Chapter 10 Cade BobbiLee
It was big, heavy, old, and painted black, one of these links piled on the deck probably weighed more then he did, even with the slump shoulders from the burden he carried. Some would say it should get easier with age, now with number three of four in college, his life should be easier. Yet he stood on this hard, cold, and stark steel and teak deck staring at a heavy link of anchor chain.
He walked over to the rail. He rested his thick weathered trunks of arms on top of it. His left foot came up to rest on the bottom of the safe line. He looked into the downtown-scape of Wilmington, North Carolina, which was nearby where he lived.
The sea wing caught his fading red hair that poked out from under his well worn black hat with a faded number three on it. His hands, used to long hours of work, were turned and twisted like battered fencing and his veins wrapped around them like ivy on a building.
His life should be good, he reflected. His two oldest were out of college and had good jobs. The boy was off to college with a full ride. But there was the baby, his baby girl, that stubborn red headed girl; she was just like her old man.
Age, it kept creeping in on him. Every morning another pop or click would echo in the bedroom. The demon of age had slowly leeched its way into his body. He was fading and knew that soon he would have to step aside and let a new turk take his place.
The briny taste of the sea air filled his mouth. For years this had been his best friend. He sighed heavily and fiddled with his wedding ring on his left hand.
Cade "Red" Burke just leaned on the rail and watched the river. He came to the battleship, looking for peace. When he first arrived in the area he was drawn to the battleship. It was far from quiet in the summer days when he came here, most of the noise was the boats on the river and the children running and banging along on the deck. Finally, he would move to one of the lesser occupied parts of the ship.
There would be no need for that today. The winds were cold, and cutting. Icy needles of the wind's cold fingers poked at his body. The rumbles, pops and pains filled his mind, as the cables of his muscles, from knees that were ten years older then they should be, and his left shoulder felt like a hot knife cut at the joint between his arm and chest. He knew he was old, and all he could do was admit it.
"I can't believe you still come here," a feminine voice echoed in his ears.
"Bobbi, this place means a lot to me," he said to his second daughter Bobbi-Lee Burke.
The young red- headed woman stood next to her dad. He nodded and studied the river and the downtown.
"Dad, Kayla and I want to take you to dinner," Bobbi-Lee said.
He nodded, "When?"
"Any night that you're free," she said, "I still don't understand why you're still working so much?"
He shrugged, "With your sister and brother away at college, and you and Kayla being pretty much independent what else is there for an old man to do?"
"You can enjoy yourself and do things you want to do," Bobbi-Lee said.
"Bobbi, we're so programmed to work that if it is taken away we don't know what to do with ourselves, and the older we get, the harder it is to adjust," he said.
"Why don't you find a girlfriend?"
"Are we really going to have this conversation?" Cade asked.
"Dad, Mom died when Kelly was one, and she's twenty-one. You've been single too long."
"I repeat, are we going to have this conversation?"
"Yes we are, we all want you to be happy," Bobbi-Lee said.
"How's your sister?" Cade asked.
"Dad, she's doing well."
"Still won't talk to me," he said.
Bobbi-Lee nodded, "Well my baby sister is still stubborn as all hell, and well I guess she's still working through the whole thing about Kayla."
"It's been four years," Cade said.
"Never said she was the most rational of us," Bobbi-Lee said.
Cade nodded, "So are you ready to see Huck play?"
"Yes, believe it or not I can't wait to see him again," she said.
Cade nodded, "Yeah, he's probably enjoying all this."
"Yeah, you know they are interviewing him on ESPN?" Bobbi-Lee asked.
Cade shook his head, "No."
"Yeah, they are," she said.
He laughed, "Let's get something warm to drink, it's starting to get cold here," Cade said.
"Are you getting old, Dad?" Bobbi-Lee asked.
"Sad as it is to admit it, girl, but your old man is truly old," he said.
She smiled, and put her arm around him. They walked down the port side of the old retired battleship to the gangplank and down to their cars and off towards the cities on the other side of the river.