Quetzalcoatl Ch. 04

My mother leaned on the rail as she watched me get in the water. "Be careful," she whispered as if someone could hear.

The water was cool, but it felt good against my tanned skin. It was only a fifty-yard swim to shore. I swam to the dockside instead of the road, since we would be docking that night, and I wanted to scout out that area.

As I had thought, the whole area was abandoned. I knew that no one would be out for a pleasure cruise, but how had no one thought of fishing for a living? It was perplexing.

I wasn't sure if I was happy or concerned about it. On the one hand, I was happy that I didn't have any one to deal with, but I was also perplexed by the complete absence of people. It was somehow alarming.

I stopped sneaking and walked directly to the dockyard office. The door was open, but there was little left to salvage. Even though the place was abandoned, someone had been here previously to pilfer from the place.

I found some Ford car keys, and there was an F-250 parked outside with the name of the boatyard on it. It only took me two minutes to unlock the truck, start it up, and park it by an unused berth. It would be there when we docked the sailboat in a few hours.

There was only a few boats docked in the area, and only one car parked about twenty yards away; a Toyota minivan. I checked out the minivan, but there was nothing in it.

I ran along the creek until I reached our boat. Mom was there on the deck. I wished that she had stayed below. The area seemed abandoned, but if someone saw us come up the creek, they could easily spy on us from one of the buildings on shore.

I took off my sneakers, put them back in the plastic bag, and I swam the fifty yards back to the boat.

"Find anyone?" Mom asked as I climbed up the ladder.

"No, but I was able to find keys to a pick-up truck."

"Good, we can be at your grandmother's place in no time."

"Mom, I wish that you would have stayed below. Anyone could see you on deck."

"I only came up when I saw you running along the shore. I thought something was wrong."

It was more like a jog than a run, but she probably had a point, so I let it go. The place was abandoned, I told myself. The sun was going down. We had a little to do before we docked the boat.