{"id":361,"date":"2016-11-27T20:29:33","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T04:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joesays.ca\/?p=361"},"modified":"2016-11-27T20:30:20","modified_gmt":"2016-11-28T04:30:20","slug":"turtle-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/?p=361","title":{"rendered":"turtle race"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"turtlerace\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Where are<\/em> you man?<\/p>\n

Bates stared at the four word subject line.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t need to open the message, that would be all there was, just the subject line, no body.\u00a0 Typical Thomas efficiency.\u00a0 But he liked the italicized verb.\u00a0 Added a touch of urgency.\u00a0 He liked that Thomas was feeling some stress.<\/p>\n

And why not.\u00a0 The quarterly call was in less than an hour.\u00a0 And he, David Bates, CTO, had disappeared. That is, disappeared from Thomas\u2019 radar, from the tightly controlled orbit of office, apartment, gym and coffee shop that formed his personal ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Where he was was in a coffee shop in Sayulita.\u00a0 The shop was on a corner, open to the street on two sides.\u00a0 The street on one side ran parallel to what the locals grandly called the river \u2013 little more than a drainage ditch at this time of year \u2013 and followed it a couple of blocks past surf rental shops and grubby food shacks before terminating at the beach.\u00a0 Across the road, on the sandy, shady shoulder overlooking the river, the proprietor had set out a few plastic tables and chairs for customers who preferred their morning coffee al fresco.\u00a0 Bates was sitting at one of these now, sipping a large and surprisingly fine latte.\u00a0 A toasted bagel sat untouched on a plate near his coffee cup, accompanied by a small dish of butter and a sealed single serving pack of strawberry jam.<\/p>\n

The other street on which the coffee shop fronted was Avenue de Palmar, according to Google Maps the primary thoroughfare of the town.\u00a0 But here, where it met the river, the road simply gave up.\u00a0 Its cobbled surface stopped short on the sandy river bank, and began again on the opposite shore.\u00a0 At this time of year, when the flow was meagre, vehicular traffic simply carried on, fording the shallow waters until they reached the other side.\u00a0 Pedestrian traffic was accommodated by a singularly low tech footbridge: a flimsy scaffolding of bamboo supporting a few sturdy planks.\u00a0 As Bates watched, scores of people \u2013 locals heading to work and school, tourists seeking coffee and breakfast \u2013 carefully traversed the twenty foot span.<\/p>\n

Where are<\/em> you man?<\/p>\n

Where, indeed.\u00a0 It was uncharacteristic behaviour, he\u2019d be first to admit.\u00a0 He sighed, indulgently, and clicked the reply button.<\/p>\n

Skype me.<\/p>\n

Thomas was on within ten seconds.\u00a0 Office wall in the background, crisp white button down Oxford shirt, open at the collar, two days worth of carefully groomed beard on his dimpled chin.<\/p>\n

Bates smiled as he saw his video feed come online.\u00a0 His pale face, tired but happy. Several days growth of untended blonde beard.\u00a0 Oakleys on his forehead.\u00a0 And in the background: blue sky, palm trees, a sliver of white sand.<\/p>\n

Two things: said Thomas in a calm even voice.\u00a0 First, where the fuck are you and second, for Chrissake put up your corporate avatar before we begin the call.<\/p>\n

Bates took a slow, savouring sip of his latte, and set the cup carefully back into its saucer which, he noticed, did not match the cup in any way.<\/p>\n

Not sure I can do the call, Thom.\u00a0 Seriously.<\/p>\n

Thomas pursed his lips for a moment.\u00a0 Not an option, Bates. We need this funding round. Funding needs your report.\u00a0 Ergo, you do the call.\u00a0 Again, where exactly the fuck are you.<\/p>\n

Bates sighed.\u00a0 A young man in jeans and stetson splished across the river on an elegant grey stallion, leading three other horses.\u00a0 He walked the horses onto the riverbank just beyond the footbridge, and tethered them in the shade of the huge trees that overhung the river.\u00a0 From there, they\u2019d provide horseback rides to the tourists, along the beach and through the jungle to the hills at the end of the bay.<\/p>\n

