Save the Manatee!
9: Busy Day, Busy Night
(Wednesday, June 10, 2015)
The next couple of days looked to be exhausting. On Wednesday the tourist flood didn't ebb at all, though Soos assured them, "We'll have a little ease-off after the Fourth of July, guys." Meanwhile, to cover Friday, he had made arrangements: Tad Strange, who had worked retail before becoming Sev'ral Timez's road manager, would come in on register duty. Melody would help on the floor, while Abuelita baby-sat.
On Wednesday, right after work, the gang collapsed to rest. "Well," Mabel said with a shrug, "Mr. Strange probably won't hurt sales. He's bizarrely normal, but he does agree with everything people say, so if somebody asks, oh, 'Will this monkey paw grant me three wishes?' he'll smile and repeat, 'This monkey paw will grant you three wishes.'"
"Where'd you hear of that story?" Dipper asked her. They, and Wendy, were sitting sprawled in the parlor after the long, tiring day.
"Read it in the English textbook," Mabel reminded him.
"Oh, yeah," he said. "I read it a long time ago, so I sort of skipped over it when we came to it."
"Do monkeys have paws?" Wendy asked, yawning.
"Yep," Mabel said in a cracked, imitation-Fiddleford accent. "Ever' dang monkey's got a paw and a maw, too, by cracky! Nyuk-nyuk!"
Dipper hit her with a cushion.
"Hey!" she said, bopping him back with it. "Cut it out, Brobro! I got a date tonight. I have to look my best!"
"Where you and Teek goin'?" Wendy asked.
Mabel grinned. "Oh . . . he's gonna surprise me." The door opened, and she jumped up. "There he is now!"
And sure enough, Teek, wearing Robbie's old hoodie—though he left it unzipped—came in. Though he had changed from thick Harry Potter-style specs to contacts, he still peered as if near-sighted. "Hi," he said to Mabel. "You look tired. Are you up for this?"
"Ready!" Mabel said. "Let me get my purse!" She galloped back to her room.
"Where you guys going?" Dipper asked.
Teek shrugged. "I really don't know. Mabel said it was a surprise."
Dipper's eyes narrowed. "I . . . see. Well, don't forget, she's supposed to be home by eleven. Wedding rehearsal tomorrow."
"Yeah, I know," Teek said. "We won't miss curfew."
Mabel came back. "Let's go!"
"Bye, Mabel," Wendy said. "Hope the surprise isn't too much for you."
"Bye!" Mabel said hastily, and she and Teek charged out.
Wendy had been on the sofa. She slipped off and sat beside Dipper on the floor, reaching to take his hand. I can feel that you're upset.
—She didn't have to lie to us!
I think she'll be OK, dude. We had a talk. She's not on the brink of doin' something stupid, and Teek's a stand-up guy.
Miserably, Dipper thought, —I know, I know. If she didn't have such a history of bad choices, I'd feel better. And she's—she's—
Impulsive, Dip. That's the word I think you're looking for.
—Yeah. I mean, Robbie and Tambry were that kind of impulsive, and she could have gotten in bad trouble.
They'll be married and legal in a couple days, Dip. Hey, face it, one day Mabel's gonna meet the right guy, they'll connect, and she'll wind up married, too.
—I know, I know. But not when she's fifteen!
He felt Wendy's affectionate amusement. You got another age in mind for her?
—Twenty-eight.
Wendy laughed out loud at that. "No way, man! 'Cause if she waited that long, she'd insist you'd wait that long, and dude—I can't wait that long!"
Dipper got up and reached for her hand. "Go for a walk?"
"Yeah, man. But remember, we're gonna do our run again tomorrow morning."
"So?" he asked.
"So, that's all the exercise we need."
Dipper frowned as they walked out the door and headed down the path to the bonfire clearing. "I don't get what you mean."
"I mean running's our exercise, Dip," Wendy said. "Not wrestling."
"Aww—"
She laughed again as they walked in the warm evening air. They were still holding hands, and she felt his flash of embarrassment. "C'mon," she said. "I'll take your mind off your worries—for a little while, anyway."
And eagerness replaced his embarrassment . . ..
