The Scooter

Georgina walks right down the middle of what passes for a main street on Caye Caulker. On one side is a strip of small mom-and-pop hotels, beachwear stores, dive shops, restaurants, and bars. On the other side, it is palm trees and white sand, followed by the magnificent turquoise ocean that Belize is known for.

At 3 pm, the sun is beating down and there is not a car in sight, although the occasional scooter or bicycle veers easily around her. It is the quiet time of mid-afternoon when the tourists are mostly napping off their lunch and resting up for another night devoted to eating, drinking, and enjoying the good life.

Georgina’s bleached brown curly hair is wild from the wind and the sun, and her weathered Def Leppard t-shirt and faded jean shorts announce her as not quite a local, but also definitely not from a cruise ship. She carries her worn sandals in one hand, on the off chance that she will need them.

Georgina is walking with purpose.

She stops in front of a small cement building that has the Belize flag flying from a pole in the yard. The building was once bright blue, but the salt air has faded the paint. There was also once an attempt at landscaping, but the blowing sand has obscured all but a few rocks that are painted white to mark the path to the door. Georgina follows the path and knocks on the door.

“I want to report a crime.” Says Georgina stridently, as she faces the lone occupant of the building, a man in a clean blue uniform who sits behind a spotless desk.

He looks at Georgina as he draws a piece of paper and a pen from the desk. He is Black and appears to be about thirty years old. He has tight, closely cropped hair and a trimmed mustache. His uniform emphasizes his well-muscled body. Georgina does not remember what she expected before she walked into the office, but this was not it. She has been on this small island for almost a month and this is definitely her first time seeing this man. She would have remembered.

Georgina doesn’t hear what he says, so he asks a second time.

“Can you tell me the nature of the crime? Is this an emergency?” She can hear his rising concern, even as she is mesmerized by the deepness of his voice.

He is starting to stand up when Georgina finally answers. “No. I don’t think it is an emergency.” And he sits back down and returns his hands to the paper.

“Please sit down. Can I get you a glass of water?” she accepts the water and the man motions to a chair next to the desk, where Georgina sits. “My name is Officer James. Can you give me your name and address for the record?”

“Georgina Williams, and I’m at the Ocean Breeze Hotel, room 315.”

“How long will you be at that address?”

“I don’t know… Indefinitely, I guess.” Officer James looks up at this. Caye Caulker is mostly a place that tourists come for just a week, or two, at most. The diving is good and the prices are relatively cheap. There is also a small contingent of semi-permanent tourists, but Officer James knows them all and Georgina isn’t one. What is her story?

When Officer James looks up, he catches Georgina’s eyes looking back at him. He thinks he sees her sun-bronzed skin flush a shade pinker as she looks away. Does he imagine that? No matter. Time to get on with the interview.

“What is the nature of the crime?”

“Against nature.” Georgina feels her anger rising as she recalls. “There is a yacht anchored on the reef and they are not using the designated buoys. They have been there since yesterday morning. And NO ONE seems to want to do anything about it!”

Officer James notices Georgina’s skin flush again and at the same time, he casually notices that beneath the wild mop of curls, she has one of the most attractive faces he has seen in a long time. He quickly glances at her empty left ring finger, before banishing any such thoughts from his mind.

“Okay. Well, did you try the Reef Conservation office?” He asks, knowing full well they don’t have the authority to arrest anyone.

“I did. I was just there. They said that they were not equipped to confront people. They only put up the buoys and hope people follow the law. They sent me here.”

Officer James is starting to think he might have to do something, which troubles him. He had been hoping for another slow day. When he started this job several months ago, his boss told him, “Don’t worry, NOTHING ever happens on Caye Caulker.” And that has held blissfully true so far. He doesn’t relish the thought of confronting some rich people on a yacht. On the other hand, there is something about this informant that is making him want to spend some more time with her.

“Can we see the yacht from the shore?” Officer James starts pushing back his chair, thinking to walk outside with Georgina and locate the offending boat.

Georgina does not move. “No. They are out about a mile. I’d have to show you.”

At that moment, Officer James makes a somewhat rash decision. He continues his process and stands all the way up. He looks down at Georgina and says “We can take the skiff. Let’s go.”

Surprised at the quickness of his action, Georgina gets up. Officer James walks to an open shelf behind him and grabs two motorcycle helmets. When he returns he hands one to her and says “Come through. We will need to scooter over to the skiff.”

Georgina accepts the helmet and follows Officer James through the back of the office to emerge on a small courtyard with a few sad palm trees and a fleet of three tiny scooters, each painted blue with the Belize police logo on the front. Georgina tries to imagine the police in Madison or Minneapolis riding around on these cute little scooters, but she can’t.

