Behold, the pelican!

Behold, the pelican!

    Back in their Highlander, Riley opens his cell phone and calls the Longshore's number. No answer. Riley leaves his name on voicemail, says Rhonda at The Cracked Egg said we should meet. 

    Riley drives to Olden Wooden Bridge Fish Camp, A couple in maybe their mid-50s are getting into a fishing skiff powered by a 35 horsepower Evinrude. An old 35 horsepower Evinrude. Most fishermen today use Mercurys and Yahamas. 

    The couple look at Riley and Willa Sue standing on the dock above them.

    Riley says, "Hi. We're new to the Keys. I see your fishing tackle. What are you going out for/"

    The man says, "Mangrove and yellowtail snappers in the back country. Grouper and snook if we get lucky."

    "Eating fish," Riley says.

    "Yes," the man says. 

    He kinda looks like Mick Jagger. Kinda, but taller. The woman kinda looks like Jane Fonda. Kinda, but taller.

    "I'm Riley Strange and this is my wife, Willa Sue,"

    The man says, I'm Dale and my lady friend is Emily. We don't tell anyone our last names, if we don't know them, or then we'd have to kill them." He has a twinkle in his eye.

    Riley laughs, Willa Sue is reminded of her brothers and doesn't laugh.

    Riley says, "I used to do a lot of fishing around Apalachicola and Port St. Joe, and Willa Sue is from around there. That's where we met."

    Dale says, "We tell you where we are from, then we have to kill you."

    Willa Sue is reminded more of her brothers.

    Riley says, "Not asking where you are from, could care less, actually. Was simply being social."

    Emily says, "Don't take Dale seriously, he likes to stir things up, But there are a lot of people in the Florida Keys, who came here from somewhere else. They don't like being asked where they are from, because they are on the lam from something. The law, their family, and ex-wife, child support, alimony, or whatever." 

    "I knew men like that in prison," Riley says.

    Emily nods, says, "I know a little about prison myself.'

    Riley nods.

    Emily says, "We saw you two on Oprah."

    Riley nods.

    Dale says, "We wondered if you two are trying to get yourselves killed."

    Willa Sue laughs, says, "We been wondering that, too."

    Emily laughs, says, "I bet you were a hell of a lawyer, Riley."

    "Past tense," Riley says. 

    "I bet you haven't forgotten how to do it, though," Dale says.

    "Oh, I remember it very well, and I even dream about it sometimes, but I think my lawyering days are over."

    "You didn't help the men in your prison with their cases?" Emily asks.

    "No, I told them, if they were guilty, then why should I help them? I pled guilty to kidnapping Willa Sue. I left it up to the judge to decide if I should go to prison. I wanted to fight it before a jury, but I was told in a dream to let the judge decide it, and so that's what I did."

    "You think it was God that told you that in your dream?", Dale asks.

    "I thought so at the time, but later, after Archangel Michael came to me in dreams and told me stuff, I thought it was Michael that told me to let the Judge decide it."

    "That's fucking intense," Emily says.

    Riley nods, says, "I think maybe prison is harder for women than for men, but it's plenty intense for men. When I was inside, I read a book called 'We're All Doing Time," by a fellow named Bo Lozoff. A lot of it was about him and his wife, Sita, going into prisons and talking with inmates, and corresponding with inmates who wrote to them. They were into yoga, had spent time in India with a yogi. Pretty interesting people, didn't preach religion, but just trying to relate to being in prison in a spiritual way, instead of how it usually is dealt with. Some inmates got really religious, some claimed they were saved by Jesus. That never appealed to me. I felt God and put me in there, and so I tried to deal with it that way. When I got out, I felt God had gotten me out of there."

    "God, or Michael?" Dale asks.

    "Is there any difference? I think Michael works for God. There was a bigger picture than I could see when I was taken into that prison by Florida state troopers. A bigger picture unfolded while I was inside. A bigger picture is unfolding now. It's all related and Willa Sue and I have no clue where it is headed, other than  we were sent to Big Pine Key, and then we had dreams about trying to protect the Florida Keys and the waters there, and here we are talking to you two, so how do you two do? I figure we are meeting you for a reason."

    Emily says, "Everything happens for a reason."

    Dale nods, says, "Yep."

    Emily says, "After I got out, I heard some things about Bo Lozoff that were disturbing. Like he was an egomaniac. Like he was a dictator at the farm commune where released prisoners want try to start over. Like he ran around on Sita."

