Of Sea and Cloud

by Jon Keller

  Virgil swung his arm and the heavy glass hit the side of Julius’s neck. Julius’s legs went out from under him and he looked at Virgil as if he’d stepped into a world he’d never known. Virgil dropped the glass. It hit Julius’s forehead with a tink. He crossed the room and knelt beside Jonah. Jonah looked at Virgil but didn’t move or speak and Virgil touched Jonah’s chin then rested his hand on Jonah’s forehead.

  I thought you were dead, Virgil whispered. I really thought he’d killed you. Virgil still had his cigarette in his mouth and he took a drag and released the smoke. He ran his hand over Jonah’s forehead and over his hair and he gripped Jonah’s shoulder. Are you okay?

  Jonah’s nose was bleeding and his ear looked frostbitten and the side of his lip was cut. I’m fine, Jonah said.

  You’re sure?

  Jonah nodded and Virgil helped him to his feet. They stood facing each other as if embarrassed by their separate weaknesses and each of them wondered what the other thought. Virgil stepped over Julius and took his glass from the floor and went to his truck and refilled the glass. The wind blew hard. Jonah was standing over Julius when he came back inside. He handed the drink to Jonah and Jonah took a swallow. Jonah’s chest pumped and his ears rang as he swallowed and he began to finish the drink but Virgil took it back.

  You shoot him?

  I guess he’s knocked out, Virgil said. The flashlight was on the ground next to Julius and Virgil kicked it across the floor. It’s a good thing I’m a short fat sonofawhore. He near took my head off.

  Jonah’s breathing subsided but he shook all over. He lit a cigarette. A movie was playing on the television and Virgil shut it off. He nudged Julius with his toe and Julius shot upright as if waiting and he stood wild in front of them but his hands were steady as stone.

  Easy, Virgil said.

  Julius’s face was gray. His neck pulsed.

  Sit down, Virgil said. Both of you.

  Neither moved.

  Sit down, he said again and his voice sounded as if it came from a different man in a different room.

  Jonah sat on the couch armrest near the doorway and Julius sat on a wooden chair.

  Virgil held his cigarette in his fingers. You got a ashtray, Julius?

  Julius glared at him. Color returned to his face and his lips swelled coal black. A worm of blood crawled down his chin and nested in the arrowhead of hair. No, he said.

  Virgil went to the sink and ran water on the cigarette then dropped the butt on the counter next to a pile of dirty cereal bowls. He came back into the room and faced Julius. This what you want?

  I don’t want nothing.

  You don’t want nothing, Virgil said. He stepped to Julius and slapped him. Blood and spit sprayed from Julius’s face. You must want something or you wouldn’t be clamfucking around and setting gear on my traps. Then you sink Jonah’s boat? You think that’s funny?

  It ain’t your ocean and I ain’t touched your traps.

  Why’d you sink his boat?

  Fuck off.

  My wife says I got to talk to you so that means we got to talk. Tell me what you want, Julius. Tell me what your goal is.

  The room was silent. They sat for a full minute and then the refrigerator kicked on. Julius didn’t say anything.

  Is it my daughter? Is that what it is?

  Julius smiled. His eyes moved to Jonah then back. Virgil lifted Julius from the chair and gripped his testicles and squeezed and Julius’s eyes bulged and the veins on his neck bulged. Virgil let go when Julius began to dry heave.

  So this is over, Virgil said.

  Julius didn’t respond.

  I said this is over, Julius.

  Julius coughed and spat. This ain’t never over, he muttered.

  Virgil slapped him again. Julius smiled and the stretching of his lips made more blood gush and Julius formed a circle with his lips and blew. Blood sprayed Virgil and dotted his face like freckles. Virgil knocked him down with a single glance to the nose then fell on him and cinched his arms up behind his back. He breathed hard as he held Julius’s face smeared into the carpet.

  Get me some fucking line, he said to Jonah.

  Jonah stared at Julius for a second then went out the door and took a coil of rope from the bed of his truck. The rope was frozen stiff so he put it in the sink and ran hot water over it to thaw then gave it to Virgil. Virgil tied Julius’s hands behind his back and hoisted his feet up behind him and tied those to his hands and dragged him by the rope across the floor. Julius’s baggy shorts slid down around his ass and his shoulders came out of his tank top.

