Scarab Chapter XX Page 3

seekers headed out to the pier’s video game arcade, roller skate rink, or the old carny amusement park. That, and the cars cruising the boulevard made it a noisy, boisterous two mile strip.

When he got to Ocean Front Highway the dense, slow moving traffic barred his way to the parking lot. Loud radios blared a variety of rock and rap. Kids yelled from car to car, and waved or whistled at the pedestrians. The cars’ headlights illuminated the palm trees aligning both sides of the blacktop. The sidewalks were crowded with other young people clad in bright colored shorts, shirts and tennis shoes. They were all trying to have a good time.

The old folk sat out on the wooden verandas of the once spacious beach hotels that had become modest retirement and nursing homes. They gawked at the scene passing before them. It was their weekend recreation, all most of them

could afford. Arete marveled at the open pot smoking. But as much as it went against the grain, he let it go. This was not his beat, and just then he had other fish to fry.

He waded his way through the pier bound walkers, then waited for an easing of the motor traffic. Jogging across when a break came, he dodged on coming cars to reach the center meridian, repeating the stunt on the next two lanes when he got the chance. Making it across and nearing the parking lot, he could see in the distance the bare bulbs of the pier’s strung lights. Their glow reflected off the choppy water around the piles. He could also hear the merry-go-round music, and the high pitched reports of the .22 caliber air rifles from the shooting gallery. The soft roar of the surf, fifty feet away, was lost in all the other commotion.

As Arete got to the lot, the attendant was waving Janus’ mini van into a space a few yards away.