The Breakfast Thief

Here is a true story what do you make of it?  Could it be a spy story?

 

Mayne Island is one of the Southern Gulf Islands situated off the British Columbia coasts. Others are Saltspring,    the Penders Islands, Galiano and Saturna  Islands. Art workshops and associated   artesian pursuits abound   here. It is easily accessed by a forty minute British Columbian  ferry ride from Tsawwassen , an hour’s drive from the Vancouver area. Rich people buy cottages there and invite other rich people to visit them. Being the closest    Gulf Island to Vancouver, I am expected to write it is a popular day tripping place for people living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Well, most go once, with a community group for cycling and hiking but then tend to venture else  where, seeking more kms to cycle or more strenuous hikes. Nothing much happens on Mayne Island, which of course is appealing. It has a light house but it is not as famous or well photographed as Peggy’s Cove one in Nova Scotia. The light house is called Active Pass Lighthouse. If the chief attraction of an area is the light house, then you know there won’t be too much   time spent on planning your visit.

My wife and I were in the breakfast line up of the Queen of Nanaimo   BC Ferry. Recently departed from Twassennen and bound for Mayne Island. There were not many of us in the breakfast line up. We read and re- read the posted breakfast combinations.

I was pre deposed to only a coffee and maybe a muffin. The person in front of us was a man of average build wearing fashionable kayaki shorts and a blue T-shirt. Suddenly a women,  joined him. She was about the age of a woman. Nether young nor old and presumably his wife. I   discerned an English accent but did not hear what she said saying. The accent was more interesting to me than what they were saying. Possibly “ eggs two with bacon?” He was not frightening but he did glance at me in the line up. Perhaps he would have started a conversation or was in the of habit checking for danger. He also had an English accent, not a posh one, just an English accent. I mused they might be tourists. I noticed he had a small red and white scupa diving ensign on his T-shirt. I left my wife to negotiate the make up of her Coastal Cafeteria  breakfast I moved to a vacant table with coffee and muffin.

“Sorry it took so long. The man in front took my breakfast.”

“ Perhaps he has something on his mind”, I replied.

Later that day we cycled to Georgina Point and walked around the Active Pass Lghthouse. I dutifully took a selfie. There was a  solitary man on a picnic table reading a newspaper. We walked around the   park peering at the cliffs. I then saw another man close to the lighthouse. We were too far away to talk but we aware of each other. Then I saw the women. The one that was the age of a women . I reminded my wife that was the  man who had stolen her breakfast. It is quite common on an island with limited  attractions and  limited kms to travel to  encounter the same people on a visit.

The man on the picnic table replied that we were  looking at the Pender Islands. He had a heavy accent as if English was not his first language. For some reason I placed him from South Africa.

My wife and I eventually cycled away,  aspirating ourselves on the humongous hill. There is always a colossal hill leading away from a light house Well, it was Mayne Island , renowned for its quality hills. I was in a zone, only known to cyclists grinding up a hill. Everywhere  you look there is green and the hidden  birds  seemed to send chirps of. encouragement. I was jolted into another zone by a gun shot sound. Then another. I heard a truck gearing down  and witnessed it crawling by us. So much for the firearm discharge. The driver   was the  breakfast  thief  with the woman. He darted a glance at me .  The truck displayed a Veteran Nova Scotia licence plate. Nothing much happens on Mayne Island. 

Or does it?