Sink

  Marcia Meadows got up from the table and walked out the front door of the bar. Stanley T. Brown, overhearing the last part of her conversation, watched her go out and thought to himself, if she is going to be at the resort Saturday then that is where I'm going to be. I can't let that get out of my life.

  June 13, Friday 9:37 a.m.

  On Interstate 75 in central Florida

  Emerging into the bright morning sunshine like a slippery newborn colt out of her mother’s womb, the mint green nose of the Chrysler minivan slid slowly out of the fog bank onto the moist black asphalt

  Billy, staring at the back of his mother’s ash blonde head whined for the second time in fifteen minutes. “Mom, when are we going to get there? We’ve been driving for days.”

  Lisa Forham, slightly irritated, but realizing the impatience of a nine year old, settled herself more comfortably in the leather bucket seat and without glancing back answered in an even tone. “I hope you understand young man we’ve only been on the road for seven hours. I know it must seem like days to you; but that’s only because you’re bored. We’ll be there in less than two hours. Just think of all the fun you’re going to have with your friend Jack. You haven’t seen him since last Christmas and I'm sure he has lots of neat things to tell you.”

  “Yeah, pipe down pipsqueak. You’re interrupting my daydreams of all those good-looking boys I’m going to see at the lake, especially that hunk Brandon Miles. He’s totally awesome isn’t he mom? Beverly Forham at sixteen was already showing the mature beauty she would radiate in her later years. Dark haired like her father, the classic lines of her satin smooth face and long shapely legs were inherited from her beautiful mother.

  “Yes, I guess he is dear. At least all the girls in America think so. I just hope he’s as nice as he acts in the movies. It would be a shame if he really is a spoiled actor like a lot of them. That, success generally goes to their head.”

  “Don’t worry mom. He’s a dreamboat in real life according to all the magazine articles I’ve read. He’s supposed to be really polite and very humble around his fans. That’s the guy for me.”

  “Aw Beverly, he’d throw rocks at you. He’d tell you to get lost. Wouldn’t he mom?”

  “Okay you kids. Be nice to each other. I want you to be on your best behavior when we see your father. You haven’t seen him in two weeks and I want him to remember wonderful children he has.”

  “Mom, I am not a children. I’m a teenager. Besides, I’m adorable.” Beverly fluttered her eyelashes and pursed her lips in a mimicking gesture.

  “You’re a goon Bev,” Billy chanted. “You’re the bride of Frankenstein.”

  “That's enough guys.” Their mother warned. “Enjoy the scenery and we'll be there before you know it.

  Lisa Forham was looking forward to seeing her husband, Bill, again. They had been separated many times over the course of their marriage and each mini-reunion was better than the one before. Their love for each other was very deep, based not only on deep compassion for each other, but also a deep commitment to please the other. It didn’t take that much work, both being very sensitive to the other’s needs and desires. Their happiness was reflected not only in their children but in their friends as well. Kevin and Sue Backlin, their closest friends, had a similar commitment to each other. The two couples with two children each strived over the years to spend every major holiday and vacation together. There was never the arguments and yelling matches that many families seem to have as a core to their relationships. Even though the parents sometimes had slight disagreements with their individual spouses, these minor arguments never surfaced in public and especially in front of their offspring. The families got along so well that, they all looked forward to the many rendezvous they had over the years. The men had such a deep respect for each other not only in business but, in their personal lives that, even if one had a little too much to drink at their many family affairs and holiday parties, the last thing on either one of their minds was to make a pass at the other ones wife. It was an almost perfect relationship, achieved by the steadfast commitment to one another.

