Lifeguard from Maracas Bay

Chapter 05 - Mixed Messages

The next day, Willie felt as if it would never end. He could hardly wait to be with Maria again. On Wednesday evening he received a small package. The return address indicated that it was from Maria Doolper. He opened it quickly and found a note and twenty-nine little cards all marked with the letter E. The note read, “This package contains some messages for you. Love Maria.”

He tried without success to figure out the messages and wondered why she sent twenty-nine cards marked E. The only word he could think of was EEEE! On Thursday he received another package – same size. The only difference is that the twenty-nine cards were marked with the letter Y. The little note read, “More messages for you. Love Maria.”

EY! “Is that a word? No!” EYE! “Yes! I got it! What about my eyes? Is she trying to tell me that something is wrong with my eye? If so, why do I need twenty-nine cards?” Scratching his head he said, “Something is either wrong with my eyes or she does not like them!”

The next day he came home to a third package; again, same size. This is getting weird, he thought while opening it. You guessed it, twenty-nine more cards. This time, each card marked was with the letter S. “So now it is both EYES! What can I do if she does not like my eyes?”

Frustrated by the thought, he took off for a long walk to clear his head. “How could she be so mean to me? What did I do to deserve this? Why did she not say something when she was here? And to think, I asked her to marry me. What a nut case I am?”

When he came back and switched on the lights he saw all the cards in little clusters around the room. Harry, his little nephew must have been playing with them he thought. As he was about to walk away he noticed that one little cluster read YES. Another read YES. Then YES. He spun around counting madly. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Twenty-nine times! And, I thought she didn't like my eyes.” Looking upwards he shouted, “Thank You Lord!”

Willie was so excited that he did not sleep a wink all night. The next morning he went down to the beach about an hour earlier than usual and was pleasantly surprised when he saw Maria's car in the parking lot. He looked around but could not find her. Then, in the distance he saw her walking along the water's edge with her hair blowing in the wind and her gorgeous body silhouetted against the rising sun.

At that time of the morning the water was usually very calm so he slipped into the water and swam stealthily towards her. While he was still behind her, he called her name and disappeared under the water. She spun around expecting to find him on the beach and was noticeably startled when he sprang out of the water. She ran towards him and he embraced her as they fell into the water.

“Did you get my packages?” she asked breathlessly. “Did you understand all the messages?” Instead of responding, he slipped into the water and emerged lifting her up. “I only got one message, the important one. The one that said YES! Nothing else matters to me.”

“Did you get any of the hidden messages?”
“No! What hidden messages?”
“The one from my children, they all said yes too.”

Oh, Oh! I knew this was too good to be true, he thought silently. “How many children? I mean which one is from the children?” Smiling she said, “All twenty-nine of them. I guess that means you missed that message too!” Unsure of where this was going he asked, “Which one?” She tilted her head slightly and said, “The one about me being a school teacher!”

“Don't scare me like that!” he murmured to himself as he fell backwards into the water. Shortly after that they headed for the lifeguard booth where his teammates asked if she was going to join them for the day. Maria had other plans; she wanted to spend some time in church instead. She returned in time to share her picnic lunch goodies with Willie and then enjoyed some time in the sun while he finished his shift.

Later that afternoon they strolled along the beach talking about the past few days. Maria said, “I am so glad you asked me to marry you.”

“Why?”
“You saved me from having to ask you to marry me,” she giggled.
“Were you really planning to ask me to marry you?”
“Not until you told me how you prayed for my recovery.”