Garry Fullerton for Skipper

"Hi I'm Garry Fullerton, Vote for me and I'll float your boat," his mother suggested. Her son gritted his teeth.

"I'm not running for class president," he said. "While I love you, I have a campaign team to write my ads and slogans. Please let them have their job security."

As Aunt Maria snorted. "Ah yes," she said. "I bet your writers are a bunch of milk sops who use Chat-GPT to create their content because they're not creative enough."

This family gathering was beginning to get on his neves. He poured himself another hard cider. "I forget how out of touch you are Auntie," he said "Here, I'll show you the latest campaign video my social media specialist posted."

Garry pushed a button on the remote and his smart wall came online. Within seconds he was staring into a hi-def image of his own flawless green eyes and perfect teeth. He loved it.

"This man wants to lead Ocean Princess City into an era of economic prosperity," the female voiceover said. "He's Garry Fullerton. CEO of Green Wave industries. This is a citizen of our city-state that cares about his neighbors. His company helped build our neighborhoods, plumbing systems, parks and more! Because of Gary's man power, Ocean Princess has been innovative and sustainable. With him as our Skipper, we'll all have a brighter future. Vote Fullerton for Skipper 2118."

The ad ended and suggestions of what to watch next appeared. His Aunt Maria squinted.

"Does that say 'twenty cute cats that you won't believe?'" She asked. "Oh Gare! You're so childish. I had no idea you were a cat fancier."

His Aunt's guffaws cut across his brain like razor blades. Garry thought briefly of strangling her with the string of pearls around her neck.

He clenched his fists. "Well every man needs something to relax himself," he said. "Mom, what did you think?"

Rebecca Fullerton set down her glass and blinked a few times. "I love seeing my baby on the Media," she said. "But why do you want to be Skipper, Garry?"

This was discouraging. He had hoped his own mother would understand. "Dad founded Green Wave Industries," he said "Thanks to Skipper Goodman's regulations on solid waste disposal, the company is hemorrhaging Cowry. At this rate Green Wave will be bankrupt."

"So you think being Skipper is the only way to save your daddy's legacy?" Aunt Marie asked. "This is stupid. You should look for legal loopholes first. Like shipping the garbage to Nova York or New Hong Kong. I hear the Chinese will give you a discount for giving them your waste."

Garry felt his eyeball twitch. "I'm sure they would," he said. "They love taking other people's things and turning it to their own purposes. It's just I would rather stay independent from their government and I don't like the idea of owing the United States anything either."

He pretended to check his smart watch. "It's getting late," he said. "Aunt Maria, will you take mother home? You know she's had three of those hard ciders."

The elderly spinster pulled a face. "Yes, very well," she said. "Ready to go? I'll bring the golf cart around." She slammed the door shut on the way out.

Rebecca hugged her only child. "I think daddy would've been very proud," she said. "I am too, don't let your Aunt get to you. She hasn't had an easy life. It's made her kind of bitter."

Garry sighed, and returned the embrace. "I know mom," he said. "Loosing her beachfront home to climate change couldn't have been easy. Now I'll see you for dinner tomorrow."

He could smell the alcohol on her breath as she kissed him on the cheek. "Love you goose," she said.

"Love you too mama," he replied.

A toot from the golf cart's horn cut their farewell short. "Gotta go, bye," his mom said.

"Bye," he said as he watched her leave. Her gait was really unsteady. Garry hoped it was just the cider. He'd hate to lose his other parent. It had been less than a year since his dad had died.

He sat down on his reclining sofa and scrolled through some cat videos to get his brain ready for sleep. Laughing at their mistakes felt good.

Garry's mobile rang. He tapped his watch to answer the video call. "Go for Fullerton," he said.

Mike Larsen, usually one of Garry's calmer employees looked really worried. "Mr. Fullerton," he said. "There has been an incident at our water treatment plant. Your presence is required as soon as possible."

Lesser men would've panicked. Garry plastered on a neutral look and reached for his boat keys. "I'll be there in forty five minutes," he said.

Five minutes sooner than promised, Garry made it to the water treatment facility. Antoni stood outside glowering. Mike followed soon after.

"It's not my fault boss!" Antoni said from the depths of his hoodie. The light gray fabric made Antoni look like the invisible man was talking. It was really dark, none of the lights were on at the plant this late at night.

"One of the sewage pipes got busted open when a couple of the techs got in a fight," Antoni continued. "One said the other one was---"

"Don't care what the dispute was," Garry said. "Mike, how many gallons were released into the water?"

The manager scrolled through pages of notes. "Approximately five thousand liters of untreated sewage," he said. "It will have spread through Ocean Princess' canals by morning."

Ah crap! If word got out that Green Wave had "Caddy Shacked" the city, Garry could kiss being Skipper goodbye. "Have we deployed any measures?"

Mike tapped his device's screen a few more times. "Containment buffers have been deployed and bioremediation is underway," he said. "Our experts estimate that we acted quickly enough to avoid major lasting harm to our reefs. However there may be algal blooms and fish kills in the area around the industrial district."

Was this some sort of nightmare? Garry felt dizzy. He took some calming breaths. "Right," he said. "At least we're doing something. Mike, I want our media team to try to controll the narrative. Antoni, have the techs responsible...terminated."

The large man pulled out a pair of antique brass knuckles. "Yes sir," he said.

Garry did some hard back paddling. "No, not killed," he said. "Just no longer in our employ. Fired. Not dead. Understand?"

Antoni mumbled and took off his favorite tools. "Yes boss," he said.

"Okay now that we have a plan," Garry said. "I'm going home and drafting a speech for the inevitable press conference."

In the morning, Gary turned on his smart wall and searched for the news feed. He groaned as he saw the top story. An asian looking news caster wiggled her head back and forth as she read the prompter.

"The worst ecological disaster Ocean Princess City has seen happened last night," the anchorwoman said. "Five thousand one hundred Liters of untreated sewage were leaked from the Green Wave Industries water treatment plant. We go to our live expert, Marine Ecologist Marika Inoue for an in depth analysis--"

Gary turned the wall off and flung down the remote. "Dammit!" He said to himself. He was about to go to the office when his phone rang. It was Bianca.

"Hey honey," he said. "What can I do for my sweetness?"

Bianca was hysterical. "Have you seen the new campaign add Skipper Goodman just published?" She asked. "It's just awful! They're saying you're responsible for a marine catastrophe. Her spokes guy says 'Gary Fullerton, wrong for the ocean, wrong for us!' Oh babe, this is just awful."

Gary couldn't speak. It was like someone had clamped his vocal chords together. All that hard work was down the drain. He'd never be Skipper. Unless...