MY MOTHER, LAURA, is an electronic engineer. She’s pretty good at what she does, according to the people she works with, and Mom has a nice job at a place in California.
My eighteen year old twin sister, Linda, is a borderline nymphomaniac and has stayed out of trouble only because Laura keeps Linda pretty much under lock and key.
As for me, Larry, I’m your typical California surfer dude. Laura doesn’t keep me under lock and key, as it’s impractical. Thus, I do have a little fun now and again, but not nearly as much fun as I think I should have.
Oh yeah. Then there’s our old man, Leon. Leon is actually under lock and key, because he has a few issues, well, more than just a few. You see, Leon is a very intelligent homicidal maniac. He wants to kill people, pretty much all people. Of course, Laura, Linda and I are high on his kill list because we’re part of what put him under lock and key.
The basic problem that we have is that Leon is coming up for parole very shortly. He has to get past the state psychiatrists, of course. However, Leon is a very clever man and will easily trick the pros, as he has done in the past. Leon will get himself paroled and then he’ll come looking for us.
Thus, Laura, Linda and I have to do what’s called get the hell out of town and hide. It’s literally a matter of life and death for us.
Good ol’ Mom finds an ideal hiding spot for us. Laura signs on for a year as the maintenance engineer for a communications site out on an isolated island in the Pacific Ocean. Laura can do the skill work. I can help Laura with the muscle part of the work. Linda and I can keep the house clean. Oh yeah, I can do one more absolutely necessary thing. I can kill Leon when he comes after us. As I said, it’s literally a matter of life and death for Mom, Linda and me.
We take a flight to a largish island in the South Pacific. We then take a flight on what has to be the first airplane that Boeing ever built. Several times during the flight, I have severe doubts that we’re gonna make it to our small island destination. I mumble some religious words and we do make it. (I don’t know if the religious words helped, but they certainly didn’t hurt.)
We then take a taxi that’s even older than the airplane, from the tiny island airport and we arrive at a dock area.
No one at the dock area wants anything to do with us and it begins to look as if we may not make it to our island retreat. Finally, someone directs us to one Sandy, a local boat man.
Sandy isn’t glad to see us. He sighs and tells us, “I have a government contract that I must have to support my business. I’ll take you to the island where the communication site is located. I’ll only take you because my contract says that I must do that. Once you get to the island, you’re on your own, until a year is up. I’ll come back for you in a year, only because of my contract. The only other way I’ll go to the island is a real life or death emergency.”
I ask the man, “Sandy, what’s the big problem here?”
“There’s a barrier reef that guards the only landing spot on the island. The trip in and out is dangerous as hell. The only reason that I’ll cross the barrier reef is my government contract.”
The news about the barrier reef actually cheers me up considerably. However, I try to not show my reaction to Sandy.
Sandy prepares one of his boats and also a raft that will carry the fuel that he needs to get back from the communication site island.
We then ride out to the island, starting at an ungodly hour in the morning. The sea trip isn’t bad, as the sea is calm, and Sandy’s boat makes good time.
As we approach the island, I can see the cliffs that seemingly surround the island, except for one small cove. I can see the surf break over the top of what’s apparently the barrier reef that Sandy told us about. There’s just one spot in the barrier reef that the water seems to flow over, rather than crash against.