Officer James gets on a scooter and motions for Georgina to sit on the seat behind him. She definitely can’t imagine getting on a scooter like this with a Minnesota or Wisconsin cop. She hesitates, but he looks at her with a smile that breaks her hesitation. She crushes the helmet over her bounteous hair and approaches the scooter.

When Georgina finally sits on the scooter behind him, he tells her “Hang on!” Her arms wrap around his chest and she pulls her body up next to his, and he feels electricity surge through his body wherever she is touching him. Officer James’ heart starts pumping faster and he wonders if she can feel it through his back. He also wonders if he can steer in this state.

“Is James your first name or your last name?” Georgina asks him as they pull out of the station and start scooting down the main street.

“My first name is John. But all my friends call me James or Jay. You can call me either.” He wonders if he would be answering this personal of a question if the electricity wasn’t flowing between their bodies like it is. Rather than calming down, his heart seems to be going faster, if that is possible.

“That’s funny,” says Georgina as the scooter takes them over a bridge and into a part of the Island that she has never been to before, “because all my friends call me Gee. I think most of them think that is my name. Nice to meet you, Jay.” She is starting to sweat. And she thinks it is not just because of how warm it is.

Jay directs the scooter to a side road on the left and the vegetation soon closes in on them on either side. The air feels cooler in the shade and he wonders if Gee will be cold on the skiff. Jay thinks that they should have stopped at her hotel to get a jacket or something, but then he realizes that ever since she wrapped her arms around him he has not been thinking straight. Oh well, he thinks, I can loan her a jacket from the skiff’s lockbox.

Before Gee’s eyes can adjust to the dark of the forest, they are out in the open again. There is a small lagoon and a dock with a sturdy-looking police boat next to it. Jay parks the scooter and hangs his helmet from the handle as he gets off. She does the same and follows him to the skiff. She is covered in sweat and can see also an outline of sweat on his shirt from where she was leaning up against him.

“What brings you to Caye Caulker?” Asks Jay.

“I came here from Wisconsin, in the States, for a graduate program in reef ecology. We would go out every day to take data on how the reef is being affected by climate change. The program finished two weeks ago and everyone went home, but I decided to stay longer.”

“Why?” Jay asks. He is wondering if she has perhaps met someone here already and all of this heart bumping and electricity is just him being foolish.

“I honestly don’t know.” Gee stops walking at the edge of the dock. “I had a strange feeling that I needed to be here with the reef more than back at school finishing my Ph.D. There is so much to do here. And this matters to me. I told my advisor that I was going to take more time to get more data and that I would be back at the end of the semester. She said to do what I needed to do. So I did, and now I’m here. But I don’t know how I can afford to stay. I’m running low on money for food. I do have a place to stay. I clean hotel rooms at the Breeze in exchange for a room, and I work the counter at a dive shop in exchange for a few bucks and a chance to go out every morning with one of the tourist dive boats and continue to take data. That’s how I saw the yacht yesterday.”

Officer James unties the skiff and holds the edge steady while Gee steps in. He then joins her and reaches into the lockbox and pulls out a police jacket and a life vest and hands them to her.

Jay wonders briefly if it is a breach of protocol for Gee to wear the police jacket. He thinks maybe it is, but also thinks if there is anything out of the ordinary with this yacht, it might be better for him to have two people in the skiff who both look official.

As the skiff backs away from the dock, Georgina looks back at Jay standing up behind the wheel. He is scanning the lagoon and, at this moment, he looks much more at home on the water than he did in the office. Gee has spent her whole life on or near water, albeit fresh water, and she knows the look. She likes it.

Officer James steers the skiff through a cluster of mangroves and they emerge into the main inlet, which they follow to the mouth, and soon they are skidding across ocean waves as Gee points the way for Jay. From his standing position, he can soon see that they are approaching what looks like a large and very expensive yacht. As they get nearer, Jay can see there is a flag in the water near the yacht, indicating divers down. He kills his motor and the skiff slows way down. Gee looks at him questioningly, and Jay points to the flag. Safety first.

As the skiff slows, Georgina starts to get scared. Possibilities that hadn’t previously occurred to her are running through her head. Any sort of yacht with responsible divers would be tied to a buoy. For these people to be out here for two days means something is up. Are they fishing illegally in the Marine Reserve? Are they collecting illegal coral or tropical fish? Are there drugs involved? Are they armed?

As the skiff slowly approaches the yacht, Officer James turns on the flashing blue light and the siren. He checks his sidearm and then reaches for the loudspeaker to hail the yacht. As he is watching the yacht, he sees a head pop up and quickly disappear. Then the yacht’s engines roar to life and he can see bubbles behind the yacht as the winch draws the anchor in.

Gee is wondering if it was wise to announce their presence with sirens and lights but holds her tongue.

