Thom took one final, deep drag on his Marlboro, dropped it to the pavement and mechanically crushed it with the heel of his shoe. Without moving from the bench where he sat, he turned his head and looked out across the Atlantic, at least as far as the mangrove islands on the horizon.
The tip of the mast was gone. He had seen the boat crawl across the harbor, between the channel markers, and then off into the Straits of Florida. He looked higher into the shadow of clouds slowly becoming pink in the dawn. The color change, like the minute hand of a clock, was constant, but slow enough that it couldn't be seen. He reached down and picked up the butt, started to thump it into the water, but stopped, stood and walked to a trash can and threw it away. He continued walking back into town.
The dawn hit him full face when he reached the end of the pier and faced up Duval Street. He turned and looked out across the harbor once more, past the mangrove islands and into the pale white clouds.
On the way to Rich's he bought a Herald and read while he waited on breakfast. “Heavy Voter Turnout Expected, Candidates Make Final Push,” read one of the headlines below the fold. Thom skimmed the article to the paragraph that caught him:
“Matters will go on state wide television tonight with an appeal to voters. The broadcast will be live from the candidate's South Florida home. Matters is expected to make a broad appeal to all segments of Florida's population.”
"Florida is the melting pot of many cultures and is blessed with the climate and environment of paradise," Matters said in a speech yesterday in Miami. "Though some think there is not room for all, I say there is, and with proper planning and a responsible approach to development we will never have to turn any one away who wants to live with us, and we can guarantee them the quality of life they have come to expect of the Sunshine State."
Thom tore a small article from the paper he thought he would send to Sarah when he had an address for her
KEY WEST--Judge Hank Rawford had words of wisdom for a two-time loser when he handed down a two-month sentence yesterday to Mike Zipper, a drifter from Houston, convicted a second time on vagrancy charges. Responding to the 22-year old's statement that he had come to Key West to "bum in the sun" and that he thought two months in jail was too high a price, Judge Rawford -replied, "Son, Paradise ain't cheap."