Chapter 9
The Next Day
Ruth’s Place
The Ship Wreck
It wasn’t so much that Matt disliked the
owner, Ruth Crawford, of ‘The Ship Wreck’, it was a good place to get a steak
or hamburger, she was almost a regular person trying to make a living the same as
anyone else, but the nature of the place attracted problematic characters.
Tough as sharks hide trawler crews, drunks, and other assorted characters were
regular visitors. Ruth tolerated more than most respectable places would, but
even she had limits, and that limit was reached at least once a night. Any
sensible person would leave before events started down an out-of-control
path. Even more sensible people wouldn’t
show up. Timing was everything. The situation could get out of hand rather
quickly and was directly proportional to the amount of alcohol consumed. Even so, ‘The Ship Wreck’ was that one
traditional hangout for the crew of the Umpqua River Station and Ruth treated
them with a special flavor. She especially liked Matt.
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Ruth
was as tough as most of her patrons and never backed down from anyone or any
situation, relying on a three-foot long, two-inch thick hickory stick she used
as a cane to equalize things. She stood about five feet tall now as her back
was bowed…she must have been five foot four or so in her younger days, her hair
was died black and tossed, and no one knew for sure how old she was, but she
looked like she was well past retirement age. Her husband Bill had been at
least ten years younger. The joke was that she forced him to marry her in a shotgun
wedding of sorts. She was holding the shotgun. Others say that before her marriage
to Bill, she was quite the looker during the 1940’s…the War years. The true love
of her life, a fighter pilot, so the story goes, left her behind and was killed
when his plane was shot down over hostile territory. Some say he jilted her and
just ran off when she got too serious. No one seemed to know. Matt thought it a
sad story in either case, but was never sure about its authenticity, and no one
was brave enough to ask her to find out.
In any case, what life she lived must have been a hard one because she
was tough as petrified driftwood. Bill died five years into their marriage and
she continued on alone, not ever taking up the banner of housewife again.
He turned his Jeep CJ-5 into the only vacant parking
slot available, the one next to the dumpster, which was overflowing with trash.
A single street light cast a pale greenish light across the damp, mostly worn out,
asphalt surface, and the entrance to the building was illuminated in a pinkish
red glow from a half -lit neon sign. He struggled to step out with his stiff
back, but when he finally made It, his foot slipped on something slimy. Looking
down he found he was standing in a pile of vomit.
“Oh great…this is going to be one of those
nights…better be worth it.”
He wiped his foot on a wet patch of grass
next to the dumpster and half-heartedly stepped through the grungy door. He
stopped just inside and surveyed the crowded room.
The place was divided into several rooms with
a private area in the back for those who simply wanted a good meal without the
chaos from the other areas. The main room was dark and cigarette smoke choked
every cubic inch stirred by rotating overhead fans so it blended into one homogenous
smog. Twangy country music played in the background much too loud for comfort.
Hanging from the walls and support beams were the ever-present nautical
artifacts. Across the crowded room Matt recognized Chief Adams, Red O’Neil, and
Julie Pile or JP as everyone called her. JP operated the Betty Lou charter boat
service out of Winchester Bay. She was a thirty-year old brunette who stood
just tall enough to fit under Matt’s chin and her athletic physique gave her an
air of fitness, a fact Matt rarely failed to grasp, and chose to ignore. Matt
became more like a younger big brother to her and kept the hormone induced
young bucks of the station in check and out of trouble when she was around, not
that she needed help…he just felt obligated somehow to do so.
JP’s eyes immediately locked onto him. She
dared not to show it, but lingering feelings for Matt evolved through mutual
respect and genuine fascination for him, feelings that haunted her. The last
thing she needed was an emotional conflict, yet underneath her ‘butch’ façade,
lived a woman longing to bloom, wanting to be held and treated like a lady. Her
reality fell far short of that, why else would she be here drinking overpriced,
cheap beer in this dump of a place. She managed to put up with the childish
pranks and the subtle innuendos the male dominated small units like Umpqua
River would throw at her. She gave as good she got though, sometimes better,
she had to because the alternative was not acceptable. From the age of fifteen
growing up in Seattle and working on her uncle’s charter boat, this is what she
wanted to do, and now that she was here, she would allow nothing to interfere.
