by Bob Kranich
Robert’s Best, (Part 13, Excerpt 98)
This is a new story. Robert’s Best is a sail boat. Grandfather Roberts is going to sail it on the Intercostal waterway from Texas to Key West, Florida. That will be an adventure. Then his grandchildren and their parents will come to Key West on a visit. There will be a lot of funny happenings until the criminals from a previous story get into action. A side note is that a 1935 antique Chris-Craft Model 557 Cabin Cruiser is going to play an important part in the rest of the story. Grandfather Roberts has arrived in Key West. He has met Honest Dave and had a tour of his Chris-Craft antique restored speed boat. Honest Dave is going back to Homestead to check on his businesses. He will come back. Grandfather Roberts is moving in his new house on the Atlantic and we will get introduced to the A. M. Adams Turtle Schooner soon.
Roberts’ Best
“Good. But what I need to do is go back to Homestead and make another bunch of money! I’m going to get go’n in a few hours. I return up the Intercostal and cut through at Pigeon Key under the Seven Mile bridge. You know it goes right up the Bay side.”
“Yes, I do remember seeing that on my Intercostal Guide. Dave, it’s been fine. Thanks for the help, and call and check back. Here’s my card. I should have a phone by then. You’ll have to call information.”
In the realtor’s office: “It didn’t take us long, did it Tom?”
“No, a real short time indeed. You’re half a week ahead of schedule.”
“You sign right there, Tom, and also initial where I’ve marked the red x’s.”
“Now, Kelly, you sign here and initial right there. Tom, here are the keys to your new home. Congratulations to you both. Kelly's on her way to join her husband in San Antonio, and Tom is the proud owner of a beautiful Key West historic home on the Atlantic,” Betty, the realtor said as she beamed.
“Not only that,” Mrs. Albright the home owner said, “except for a few keepsakes, Tom is going to take the furniture off my hands. My dear husband says new furniture is going to be purchased when I get to San Antonio!”
“I guess everyone is happy, pleased, and content,” Betty exclaimed.
“We sure are,” we both agreed.
“Well Betty, Tom, I must run, the few things I kept shipped this afternoon, and my bus leaves early this evening,” Kelly said.
“Bye, and thank you,” we both said as she hurried out the door.
“Tom, what happened to your friend?” Betty inquired. “Was it Dave Crench?”
“Oh, he had to go back to Homestead. Something about he had to make some more money! But he said he was coming back in a month or so.”
“Oh, that will be nice. Could you give him my card?” She handed it to me and extended her hand. “Hope you enjoy your new home, and welcome to Key West.”
It was only six blocks from the courthouse area where the realtor’s office was and my new home on United Street. As I was about a block away walking to my new home, I saw someone wave from a cab. It was Mrs. Kelly Albright. I returned the wave as she passed by heading toward the bus station.
I walked up through the white picket fence gate and to the front door of my new home. I tried the key, and in I went. In the front was a living room and sitting room. A hall ran down the center, and in the rear a kitchen was on one side and a dining room was across the hall on the other.
I walked straight out the back door. The back yard was extraordinary, a profusion of bushes and plants greeted me, most of them bearing all sorts of gorgeous flowers, none of which I knew the names of, or recognized. There were two especially exquisite coconut palms towards the rear of the lot. I could see all the way to the majestic Atlantic and hear the breakers in the distance. The sea birds, gulls, terns, and pelicans were present throughout the scene, and that breeze, I thought, this is just what I needed.
Now, the upstairs. There was a nicely constructed flowing staircase leading up from the front door. In the front were two bedrooms with a shared bathroom in the hall. The same hall ran from the front to rear. The back bedroom or master had a small bath. Across the hall was an open area combined with the end of the hall. I’ll make this my office and write my book here, I thought.
All the windows were tall, some floor to ceiling, and all had Key West horizontal slatted shutters. Out on the spacious porches, second floor, the ocean breeze is delightful, I thought.
“This is it!” I said out loud.
“Hi Harold. It’s Dad. How you doing?”
“Fine, Dad. Last we heard, you got to Key West. You're all set up, got a house?”
“Yes, son. I’m sitting pretty on the back upstairs porch. Got the phone cord stretched from my office in the back to this lounge chair. Hey, I’ve got a proposition for your family. I’m buying. How about you rent a Station wagon and drive to Key West? Spend a few days, leave Harold Junior for two or three weeks, and Ill fly you all back. Can you swing a week or so? Certainly those oil companies can spare you for just a little old week or so, can’t they?”
“Well, Dad, it sounds tempting. Tell you what, let me talk to Mary and then my boss and get back to you.”
Dad, it took us a day more than three. We stopped in New Orleans, rode the trolley train, and then saw the sights. We followed the coast as much as we could, swam, and picnicked a couple of times. Then we stopped in Sarasota, you know the Ringling Brothers Circus and the Ringling North Mansion and Art Museum? After that it was the Glades, Keys, and here we are.”
“Yes Grandfather Roberts, I really liked the Trolley Train, and the circus. The swamp, it was real scary! Those big white birds with long necks and bills, wow! We even saw an alligator. But the bridges to get here, over the ocean, there must have been a million! Right, Dad?” Harold Junior said with much gusto.
My second full-length book , Florida Keys’ Watercolor Kapers is composed of 336 pages. There are 12 stories running from 6 pages to as many as 72 pages. It is fully illustrated with 88 watercolors and sketches. The watercolors I made roaming around Key West after I finished my 750 mile hike from Georgia to Key West. (See book or Don Browne’s SouthWest Florida Online News records, A Walk Across Florida.) As you read these stories you will experience Key West, the Keys, and the Caribbean. These stories span the time of the early 1800’s to 1969. bkranich.wixsite.com/bobkranich
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