Page 94 of Deadly Misfortunes

After breakfast, the ladies took their beach bags and towels and went out to swim in the Gulf. As before, they had reserved chairs for them, but Henry and Omar had to get rid of the people lying all over them.

It was annoying because the chairs were wet and sandy, when they should have been dry and clean. But then the ladies put their beach towels over the backs of the chairs, dropped their beach bags and flip-flops off, and raced each other to the water.

After swimming for a while, even Aunt Meg and Mrs. Landry joined them, and they finally returned to the chairs and dried off.

“Are you ready to take a walk along the beach?” Sascha asked. She wished they could watch the guys parasailing, but it was too far to walk there, and she was afraid the guys would be done with their activities by the time they got there.

“I’m ready to go,” Kat said, grabbing her coverup.

Aunt Meg put on her wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, her blousy coverup whipping around in the wind.

Mrs. Landry wore a shift coverup and slipped on her sunglasses. “I’m ready.”

They all grabbed their bottles of water, and Rose tied her wet hair back in a tail, then donned a ball cap, a turtle embroidered on the cap.

They had walked about an eighth of a mile when they saw a tanned guy in hot pink bathing trunks talking to a woman, but she shook her head and returned to her chair where her friends were sitting. Then the guy tried to engage in conversation with another couple of women, but they shook their heads and ran into the water to swim.

He tried speaking with a woman sitting with another under their umbrella and they shook their heads. He raised his hands, continued to talk to them, but they shook their heads, and he finally walked off.

"It appears the man in the pink swim trunks is harassing women on the beach if they're alone or just with a girlfriend," Sascha said.

"I thought that too. He targets someone and heads straight for them. He has been doing it several times," Rose said.

"Do you want me to talk to him?" Omar asked.

"I think I can handle this," Aunt Meg said.

Sascha knew she would use her abilities on the guy, though she was curious about what she would actually do.

The guy suddenly tripped in the sand, fell on a big, muscular dude, knocking the drink he was holding out of his hand, the drink splashing him and his girlfriend or wife.

The muscled dude rose to his feet. He was about six-four, while the harasser was about five-ten. He backed away from him, his hands outstretched in apology, showing contrition. The muscled dude shoved him down in the sand, and then he and his girlfriend went into the water to wash the sticky drink off.

The harasser took off and targeted another couple of women, but before he could reach them, he tripped over his feet again and fell face-first into the sand.

The women were reading books under an umbrella, sitting on chaise lounges, and never even saw him.

He got up and walked into the water to rinse off. Two young women were playing in the surf, and he approached them.

A couple of men had been sitting on chairs watching them and hurried to join the women.

Good. At least someone else was watching out for them.

The harasser hurried off in search of his next target, only to fall again.

"Eventually, he's going to give up," Aunt Meg said.

"He's determined," Sascha said.

Suddenly, his swim shorts fell down, and he tripped on them and fell on his knees in the sand.

Everyone laughed. A few caught it on video. Maybe that would do it.

But nope. He pulled up his shorts, got back up, and started searching for another woman to harass.

They continued walking in the same direction as the guy, only a short distance behind him because he kept stopping to try to engage with women or fall on his face in the sand.

Omar said, "I'll take care of it." He took off to intercept the harasser and said, "I'm beach security. I've been observing you and seeing how you've been harassing women on the beach."