by Keith Keller

Billy had been hanging around the waterfront of his small New England fishing town since he was seven years old, always bugging the lobster fisherman to take him out. He was a small thin boy for his age with a rather big head, made bigger by a mass of curly white blonde hair and an indifferent attitude toward hair cuts. Once in a while, one of the teenagers working a few lobster traps out of a small skiff with a twenty horse power outboard would let him sit up in the bow, out of the way, while they hauled their traps hand over hand. Billy liked the way the lobsters went from green to red as they came to the surface and liked best the moment when the trap was hauled aboard, rolling the skiff to one side with the weight of the trap, causing it to nearly ship water. The boys said it was good to have Billy sitting high in the bow in case they got caught out in a fog.

"That big white head of his is as good as running lights," commented one of the boys. After a while they let Billy help with the hauling, which he considered a privilege. A lobster trap out of the water weighs 125 pounds . Hauling traps by hand, without a winch, was hard work and better than a gym, as you had to haul with your whole body. Over the years Billy didn't grow much stature wise, but he got stronger and filled out considerably, growing almost as wide as he was tall. Even his face was wide, broad at the beam you might say, with pronounced cheek bones, a flat stubby nose and full lips.

At age fourteen he got in a fight with a high school quarterback who broke Billy's nose and knocked out his third from left-center tooth before Billy could get him on the ground where height and reach did not matter so much. Any one who has had his nose broken knows that it hurts more than most anything and usually ends a fight right away. In Billy's case it only provoked him into hitting the quarterback more times than the young football hero deserved and the damage was such that it got him expelled from junior high for the rest of the school year. He never did go back.

His mother was mad as hell about the tooth and as sad as could be about him getting kicked out of school. She worked as a waitress at the Crow's Nest Diner which was just off to the side of the Public Landing where the fisherman unloaded their catch. The lobstermen bought their bait from Juicy the bait man and weighed and sold their lobsters at the lobster pool. She served pre-dawn breakfasts to the fisherman of fried eggs, bacon, ham, whole wheat or white toast, and strong coffee. There was also a big platter of doughnuts, plain, cinnamon, powered, jelly, and crullers. You kept count of how many you ate and told her when the bill came. Afternoons it was lobster or crab rolls, tuna sandwiches, grilled cheese, cheeseburgers, potato salad, and clam or potato chowder. The menu was expanded evenings to include baked beans and hotdogs and a flounder plate. It was delicious and nobody knew it wasn't good for you. Billy's mom usually got home six nights a week about nine, put her feet up, counted her tips, and went to bed. On this night, she waited for Billy, for whom she had words, after having received a call from the school that morning. The mixture in her head of sadness, anger, and exhaustion made it hard for her to think straight.

"You beat that boy too hard," she said. "Wasn't right, no matter what he said or did to you, I'm ashamed." She saw the pain in Billy's face and her heart went out to him and she had an overwhelming sense of helplessness as mothers often do in these cases, especially after working a fourteen hour day. To Billy's relief she went on to the more mundane consideration of the evening.

"And what are we going to do about your tooth?"

"I'll fix it with my boat money," he answered.

She nodded her head, feeling better about her son, knowing how hard he had worked for that money; baiting Joe Haskell's traps, washing the boat down, lugging bushels of lobsters up the slippery gangway to the lobster pool and all the other rough work fishing offered. She was proud he was now earning a small percentage at only fourteen years of age and willing to use the money he was saving for a boat to get a new tooth.

"Go to bed," said his mother with a sigh.

Three days later Billy showed up at the Crow's Nest sporting his new tooth. It was bright shiny gold and sparkled in the afternoon sun that flowed through the restaurant windows. Adding to Billy's new look was a newly purchased red and white striped t-shirt.

"What do you think?" asked Billy, trying to sound nonchalant.

Billy's mother was standing in the aisle between the counter and the restaurant's two rows of tables with a pot of coffee in her hand. Most of the restaurant had gone quiet wanting to hear what Billy's mom was going to say about Billy's tooth. She put the coffee pot down on the nearest table. The table was occupied by one customer whose name was Abner Wilson. He was new in town. Abner was not too sure of what was going on but knew it was interesting.

Abner could not have gotten out of his seat even if he had wanted to (which he didn't), after Nora (until now, known only to us as 'Billy's mother') had served him a late breakfast of bacon and eggs

followed by an order of hotcakes, followed by two jelly doughnuts and a cruller. Abner was generally not a big eater and it was neither hunger nor gluttony that had driven him to

excess. It was love. When Nora served Abner his

second cup of coffee she touched him on the shoulder, something she had never done before, or at least not while serving coffee to a complete stranger. With that one touch Abner and Nora went from the smitten stage of attraction to full blown all out gut wrenching eternal love. It happens that way sometimes and that love has exactly the same chance of survival as any long drawn out courtship has. Neither of them of course believed it was real, both thinking maybe they had drunk to much coffee and gotten too little sleep-or something. They had not much in common. Abner was a lawyer who had retired early, was well educated, and handsome. Nora had made it to the ninth grade. Although no one would call her ugly; she had a chestnut version of the hair she had bestowed upon her son, full lips that served better on her than they did on Billy, but still, she was what you might call rough-hewn, as if sculpted from wood and left as is before the finishing touches. Abner thought she was beautiful.

"Well, you're never going to be the most handsome boy in town, you might as well be the most noticed," Nora said to Billy's surprise. "How about some chowder?"

After what you might call a whirlwind courtship, Abner and Nora got married and the three of them moved into a small Victorian house on a rise overlooking the sea. At first Abner and Billy didn't get along so well, but after a while, they warmed up to one another.

One day, Abner gave Billy a copy of Billy Budd by Herman Melville. Each day, after hauling his lobster traps from the twelve-foot Boston Whaler Abner had fronted him the money for, Billy would read the book while adrift in the harbor, until the sun went red. The reading habit took and soon Abner got it in his head that Billy should go to college. He spent a year badgering, bullying, and bribing Billy until he finally got his GED. Abner found him a tutor to help him with his SATs and two years later Billy was admitted to North Eastern University . After Billy's graduation party Abner and Billy sat out on the porch of their modest home overlooking the sea.

"So what's next?" asked Abner.

"Well," answered Billy, "I thought I might sell the whaler and get a bigger boat. One with a winch."

"Makes sense," answered Abner.