Chapter 38. Yacht
The group had decided that because Zach Morse was already in Atlanta at school, Professor Charlie Winston would fly with Zach to Cancun, where they would meet Zach’s father John Morse, Drame, and the rest of the entourage. After an uneventful flight on Delta from Atlanta to Cancun, Charlie Winston and his student Zach Morse drove the rented Ford van into the Breezes Marina and parked in the parking lot. Winston took out a four-wheeled flatbed dolly which contained his clothing, food, supplies, photography gear, maps, lanterns, flashlights, raingear, GPS equipment, a terrarium for any small animals or reptiles found on the island, flasks for plant samples found on the island, work gloves, insecticide, and other gear. He pushed the flatbed dolly down the pier towards the boats. At the end of the ramp, he saw John Morse, dressed in khaki shorts and a Georgetown T-shirt. Morse gave a warm hug to his son, whom he had not seen in a month. Wearing iPod earbuds snaking in white cords from the ears, and tossing to the side his sun-bleached, California wind-swept hair, Zach Morse sauntered down the pier carrying only a black backpack. Zach hugged his dad when he saw him. “Hey, Pops,” he said. When he got near the end of the pier, Zach Morse stared at the big yacht in awe.
"Whoa! Is that it? That thing is humongous!"
Near the end of the pier was a huge 150-foot white luxury yacht, with three decks, each deck smaller than the deck below it. A white mast slanted out backwards at an angle from the top deck, with radar equipment jutting out on either side. The side of the ship contained a white makeshift banner, with the name, "The Awesome Slut from Outback II."
Walking down the pier towards them was Skip Drame, the athletically built and tanned 45 year-old movie star with a slightly receding hairline of fine black hair. He had an Italian look which would normally make him quite handsome if it were not for the wrinkles and age lines which came from a life of too much cocaine use, cigarette smoking, and all-night partying. Drame was wearing a ridiculous looking African safari hat, no shirt, and blue and orange Hawaiian-patterned swim trunks. Walking next to Drame were two women. The first woman, short and thin, with feathered blonde hair, appeared to be half Drame’s age, and was sporting a purple bikini. The second woman, a seven-foot tall black woman, was wearing Chanel sunglasses, a cotton white cover up, and a look that said she couldn’t care less.
"Professor Winston, I presume?" Drame tipped his safari hat.
Winston shook his hand. "Hello, Skip. Call me Charlie. I think you know John Morse. This is his son Zach Morse, who also happens to be my student at Emory University."
Drame shook each of their hands, and turned to Zach. "Your dad's a good man, Zach. Glad to have you aboard. This is Brenda and Bolinda." The women shook everyone's hands.
Zach looked at Skip Drame, sizing him up. "I noticed the name of your ship, Mr. Drame. What does it mean?"
Drame laughed. "Well, when I broke up with my last wife, the She-Bitch caught me fooling around with a waitress from Outback Steakhouse. My ex-wife called her the Slut from the Outback. I have a yacht similar to this in Newport Beach. When it came time to split up our property, I did not want to lose the boat, so I renamed it the 'The Awesome Slut from Outback.' I knew she would never want the boat if it was named that, so she took the house instead. This boat is pretty similar, so I named it the Awesome Slut from the Outback II."
Charlie Winston laughed nervously, glad his wife was not here to hear that story.
"Skip, were you able to get everything on the boat I requisitioned?" asked Charlie Winston.
"Well, just about. I know you wanted that Peco Brush Blazer.” The Brush Blazer was a giant push mower that mowed down small trees and brush. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t get that done in time. But we have machetes, so that will have to do. But hell, with these guns, we'll have that brush cut down in no time." Drame flashed his biceps for his girlfriends. The smaller woman smiled. Although Morse could not see the look of the taller woman behind her sunglasses, he was picturing her rolling her eyes.
Winston was very disappointed about the brush blazer. This decision was going to make their forging through the brush of the island much more arduous.
"What about the other items?" asked Winston.
"Got 'em all. GPS stuff, lab gear, rappelling ropes, the works. Come on, I will show you everything on board."
