Free THE COLLAPSE: Swantown Road by Frank Kaminski Page B

don’t we get the hell out of here before he wakes up, shall we?”
    Shrugging and laughing, both of them agreed.
    The rest is history, as Stephen’s ship returned to Everett and in the days afterward he kept in constant contact with her.  After only two weeks of communicating through emails and phone calls, Tarra asked if she could come down and visit him for a while, and since Stephen lived alone in a lousy apartment, her sales pitch was to cook and clean for him while he was at work, and by night they could hang out and be together.  She didn’t feel quite right on her native soil in Alaska anymore and desperately wanted to leave, and the bonus was that she was convinced Stephen was her destined soulmate.  Even her grandfather agreed.
    Stephen had very positive feelings toward the arrangement; he thought that she was the best thing that had ever happened to him, so he sought counsel with Fish to see if he was making a poor decision or not.  Normally, Fish would be totally against any such type of arrangement, as it could possibly place his relationship with his best buddy in jeopardy with a “woman in the picture”.  Had Fish told Stephen that he did not think it was a good idea, Stephen would have likely heeded Fish’s advice and politely declined.  But, as luck (or fate) would have it, in the case of Tarra, Fish simply responded, “Sure, why not?  That Eskimo chick was cool as hell.”
    Tarra found out a few months later that the tattoo of the crow on Fish’s shoulder wasn’t even supposed to have been there.  As the story goes, as a young sailor it took Fish a bit longer to promote to Petty Officer Third Class than most sailors did.  Since he was so proud of his achievement when it actually happened, he took some shore leave and went back home to his hometown of Kalispell, Montana to celebrate.  Sailors have nicknames for most things, and call their Petty Officer rank insignia “crows” due to the symbol of the American eagle above the chevrons.  Fish got extremely intoxicated during his shore leave in Montana, and decided to get his “crow” tattooed on his shoulder where it normally would be if he were in uniform.  Well, the tattooist in Montana wasn’t familiar with Navy lingo whatsoever and went ahead and did exactly as Fish had instructed, and tattooed an actual crow on his arm, which wasn’t anything near what he had wanted.

Chapter 8 – Stephen Gets Ditched
     
    Back in the present, Stephen, Fish and Connie left the Oak Harbor Bar and Cafe with extreme haste and made their way to Off the Hook, a bar and grill that presented a live DJ on the weekends after nine o’clock and had a small, sturdy wooden dance floor for those in the mood to get down.  It was a local favorite among the sailors stationed on Whidbey Island, and Fish mentioned to them both as they walked that he hoped “his table” had not yet been occupied.  If so, he would either negotiate with the current occupants for some seats or simply hang around the vicinity of “his table” and make it so uncomfortable for those occupants to be there that they would eventually just up and leave on their own.
    As the trio entered the bar, they noticed that Off the Hook was already packed.
    “Cripes, look at all those people!  There better be seats open at my table.”  Fish grumbled, as they showed their ID cards to the doorman.  The doorman rolled his eyes and laughed to himself at Fish’s ridiculousness.
    Connie attempted to console him with, “Don’t worry big boy, we’ll find somewhere to sit.” 
    “No, I want my table, damnit.”  He said, almost angrily.
    Once they were inside, it was Stephen’s turn to be the celebrity, as several sailors from his squadron had already taken up residency within the bar, and many of them cheered as he walked in.  It made Stephen a bit emotional, to see his former shipmates explode with such enthusiasm at his entrance.  He could barely hold it together as the handshakes and