Chapter 8
Bigger is better Faster is Best
The pizza parlor by Mendon hall was packed at lunchtime so Marty and I agreed to meet at the shaved ice vendor out by the beach for lunch. I still wasn’t quite used to the 90-degree heat yet so slushies’ at lunch tasted pretty good to me. We had been eating dinner at night after the sun went down and it cooled off. My appetite comes back when the temperature drops. Besides it’s less crowded around all the food shops on the coast at night.
During the afternoon, the soccer mom crowd descends on the beachfront, dragging their toddlers along. The kids play in the sand while the mothers chat together, getting all lathered up in expensive tanning oils. They sprawl out all up and down the beach for miles.
Conveniently, the college girls didn’t start hitting the beach until around 3:00 pm as classes ended for the day, and the mothers start to pile their kids back into their SUV’s and station wagons to head back to suburbia to get their dinners started.
Marty was already at the ice stand ordering for us when I got there. “Here you go.” He said as he handed me a grape slushy.
“I have our first group assignment.” I said as we took a seat under an outdoor umbrella setup on the beach for patrons of the nearby food shops. It was just too hot today to sit out in the sun at lunch and then go back to class.
“When did you get the assignment?”
“It was in my initial packet I got yesterday.”
Marty cocked his head to look over at me. “Why didn’t you tell us about it last night?”
“I thought we all had enough new information to take in last night as it was. Also it gave me a chance to think about the tasks and maybe get us started in the right direction.” The grape slushy tasted amazingly good today. Sitting in the shade watching the crowd go by and drinking a slushy between classes. This was so much better than high school ever was. “Anyway, we have a week to prepare, so we’re not going to be rushed on this. I told the girls we would go to the beach with them for a while after last period, and then meet up later to work on the assignment back at their room.”
“Ok, sounds good.” Marty was one of those easygoing go with the flow kind of guys. Unless he was dead sure you were making a mistake he was pretty much up for anything you wanted to do. “I have a small project I need to finish up so I’ll catch up with you and the girls on the beach later.” Marty said as he got up and took off in a flash.
“OK, then…” He didn’t wait around to hear my reply. I had to hurry up myself in order to get changed and out to the obstacle course for agility training in fifteen minutes anyway.
After my agility course training I went to my room to a shower before meeting the girls at the beach. I had to have a shower after sweating my butt off all afternoon on that course. Showering to go to the beach just seems sort of dumb, but… I did it anyway.
I met up with the girls out in back of our dorm. They were already down where the parking lot tar ran out and met the smooth white sand of the beach.
“Hi, Meea. Hi, Stacy, did you guys have a good day?”
“Hey, Wilson, I missed seeing you today” Meea said reaching out for my hand. She was stunning standing there in the cutest little pink one-piece swimsuit.
“Yeah, I can vouch for that… she really did miss you, Wilson.” Stacy said smiling up at me.
“Thanks, Stacy, I don’t need your help on this one” Meea said sternly.
“Yeah, yeah… sorry.” She said holding her hands up in the universal sign of surrender.
“Where do you guys want to sit?” I said looking around for an open umbrella.
“My wheelchair won’t go in the sand so we thought—"
“Hey, look over there!” Meea interrupted pointing toward the weirdest sandstorm racing toward us from the far end of the beach. Sand was shooting up in all directions and moving toward us fast. It would reach us in just a minute’s time. It looked like a miniature tornado stirring up sand as it moved down the beach.
There was something at the base of the sand storm I couldn’t make out and… and… no way, it was Marty… driving in something very small speeding up the beach right towards us.
Cars weren’t usually allowed on the beach in this area, but he was defiantly driving something. He waved at us now that he was close enough to make us out.
“Hey, Stacy!” Marty shouted as he pulled up. “I made you a new toy. How about you trading in that chair for a new and improved model?”
“SWEET!” Stacy was reaching up to give Marty a big hug and then a way too intense of a kiss for a public beach.
“Well I’m guessing she likes the chair, Marty” Meea said, and squeezed my hand tight at the show of affection.
“Marty, when did you?” Kiss. “How did you?” Kiss. “Why did you? Oh never mind. Mmmm…”
“Do you like it?” Marty asked, still smiling from the thank you he just received, sticking out his chest. “I went to the mechanical department here at school and asked the professor for some parts and he asked me what I was trying to accomplish. So I explained I had a special someone that I wanted to help be a bit more mobile. The professor told me the school knew Stacy was coming this year and had the foresight to know that someone may just want to do something like this. So all the parts I needed were already there. I designed the chair with a new drive system, so now you have a wheelchair that is propelled by a small sterling hydrogen engine. The engine is fueled by the solar power collected by this small canopy on the back, which can also extend over your head for shade. It also makes it a bit faster that way. I added small balloon racing tires so that it’ll get traction in the deepest softest sand. It’ll also go over water, which I tested on the way over, it’s a blast! I don’t advise taking it in the ocean, because of the tip factor. But driving over a pond is easy. I also put a watertight belly on it and the balloon tires give it plenty of floatation and drive. Cool, huh?”
“Way cool.” Stacy beamed. “Now let me in that thing.” Marty picked her up like a feather and sat her down and explained the hand controls to her.
“Now we can all go for a walk along the beach together.” Meea said.
“What’s my top speed, Marty?” Stacy said, revving the engine.
“What ever you want, I can change the gear ratio so it could go as fast as most cars. For now, I have it getting a top speed of 40 mph hauling me in it, so it’ll probably do close to 50 mph with your weight. Don’t go that fast until you get a good feel for it though.”
