Flashback - 2012 - City Boy Meets Country Girl
Sarasota/Fort Myers, 2012
At the end of 2011, I had gotten my financial life back on track, and was well on my way to finishing up my 4 year degree. At Connecticut College, I had amassed 90 out of 128 required credits, leaving me with 3 semesters, but since I had decided to transfer, I was basically losing a year. To add to that, the USF branch near where I lived did not offer International Relations as a major, I had to pick between some pretty bare offerings. I decided to do this 100% online - no driving up through town multiple days a week, and could do all my work on my own time. I was mostly driving south and either doing work in the Fort Myers area, or hanging out with a new girlfriend at the time. She worked for FDLE in the fingerprint division and I can remember our first date was walking by the Caloosahatchee River in downtown Fort Myers, and we hear chanting and yelling. On the other side of the bridge that crossed the river was a group of people organized together in tents and a sign that said "Occupy Wall Street". We had our first argument when she told me they were criminals, and I defended them, saying that they had a right to be angry.
After a few months, we just weren't seeing eye to eye, and I didn't think I could ever date someone in law enforcement. It was around this time I started playing live poker regularly and would often go to Immokalee just because I liked being out in the country. I wouldn't even take the main country roads, I would take side roads and just get there when I did. At the time, I had my Lexus SC300 with the 5-speed and it was one of my favorite cars of all time. It had the perfect mix of speed, cornering, style, and luxury, and even though it was almost 20 years old, it ran like a champ. On the way home from Immokalee one night between Christmas and New Years, I took what I thought was a scenic detour and was terribly wrong. What appeared on the map as one long dirt road was really just a long drive of sandy hills, and it got progressively deeper as you got further. I couldn't back up, I would sink on the sugar sand, so I just kept going like a rally car towards my destination.
I finally landed in a deep patch of mud and sand and the car slid sideways, facing a turn in the road and stuck as ****. The wheels spun in every gear, and I finally got out and surveyed the situation. There was mud all over the chrome wheels, most of the rear, and I was wearing sandals. I checked my phone and there was no reception - thanks Sprint. Out in the Everglades only the main roads had reception in certain areas. I had to do the old walk to the nearest house and use the phone thing for AAA. The car lights were shining on some horse barn, so I walked in that direction, brought my gun and my cash with me on the walk. This area was not far off from Lehigh Acres, a sketchy community with a decent amount of crime, and a white boy in a Lexus was a prime target with no witnesses. To add to that, one of the largest swamps in the state was on one side of the road, so there were gators, bobcats, etc. The memory of the car chase with the Cubans in South Miami was still relatively fresh in my head.
I got about 100 yards in the deep sand, which felt like a mile, and I saw the lights of a pickup down at the end of the property I was walking towards. The pickup was going up and down the sand hills and pulled up next to me.
"Did your car break down over there?" The girl asked, I'm sure curious what someone was doing out here this late.
"I got stuck....I had no idea this road was a sandpit. Isn't this maintained by Collier County?"
"You're in Lee County now, but yes, it should, I haven't seen a county truck since I moved here. It would be nice if they made it drivable, I can't believe you made it this far. My name is Kelly by the way."
"I'm Liam, nice to meet you."
She was about 5'3, 110 lbs, short brown hair, and it was clear she worked on the farm. She had a rugged look about her, a lot of scars, but appeared very smart and did not have a typical farm girl mentality. Her bumper had two Obama stickers on it, something you don't see in rural Florida.
I asked her if she had a rope, and realized that was a dumb question - she lived on a horse farm. We tied the rope to the front of the car and it slid for about 50 yards and finally came to a hard shell road, and the main drag from there was about 200 yards. I had been driving for 20 minutes on this road in autocross style and missed making it by a few hundred yards. My sandals were all muddy, as were my wheels, which normally is not a big deal but if they were out of balance they would wobble all over the highway.
"Could I use your hose to get the mud off these wheels?" I felt bad asking considering it was after midnight and I knew country folk got up early.
"Sure, if you want to come on in you can - I've been up paranoid most of the night so I don't mind someone as long as you aren't creepy."