Drame put his hand on Charlie Winston's shoulder and led him towards the ship. Two burly men with black collared t-shirts, white gym shorts and sun glasses came up behind Drame and brought Winston and Morse's luggage up the gang plank and on board the ship.
When they got to the edge of the gangplank, Drame and his girlfriends walked up first, followed by Zach Morse. Charlie stayed behind to have one last cell phone chat with his wife. He dialed her number in Atlanta and assured her he was going to be safe.
"Don't worry baby, trust me. Everything is going to be fine."
"I trust you. It's those sluts I don't trust," said his wife on the line.
"Now, remember, baby, there is not going to be cell phone service out there, just the ship's radio. We are going to stop for a day in Belize, and I will call you then. After that, we will be out of cell range for a while. But as soon as we can get a cell signal, I will call you, okay?"
"Will you be safe?" asked Murielle. "I cannot take care of him by myself, you know."
"I know, I promise you. Nothing will happen. I will be back in a week."
"OK, when you get home, you are my slave."
"That's a promise, sweetie. I will see you soon. I love you." He then asked to speak to Teddy.
"Teddy, you are the man of the house now for a little while. You take care of your Mommy, okay?"
"Sure, Dad. I will be good. Hey, Dad, will you try and get me a new snake, maybe one from the island?"
"I will do my best, Teddy. That's assuming we even find the island."
"I know you'll do it, Dad."
Charlie Winston air-kissed his son over the phone, hung up, and walked up the plank to the deck of the yacht.
Skip Drame took Charlie Winston and Zach Morse around the ship, introducing them to other passengers. There was Captain Ben Z. The gray-haired, bearded captain apparently had a long, unpronounceable Czechoslovakian name beginning with Z and ending in "ski." He had a firm handshake and gave Winston and Morse a quick tour of the captain's deck. There were the two solidly built security guards, whose names were not disclosed. They stayed close to Skip Drame at all times. Charlie Winston wondered if they had guns. There was the expert on mountain repelling, who Drame referred to as Mountain Man Pete. Mountain Man Pete had a long ZZ-Top beard and a red Jimmy Buffet t-shirt which read "Salt, Salt, Salt" on the front and had a drawing of a parrot on the back. When Winston met Pete, he was sleeping in a hammock on the second deck. Drame had also brought his own personal French chef, Robert (pronounced "Ro-bear"), who would be responsible for keeping everyone on board well-fed. He greeted them from the kitchen and showed them where to get snacks or late-night food if they ever needed it. John Morse also introduced everyone to Ka'-an, a short, stocky bald Mayan with narrow eyes, a short-cropped beard and a friendly smile. Ka'-an would be their interpreter on the trip. He was fluent in most of the Mayan dialects, as well as Spanish and English. He lived in Los Angeles, but he was originally from Santa Catarina, Guatemala. He had been the cheapest of the labor on the voyage.
Drame also had a personal assistant named Mindy Bryant, a short, skinny brunette with short hair who always seemed to be carrying a clipboard or talking into a Blackberry. Drame left Winston and Morse in Mindy's capable hands and returned to his two female friends. Mindy went over the itemized checklist of items Winston had requisitioned, making sure they had everything which had been ordered. Satisfied that the list was complete, Mindy went to talk to the Captain and advised him that they could take off. Winston felt a little guilty. He knew this whole trip was probably going to be a waste of time, but he was simply dying of curiosity. With his family on his mind, Winston went to his cabin below deck and took a nap.
At a cruising speed of about twenty miles per hour, Drame's yacht had only traveled about two hundred miles by dinnertime. Charlie Winston woke up and showered, changing his clothes into jeans, a gray t-shirt and a black hooded sweatshirt. He went up to the main deck, where he found the rest of the passengers gathered in a luxurious leather-chaired room. Zach Morse was playing backgammon with the Mountain Man. Mindy was seated at a desk, looking at something on her laptop computer. The two women, one short and one tall, were seated at a bar with Skip Drame, downing cocktails. The two security guards were standing at attention at the door to the room, with their arms crossed, not speaking. Charlie Winston and John Morse took seats in leather chairs near a coffee table in the middle of the room, next to Ka'-an, who was reading a Spiderman comic book. When Drame saw Winston and John Morse come in, Drame, Brenda and Bolinda brought their martinis over to the leather couch and took a seat.
