago and a cough came up unbidden from deep inside Trevor's lungs. He sat down once more, shivering. The doctor had said Trevor had been very lucky. He had only suffered a mild case of sun poisoning. It was his fever that had driven him into the water. The Australian suffered another chill, recalling that day. The whole numbing experience still had a very powerful hold on his emotions. There was a dim fear that wasn't ever there before. The off-duty club lifeguard stood and began to walk, ghosts hounding every step. He ended up at Crystal Pier. Here, too, was devoid of people. The restaurant at the end of the walkway was still closed. Trevor leaned over a rail and looked deeply into the sea. Warm winds caressed his face, making his eyes water. Slowly, a semblance of peace settled gently over him. He thought he was alone, until he saw her. A blonde haired woman sat, almost obscured, in one corner of the deck. She was staring at the horizon with a far away expression on her face. "Hello." Trevor smiled. The woman jolted, a shocked look on her features."Oh, hi!..I- I didn't hear you approach." "I didn't mean to frighten you, sorry." The young woman brushed away the hair from her eyes, "You haven't. I just didn't expect to find anyone up so early." Trevor smiled politely but didn't say anything in return. He rested his forehead on top of his arms propped along the white railing. The headache was back again, and growing. "I've come to this place every day for the last ten years, and I've never seen anyone so depressed by the beauty of a dawn on the ocean. Want to talk about it?" Cory finally said. Trevor sighed. "Am I so transparent?" "Yup." He regarded this stranger in a new light. She had long hair the color of the purest fire. Her eyes were the greenest he had ever seen. Her oval face was set with a quiet patience and she had wrinkles by her mouth that told of an almost perpetual smile. She was wearing a jacket that matched her eyes and a blue plaid blanket lay, covering her lap. Strangely, Trevor found himself spilling out his soul to her. He discovered she was hanging on his every word, intently. "....so then I got a clean bill of health and was released from the hospital. You know, I still can't figure out who or what I saw out there." |
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"Maybe your friend Mitch was right.. Perhaps you were seeing things.." Cory whispered. "No chance of that, the other lifeguards found a weird piece of jewelry around my throat when they dragged me out." The small woman said nothing. It was beginning to cloud over; California was going to get its share of rain. Trevor looked at the sky. "Say, it's really getting dark. How about I walk you home?" She looked up with a wry smile. "What's so funny?" Trevor asked. "That's going to be a little difficult to do.." she said, folding up her blanket. That's when Trevor Cole realized she was in a wheel chair with her legs locked tight into it. Taken aback, Trevor apologized and offered to push her home."Thanks, but I'll manage. Say, listen. If you ever want to talk again,I'm here this same time just about every morning." She turned to wheel away. Just then, a shaft of sunlight burst through the cloud cover and bathed the both of them in a golden haze. "Hey, do I know you?" Trevor asked. But the woman was already out of earshot and blending into the fog as she moved away. Trevor succumbed to the wishes of his body and sat down once more on his favorite rock to rest a few minutes later. His eyes closed. He blinked and a frighteningly vivid hallucination of a wolf, sniffed at his bare toes buried in the sand. |
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Sweating, Trevor screwed his eyes shut until the growling stopped. He finally acknowledged that his fever was back once again to plague his very thoughts. A truck pulled up along side of him and he snapped from his reverie. He recognized Craig Pomeroy from the public beach and Roy DeSoto, the paramedic from the suburbs who had taken care of him the day he had fallen sick, "Hi.." he ventured. "How are you feeling today, Trevor?" Craig asked, genuinely concerned for his former charge. "We saw you out here by yourself, looking a little green." "I'm not going swimming again if that's what you mean." he smiled weakly. He frowned. "Maybe I am still sick.." Trevor looked up with worn eyes. "I imagined I saw something in the water again today." "No you didn't." said Roy DeSoto, answering easily. "There's a tamed dolphin loose. He's been wreaking havoc on us for three days. People keep drowning themselves to see him." Trevor had to smile at that. Craig opened the door of the yellow beach truck. "Come on, How about