Ch 89

Jackie was having a good time at Daniel's house. Daniel was interested in business, so he and Jackie talked much about it with Barnabas. The factory was complete, but now there was nothing to make. They pondered ideas about what to do with the place. Not just an idea that might work. Ideas that could make money. One idea was a warehouse. Shipping was a big business, Barnabas decided that the top floor would be good warehouse space, and it would be income.

"What does this area not have?" Jackie asked. "The ocean is nearby, but I haven't noticed any boat builders. Well, there's a couple small boat shops, nothing big. Even fishing sized boats, they all come from Boston or New York."

Barnabas nodded thoughtfully.

"We do have the docks in town, and a boat launch that's never used," Daniel said, getting the idea. "If we did work boats and pleasure boats, that might be worth getting into."

"At one time the Collins family did own many of those docks," Barnabas said. "In fact, I think we still to. I would rather not lay off the workers we have once all the machines are shipped out."

"Using resources you have would make sense," Jackie agreed.

"From what I know, boats turn a pretty good profit," Daniel said.

"I'll look into it," Barnabas agreed.

"Barnabas, I have some allowance I've yet to spend," Jackie said. "Can I build a boat at the factory?"

Barnabas grinned. "Jackie, boats are expensive."

"Right! Rent the place to build it, it helps keep you workers employed, and after it's done, I sell it."

Barnabas chuckled. "So how much allowance do you have?"

Jackie frowned in thought. "Well, I haven't bought hardly anything, and with the CD accounts I have Dad put most of it in ... I think around one an three quarters million. I'd have to check to be sure."

Daniel's eyes went wide. "If you have all that, why risk it on a boat?"

Jackie shrugged. "To try and help out?" she asked.

"That is very kind of you, but there are professionals who built boats," Barnabas told her.

"We have to do something to keep that factory working," Jackie said.

"We do, and we will explore all options we can find," Barnabas said firmly. "You have a good idea, but let's look for more before you start throwing money around. OK?"

Jackie let out a sigh. "OK."

Barnabas had to get going so Daniel and Jackie moved to the couch to ponder ideas. Louise was there, watching a show about waste plastic and how it was ruining the oceans.

"Whatcha watchin?' Jackie asked plopping down beside her.

Louise waved a hand at the TV. "You know, plastic bottles get recycled, why not bags? I mean why not? They all just get dumped, the animals try to eat them and choke to death!"

"Probably isn't any money in it," Daniel noted. "Those bags are cheap to make."

Jackie suddenly had an idea. She bounced up and grabbed Daniel's hand. "Got another idea, let's go research it!" she said and dragged him away.

.

Dana was excited. As word and proof spread about Homo Aquaticus, the scientific community was beginning to accept mermaids as being real. She was even named as the expert on their species. She'd given talks locally in Dallas and in Florida, but now she was going to give a TED talk. The TED talks were given not to the curious, but to other scientists, university students and educators. TED covered all areas of Scientific research from astronomy to culture. It was a big deal to be selected to give a TED talk.

Back stage, Dana made sure she had all her material ready. She was nervous and excited. Taking deep, calming breaths, she mentally got ready to speak to a crowd. Chomper was lying nearby, watching her. She wasn't sure what she was going to do with him while she was gone, but the staff here encouraged her to bring him along. She could explain the 'Joan' strain of alligator as well. Due to Chomper though, she had to set things up herself. The staff wasn't comfortable around a free roaming alligator.

All her pictures and video were set up in the big display screen, she had her talk and what she wanted to say down.

A head poked in. "Dana, they are about to announce you."

"Coming," she said and pulled her wagon out. Chomper followed. She waited at the edge of back stage as the woman on stage introduced her as the Marine biologist having discovered the most important scientific finds of the century.

Dana came out and tried not to see the large arena style seating area filled to capacity. There were hundreds here to listen to her speak as well as TV cameras watching her. It was a bit intimidating.