Stanford Pines had spent most of the day in front of one of Fiddleford's enormous computer monitors, studying blowups of aerial photos until his eyes watered. The Professor had arranged for them and had routed them to Stanford.
Most of the images were satellite views, but others had been taken in flyovers by, well, official aircraft. Ford had made extensive notes:
Of the four possibilities Mason turned up, only two appear to be serious contenders as possible purchasers of a captured manatee.
Cholmondeley St. Riffincolombeck and his wife seem to be out as suspects. They live in Canada, so no airplane images, but satellite photos of their estate are clear—inland, large, with only a four-car garage as outbuilding. No space for a huge aquarium, no visible facilities for handling water, food demands, etc. Also, from mid-May on, they're off on extended European vacation until August.
Martina Marinopolous—not credible as suspect. Lives far inland. Has two Olympic-sized pools, but uses them only for swimming. Also: Currently is dating a wealthy movie star 15 years younger than she is. He seems to be her main interest in life. She does keep tropical fish, but nothing larger than an angelfish. All freshwater.
Joseph Bascombe. Possibility. Lives in unassuming house overlooking Dungeness Bay, but also owns houses on either side of his own, plus a warehouse-like building near the water, plus a seventy-five foot yacht. When he lived in Florida, was a fishing guide but also suspected contraband runner (guns and drugs). Was prosecuted for illegally helping fishermen catch Florida sturgeon, case dismissed, lack of evidence; investigated for allegedly helping a Belize aquarium capture a baby right whale (animal died in transit), but evidence too weak for prosecution. Has space, vessel, and facilities—would he want a manatee? Why?
Thomaso Antoni Voillelli. Possibilty. Lives on island in Puget Sound, American waters: "Hermit Island." Only satellite imagery available. Complex is large, including what may be an aquarium—machinery for handling water, etc. might be housed in large building, pipes lead from it to an even larger structure with skylight. Pipes evidently heated to prevent freezing. Voillelli a shadowy figure. Agency hints that he was high-level crime figure who turned informant, is in witness protection. It is a certainty that when he had house in Florida Keys, he had huge saltwater pool and stocked with sharks. Rumors are that he fed enemies to them. Island dock has five craft of various sizes, the largest about 70 feet. But again—why a manatee? Anyway, will concentrate on these last two as possibilities.
His cell phone beeped, and he checked it. A message: "TT prays to St. Francis." Ford smiled. If he tried to reply, he'd get the response No such number. The message was code: The Triton Trident was about to dock in San Francisco. The California Customs people would keep a close watch.
Ford wished that he could have persuaded them to board and search—but the vessel had a clean record, no complaint had ever been lodged against the owners or the captain, and Customs was leery about the legal stink that might arise.
Stopping the vessel in international waters, now—the Agency would prefer that. It just made Ford nervous.
"Which one, which one?" he muttered. He expected that would resolve when the Triton Trident neared or entered Puget Sound. One or the other of the suspects would set out in a large boat for the transfer.
Except that would give them very little notice. Cutting it close. Cutting it very uncomfortably close.
Teek parked in the lot of the municipal pool. "I am not going skinny-dipping," he said firmly.
"Who asked you to?" Mabel said. "I just have to send a note to my ex."
They trekked into the forested strip of land, Teek used a crowbar to raise the maintenance access cover, and Mabel tossed the bottle in. "Close it now."
Grunting as the metal cover clanked back, Teek asked, "How did you ever fall in love with a merman, anyhow?"
She punched his shoulder. "You're jealous!"
"No," he said, rubbing his shoulder. "Just curious."
"Oh, well." She shrugged. "I wouldn't say I was in love with him. Interested. Intrigued. And he could play a chord on the guitar!"
"Oh." Teek didn't play the guitar. He wasn't bad with a harmonica, but so far, no girl he'd met swooned to the notes of "Polly Wolly Doodle."
"OK, I was young," Mabel said.
"Twelve."
"Yeah, young."
"Three years younger than you are now."
"If you want to be technical. Anyways, you gotta understand, I'd never been away from home before, not really. Sleepovers now and then, just overnight, and not many of them. In school I was Weird Mabel, and I didn't—well, I didn't have many friends. And my folks never even sent me and Dipper to summer camp. That summer we were nearly a thousand miles from home, in a new place with trees and grass and things, and I really wanted an epic summer romance like the ones in the movies!"