    "Really? Riley asks.

    "Really," Emily says. 

    Emily says, "I was told in a dream that a man and a woman were coming, and I guess that's you two."

    Willa Sue nods, says, "Do you know some folks named Longshore on No Name Key."

    Dale says, "We know of them. Trust fund babies. Claim they are from another planet."

    "The Pleiades?" Riley asks.

    Emily says, "They have a website called pleiadeans.com. They hold gatherings at their home. They do sweat lodges. They chant. They use some psychedelic plant from South America to take trips somewhere else. They say they are Pleiadean shamans."

    "You know that how?" Riley asks.

    "It's on their website. It's their religion."

    "What's your religion"? Willa Sue asks.

    "Trying to get through each day and have some fun doing it without hurting anyone," Emily says.

    Dale nods, says, "I'm a backcountry fishing and nature guide. Emily makes jewelry out of coral fossil rock, amber, turquoise and silver. She's into Native American ways."

    "And peyote?", Riley asks.

    "Sometimes, when I feel I need to hear from the Great Spirit," Emily says.

    "You do sweat lodges?" Riley asks?

    "I did them in prison. There were Native American women in there. They won a federal lawsuit that allowed them to do sweat lodges as part of their religion. They let me join them. I didn't feel the prison chaplain was doing me any good, or maybe I didn't want her to do me any good. I'd had my fill of religious people growing up, like you had your fill of your religious parents, Willa Sue. Turned me against religion. Turned me against lots of things. Then something turned me against being American."

    "What was that?" Willa Sue asks.

    "I was a student at Kent State in Ohio. Some of us college students were really against the Vietnam War and America bombing in Cambodia. We did a sit in on the campus. Ohio National Guardsmen came. We threw flowers at them, and maybe some small rocks. They told us to disperse. We didn't. They started shooting at us. They killed some of my friends. The rest of us jumped up and ran away. The Guardsmen ran after us, shooting at us. My friends veered right and I veered left. The mother-fucking Guardsmen chased after my friends, shooting at them, and I got away. Nothing ever happened to those Guardsmen, They got away with it. I joined the Weathermen cell at Kent State. I carried explosives for them in my daypack to different places where they hid out. I finally decided that wasn't good for me and I quit. I got to drinking too much, I got hooked on drinking too much. I flunked out of Kent State. I started hooking for a pimp. I ran some of his street drugs. I got caught by local police. I got put in prison for that. The Native American women inmates had their own stories with white people. They kinda adopted me. I did my full sentence, 3 years with good time. I wanted to be free when I got out. I waited tables in restaurants for a couple of years, saved a few pennies, bought a used Lady Harley and I came to the Florida Keys and met Dale, like it was arranged. We've been together ever since. Sometimes Dale calls me 'Biker Chick', and sometimes I let him ride on my bitch seat."

    Willa Sue and Riley are gobsmacked.

    Dale says, "Give us your phone number, and after we get in from fishing today, we'll call you and give you directions to our place on Little Torch Key, and you can come over for a fresh fish dinner tonight."

    Riley tells them his cell phone number, and Emily writes it on the back of her hand with a ballpoint pen. They get into their skiff and Dale cranks up the Evinrude and steers the skiff at idle speed through the narrow marina pass into Bogie Channel on the right side of No Name Key Bridge.

    Riley and Willa Sue walk around the bait shop and through its parking lot and up a short path to the bridge. As Dale and Emily pass under the bridge, pelicans are everywhere in the air.

    When Willa Sue and Riley reach the hump in the middle of the bridge, they stop and face the Atlantic Ocean. Pelicans are sitting all along the bridge railing. Pelicans are floating on the water below the bridge. There are a few people fishing.

    Riley and Willa sue burst into uncontrolled heart-heaving and sobbing. Oceans of tears and rivers of snot come out of them. They hear Michael say, "Grab your best hold, you ain't seen nothing yet."'

    They calm down, walk back to the bait shop and to unit 4. 

    Rile is seized to pull out his journal and onto the page his ballpoint pen writes as if it has a mind of its own:

    Behold, the pelican!

    Slow, ugly, clumsy afoot,

    But in the air,

    A great fisher indeed!

    And in times of want,

    plucks out its own breast meat

    to feed its young.