Dreamer | Outer Banks

03 - Thanks Agatha, Ya Bitch

Sweat dripped off my face from the morning humidity as I cleared branches off my front yard. It was the morning after Hurricane Agatha and the Outer Banks looked like a disaster. I've been out cleaning since eight, I attempted to sleep in but nobody can get any sleep around here with the chickens making noise all morning long. I've always hated those god damn chickens but JJ loves them so I try my best to ignore them.
        
"Oh man, that's no good. That is not good." I turned my attention over to the front door to see John B running his hands through his hair and making his way towards me.
        
I shook my head and continued to empty the boat filled with tree branches as John B began to help. "It only gets worse, it's a mess down by the docks."
        
"Man, Agatha did some work huh?" JJ called out from the grinch porch, he clearly had just woken up from the husky sound in his voice.
        
"Yeah, she did." My brother responded, grabbing a huge branch from inside of the boat and dragging it out and onto the grass.
        
"Whatcha thinking?"
        
"I'm thinkin' that storm surge pushed all the crabs out on the marsh maze." John B said, jumping onto the boat. "All those drum are gonna chase the crab."
        
"What about the DCS? Wasn't that today?"
        
"Nah, they're not getting on a ferry." I explained, grabbing the last few branches from inside the boat.
        
"Come on, think about it. It's God tellin' us to fish." My brother exclaimed, holding up a branch and pointing up to the sky.
        
