A James Everhard Adventure

by Wayne Wallace

Wayne Wallace read the morning emails on his computer as he sipped his coffee. "Hmm, what’s this from Kim?" he said to himself. WW read the email twice to make sure he had not left anything out. Then he got up, and went to the bar. Large tumbler, ice, three fingers of tequila, a generous splash of grenadine, and freshly squeezed orange juice. WW swizzled the tequila sunrise and took it out to the pool where his, on-again-off again house guest, James Everhard was doing killer abdominal crunches on the diving board. "Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred" Everhard counted and took a break at one hundred. He did a thousand ab crunches every morning just to keep his "six pack" buffed up.

"Here," WW said, handing JE the tequila sunrise, "You may need this after you read this email." He handed the globe trotting detective the email copy he had printed out. JE read the email. "Divorce? Kim and Marshal? Everhard continued to read.  Everhard flipped open his cell phone and speed dialed his mechanic at Wiley Post Airport. "Carlos, fuel up the Lear. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Going to Florida!" then Everhard flipped the phone shut, jumped up, and did a perfect jackknife into the pool. "Wallace handed Everhard a towel as he climbed out of the pool.

 "James, now don’t do anything rash." "Rash? Kim is arguably the most beautiful woman in North America! She is obviously going through a hard time with all this emotional stress. She needs the T.S.E. treatment, and fast!" Everhard said, tossing his wet swim trunks onto the sun deck. "T.S.E.?" Wallace asked, puzzled. "Tequlia, Sun and Everhard." The naked detective told him as he opened the door and walked into the house.

"James, I wish you wouldn’t ……." Wallace began.  In the kitchen Sharon Wallace was finishing her morning orange juice as Everhard walked by, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. Sharon’s eyes never left the thick, pendelum, swaying back and forth, that hung almost to Everhard’s knees. "Dammit, James. Now I’ll never get her to leave for work!" WW yelled after the adventurer.

Moments later, Everhard, dressed in slacks and his signature, ribbed silk tee shirt and carrying an overnight gym bag, jumped into his red Viper, fired it up and headed for the airport.

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