Mango Lucky (7 page)

My stomach growled, reminding me I had missed lunch. So I got up and prepared a turkey and swiss sandwich, and washed it down with a bottle of cold water.

After eating, I picked up the pile of wet clothes I had dropped at the door, and put them in a laundry basket in my closet. I'd deal with them later.

I then took a few moments to clean up the rest of the motorhome, just in case Anna decided to take me up on my dinner offer.

It would be three hours before I knew whether she was coming or not. I used that time to locate Bob (he was under the covers on the bed), check my inventory of frozen food, and take a short nap.

The sound of rain on the roof of the Love Bus quickly lulled me to sleep.

24

A knock on the door woke me. It took me a moment to realize where I was and who might be knocking.

Crossing to the door, I found Anna standing in the rain, with an umbrella in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.

She smiled, "I decided to take you up on your offer. Now be a gentleman and invite me in."

Opening the door to it's fullest, I said, "Glad you made it. Come on in."

As soon as Anna was inside, she removed her raincoat and handed it to me. "Take this and hang it up somewhere. And take the umbrella too."

I took both back to the bathroom and hung them on the shower rod.

Turning back to the front where Anna was standing, I got my first good look at her.

Five foot six, dark red hair, a sprinkling of freckles across her nose. Slightly muscular build, well tanned arms, nice legs. No makeup.

"So", said Anna. "You sure look better now than you did earlier."

I smiled, "Yeah, a hot shower, clean clothes and a short nap will do wonders."

She looked around, "This is a pretty nice place. Is it new?"

"No, it's a few years old. It's new to me though. I just got it three months ago. Been traveling in it ever since."

Anna handed me the wine bottle she'd brought in with her, "I didn't know what we were having for dinner. But I had this wine, and thought maybe we could share."

I nodded "Wine sounds good. Have a seat, and I'll get glasses."

Instead of sitting, Anna asked, "Okay if I check out the rest of the place?"

Before I could answer, she walked to the back of the motorhome, checked the bedroom, then peeked into the bathroom.

It looked to me like she was checking to see if anyone else was here. Probably a smart thing to do when visiting a stranger.

Satisfied that we were alone, she returned to the dining area and sat at the table where I had placed two wine glasses.

I opened the wine and poured us each a glass.

Lifted my glass, I said, "To being rescued by a beautiful woman."

Anna smiled, touched her glass to mine, and took a sip.

Looking around, she said, "So, where's this Bob you mentioned? I didn't see him anywhere."

"Oh, he's hiding in the back, probably under the covers on the bed. He's kind of shy. Not used to seeing many people. He'll come out eventually."

Anna stood, "I'm going to go back and see if I can find him. Make sure he's not some kind of imaginary cat."

"Okay," I said, "but Bob isn't really good with visitors. If you try to pet him he might not like it."

Of course, Bob proved me wrong.

From the back I could hear Anna speaking in a soft voice to Bob. "You sure are a handsome kitty. I bet the girl cats follow you everywhere."

I expected Bob to duck and run, but instead I heard him purring loudly.

A few moments later Anna returned to the table.

"I found Bob. He let me pet him. Even purred a bit. But what's the deal with his tail?"

I laughed, "He was born that way. They tell me he's an America Bob tail. A short stub for a tail is just the way they are."

Anna smiled, "Kind of makes him look like a bobcat." Then she said, "Oh, I get it. Bobcat, as in 'Bob the cat'. Cute."

I agreed, "Yeah."

She took another sip from her glass, then said, "So Walker, you promised me dinner. What's on the menu tonight?"

I smiled. "We have a variety of choices. We could have spinach and goat cheese pizza, or chicken parmesan, or cajun style chicken, or sweet and sour chicken. Your choice."

Anna smiled, "I'm impressed. You can cook."

"No, not really. I can microwave. And I've got a freezer full of frozen dinners. All varieties.

"Tell me what you want, and we'll have a hot meal in about five minutes."

Anna thought for a moment, then said, "Let's have pizza."

"Good choice. The frozen pizzas actually come out pretty good in the microwave."

I went to the fridge and pulled out two organic cheese and spinach individual pizzas, unwrapped them, and put the first in the microwave.

When that pizza was done, I sliced and plated it, then put the second pizza in to cook.

I carried the two plates to the table, put one in front of Anna and said, "Your dinner is served."

She smiled, "This looks pretty good."

We were both hungry, and it didn't take us long to go through the pizza. Fortunately, just about the time we finished the first two slices off, the bell on the microwave dinged, announcing we each had two more slices to eat.

After we'd finished those, Anna said, "That was pretty good. Not at all what I expected from a frozen pizza."

"The secret," I said, "is in choosing the right pizza and not over cooking it. Being single, I've become an expert at this kind of thing."

Anna smiled, "So how come someone as handy in the kitchen as you, is still single?"

I laughed, "Well, I was married. Then one day, the wife decided it was over. She filed for divorce, and I've been single ever since."

"Divorced, huh? A lot of that going around. In fact, I've been down that road myself. What a mess."

I nodded knowingly.

"So Anna, tell me about treasure hunting. Any chance I'm going to find gold on the beach after the storm?"

