I have a Basement in My Boat?

I woke up refreshed and alone. I took a shower and headed for the saloon/galley. I noticed breakfast on the stove and heard voices in the cockpit. I went up top to discover Laura surrounded by 3 men talking in hushed tones. One I recognized as Joe but the other two were strangers.

"Hi Joe." I said as I extended my hand and entered the cockpit.

Joe shook my hand. "I want you to meet your neighbors, Sam and Leroy."

I shook hands with each of them. Joe continued. "I intervened last night when the noise woke up your neighbors and they wanted to call the police."

"Oh my. ..Wow. Uh, I am so sorry. We were up playing cards and it got a little rowdy. I'm so sorry about that," I said turning a little red.

"Cards uh? Your co-conspirator said you were playing board games. Poke-her I might believe," Joe said shaking his head. Laura gave me an oops look.

"You two need to get your story straight at the next marina when they do call the cops. You don't want to be caught in the cockpit wearing a condom and a sheet, talking about board games. In the meantime you are welcome to stay as long as you want but I want you to move over to slip 197, where you'll be all by yourself if you decide to take a ride on the Reading Railroad. That way the screaming train whistle won't keep the neighbors up all night." Joe shook his head and headed off the boat and we heard him mumble, "I almost set him up with my cousin. What was I thinking."

Sam shook my hand. "Hey, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean for you to get in trouble."

"Don't give it a second thought," I said. "I've got a story to tell that will make everyone with a sailboat envious. Who gets kicked out of a marina for that?"

"Real pleasure to meet you." Sam turned and stepped out of the boat.

"I'm sorry too. I tried to tell Loretta it was impossible for someone to be in the basement of a boat killing people but she insisted. I was pretty sure you didn't have a basement but Loretta is always right. I just don't know what I am going to tell her that you were doing. She wouldn't believe the truth so I might go with board games." Leroy nodded his head and stepped off the boat.

Laura and I doubled over in laughter.

"You want to handle the dock lines and walk over to the new slip and meet me over there?" I asked Laura after we both had breakfast.

"You want to move right away?" Laura asked.

"Yes, within an hour Joe is going to make sure everyone in the marina knows what happened last night. If Loretta adds her voice, there will be a lot of people wandering up the dock looking for the boat that has a basement," I smiled at Laura. "Off by ourselves we'll get less traffic and who knows we might want a little more privacy," I winked at her.

Laura jumped off the boat. "I've got the dock lines," she said with more enthusiasm than I expected.

I powered up the boat and Laura uncleated the dock lines and secured them back on the boat. When she finished she walked back down the dock looking for our new slip. I slowly backed out the boat and watched Laura to see where she ended up at. I arrived at the new slip and tossed Laura the first stern line as I brought the boat to a halt. She quickly cleated the bow and spring lines and hopped back on board.

"You know," she said, "we could go and explore the town or... since we are out here all by ourselves, we could go into the basement and play board games." She smiled, winked, grabbed my hand and led me below and into my cabin.