coming to HQ with us for a cup of piping hot coffee? It looks like it's going to rain any second now." Trevor felt the first drops fall onto his shoulders. "Sounds like a plan." He stood. "Are you sure all the women won't lynch me once I'm there?" Craig grinned. "Been that much of a pest to the lifeguards, eh?" Trevor slowly eased himself into the cab seat next to Roy. "Guess I must've been a big one. Say, fellas, on your way here, did you happen to see a blonde haired woman in a wheel chair leaving the pier's beach area?" "Nope. She a friend?" Roy asked Trevor. "Nah, I just met her this morning. But I swear to you, I've seen her somewhere before." "Did you catch her name?" Craig asked. "Maybe I know it." Trevor frowned. "That's funny... I don't KNOW what her name is." He moaned in frustration. It was one more thing to worry about. "Don't get worked up about it." Roy soothed. "A few aspirin to lower your sun fever and two cups of caffeine ought to jar your memory. If you'd like, I'll take a look at you to see how you're really doing once we get there." They drove off. |
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Behind them, the song of a dolphin mingled with the rain. |
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************************************************************** From: "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> Date: Thu Feb 17, 2005 10:45 am Subject: Life's Lessons~~ Cory wheeled up the ramp of her apartment. It was the first time she had been home for days. She had stayed with her old friend Linda and helped her dog whelp fifteen Labrador puppies while her daughter Carly was away at junior lifeguards' camp. There was an official notice on the door frame. Cory ripped it down with shaking hands. It outlined a search warrant and a copy of the police report telling of the robbery that had occurred. And of the drugging of her dog, Kujo. Cory unlocked the door after reassuring herself that Kujo was fully recovered and well fed. She hurried inside frantically. Inside, she found all of her things were undisturbed, except for the crate. It was missing. Cory eased herself onto her bed. Her dolphin drawings had been neatly stacked in a pile and a handwritten note from one of the visiting officers lay next to them. It scrawled how much he had admired her artwork how he had personally made sure the house was re-secured with locked windows. Somehow, that innocent intrusion was nerve wracking. She hugged one sketch tightly to her breast. It was a pastel of the little golden dolphin statue. Cory's will snapped and she started to cry swollen tears without a sound. The drawing swam before her eyes, "Oh, Koko, they've found me. I-I was going to give all of the treasure back. It..it was wrong to keep it for so long.. I wasn't thinking.. I wasn't !!" Cory beat her dead legs in frustration with hard fists. The pain in her hands finally made her stop. She lay back down on her pillow, staring deep into the eyes of the dolphin drawing, "You are the answer to all my dreams. Koko, I won't let them take you away from me!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The rain had completely burned away in the brilliant sunlight. Mitch's office glowed in yellow warmth. Mitch Buchannon got up from his filing and twisted the venetian blinds shut. There was a knock at the door. "Come in.." Mitch invited. He looked up. A black and white photograph appeared in the open doorway. "Look familiar, Mitch?" Garner said as he stepped into the room with Vince Howard. Mitch made his guess, "Yeah. Isn't that a photo of the jewelry we pulled off of Trevor Cole's neck? And that's the comb Craig found." "Right on." said Vince. "The stuff is priceless. The comb alone is worth a cool 2.6 million." "Whoa...." Mitch's boggled. "I wonder who's losing sleep at night over these things." Garner smiled. "The La Jolla City Cultural Museum. They reported one of their shipping crates as missing earlier this morning." "No kidding." Mitch said, "Why'd they wait so long to report it?" "Now that's the interesting part of the story.." replied Vince, shuffling through the arrest folder he had brought with him. "Try me. Coffee, gentlemen?" he held out a cup to Garner first. The ebony policeman shook his head vehemently, "No thanks. You lifeguards keep feeding me enough as it is.." He split a gut, remembering the chase Mitch had only read about. "Ha! Mitch you should have seen Craig pulling out our man, looking as smug as you please." "You mean the robber who dumped all of his goods out onto the beach while trying to get away from you guys?" "Umm hmm. Trevor's necklace, comb and that crate belong to a new exhibit opening up next week. The missing