#729 The Siege at Whale Cay- Megan Mayhew Bergman
Whale Cay is a small 850 acre island 150 miles off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale. It is privately owned by a woman named Joe. There are about 200 or so natives still living on the island but Joe is the first and only authority.
“I’m the doctor and the kind and the policeman. I’m the factory boss, the mechanic too. I’m everything here.”
The story takes place during WWII and even though it is dangerous crossing the U-boat infested waters, Joe still entertains guests, mostly rich, important people. Her current girlfriend Georgie was a dancer in Florida and the epitome of cherry pie, just like Joe likes it. Her family has no idea: “…she’s spent the past three months shacked up with a forty-year-old womanizing heiress who stalked around her own private island wearing a machete across her chest.”
When a famous movie starlet comes to visit, Georgie feels threatened and jealous. She knows her place is likely temporary and doesn’t like the added population to her happy refuge.
“What exhausted Georgie about Joe’s guests is that they were all important. And important people made you feel not normal, but unimportant.”
This island is exactly that, a refuge. It’s a false Utopia and a place to flee reality, your past, and perhaps your sins—at least for a while. But when problems arise that cant be settled by drinking more rum, the happiness of the island is in peril as is Joe’s position of dominance.
No comments:
Post a Comment