SYNCHRONICITY (The Lone Wolf)

17

The return trip took longer than the initial sail out due to the men having to paddle the cat back to shore; they had slipped into a counter current and couldn't seem to make it out of it...it was the exact same phenomenon that Sebastian had encountered when trying to reach Alison as she struggled to remain afloat. And he realized that they were above the very spot where she almost drowned. Steven realized it as well and doubled his efforts to get them out if there.

The alpha bull was still nearby with his cows and calves. The alpha cow swam along the side of the cat with her small calf close by.

"We're going to have to swing the cat ninety degrees and paddle east," Steven said; he looked toward the shore...they weren't all that far away, only about fifty feet or so, but it was the top tide over the sand bar that prevented their movement. "Too bad we can't harness the fish, huh?"

"And have them pull us to shore," the female guest asked.

Steven nodded and chuckled, "something like that."

"Sure we can," Sebastian said as he slipped into the water, the life preserver keeping him afloat.

"Sebastian! Get back up here...NOW!" Alison screeched, terrified that what happened to her would happen to him.

"I'm okay Love," he said, threading his arm through a rope and placing his free hand on the cow's dorsal fin. The cow bucked in the water and the bull rise up beneath him so that he had to release the mammal. "Oh...This is much better!"

Steven spoke his idea aloud: "see if you can get him to the front of the cat, Bastian..."

Sebastian attempted to do just that, but the dolphin wasn't appearing to having any of it. Still riding the large animal, he leaned into the bull and spoke to it: "please mate...she's terrified. Help me. Help me keep her safe..."

The dolphin uttered a series of clicks and whistles then sank beneath the surface of water then hung back as the other two men continued to paddle while Sebastian bobbed in the water.

"I can feel the bottom," Sebastian said. "Perhaps I can pull us to shore?"

"No way," Steven said. "We're right at the sand bar man...you know it slips back down..."

Sebastian soon gave up and climbed back aboard the cat. Soon though, they could see movement on the beach, as well as two men carrying a silver boat over their heads. They watched them flip the boat over and the thinner man got in and moved quickly toward them. The engine sounded like music to their ears.

"Oh, thank god, Michael," Steven said, nearly out of breath.

The young man grinned, having replaced his black trousers, waistcoat and white shirt for a pair of swimming trunks. "Sup, Stevie.." he called out holding out his hands for the cat's mooring lines.

"Thank god, Mike!"

Mike laughed., "you said that already Steve..."

"Boy, you just don't know!"

Alison looked up and saw their bartender smiling at them. "You're lucky I had my boat, man!"

"What took you so long?"

"I'm working!"

Sebastian chuckled, "I'll make sure you get a nice bonus for this!"

"Naw man...it's cool," he replied as he knotted the lines to the back of his little trout boat. He looked up and nodded, turned his body to face them, then swiveled to face the front again.

"Hang on guys, there's going to be a big jolt," Steven said.

Mike engaged the throttle and the cat jolted forward, just like Steven said it would. With in five minutes, the boat and the cat scraped the sand. The men slipped off and pushed the cat to the beach, while Topher and Mike beached the little aluminum boat.