Things Could Be Worse: Chapter Two

Photo by Joel Gaff on Unsplash

I went down to the dock’s early morning. I wanted to see Andy. After that fateful afternoon, Andy took me under his wing. With no father and a drunk mother, I was glad to have a person I could look up to and aspire to become.

Andy was a grumpy, mean son of a bitch, but he taught me everything I know on how to survive out here. He took me hunting and fishing and even taught me how to fight and take a punch. Andy didn’t care about my female weaknesses. He taught me how to fight like a man and take a punch like one.

“What are you doing here?” Andy said as I looked around at the damage.

“Wow,” I said as I looked around at everything.

“You just going to stare at it, or have you come to help?” Andy asked.

“Came for a bit of advice actually,” I said.

“Help, then you can get it,” Andy said, handing me some tools. “Well?” he asked as I stood still watching him.

I spent most of the morning helping fix some of the motors on some of the boats that were salvageable. Of course, I tried to ask him for some advice on the upcoming down season.

“Look, I tell you this all the time,” Andy said as he stared at me. “Drop the dead weight.”