The summer I graduated from high school found me again working at the same marina and boat rental place at the beach that I had worked at for the past 2 summers. A lot of people from town kept their boats at the marina, because the marina was near the mouth of a fairly large river that ran into a pretty decent sized bay with a number of islands.
The father of one of my classmates owned a 32 foot cabin cruiser that I often admired when I worked the fuel docks. Mr. Bullard was a real estate salesman, and had his own office. I assume that he made pretty darned good money, because every time I filled the tanks on his cruiser the bill came close to $500.00, and sometimes he filled the boat up a couple of times a week.
Even though his son Mike was a classmate it didn’t mean that I liked Mike. He hung around with a couple of guys I would rather not have had in my life. Kevin Le Chance was a no good rotten SOB, and a bully to boot. His other companion, Greg Miles wasn’t much better, and I suspected that Greg was the one selling dope around the high school. Kevin had dropped out of school the year before, but hadn’t really seemed to have gotten a steady job. He had worked at a few places, but each job only lasted a short while before he joined the ranks of the unemployed again. Mike Bullard was a decent looking guy, and I really couldn’t figure out why he hung around with the other two losers. I could see why they hung around with Mike, because he always seemed to have money in his pocket, a nice car, and access to some of his father’s toys, such as the 32” cruiser.
I was on duty at the fuel dock one sunny summer afternoon when Mike pulled in to the fuel dock with the cruiser. I have to help dock the boat and tie it up, and then I have to fuel it. But the regulations are that everyone has to get off the boat while I am pumping fuel. Mike had Kevin and Greg along, as well as Sally Jones, Karen Corbett, and Adele Simpson. I knew all the girls because they were also in my class at school. Sally and Karen were real good lookers. Sally was dark haired, and busty with a decent rack, and Karen was blond, with just as nice a figure. Adele was a really decent girl with nicely formed legs and a trim rear end but she was a little lacking in the breast department. It seemed that most guys were turned off by the thick, obviously strong glasses that she had to wear to see anything more than a couple of inches past the end of her nose because she very seldom had a date I couldn’t figure out what Adele was doing with this group, as I felt she didn’t belong.
I asked Mike nicely if he would have everyone get off the boat while I pumped the gas.
“Just fill me up shithead.” Mike responded.
“Come to the office and let me know when you are all off and are ready for fuel.” I said and I turned and walked back to the gas bar office.
“What’s going on out there?” Hank, my supervisor asked.
“Oh, Bullard called me a shithead and refused to get off the boat. Wanted me to fuel it while they stayed on board.” I said.
“Good thing you didn’t. There is a guy from health and safety walking around today. Be just our luck if he caught you doing that.” Hank replied.
“I wouldn’t do it anyway Hank. I was told it would be my job if I ever did that.” I replied.
A few minutes later I saw them untie the boat and head out into the bay. I figured that Mike Bullard wasn’t going to admit to the others that he couldn’t dictate to me what I was going to do.
I really wondered what Adele Simpson was doing with these jerks. I liked Adele, and I had taken her out a couple of times during the past year. I didn’t have a problem looking at her while she was wearing her strong glasses, and I actually liked her far more than I had let on to anyone – including her. I loved looking into her tiny eyes through those thick lenses and I always wondered just what she could see without her glasses.
When I left work late that afternoon Mike and his party had not returned. I was due back at work early the following morning, and as I walked to the gas bar office I glanced over at the empty slip where the Bullard boat was berthed. I wondered why they were not back, but I figured that they had just decided to spend the night tied up alongside one of the many islands in the bay.
Hank was on the phone when I got to the dock office the next morning, and he motioned me over. Holding his hand over the mouthpiece he told me to get out the rescue gear and the scuba equipment and load up the marina boat. I didn’t question his orders, and went ahead and did what he had asked. When I went back in the dock office Hank was off the phone.
“Who is missing?” I asked.
“Just got off the phone with Mr. Bullard. Mike was due back in last night, but Wee Deal isn’t in the slip. There was a call about a possible sinking out around Pleasure Island, so we are getting paid to go out and check it out. I have Daniel coming to look after the gas bar, and I need you to come with me in case I need a diver.” Hank said.
