The First Summer of Forever

Chapter 32- When We Were Young

Chapter 33

Conrad

I couldn't believe what I saw on the news. It was insane, the amount of damage this storm was doing in the keys. I'm beyond thankful that we were able to get out with the help of Mr. Graves. Belly and I sat in the living room talking with him for a while longer, and we were able to find out a little more about him. Turns out, he is a marine archaeologist, and he helped out on the Mel Fisher project down in the keys in the 70's. They were able to track down and find the Atocha which sank in 1622 during a hurricane off of the keys, and carried $450 million worth of treasure. Mr. Graves helped with the conservation side of it. That explains a lot. After we had sat for a while and finished a cup of tea with Mr. Graves, I asked Belly if she was ready to go. " Give me a few minutes to get ready. Promise it won't take too long." Belly said with a quick kiss on my cheek, her hand gliding off of my shoulder ever so slowly as she walked away.

I knew it wouldn't take her long. Belly wasn't one of those girls who got all dolled up. She didn't have to. She was so damn naturally beautiful that I was often in awe of her. She came down the stairs in 15 minutes looking radiant in a cute little thing that was like a sundress, but was a shirt and shorts combined...what did she call those things? Ah, yes. Rompers. She had on the romper with sandals, and her dark, silky hair was pulled into a side braid that laid on her shoulder. She had on the faintest amount of makeup. To the naked eye-to someone who didn't know her, it didn't look like she was wearing any at all. But I could tell her Eyelashes were darker and her lips were glossier than normal with a hint of pink, which she didn't need in the least, but made her all the more beautiful. "Are  you ready?" I said, taking her hand. "Our Uber will be here soon.". And we walked out the door hand in hand. We got in the car, and we both peered out the windows gazing at the lights on the "strip"as we rode.

Mr. Graves told us that this road was known as Front Beach Road, or to the younger crowds as"The Strip". He said during the 90's and early 2000's this place got so crazy-there were high school and college teens hanging out of the backs of trucks and throwing beads at girls who flashed them. He told us back then you couldn't take your family anywhere during spring break without seeing R rated behavior out and about. These days it's been a little different, he said, the city trying hard to set curfews to regulate the spring breakers, and a lot of the spring break crowd moved on to different locations.

And it did look different, now. Still a little touristy, but more family centered. The high rise condos had thousands of porch lights glowing a dim amber hue. Families were walking down the sidewalks hand in hand, all seemingly set on a certain destination. We drove by all the little souvenir shops and places until we came to the place Mr. Graves was telling us about, Pier Park. It was crowded. Our uber driver pulled up to the curb and let us out, and I tipped him quickly before we left. I grabbed Belly's hand and walked toward the stores. It was one of those outdoor malls, with stores and restaurants on both sides of the street. A lot of the places were chains, but in many ways, it was like our boardwalk in Cousins.

As we walked, we saw that there was a candy store where you could buy candies by the pound, and an arcade. We ate at a burger place that had homestyle burgers and fries, and then walked around some more going into the stores and looking at things.We walked until we came to the section of the park that had theme park rides. There was a large Ferris wheel, some kiddy rides, and game booths. "Want to ride the Ferris Wheel?" I asked Belly. She giggled a little and said "yeah, but,do you think it's okay for me to ride? Being pregnant?" My heart felt off rhythm a little hearing the words again. It was easy to almost, like, forget about it, since she didn't look pregnant at all-especially if she wasn't throwing up at the moment.  "I think so, yeah. As long as you feel okay." I said.  So she grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the ticket line. We bought tickets, and then headed over to the line for the ride.