John Casey - Spartina

Dick said, “I got to get that bait on board.” He got up. Joxer got up. Dick said, “Thank you for stopping by.”

“I’m glad we had this talk,” Joxer said. “I can’t promise anything, but I’ll give it a try. I want you to get that boat in the water. You’re going out for a week now? You bring in some crabs, and we’ll see what’s up by then. Another thing in your favor is that you seem to be learning where to find those crabs.”

Dick took in what Joxer said warily, but by the time he headed Mamzelle out past the breakwater, he let it bloom a little.

T hey didn’t see a swordfish on the way out, but after they set the pots and came back into the swordfish grounds, Parker’s college boy spotted one. Dick nipped up to the crow’s nest alongside him. The kid pointed. “I’ll be damned,” Dick said, “I’ll be damned.”

A hundred and seventy-five pounds. Dick’s share would go around three hundred bucks. The kid’s share about seventy-five. He didn’t look like he was in it for the money. Something to tell girls about, get the best tan he’d ever had.

They hauled more red crabs than last time. Didn’t fill the wells, but respectable.

On the way back in, Parker asked Dick to check the kid out on dead reckoning and the RDF.

Parker let the kid take the wheel. Parker and Dick went aft to have a beer. Parker asked Dick if Dick could run his skiff in through the breachway to Little Salt Pond and from there up a creek to Mary Scanlon’s restaurant. Dick said yes.

“Is there more than one way to go? Or is there just Sawtooth Creek?”

“There’s another creek, but it’s only good at the flood.”

“Okay,” Parker said. “Now, from the salt marsh in front of Mary Scanlon’s, what’s it like to get back to the sea — not going back through Little Salt Pond?”

“There’s a whole maze of creeks in that part of the salt marsh.”

“And all those creeks, they have enough water?”

“Some do, some don’t. Those that do, it depends on the tide.”

“But you know which ones do if the tide’s in.”

“Yup.”

“And your little skiff’ll get through the ones that do?”

“Depends on the tide.”

“What about the dory?”

“That dory draws as much as my skiff.”

“If you wanted to take a trip in the marsh from Mary Scanlon’s restaurant as far west as you could go, how far could you get in your skiff? Without going back out to sea?”

“Not far. The next pond west is cut off. There’s a high arm that connects to the beach, got a gravel road on it. There’s a culvert, though. A small boat could get through. Depends on the tide.”

“Then what?”

“Jesus, Parker. If you had a canoe you could carry over a few places, you could go right on up to New York City.”

The kid sang out they were coming up on the breakwater. Dick took the wheel. He checked his watch. They’d still have an hour to unload the crabs. He’d see if Joxer had any news for him about a cosigner.

When they got to Joxer’s dock, it looked like a Chinese fire drill. Captain Texeira’s ninety-footer was tied up, but she wasn’t unloading. The crew was just milling around. There was another, smaller boat, the Marjorie , and her skipper was standing by the bow rail yelling at Joxer. Joxer was talking to Captain Texeira.

Dick held Mamzelle off when he saw Captain Texeira get back on board his boat and cast off. He eased Mamzelle in when Captain Texeira was clear.

Joxer was now talking to Marjorie ’s skipper, who’d quit yelling. Joxer’s Jap foreman came over to the Mamzelle.

“We can’t buy crabs today.”

Dick said, “What?”

“We can’t buy crabs today. Our refrigeration plant is snafu.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Dick said. “Speak English, goddamn it.”

Parker said, “Take it easy, Dick.”

Dick said, “Where’s Joxer? We got a boatload of crabs, for Christ’s sake.”

Dick climbed onto the dockside and found Joxer on the other side of the hoist, still talking to the Marjorie ’s skipper, who’d come onto the dock and was now standing on his hat.

When Dick came up, the skipper took a step back. Joxer picked up the skipper’s hat, brushed it off, and handed it to him. Joxer looked pale and caved in. Dick let his breath out. He said, “Aw shit, Joxer.”

“Excuse me,” Joxer said to the skipper. Joxer turned to Dick and recited, “We had a completely unforeseeable problem here. It is temporary, and I’m confident I can find a way to make it up to you. If you’ll let Mr. Yamaguchi take a look, we’ll keep a record of who’s lost what. I can’t—”

Parker came up and said, “Where’s Texeira headed for? He’s putting out to sea again.”

Joxer said, “He’s going to New Bedford.”

Marjorie ’s skipper said to Joxer, “Why didn’t you say so before?”

“Because they can’t handle any more than what Captain Texeira’s got. They’re only buying half of it as it is. He’s radioed his other boat to dump hers.”

“What about your trucks?” Dick said.

“They’re full. Believe me, I’ve tried everything.”

Parker asked, “What the hell happened?”

Joxer took a long breath and let it out. “The old refrigeration plant broke down. That was okay, because the new one was on its way here. From Troy, New York. They got as far as Worcester and the company got in touch with the truck driver and called it back. As far as I can make out the check bounced, and the reason it bounced was that the refrigeration expert who was working for us had access to the account. It looks as if he cleaned it out and disappeared.”

Nobody said anything after that. The skipper put his hat back on. Dick looked back at Mamzelle. He thought, At least we got the swordfish. He tried to figure what Joxer had to pay out to Captain Texeira. A ninety-footer coming in after a good run might have fifteen to twenty thousand dollars in her hold. Captain Texeira was saving Joxer at least seven thousand bucks by going to New Bedford. The crew probably weren’t too happy about it, another half-day down there, work all evening, half-day back.

Mamzelle probably had three thousand dollars’ worth in the wells. Dick’s share, over a thousand bucks after fuel. He figured he’d take a bucket of crabs home, another bucket for Eddie.

When he swung past Eddie’s house, he ended up giving them all to Eddie. He didn’t want to taste the buggers.

Joxer had said there’d be an announcement in a week about when the red-crab plant would reopen. But if the refrigeration expert had all that money …

Dick thought he should try to figure where the offshore lobster were. The whole damn red-crab fleet would be trying too.

When he got to his house, he saw May’s car was gone. He sat in his pickup. He’d given both buckets to Eddie, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the red crabs. Maybe they could have put them in lobster cars, kept them alive in the pond. No. They were more fragile than lobster, lived deeper and colder. Had to be ice cold to stay alive, Joxer had to boil them live, pick them, flash-freeze the packaged meat so fast it was almost instant.

Joxer had spent two years trying to get the big lobster boats to go out the extra miles for red crab. When he got Captain Texeira on his side, he got not just Texeira’s two boats but a couple more who tagged along. Joxer had given guarantees to four boats in all. Another four including Mamzelle , call it three and a half, went out on spec. Even if Joxer got the plant going, and even if Captain Texeira stuck by him, Joxer would be in trouble. The two other contract skippers and the three other skippers on spec might go back to lobstering. You could always sell lobster.