He was glad to see her smile. More glad when he found how nice a smile it was. He shrugged off the class comment “Been paying those fees for years and barely use it. I think of it as giving to charity”. He sat down next to her on the rock, looking at nothing in particular as he answered her question “Well, it’s like this. I was in the Coast Guard, doing stuff like this for a living, but mostly for screw-ups in the water. Some irresponsible husband gets his family almost killed on a family boating, and I’m one of the guys who helps fish them out. That kind of thing.”<br/><br/>He smiled himself and shook his head “Only I had the funniest kind of luck. I would have stuff go wrong, or the weather wouldn’t be good for a Search and Rescue, or SAR as we called it. I’d do it anyway, and make it back with a save. One day I went out in this bad storm…nasty, nasty piece of shit storm, and the way I heard it, one of the new guys who hadn’t seen me go out before had said…” at his point, Goner had straightened himself up and threw a little country twang in his voice “Man…that guy’s a goner”.<br/><br/>“Apparently the rest of the group decided Goner was exactly the kind of name I deserved, because sooner or later I would be. I ran with a very morbid group, but they’re good guys. Some of them are still Coast Guard, but I’m not. I do the same thing I always did, just with my own company. It’s better for me…” we waved his hand around and smiled “At least it was, until my plane went down for some reason. Anyway, that’s what I call myself still. I happened to like it, so I kept it.”<br/><br/>“Any more questions? We can keep the podium open for a little while longer.” He looked at her again and gave a grin before staring back out into their surroundings.<br/>