Through her unrevealed dreams she lived out desires she could not allow herself
to show. Where she stood with Matt was at arms length, and so far, the line
remained uncrossed. It was an area better left unexplored, for now.
It took several seconds for Matt to make his
way over to the table as he was intercepted several times. When he finally arrived,
he extracted a chair, turned it around so he could somewhat painfully, lean his
arms against the back. Ruth, wearing a beat-up old sailor’s rain cap sauntered
over through the smoke-filled room all but buried by the crowd and her small
size.
“Matthew son, haven’t seen the likes of you in
here for nigh on a month or two.” Ruth reached her tiny, but stout arm around
Matt’s head and pulled him close to her. “Ya know I love ya boy…how’s that bump
on your head?” She clowned with him as she kissed his forehead.
Matt rotated and gave her a quick kiss on the
cheek. “The heads fine, he whispered,” then shouted, “Gotta love this woman.”
JP and Red joined in with gaudy chuckles and chortles as Ruth patted Matt on
the head.
She leaned toward Matt and in a softer more concerned
voice muttered, “We were all worried ‘bout you hun. Good to see you up and
around.”
Matt tossed a wink at her and grinned at
which she blurted out, “Oh child, if only I was thirty or forty years younger,
or you were thirty years older.” She sauntered off between laughs and jibes
using her cane to force people out of her way.
Matt shook his head, “So what kind of event
is so big I have to come down here and risk getting lung cancer breathing these
toxic fumes in this place.”
Red grinned widely and said, “It just walked
in the door behind you, my good friend…right over there,” he nodded with his
head and pointed with his beer glass in the direction of the front entrance.
Matt turned. What he saw stopped him cold.
Sharon
stood near the entrance as though waiting for someone. Her eyes eventually
shifted in their direction and with the Chief standing and waving she
acknowledged his overtures and tried to weave her way through the mass
confusion of people.
Matt couldn’t believe she would set foot in
here, not exactly the kind of place she normally visited, although he and she,
at times, had stopped by before she left. He stood as she approached and her
eyes made contact with his, but she turned to the Chief first and gave him a hug,
and finally to him.
“Hi Matt.”
Hi Matt? Was that all she
could muster, he thought to himself. He nodded and pulled another chair into
the table so she could join them. Sharon cast a casual glance at Matt. She uncomfortably
shifted her gaze away like some school girl caught looking at a boy she had a crush
on.
Julie, intrigued took the first move, “Hi,
I’m Julie Pile…everyone calls me JP. You must be the world-famous sister of ole
Nate.”
“World famous? Sharon said, “I am his sister,
but hardly world famous.”
JP asked, “What was it you were up to, where
was it now, New Guinea or some gosh awful place like that?”
Sharon politely smiled and said, “I was an
educational assistant to two missionary doctors. We, worked with a tribe in the
highlands. We really bonded with them and I just fell in love with the people
we met. I also did some linguistics studies of the people there. I hope to get
my masters degree in anthropology someday and thought that would be a great
opportunity to gather some research material. What is it that you do?”
JP was immediately embarrassed, not an easy
thing to have happen for her, and she lowered her glass of beer and rather
sheepishly said, “Oh…I run a charter boat. I help people catch fish.”
Matt cast a somewhat condemning glance toward
JP and using just his eyes told her to tone down the attitude. She in turn cast
a jaw clinched grin toward him and shrugged her shoulders with an ‘oops’
expression.
He leaned toward Sharon, “I know you don’t
drink, but would you like something?” he asked Sharon.
“Water.”
He waved at the waitress and asked for a
glass using just hand signals.