She waved and said, "Hello, everyone. I'm Dana, the alligator following me is Chomper. He's a three and a half year old North American Alligator, Joan strain. Joan is the person who discovered this strain of alligators. I was contacted to see if I could find out why the alligator that was hanging around their house acted so different." she set the small table out an the set up the heat lamp and towel behind the wagon as she talked.

"The Joan strain of alligator does have a DNA different from other alligators that enhances their intelligence," she explained. As she was talking, Chomper climbed with his front feet on the table up to look on the table, then up at her.

"Yes, it's coming," she said to Chomper, which caused a few chuckles. She pulled some meat out of a cooler and put it on the table. "Chomper can recognize individuals and what I have found is he also identifies his territory, which is currently, my house and the area around it. When not in his territory, he will stay near something he recognizes from his territory, which is me and this wagon. I was wondering how he was going to do in the hotel room last night. He did fine, he crawled up in bed and I woke up with him lying on me"

A few chuckles passed through the crowd.

"He can understand some gestures and as you can see, has developed a crude way of communicating though looks and small actions. He is still young, so I am working on finding the limits to how intelligent he is." She held a finger up, Chomper opened his mouth, she took a piece of meat and tossed it in.

SNAP

"Chomper is partly domesticated, due to his current environment." SNAP "He does some hunting on his own. I have encouraged his natural habits, for once he grows, I want him to return to the wild. What I am seeing though, with another of these alligators is that once they pick their territory, they have a tendency to stay in that area unless there is reason for them to move." SNAP "I have a short clip of an adult female that has taken up residence near someone's house." she showed her first clip. It was a shot of Joan standing in shoulder deep water, the alligator in front of her as she fed it.

"You would think that normally, this is a very dangerous position to be in. A quick strike, and that alligator could bite her head right off. With a normal alligator, that is true. It would see the girl as more food than what she's giving it. This is another Joan alligator and that girl had been feeding it for a few years. In fact, this is Chomper's mother. She lives in the wild and chose this area as her territory." SNAP "It is tempting to think that due to this scene, Joan alligators are more docile. That is far from the truth. This one, and chomper do recognize individuals. If that girl was someone the alligator didn't recognize, she would be dead. They do not like anything unknown to them in their territory. A while ago, someone tried to keep that girl away from the water, seeing that alligator. The alligator attacked them. It would be the same if someone tried to grab me now. Chomper would bite them. That person, or as happened on my porch, a rat snake, would be attacked by Chomper. It would not belong in his territory, and he would kill and eat it. Normally, an alligator will attack only when it's hungry or threatened. Anything in a Joan Alligator's territory it does not recognize, it sees as a threat." SNAP

Showing a picture of Chomper in the yard, she said, "This makes me believe that the Joan strain of alligators have a sense of family. Very odd for creatures that normally live isolated. Right now, I have found there are not many of them around. I and others are watching them closely to see how this strain develops. This modification has many unanswered implications we are studying. Both beneficial and non beneficial. Until we know more about this amazing strain of alligator, we are keeping them as isolate as possible."

Dana fed Chomper the rest of his meal as she spoke. Once it was gone, he got down and went over to the towel and laid down. Dana turned the heat lamp on.

"There is another species we are also keeping isolated from human contact as well." Dana said and showed the photo of the mermaid beside her boat. "This is Homo Aquaticus. To say the least, I was shocked to find out that the legends of mermaids is real. The simple fact they exist was mind blowing. As I began to study them, I ran into more and more amazing findings." She put up a picture of the two DNA sequences.

"I did a DNA test to find out where they fit into the animal kingdom. I did not trust my results because the results I got looked exactly like human DNA. I sent more samples out to other labs, and got the same results back. Homo Aquaticus DNA only has very minor differences than human DNA. We are directly related to them. The difference is less than two tenths of a percent. Much closer to us than Chimpanzee DNA, which has been touted as our closest relative."

