Read The Pike: Ships In The Night for Free Online Page A

extended family.”
    Then Eve got an evil look on her face as she joined us with an ancient camera.  “Speaking of.”
    Zoey hugged my arm in a cute ambush move, and I was blinking away spots that swam in front of my eyes from the camera flash.  The evil sisters chuckled at me as they pinned the developing picture to the wall.  Then the elder redhead said, “Now shoo before you miss your ride across the Sound.”
    I smiled at them as I shook my head and headed out to catch said ride.

Chapter 3 – Ferry
    I cussed under my breath as I arrived at the dock just to see the Bremerton ferry, the Hyak, steaming away.  I had to stop to rest my leg once I got to the bottom of the stairs at the Market.  Now I was stuck here for another hour before the Hyak's sister ferry, the Kaleetan, made it to this side of the route.
    I settled in on one of the benches and split my time between looking out across the Sound, watching the tourists scurrying around by Ye Olde Curiosity Shop and the Aquarium.  I purposefully didn't look at Station Five just a stone's throw from where I sat, keeping my mind off of the backdoor job offer the old man shamelessly had Trip deliver.
    I checked the time on my cell frequently then paused and just chuckled at myself.  Why am I in such a hurry?  It's not like you have anywhere to be Allison.  I just exhaled and relaxed.
    Cars had started arriving for the next ride across the water, and the foot traffic had started trickling in.  It seemed there was less and less foot traffic each year and more cars.  Were we, as a people, getting lazier?  Or just didn't have the time to be walking anymore?  One thing I have seen is an increase in the number of bicyclists on the route.  I guess that was at least something.
    Almost as if the thought had conjured them, I nodded to myself in appreciation as a group of bicyclists came up and dismounted.  They took off their helmets and hung them on the handlebars.  They were all seniors.  The youngest was no younger than sixty-five or so.  I wondered if they knew they were kind of inspiring to us younger lot.
    I had to grin when I saw that familiar woman from the Pike wander toward me down the dock and sit on the bench across from me.  That short girl with the thick wavy black hair and the cute, big round glasses.
    Her head was in that book again, and she was turning the pages at a rapid pace.  Could she really read that fast?  I found myself smiling at the enthusiasm on her face when she paused, her dark eyes going wide and she pulled out a seemingly disorganized sheaf of papers from her bag and started furiously scribbling notes.
    She seemed oblivious to the world around her but almost exuberant about whatever she was working on.  It was great to see people enjoying what they did.
    Then it hit me.  That's why she seemed so familiar at the Pike earlier.  She was always on the lower deck of the ferry with her head in her papers in the morning, I preferred the upper observation deck so I could feel the wind and ocean spray in my face.  I didn't ever see her on the return trip because I usually took an earlier ferry.
    She paused, her pen stopping on the paper, and she glanced up at me then she blushed and looked back down at her papers.  Oh, shit, I had been staring, trying to figure out why she looked familiar.  Way to go Sparky, make the girl nervous.  I looked away, toward the approaching ferry boat.
    The hustle and bustle of the people milling about just hummed with energy as the boat docked.  The anticipation of heading home after a day in the city.  I felt it too, even though it seemed this is all my life had been reduced to lately.  Going to PT and going home.  I needed to find something to keep me busy, or I was going to fall into the mindless drone type of life instead of embracing every moment of it like I used to.
    We moved forward like sheep as the cars loaded first before the foot traffic.  I paused and looked back and had to suppress a