Mandarin Waves With Sammy Two Hats

“Listen to someone who may have nothing in common with you”
~Anthony Bourdain~

Every now and then we all need to step away from our official duties. We need to completely unplug, change gears, break the cycle, reflect, and put it back together. I’m paraphrasing but when Sherlock Holmes was stuck on a particular case, he would perform a completely unrelated task. This would temporarily unburden his thoughts. Often, this is where he would experience a breakthrough.

Now, I have this friend named Douglas. He’s infamous for springing last-minute hunting or deep-sea fishing trips on me….always when I’m up to my neck in work. Funny thing is, I have the darndest time saying no. Let me preface the Douglas expeditions by stating that there’s always an outlier event on these adventures. Every stinkin last one of em. It’s a blown trailer tire on a major highway, a radiator hose, a bilge pump, a mile long trudge through waste deep swamp water, or a mystery guest. You see, Douglas has a heart that’s bigger than his boat. I promise that if you read on, you will enjoy the story for the same reasons that I can’t seem to say no to any of these excursions.

The morning started with a blaring alarm at 4:00 am. I drag myself as quietly as I can through the house towards the coffee machine while simultaneously collecting my gear. It’s always the same voice in my head anytime I accept the Douglas challenge. It starts off to the tune of “What is your major malfunction? Why would you take a vacation day just to torture yourself? I sluff it off and make my way over to Douglas’s house where he promptly has the boat loaded onto the trailer. This is a transcript of our 5:00 am conversation in the middle of the street:

Douglas: Good morning.

Scott: Who’s idea was this again?

Douglas: I haven’t seen any lights on in Sam’s house. (Sam is the mystery guest)

Scott: Who’s Sam?

Douglas: Sam’s my neighbor. He’s been fighting cancer and he said he wanted to catch a fish. Can you help me get him some fish.

Scott: (Gives Douglas a look) Of Course. A questions’ not really a question if you already know the answer.

Douglas: He doesn’t speak English only Mandarin Chinese. (Douglas departs and leaves Scott standing in the middle of the street).

Scott: (Looking at the sky talking to himself) Son of gun…he got me again.

Sam slept through most of the hour drive to the boat launch which was fine because I’m sure the conversation would have been enlightening. That is, us trying to decipher Mandarin Chinese at 5:30 in the morning. As we launched the boat the sun was just coming up. The water was flat and calm on the surface, but it was concealing a positive energy beneath. As we headed for deeper waters the coffee kicked in as a full rainbow touched two separate ends of the Gulf of Mexico. In that instant my demeanor changed. I can’t believe I almost missed this.

Given my rich history with Douglas’ escapades, I’ve learned to overpack. Two pairs of shades, two hats, survival food for a week, stuff like that. My Dear Mother In-Law had purchased me a straw sun hat which I was very much looking forward to using. Before the judgements start flying around, if you’ve never been through a Texas summer you wouldn’t understand why a sombrero can literally save yourlife. I had placed the hat on the deck of the boat under my bag so that it didn’t blow away when we picked up speed. The boat was traveling at about 25-30 miles per hour as I was fumbling around looking everywhere for this hat. Convinced that it had blown out to sea I terminated my search. As I regained
my seat and started to conjure up a story to explain my irresponsible nature to my Mother-in-Law, I spotted the hat sitting comfortably atop sleeping Sam (reference picture). This pleased me very much. Not that the hat was found but that Sam was making good use of it. Because of my over preparedness I was already wearing my lucky fishing ball cap. I was going to switch it out for the sombrero once we arrived at the fishing spot. Sam was going through a hard time. Because of his illness he had difficultly staying awake. His medical treatments had taken a toll on him. Yet here he was, wearing my hat, speaking Mandarin, determined to catch a fish 30 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

We got the man his fish. In fact, Sam caught his limit. He caught more fish than Douglas and I combined under the bountiful, splendid comfort of my straw hat! I offered to pilot the boat for the hour or so ride back to shore while Sam and Douglas rested. The fishing wasn’t easy. In fact, it was a lot of hard work to get Sam his fish.

The ride back was peaceful. Douglas and Sam napped as I navigated my way across the Gulf. My mind was as empty as the horizon in front of me. As I took another look at Sam, it dawned on me that we’d accomplished everything we set out to do that day. Douglas got us all out on a harrowing adventure which I’m pretty sure is his whole mission in life. Sammy Two Hats got his fish and then some. And me…. well, I survived to write it down. I was fortunate enough to share it with all of you in the hopes that during your next outing you will over prepare and bring two hats and share with someone who has nothing in common with you. You won’t regret it.