Beaver Island on a Lazy Summer Day

Beaver Island: lazy day with late sleep and breakfast of scrambled
eggs and toast. Fig jam and fresh herbs helped. Trip to hardware to
get supplies: two lights, hooks, hand drill and bits, and a hand truck
to haul fuel. Fuel dock was a gas. Two kids took me to a hard scrabble
area beside the Marina next to a boat landing and barge with a crane
on it. The concrete was broken and the weeds hadn't been cut for some
time. Kid 1 told me to "hold this. No not that" when I held the fuel
can. "this" as he shook the fuel nozzle. I took the nozzle and waited
as he took off the front of the fuel dispenser and began to fiddle
with a red wire with an alligator clip on the end. "Hmm. Not that one,
I guess." He was attempting to hot wire the fuel pump. Kid 2 arrived
and soon a bit of gas was coming out. "Wait!" said kid 2 and he took the wire. A minute later Kid 2 jerked. He had shocked himself. Kid 1 wiped
off the glass on a meter at the side of the tank and wrote down the
digits. This was going to take arithmetic, I said. Subtraction. Soon
fuel was flowing again and Kid2 changed the wire so that it flowed
faster. It was less that 4 gallons but some
fuel did dribble in before the count started. I paid in the shack and
began wheeling the fuel down the walk to Speakeasy. While crossing the
street a block from the boat I saw kid 1 biking by on a one-speed bike
that looked too small for him. He waved.