Sharon casually shifted her glance back and
forth between the crowd and Matt, but remained uncomfortably quiet. He in turn
felt uncomfortable as well, and not wanting to stare shifted his glance clumsily
around the room searching for something clever to say. Simultaneously, they
spoke to each other.
“….How have you b..”
They laughed and cast a foolish look toward each
other. Matt lifted his hand toward her and said, “You go first.”
“How have you been Matt. I wanted to
reconnect again since the visit at the hospital but with the new job and all I’ve
been sort of tied up the last few days. I hear you brought the 303 back.”
Matt barely heard what she said. He could not
keep his eyes off her. The noise that filled the roomed muffled into a
homogenous mumble becoming part of the smoky fog drifting around, and nothing
else was real at that moment. His world became surreal for those few moments and
he said nothing, he just stared.
“So, how are you doing, Matt?” She asked.
He blinked himself back to the moment and the
room regained a normal realm. “Yeah sure, I’m sorry…I’m fine…I’m good…Yeah, the
303 is back, but Red here is the one who did all the hard work. I just looked her
over. Listen, are you hungry…you want anything?”
She pursed her lips together and sighed before
leaning forward to whisper, “I would rather leave. I love Ruth, but I don’t
like this place.”
“Of course, you don’t. I don’t either really.
Do you mind if we go someplace that is not so crowded?”
“I thought you’d never ask. Please, can we?”
Matt pulled away from the table, “Well folks,
we’ve had about all the fun we can stand so, we’ll be seeing you.” He waved to
his friends as the two of them stood and pulled away from the table. Red nudged
JP and using his eye expressions and a nod of the head he indicated that he
knew some magic was starting to work again.
****
Ruth sauntered over and intercepted them, “Sharon,
my dear. Fancy seeing you here. Long time, no see. When did you get back into
town?”
“A while back.”
“Well, we’ve missed you.” She threw a wink at
Matt as she turned away.
The crowded room slowed their progress toward
the exit and they bumped into numerous people. Matt struggled to make headway
with the cane and Sharon felt almost lost in the crowd with the smoke burning
her eyes and lungs. She turned to look for Matt who had managed to fall behind.
She was bumped and shoved from behind and was suddenly pinned into the chest of
a large man. She raised her head and found herself squeezed into the chest of
Nathan’s hired hand Hoke. He stopped in his tracks and stared down at her.
His stare set chills coursing through her.
She knew Hoke from before leaving and never liked him. He was a vulgar man with
a vulgar life and she was afraid of him. He stood about six feet four inches
tall and carried a heavy seven-day growth of gnarled beard across his broad
face. He was a brute of a man, a good percentage of his bulk spreading across
his wide gut.
He squinted as he recognized who she was and
opened his mouth in an intimidating grin exposing a string of smoke stained,
un-brushed teeth, a few of which were missing. She tried to back away, but the
crowd was so thick she could not move, then, she felt someone grab her arm and pulled
her away from being so close to Hoke.
Matt said to her, “Come on, this way,” and
she quickly followed his lead. Hoke’s stare followed the both of them as they finally
made their way to the exit. His grin fell into a scowl and his jaw tightened. As
he watched them slip out the front door, he clinched his jaw tighter and mumbled
to himself.
Once outside in the cooler moist air Sharon
let out a sigh of relief and Matt laughed out loud, “Good grief, it was crowded
in there. This stupid cane just got in the way.”
The two of them moved across the parking lot
toward his Jeep, Sharon said, “Thanks for rescuing me.”
“Hey, that’s what I do, I rescue people. I
could tell you were uncomfortable being in there. You never did like that
place.”
“I still don’t. but I do like Ruth. She is a
real character.”
“Why then did you come tonight. Not exactly
the kind of place you would normally want to spend your free time.”
She hesitated for a few seconds before answering
searching for an easy way to say what she wanted to say without sounding
obvious. “Well, I ran into Chief Adams and he said you would be there tonight
and…I wanted to see you.”
Matt cast a long look into her eyes. Even in
the harsh glare of the parking lot light she was still the most beautiful girl
he had ever seen. “I’m glad you came.”
