Mary and Alvin Ch. 03

There Comes A Time

Memorial Day weekend was the traditional kickoff to the summer tourist season, but for Mary, Tuesday was just another work day. She tried to put the events of the past two days out of her mind and concentrate on her job, but thoughts of Alvin kept returning. When she closed her eyes, she could still feel his arms around her, and the ocean breeze on her face.

At lunchtime, she joined some of her co-workers in the cafeteria. When she returned to her workspace, there was a vase of flowers on her desk. There was an envelope attached to the bouquet. She opened it and pulled out the card. It simply read "Supper?" with a phone number underneath. She smiled, amused that he assumed that she would know the flowers were from him.

There was something in the envelope, and she shook it into her hand. It was a small, sea blue cloisonne pin in the shape of a leaping dolphin. He'd left a signature after all. She pinned the dolphin to her blazer, and dialed his number.

"Thank you for the flowers. And I love the little dolphin," she said when he answered.

"Good, I'm glad. How's work?"

"Oh, it's work. You know."

"No, not really. Never had an indoor sitting down job."

"Well, you run a business."

"But my sister Diana does all the paperwork, bookkeeping and whatnot. We'd be hanging up the auction sign if all that was up to me. Anyway, I was hoping you'd supper with me tonight, because I'm going to be gone a short while."

Mary's heart sank, just a little bit. "Where are you going?"

"Got to deliver a boat down to Newport, Rhode Island. Leaving with the tide tomorrow morning."

"Sailing it down? How long will that take?"

"Depends on the winds, three days if I'm lucky. Maybe four. I expect to be back late Saturday."

"If you sail down, how will you get home?"

"My daughter Jennifer is going to drive down and pick me up."

"Oh, that's nice of her."

"Nice of me to pay her two hundred dollars to do it," he laughed.

"I would love to see you before you go."

"What time do you get off work?"

"Five."

"How would it be if I pick you up there? Save some time, since I've got such an early morning ahead."

"Sure, I suppose I look presentable. What time is the tide in the morning?"

"Four twenty five," he replied. Mary thought he sounded much more cheerful than she would about the prospect of heading out so early.

They said their goodbyes and Mary sat for a moment and reflected on her feelings. They had made no plans to see each other in the following days, but she found herself disappointed that he would be gone. She could not help watching the clock all afternoon, anticipating finishing her shift and being with him. As five o'clock neared, she gathered up her things and prepared to leave. Her co-worker Kelly Martin approached her desk, and sniffed at the bouquet.

"Nice, where did you get these?" Kelly asked.

"Oh, I went out with someone over the weekend, and he sent them. And this little pin." She showed Kelly the dolphin.

"I'm glad to see you getting out," Kelly said. She was one of the few people in a supervisory position at the bank who had grown up in the area, and she'd been very helpful to Mary as she tried to fit in among the locals.

"He's picking me up now, to go out to dinner."

"Supper, dear. Mainers eat supper, not dinner."

They walked to the front door together. Kelly went through first. Alvin was parked a half dozen spaces down the first row of the lot, leaning on his car while he waited. Kelly stopped so suddenly that Mary bumped into her.

"You're going out with Alvin Faulkner?" she asked, looking wide eyed back at Mary.

"Uh, yes," Mary replied, "We met at the wharf Saturday. Is there some reason I shouldn't?"

"Oh, no, no, no," Kelly shook her head, "He's a great guy, I've known him since I was a kid. Jesus, I'd go out with him if I wasn't too young, too fat and too married." She caught herself and blushed. "Well, maybe not too young."

Alvin was walking toward them. "No, really, Mary," Kelly whispered, "I think it's great, it's just that he's gone out with a lot of women, and, well, it never seems to work out."

Alvin reached them, and Kelly turned and gave him a big hug.

"I should have figured the two of you would be pals," he said, winking at Mary over Kelly's shoulder.

"She's been wonderful about helping me since I got here," Mary said.

Alvin stepped from Kelly to Mary, and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Well, I'll let the two of you go about your business," Kelly said. "Mary, we'll talk tomorrow."

Mary hugged her and they parted ways. "I imagine she's telling stories on me," Alvin grinned as he took Mary's hand and escorted her to his car.

"She said she'd go out with you if she wasn't married."