artifacts were accidently SENT to the wrong address by courier. Our robber had a serious beef with the UPS system and he figured he'd right things properly, once and for all, on his own." Garner related. Mitch gawked. "Not the museum curator?!" "The one and the same." said Vince. "All he had to do was check out the only other address in town that was nearly identical to the museum's own address. N. Seventh Street as opposed to S. Seventh Street.. All of the stuff was there except for one thing, a small gold statue of a dolphin." "And you found the statue in the house." "Yes," said Garner, "And before you pounce all over me, the search and seizure we did in your district on the beach was legit, although the owner wasn't home at the time. We're still trying to locate her. The residence belongs to a one Cory Davison, an ex-Navy scientist of eight years." "It gets stranger.. and it's probably nothing. But my boys, Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto treated her daughter, Carly, the other day in school for a near fatal flare of a preexisting medical condition." "Small world. She ok?" "Who? The house owner or the daughter?" Garner asked. "Both." "They're fine. Carly's at Baywatch right now in camp and the watch tower says that they saw house lights go on over at the Davison house earlier this morning. Cory's finally returned home. At least, she was there then. They haven't seen signs of her since." "Gonna go talk with her?" Mitch asked. "What does she look like?" Vince Howard handed him a dossier and a photo of Cory. "She's beautiful. Are you going to press charges for mail theft?" "No. During the search, we found a letter she had written to the museum. She was going to send the crate back to where it belonged when she was ripped off." Vince said. Mitch set Cory's photo down onto the corner of his desk. There was another knock at the door. "Come in." said Garner and Mitch in stereo. They looked at each other in a mild double take. Two Coast Guard officials entered. One of them said, "Excuse me, lieutenant?" "Buchannon." Mitch finished for him, taking his hand in return greeting. "What can I do for you?" "One of our helicopter pilots has sighted an escaped naval dolphin in your area. I'm sure you've heard about it." Garner piped up. "We sure have. He's been running these lifeguards completely ragged." Mitch agreed wholeheartedly with Garner. "As he so bluntly put it. Yes, we have. We've heard and seen the results of your dolphin's encounters especially." "Yes, sir. It, unfortunately, got away from us. We were wondering whether or not a joint operation could be set up to recapture the animal using our trainers and your lifeguards. You see, we were thinking about using nets and--" "Look out!" Hobie Buchannon skated into the room and collided with his father's desk. He came nose to nose with Cory's photograph and read the name typed in bold print at the bottom, "Cory Davison, huh.." he breathed. Then he saw the military men with the Naval Institute's logo all over their uniforms. His heart took a leap. They were coming for the dolphin! He tried not to show the trepidation on his face. Mitch was startled. "Hobie? What are you doing here? Can't you see that I'm a little busy right now?" Hobie was crestfallen, "Gee, dad. I thought we were going to have lunch together with all the firemen, both paramedics and Chris DeSoto." |
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Mitch edged around the desk, "Excuse me gentlemen. This will only take a moment." He grabbed Hobie by the shoulders and started wheeling his son out the door, "How many times have I told you not to skate inside headquarters? You'll scuff the floor." Mitch smiled politely over his shoulders at his visitors. Hobie was oblivious to the finer points of etiquette, "You'll never guess what I found yesterday...." "A dolphin." "Yeah, how'd you know?" "I'm clairvoyant. Now would you mind getting out of here? Tell Station 51 to take a raincheck. Craig'll be more than happy to take them all on the noon day sand sweep in my place. Besides, he makes a better cross occupational ambassador." "Sure, no problem. One more thing, dad." But his father was already half inside the office again. "I don't have time to talk right now, Hobie.." Hobie called out after him, loudly. "It's about the picture of the lady on your desk. I ran into her a few days ago. I think she's a dolphin trainer who's worked with the escaped dolphin!" But Mitch wasn't listening anymore. "Later!" came the faint reply. Hobie shrugged and skated for the front door. He nearly ran into Shauni around the corner. "Whoa there!" she burbled as she caught him and saved them both a tangled fall to the