When they walked into the patrol room, Hugo had already found the doughnuts. True to form, he had already eaten one, had a sugar doughnut in one hand and a half a chocolate doughnut in the other hand. The other half was in his mouth.
“I should have known… ” chuckled Dane as he walked into the patrol room. “Hugo, you could find food in the worst famine area.”
“I gotta keep my svelte figure for the ladies,” Hugo retorted, taking another bite.
Dane smiled and turned toward his desk. Even Miami Beach lifeguards had to do paperwork. He sat down and pulled a stack of papers from the pile in his IN basket.
“Hey, you’re not going to have one?” asked Hugo, referring to the doughnuts.
“Not me. I don’t want to spoil my lunch,” said Dane, head down signing some form. “Hey, anyone for a Cuban sandwich?”
“I just ate,” answered Wayne. “I had a late breakfast.”
“I’ll bite,” said Sherrie, who from her looks one would think she didn’t eat at all. She could be a Baywatch babe in anyone’s book. “I’d love a Cuban sandwich, with extra mustard!”
“That goes double for me too,” said Hugo, taking his last bite of a chocolate doughnut. “I’m starving.”
Dane got up and walked over to Hugo and gave him a playful slap on the back. “You are always starving, big guy. Who wants to take my jeep?”
“I’ll go,” said Hugo. “And Sherrie, you can ride along to hold on to the food on the way back.”
Wayne smiled. “Typical Hugo; he’d do anything to ride with a pretty girl.”
“Oh,” fawned Sherrie in her best southern belle lilt. “Who? Lil’ ole me? Dane, why don’t you come along too.”
“And who did you think?” said Wayne, picking up a pair of binoculars and scanning the beach.
“You two go ahead. Here’s a few bucks,” said Dane, handing Sherrie a twenty dollar bill. “Get me one of those special salads. But hurry back. We need to do our mid-day patrol in a few minutes. There’s too much burning flesh on the beach today being the Fourth of July weekend.”
“And some of it you just don’t want to see,” quipped Wayne, still scanning the beach. “The old folks’ home must have dropped a group off here. And half the women are topless. Oh, my aching eyes.”
“Sherrie beamed as she took the cash from Dane and grabbed Hugo and pushed him toward the door. “I better get lover boy moving before he hits the sand looking for those old ladies. He’s a sucker for his sweethearts.”
“Hey,” Hugo whined. “There are beautiful ladies down there too!” Sherrie pushed him out of the door and away they went.
Wayne put down the binoculars and shook his head, smiling. “That guy will never change.”
“What would we do without Hugo?” Dane mused. “He’s ninety percent of the entertainment around here.”
The Fourth of July weekend was big on Miami Beach. As the Beach Commander for all of Miami Beach, Dane had direct charge of over 150 lifeguards placed up and down the beach, each patrolling their specific areas. Dane and his staff at the Beach Patrol Headquarters were primarily the administrative headquarters but also were responsible for the oversight of each lifeguard on the beach. Sherrie and Wayne were two of Dane’s best supervisors, both with several years experience as beach lifeguards and beach supervisors. It was fairly rare a real emergency arose; mostly sunburn, man-o-war stings and cut feet. But every now and then someone would venture out too far and have to be rescued. That’s when the frantic calls would come in and Dane and his staff would dispatch emergency vehicles to the site. While the lifeguards handled the swimming and directed rescue chores, the City of Miami Beach wanted professional EMTs to handle the true emergency medical duties. For that reason Dane had nearly a dozen EMT units standing ready at all times. Those folks did the heavy lifting but it always resulted in more paperwork and reports from his group at patrol headquarters. The patrol did have a twenty-seven foot rescue vessel and several jet skis and other jet-propelled craft to rescue folks in emergencies. To Dane this was his small navy. Ultimately it all fell back on his shoulders.
“So far we’ve had a nice, calm fourth,” said Wayne, scanning the beach again with the binoculars.
“Oh, man, don’t jinx us by saying that!” cried Dane. “Now all hell will break loose.” He looked over at Wayne and laughed. “That’s what my dad used to always say. I had to say it.”
Wayne grinned and put down the glasses. “Yeah, it seems that way sometimes. How is your family? I haven’t heard you mention them lately. Everybody doing okay?”
“Actually, everyone’s doing great… Knock on wood. Mom and Dad are doing well and enjoying retirement and Dana’s down in the Amazon with Randall.”
“The Amazon,” Wayne said surprised. “What in God’s name are they doing down there?”
“Oh, what they usually do. Tromp around in the jungle looking for natives and artifacts. All I know is I couldn’t do it. Can you imagine the Amazon jungle in July? You think it’s hot and humid here… ”
“Yeah, I’ll bet. But those two like that, huh?”
“I guess so,” answered Dane. “They got a nice grant to go so I guess it’s not too bad if you have someone else paying for it.”
“Are they looking for anything in particular or are they on a general safari-like trip?”
“Oh, hell, I have no idea,” laughed Dane. “I gave up on trying to figure out my sister years ago. Once she met Randall, they took off into the wilds together and seem to love it. Better them than me.”
“I guess so, but running around in the Amazon jungle is dangerous. I mean, there are cannibals and wild animals and disease, just to name a few dangers of the wild.”
“Yeah, but they like it. That’s their job. I know Mom and Dad aren’t too sure about them most of the time but, hey, they are adults so we leave them alone. I think most of it is Mom’s fear of snakes. She thinks the Amazon is full of all kinds of snakes ready to eat you.”
“I guess I can’t disagree with her,” said Wayne. “Looks like we have another large group coming out on the beach,” he said, picking up the binoculars again and turning to the window overlooking the beach. “We may want to add another person on David’s tower.”
“Go ahead and do that,” Dane said, getting up from his desk and moving over by Wayne at the large windows overlooking the beach. “Looks like another hotel bus just let off a load of folks.”
“Yep, more fodder for the sun.”
“Did we miss anything?” cried Hugo, bursting through the door, arms full of food.
“Not a thing,” Wayne said, turning to see Sherrie walk in. “We did add another guard to Dave’s tower. There seems to be a large crowd down there.”
“Okay,” Hugo answered as he sat down to eat with Dane and Sherrie. “I’ll take a run down there as soon as I eat and see how Dave’s doing. Maybe there will be some babes down there.”
”Hugo, you will never change,” smiled Sherrie, taking a bite of her sandwich. “You are always on the make.”
“Hey, I’m one of the happiest men on earth,” laughed Hugo.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Let’s get back to it. We have a lot of work to do before dark,” sighed Dana Finley. The others in her party began to stir from the lunch break. Dana looked upward but saw very little light filtering through the canopy of the jungle. She wiped her brow with her red bandana and returned it to her pocket. It was so hot and humid but what else would one have expected here in the Amazon?