"But she is," he replied, opening the door for her.

Alvin turned on to the coastal highway and headed out of town.

"Thought we'd go down to Lincolnville Beach," he explained, "Won't take but fifteen, twenty minutes. And it's a pretty drive."

It was, and Mary enjoyed the scenery along the way, the bay opening towards the open ocean on their left, tree covered hills rising on their right.

"So, I imagine you'll be happy to have some time with your daughter," she said.

"Yes, but I'll be seeing plenty of her soon enough. She and Danni will be coming down next week for the summer."

"Danni is her boyfriend?"

"Girlfriend."

"How do you feel about that?" she asked, apprehensively. She hoped he would not display a hostile attitude. That would have a serious impact on her feelings about him.

"I've got some concerns," he shrugged.

"Why? What bothers you about it?"

"Well, Danni wants to be a cop. I don't know that she'll find a position around here. And Jen plans to restart the family farm, so she won't go anywhere else. So, I worry about them finding a way to stay together down the road."

Mary let out a silent sigh of relief. She felt a little bit ashamed that she had immediately suspected ill of him.

Alvin slowed and turned into a large parking lot. A ferry dock stood at one end, and a cozy looking brick building at the other. Between them stretched a hundred yards of sandy beach.

"A real beach!" Mary exclaimed as she got out of the car. "I thought all the beaches around here were rocky."


"Most are," Alvin said as he took her hand. Mary saw that the brick building was a restaurant. They went in and were seated at a quiet corner table.

They ordered local draft beers and bowls of chowder. While they ate, Mary kept thinking about what Kelly had said, but she did not bring it up, instead asking Alvin about his trip.

"Being out there, all alone on the boat, doesn't it bother you? I think I'd be scared."

"Well, I've been out there alone a few times. And I think I can handle whatever might come up. It's just going down the coast, it's not out to the Banks or something. Not expecting the Perfect Storm, not this time of year. And I like the solitude. I do my best thinking out there."

She smiled. "What do you expect you'll be thinking about?"

He shrugged. "The summer season, the work that needs to be done. Helping Jen start getting the farm up and running. Maybe a pretty girl or two."

"Two?"

"Maybe just one."

Their entrees arrived. Alvin had a steak, while Mary enjoyed a plate of sautéed scallops. Alvin explained more to her about his daughter's plans. His family had once been farmers, and he still lived in the farmhouse his great great grandfather had built in 1895. It sat on fifty acres of land that had not been cultivated in several generations. Jennifer planned to build her own house on the land, and restart the farm. Alvin grew excited talking about the prospect of seeing her bring the land back to life. It made Mary eager to meet Jennifer. She hoped that she would be accepting of her father dating someone only a few years older than herself.

They finished eating and left the restaurant. They held hands and walked down to the water's edge. Mary kicked off her shoes and rolled her pant legs up her calves. Alvin took the shoes and carried them while she splashed her feet in the gently lapping waves. She spun in the water, laughing in delight. Alvin stood and watched her. She stopped and, for a moment, just looked at him, outlined by the glow of the slowly sinking sun behind him. She walked to him and took his head in her hands. She pressed her lips hard against his, then skipped away down the beach. He followed her, not hurrying at all. She stopped suddenly and bent down. Something had caught her eye. She picked up a glimmering piece of green glass from the sand. It was oval, about two inches long and worn completely smooth.

"Sea glass," Alvin explained when he had caught up to her, "Broken glass that the tide rolls in the sand, sometimes for years, polishing it."

"It's beautiful."

Alvin took it from her and held it up so that the sunlight glimmered off of it. Mary began looking around for more, and did not notice when he slipped it into his pocket. She did not see any more glass, so she stood and turned towards Alvin. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

"I best get home," he said, "thanks for coming to supper with me."

"It was my pleasure," she replied, kissing him again. He put his arm around her waist and walked her back to his car. They barely spoke on the return drive to Londonderry, each lost in their thoughts of the other. When they arrived back at the bank, Alvin found Mary's car and pulled up next to it.

"You know, you can come home with me, right?" she asked him after he kissed her goodbye.

"Yes, but, as I said, I need to get such an early start. I really shouldn't."

"I know," she said, "I just wanted to remind you that you could." She kissed his cheek, got in the car and drove away.