“I bet they hit that rock that is just off the tip of Pleasure. That sucker has claimed its fair share of boats over the years. There are always some plastic jugs on a rope tied to it, but after dusk you can’t see them.” I replied.
So Hank and I headed out towards Pleasure Island. We found the nasty jagged partially submerged rock with the plastic bottles tied to it, and just off to the west in deeper water we saw what appeared to be an oil slick on the water surface. Hank took us over to a point where we were above the slick while I put on my scuba gear. I went into the water, adjusted my mask on my face and dove down. Sure enough, I could see a boat that looked a lot like Wee Deal on the bottom in about 40 ft of water. I came up and told Hank that it appeared to be Wee Deal on the bottom. Hank called Search and Rescue on the radio, and told them what we had found. We gave them the coordinates of Wee Deal, and Hank and I tried to figure where my classmates had gotten to. They were probably half pissed when they hit the rock, but I refused to believe that all 6 of them were dead. I really wouldn’t have lost any sleep over the loss of Kevin or Greg, but Mike, Sally and Karen really were not bad people. The one I was most worried about was my mousy little myopic Adele. I had feelings for Adele that I had never let anyone know about, and I really had been a little upset when I saw her with this crowd yesterday.
We figured that they would have tried to swim to Pleasure Island. There were a few cottages on the island, and if it had been Hank or me we would have swum to the island and broken into one of the cottages. So we motored over to the nearest dock and we started to look around for signs of life. It took a while, but they had done what we would have done, and we found them huddling inside a nearby cottage. But Kevin was missing, and when we asked where he was we were told that Kevin tried to swim to shore with them, but he couldn’t swim very well, and he had slipped under the water. Mike had tried to rescue him, but had not been able to. I almost felt like telling him that it was no great loss, but I held my opinion to myself. The one strange thing was that somewhere in the course of events Adele had lost her glasses, and she sat there with a vacant, unseeing look on her face.
Hank radioed in that we had found 5 of the 6 missing kids, and we were bringing them in. By the time we got back to the marina the parents of everyone but Adele were waiting at the dock. Adele’s father was a long haul truck driver and Adele’s mom was a nurse at the hospital, and worked a lot of nights so I figured that she hadn’t even known that Adele hadn’t made it home. I offered to drive Adele home so that she could get cleaned up and get her old glasses so she could see, and she accepted my offer.
I had to guide Adele to my car. I had never seen Adele without her glasses, and while I had often wondered just how much she could see without her glasses now I realized that it wasn’t a whole heck of a lot. She didn’t even try to focus on anything so I figured that this was because it was no use. All the other girls I knew who wore glasses would screw up their eyes into a half scrunched shut position to try to see stuff, but obviously this wouldn’t have helped Adele.
“So what happened Adele? How did you lose your glasses” I asked.
“I’d rather not talk about it Rob.” Adele replied.
So we drove the rest of the way to her house in silence. When we got there Adele asked me if I would help her inside the house before I left her. I suggested that I could help her up to her bedroom to get her glasses, and she accepted my offer. Once she had her old glasses on I realized how much I liked the looks of her wearing the thick lenses that she needed.
“Did you want to go to the show with me on Friday night?” I asked.
“I would Rob, but it wouldn’t be much use for me to go out with you wearing these old glasses. They are far too weak for me to be able to see properly. Can we wait until after I get new ones?” Adele answered.
I told her that would be fine with me, but if she wanted I would come over Friday night and we could just sit around and talk, so she decided that would be all right. I know what it was. Seeing her with another guy had made me jealous, and I wanted to make sure I staked my claim on her. I figured that it had been Greg that she had been with, because Macho Jerk Kevin certainly wouldn’t have been seen dead with a girl with such thick glasses.
