Free Candy

Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Sheila loaded up the passengers to start her first trip of the day. She was the fourth boat out of the station with people from the same group that had boarded all the earlier departures. They were all part of a delegation from Singapore or Indonesia, and the city was paying for them to go on the tour. 

Sheila’s bunch were the stragglers who didn’t really seem to want to take the trip, but weren’t sure if it was mandatory or not. She put the map of the loop she was supposed to take today on the clipboard and started up. As soon as she had pulled onto Dexter Avenue to get to Lake Union, the radio started squawking.

“This is QC 4, who’s in the water?” The Padre asked over the radio.

“Not me,” answered Sheila.

“Ditto,” said Jack.

“QC 2 is in Volunteer Park.”

“OK, who’s closest? It must be Sheila!” The Padre yelled.

“I’m five minutes from the lake, what’s the deal?” she replied.

“I lost my propellor. I need a tow,” The Padre said.

It was hard enough trying to keep seventy year old army surplus vehicles running, without having to worry about if they still floated and went forward in the water. The Padre was a little rusty after he had sat behind the desk for five years and he forgot about the airplane landing area in the middle of Lake Union. One floatplane buzzed him when they had to abort a landing because he was driving right down the middle of their strip. 

The harbor patrol zoomed up and told him to back up, which he did, and they zoomed away. The DUKW isn’t really made for visibility while going backwards and he ran over a log floating in the lake, snapping his propellor shaft. After trying to make the boat go forward by spinning the tires, he gave up and called for help.

“What end of the lake are you on?” Sheila asked.

“North, I’m drifting in front of Gasworks Park,” The Padre said.

“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” she told him.

Sheila drove around the lake, pointing things out in an abbreviated fashion but still managed to get everyone cheering when she rolled down the boat ramp into the water. She explained that they would be rescuing their friends who were stranded by a broken drive shaft. As she motored through the water in front of the park she could hear everyone on board singing. By the time Sheila pulled up along side Quack City 3, The Padre and the passengers were down to thirty two bottles of beer on the wall.

“Hey, it’s Quack City 7 to the rescue!” Sheila shouted through the intercom.

Sheila threw a line to The Padre and they got the two boats tied up so she could get them to dry land. Her passengers liked the song so much that they joined in and continued counting down as they made their way slowly back to the ramp. 

The Padre looked pretty dour and Sheila was glad that the tourists were having a good time entertaining themselves. She hit the ramp with her tires and put the truck in four wheel low, which they never had to use, but she thought it would help in this situation. The transfer case whined a few complaints, but they moved up the slope.

“Are your axles still OK?” she asked over the radio.

“Yes, I’ll be fine as soon as I’m on the concrete,” The Padre said. He already had his boat set up for land locomotion since he had been trying to move it forward by spinning the tires in the water.

Sheila pulled the other boat up onto the ramp and watched for the line to go slack. When it did, she engaged her brakes and went to untie herself from QC 4. While she was standing on the stern of the boat, The Padre threw the line to her.