It was still dark when Alvin cast the Moneta off from the dock. As he turned towards the channel, he looked up the hill towards Mary's window. He knew it would be dark, but he looked anyway, in the faint hope he'd see a glow of light. As he steered out of the harbor he passed the silhouettes of the ancient captain's houses, each with it's Widow's Walk, where for generations, the wives of the seafarers would watch for the sails of their men as they returned from their voyages. He imagined Mary watching for him, her auburn hair blowing in the same wind that brought him home.

Alvin had sailed from Londonderry harbor many times, but on every trip there came at least a brief moment of remembering the day he thought he was sailing away forever.

He had grown to love his home town so much over the years that he still felt a touch of shame over how badly he had once wanted nothing more that to escape from it. That was the way things were in Maine, though. Young people leave.

He had not been unhappy. His childhood memories were good, filled with camping and sailing and snowball fights. Like all young men, he had struggled with living in his father's shadow, and Jack Faulkner was, in many ways, a bigger than life character. He was a gregarious man, the kind of fellow that everyone considered their friend. He had taken the business that had been left to him by his father and turned it from a quiet boat landing into a beehive of activity, opening the carry out diner, renting space in the parking area for shrimpers and lobstermen to sell their catch from the back of their trucks, turning it into a Christmas tree lot every December.

Hannah, Alvin's mother, was a perfect compliment to Jack, as quiet and resolute as he was bold and impulsive. She came from a long line of strong farm women, and possessed many of the their qualities. Together, she and Jack raised three children; Diana, the oldest, Alvin, and Tim, the youngest. Diana was very much in her mother's mold, and Tim in his father's, but Alvin seemed to combine the qualities of both in equal measures. When he set his mind to something, he achieved his goals. But he lost interest quickly as well, always moving on to the next thing that caught his eye. He had been the starting shortstop on the junior varsity team, but never tried out for the varsity, because he was more interested in spending his time on the water or in the woods than on the diamond. He did well in his classes, but never found an area of study that held his interest long.

As he matured, he was popular with girls. He had dated quite a few while he was in high school. Terri Arsenault was the first, and they remained good friends after they lost romantic interest in each other. Then came Jodie Larrabee and Sherri Moody and Caitlin Littlefield. Alvin had entered each relationship sincerely, but each faded in turn. He blamed it on his restlessness. He could not see himself living forever in his home town, with a home town girl. He read Herman Melville and Jack London and Joseph Conrad, and he saw himself in the mold of their heroes, sailing the world.

Two weeks after he graduated from high school, he signed on to crew the schooner Doris, on a slow cruise to Key West.

His mother was furious, and refused to even speak to him as he prepared for his voyage. On the morning he set sail, only his father was there to see him off. Alvin was eager to board, but his father took him by the arm and led him away from the gangplank. The two of them walked to the end of the public landing. Jack Faulkner leaned on the rail, looking off down the harbor. After a moment his son joined him.

"How long do you think Mom is going to stay mad?" Alvin asked.

Jack shrugged. "She isn't so mad anymore. More exasperated, I'd say. But she knows young men wander. It will be alright by and by."

They watched the gulls swooping over the water. "Listen son, I want to say one thing to you before you go."

Alvin nodded, and listened.

"It's not my belief that boys just grow into men. I've known many a boy who never did. Nope. I think that there comes a time, one key moment in time, when the boy makes the decision that he will become a man. And once he does, just by making that call, he takes on being a man."

"I did decide..."

"No," his father cut him off, "Deciding to go for a sail doesn't make you a man."

Alvin flushed. Jack put his hand on his son's shoulder. "Now, don't go and get agitated, it's not an insult. The time will come, this just isn't it."

He patted the side of Alvin's face, then took him into his arms and hugged him.

"Time to get aboard, I suppose," he said as he broke away. He walked his son to the boat and watched him board.

Alvin looked back at Jack and waved, then disappeared below decks to stow his gear. When he returned, his father was gone.

The Moneta caught a good wind and made it's way down the coast. All day, Alvin's thoughts kept returning to that morning, and saying goodbye to his father. He wished that he could talk to him again, to ask him if he approved of the man his son had decided to become.