She paused before speaking and looked into
his eyes. It had been so long since she had last gazed into them the same way.
He still possessed a boyish charm, the goose bump kind of charm, she, somewhat embarrassed,
looked away and then back again into his eyes, “I’m glad I came too.” The two
of them simply stared into each other eyes allowing their silence to say the
words neither of them could find the courage to speak in the moment. The chill in the air no longer seemed so cold
and the noise coming from inside Bill and Ruth’s place slowed to a low-keyed
pace until two people burst out the door breaking the moment. Sharon turned
away and asked, “Can we go someplace a little more private.”
“I know just the place. Where’s your car?”
“Don’t have one. Pete dropped me off. I was
going to catch a ride home with Chief Adams or someone, but do you mind driving
me home, later?”
Within a few minutes they were driving up the
hill where the Umpqua River Lighthouse overlooked the Pacific Ocean. A few seconds
later they rolled into the overlook parking lot in front of the lighthouse and stopped
where they could watch the light rotate above them.
A late
winter mist filled the air and the two white and one red beams of light
emanating from the domed prism cut through the air that extended well across
the compound and faded into the night. Although no longer an important navigational
aide, mariners could spot the lighthouse miles out to sea on a clear day. It
was one of several lighthouses still maintained by the Coast Guard up and down
the coast.
Over the past few years, more often than not
Matt was supposed to assign one of his deck crew to perform maintenance and
cleanup chores, but he enjoyed being suspended on its heights so much that he
would often do it himself just to find time to get away.
The first few months after Sharon left, he
would linger on its heights and look out across the Pacific and wonder where
she was and what she was doing.
“I’ve forgotten just how beautiful it was,
the lighthouse I mean,” Sharon said.
“It’s just a lighthouse like all the others.”
Sharon paused, “For me it’s not. It’s our
lighthouse.”
He began to feel a small knot of
uncomfortable dread forming inside his gut. She had not changed at all, still
that sentimental girl with attachments to moments and events he rarely was able
to grasp. When she spoke of such things, he seemed to always find a way to say
the wrong thing. He clinched his teeth and held off responding before saying,
“Yeah, I suppose it was.”
Like two shy people trying to generate a
measure of confidence between them, they sat almost motionless waiting for the other
to say something. For Sharon, her thoughts shifted from the past to now, to
what she needed to say, but found it difficult to muster the courage to speak.
“Matt…we need to talk about a lot of things,
someday. Right now, I’m just trying to get my feet back on the ground so please
forgive me if I seem lost. I hope you understand. I have so much to tell you…but,
it’s just going to take some time to reconnect first.”
“I never understood why you had to leave when
things were going so great for us. It hurt when you did that, and I was confused…even
angry. Almost six years and never a word from you, all Jack would tell me is
that you were doing okay.”
“And you think I was not hurting.”
"I didn’t say that.”
“That’s what it sounded like.”
Matt rolled his eyes and shifted his position
to one side so he leaned more against the door. “I tried to figure out why you
left but could never find any real answers. None of it made sense. Seems we
could never connect on one thing. No matter how much I tried, you simply could
not share my life with your desires.”
Sharon sighed hoping he would have let go by
now the reason why it was important to do what she did, “I’ve tried to explain
that to you before, but you never understood.”
“Well, I thought the night before you left you
believed otherwise.”
Sharon clinched her jaw and rolled her head
to one side. A knot of emotion obstructed her chest and a lump crowded her
throat. She fought to keep the tears from breaking loose as she remembered
their last night together.
“Don’t…don’t even go there Matt. That night should
have never happened. You haven’t changed at all. Everything has always been
about you, it’s never about anyone else. You could never understand that I
could love someone with all my heart, but also want a life of my own. There was
never any room in your heart to share anything with anyone except for
yourself.”
“You…you were the most important thing to me
and when you left, I felt I had lost my whole world.”