floor. "Where's the fire?" "Sorry, Shauni." Hobie wriggled out of her arms and got out of there. She preceeded on to Mitch's crowded office. Hobie's voice floated back towards her, "I wouldn't go in there if I were you..." he warned. ::Uh, oh.:: she thought. Another father/son disagreement. She knew well, how those went. They still happened between herself and her OWN dad. -------------------------------------------- For twenty one years, Shauni had had to butt heads with him.. over everything: Which school she would attend, which cheerleading team to join, what clothes she was to wear. It was all very nauseating. She had absolutely no sense of individuality because Daddy had created her in the image that he wanted to see. Just to appease her own frustrations, Shauni started carrying out interests of her own, secretly. Like her modelling. ::Now that had fit well with Daddy's wishes.:: she thought ironically. ::Not.:: Shauni didn't even bother to tell him the amount of money she landed as a clothed exotic dancer in a nightclub her senior year in high school. The real problems began when she had started dating. Every guy had to be a doctor or a lawyer straight out of Yale with a six digit paycheck. ::Daddy was always the perfect matchmaker.:: Shauni frowned. But it was plain ol' Eddie Kramer who encouraged her to break away from the well do to Mr. McLane's devices to become whomever she wanted to be, no matter what. One of the first things they did away from Daddy McLane, was to go through lifeguard training together and then she moved out, despite a storm of protests. Only the law and the fact that Shauni was already a three years legal adult that kept Daddy McLane from pursuing them and taking her home again with him to the McLane Mansion. Naturally, Shauni fell in love with Eddie. For he was the first person who had ever respected her as the separate, living, FEELING individual she was who still had hopes and aspirations going on that were very different from those of his own. And he had never, ever stifled her; not even once. And that made Shauni feel truly loved for the first time in her life. ::Now the true test'll actually be marrying him and then having children of our own.:: she mused. ::Will we allow our kids the freedom to be themselves too?:: Shauni hoped that she had learned that lesson well enough in time for them. She smiled, thinking how wonderful it would be if they would turn out as free as Hobie Buchannon seemed to be. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shauni steeled herself and entered Mitch's ready room. Four heads in close conference looked up. "Shauni, what can I do for you?" Mitch piped up. She handed him a stack of index cards, "Here are the rescue cards for the last past week. You requested only those ones that involved the tame dolphin in some way." "Ah, great." Mitch smiled in relief, "Just in time." He took them from her and slapped them into the palms of the highest ranking navy official. "Nine people have nearly drown because of your freed dolphin. One of them, was a beach front lifeguard. I'll do anything to get rid of it." he said firmly, his eyes sparkling with anger. The big man aquiesced, "Ok. Let's get to work then. Here's what I've got outlined so far." and he started to recite his plans coordinating lifeguard clippers and coastline helicopters. Shauni turned to leave, then she turned back again after a slight hesitation. "Uh,, Mitch?" "Yes?!" he whispered, in barely contained fury. "I saw Hobie hanging around the jetty neighborhood yesterday." she said, thinking she was being protective of the child. "I thought you'd like to know that." "Hobie? He knows he's not supposed to go there. Where is he?" Shauni pantomimed rollerblading, shrugged both shoulders, and left. Mitch really had a hard time concentrating on the schematics of the huge dolphin "safari" operation after that. The official's voice droned on, "So, would this course of action be acceptable to you, Lieutenant?" Mitch looked up, "Hmm?" Garner and Vince nearly choked on their donuts, laughing hard behind his back. They retreated to the sanctuary of their beach four wheelers before they could destroy any more of Mitch's dignity. |