Showing an underwater photo of a pair of mermaids swimming towards the camera, she said, "This species is very hard to get close to. They are skittish until they get used to you. Once they get to know you, they are friendly and I discovered another amazing thing. They can speak. They have vocal cords in a voice box like we have. It takes some getting used to, but their language is comprehensible, and what I speak with them is a mix of their language and English that we have developed in our interactions." She put on a short video.

Looking down on the water from the pontoon boat, a merman looked up and held up fish stuck on a trident.

"Horoo ook tar" he asked.

"Yes, eeeh loo up." Dana replied.

She stopped it as the merman reached up for a rung on the ladder.

Dana translated saying, "They like cooked fish. He asked me to cook it for him, I told him yes, I will, come on up. Their native language is high pitched and low pitched, sounds that will travel through water like porpoise and whale sounds. They do have the capability for more pronounced speech. If you will look at his hand, they have partially webbed fingers that allow them dexterity and also help them maneuver in the water. The ultrasounds I have," She put up a scan on the screen of a fin. "Show their feet are separate but close together, their toe bones are elongated into their tail fins. Looking at his face, you will see it is very similar, but not exactly like ours. and where our esophagus closes off at the top of the windpipe, theirs closes off below the voice box so they can speak underwater. How that works, I am still determining."

Turning that picture off, she told the assembly, "I have found that their bone structure is very similar to ours. Not just the same overall structure, but the diameter as well. A Homo Aquaticus arm, leg or any torso bone is identical in size and shape of a human bone. They have a slightly larger rib cage, to hold their larger lungs to store more air for longer periods under water, and their ankles and feet are shaped differently for underwater propulsion instead of walking on land, but essentially, they have our skeletons. Or rather, we have theirs. Possibly that is why humans have knee and hip trouble as we grow older. Our joints were designed for swimming, not carrying our weight walking."

She showed a picture of southern Africa on the screen. "It is well known that humanity began in the south of Africa roughly 250,000 years ago. DNA studies have confirmed it. We also know for a fact, orininally all life came from the sea. All species of apes have much thicker bone structures than we do. They cannot speak and to not have the hair pattern we do especially the long hair on their heads. Homo Aquaticus, I believe, are our true ancestors. Yes Simians like the Chimpanzee and gorilla are our cousins. Their ancestors also came from the sea, but much earlier, allowing their species more time to adapt living on land. Humans on this planet are a fairly new species. We are only a couple hundred thousand years old, not a million plus as apes are. It is the Homo Aquaticus who are millions of years old, that for whatever reason, came up to live more and more on land, and developed into us."

"Any questions?"

A man stood up. "If you have no archeological evidence, how can you determine the age of this species?"

"We have a rough age due to the location we found them in. Looking back at the geological history of the Earth, there is no way they could be where they are unless their pod was trapped there long ago. We suspect this pod has been living there at lease two million years. Homo Aquaticus do not travel across land very well."

A woman stood up "Do you believe there may be more of them we haven't discovered?"

"I do. We know more about the solar system than we do about our own oceans. From ancient times, there have been rumors and stories about mermaids. Look at the tales of Kraken, giant squid. For centuries there were stories about them, and those stories were placed in myth. It has only been in recent years we have discovered that giant squid that grow fifty feet long are real. Sea serpents, now known to be oar fish, that also grow very long and appear to be snake-like. If all Homo Aquaticus are as skittish, then most likely they move to where we, and predators who endanger them are not. There also may be sub species that no longer needs to breathe air, but take oxygen from the water so they can live deep where humans can't go."

A young man stood up. "How did you find this pod?"

"I didn't discover them, but was told about them. A young woman who likes to swim with a mermaid tail found them. Apparently she was diving, one saw her and got close enough to see what she was, and she saw him. She told me about them, which I was very skeptical about her claim. But she was right. I about dropped my camera when I saw a real mermaid. I knew it was real by the shape, color and the movements. It was with this woman's help that I was able to begin my study of them."

