WriteRight4Life, LLC: Teaser for Raising Mother Nature — an Adventurous Narrative Nonfiction Book

The early morning appeared cloudier than the day before, but Calhoun Mane hoped for a bigger catch. After working a twelve-hour shift as a rigger on a loading dock, the hours he spent crabbing with his friend Poopy, also known as Craig, provided him with extra income and enjoyment. On a day when they caught five or six crates of blue crab, Calhoun earned around $250 to $300, and that money added up after three or four trips out on Keith Lake. He made $1,200 a week operating equipment and supervising crane operators as they loaded supplies onto vessels bound for offshore delivery.

After a decade of working twelve to eighteen-hour days offshore, the extra work felt normal to Calhoun. He slept only two to three hours a day or every other day when socializing presented itself. On his days off from the dock, he spent time with friends and got high. A few joints never slowed him down. When Poopy decided to stay home, an eighteen-year-old neighbor named Jesse pulled traps while Calhoun steered the eighteen-foot flatboat. After taking the crates back to a cleaning room, they backed the crab’s top shell, sprayed off its guts and lungs, and re-crated it for restaurants.

Calhoun enjoyed working with Jesse. The teenager had a strong work ethic and laughed at the mature jokes Calhoun told. Unfortunately for Jesse, a dispute between his girlfriend’s father led to charges of assault and statutory rape. Jesse had dated the girl for two years; she was one year younger. The Texas court sentenced Jesse to 47 years in prison because of the seriousness of his offense. Calhoun never understood how a boy who had just turned 18 two months before the charges could receive such a harsh sentence. He missed the honesty Jesse brought to their conversations. Poopy suggested that charges on the boy’s juvenile record damaged his reputation with local police. 

When Calhoun started driving the boat, pulling traps, and cleaning the crabs on his own, the extra work became tiresome—the route to deliver the product to restaurants made going to the loading dock far worse than before. Calhoun fell asleep on the forklift around 2 a.m. on his Tuesday shift. Bill Grooms, the night shift supervisor, called him on the marine radio. Calhoun sat up, readied to work, and turned on the engine. After a truck stopped at the unloading point, he eased the forks under the container and signaled the driver to pull away. The container's weight tipped the forklift forward, and, as a professional operator, he lowered the load slowly to the ground.

Bill spoke with stress in his voice, “That was a close one, Cal!”

Calhoun pulled the forklift up to the building after unloading the container near the supply vessel. The crane operator was still asleep in one of the offices, so Bill asked Calhoun to wake the crew. When the men returned, another truck delivered six-inch-long, forty-four-foot pipes, and Calhoun saw that an inexperienced rigger stepped up to signal the crane operator. Simon had convinced the operator, Richard, that this was the night he would take the lead. Despite the length of the one-hundred-and-eight-foot boat, the choppy wakes slammed the vessel into the rubber bumpers, which were tires tied to pilings. 

Calhoun watched Simon repeatedly give the wrong signals, causing the weighted load to slam into the vessel's wheelhouse. He jumped from the deck to the dock, landing next to the crane. A screaming match had started a feud between the operator and Calhoun. The captain sounded over a loudspeaker, angry about the damage done to his vessel. 

Working in a dangerous environment left everyone vulnerable to mistakes, and mishaps were always present when the stress of responsibilities put team members at risk. I bet you want to read more about what happened next.