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hobie, minus his skates, dejectedly tromped up the ramp leading to Eddie's tower. He slumped wordlessly into the canvas chair next to him. The older red trunked man mimicked the boy's actions and slumped just as low into his own chair. Hobie was mildy surprised when Eddie didn't ask what was bothering him. In fact, it looked like Eddie was feeling a little down, too. The boy broke the silence. "Did you lose a swimmer today?" "Nope." Eddie said, not looking at him. "Lover's quarrel." "Oh." Hobie killed a moment by juggling with Eddie's sunglasses, binoculars, and a civilian CPR book. "Neat trick." Eddie said unenthusiastically. "Thanks." Pretty soon, Hobie got bored with counting all of the gorgeous babes he saw walking by in front of him. "Wanna talk about your problem?" "If you talk about yours." Eddie countered. "You first." "Ok, pretend that you are dad." "Shoot." Hobie took in a deep breath, imagining his father's face in front of him. "Dad, you told." "He did?!.....uh, I mean. I did?" "Yeah! Two muscleheads are with you now going over the big dolphin hunting trip details!" Eddie ran some fingers through his hair, "Oooo, rough, uh.. *cough* What can I do, son? She has to go. People have gotten themselves in a lot of trouble trying to get closer to her. Would you want to be held responsible for their lives?" "No." "Well, I am, Hobie. I have to worry about the thousands of people who come to the beach every day, expecting me and my guards to keep them safe." Then, a big, almost grown up, eleven year old boy, started to cry. Eddie startled, pulling his feet down from the tower railing. "Oh, geesh.." He put a reluctant hand on Hobie's shoulder. He hated it when kids cried too. He saw at least ten of them every day. He hated it especially when one of them was a close friend. "Aww, Hobe. Show some backbone. Just think, she'll be going home soon now and won't be starving anymore." Hobie's tears flooded anew. "But I wanted mom to see her!!" "Look, I know how difficult this is for you; when you want something so bad.. that...that ..that you can almost taste it." He nodded encouragingly. "No you don't. *sob*" "Sure I do. Listen.." Eddie guided Hobie's head to his red jacketted shoulder and held him close. "When I was nine, I found a puppy that didn't belong to me. I had him for two whole months before my dad located his real owners. My dad then told me, that I had to give him up.. That night, they came to take him away. I ran to my room and locked the door so I wouldn't hear them come inside the house to get him. When the front door closed for the final time, I couldn't resist peeking out my window. There I saw that the pupply belonged to a little boy, even younger than I was, and that he was crying...because he was so happy to see his Little Lucky again. Later, in school, I kept picturing how many nights that boy must've stayed awake worrying about Lucky and wondering whether or not he'd ever see him again. ...Then I understood, Someone ELSE needed that puppy more than I did and that it was very wrong to keep him apart from those who originally loved him." Hobie slowly stopped crying and just sat there, nestled in Eddie's arms. Eddie didn't want to move, "So you see, Hobe. That dolphin has a place where she belongs and it's up to all of us as lifeguards, to take her back there." Hobie thought hard about the boy, and the puppy, ...and Suzy. Finally, he found his inner peace. ------------------------------------------------------ |
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*********************************************** From: "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandraRey@hotmail.com> Date: Thu Feb 17, 2005 10:57 am Subject: The Glow in the Water.. Captain Stanley and the rest of the gang was enjoying toying around the strand in their beach trucks, paired off by twos together and shadowed by trucks, driven each, by a Baywatch team. Stoker was driving the sand hose truck, a sort of lifeguard fire jeep that had compressors that could pump out seawater from the ocean and turn it into fire supressant foam from short nozzles anchored onto a frame on top of the yellow truck's rooftop. They were surprised by how large Baywatch's service area was, ten whole miles running north and south along a narrow stretch of beach. Soon, the gang stopped at the far north end of HQ territory, where the public beach ended and the private neighborhood's began. Six beach trucks pulled up for lunch near a large effluent storm drain sticking out of a cliff face at the surf line. "Phew.." Cap complained to Craig, the senior guard who was heading up their roving day trip on the beach. "Do your storm drains always smell this bad?" Craig Pomeroy shrugged. "That's part of the reason why I brought you and your men out here. We're to collect water samples from that to see what kind of effect it's having on the reef out by the jetty. We typically test for fecal coliform counts, too. Once a week. The last samples of hair collected from surfer fatalities from this spring has shown elevated levels of heavy metals coming from this pipe." "Yeah, but I'm smelling something different today." said