They married young. Before you could count to nine they had one kid and then they had a lot more. They both worked hard at steady dead end jobs. He drove a local delivery truck she did janitorial work.
They had a dream. They would build a boat and sail the seas of the earth together. They read everything they could find. No day passed without a conversation about seamanship, boat building or ocean currents.
The kids all grew up and turned out fine except Chris and the less said about him the better. They were in their fifties when they started building. They laid down the keel in their double garage fifteen hundred miles from the ocean. They had to start over three times, but in the end they got it right. And she was beautiful. They named her Merlin.
Like everyone else who could in that town they took off for Florida on a windy October morning.
The house was sold. They had taken Social Security early and Sam had his pension. The day they left half the town showed up. Sadie was sixty two, Sam sixty four. The local paper took pictures and they thought the TV station might show up but they didn't.
It was early on their first transatlantic voyage that they sheltered from a storm in the lee of a small island. The wind drove the Merlin in too close and she bottomed out on a sandy beach.
``Now what?'' said Sadie.
When the wind died down a jeep drove to the beach and two women got out. They were young and beautiful and naked.
``You have to get out of here!'' one said.
``The tide is right,'' said the other.
``But there may be damage ...''
``You have to get out of here!''
The tide was coming up and the Merlin broke loose. With the two women pushing her off, she was free and clear. She had a leak that they hoped they could keep up with, and she didn't handle right.
As they pulled out into open water Sadie stood up on the deck and waved to the girls on the beach.
``Get down!'' one hollered.
But Sadie didn't hear.