Another man stood up. "Why is their location such a closely guarded secret?"

"Because we don't want them to become a media circus. Where they are, they have a decent life, and are free to move around as they see fit. It would be the same as someone coming to your house and recording everything you do. You would no longer be comfortable in your own home. You have to remember, these are not just animals, but intelligent people, just like we are."

An older man stood up. "Do you think it is possible, like with other marine mammals that came from the sea, developed, then returned to the sea, that this may be true for Homo Aquaticus as well?"

"It is possible. To verify that, at least one skeleton needs to be found on land. With how close we are to Homo Aquaticus, even if the fossilized remains hav been found, it may be have been classified as human or early human. The main difference between us is in the feet and ankle structure. Along shorelines and in the water, fossils do not get made, so the chances of finding any proof are all but non existent. To make a fossil requires special circumstances."

Dana shrugged and said, "We may never know the timeline of events when we came out of the water, or possibly as you pointed out, went back into it. We do know now by the existence of Homo Aquaticus, that our lineage belongs with them, not with the apes."

A younger woman who looked like a student stood up and asked, "Our blood contains the same percentage of salt as does sea water, do you think our connection to Homo Aquaticus is why?"

"I am certain of it," Dana told her. "The blood type of the pod I am studying is also O negative. That is another direct connection to us."

Chomper got up from his spot and walked over to jerk on Dana's pant leg. She looked down, he turned to look at the stage entrance. She grinned. "I think Chomper is ready to go. Thank you all for having me, Have a good day, everyone."

Applause filled the air as Dana put the table back on the wagon and picked up the towel and heat lamp. Chomper looked the crowd and hissed. When Dana moved off stage, Chomper followed her.

Dana felt like she had truly become a scientist.

.

The next game was with Nashville, and they were much better this year. The score ended up 56 to 13, but the difference from last year, losing over a hundred to nothing was very significant. In the same bar after the game, Kathy talked about the big changes in their team. Instead of sitting alone at the bar, Kathy was now at the long tables with their teams.

"Joan, we got a new owner and manager," Kathy said all smiles. "She was a brute at first, and come to find out, she played football also and accepted no excuses for bad performance. Yeah we lost a few girls, but ended up with a much better team! So far we've won two games this year. It's because we have much better leadership. Or should I say, leadership that actually cares."

"That's great!" Joan agreed. She asked, "Anyone I know?" and took a drink.

"Maybe, her name's Delilah Connor."

Joan choked and blew beer across the table. Bob chuckled. Allison laughed and clapped.

Kathy eyed Joan, "You know her?"

Joan wiped her mouth. "My Mom."

Allison poked Joan on the shoulder. "Ah-ha, Your Mom's setting up competition for us."

Joan nodded. "Well if she's making Nashville into a good solid team, more power to her. I just wish she would have said something."

"Who knows, Maybe Cameron's got a team also," Bob said with a grin.

Joan elbowed Bob and stuck her tongue out at him. To Kathy she said, "After our game last year, when I went home I complained about team owners and managers who didn't seem to care about the teams they had. Apparently, she felt she had to do something about it."

"I'm glad she did," Kathy stated. "The whole attitude and morale of our team has improved greatly. We're getting many more fans now too."

"I'm happy for you. It's much more exciting to play against a team that tries hard and does their best," Joan said and raised her glass to the Nashville players.

.

Jackie explained to Daniel as they watched the 'bag recycling video. "The temperature on the oven doesn't need to be that high. We don't need to liquefy the plastic, only heat it up enough for it to become gum-like. Press it into a mold, let it cool. It can be used for floor tiles, patio blocks, just about anything. Collecting the bags to help save the planet, we get them for free, the only cost is collecting them and making them into something else usable."

Daniel frowned. "That's not a bad idea. Ask stores if we can put a bag recycling bin out front, and collecting them will be easy."