Captain Stanley. "It's more like raw petroleum runoff." "Really?" asked Craig, "I can't tell. My nose's still plugged up from hitting the water so much pulling people out from around that dolphin yesterday." "Would you mind if me and my men take in some equipment from the trucks and go check it out?" Cap wondered. "Something's not right here." "Be my guest. Assessing pollution leaks, aren't exactly, our forte'." Pomeroy admitted. "I'll radio in our plans to HQ after we've got lunch grilling. Then, I wanna check out that jetty. There are kids out there again who're ignoring the high sea wave warning signs. Can your pipe inspection wait until after lunch?" Cap turned his head into the wind appreciatively and was soundly fooled by the ocean's salty tang. "I guess another hour won't hurt any. Let's eat. Mike Stoker's already volunteered to fry the chicken." ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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------------------------------------------------------------------ Hobie was on the jetty. He didn't know why he was there, it just turned out that way. He was on the storm ledge again, working his way out to sea. The violent waves made him dizzy, splashing on either side of him. He closed his eyes to steady himself. When Hobie reopened them, he saw that he had found what he was looking for. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mitch walked onto the main deck of Baywatch. He went over to the main duty watch guard at the windows, "Bird eye my son, would you? I need to talk with him. Real bad." His foul mood permeated the room. Every lesser ranked lifeguard tried to disappear behind slates and retaining walls. Mitch split the air. "Have any of you guys seen Hobie?!" Jill and Trevor Cole looked up from their coffee cups. Jill responded, "I saw him at Eddie's tower a half an hour ago. He looked pretty upset." "Upset? I'll show him upset.." Mitch growled. "Trevor, you're with me. Jill, go call Eddie and see if he can spot him, will ya? Hobie's got some explaining to do." He grabbed up the required red rescue can he had to keep with him into his palm. Mitch turned on his walkie talkie and hooked it to his belt, "We'll be on the boulevard, Jill. Buzz me when you find him. Come on, Trevor.. Move it!" A rookie spoke up to no one in particular. "Eee, I feel sorry for Hobie." "Hobie?" jibed her companion, admirer's hearts in her eyes, "I feel sorry for Trevor.." Jill spit coffee all over her newspaper. Trevor had to run to keep up. "Why are you using me as a partner on foot patrol?" "Because the rest of my men are with a group of firemen on the far side of the beach taking water samples, that's why.." Mitch didn't even hear the bustle of the crowds whizzing around him on their bikes and skates. His binoculars were glued to his head. Trevor peeled off his shirt as their fast walking pace drew sweat. "Why are we going to see Hobie?" he asked. Mitch told him, "Because I just found out that he didn't level with me about being at the jetty a bunch of times this week with his new camp friends. My son's never lied to me this badly before." He jumped when his radio beeped. He answered it, "Riley? Go ahead." ##Eddie said he left to the north about five minutes ago.## "Ok, thanks. I owe you one." he turned to his companion, "How much do you want to bet he took his friends out to go see that dolphin again?" "He's spotted it?" "I'll say, Shauni's said that he even fed the thing fish to keep it around." They continued toward the jetty neighborhood. Mitch put down his binoculars, remembering something. "How are YOU doing? I forgot that you're still on the sick list.." and he slowed down his ferocious walking pace to a crawl, out of deference to Trevor's less than top notch condition. "Going back to work soon?" "Day after tomorrow. I figured that going back to work as soon as I'm cleared will help me get my mind off that woman I saw." "Still think she was real?" Mitch wondered. "I don't know. That memory's still a real fuzzy mystery." Trevor admitted, wiping sweat off of his brow. He only faintly started puffing, out of breath from their exertions. This time, both of them jumped when Mitch's radio beeped again. "Buchannon. Go ahead." |