I sighed and took a seat next to JJ on a nearby tree trunk. "Why does everything have to be about fishing?"

~~~

"It's kind of a smuggler's boat." John B pointed to a random boat as we passed the docks on my brother's boat, the HMS Pogue as we liked to call it.
        
"How would you know what a smuggler's boat looked like?" I asked my brother, taking my sunglasses off and giving him a skeptical look.
        
"Good morning!" John B waved to a couple walking past on the docks, completely ignoring my question.
        
I scoffed and leaned my head back down on the front of the boat. "Sure hope Guffy's boat didn't sink. He doesn't have insurance" JJ added, ignoring my question too.
        
"Hi, Miss Amy! You guys get through it?" My brother asked. Miss Amy was a single mother who lived not too far from us. She always adored me and my brother for some odd reason, me I get but my brother on the other hand.
        
"Still here!" Miss Amy responded as we passed by, waving at us.
        
"She totally looked at me." JJ bragged.
        
I rolled my eyes, grabbing a nearby towel and throwing it at him. " I hope you know she has a kid JJ."
        
"Someone sounds jealous." JJ teased, sitting down next to me and wrapping his arms around my waist. "Don't worry Kenz, I'm all yours."
        
"Hey JJ?" My brother called out from the captain's chair. "Do you mind not hitting on my sister right in front of me."
        
"What did Agatha do?" I questioned trying to change the topic, looking at all the trash throughout the marsh so the guys wouldn't see me blushing.
        
"She's a crazy lady."
        
"We're going to be cleaning this all summer long." I added. There goes having a good time all the time.
        
"Well look who we have here." John B said in a weird voice as we pulled up to Pope cleaning off his deck with a hose. "We have a safety meeting. Attendance mandatory."
        
"I can't. My pop's got me on lockdown." Pope explained while Heyward made his way up behind him.
        
"Come on, man." JJ cupped his hands to make it seem like he was talking through a walkie talkie. "Your dad's a pussy. Over."
        
"Oh, I heard that, you little bastard." Hayward said walking up to the end of the deck. "Kennedy you better get yourself some new friends, or at least teach them some manners."
        
"We need your son." John B told Heyward.
        
"Yeah, and island rules. Day after a hurricane's a free day." JJ added, raising his hands up in the air as if everyone knew.
        
Heyward gave JJ a confused look. "Who the hell made that up?"
        
"Uh...Pentagon I think?" I said with an innocent smile. I was easily Heywards favorite out of the Pogues, even if he refused to say it, we all knew.
        
"We have security clearance. I have a card." JJ added on, digging into his pocket.
        
"You think I'm stupid?"
        
"I'll do it tomorrow. I promise. Tomorrow." Pope pleaded with his dad.
        
Heyward cut his son off and shook his head disapprovingly. "You think, no, no! Hell no! You doin' it right now!"
        
"Get in the boat." My brother whispered, slowing the boat down just enough so Pope would have enough time to be able to hop on.
        
"Make a run for it." JJ added.
        
I shook my head laughing as Pope booked it from the deck and jumped onto the boat. "Boy, if you get in that boat-bring your ass back up here!"
        
"I promise I'll do it tomorrow, dad!" Pope called putting from the boat as we began to pick up speed.
        
"When you get back you gonna clean shrimp, clean fish-you'll clean your dirty-ass room!"
        
"We'll bring him back in one piece, I promise!" I called out from the boat as we turned around and began making our way to Kie's house.
        
"And I don't like your friends!" Heyward shouted, even though we all knew he was joking, or at least we thought he was.
        
"Three down one to go." I called out from the front of the boat as we neared Kiara's house.
        
"Oh, top o' the mornin' to ya!" JJ greeted Kie with a clearly fake Irish accent when we made it to Kiara's dock.
        
"Good morning boys, and Kenn." Kiara greeted walking down her dock's step with a red cooler in one of her hands.
        
"Whatcha got?" Pope asked, too noticing the red cooler Kiara was carrying. "You got some juice boxes?"
        
"You know, just some yogurts and carrot sticks."
        
"How about my kind of juice boxes?" JJ asked, holding out his hand for Kie to help her into the boat.
        
Kiara gave JJ an innocent smile. "Yeah."
        
"Brace for impact." John B joked as we began to pick up speed once more and headed for the marsh.
        
I watched while Kiara handed everyone a beer but I shook my head when she offered me one. I was never much of a drinker, sure I'd have one here and there but overall I've always been a little scared that if I were to have one too many I would end up like someone such as JJ's father, an alcoholic.
        
"Let me show you a party trick." JJ said standing up, walking over to the edge of the boat next to me and stepping onto the ledge. "Hey, Pope. Can you go a little faster?"
        
"Oh god, here we go. I'm moving." John B muttered moving to the back of the boat. "It doesn't work. We've tried this like six thousand times."
        
"I got this! It's gonna work!" JJ argued, holding his beer up to his mouth while attempting to aim it into his mouth, which ended poorly due to the wind and ended up flying all over me.
        
"JJ you're getting beer all over me!" I complained as I tried to get out of the line of incoming beer in my face.
        
"Oh my god." Pope huffed while beer flew back into his face. "All right! All right!" He called out trying to catch JJ's attention.
        
