All That Glitters

Agatha's Wrath

John B awoke to his rooster cawking at the sun over the water that had been riled up just a few hours before. He brushed the sleep from his eyes and yawned so hard an inaudible breath caught in his throat. A quick glance at his phone showed that not only had it not charged during the night, but the wifi wasn't connected.

"Huh."

There were massive winds during the night. They probably knocked out the power. He thought to himself. Quickly making his way to the light switch on his wall. No dice. One flick and he knew.

"Thanks, Agatha. JJ, you been outside?!" He yelled out into the house. "I gotta check on the Pogue."

He took one step outside. One stupid storm could do all this? "JJ! Come on!" It made him wanna go back to sleep.

There were so many branches. Too many. John B jumped on the Pogue with a concerned breath. Whispering how he was gonna help her out of this mess. Stupid Aggie, trapping his baby. The type of things you'd whisper to a kid that got themselves tangled in a blanket. But instead of a kid it was a boat. And the blanket was giant pieces of wood that fell off of the massive tree that hung low over part of the Chateau's backyard.

JJ slunk out with his muscle shirt halfway over his head. It hadn't hit him that he'd woken up to the aftermath of a hurricane. Blatant wild destruction strewn across the backyard. His eyes focused on it. Wrinkled halfway shut with the sun blaring off in the distance. He laughed.

"JJ, help me!"

"Oh shit. She really did a number on us. Nothing's punctured?" He called back. Jogging over to him.

"Not that I can tell. Just help me get this big one off of her. If we're gonna hit the marsh for whatever drum Agatha stirred up we gotta leave soon."

JJ jumped up onto the boat grabbing hold of one of the branches that he hadn't realized had fallen all the way. He lost his balance for a second. But quickly recovered.

"Fishing?" JJ said, hiding the fact that he almost accidentally somersaulted off the boat.

"Nah, snorkeling."John B winked at him. "Yes, fishing."

"We gonna be eating good, baby!" He whooped for a moment while he wrestled with the biggest branch for a minute as John B got situated on the opposite side. "Ready?"

"Hold on. Hold on."

"Wait, wasn't DCS supposed to come today?"

John B planted his feet and nodded towards JJ. "Yeahh they're not getting on a ferry now. No way." John B took a deep breath and dropped into a squat. "Ready."

"You're probably right. Okay. One... Two... Three." JJ gritted his jaw and pulled the giant branch up with his legs mostly. Taking a couple ragged breaths as they both wobbled along the Pogue with the branch. Dropping it off the opposite side with one last huff. They exchanged their secret handshake quickly and continued moving some smaller branches onto the ground.

JJ jumped off the side. He threw a couple stray rocks over at an uprooted tree. "Man, Aggie. Way to freshen up the landscape."

They looked at each other for a moment before turning back toward the boat. "We can clean up later. Think about it, day after a storm. This is God telling us to fish."

JJ shrugged and agreed. They both pulled the Pogue into the water carefully checking over each nook and cranny to make sure John B's assessment earlier was correct. Which checked out so far. No leaks. Nothing severely damaged.

"She lives!" JJ squealed before jumping on. John B chuckled at his enthusiasm.

They rode off down toward the docks where Hayward's shop was. Exchanging pleasantries with neighbors and fellow residents of the Cut.