"It will, and once we figure out what it costs to make an item, I'm sure people will buy them."

Daniel kissed her cheek. "That's better too if it doesn't work out. Less money involved."

Jackie eyed him. "Just a kiss on the cheek?" she asked with a crooked grin..

"I didn't want to break your concentration." He explained, then kissed her full on the lips. "Better?"

"Do it again, and I'll let you know."

.

Barnabas agreed to give the idea a try. First the kids had to do market research, finding out if people would buy recycled plastic and get an idea of what they wanted. Next they had to figure the cost of reforming the plastic, and figuring out good selling price for the items. If a concrete paver was cheaper for example, someone might not want to buy plastic ones. Then they had to work out how they were going to advertise what they had to sell.

Daniel and Jackie agreed.

First they looked up to see if any recycled plastic was being sold. Looking up items they found it was. Much of anything made had a 'recycled' label on it.

Damn.

.

One thing Jackie was missing was her swims. Being up on a cliff, there wasn't any decent sized body of water to swim in. A couple miles down the road there was a path down to the beach. She got her bikini on, put a wrap around herself and slung her tail over her shoulder. Seeing her, Louise wanted to go too. The two of them headed downstairs and saw the maid and Mrs. Collins.

"Mrs. Collins, we're going down to the beach for a swim." Jackie told her.

Elizabeth nodded. "Be careful of riptides, and watch out for sharks," she said firmly.

"We will," Louise assured her.

Leaving the house, they walked down the road. It was a nice day out, few clouds and looking down on the water below, the water weren't that tall, maybe a couple feet. The road went down the hill and they found the path down to the beach.

Thus wasn't southern beach of wide, white sand, but a narrow beach with small pebbles and rocks, a couple big enough to sit on. They put their wraps and sneakers on the rocks, and went down to the surf. Walking carefully, Louise noted, "At least all the rocks are rounded."

"Yeah, small bits of erosion," Jackie agreed. Stepping into the surf, she noted, "Water's a little cool too."

"Kinda wish we could go home and swim in the lake."

"Soon, I hope," Jackie agreed. "I mean I love seeing Daniel, but I'm kinda getting homesick."

"Me too."

They put their tails on in the surf. The water wasn't so cool with their tails on. Louise had serious pokies though, from the cool water her nips were so hard they hurt. Looking out over the water, thinking abut being cold. she noticed a boat. "Jackie, look there, that boat looks... lopsided."

Jackie followed her pointing arm. The cabin cruiser was lower in the back and tipped to the right. Zooming in, she saw a man and a boy throwing buckets of water out of it. "That doesn't look good. Louise, don't go far from the shore, I might need your help."

Jackie crawled into the water. She got a couple faces fully of breakers, but got below them and in enough water to swim. The bottom dropped quickly about fifteen feet out into an abyss. Jackie didn't see bottom, only black. Yup, that was deep. She swam down below the wave action and headed for that boat. Coming up in a jump, she saw the boat was ahead of her just to the right, a few hundred yards ahead. Diving back in, she adjusted her course. Yes this water was cold and her nips were complaining.

Her next jump put the boat only a hundred yards away. She also noticed the boy turn to stare at her before she dove in again.

Soon the boat was above her, she rose slowly as buckets or water hit the ocean on one side and a solid pumped stream poured on in the other. Towards the back, something, it looked like a metal rod with a half circle shape on the end, was poking out of the hull near the bottom. She surfaced next to the boat and got splashed in the face with a bucket of water.

"Hey! You got a hole, about this big, I need something to cover it," she announced.

The man and the boy stopped to stare at her.

"Did you hear me? I need something, a piece of plastic, a cloth to fill the hole, something to stop the water going in! NOW!" she yelled.

The boy ran into the cabin. The man was still staring at her.

"You better keep bailing," she told him and moved to the side a bit.

That seemed to wake him up , he returned to bailing furiously.

The boy came back with a sweater. "Here," he said.