  Lisa and the children had left their house, fifty miles north of Atlanta, Georgia at a little after one in the morning. They planned to be at the resort a day early to enjoy some of the many activities that Bill had told them about before the grand opening on Saturday. Bill, accompanied by Kevin Backlin would be arriving from Chicago after a two weeklong seminar on worldwide environmental destruction. They would take an airport limo from Tampa International Airport over to the resort. Sue and her children would be driving in from southern South Carolina and would be arriving at approximately the same time. Their reunion, always pleasant, would be another delightful experience to add to their already filled photo albums and home video libraries, but as always, they expected this one to be more exciting than the one before.

  June 13, Friday 10:18 a.m.

  Back door of resort

  Tyrone Washington looked up at the camera and watched as it rotated slowly back and forth. He looked at the molding at the edge of the ceiling where the wires disappeared from view and made a checkmark on the sheet of paper on his clipboard. Tyrone gave a thumbs up sign into the camera lens and started walking toward the check-in desk. Tyrone loved his new job, he didn’t really have to do much of anything and they paid him quite handsomely. Some life! His wife Lucy also was really proud. Trying a lot of jobs in the past, nothing really suited the man inside of Tyrone. This job was entirely different. It was aces.

  Tyrone approached the front desk, nodded to the blonde haired desk clerk, and stared up at the ceiling mounted camera. After watching it revolve back and forth twice he looked at the wiring where it ran behind the desk and made another check on his paper. With a thumbs up sign again to the camera he walked across the lobby to the two main doors.

  Tyrone’s stint in the army had taught him discipline and how important a good appearance was. With spit polished leather shoes, freshly ironed khaki shirt and trousers, Tyrone cut a fine figure as a security guard. Looking good, was probably what landed him this job. Tyrone had dressed to kill on the interview, making sure his nails were clean and nicely manicured. A friendly smile also helped. Nobody wants to hire a somber puss, even though the manager Dilford Bailey was. Yes, being proud and doing an excellent job for the corporation, was what mattered.

  Checking the three remaining cameras Tyrone headed out to the pool to see how the twin brothers that the company had recently hired were doing. Mark and Mike Summers were identical twins, six foot tall, dark, and ruggedly handsome. Mark, older by seven minutes, seemed to obtain a grasp on situations slightly faster than his younger brother Mike but, both were obviously quick learners and were not afraid to tackle any job, large or small. Both of the twins were leaning over the main pool pump, looking at the motor with a perplexed look on their faces. “Hey, what’s happening guys? You break the pump or what?”

  “Hey Tyrone.” Mike answered. “No, we’re just checking everything over to make sure everything’s okay for the big grand opening tomorrow. What’ve you been up to?"

  “Not much. I just finished checking all the security cameras with Chief Morgan monitoring me on the monitor. No privacy huh?”

  “You know he’s a big teddy bear Tyrone. I bet you could really screw up and he’d just nod his head and say that you’ll do better next time. Chief Morgan is a neat guy to work for.

  “You’re absolutely right. He is the nicest boss I ever had. He is a real pleasure to work for. This whole resort is that way. Everyone seems really happy.”

  “Yeah, except that old sourpuss Bailey. Nobody likes him. I’m glad he’s only in charge of the inside of the resort and that the corporation runs the rest. I don’t think I could work for him.”

  “Me neither.” Replied Tyrone in a whispery voice. “Me neither.”

  Tyrone Washington waved goodbye to the two boys and headed toward
the manmade mountain. He was almost at the front of the mountain and he looked up at the majestic waterfall. Man that’s beautiful he thought. This place is paradise. Nothing could ever disturb it.

  June 13, Friday 12:47 p.m.

  In a meadow

  The crystal clear water cascading down the side of the manmade mountain sparkled like expensive jewels in the midday sun. The roar, as the water hit the churned up surface of the lagoon was quite audible even in the velvet green meadow where Paul Zangalio chewed on a blade of grass as his head laid quite comfortably in Becky's denim clad lap.

  “You know Beck, when we get married we could build a house right in the middle of this meadow, raise kids, and live happily ever after.”

  “Paul, let's be serious for a change. You don't make enough money to support yourself, more less raise a family and besides the corporation that owns the resort would never sell a beautiful place like this.”