25

"Yes," replied Anna. "If you're real lucky, and you hit the right beach just after the storm, you just might find some gold. But more likely, you'll find silver.

"And that's not bad. Finding old silver coins is pretty exciting. A lot of them are still out there. And some can be quite valuable.

"And even if you don't find gold or silver, you'll probably find something from the treasure fleet. Old iron nails, copper and brass fittings. Even broken pottery.

"And if you're really lucky, you might even find an emerald."

"An emerald?" I asked. "With a metal detector? How is that possible?"

"Well," she replied, "while the Spanish were mining for gold and silver in South America, they found emeralds. Knowing they were valuable, they put them on the ships to send back to Spain.

"When the ships went down, the emeralds went down with them. They'd get encrusted onto metal objects in the ship's debris field. They'd wash up on the beach, and every once in a while, people would find them. Even with a metal detector."

I nodded, "Cool. So tell me, how long have you been detecting on the Treasure Coast?"

Anna paused, then said, "I've been coming to these beaches for years. Usually on weekends or whenever I could get a few days off from work."

"And I've been pretty lucky. I've found a few old Spanish coins, some jewelry and lots of small iron artifacts.

"But no gold. That's what I really want to find. And I'm thinking this storm might be the lucky break I've been looking for."

I nodded, "So you've found some Spanish coins? What was that like?"

"Pretty exciting. At first I thought they were just iron chips because they were heavily encrusted and so small. But when I got home and looked at them closer, I realized they were Spanish Reales, pieces of eight.

"The small ones I've found really aren't worth a lot, but it's always exciting to find a three hundred year old coin."

Anna took a sip of her wine, then asked, "So what have you been finding with your detector?"

I laughed, "Today was my first day using a metal detector. And after five hours on the beach, all I have to show for it is a few lead fishing weights."

Anna smiled, "At least you found something. Proves your detector is working the way it should.

"If you hang around until after the storm, you'll do better. Especially if you search the beach I'm going to."

I waited for her to tell me more about her special beach, but when she didn't, I changed the subject, "You mentioned getting days off from work to search the beach. So what kind of work do you do?"

She shook her head, "Until recently I worked for the power company as a meter reader. But now that they've put in smart meters, they don't need people like me to go house to house to read the meters any more. So I'm out of a job.

"But I'm not worried about it. I've got a little money saved up, and a couple of job offers I'm considering.

"What about you Walker? What do you do for a living?"

I smiled, "I guess you could say I took an early retirement.

"See, the company I worked for closed their plant and moved it to Mexico. They laid me off, and I ended up with this motorhome and a little money in the bank. So I decided to come to Florida and just camp out for a while."

Anna nodded, "Sounds like fun."

I agreed. "It has been so far."

I changed the subject again, "So back to metal detecting and finding treasures. You mentioned you might share some tips with me. How about it?"

For the next hour, Anna shared her secrets for finding treasures, along with a list of beaches she planned to hit right after the storm.

Her strategy was to avoid the beaches that everyone else would be detecting, because she felt those beaches would soon be hunted out.

So instead, she was going to a secret beach access point that most people weren't aware of. She'd had luck at this beach before, and felt it was the best place to start after the storm.

After telling me of her plans, she said, "If you want to, you can come with me."

I smiled. "That'd be great. I'd love to detect your secret places with you. But aren't you worried I'll find the treasure that should rightfully be yours?"

She laughed, "If only it were that easy. The beach we are going to detect is about three miles long and a hundred yards wide. No way two people can cover it completely.

"So no, I'm not worried about you finding all the treasure. They'll be plenty for both of us. And anyway, it's a lot safer if there's two of us on the beach together."

Later on, I'd find out she was right.

26

Anna and I continued our conversation late into the evening, not realizing the weather outside was getting worse, until a strong gust of wind rocked the motorhome violently.

"Did you feel that?" Anna asked.

"Yeah, the wind's really picking up. Maybe we should check the TV to see what they're saying about the weather."

I used the remote to power on the TV, and we scanned the channels until we found the local news.

They had a weather warning banner scrolling across the bottom of the screen and the newscaster said the weather report was coming up next.

Anna whispered, "Good timing."

We listened as the weatherman described the storm and displayed maps showing its progress.

According to 'Stan the weather man,' the storm had gathered strength and had also slowed down, meaning it would be churning overhead for at least the next twenty four hours.

Due to the high wind gusts, the Florida highway department had closed the two bridges leading onto Hutchinson Island as well as the bridge at Sebastian Inlet.

Citizens were advised to stay indoors, avoid travel, and if travel was necessary, avoid driving through standing water, as it might be deeper than it seemed.

Anna looked at me, "I guess we're not getting off the island any time soon."

I agreed, "Yeah, it looks that way."

She shook her head, "My poor tent isn't going to be much shelter in this storm. I guess I'll be sleeping in the back of the Land Cruiser tonight."

I nodded, then said with a smile, "It's a shame you don't know someone who has a motorhome with a spare bed. Because if you did, you might be able to stay there. Especially if the person who had the motorhome owed you a favor for saving his life."

Anna just looked at me. Making sad puppy dog eyes.