They Laughed When I Left, So I Came Home the Town's Doctor novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Key

The Harbor Table had white tablecloths and a window on the lower harbor.

An ore boat sat at the dock, lit up from bow to stern.

Paavo Niemi had a reservation under the name Niemi and a reservation under the name Pilot, in case the first one failed.

"Two names?" I said.

"The hostess is my cousin. Don't tell her I said so."

He pulled out my chair and sat down opposite me, which took a moment, because the table was not built for him.

I had not been on a date in four years.

The last one had ended with a man asking when I planned to get a real job.

"Tell me the worst thing about being a pilot," I said.

"The worst thing?"

"Everyone gets asked the best thing."

He thought about it with his whole face.

"Fog," he said. "You're up on the bridge of a thousand-foot boat and you can't see the breakwater, and you have to trust a screen and your own sense of where the water ends. Nobody can help you. It's just you and the boat and what you know."

"What do you do?"

"I hum," said Paavo. "The whole way in. My sister says it's the one thing about me she's sure of."

I laughed so hard that the couple at the next table looked over.

He looked pleased and not a bit embarrassed.

We ordered whitefish and he asked about the emergency room, and I told him one story about a man who swallowed a fishing lure.

He told me one about a captain who radioed to ask if the harbor always smelled like that.

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