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It was Manney, the watch guard in HQ. ##Lieutenant. We've found Hobie.## "Where?" ##Climbing on the 5th Street Jetty at the beach terminus with Carly Davison and Chris DeSoto..## Mitch scowled. "That tears it.. I'm gonna kill him.." He walked faster. They were almost there when Garner Ellerbe and Vince Howard flagged them down.. ---------------------------------------------------------------- She was there, swimming in the last place Hobie had seen the dolphin. It was a woman with long blonde hair in a shimmering green bathing suit. Her back was to all three of them. Chris DeSoto went closer to her, "H-Hey there.. H-Have you seen a dolphin around here anywhere? We saw it yesterday and--" The woman turned to face the three children, a look of surprise on her face. It was Cory Davison! Carly was shocked. "Mom, you're the one Hobie says the police are looking for?!" Cory shook her head in desperate denial, moving away from them. A sleek dolphin erupted to the surface, blowing powerfully. The paralyzed woman was sitting on its back! She cried out. "Oh, no! Carly, take your friends home! This was supposed to be OUR secret!" and she tapped Koko's head with her hand and blew on her whistle, making the dolphin turn around to start heading for deeper water and the concealing late afternoon fog bank that was forming there. Hobie scrambled along the ledge, trying to keep up with Cory and Koko, "Hey, Cory! Wait a minute! I just want to help you--" At that moment, a stench of strong fuel from the nearby effluent pipe filled his nose and made him gag. His foot slipped on a slick boulder and he tumbled head first into the deep froth. He had no time to cry out. |
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"No!" Cory screamed. "Koko! Forward!" She and the other kids tried to grab him but a wave swept him away out of sight. Cory guided Koko nearer to the jetty. The animal swam with great strength over the next wave's crest and down. But Hobie was gone. Just then, a nearby street jogger on top of the beach cliff, tossed down a lit cigarette carelessly to dispose of it into the ocean. Instead of landing on water. It landed inside the drainage pipe. And ignited it. A huge explosion ripped out of the five foot high tube of concrete and fire spread on a gushing oil slick spurting out onto the surface of the sea. It surrounded the jetty where the two frightened children were standing. They started screaming. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Hey Garner? What's up?" Mitch asked, tossing his can into the air. Garner puffed as he caught his breath, "I just wanted to tell you that we found out more about Cory Davison. Apparently, she's a dolphin trainer who knows the escaped animal." Mitch stopped in his tracks, "Hobie KNEW that. He tried to tell me. I wouldn't listen." He started moving again. "Hobie's probably with her and the dolphin right now trying to fix things up." "Great! Perhaps she can help us capture it.." Vince said. The four of them rounded the last bend leading to the overlook. Trevor went white as a sheet, looking through his binoculars, and stumbled. "Trevor?" Mitch asked. Garner and Vince grabbed the Australian's shoulders in support. "What's wrong? Are you ill again?" Cole stared blankly ahead, letting the binoculars fall through numb fingers. "It's her.." he pointed to a far distant woman in the water near the jetty. "She's the one I saw in the surf the day I almost drown." They all beheld what looked for all the world, like a mermaid. Complete with a gray tail. |
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Then the walkie talkie sound an alert. A swimmer was in trouble somewhere. Sid the dispatcher's voice came over the radio. ##To any available unit. We've a boy off the jetty. Who's rolling?## Mitch choked. "Hobie!!" He started running, dropping his radio, using his can as a barrier to protect his legs and face as he slid down through a tangle of bushes choking the length of the sandy cliff's face, to the beach below. He didn't hear Eddie come over the line, but Garner and Vince did. ##Truck Two, responding. We're on our way. Baywatch, we see a 10-92 at the same location. Repeat, a land and sea 10-92 in progress at the jetty! Multiple casualties in the water!!## "A fire?" Trevor gasped, staring down the beachhead where Mitch had hastily descended. "From where? There's nothing but rock and concrete out there!" "Come on, we'll give you a ride!" shouted Garner and Vince. "We'll get there faster than Mitch will, using the four wheelers!" Without thinking, Trevor Cole scooped up Mitch's abandoned radio and leaped on board Vince's sand bike. "Ok, let's go.." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The whole 51 gang, on the beachhead, flinched and hit the sand when the effluent pipe lit up in their faces with the angry explosion of fire violated fuel. The air over the beach soon filled with burning fuel droplets that rained down onto all of them from far above their heads. "Into the water! Go.. go ..GO!!" shouted Craig and the other lifeguards. |
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