My Journal by Harriman Nelson- Lean on Me

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My Journal

By Harriman Nelson

34

“Damn it, Harriman!” Jiggs shouted on the videophone in my cabin. It was only a few hours after my chat  with Lee had ended. “Lee picking up a hooker? Sure couldn’t have tarnished his halo more if he’d tried.”

“Look, Jiggs,” I said, “he didn’t pick her up. She picked him up! He and Joe were targeted and framed, that’s all. You can’t judge either of them based on a tabloid headline!”

“Without a rebuttal, what is everyone supposed to believe?”

As if in answer to Jiggs, Chip chose that very moment to knock on my open door’s frame, enter at my affirmative nod,  and flip on the monitor.

“So you can see,” Mrs. Piccadilly was saying just outside the hotel to a crowded group of reporters, one of her group showing a picture from his phone, “this girl didn’t look in any way like a prostitute. And at no time, according to sworn statements by the waiters near their table, did she  or they ever proposition each other. All she did was sit down at their table.”

“You really expect anyone to believe that?”

“I don’t care what you believe, it’s the truth, now please, will you go away and let my tour group enjoy what’s left of their time in Venice in peace!”

“Easy, Mrs. P.,” Lee said, emerging from the hotel with Joe, “is this inquisition for us?”

Before she could reply the reporters pushed their way past Mrs. Piccadilly to confront them.

“Do you visit prostitutes often, Captain?” one of them asked.

Not only members of Lee’s tour group gasped, aghast, but most of the reporters as well.

Lee held up a hand to quiet things down. “This is getting ridiculous. If a pretty girl sat down across from you in a crowded restaurant, what would you do, demand she go away? Now, look, the  the cops have cleared us. The pimp has a police record of habitually targeting ignorant foreigners. If anyone’s at fault here, it’s him and that poor girl he put up to it. Now, we’d really like to get some sightseeing in, and after having been in the dark so long, believe me, I do intend to see all the sights I can. Come along Mrs. P., everyone, ” he said, taking her arm and began to walk toward the tour bus just a few paces away.

But the same reporter trailed after him.

“You still didn’t answer the question, Captain.”

Lee turned, “Do you really want a cease and desist order to be served? Harassment is a charge I doubt your employers would welcome. Of course, I may be mistaken. Scandal sells, after all, even if the so called facts are blatant lies.”

“She was awfully young...”

“Twenty five is not ‘that’ young. Now, do you really want to spend some time in jail? Not a pleasant experience, even for the innocent, I assure you,” he said and after helping Mrs. Piccadilly up the bus’s steps.  “Think about it,” he warned as he continued into the bus, followed by Joe and some of their  lingering tour mates.

“And so,” one of the reporters turned to the camera, “officially vindicated, Captain Nelson-Crane continues his culinary tour, while doubts about last night’s activities remain. From Venice, this is the Fox News.”


“Well, Jiggs?” I asked as Chip turned the broadcast off.

“Oh all right...handled it pretty well. You know, he could probably have made a career as a public speaker. So, Morton, how do you like the captaincy of Seaview?”

“I don’t. And I’ll do everything in my power to get Lee back soon.”

“You think I haven’t tried already? When I contacted Jackson, with details on how Crane, sorry, Nelson-Crane could reverse his resignation, he said it didn’t look like Lee was all that interested.”

“Bullshit,” Chip said. “He’s just afraid to step on my toes. Even if I want to lasso him and pull him aboard kicking and screaming, if I have to.”

“You may have to,” Jiggs said. “I’ll see what the SecNav suggests. It wouldn’t be the first time he was drafted to Seaview.”

“Jiggs,” I said, “I know you mean well. But hold off for now. I want to speak with him first, okay? When  his vacation is over.”

“Well, all right, Harriman. So,  just how long is the damn thing going to take?”

“Let’s see,” Chip said, doing a little mental calculation, “ three or four more days in Italy, then they’re off to Greece, followed by Spain and Portugal, and then Ireland where the admiral plans to join him.  So I’d figure about two more weeks, give or take.”

“And then there’s the trip home,” I  said. “I think he mentioned a visit to his mother in Cape Cod.”

“Well, you tell him that he might also be making a trip to Washington. If you two can’t convince him to retake command, I know someone who can. Has a few executive prerogatives...”

“No, Jiggs. It has to be Lee’s decision, no matter how we all feel.”

 

Of course, the president could call Lee up and reactivate him from retirement.  But I hoped not. While I knew, Chip knew, heck, even Jiggs knew, that Lee was, in a way,  ‘married’ to Seaview, that even the best of marriages sometimes end.

All I can do is hope that Lee does the right thing, for himself this time, duty be damned.

Entry #35