  Rebecca McClelland, though only seventeen, was a lot more mature than most of her friends and especially a lot more than her nineteen-year boyfriend, fiancé, Paul. Her practical nature allowed her to build a substantial nest egg toward her future marriage even though she had been working only three summers for the corporation. Her father, as an executive for the company since its beginning, brought her into the office at fourteen years of age to do miscellaneous filing and acting as a gopher. Her early maturity and quick thinking impressed the president of the company so much, he rewarded her with a sizable salary and a promise of full time employment upon graduation from high school. She already had her own desk and was the assistant to his personal secretary, who adored her to no end. Becky could operate any of the computer equipment and already was acting as part-time purchasing agent for most of the corporation. With her bubbling personality and cute looks, everyone who came in contact with her, always wanted to go out of their way to help her, enabling her to handle just about any task set before her.

  Paul Zangalio, hired thirty days before the grand opening of the resort, was working as the main lifeguard at the Olympic size swimming pool in case a clumsy or drunken guest got into trouble while enjoying the water pleasures at the resort. The resort opened two months previous to the grand opening and after thirty days, due to the influx of more than the expected number of guests, decided to implement as many safety precautions as they could. They equipped the pool and the lake with lifesaving stations, a pole with a life preserver and safety rope and call phone in case any emergency arose but, they felt the presence of human safety people would enhance their credibility to be a modern fully equipped resort.

  Paul, the youngest of three brothers, had been an outstanding athlete in school and had gotten chosen to represent the state in the baseball playoffs. His precise pitching ability had been fully documented in the local paper and with his muscular build and former first aid training, the resort picked him out of his graduating class to be the top safety person to represent the resort. There were three other lifeguards employed by the resort and he was the lead person who arranged the schedules and time offs allotted to the guards. His pay was high for the field but, was not quite enough to raise a family. He hoped his baseball ability would allow him a chance to prove that he could be a good family provider.

  “I have dreams Becky, big dreams.” Paul replied in a faraway type voice. “You know I’ll be picked up by one of the major league teams and before you know it, Ill be a starting shortstop and my name will be a household word. Everyone will want my autograph and you can come and pick me up at the ballpark or the airport in our new Mercedes SUV after I clench the winning home run in the last playoff game before the World Series. I’ll be great! Just think of all the fame and fortune and the way you will be running around with the other star player’s wives going on shopping sprees and eating in fancy restaurants and stuff.”

  “Come on, lighten up Paul.” Becky scolded. “Just because you got a college scholarship and was chosen all county doesn’t mean instant career. It takes a lot of work and a lot of luck and besides you would have to spend quite a bit of time in a farm camp and then play for a while in the minor leagues. That still doesn’t guarantee you a spot on a big league team. That’s a shot in the dark and you know it.”

  “Just you wait Rebecca. I’ll prove myself. You just wait and see.”

  June 13, Friday 1:03 p.m.

  Manmade mountain

  Marvin Schumaker was a self-proclaimed ladies man. He thought he was God’s gift to womanhood. In reality, most women thought he was a real dud with a capital D. He not only was egotistical, he was downright boring. Marvin, at five foot five, wore lifts in his shoes. His drastically receded hairline was supplemented with an ill fitting toupee and his facial features, pock marked since adolescents from a severe bout of acne, added to a slumped shouldered pot bellied structure that was almost comical to look at. Five minutes in animated conversation with Marvin was all it took for most women to realize this person was a real loser. He told any women he met, so many different stories about who he was and what he did, of course, better than anyone else, that he sometimes forgot who he was supposed to be at any given moment. One night he was a jet fighter test pilot. Another night he was a world-renowned cardiac specialist. He even went so far as to tell a very enticing redhead he was a CIA agent on special assignment for the President. This immediately backfired when; she asked him who his superior was because she told him she had been an agent stationed in Argentina for the last three years. This was a complete fabrication by the redhead because she recognized a bullshit artist right away. Marvin stammered a muttered reply and immediately headed for the rest room, from which he peeked out sporadically until her back was turned and quickly snuck out the back door.

