America 1982-Chapter 39: The Way Home

"Gentlemen, can we save the hugging for when you get home? How about lending a hand with unloading? The equal rights movement taught us about equality between men and women, not about men blatantly lazing around while the lady works," Melanie stood on the deck and interrupted the father-son moment.

Seeing his son gently pull away from the hug, Colin Hawk looked at Melanie with displeasure, "Melanie, if after all this time you haven’t been able to find a husband, maybe you should seriously reflect on whether you’re off-putting. At least your sister would never interrupt a conversation between men."

Rolling her eyes at Colin Hawk, Melanie got back to work, "Thanks for the reminder, Colin. Once I get my appointment letter from Sinclair Elementary, I’ll sign up for a dating show and see if I’m really as unmarriageable as you say."

"Someone with a university education on your ship? Impossible, it’s more shocking than you choosing not to sell goods in Canada," Tommy said, snapping out of his emotional moment and asking his dad.

"Carlo?" Just then, a man wearing a light casual outfit, with an old coat draped over his arms, walked out of the KKS’s cabin, his face full of surprise looking at Tommy Hawk. He then stepped forward into the light, and after making sure of Tommy’s appearance, he blurted out.

But his gaze quickly shifted to Melanie, who was unloading cargo, "And your exotic dancer Aunt Beatrice?"

At the mention of ’exotic dancer,’ all the busy men, even the Italian geezer who must have been at least sixty, stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Melanie.

"I don’t know if you can get married, but right now I’m sure everyone here would be interested in watching your dating show, Melanie-Beatrice," Colin Hawk said, whistling at the reaction of the crowd and twisting the knife for Melanie who had been socially annihilated on the spot.

"Mr. Kendrick?" Tommy Hawk had a look of seeing a ghost, "What are you doing on this ship?"

"It’s a long story, Carlo..." Will Kendrick revealed an awkward smile upon seeing Tommy, "I was thinking..."

"Let me explain, son. You know Will? Right, this guy is the university-educated fellow I mentioned who persuaded me to make a wise choice. He says he’s an engineer," Colin Hawk said, cutting off Will and introducing him after hearing Tommy Hawk’s question: 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"We encountered a small problem with the cooler just as we were checking the ship’s engine before departure. We were about to buy a few more barrels of coolant to prevent any accidents during the voyage, then this guy showed up loitering on the dock, asking if we knew Carlo Leon and a lady named Beatrice. They’re his only two friends in Warwick. He said he was bored today and so came to Warwick hoping to find them to go for a barbecue or fishing. I told him I knew everything there is to know about Warwick, of course, I knew who those two were. If he wanted me to tell him, he needed to buy us two barrels of coolant as consulting fees. He came over, looked at the cooler and said it didn’t need to be changed because he can repair it. Then, while fixing it he bragged about how he saves his company a lot of unnecessary expenses every year. Rocco on the side also praised his repair skills, so for the safety of this trip and to save on repair costs, we decided to take him for a spin at sea. We told him to just join us for a little trip and after, we would take him to meet Carlo and Beatrice. Then this bored guy thought we were just going fishing and agreed on a whim."

"Dad, that’s borderline deceptive abduction... of an adult male?" Tommy pressed his forehead and spoke to his dad in a lowered voice.

Colin Hawk glanced at Will Kendrick, who was still staring at Melanie, and told his son, "No, it might have been deception at first, since this trip turned out to be a bit long, and we did refuse his request to go back to his processing ship while we were loading the fishing boat. But now, it seems my previous action of stopping him from returning was indeed an act of keeping promises, although I didn’t expect the Carlo and Beatrice he kept mentioning to be you and Melanie."

Then he turned to Will Kendrick, who was passing by, and asked, "Satisfied, Mr. Kendrick?"

"Aside from the trip being a bit too long, of course, of course, I’m satisfied. You’re a man of your word, Mr. Hawk. It’s rare to find someone with integrity in today’s world. But next time, if the trip is long, please clarify in advance. That way I can prepare some warm clothes for the cold. I always subconsciously treat every sea like Miami. Hey, Carlo, let me greet your Aunt Beatrice before we chat," Will Kendick said, already walking over to Melanie, still reeling from the social disaster, without looking back at Colin Hawk’s question.

Colin Hawk spread his hands, shrugged his shoulders at Tommy, who rolled his eyes in disbelief, "If you hadn’t run into me, what would you have told him?"

"No worries, I had already thought of an answer. I’d introduce him to Carlo Morin, Morin’s brother, and Mrs. Beatrice Green, Green’s sixty-seven year old mother," Colin Hawk stated matter-of-factly his original intention.