Tommy Hastings and Freddie
Merrill rode in silence as the oars clunked and splashed slowly back and forth for
a while longer. Tommy finally said, “Thanks for saving our lives.”
Nilson shrugged then said,
“Your sister’s boyfriend probably saved someone’s life.”
“Yeah,” said Tommy, not sure
where Nilson was going with this.
“His brother saved three men when
their boat was hit by Jap fire!” Freddie said. “You wanna hear the whole story?”
He shrugged again. Tommy and
Freddie looked at each other, nodded, and kept quiet. Finally Nilson said, “Sure.
Sounds exciting. Better than my brother’s story.”
“How do you know his story?” asked
Tommy.
“One of his buddies wrote us
after we got the telegram he was killed in action. Told us how there were bombs
everywhere and a Japanese destroyer was headed their way. He scrambled from his
bunk, tripped and fell. Broke his neck.”
“Oh, man,” said Freddie. The
sun had dropped to the horizon and as they slid forward on the calming water,
shadows from a shoreline of towering pine engulfed them
Nilson shrugged. “Because it
was during a raid and he wouldn’t have been running if it hadn’t have been for
the attack – thirty sailors died during it – he was considered a casualty of
war, but didn’t get an award or nothing.” He kept rowing and finally said, “What’d
your brother do?”
Tommy opened his mouth, then
closed it, then finally said, “Nothing your brother wouldn’t have done if he’d
have been there.”
Freddie opened his mouth to
protest, but Tommy’s glare shut his mouth. A few minutes later, Nilson said, “We’re
just about there. Remember, don’t pick no apples. Don’t want you to give Ma any
surprises.” He snickered, snorted, then pulled hard three more times. The
rowboat drifted a bit longer then scraped against the rocks underneath.
Tommy and Freddie jumped out
then pulled the boat to shore. Nilson set the oars so they lay on the seats
then climbed to shore. “Thanks, guys.” Then he looked at Tommy and stuck out
his hand, “Thanks, Tommy. Come on in, Ma’ll feed us, then I can get you some
underwear, pants, and shirts.” He looked up at the sky. “Sun’ll be down soon.
Probably spend the night, I think.”
“No,” said Freddie, “We can’t...”
Tommy glanced at Freddie,
then at Nilson, “Can we hitch a ride here tonight?”
“I wouldn’t count on it. This
town rolls up the sidewalks and turns off the air in about twenty minutes. You
might get a ticket from the sheriff if you walk too fast at night here.” He
shrugged, “You can try, or you can try in the morning. Lots of trucks and stuff
leaving then.”
Tommy looked at Freddie and
bulged his eyes. Freddie said, “Sounds good. We’ll stay. But can we be in town
before sun up?”
“No problem. Ma gets up early
– makes we get up early, too. To take care of the place.”
“What?”
“We run an resort – the Thousand
Lakes Inn.”
Tommy and Freddie looked at
each other. Tommy said, “Is there anyone staying here?”
“It’s usually pretty quiet
during the week and it’s still OK here – but a resort a mile back has a crazy
group of guys stayin’ there. They talk funny, but Ma says it’s Finnish.”
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