Our Brothers at the Bottom of the Bottom of the Sea by Jonathan David Kranz

Author:Jonathan David Kranz
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781627790512
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

July 19, 2013

There’s no alcohol in Sea Town, but that doesn’t mean people can’t bring it with them. The liquor store across the bay doesn’t hurt for business. Tourists take the booze to their rentals, and mostly it stays there. But every once in a while, the drunks like to wander, and when they do, it’s to the beach or the boardwalk. Last night, they came to the Moon Walk.

It was a bad mix—two guys, two girls, and a huge plastic sippy cup I’m sure was filled with vodka and bullshit. That’s the way it always is—alcohol you can’t taste hiding inside a sugary drink as innocent as a cherry freeze pop. You down it like soda and then—bam—it sneaks up from behind and smacks you on the back of your head.

At first, this crowd wasn’t too bad, just loud. But their language was crude, and they were making the other customers anxious—parents rushed their little Jennies and Johnnies through the course to put some distance between them and the rowdies.

So far, so good. Just something you note and set aside, because most of the time, nothing comes of it. Amy, who was serving her shift on a stool by the back holes, kept her head low: see no evil, speak no evil. I exchanged glances with Tango, who merely shrugged as if to say, shit happens—you can expect some of this now and again.

But then one of the guys, a bruiser in a red sleeveless shirt who commanded the giant cup and through it, his gang, started hooting something about a wet T-shirt contest to a cluster of girls by the fountain obstacle. His crowd laughed; the girls did not. They began to knot around each other in self-defense, and I could feel the climate change, a kind of steel chill in the air.

At this point, the fairy tale princess felt compelled to step in. I hung back by the office, watching out of the corner of my eye.

“Please,” Diana said. “If you’re disturbing the other customers, I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

“Who am I disturbing?” the bruiser said. “I’m just playing. We’re having fun.”

“Just keep it a little, you know,” Diana said, pressing the air down in front of her with her palms. Let the genie go back to his lantern.

It should have ended there. But like I said—the sweetest drinks are the sneakiest. This guy was on the spot in front of his friends and couldn’t let it go. “We’ll keep it the way we want. We fucking paid to play here, and we’re going to play just like all these other people,” he said, swinging his arm in a loopy circle.

“You’re welcome to,” Diana said. “Just keep it down.”

“And if we don’t want to?” the guy asked.

One of his girls plucked at his shirt, saying they should go. She said the place sucked and they should just go.

Of course, her attention only made things worse. Muscle Head stood on principle: they paid for their tickets, just like everyone else.

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