Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
pricked up as had everyone else's. We had seen something odd! There he was again: he
stooped down, grabbed a little red hermit crab that was scurrying away on his bright little
red legs, presumably to get away from this unusual fire in its environment, and deliberately
threw the wriggling creature into the fire! I could have sworn I heard a little scream!
This time there was a stunned silence, a murmur here and there, but I think people were
too shocked or polite to know how to react. Not so Gavin. Earlier in the night he had been
embarrassed in front of everyone, including Penny, when Steve had told him in no uncer-
tain terms the correct way to sharpen a knife. Steve had been quite arrogant in his assertion,
and Gavin had backed down quickly, red and silent. The clash had not gone unnoticed. I
knew Gavin was smoldering inside from this; he had lost valuable ground in front of Penny
as an outdoors woodsman-cum-sailor. He had been reduced by some elderly know-it-all
American! He had retreated into his shell at this point, though he had not forgotten. Now,
as the second hermit crab was casually slung into the furnace, Gavin stepped forward to the
fireside, leveling a white and genuinely shocked face at Steve, “Did I see you throw a crab
into the fire?” he said with grainy emotion and warning in his voice.
Steve laughed in his face, “As a matter of fact I did; it was just a fuckin' crab for Christ's
sake; hell we eat 'em in the best restaurants.”
Gavin continued to stare in shocked silence at Steve, who now had become aware of the
general silence. “That was a very ugly thing to do!” He spat with such vehemence and
loathing that we were prepared for blows. Steve blanched visibly; he had turned white; his
eyes narrowed; his mouth formed a mean snarl, “Who the fuck are you to talk to me like
that? Who appointed you the marine warden around here?” Steve asked with less convic-
tion in his voice. His dark shifty eyes remained narrow, and he looked like a cornered rat.
He was skating on thin ice here and realized that he had no allies here. He was not in the
U.S. Navy any more.
The silence from the others now put the cruisers fairly and squarely on Gavin's side. Penny
looked at him in a new light, as did her parents and brother. Linda was embarrassed at her
partner's massive blunder and remained staring fixedly down into the blue flames of the
fire. The smell of burning flesh was a stark reminder of what this he-man of the U.S. Navy
had done. “They can't feel pain anyway; they're cold-blooded,” he said defensively.
“That is a load of bull crap,” said Harry, rounding on Steve and coming to Gavin's defense,
“Every living entity on earth fears fire, and for good reason, fire destroys! Just about the
lowest thing a person can do is to throw a defenseless creature into a fire. How can you
risk the truth in such a terrible way? You obviously have no respect for life, and very little
for yourself. You should be ashamed of yourself man!” Steve stepped over to Harry, his
eyes slitted and a sneer on his bony little face, “Fuck you fruit, you and your gin palace and
