Confederate Gold and Silver Read Online Free PDF Page B

Everyone who worked for her quickly learned the inmates no longer ran the show when she was in charge. The employees at the Garden City branch would soon learn the same thing.
    On the other hand, Paul had no interest in returning to work full-time as the thirty years he had spent as a state trooper had been enough of the work world for him. He was ready for a much quieter lifestyle and that meant little, if any, work in the foreseeable future. However, just like Donna had, he also soon found a job. It was actually a job which found him and it was the result of a good deed he had done for a stranger.
    Paul was out running errands and was returning home from Pawleys Island one afternoon during a heavy rainstorm when he saw a car partially blocking traffic northbound on busy Highway 17. Running along the Carolina coast, Highway 17 has two heavily travelled lanes of traffic running in each direction and serves as one of the main arteries between Myrtle Beach and Georgetown. The elderly male operator of the disabled car was partially blocking traffic where the highway forks in Murrells Inlet. The operator of the vehicle had turned his four way emergency flashers on and was attempting to change a flat tire on the left rear of his Mercedes Benz when Paul first saw him struggling to get the spare tire out of the trunk of his car. Because of the heavy rain, as well as the traffic moving both too fast and too close to the disabled car, he could tell the elderly operator of the vehicle was not having too much success at fixing the flat tire.
    “If I do not stop to help this guy somebody is either going to run him or his car over and then nobody is going to be getting home.” Getting out of his vehicle, Paul could not help but notice that none of the other passing motorists had stopped to help. “Just like back home, everyone is in their own little world, too busy to lend a hand to someone.” Soon he had the tire fixed and the flat tire put away in the trunk of the Mercedes.
    As he closed the trunk, the elderly male operator attempted to hand Paul a twenty dollar bill as a sign of his appreciation for the service rendered to him. “This won’t do much for the wet clothes you have on, but please accept this as a token of my appreciation. You were the only one to stop in the fifteen minutes I struggled with the flat.” Steve Alcott then extended his right hand as another sign of his appreciation.
    “That’s not necessary, I was glad to be of help. I’m sure you would have done the same for somebody else,” Paul said as they shook hands.
    With no success, Steve tried one more time to hand him the twenty again. “Tell you what, if my money is no good, how about letting me buy you a drink to settle the debt I owe you. It’s the least I could do to show my thanks.”
    Paul had been more interested in getting home to change out of his wet clothes, but he knew Donna was being interviewed that afternoon for the position with the bank. She would not be home for another two hours. “OK, sounds like a plan. Where are we going?”
    “Great! Just follow me down the road and we will stop at my favorite watering hole.”
    Within a few minutes, Paul found himself seated at the bar within The Grumpy Sailor , a restaurant located along the marshwalk in Murrells Inlet. Both the bar and the adjoining restaurant were decorated with beach and golf related themes. Sitting there, he still had his wet clothes on, but he was somewhat drier than he had been after first changing Steve’s flat tire. Paul had driven by the restaurant one afternoon with Donna when they had been out exploring their newly adopted hometown, but they had not yet stopped in for a drink.
    Paul was somewhat surprised when the barmaid quickly placed a Dirty Martini, complete with two olives, directly in front of where Steve sat at the bar. She had done so before they could even order their drinks. When she addressed Steve by his first name, Paul guessed she had done so as he was