Mexico.\u00a0 Got a last minute deal.\u00a0 Thought what the hell.\u00a0 Here I am. Check this out.\u00a0 He swivelled the laptop so its camera could capture the young cowboy and his charges.\u00a0 What the fuck, eh?<\/p>\n

Bates, in 15 minutes we need to be on a conference call with our VCs. Thom\u2019s voice was the controlled monotone that he adopted when he was doing everything he could to suppress overwhelming anger.\u00a0\u00a0 They are expecting to hear a quarterly update from our CTO and they are expecting great things.\u00a0 \u00a0Things you and I were supposed to discuss at a meeting on Friday before you went AWOL.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a couple down here, used to be in software.\u00a0 Sold up, bought a house right on the beach.\u00a0 Know what they do now?\u00a0 They rescue turtle eggs.\u00a0 They dig them out of the sand and take them to this safe space near their house.\u00a0 And when they\u2019re ready, they release them so they can make their way down the sand to the ocean.\u00a0 Pretty cool, huh?<\/p>\n

Sorry, Bates, but what the fuck do turtles –<\/p>\n

It\u2019s really important that the turtles make their own way to the water \u2013 you can\u2019t just pick them up and put them in.\u00a0 They have to make that journey on their own.\u00a0 And it\u2019s crazy.\u00a0 There\u2019s birds circling all over, eyeing them up.\u00a0 They get close to the water, then a wave washes them way back up on shore and they have to start all over again.\u00a0 But they just keep going, and they\u2019re so small, like little grey tanks, but they just keep pushing through\u2026<\/p>\n

Bates, again, what the fuck-<\/p>\n

Thing about the turtles, only 1 in 1000 make it to the water and live, but those that do live to 150, 200 years old.\u00a0 Some odds, huh?<\/p>\n

He let that ride for a couple of beats, and sipped his latte.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we\u2019re doing Thomas.\u00a0 We\u2019re switching gears.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been all about health monitoring, right.\u00a0 Now we\u2019re moving into new territory.\u00a0 We\u2019re moving into health control.\u00a0 Listen: these turtles? \u00a0They live to like 150, 200 years old, right.\u00a0 And science tells me that what they have, we could have.\u00a0 But we need to study at source, the full lifecycle.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I\u2019m doing here.\u00a0 We\u2019re investigating \u2026 he paused, put his internal phrase generating machinery to work. \u2026biosourced life extension.\u00a0 We\u2019re on the scene of a genuine fucking scientific breakthrough.\u00a0 Sell that to the VCs.\u00a0 Put that in the fucking funding pipeline.\u00a0 That oughta buy you next three months, maybe six.<\/p>\n

Thomas suppressed a small laugh.\u00a0 You asshole.\u00a0 They\u2019ll eat it up. You know they will.<\/p>\n

Just leave me be, okay?\u00a0 I\u2019ll be back.\u00a0 But for now, handle the calls. \u00a0Tell them what you need to, but just leave me be.<\/p>\n

As you wish.\u00a0 Happy surfing.<\/p>\n

Bates clicked his Skype window down, and folded his laptop closed.\u00a0\u00a0 He drained his latte, took a bite of his bagel.\u00a0 It was barely nine in the morning, and the heat was already building.\u00a0 It would be eight or nine hours before they released the infant turtles on their nightly quest for the sea.\u00a0 He\u2019d be there again, of course, watching the tiny terrapins flailing across the sand, like a desperate gambler urging his horse to the finish line, knowing the odds were not good, not good at all.<\/p>\n

He looked across the road to the riverbank where the giant shaggy trees threw shade across the shallow, dawdling stream.\u00a0 Amigo, he called, you need help with the horses?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where are you man? Bates stared at the four word subject line.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t need to open the message, that would be all there was, just the subject line, no body.\u00a0 Typical Thomas efficiency.\u00a0 But he liked the italicized verb.\u00a0 Added a touch of urgency.\u00a0 He liked that Thomas was feeling some stress. And why…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":364,"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions\/364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joesays.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}