West Coast Beach
Chapter 3: Introducing the cast.
Months before, while spending an afternoon in their rental house: Tom, John, Rafael, Mike, and Dave, along with the female members of the group, were discussing the concept of a “bucket list.” Each except Mike was a migrant from the east side of the United States to California. Sally, Phillis, and Judy were the female members of the close nit group.
Rafael: What common item do we all have on our bucket lists that we could reasonably try to check off together.
Sally: Mike being an avid surfer would probably like to try something neat on the beach.
Tom: How about a visit to Black's beach.
Judy: Isn’t that the nude beach near San Diego?
John: Yea… That sounds like a good destination. That beach also has surfing and hang gliding.
Dave: So then… Do we all agree to visit Black's beach together and knock that as a common item off our bucket lists?
The group jointly nodded their heads in agreement.
Sally came from Wyoming, where she had grown up, she resided in the house across the street from the rental house. Phillis came from Nevada and resided in the house next door to the rental house. Judy and Mike were the only natives of California, Judy’s parents had a house several miles away, and Mike went to high school in the next town over.
John got to California from Virginia by riding a bicycle across the United States. John had been a competitive gymnast, he was pretty fit and healthy and was in great shape. Soon after he got to California, John got a job at a local health club.
Someone stole John’s bicycle, the one he rode across the United States, while he was working at a nearby local health fitness gym. He had much going for him. As an ex-gymnast and a bicycle rider across the United States. John was the picture of health and had a very good physique and was the envy of most people, but he had his bouts of bad luck. Once, John got arrested for jaywalking and got lost in the Los Angeles jail system for two weeks.
Rafael knew John from high school in Virginia, he and John kept in contact after high school and met up with each other in California. Rafael also had close relatives in California, that only lived a couple of hundred miles away. He earned his living as a handyman. (Although sometimes he was more show and less know-how) His vehicle was a small bed Toyota pickup truck with bald tires.
John: I knew Rafael back in Virginia in high school
Rafael: How was your bicycle trip. Did you have any problems along the way?
John: Most of the trip went smoothly. There were a couple of hazardous situations that came up along the way.
Tom was a practical joker who came west from Detroit; he spent much of his time around car dealerships, where he sometimes worked. He would often take expensive, fancy loaner cars from work and go joyriding. He would treat the cars as if they didn’t belong to him, because they didn’t. Tom was a conman. He was sneaky. He was a talker who could talk anyone out of anything.
Tom: Does anyone want to come with me to Marina Del Ray and spend the night at my boss's condo.
Dave: That sounds fun.
Tom would come up with unbelievable things.
Dave recently received his business degree from a college in the Midwest and had landed a job at a big accounting firm near Los Angeles. He was fortunate to get paid moving expenses to move from the lack lustered Midwest to exciting California. Coincidentally, he worked for the same company that Judy’s father worked for.
Mike was a California native, he was an excellent surfer. Before living in the rental house, he lived in his Fathers' warehouse. Mike’s father had an exhibition business. His father set up exhibitions for various conventions around the Los Angeles area.
Mike would take the other members of the group on surfing excursions. Mike being a California native was born and raised with a surfboard. He was far superior to the others at surfing and didn’t hesitate to flaunt his superior skill any time he had the chance.
Mike: Hello, I’m Mike.
Dave: Glad to meet you.
The females were all introduced to the group as romantic affairs with members of a male member of the group. Sally had a romantic affair with Mike. Both Phyllis and Judy were introduced to the group by John.
All the members of the group routinely hung out at the rental house and were close nit. They even include the members not living at the rental house when dividing up the chores.
Chapter 2: Escaping Embarrassment