  In reality, Marvin Schumaker was a technician trained to monitor the dials and gauges controlling the input and output of the equalization system of the manmade lake. He spent eight hours a day watching the same instruments for any deviation from the norm. He was busy in the restroom staring, at what he thought, his handsome image in the tiny mirror, when the first glitch appeared. It wasn’t much but a trained eye, such as the one Marvin possessed, would have picked up the irregularity immediately. Unfortunately, his narcissus complex kept him from noticing what, could have been an early warning of a potential disaster. The input sensors detected a tremendous drop in the level of the lake over a one-half hour period of time. By the time Marvin returned to his workstation, the pumps produced enough pressure to restore the lake to its normal level and no one was the wiser. The sudden loss of water would have indicated a potentially dangerous situation but, Marvin was too busy monitoring himself instead of the lake and the loss went undetected. The grand opening scheduled for Saturday relaxed the schedules of the technicians because, everything was going so smooth since the inception of the monitoring system, and the corporation didn’t feel the need to pay overtime over the weekend. If something was going to go wrong they reasoned, it should have happened way before now. If Marvin had done his job correctly, someone would have kept at least a skeleton crew working throughout the weekend but because of his lack of warning, everything seemed to go smoothly.

  Marvin liked the idea of having the weekend off. He could scope out the babes and have his way with any he chose. His awkward thinking deteriorated his mind so much, he thought he could really score with any woman he met. Well, the big party was tomorrow and Marvin was destined to get his just rewards.

  June 13, Friday 6:04 p.m.

  Inside the marina office

  Otis Sherman arranged the lure display for about the fifth time in three hours and frowned. Something’s wrong here, I can feel it in my bones. He looked down at Bart and smiled.

  “What’s up boy? You look all jittery today. Usually you come back from your afternoon walk in the woods with a smirk on your face, like you had conquered every wild animal in the forest. Today, you come back like a bear tried to eat you. What gives boy?”

&n
bsp; Otis reached over and scratched the brown and white dog behind the ears and continued his worrisome thoughts.

  “You know Bart, animals have a special instinct that God didn’t think man needed. Well, I could sure use some of that instinct now. Everything seems wrong. The birds haven’t been singing like they usually do. The fish, sure the hell, haven’t been biting and now you act funny. I’m worried some kind of big time pal.”

  Otis, his seventy year old back arched with osteoporosis, shuffled slowly over to the picture window that overlooked the azure blue water of the man-made lake and sat down gingerly in his cane back rocker, a birthday gift from the resort's office staff, and stared with his icy blue eyes at puffy cumulus clouds drifting over the lake. He sadly shook his unruly shock of white hair and sighed. Otis shrugged his shoulders and reached over to the window sill and turned up the volume on the little portable radio he had brought into the office when it had first opened. He was somewhat soothed by the soft rock music coming out of the single speaker and his thoughts went back to the old days. The days when Bart was still a puppy. He had been living in an old ramshackle shack on the edge of the lazy river that bordered Walker’s Prairie, what they now call Forest Glen. Otis made his living with, trotlines strung up and down the river always catching the big river catfish that he sold in the village. He also cut the hearts out of the palms and sold the swamp cabbage to all the locals. Once in a while he would be hired out as a hunting or fishing guide. His big break came when that Jap fellow visited him one rainy, really hot sticky night. That Jap was cool and collected in his three-piece suit and Brooks Brothers’ raincoat and he offered Otis more money than he had ever seen if, he would come and run his marina for him. The foreigner told that he had a reputation of knowing everything there was to know about fishing in Florida waters and he wanted someone who could tell his guest how to catch fish in his brand new lake.