THE ENABLER

Malibu’s Paradise Cove, a secluded strip of beach bordered by reddish cliffs and yellow wildflowers, was purchased over 100 years ago by a family named Morris. The untouched land must have been something to look at back then -- before Paris Hilton filmed a music video there and Hummer drove a car off the pier for an ad. That’s what the Enabler thought while nursing a $7 Foster’s oil can in a wooden deck chair by the sea in front of the seafood-centric Paradise Cove Beach Cafe.

The Enabler had not come for the seafood, but to sit with a cold beer and watch the sun set into the watery horizon. In front of us, an icy couple sipped white wine while their son scampered from the waves. Doughy tourists in flowered board shorts inhaled bar peanuts, bellowed along to Linda Ronstadt on the jukebox and waited for the plastic red lobsters the hostess had given them to buzz.

It felt as if a Florida stereotype bomb had exploded all over this wind-swept cove. Even an adjacent wedding reception yielded little joy or optimism. The incessant buzz of the plastic lobsters and the smell of hot grease and withered clams became an untenable constant. As night fell the Enabler took our last swig of now-warm beer and pondered Milton.

28128 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, (310) 457-2503

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