Maybe I'd be lucky enough to sign on as a ship's cook or helper.Once there, I saw one guy, bigger than me, frantically tossing buckets and boxes onto ...the cockpit of a sailboat. He was panting like a bellows. "Need a hand?" He stood up straight with one hand on the service pole mounted to the dock. "Hell, yes. You handy?" "I short order cook now. I worked as a baker's mate to get to the islands." He heavily stepped aboard. "throw me the rest, would ya?" I started heaving boxes towards him. He. If I lived on any of those islands that I visited, I could easily make a good living doing much the same thing I did back home.Several times I stumbled upon things that I would have loved to buy, especially at the prices being asked for them. If I'd had access to a truck, there was this antique cherry wood dresser being offered for sixty bucks. It was in excellent condition, easily more than a hundred years old. I knew a woman down in Lake Elsinore who'd have paid me five hundred for it,. The hemline was at the uppermost reach of her thighs. The outfit was completed by white leather dress pumps with four-inch stiletto heels. Watching her walk away after I handed her a glass of white wine was a real pleasure.Amanda, Tom's wife since May of this year, is a leggy blonde with silvery-white hair razor cut to just above her shoulders. She is well endowed, about the same as my Melanie, which means a 36C, with a nice curve of hip and ass and a dynamite smile. Vivacious describes her. It was my mistake and I had to fix it. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on," she spat, taking a big swallow of beer."Come on, let's go get lunch at McGillicuddy's and then do the booze run. Maybe that will get your mind off it." Yeah ... let's do that." She seemed to brighten up at that suggestion.I volunteered to put her papers in the safe and she agreed. If my observations were correct, she was coming out of her funk and getting back to normal. It seemed she was very resilient.We left Coal.