The Last Lobster by Christopher White
Author:Christopher White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
7
Winter, Gulf of Maine
Come December, the weather in Maine turns temperamental, the opportunities for venturing to sea infrequent. Storms and surface ice allow entrance to the ocean only by a unique kind of lottery. On any given week, one day out of six may be calm enough to set sail. That leaves five weekdays ashore. So, with blustery winds at the top of the week—just before Christmas—it is not surprising that Frank Gotwals cancels each day through Thursday. Alyssa, his ace sternman, is happy to have the holiday time with her children. But come Friday morning, all bets are back on. The wind has subsided to ten knots. Frank and Alyssa and every lobsterman in Stonington rise with their boots on. Whatever the temperature, they’re ready to go.
Nevertheless, December has been unusually mild, the twelfth month in a row of record high temperatures worldwide. Frank, who typically retires his boat for the season by Christmas, plans to continue lobstering into January if the weather holds up. Even with weekly winter storms, he may get in one lobstering day each week. The draw for him: In winter, lobster prices are at their highest.
At 4:30 A.M. sharp, Frank pulls his GMC pickup into the second parking lot beside my cottage on Pink Street. He has offered me a lift. While I gather my gloves and new boots in the dark, Frank talks to my neighbor, J.B., the bait fisherman. Only the gibbous moon illuminates their faces. From my front stairs, their voices are too distant to discern.
Afterward, in the truck, Frank says, “Good news: Herring supplies are back up. That should bring the price back down. I hate to have to stretch my bait.”
When we reach the intersection of Pink and Main, I spy some activity around a school bus perched on the town fish pier. Sure enough, it is the Skippers Class from the local high school setting up their Sternmen’s Olympics for the day, an annual rite of passage. The students will compete in a lobster-trap race and a banding contest to see who can seal the claws of ten lobsters the fastest. The competition will help prepare the teenagers in applying for their student lobster licenses this summer. Among them are Elliott Nevells, now fifteen, and Caleb Hardie, sixteen, who have eyes on lobstering as a future profession. Motivated like no others, they will tie in the trap race today.
We turn left, heading east toward the Co-op. I anguish over caffeine withdrawal. Frank sympathizes. He tells me he has time to stop at the store. For the holidays, it is lit up in green and red, like a Christmas tree. Three pickups are idling out front.
Adrienne, the remarkably thin girl of doughboy fame, unlocked the front door to the Harborview General Store at exactly 3:00 A.M., ushering in the first wave of customers. Ninety minutes later, Genevieve and Cory McDonald elbow their way in, followed closely by Jason McDonald, their cousin, but better known as Frank’s stepson. Genevieve ambles to the back of the store to order a cold-cut submarine for her lunch six hours from now.
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