Sharon said nothing. Her expression shifted
slowly from one of disappointment to one of despair. She inhaled a quivering
audible sigh and in a shaky voice said, “Please, take me home.”
Inside Matt’s chest burned a fire that
threatened to consume him. As he looked at Sharon and saw the disappointment in
her eyes, he said nothing but just watched her deep breath as she fought back
the tears.
“I did it again didn’t I.”
“You don’t have to say anything…just take me
home, please…take me home.”
Neither of them said anything for several moments
until, he turned off the engine and said, “You’re right you know. We do need to
talk about a lot of things. Maybe not tonight, but soon. Take all the time you
need to figure out what you need to say. I promise, I’ll be ready to listen.”
A single tear flowed along the edge of her
nose and curved around her soft lips. She turned to him, “Matt I never stopped
loving you. My biggest fear was I would allow life to interfere with living
because of my love for you.”
He placed his arm around her shoulder and
gently held her as close as the bucket seats would allow. “My biggest fear was
that you would find something else to replace me.”
Sharon stepped out of the Jeep and folded her
arms against the chill. To the right about thirty yards away stood the Coast
Guard lookout building with a single car parked next to it. He followed removing
his jacket and placing it around her shoulders. They stood together silent for a
moment when two bright lights arched across the compound catching Matt in the
eyes temporarily blinding him. A large pickup truck pulled alongside his Jeep
and three obviously drunk men clambered out.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”
Matt squinted in the dark against the bright
lights of the truck and recognized Hoke, but did not recognize the other two.
Sharon moved closer to Matt who stepped in front of her placing himself between
the three men and her.
“What do you want Hoke.” Matt threw out.
“Just looking for some fun is all. Same as
you…ain’t that right guys.” He reached across Matts shoulder to lift Sharon’s
hair, but she slapped his hand away.
“Whoa there…a feisty one we have…I like that.” The two other men surrounded them partially cutting
off their path to his Jeep.
“Alright Hoke, you’ve had your fun…now take
off.”
“Oh no, no…we’re just getting started.” He
reached for Sharon’s hair again only this time Matt stopped his arm with the
cane.
“That’s enough.”
Hoke staggered backwards half laughing and
half grumbling, “Look at the big hero guy’s this is the big hero, Matthew
Jacobs. Except, oh yeah…you aint no hero now, are you. From what I here, you’re
just a plain old coward a no-good lousy coward.”
“Matt, we need to go. Let’s just
go.” Sharon said half aloud.
“You’re going to find out what
we do with cowards around here and then we’re going to have some real fun with
the sweet thing here.”
Matt backed away with Sharon behind him
watching out the corners of his eyes for the other two. Either one of those two
he could easily take, but Hoke was a giant of a man and could easily crush him
if he ever let him get a hold. The three together was more than he could handle,
especially with his busted ribs and vertebrae.
The one on his right lunged toward Matt, but
Matt swung his cane in a quick snap catching the guy across the head. He
crumbled. The other on the left tried to tackle Matt, but he was able to dodge
his advance swinging the cane so it struck him across the back.
Sharon screamed and Matt yelled, “Run to the
tower…”
She bolted as fast as she could, but the
first attacker was back on his feet and chased her down to grab her from
behind. She screamed and kicked as he lifted her off her feet and started carrying
her back toward the truck.
Within a few steps, he heard other footsteps
running across the compound from behind him. It was Patterson who was on tower
watch. He slammed into Sharon’s attacker knocking both of them down. Sharon
screamed and rolled across the asphalt skinning her knee in the process. “Sharon
run - lock the door.” He shouted at her.
Matt was cornered against the retainer wall by
Hoke and the other attacker, but he held the cane in a defensive posture which
slowed their drunken advance. The smaller man lunged at Matt again swinging
wildly at his head, but Matt ducked the swing and slammed the cane into his gut
which doubled him over.
Hoke stood a few feet in front of Matt
glaring in anger, “I’m going to bust you wide open.” He lunged at Matt but Matt
was quicker and sidestepped his advance throwing a right hook which connected
on his temple momentarily staggering him.
