Tuckamore Bay

leaving the Bay

Bill had pulled his truck to the far side of the dirt road that led to Tuckamore Bay and he lit a cigarette. He looked out at the highway that was no more that fifty feet from him. The highway that would take him southward, away from Tuckamore Bay.

"And to my condo in Jamaica," he sighed.

He couldn't even convince himself.

Bill sat back on the seat and shook his head.

"Am I doing the right thing?"

All he had wanted was a chance to buy his lighthouse and live his life as simply as he could, away from all the shit that big cities threw at him.

But even that wish was nothing more than a pipe dream now.

"I'll just keep looking," Bill said aloud. "Maybe I'll go to the Pacific coast and look."

He nodded, as if trying to convince himself.

"That is what I will do."

Bill snuffed his cigarette in the truck's ashtray and was about to put the truck in gear, when he saw a car come over the crest of the hill behind him

"That looks like Matty's car."

The car pulled in front of Bill's truck and stopped.

Matty got out of the car and started to walk back toward Bill's truck.

Bill turned off the truck and rolled down the window.

"Matty?"

Matty stood back about five feet from the truck. She just stared at Bill for a moment.

"Ah, are you okay?"

Matty shook her head.

"Why are you leaving?"

"This is not what I signed up for, Matty. I don't want to own a village and I sure as hell don't wasn't to be responsible for the people that live there.

I mean, you are asking me to ...

to ..."

"Save Tuckamore Bay."

"I can't, Matty. I wouldn't even know where to start."

Matty took one step closer to the truck.

"Let me help you. I have it all worked out. I just need ..."

"Money?" Bill suggested.

Matty nodded.

"Yes. The Bay needs money to survive. A lot of money."

"And why should I do that?" Bill asked.

"What do I owe anyone there?"

"Nothing," Matty informed him.

"You owe the Bay nothing."

"Then why would I agree to spend my money to save a place I have no connection to. To help people I don't even know."