Rescue

this.“
    “Oh. I’m sorry.“ She lowered her voice. “John, am I boring you?“
    I shook my head no, then couldn’t stop shaking for a minute.
    Doris said, “I wish we had another blanket.“
    “That’s okay. I’ll be fine,“ I brought a hand out from under the blanket to gesture at an old military-issue forty-five caliber on the seat next to Howard. “That come with the boat?“
    He heard part of my question, because he turned to us, Doris pointing to the weapon. Howard said, “No, in fact it’s illegal even to carry one into the back country. But out here after sundown, you never know who you might run into, and that one served me well in the past.“
    I said, “And the night scope?“
    Howard hefted the oblong tube, then stowed it under the dash in front of him. “Got it surplus, this gun shop down here. Found it’s good for spotting things at a distance in the dark.“ He half turned this time. “Like tonight, for instance.“
    “Pretty brave to come over the way you did.“
    Doris said to me, “We thought they were shooting the dolphins. There’re so few of them left now, you have to be really lucky to see a big pod anymore.“ She raised her voice. “Howard? That’s real skinny water up there.“
    “Yes, sweetheart.“
    I said, “Skinny water?“
    Doris came back to me, lowering her voice again. “Shallow. Don’t worry, though, we’ll get you in safe and sound and then to the Sheriff’s Office.“
    I shook my head. “No good.“
    “What do you mean, no good? You have to report this, and you’d be from now till New Year’s trying to raise the Park Rangers or Marine Patrol, this time of night.“
    “I mean, we can’t go to the Sheriff’s Office.“
    Doris stared at me, then said, “You’re in some kind of trouble with the law?“
    “You could say that.“
    She stared some more, then raised her voice again. “Howard, be sure to stay to the flag side going through the cut.“
    “Yes, sweetheart.“
    I looked at her. Before I could say anything, she said, ‘I’ll tell you about the flags another time. Rest now. You can explain, if you want to, when we get to the house.“

    Reaching the deserted marina, Howard docked the boat with some help from Doris on the mooring lines. He started to talk about calling ahead to the Sheriff’s substation, his wife cutting him off, then saying we’d discuss it at the house after they got me into some dry clothes. Howard looked at us, but didn’t say anything.
    Once the boat was secured, we walked to a Lincoln Town Car, me getting in the backseat, Howard and Doris the front. Working together, it took them a minute to get the heat going.
    She said, “The air-conditioning, that’s a breeze, but the heat, we don’t use that much...There, feel anything yet?“
    “Not yet.“
    “You will.“
    Howard didn’t say a word on the drive to the house, which turned out to be in a small, planned development on the ocean side. We drove in under a gate that was unlocked and unattended.
    Doris turned in her seat toward me. “This is one of the three ways into the park, but we keep the other two locked after nine. Half the people here are in bed by then, and almost everybody’s home.“
    I said, “Retirement community?“
    “Yes. We spotted it twenty years ago, bought the winter after that. Have to be fifty or over to live here, but they allow some flexibility there, depending.“
    “Depending?“
    “On who the owner might remarry.“
    “I see.“
    The streets were narrow, the houses small but sprightly in their lamppost and door lights. About half were one-stories on slabs, the other half on stilts. Howard turned into a driveway by a white one-story with a carport. The interior lights in the houses on either side and across the street were off.
    Under the carport’s roof, he slowed and stopped, killing the engine. “We all get out, the security lights will come on.“
    I said, “Movement sensitive?“
    “Anything bigger than a ground squirrel. I’ll go first, turn them off.“
    He did. Doris said, “Okay, let’s get you inside.“
    There was a five-step stoop up to the kitchen level of the house. She said, “When the developer set it here, he said it’d be high enough for the storms, and so far, he’s been right“
    “Set it here?“
    We walked from the kitchen into the dining area of a squarish living room, a sun porch beyond it. “This is a mobile home.“
    I said, “You’re kidding?“
    “No. Well, actually, it’s two