Stacy looked at Meea and smiled as if to say look at my new boyfriend, how lucky am I. Since Stacy could read people like an open book she knew Marty’s feelings for her were the purest, he only wanted the best for her and she knew better than anyone how true that was.
Marty gave Stacy a kiss on the cheek and said, “Go ahead and take a couple laps around the beach with that thing and then we’ll all take a walk together.”
“That was a good idea letting her take a little ride first. I’m sure once you get started in that thing it’s hard to just putt along.” I praised.
Meea hugged me from behind as all three of us watched Stacy fly around down on the beach. She was getting pretty good at it now and you could tell she was having a ball. She would race down to the waters edge and then turn razor-sharp, sliding to a stop. She was out there laughing out loud at each hairpin turn she made.
“Come on guys let’s head down there or she’s never going to stop playing on that thing.” Meea said, happy to see her friend having such a good time.
“Marty, wave her over to join us.” I regretted being the one to that put a stop to all her new found thrills, but we needed to get to work on our assignment.
Stacy pulled up to a crawl right beside Marty and reached out and took his hand. As their hands met she pulled him down so she could kiss him again.
“Man, Marty I’ll bet I get to hear how wonderful you are all night tonight.” Meea teased.
“Shut up, Meea.” Stacy s
queaked out as she blushed.
“Come on girls, look Stacy, I love your new dune buggy and Marty you are the hero tonight but let’s get to work ok?” I said trying to drag everyone back on task.
“Ok boss, what’s the assignment? Make a model volcano that really smokes, or make a balloon stick to the wall with electricity.” Stacy said still fidgeting with the controls on her new sport buggy.
“Hmmm… Not quite that simple, we have to make sure that our basketball team, the PBHU Saints win their first three scrimmage games this year. Game one is next week.”
“Heck that isn’t too bad, they may win even if we don’t do anything.” Meea pointed out.
“They might,” I agreed. “But we don’t want to leave any room for error or chance. This is just a game for the Saints, but our performance will be graded as if this were a life or death situation, you see?”
“Yeah, I guess we have to take everything serious from now on.” Meea said resignedly.
“Stacy!” I barked. “It would probably be easier to take this work a little more seriously if you weren’t doing wheelies down the beach.”
“Ok, sorry it’s just hard not to play when you’re sitting in this thing.” She apologized. “You guys have got to try this.”
“Later, ok. I have a plan that should get us past the first two games, but I need some help on a plan for the third game.” Mental note, no more planning sessions on the beach.
The next day I got up early and Marty had already left. I got my stuff and got around quickly so I could spend more time with Meea. Later we would have to find Marty and Stacy to finalize our plan for game three. When I found Meea out at the beach the sun was just rising turning the ocean a bright red. Meea was busy in the shallows playing with three dolphins. She looked very natural and at home interacting with the mammals as if they had been best friends all of their lives.
“Good morning.” I said quietly not wanting to scare off the dolphins.
“Hi, you’re up early,” Meea said smiling as she watched me ease into the water.
“Yeah, you are too. I see you have a few new friends.” I said trying to act nonchalant.
“I’ve never had such a great opportunity to work with mammals of this type, you know. It’s fascinating that they’re so unbelievably smart and easy to communicate with.”
Meea gestured her hand out to the sea, like she was dismissing a first grade class for recess. “There’re ready to go back out to sea for breakfast, speaking of which, let’s go back to my room and I’ll fix us something to eat. By the way, do you happen to know where Stacy and Marty have gotten off to again?”
“I don’t know. They’ve been disappearing together a lot these past few weeks. Marty told me they are working on something, but it’s their secret for now.” I said shrugging my shoulders.
“Is that a good idea them keeping secrets?” Meea questioned looking at me with her eyebrows raised.
“Its ok, I trust them, besides that it gives us time to work on the rest of our assignment or… we could find something a little more… ”
“Oh I know what you mean… good idea, breakfast can wait, come on!” Meea said, grabbing my hand pulling me toward the dorms.
Holding Meea's soft hand in mine I realized how over the past two weeks Meea and I have become much more comfortable expressing our affection towards one another. When we’re in the same room, I noticed we’re always close enough that some part of us is touching. When we’re reading on the couch Meea will be reclining at one end and me at the other with our backs leaning against the armrest and our legs entangled. If we’re at the computer we always sit side-by-side touching in someway. Meea told me she's never trusted anyone like she trusts me. And I have never felt so deeply for anyone or any thing like I do for Meea.
If her breath stopped, I’m sure mine would stop as well at the same moment. I even find it’s hard to breathe correctly when she walks out of a room. I have to reassure myself she’s coming back, so that I can relax enough to breathe easy again.
Meea and I were entangled on the couch enjoying our private time together; we barely noticed when the front door banged open.
“Sure we leave you two alone for the afternoon and…” Marty was chuckling to himself as his voice trailed off. Stacy came zooming in behind him, her wheels just fitting through the width of the doorframe.
“Anyone hungry?” Stacy asked. She had a large box of donuts and a carton of orange juice on her lap.
Meea pulled me back to her, pressing her soft lips against mine. “Mmm…not done yet.” She moaned in delight.
Marty chuckled again as he got out some plates and paper towels.
“You guys got no room talking about us anymore, right baby.” Stacy laughed as Marty bent down kissing her, and then flipped open the donut box lid.
As we ate I went over the plan for the night’s game with Marty and Stacy. They were going to be a backup for Meea and I if there was a problem with plan “A.”