Little dove 🕊 | JJ MAYBANK

☼

John Booker Routledge.

── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──

WERE THE POGUES, and our mission this summer is have a good time - all the time.

This is the Outer Banks - Paradise of Earth. It's the sort of place where you either have two jobs or two houses. Two Tribes, one island.

This is the figure 8, the rich side of the island. Pleasant home for the kooks, and that's right, you guessed it - this is where we don't live.

And then we have, the South side or the cut. Home of the working class, who make a living busing tables, washing yachts or running charters. The Natural Habitat of, drumroll please - The Pogues. 

That's us.

Pogues, pogies, the throwaway fish as some would call us. Were the lowest member of the food chain. Okay, so, the downside of Pogue life is we're ignored and neglected, but the upside? Well, we're ignored and neglected, which means we do whatever we want - whenever we want. 

"Nice haul dude, look at that. Been all bait for like, what three weeks?"

And that's JJ, my best-friend since the third grade. He's about as local as they come. Latest in a long line of fishing, drinking, smuggling, vendetta-holding salt lifers who made their living off the water. Best surfer i know, but don't tell him i said that. Mild Kleptomaniac and future tax cheat. 

"Don't even get me started on micro plastic. Have you even heard about that island? That little island of just.." 

And that's Kiara, or kie, as we like to call her. When she's not saving turtles or listening to Marley, or getting a dolphin tattoo, she's always hanging out with us. Although, i'm not really sure why though. She's a rich kid, actually. A foot in both worlds. Her family owns The Wreck, this outer banks institution. Total cash cow with tourists. You know, i'm not really sure how her parents feel about us. But, what i do know is that we all have a thing for her. 

"Hey, get out."

And that's Pope, the brains of the operation, finalist for the Lucas T. Vanderhorst Merit Scholarship. And, that smartest person i know, for sure. He tells girls when his had a few to many drinks, what he wants to be when his older, little bit of a weirdo. His father's this legendary character, heyward. Anything that you want on the island, Heyward could get for you. Now, i'm not sure Heyward knew what to make of his oddball son, but it didn't matter. He was a pogue, just like the rest of us. 

So, that's my crew. 

"finally, what a night." 

And that's me, John Booker Routledge. And this is where i live, it's not much, just an old fish shack on the marsh. The Chateau, as my father used to call it. That's my dad, he disappeared at sea nine months ago, looking for a shipwreck. Who disappears at sea these days? I miss him, and that's mum. She split with my twin sister what i was three. Last i heard, they was in Colorado, i think it was? And that, is my Uncle T. Since Dad's vanished, he's supposedly my legal guardian. At the moment, he's in Mississippi, building houses or whatever. Which means, it's just me right now, on my own, hanging out with the Pogues. Three months after my dad went missing, he was officially presumed dead. I refused to sign the papers, until i see his body for my self, i'm not giving up. 

My twin sister? Well she's another story, always on the go, could never get her to sit still. Best-friend until the last time i seen her, we were fourteen. Even though my mum split, my sister always stayed in contact with my father and I, always came back for summers, where we would just spend it at the beach, getting hot chips and soaking up the sun rays. Last memory i have with her, is out in the waves, catching a big one, she told me she could beat JJ to it - and that she did. I was shocked, couldn't believe that this little twelve year old girl, could ride such a big wave with ease. I was proud, to call her my sister. Next summer, she didn't come back, never knew why but never seemed to ask. I did ask my father in fact, which he shut me down very quickly, i gathered that he was upset with her not coming and that was it. I always think about her. 

── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──