As the sky darkened, he found a sheltered spot among the islands of Casco Bay, and dropped anchor for the night. He fixed himself a simple supper and sat on deck to eat it. In the distance, he could see the sweep of the Portland Head Light. He took out his phone and checked to see if he had service. He did, and he considered calling Mary, but he decided that he wanted to be alone with his thoughts. He had the sense that his long settled life was about to be upended, and it made him reflective.

He remembered crewing the Doris through these very waters, heading into Portland. The ship's owner had made a fortune in retail properties, building strip malls all over New England. Now he was enjoying the fruits of his labor by partying, up and down the coat, with a few select friends and their carefully selected younger wives and girlfriends. The six man crew was under strict orders against any fraternization with the passengers. Alvin was busy with his duties anyway, and while he had worked around any number of wealthy people who used his family's wharf, he had no idea how to talk to them.

After Portland, they had cruised down to Cape Cod, and Newport, as he was doing now. Then they moved on, through Long Island Sound, and Alvin remembered staring in amazement at the skyline of Manhattan as they sailed down the East River. They put in there for week, giving him some time to explore the city. He was dazzled by it's sights and sounds, but as they set sail again, he knew he could never live in such a place.

The Doris spent the summer hopping down the coast, occasionally spending a week or more in ports where the nightlife or shopping appealed to the passengers. Alvin walked on the boardwalk in Atlantic City and on the sand of Virginia Beach. He strolled the streets of Charleston and Savannah. He watched a whale breach off the Outer Banks of North Carolina and saw a school of flying fish skimming the water along the coast of Florida.

At each port, some of the guests would disembark and others would replace them, but the non-stop party never ended, and neither did the crew's duties. As August turned to September, they put in at Miami. In the morning, they would make the run along the Keys, and end their voyage in Key West. Alvin would need to make a decision then. Some of his crew mates were talking about signing on with a vessel that was sailing to Jamaica. From there, they would have many choices of employment for the winter. Sailing the Caribbean seemed like a dream to Alvin. But, he felt that any decision he made after Key West would be irrevocable. If he sailed south, it might be years before he ever went home, and he wasn't completely sure he wanted to cross that line.

There was a lot to do to prepare for the the last leg of the voyage, and Alvin was busy with his tasks late into the evening. The night was hot and muggy, and he knew he would not sleep well, particularly with his mind so busy anticipating the next day. He had spent a lot of his down time reading, and he decided that he would do so now, until sleep overwhelmed him. He was in the middle of a collection of Hemingway's short stories, so he got it from his locker, grabbed a battery powered lantern and went topside. Everything was quiet. The passengers had gone ashore to enjoy one last night of Miami nightlife. He dragged a canvas recliner to the bow and set it up in an alcove of the bulkhead. It was not secluded, but it was out of the way enough that it was unlikely anyone would disturb him there. He turned on the lantern and opened his book.

He had only read a few pages when he heard someone approaching. He looked up and saw a woman standing next to him. She was tall, tanned bronze in a very small bikini. Her hair and the bikini were both jet black. She held a half full bottle of champagne in her hand.

"What are you reading?" she asked.

"Hemingway," he replied, as she sat down on the foot of his recliner.

"Is it good?"

"Yes, pretty good."

She held out her hand and Alvin shook it. "I'm Wendy," she said. "How old are you? God it's good to talk to somebody closer to my own age."

Alvin frowned at her. "I'm nineteen."

She laughed. "I'm twenty-eight. Still, that's closer to my own age."

She took a long drink of the champagne and handed the bottle to Alvin. He took a quick sip and handed it back.

"You've got a funny accent, where are you from?"

"Maine."

"Oh. I'm from Savannah. Well, no, I got on at Savannah. I'm from Nebraska. But, I got out of there as quick as I could."

"I know how you feel," Alvin replied.

"I bet you do. So now you're a sailor, huh?"

"I guess so."

Wendy turned towards the rail and laid back, reclining against Alvin. "This is nice here. Quiet."

They sat for a few minutes, listening to the waves slapping the bow. Then Wendy raised her face and kissed Alvin's lips. He responded immediately, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer. They kissed like that for several minutes, then she turned and straddled his lap. Alvin could scarcely believe this was happening. He felt his cock stiffen and strain against the fabric of his jeans.