"Well I guess you won't know till you check me out - here is my driver's license." I showed it to her under light and she actually took out a pen and wrote down my name and address. I guess she took that literally, but I had nothing to hide. She noted that I was one year younger than her.
We went to the house, which was a tiny two bedroom place with 5 dogs inside. Two of the pitbulls immediately ran to me and I almost freaked out until they were begging me to pet them. She was watching TV but had no cable or dish - just what the antenna brought in. When I got back into the light of the house, I noticed just how dirty I had gotten.
"You can take a shower if you want, there's towels in the bathroom." I told her I would take her up on it, I hated getting muddy when I wasn't actually working outside. I went into the bathroom and turned on the shower and the smell was overwhelming. For those of you who don't live in Florida, there is a ton of sulphur in the ground water. Most of it is treated and is normal when coming out of a tap, but untreated water from a well smells like rotten eggs. Usually you get rock salt to add to the filtering system, but apparently she was out. The smell was not inviting, but I told myself it was just sulphur and jumped on it. It not only was refreshing but it woke me up a bit in the early morning. I got out and when I did there were some other clothes in the bathroom that were not mine, but clean.
"I put some of my brother's clothes out there for you, I threw your clothes in the washer."
"Does your brother live here?"
"No, I live here by myself - my family is in Michigan."
I put them on and felt for my pockets. That usual bulge in my back pocket was not there, and realized my wallet and gun were here somewhere. I looked over the kitchen counter and saw them both lying there, intact.
"I hope that gun didn't scare you, I keep it for personal defense only."
"The gun I am fine with, what are you doing with all that money?"
The truth was I had over $5k in my wallet, and driving at night around there, being from an hour and a half away screams like drug dealer. I told her that I was playing poker in Immokalee and was going to play in Fort Myers tomorrow. She gave me a look of mild disdain and curiosity.
"So this is your job?"
"Well, I work in the plant industry too, I do this on the side, but recently this has been making me more money. Here, google my name and see the results that come up. I'm not making up a story."
Sure enough, she got on her Iphone and looked up my name. She saw the pictures of plants, reviews of my nursery, etc. and seemed satisfied.
"I could really use some landscaping out here, I have no irrigation."
"I'll tell you this - I will bring you some nice plants for helping me out on the road, can I offer to take you to dinner?" I was saying this not as a date, but to return a favor. She accepted and told me her favorite restaurant was a Thai place actually halfway between where the two of us lived. I told her Sunday was good and she accepted. She even offered to let me sleep in the other room, which I gladly accepted as I was beat and didn't want to drive. We stayed up until 2am talking - she was from Michigan, she had a masters degree and was laid off her research job so she bought a horse farm when the buying was good. She also told me she had a stalker from Naples who had come driving around the house, so she was happy having someone who didn't seem creepy come and stay. During the course of our conversation, I fell asleep mid-sentence and woke up around 5 and heard an alarm going off. It was in her bedroom and I decided to walk over to the other room and sleep some more - after all, I had nowhere to be for hours. Walking towards the room she came out and was wearing just a small t-shirt and underwear, which looked pretty good on her. She didn't seem taken aback by my presence and I said hey and jumped into bed.
Waking up around 11, I could hear people outside and horses, dogs, goats, pretty much everything was up and moving but me. I walked outside to smoke and there were some people riding around her training circle, and they all turned their heads at me with a grin on their face. I wonder what they thought I was doing there - did they think I was a catch of the night? I jumped in the shower again to wake up, the smell of eggs I was getting used to very quickly. I got dressed in my clothes that were now washed, got my stuff and walked out to my car. I said hi to the people sitting around the track and they waved and smiled at me. Maybe she was lonely and they were happy someone was around the house? I walked up to Kelly and thanked her and told her I would see her on Sunday at the restaurant.
She smiled and turned around, focusing on her training. Was she interested in dating? Did she just want some company? I wasn't sure, but I kept my focus instead on heading down the road to the Fort Myers track and their 1-2 PLO game, it was my first time playing PLO there and was excited to see what the weekend would bring.