Wrecker

15-year-old Valdez Jones is the eighth in his family to bear this name—but he prefers to go by the nickname “Wrecker,” a reference to the occupation of many of his forbears: salvaging goods from shipwrecks in the Florida Keys. Wrecker lives with his stepsister Suzanne’s. Wrecker’s father abandoned the family many years ago to chase his dream of being a star in Nashville, and Wrecker does not feel welcome in the house his mother shares with her new husband—Suzanne’s father Roger.

Wrecker has his own skiff and fishes on the ocean most days. One evening, he spots a huge purple “go-fast” speedboat run aground on a sandbar. Three men call to him for help, but his small boat does not have the power to tow them free. A silver-mustached man who seems to be the group’s leader throws Wrecker a beer can stuffed with money and asks Wrecker to try. Wrecker does, but is unsuccessful. The men do not want to call officials for help, so Wrecker advises them that in a few hours the tide will be high enough to lift their boat free. “Silver Mustache” tells Wrecker not to tell anyone he saw them.

Wrecker heads to the local cemetery, where he secretly borrows a ladder and hose from a nearby house and climbs over the fence to attend to his nightly job of cleaning the headstone of Sarah Chillingwood, a woman who died in 1978.