A Man Overboard Read Free

“For the land of the freeeeee…” while walking through the radiation belts of the see-you-naked machines, but such luck had held fast. So far.Jack recalled a story in Miami where an employee was made fun of after the scanners showed off his small genitalia during a practice session with the publically funded machines. He later beat the crap out of the instigator and was arrested the next day when he showed up for work. That was Miami, their destination. And of course, there were the countless official complaints by women who believed they were sexually harassed, being made to go through the damn machines three and four times while men congregated in the viewing room to ogle. If there was any of that in Miami, then the odds were good that he wouldn’t be making the boat, after all.
    Jack put down the Koontz novel and squeezed Stacey’s hand while looking out the window beside him. The clouds were large and puffy, and his eyes were inadvertently picking out cotton images. He could make out Colonel Sanders smiling at them, his head fixed atop a tall ladder that was being scaled by an octopus that had the head of a Pterodactyl. Dennis Rodman was strapped to the back of a walrus, and a naked mermaid with cow udders stood poised at home plate with a spiked mace in hand. Closing his eyes to erase the scene, Jack wondered if it was a testament to how warped his mind was. Upon opening them again, he was unsure as to whether or not it was a relief to see that only Dennis Rodman remained. About to test the authenticity of the likeness (along with his psychological state), he went to ask Stacey what it was that she saw. But she was asleep. His lips pulled adoringly, and he leaned his head back against the headrest, staring at her.
    Stacey Arsov, daughter of the Russian widow, Viktoriya… How the heck did they end up together? It was like one of those teen movies where the class loser ends up with the prom queen and then beats up the captain of the football team for added measure. Ridiculous. Yet here he was. Not that he had been the class loser, but a salesman from northeast Philly was close enough when held in comparison with her supermodel looks and brilliant wit. She was from another planet of status, but for some reason had traded her citizenship for a life with him. Why? What did he have to offer her? Could it really just be love…or fate? Had Cupid sneezed while loosing his arrow? Or had Jack stumbled clumsily into his line of fire, intercepting adoration meant for the captain of the football team? He shrugged. Who cared? She was his, and he would never let her go. No matter what.
    No matter what.
    A tear formed in the corner of his eye, and he forced the ensuing thoughts away. Instead, he chose to revisit the story of them, five years in the making and the best yet to come. He had to think that way. To do anything else would be to surrender, to give up. And that wasn’t going to happen. They would fight until the last morsel of willpower was forcibly extracted from their collective soul.
    It was a pleasant story, the story of them, beginning almost six years ago with a single glance. Like destiny just set its crosshairs over his heart and pulled the trigger. That was it. No going back. She, on the other hand, needed a bit more than a single shot from an intergalactic sniper love-gun. Not much more, but enough to make him sweat it out all the way to the altar. When they met, just three months before being married, Jack was working the same job he’d been working since graduating from Temple University, and Stacey had just moved into Philadelphia to take a job as an event organizer for a new outfit down town. They’d met at a bar on a Friday night, and everything took off from there. Once they decided on marriage, there was nothing but Viktoriya standing in the way. He had no brothers or sisters, his father had been an only child, and his mother’s sister lived in Florida. As for his parents themselves…they’d died in