Jackie rose up to grab it then turned over and went back down to the bottom of the boat. She tried to push the rod back in. She only pushed herself down. OK She pulled. The rod had a piston on the end. This all but plugged the hole.

She pulled the piston out, shoved the sweater into the hole, then the piston. It stuck in place. Good.

Rrising back up to the surface she rose high enough to grab the edge of the boat. "Hole's plugged," she told them. "Keep getting the water out, have you called for help?" She also noticed a woman on board who was pumping with a hand pump.

Unlike the man and the boy who were still staring at her, the woman said, "The radio was powered by the generator on the engine. When the engine blew, we lost all power."

"So, you can't move either?"

"No, we've been drifting."

Jackie pointed back at the beach. Then steer towards that beach over there. I'll push."

"Push?"

Jackie let go and swam to the back of the boat. She pushed against the back. It was slow, but the boat began to move.

"Mom, that's a mermaid!" The boy finally cried.

"I'll be damned," the man whispered.

"Don't be damned, just steer the boat," Jackie told him. "Hey, little guy, what's your name?"

"Tony."

"Can you steer the boat, Tony?"

"Yeah."

"Then go do it. There's a beach on the land a little to your left, Steer us there. Let your parents bail the boat out."

"OK!"

The boat wasn't moving very much, but it was moving. The more she pushed, it moved a little faster. Even the low waves were making this a challenge. As the boat slowly rose up it was getting easier to push.

The man took a break from bailing and said, "I don't know how to thank you. You saved us."

"Make sure Tony gets to that beach, I'm gonna be a little tired by the time we get there."

He went up into the cabin. The woman came back with her pump and put it down and the hose over the side. She kept pumping and asked, "Who are you? I'm Gina Wayland."

"Jackie Connor. You guys really need to get a battery for your radio."

"We needed to get a new boat instead of this old one," Gina said with a snort. "Sure we saved money, but now look at the mess we're in."

"You need it rebuilt?" Jackie asked.

"Engine's blown. We may as well scrap it. I swear, Ron does his great deals, then we pay more getting things straightened out," Gina said in a huff. "What are you doing out here anyway? I mean, where's your boat?"

"Don't have one. We saw you from the shore. I came out to see that was going on."

"You swam all the way from shore?"

"Yup, going back too, pushing this boat."

Casting Jackie a concerned look, Gina asked, "Can you make it?"

"Sure, can you see the beach yet?"

Leaning over the side some Gina said, "Just barely. There's a girl there watching us."

"My sister Jackie. She can't swim as far, I told her to wait for me."

"You sure you can make it all the way back?"

Jackie grinned. "We'll see." An odd thought hit her. She let out a giggle and sang.

last night I had the strangest dream

I sailed away to China

in a little row boat to find ya

and you said you had to have your laundry cleaned.

Didn't want no one to hold you

What does that mean?

and you said,

.

Ain't nothin gonna break my stride

nobody's gonna slow me down, oh no.

I got to keep on movin

Ain't nothing gonna break my stride

I'm runnin and I won't touch ground Oh no,

I got to keep on movin

.

you're on a roll and now you pray it lasts

the road behind was rocky

and now you're feeling cocky!

you look at me and you see your past

is that the reason why you're running so fast?

and he said,

.

Ain't nothin gonna break my stride

nobody's gonna slow me down, oh no.

I got to keep on movin

Ain't nothing gonna break my stride

I'm runnin and I won't touch ground Oh no,

I got to keep on movin

.

Never had another girl like me, worked me over

Never had another girl like me, drag me under

If I ever meet another boy like you, I will tell him

Never want another boy like you, I have to say Ohhh,

.

Ain't nothin gonna break-a my stride

nobody's gonna slow me down, on no.

I got to keep on movin

Ain't nothing gonna break my stride

I'm runnin and I won't touch ground Oh no,

I got to keep on movin

.

Ain't nothin gonna break my stride

nobody's gonna slow me down, oh no.