Patterson hopped to his feet and kicked the
other attacker before he could regain his footing catching him square in face.
Sharon screamed again too frightened to move.
The other attacker regained his feet and
managed to grab Matt from behind and Hoke, with blood flowing across his face,
started pounding on Matt, but Patterson ran across the compound and body
slammed himself into the back of Hoke. He all but bounced off his massive bulk,
but the blow allowed Matt a chance to break the hold. He spun around and
connected with a sharp blow to the man’s face knocking him to the ground. Hoke
roll to his feet, a nimble move for such a large man and started to lunge toward
Patterson. Just before he lunged, two vehicles screamed around the corner and skidded
to halt. Four members of the Coast Guard station piled out and surrounded the
scene. Hoke, yelled at his two and they staggered back to his truck and sped
away.
Matt holding his ribs, leaned against the
retainer wall grimacing from pain in his back. Sharon ran to his side and knelt
next to him. Patterson staggered over out of breath. “You okay man?”
“Patterson, I owe you one man.” Matt said as
he wiped the blood from his mouth and tried to catch his breath.
“Me too.” Sharon said as she gave him kiss on
the cheek and hug.
Patterson cast an embarrassed smile back to
Sharon. I called the station for backup when I saw Hoke, figured he was up to
no good. The four station members surrounded them and they chatted about the
incident until a county sheriff cruiser pulled up next to Matt’s Jeep.
Sheriff Joe Tripp, a large man himself, stepped
out and took a look at Matt.
“What’s going on here Matt?”
“Just a misunderstanding is all.”
“Looks like more than a misunderstanding. Let
me guess, Hoke.”
Matt said nothing, he just looked at Joe.
Patterson blurted, “It was Hok…”
“It was just a misunderstanding. We’re okay.”
“Well, Matt…next time you have a
misunderstanding, I want to know about it.”
Matt nodded and everyone started to leave.
“Thanks guy’s…I owe you all.”
Sharon moved closer to Matt, “Can you take me
home now.”
“Sounds like a good plan.”
After he drove to her place, he waited as she
stepped out of the Jeep. She walked to the apartment door then turned toward
him. He cast his eyes toward her and nodded good night, then drove away.
Early the next morning Sharon’s phone startled
her awake. She fumbled to answer it and finally held the receiver to her ear.
“Uh…hello.”
“Hi mommy. You awake.” Hearing Nickie’s voice
jolted the sleep from her eyes and she sat up in bed. “Oh hi sweetie. You and
Sandy having fun?”
“Yeah, but I’m ready for you to come get me
now.”
“Oh honey, I will soon, I promise. I’m just
about all settled, just have to finish up a few things. I miss you so much.”
“Me too. Guess what?”
“What?”
“We went sailing yesterday.”
“Oh my, that sounds like fun.”
“It was fun, but we got wet, and that wasn’t
so fun.”
The two of them laughed and shared for several
minutes the sailing adventure details before Sharon asked, “Can I talk to
Sandy?” A few seconds later Sandy was on the line. “Hey girl. I adopted Nickie
by the way. I own her now, she’s mine.”
Sharon half laughed and half wasn’t so sure
she meant what she said. “Just kidding. We’ve been having the best time. I love
her so much. Just want you to know she’s okay, but hun, she needs her mommy.”
Sharon sighed and almost cried, “I owe you so
much Sandy. You’re the best friend anyone could have. Don’t know what I would
have done without you.”
“Have you told Matt yet?” Sandy changed the
subject.
"No, not yet. I
still haven’t figured out how to tell him.”
“You can’t keep this a secret forever you
know. I’ll keep her as long as you need me too, but you have to face the truth
and tell him soon.”
“I know. I will, I promise just as soon as I
figure out how.”
“Well hun we gotta go. Love ya…and don’t
worry, Nickie and me are fine, but I am worried about you.”
“I’m okay Sandy. Love you too.”