“Hold your engines! And prepare to be boarded!” Officer James yells over the loudspeaker. But he knows they have no intention of holding their engines. In fact, they likely can’t even hear him over the sound of the engines.

Georgina looks over to the diving flag, and she sees four heads pop up and look to the yacht. The divers start swimming quickly towards their boat, but the people on the yacht aren’t waiting around. The yacht engages its propellers and takes off, leaving an enormous wake that rocks the police skiff violently.

Officer James looks at the yacht and briefly contemplates a chase. The skiff is fast, but he suspects the yacht is on another level. Plus, there are divers in the water who will need rescue. At least the yacht anchor is off the reef and Georgina will be satisfied. He signals to her to put out the ladder.

Gee helps the first diver into the skiff. Her eyes pop when she sees him throw a mesh bag onto the bench of the boat. The bag is full of gold coins! These people are not here fishing illegally. They are treasure hunters!

Jay whistles as the second diver throws another bag of coins into the skiff. As the diver removes his hood, Jay recognizes him. “If it isn’t the famous Beowulf! I thought you were still in Belize City.” Jay laughs and smiles because he has known Beowulf since school days and is more than pleasantly surprised to see his friend in his boat.

“You know each other?” Georgina exclaims as Officer James and the diver embrace. Soon the other divers have clambered into the skiff, and Jay is inspecting the loot with the divers.

“Beowulf. You know it is illegal to remove treasure from the Reserve without a permit. I’m going to have to confiscate all of this and turn it in.”

“These people who hired us told us they had all the permits. Obviously not. We have been searching this reef for days and just now found this loot... Too bad they left in such a hurry before they could find out that they were right about this wreck’s location.”

“That is TOO bad, Bee.” Says Jay as it dawns on him just how much gold is sitting on the floor of the police skiff.

“There is more down there, Jay. A lot more.” Beowulf looks for the first time at Georgina. “Since when do you have a white girl on the force in Caye Caulker?”

“Oh. This is Georgina, from the States. She brought me out here because she saw your boat out here with your anchor on the reef.”

“Call me Gee.” Says Georgina, as she extends her hand to Beowulf, who takes it with a grand smile. “And if you are thinking of sharing the treasure with Jay, I want in. He wouldn’t be here without me.”

Jay thinks this is a bold move from his new friend Gee, but he likes it.

Beowulf gives her a look, and says “There is plenty to go around, little Gee, and I would not leave my friend Jay high and dry.” He then looks at Jay, who is obviously thinking it over. He is a good police officer and likes his job. But it is a lot of treasure. A lot.

“Who else knows what you are up to?”

“No one here,” Beowulf explains with a smile. “This gold is clean. I met those guys last week in a bar in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. They are Germans and they had all sorts of maps and old books with them. They needed divers to scout wrecks, and they said they could pay well. The boys and I have been on their boat ever since. They hadn’t paid us a cent yet and their food is crap, so I don’t feel bad at all keeping the gold.”

“Okay. It’s decided then.” Says Jay, as he starts to consider the implications of this decision.

The return trip to Caye Caulker feels quick. The sun is setting, and Georgina reflects on the day. Jay has opened his collar, and he looks handsome behind the wheel, with the wind pressing his uniform against his chest. He seems lost in thought.

Gee is wondering what it means to be part owner of a treasure trove. Will it be enough to pay her student loans? Will it be enough to do more than that? Could she move here permanently? How soon could they access the money? Can she trust these men? Can there be any future for her with Jay?

Jay drops off his friends and their diving gear on the beach by the inlet. He keeps the gold hidden on the skiff and returns to the lagoon. As they pass through the mangroves in the gathering darkness, he thinks to himself. Can I trust this woman? Where will I stash the gold? How can we make it legitimate so we can sell it? Maybe we should just turn it into the government? Is this enough money to change my life? Why is Gee looking at me that way? Could there be some sort of future with her?

After burying the gold in the forest near the police dock, Gee and Jay get on the scooter and head back to town. It is full-on dark as they pass through the woods, but it lightens up when they get back out into the open. Jay feels the same electricity with Gee’s arms around him, and Gee feels the same warmth as before, even as the cool of the evening descends around them.

When Jay parks the scooter in front of the Ocean Breeze, Gee jumps off and hands him the helmet. But before letting it go, she looks at him and says “If someone had told me yesterday that today that I would meet a man who would change my life forever, I would have laughed in their face. But you believed me, and you took the skiff out, and my life has changed. I wasn’t going to say anything, but since it looks like we might be working together on this project, I feel like I have to say it. I have never felt more attracted to anyone than I feel right now to you. Will you have dinner with me tonight?”

“Yes,” says Jay, with a broad smile. “I’ll meet you back here in an hour.”