you asked him.
About time, too--if you asked him. By his reckoning Ethan Quinn was
round about thirty years of age. A man should oughta be settled down
with a wife and kids by that time of life. A waterman was better off
going home to a hot meal and a warm bed. A good woman helped you
through, gave you direction, cheered you up when the Bay got stingy. As
God knew it could.
He wondered who this particular woman might be. Not that he stuck his
nose in other people's business. He minded his own and expected his
neighbors to do the same. But a man had a right to a little curiosity
about things.
He pondered on how to bring the subject around when an under-the-limit
she-crab found a tiny hole in his glove and snapped before he could toss
her back.
"Little bitch," he said with a wince but without much heat.
"She get you?"
"Yeah." Jim watched her splash back into the waves. "I'll be back for
you before the season's over."
"Looks like you need new gloves there, Jim."
"The wife's picking me up some today." He shoved the thawing alewives
they used for bait into the trap. "Sure helps matters to know you got a
woman to do for you some."
"Uh-huh." Ethan shoved the steering stick with one hand, picked up the
gaff with the other, and timed the chop and the distance.
"A man spends the day working on the water, it's a comfort to know his
woman's waiting for him."
A little surprised that they were having a conversation, Ethan nodded.
"I suppose. We'll just finish up this line, Jim, then head in."
Jim culled the next pot, let the silence settle between them. A few
gulls were having what Jim thought of as a pissing match overhead,
screaming and diving and threatening each other over loose fish parts.
"You know, me and Bess, we'll be married thirty years come next spring."
"Is that so?"
"Steadies a man, a woman does. You wait too long to marry up, though,
you get set in your ways."
"I guess."
"You'd be around thirty now, wouldn't you, Cap'n?"
"That's right."
"Don't want to get set in your ways."
"I'll keep that in mind," Ethan told him and shot out the gaff.
Jim merely sighed and gave up.
when ethan wandered into the boatyard, Cam was at the skill saw and
three young boys were sanding the hull. Or pretending to.
"You hire a new crew?" Ethan asked as Simon trotted over to investigate.
Cam glanced to where Seth chattered away with Danny and Will Miller. "It
keeps them out of my hair. You give up on crabs today?"
"Pulled in enough." He pulled out a cigar and lit it while he gazed
thoughtfully out the open cargo doors. "Rain's coming down pretty hard."
"Tell me about it." Cam sent an accusing scowl toward the streaming
windows. "That's why those three were in my hair. The little one'll talk