"So, Johnny, tell us more about this island with the Fountain of Youth," insisted Drame.
Brenda, the short blonde, smiled at Morse. "John, you have to promise me I get the first drink from the Fountain."
Drame turned to Brenda. “No way, it’s old farts like us who need the fountain water, right Charlie?"
"Right," said Winston.
"What does the fountain look like?" asked Brenda. Morse was clearly the expert on the Fountain, so he gave the lecture.
"Well, it is probably not a fountain at all," said Morse. "The references in the historical texts are to a healing spring, so I suspect it will be either a stream or a pool of water, if it exists."
"Will it make you like ten years younger or twenty years younger or what? I mean, could I turn into a baby if I drank from it?" asked Brenda.
"I don't think so," laughed Morse. "The references are just to a healing spring that makes men young. I would guess that it makes you healthier, and maybe it can even cure some disease. And if it eliminates aging, I doubt it would turn you into a baby."
"How do you know where to look for it?" asked Brenda.
John Morse took out a nautical map and spread it out over the coffee table.
"Right here where this part of the bottom of Mexico juts out into the Gulf of Mexico, that's Cancun. Just below that is Belize. And right here to the right of that is the Bay of Honduras. That's where we think the island is located. According to the ship's logs we recovered from explorer John Cabot, the starting point is a place called Veragua. Unfortunately, that does not help us much, because the name Veragua was given to a great many places in Central America, including parts of Belize, Coasta Rica, Guatemala, and Panama. But we know that 14 leagues off of Veragua is a place called Flower Island. A Spanish league is about 3.2 nautical miles. Fourteen leagues is about 45 nautical miles. Therefore, we need to find an island which is somewhere in the Gulf of Honduras about 45 miles off the coast which could be called Flower Island. And there we are lucky, because about 45 miles off the coast of Belize, located right here on our map, there is a tiny island called Xochipilli." Zach Morse and Mountain Man Pete had stopped playing backgammon and were now crowded around the map.
The two girlfriends and Drame looked confused. Zach was confused, too.
Bolinda Jeffries, the striking seven-foot tall model, finally spoke up. "What is Xochipilli?"
"Xochipilli is the Mayan word for an Aztec god called the 'Prince of Flowers.' Therefore, if my hypothesis is correct, Xochipilli must be what the Spanish explorers called 'Flower Island!'"
Ka'-an made a snorting sound of disapproval.
"What is it?" asked Winston.
Ka’-an frowned. "Xochipilli is not just the god of flowers."
"What else is he?" asked Zach.
Ka'-an looked disgusted and refused to say, shaking his head no.
"I suspect what our friend is trying to say," said John Morse, "is that Xochipilli is also the Mayan god who is the patron of male homosexuals."
Drame patted Ka'-an on the back. "Oh, is that all? No need to get stressed, Ka'-an. Don’t be a hater, baby.”
"Skip," said Morse, "You may also be interested to know that Xochipilli is also the patron of hallucinatory plants like cannabis and peyote."
"Now, you're talking," said Drame. Drame paused, then raised his finger as if to say something, and then looked at the ceiling. "You just made me think of something." Drame left the group for a moment, intent on finding his marijuana bong.
Zach looked at the maps again. "So what do we do when we find Flower Island?"
John Morse pointed to the map. "According to De Solis' log books, if we go 2 leagues, or 6.4 miles north of Xochipilli, we should find two large rocks rising out of the water like pillars. If we can find the pillars, then we go 9 leagues, or 28.8 miles east, and 3 leagues, or about 9.6 miles north, where we will arrive at the fabled island of Boyuca, also called Boinca or Ananeo. And that island is where we may find our Fountain of Youth." Morse put a dot on the map and circled it in red.
"Once we get to the island, how will we find the Fountain of Youth?" asked Zach.
Morse pulled out a Xeroxed copy of a second map, which he had photocopied from the documents in Bristol. “We have this map thanks to Charlie’s recent discovery in Seville. I believe this to be the hand-drawn map from the Mayans in Veragua, given to John Cabot:
"And it is this map which will lead us to the Fountain of Youth.”