I got to keep on movin

Ain't nothing gonna break my stride

I'm runnin and I won't touch ground Oh no,

I got to keep on movin

Gina smiled and sang the last choruses with Jackie as she pumped out the boat.

In a short while Gina looked down and said, "I can see the leak! It's still weeping some but the plug you put in is holding."

"Good news," Jackie agreed. "Are we there yet?"

"Closer, the girl on the beach just went into the water."

"How far away are we?" Jackie asked.

"A little more than city block, it looks like."

"She should be able to go that far and back," Jackie said in a musing tone. "This isn't the easiest thing to do."

Gina grinned. "I'm surprised you've pushed us this far. What happens when we reach the shore?"

"Get out, get the boat out of the water so it doesn't sink, then patch that hole," Jackie said.

"You can do that?"

"With some help."

Louise swam around the boat and came up by Jackie. "You're pushing it?"

"Don't move by itself, and it was sinking. Had to do something," Jackie told her. "Give me a hand?"

Louise went upright and raised her hands to clap. "Yay Jackie!" she cried with a wide grin.

"Smartass. "

Louise pushed on the boat beside Jackie. "Sorry, now they got twin mermaid power!"

"How far?" Jackie called loudly.

Ron called back, "A couple hundred feet."

"Ramming speed!" Jackie called and undulated as fast as she could. Louise did the same. They went from maybe a knot, to three knots by the time the boat hit shore and stopped. Jackie swam to the shore as did Louise. They crawled up on the beach and got their tails off. The family came to the front of the boat and got off.

Jackie looked at the shore. "We're going to need to move all these rocks to the side, then we bring the boat on shore. The faster, the better."

"You can't lift this boat, and I doubt we can drag it." Ron said.

"Then clear the path. Louise get the left side. Lift and push, then we do it again." Jackie told them.

The family watched as the girls got on either side partway to the front.

"Ready," Louise called.

"Lift and push, now!" Jackie said. They lifted the front of the boat about a foot off the ground and then pushed and gained them another two feet.

"Ready!"

"Go!"

Another lift and push and they gained another foot and a half.

"Ready!"

"Go!"

Another lift and push and their feet sank into the beach as the got another couple feet of boat out of the water.

They kept this up until the boat was half out of the water. Jackie pulled her feet out of the beach. "I think that's about as far as we can go." The back was still in the water, but shallow water. "At least it's not going to fill up again. she said.

"Low tide comes and it will most likely be clear," Louise noted.

"THAT was amazing!" Ron announced. "Do you have any idea what that boat weighs?"

Jackie chuckled. "We do now. I'm going to get my robe on, I'm a bit chilled."

"Yeah," Louise agreed.

Ron watched them get their wraps and sneakers on. "Those girls are really strong," he said to Gina.

"They saved our asses," Gina told him bluntly. he went over to where Tony was trying to lift up Jackie's mermaid tail. He looked up at her. "Mom, these are heavy!"

"Thank you for trying," Jackie told him. She took it and flipped it over her shoulder. "So, Ron, right? Come up to the house with us, we'll give you a ride somewhere."

"What can we do to repay you?" Gina asked.

Jackie shrugged. "I dunno. Do you wanna fix that boat, or say, get another one build for you?"

Ron let out a snort, "I'm hoping we can get this one fixed."

"We'll do it!" Jackie beamed. "You need the hull fixed, a new engine and an emergency battery, right?"

"At least," Gina agreed.

"How are you going to get it out of here?" Ron asked. "It's going to take a crane to move it, and those are expressive."

"We'll fix it here, then take it where ever you want it to go." Jackie told him.

"Here? But there's cliffs all along the shore. How did you even get down here?"

"There's a path down. Come on, we'll show you."

Ron would not call the rocks and narrow places they went up a 'path', but they did get up to solid ground on the road. When they finally got back to the marina, Ron and Gina had a tale to tell.