"All right you're done." John B called out from the back of the boat, also the only one who wasn't getting a face full of beer.
        
As quickly as it started, I heard the motor rattle and the boat stopped abruptly, throwing all of us out of our seats. I screamed at the sight of JJ flying off of the boat before I was thrown to the floor of the boat.
        
"JJ!" I screamed while dragging myself up and quickly leaning over the edge of the boat to see if JJ was okay.
        
"Jesus, Pope!" Kie groaned from the back of the boat as she pulled herself up from the floor and stood up.
        
I sighed in relief and let out a laugh when I saw JJ emerge from the water. Thank god he was alive. "You okay JJ?"
        
JJ groaned in pain as he floated in the water on his back. "I think my heels touched the back of my head."
        
"Kenn? You okay?" John B grunted from the other side of the boat, slowly regaining his balance on the floor.
        
"Yeah, I'm alright." I assured my brother before turning back to JJ who was slowly swimming back for the boat. "Pope, what did you do?"
        
"Sandbar. The channel changed."
        
"No shit." JJ yelled while he swam back to the boat.
        
My brother made his way to the front of the boat and sighed. "Ugh, this is probably gonna mess this whole place up."
        
"Hey, I saved my beer, though." JJ bragged, holding up his beer can after he made it to the front of the boat.
        
"Congrats JJ." I sarcastically congratulated him as I held out my hands for JJ to pull himself up. JJ grabbed onto both of my wrists and before I knew what was going on, I was quickly dragged off of the boat and into the water. "I hate you JJ!"
        
JJ gave me a fake sad face as he pulled me close to his chest and wrapped his arms around my waist. "Aw, I love you too Kenz."
        
"Guys...I think there's a boat down there." Pope said, standing at the edge of the boat and squinting at the water.
        
"Shut up, no way." My brother said, clearly not believing him.
        
"No, no, guys. I'm serious. There's a boat down there." Pope explained, pointing out towards the water while John B and Kiara rushed to see what he was talking about. "It's a boat."
        
"Holy shit, he's right. Let's go!" Kie took off her denim shorts and jumped into the water along with John B. "You think there's a dead body down there?"
       
"Guys, wait up!" Pope called out, quickly trying to take off his shirt before jumping into the water after us.
        
I took a deep breath and I started to swim down towards the boat. When I made it to the boat I saw the label Grandy-White on the side. I felt my arm being tugged by JJ and we made our way up to the surface. I gasped for air once my head reached the surface and the rest of the Pogues followed shortly after.
        
"You guys saw that?" JJ asked, clearly shocked that a boat that nice would be at the bottom of the marsh like that.
        
"I think we all did." I responded excitedly, slightly coughing still trying to catch my breath.
        
"That's a Grandy-White. A new one of those is like five hundred G's, easy." JJ explained as we all began to swim back to the boat. JJ lifted me up onto the boat before climbing onto the boat himself. "That's a primo rig."
        
"Yeah. Yeah. That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge." My brother explained. "Maybe it hit the jetty or something."
        
"You surfed the surge?" Kiara asked worriedly.
        
"That's my boy. Pogue style." JJ hyped up my brother, high fiving him before I gave him a glare which seemed to shut him up.
        
"Wait, wait. Do we know whose boat this is?" Pope asked walking over to John B.
        
"No, but we're about to find out." John B exclaimed, searching through one of the boat's storage containers for something.
        
"Dude it's too deep." JJ pointed out while looking down at the boat in the water.
        
"Oh, for the weak and feeble, JJ." He said as he pulled out an anchor from the container and closed the door.
        
"Well I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear up front." JJ joker as I elbowed him in the side.
        
John B laughed as he picked up the anchor from the boat's floor. "That's fine."
        
"John B." Kiara called out looking at him worrying.
        
"Diver down, fool." Pope called out as he saluted John B. This isn't going to end well is it?
        
"Diver down." John B saluted back before JJ shoved him off of the boat and into the water with the anchor in hand. "Yeah he is!"
        
I scoffed before leaning over the edge of the boat to see if I could catch a glimpse of John B from underwater. "Did you really have to push him?"
        
"He'll be fine. He's John B." JJ reassured me as he put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him.
        
"Should we go get him?" Pope questioned after we haven't seen John B for a while. Seconds later he popped up from the water coughing.
        
"Oh my god, That took forever!" Kiara scolded John B after letting out a sigh of relief he was okay.
        
"Any dead bodies? Looting potential?" Pope asked, still keen of the idea that dead bodies were hidden on the boat.
        
"No. No. I found this motel key." My brother explained, pulling his arm out from the water and showing off the motel key that he had found.
        
"A key?" Pope asked disappointedly.  "Yes, a key, Pope." John B explained pulling himself up from the water and onto the boat.
        
"Great! We've salvaged a motel key!" JJ sarcastically cheered as he helped John B get back onto the boat.
        
I shook my head as Pope started the boat and began speeding away. "Guys, we should report the wreck to the coast guard! Maybe we'll get a finder's fee."
        
"Yeah, and not work all summer." JJ winked at me. "Thanks Agatha, ya bitch."