Randy White - Everglades

Karlita told us, “Why not let me try? Let me hold the photo, tune in on the vibrations. The Key West police, the Dade County Sheriff’s Department, they’ve all used me to find missing people. It’s one of my specialties.”

We were sitting on the stern of Tomlinson’s trunk- cabined, salt-bleached Morgan Out Island sailboat, No Mas. He’d recently had her hauled, scraped, painted and refitted for an extended cruise he had planned-another symptom of his desire to escape.

She now had a new little Yanmar diesel (though the man seldom resorted to using power), a high-amp alternator, inverter, wind generator, an autopilot and a very powerful Bose sound system. Even so, the cabin retained the familiar odors of oiled teak, kerosene, electronic wiring, patchouli incense, sandalwood and the musky smell of marijuana.

It was crowded. There were five of us sitting around the stern cockpit and on the roof of the cabin bulkhead: Karlita, Tomlinson, DeAntoni, myself and Sally. Tomlinson was sitting cross-legged, meditation style to my right. When Karlita spoke, I nudged his knee with mine and, in the glow of blazing moonlight, did my best to glare at him.

The entire evening, I’d tried to avoid her, yet, over and over, Tomlinson had steered her to me, smiling his mild, Buddha smile. Which is how she’d met Sally, then DeAntoni, who, it turned out, was a fan of her weekly television show as well as of her nightly cable TV infomercials.

“I got what you call insomnia, Miz Karlita, so you and me, we’ve spent lots’a late nights together.”

The woman loved that, vamping a little as she replied, “Oh really? You lying there in bed all alone? I bet we’ve shared some very special moments, just you and me. Am I right?”

DeAntoni missed the implications of that; continued to smile and nod as he told her, “I think you’re one of the most beautiful women on the tube. Honest. I’m not just saying that.”

Which guaranteed Karlita would be with us the rest of the night, tagging along, listening to everything we had to say and not shy about commenting.

Now here she was on Tomlinson’s boat, hair hanging long over her right shoulder, dressed in Arabic-looking scarves, red and black, that showed that she was braless, very comfortable with her body, bare legs and thighs visible when she walked or sat with legs crossed, which she was doing now.

DeAntoni said, “Know what the weirdest thing is? I almost called you. It was the night you had the guy on who could bend metal just touching it. I’m sitting there and it comes to me: Hey, maybe the beautiful psychic could help me with Mrs. Minster’s case.”

He’d already told her about Sally’s husband, and the photo.

Sounding flattered, Sally said to him, “You really seem to care.”

DeAntoni said, “Sure, it’s my job. Plus, I think you’re one nice lady.”

“That’s a very kind thing to say.”

“I mean it. Which is why I’ve started feeling, well, I guess protective’s the word. It’s the kind of guy I am. I live alone, not even a cat, so who else I got to look after? All that insurance money involved, you could attract every kind of shark and con man around. Plus, your husband was hanging with a rough crowd. You ever do any reading about the Church of Ashram?”

“Enough to know that the people there scare me.”

DeAntoni said, “That’s good. I’m glad to hear it. From what I’ve read, they’re nasty when it comes to revenge. People who piss them.. . people who cross them, make them mad. Out west, in this one little town, his followers went to the only restaurant and contaminated the salad bar with salmonella. The whole town got sick, so they couldn’t get out and vote. Murder, too-they’ve been accused of that. Of making people disappear.”

“Like Geoff,” Sally said softly.

DeAntoni said, “Yeah, like your husband. So I’ve been keeping a real close eye on you.”

To the television psychic, Sally said, “You’re right. He’s kind.”

Then, looking at me, she said, “I’d like her to hold the photograph. If she has a power, it was given to her by God, not any sort of witchcraft. So let’s give her a chance.”

Holding the photo in both hands, eyes closed, the television psychic did her act.

It took her half an hour to tell that Minster was dead; that he really had drowned.

She ended, saying, “It was his penance, his own way of finding salvation and deliverance. You can rejoice in that.”

As she finished, a warm gust of air bloomed out of the mangroves, dense with iodine and sulfur. No Mas, at anchor, shifted beneath the stars like a slow weather vane.

I tried to change the subject, but Sally wasn’t done with it. After a few minutes, she said, “So Geoff really is gone. I feel bad because we’d become strangers.”

“People change,” Tomlinson said gently. “No one really knows what goes on in the heart of another human being. We probe and pretend. But few of us ever truly connect with another.”

I said, “It seems odd for someone like your husband, the entrepreneurial type-an intelligent guy-to be taken in by a cult leader.”

“I would’ve agreed until I started learning about it,” she said. “You wouldn’t believe how many successful people join the Ashram. Some of the names-famous people; people with money-I was shocked.”

Still speaking softly, in his reflective mode, Tomlinson said, “She’s right. The Ashram and organizations like it appeal to two basic types: the successful, proactive sort and the homeless.

“I was telling Doc, a lot of it’s stolen from Scientology. If you work hard, stay disciplined, do what they call your ‘au diting,’ you’ll keep moving up the spiritual ladder. Goal-oriented people like that.”

He added, “I think for some of them that there’s so much pressure in their professions, it’s a relief to finally let go. To stop worrying, and have someone tell them what to do for a change.”

Sally said, “That’s what happened to Geoff. He’d already started building his theme villages. Worked twelve-, fourteen-hour days, then couldn’t sleep at night, worrying over details, money.”

I said, “Theme villages? I thought he did shopping malls. That sort of thing.”

“In the beginning, yes, malls were his specialty. But then he came up with this theme-village idea-he was a genius when it came to marketing.”

Geoff’s idea was a variation of the theme-park industry that has become synonymous with the plasticized, theater ized and stucco grotesquerie that too many people believe is Florida. It was to buy up large tracts of raw land in Florida and south Georgia, and build gated, turnkey villages. Each village would have a unique theme, built to attract people who shared passionate interests.

He built his first theme community in the rolling pasture-lands north of Gainesville. It was called Cross Country-a lush, secure village designed to appeal to fitness hobbyists.

There were miles of wooded running trails and bike paths. There were lap pools and fitness centers. There were artificial rock towers designed to challenge beginner, intermediate and expert climbers. The village employed its own staff of triathlon, marathon and fitness coaches-all part of the monthly maintenance fees.

Cross Country was such a success that Minster began to build three carbon-copy villages-one outside Atlanta, another near Lauderdale, the third, north of Cape Coral.

“It was way too much, too soon,” Sally said. “That’s when he began to have cash-flow problems. It got worse and worse until he just couldn’t handle it anymore. Instead of hustling off to the office every day, he began to avoid work. Hated the mention of it. Same with his obligations.