The Bouncing Buns Gentleman's Club

Chapter 3

It had been a grueling day and Beverly was eager to leave everyone's problems behind for a few hours. Nonetheless, Dana's case continued to worry her as she walked to the garage.

What a horrible mess, she thought as she got into the car and headed home.

The drive to her boat was so short her car never fully warmed up. The community clinic had been built on property purchased from the resort complex where her boat was docked, and was close enough to not allow much time for reflection on patients, or anything else.

Beverly had always been very health conscious and knew she should be walking to work instead of driving such a short distance, but the occasional need for a convenient car during the day, or for going out after work with her growing group of friends usually won out. Youth and an active lifestyle had allowed Beverly to start residency in very good shape. She'd always been an attractive woman and maintained her body weight at around 130 pounds, plus or minus, but her six foot frame made her appear slim.

Much of League City sits on the southern shore of Clear Lake where Beverly's marina and several others could be found. For years, she had longed to leave the frigid winters of her childhood home behind and pursue her dream of a life on the water. She found it on the gulf coast of Texas.

The dream had become a reality when she was accepted to the University of Texas' Medical Branch, "the branch," for residency training. It was a well known fact that medical residents often chose to stay in the area in which they did their training, and she wasn't about to get overly invested in a place other than one on the shore.

The last five years since medical school, four of them in training, had passed quickly, most of it spent in the Clear Lake/Galveston area. After residency, she worked at the Harris County Jail in Houston while waiting for the recent opening that led her to the community mental health center where she had worked the last few months. The jail was a filthy and sometimes dangerous environment, but it had been a tremendous learning opportunity and she never regretted it.

When Beverly did walk to and from work, the route home took her across a large parking lot for the office building next door, then past the resort hotel and its parking, down a long flight of stairs past the hotel swimming pool, across the marina parking lot and onto Dock 2 where her boat slip could be found about two-thirds of the way down and on the left.

The marina was usually very active on the weekend, but not so much during the week. Except for the sound of gulls speaking to one another, things were usually quiet. Beverly was one of only two so-called live-aboards on her pier. The title not only afforded her special status among her dock mates, but it came with a special marina fee as well. Another little hidden cost of living the dream.

Today was Thursday. Beverly would put in another full day at the office and then, TGIF. Her neighbors would probably be out in force this weekend, as the weather was predicted to be spectacular. Sunshine, mid eighties, it was to be a relatively cool and beautiful summer day in paradise. The pier would be crowded with boat owners, visitors, and people heading for the charter boats docked at the end of the pier to attend some wedding, private party, or corporate dinner.

It always amazed Beverly to be sitting on the pier beside her boat and have a full wedding procession march by, along with cakes, liquor, food, flowers and everything else that went with it.

Occasionally, it wasn't such an orderly and enjoyable sight when the boats came back, however, and discharged their load of drunks. Every so often, a loud splash could be heard followed by cursing when a drunk party-goer stumbled into the water. Occasionally she would have to fend off men, rarely women, making unwanted advances. Beverly had to discourage one from coming aboard with her one evening, knocking him off the finger pier and into the water of the slip next door.