Gently, with not a trace of mockery, Teek said, "Dipper says you didn't really get one."
They reached Teek's car and climbed inside. From the front seats they could see the flat water of the swimming pool, a blue strip beneath the late-afternoon sky. They still had a couple of hours of daylight left.
Mabel wilted a little. "Nah, I didn't get much of a romance. My first crush turned out to be a pile of Gnomes. Then Mermando. Sev'ral Timez. Gabe. None of them worked out. That summer—it wasn't pretty." She sighed. "Know what? There's a tree not far from the Shack where I carved my name and the names of my crushes. Next to last day of the summer, I went out there and carved MABEL + MABEL. I kinda thought I was all I had left."
Teek put his arm around her shoulders. "Well, now we have each other."
"Yeah. Teek, do I come on too strong?"
He laughed. "Why?"
She shrugged and reached up with her left hand to hold his right, draped over her shoulder. "Well, Wendy says I push too hard. Apparently, sometimes asking a guy if he wants to get married is the wrong thing to do, if it's only the second sentence you've spoken to him. Or that's what she says."
"I think it's what makes you Mabel," he said quietly. "Your enthusiasm can be a little bit scary for guys—anyway for me—but you're funny and sweet and pretty, and it's always exciting to be around you. And—I don't know how to say this. You're the first girlfriend I ever had—"
"And only?"
"What do you think? Yeah, the only one, too. So far. Ouch!"
She'd elbowed him hard. "And for the foreseeable future?"
"Sure," taking his arm from around her to rub his bruised ribs. "Anyway, you're my first girlfriend. I'd never kissed a girl before you. And I like kissing you and holding you—but I don't want to hurt you. I don't want us to get—you know—carried away, I guess, and do something that we'd both be sorry for."
"So, no skinny-dipping."
"Not," Teek said, "for the foreseeable future." He kissed her.
"Mermando," she murmured, "was my first kiss. But by then I knew it couldn't work out. I'm a mammal, he's a fish, you know. It was like, yikes."
"Yeah, how would you raise the kids?" Teek asked.
"I've wondered about him and his wife and that," Mabel said. "Dipper says manatees are mammals, like people. They don't have gills, the way fish and merpeople do. Kids? I mean, Mermando's marriage was, like, an arranged thing. To stave off a war or something. Can he and his wife even have kids? And would they start out as tadpoles? And if they do—oh, there it is!"
Teek had seen it, too: a sudden, silent, golden flash of light in the pool water. Mermando had sent his answer.
"What time is it?" Mabel asked.
Teek checked his phone. "Uh, nearly eight."
"OK, then Poolcheck's already made his evening rounds. Let's go!"
They left the car and Mabel picked the padlock. "You stand guard."
He did, nervously. Though a row of hedges mostly screened off the parking lot, cars did cruise by past the entrance. He zipped the hoodie and stood still, trying to look like an ornamental plant.
Mabel came back holding a dripping bottle. She closed and relocked the gate. "Come on!"
In the car she shook the rolled-up message out and read aloud:
My dearest Mabel—
"Skip any mushy parts," Teek grumbled.
"OK, OK. Where was I?"
Thank you for your information. The dolphins are tracking the ship. It is turning into the cold bay of San Francisco. They will guard the entrance of the harbor and follow it again when it emerges. They know Sirenia is aboard. They can hear her faint cries for help and have assured her help will come.
I will be there early Tuesday morning. In the sea. If you can get another speaking horn like the one you gave me, call my name every few minutes. The dolphins will hear. When you see dolphins around your boat, wave a flag. They will lead you to me, my—
"My what?" Teek asked as she broke off.
"Um—my old friend," Mabel said.
"I bet."
"Well, he certainly didn't call me my first love, if that's what you're implying!" Mabel said.
"You hungry?" Teek asked, giving up.
Mabel hastily rolled up the note again. "Yeah, I am! Um—Ok, how about The Farm Table out toward Morris?"
"I like their food, that's good for me," Teek said, starting the car.
"And the night will still be young. So after—Lookout Point?"
Teek smiled. "Fine with me," he said.
"Sweet!"
They headed off for dinner. And dessert.