Back at the marina the talk was all about the sinking of Wee Deal, and the apparent drowning of Kevin. Mr. Bullard wanted to marina to raise Wee Deal, and tow it in to our boat yard for repair. Since I was the only certified diver on staff I was the one that was going to have to dive down with the flotation balloons and place them inside the hull. Then I would be attaching the air lines to the balloons, and with the air compressor pumping its heart out we would gradually bring Wee Deal up from its watery grave. There wasn’t enough time to get started that day, but the forecast for the following day was perfect for the job. To save time in the morning Hank and I loaded everything we needed on board the marina boat.
We had successfully raised 3 boats with this procedure since the marina had purchased the balloons. The balloons were really heavy duty air sacks that filled gradually with air and displaced the water from the hull. As water emptied from the hull the air would slowly bring the boat to the surface. We had to be careful in placing the air balloons so that nothing sharp would puncture them, and we also had to be very careful not to try to bring Wee Deal up too fast. But everything went exactly the way it should go, and by late afternoon we had Wee Deal above the water. It was a heck of a job towing the still waterlogged boat back to the marina, but we did manage to make it to the travel lift before it got too dark. Once the slings were under Wee Deal the travel lift slowly brought it out of the water, and we could see the water gushing from the large gash in the hull.
We took the bottom plugs out and left Wee Deal on the travel lift to drain overnight. Hank and I went on home, knowing that we would be finishing our job the following morning. Early the next morning I climbed aboard Wee Deal and started releasing air from the balloons. Then I folded them up carefully and placed them in their protective bags so that they would be ready for the next use. After the hull was cleared out I looked around the interior of the waterlogged boat. It was such a shame that so much damage had been done, and I thought that if the insurance company wrote the boat off I should make an offer on it. My buddies in the fiberglass shop could fix the hull as good as new, and I was pretty sure that I could get the upholstery done for a reasonable price if I was willing to wait until the off season. And the engines would be fine if I could get the water out of them immediately.
I walked into the aft cabin and as I looked at the wet rug I noticed Adele’s glasses on the floor. I picked them up and saw that they were undamaged. I couldn’t resist the urge to try them on, and as I tried to focus through the strong lenses my eyes rebelled, and I had to take them off right away. But it made me horny thinking of Adele needing them so badly to be able to see anything clearly.
That night after work I stopped by to see Adele so I could return her glasses to her..
She met me at the door, peering myopically at me through the strong lenses of her old, weaker glasses.
“Oh, hi Rob. What do I owe the honor of a visit to?” Adele asked.
“I thought maybe you could use these Adele.” I said as I handed her glasses to her.
“She looked at me in amazement. “You found them!”
“Yes. We brought Wee Deal up yesterday and I found them this morning. What were they doing in the aft cabin Adele?” I asked.
“I didn’t want to talk about it Rob, but I guess you deserve an explanation. I didn’t know when Sally and Karen invited me along that it was because Kevin wanted them to. He was drinking and doing a few joints on the boat, and he was hitting on me. Then he made me come to the aft cabin with him, and he was trying to force me to have sex with him. My glasses came off and fell on the floor, and I started screaming. Mike and Greg dragged him off me, and that is when the boat hit the rock and started to sink. I didn’t have any time to search for my glasses, as we all had to get off the boat right away. On the way to shore Kevin started to flounder, and Mike tried to save him, but he was dragging Mike down, so Mike had to save himself. And you know the rest of the story.” Adele said.
“I had guessed that it was Greg that you were with Adele. I had no idea that Kevin was the one interested in you.” I replied.
“All through high school he had tried to get me to go out with him. I think he had a thing for girls who wore glasses, because he went with Judy Devereaux for a couple of years.” Adele said.
“Maybe it was because he realized that you are very pretty, even though you wear glasses.” I replied.
“Do you really think I am pretty Rob?” Adele asked.
“If I didn’t I would never have asked you out last year. And when I saw you with that group I was angry with myself for not asking you out more often.” I replied.
“That is sweet Rob, but I should have expected that coming from you. You are one of the few people at school who never made fun of my thick glasses and accepted me as I am.” Adele said.
Adele and I went together for a few more years, and then we got married. I never get tired of looking at my very nearsighted wife with her thick, strong glasses.
Specs4ever Nov. 2012