Comey's Beach House

And me

James Comey’s Beach House in Emerald Isle, NC

Do I feel bad showing a photograph of Comey’s beach house that I took a couple of years ago? Yes, because I do respect privacy. But he’s in the news and the beach is in the news so in my quest for filthy lucre I have cast my qualms and scruples to the salty sea air.

A couple of years ago, a handful of my besties from our MFA program in nonfiction at Goucher College gathered for several lovely October days on Emerald Isle in North Carolina. We read and wrote and critiqued and cooked and ate. And while the others walked the beach and plunged into the cool Atlantic waters, I sat on a third story balcony and looked at Comey’s beach house. I didn’t know it was Comey’s beach house when it first caught my eye. It was just the big purple house that sat between me and the ocean so it was impossible not to see.

I wondered who would build such a huge purple house right on the ocean. I have a great fondness for the color purple, particularly when paired with the color orange, and it happened to look striking against the gathering clouds on the horizon. And with the aurora borealis we saw one night.

Our gathering at Emerald Isle was just weeks before the 2024 election so as I sat on the balcony and stared at Comey’s beach house, I thought a lot about the man’s career. How, as FBI Director, his “October surprise” in 2016 involving Hilary Clinton’s private email server most certainly helped defeat her in her run for President in 2016, which lead to Trump’s first term. Then there was the trying-to-blend-in-with-the- drapes incident at a January 2017 event in the White House in order to avoid interacting with Trump. I get that last move but at 6’8” he understandably has a tough time not being noticed in a room. Then he really sealed his fate with Trump when the FBI investigated potential collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign with Russia. Oh, and he wouldn’t pledge his loyalty to Trump. All of which put Comey in the cross-hairs of the President’s ceaseless pursuit of his perceived enemies.

So the recent indictment for the seashell incident on Emerald Beach comes as no surprise, even though it’s clearly a diversion from more important things to focus on, and an INCREDIBLY STUPID waste of time and taxpayer’s dollars.

The day before we left Emerald Isle, I was sitting in my rocking chair on porch and I noticed that there were cars parked at Comey’s beach house. Then I saw a very tall man standing by the front door and I knew who it was. And, in retrospect, in my desire to always think that something interesting is happening just beyond my view, maybe this was the very day Jim Comey's seashell art came into being.