  Get him in my truck, Virgil said to Jonah.

  What? Jonah stood over Julius. He imagined Charlotte’s hands touching the skin and he felt his stomach drop out.

  Get the whoreson in my truck.

  Jonah stared at Julius’s back until Virgil began pulling Julius by the feet. It took both of them to carry the bucking boy to the bed of Virgil’s truck. It was full dark. Jonah shivered and said, He’ll freeze to death back there.

  Good, said Virgil.

  We ain’t going to kill him. Jonah went into the house and stripped the blankets off the bed and took one from the couch and piled them atop Julius. He took his truck and followed Virgil down the east side of the river to the harbor. He pictured Julius on top of Charlotte with her fingers raking his sides. Gray trees glinted past. He watched Virgil’s truck bounce over potholes. His anger was gone. He hoped they would never get where they were going.

  • • •

  Virgil waited in his truck as Jonah rowed out to the Charlotte & Celeste. Jonah started the engine and brought the boat back to the wharf. Ice ringed the pylons. The harbor echoed with the roar of the single engine.

  They dragged Julius onto the boat.

  This ain’t a good idea, Jonah said. He wore his hood up but his bruised ear stung in the night wind. His head was fuzzy and heavy as a hammer. His teeth chattered. It’s fucking cold, he said.

  Shut up, Jonah.

  You thinking through this?

  My dad’ll fucking kill you, Julius shouted.

  Jonah shoved an oil-soaked rag into Julius’s mouth. He rolled him into a blanket then piled other blankets on top of him. They steamed out of the harbor and turned east along the shoreline. The north wind was hard and the sea choppy and everything was black save for the flasher buoy at Two Penny and the distant circling of the light on Drown Boy Rock. Virgil watched the numbers unfold on his GPS and he watched his compass as waves sprayed over the bow and pummeled the windshield and froze on the roof and baitbox and deck in a soft salt crust.

  They rounded the fir-covered peninsula and heard the steady gong of the buoy marking the channel through the narrows and they saw its green flash every four seconds as they passed. They crossed the bay and waves crashed over a series of ledges. The ice was growing thicker on the roof and gunwales and deck. The lights of a small village and the Coast Guard station and the bridge to Mason’s Island glowed in the distance. A lobster buoy shot by and Virgil throttled down and spun the boat around. He gaffed the buoy. He threaded the rope through the pot hauler and the rope coiled and froze at his feet. Freezing water sprayed his face and chest. He backed the hauler off. The rope stayed wedged tight in the hauler discs with the traps hanging somewhere in the water below them.

  What are you doing? Jonah said. He couldn’t see the color of the buoy Virgil had hauled and he didn’t know whose traps they were.

  Bring him over here.

  What for?

  Just get him, Jonah.

  Jonah hesitated and wondered if Virgil actually intended to drown Julius but he dragged Julius across the iced floor anyway.

  Get him up here, Virgil said.

  Together they lifted Julius to an awkward position on the washrail. Virgil untied one of Julius’s hands and one of his feet and held the hand out toward the pot hauler. Water slapped the hull. Virgil eased the hauler lever on and the hydraulic discs began to spin like gears with the rope sandwiched betwee
n them. He pulled Julius’s hand toward the hauler. The fingers grazed the spinning steel discs. Any closer and the fingers would be sucked between rope and steel and the hand would come out a mashed and gnarled chunk no longer attached to a wrist.

  Julius’s eyes were red in the night. The boat’s electronics glowed. The sea heaved.

  You want to tell me about Nicolas now? Virgil said. He pulled the rag out of Julius’s mouth.

  Julius didn’t answer. Virgil brushed the fingertips against the disc and Julius shrieked. Virgil pulled the hand back. A nail had caught and torn off and the finger bled but hadn’t gone in.

  My fucking God, Jonah yelled.

  Julius here’s going to tell us some things. What’d you do to Nicolas?

  Fuck you.

  What about Osmond? What’d he do? Which one of you did it? Or both of you?

  Julius bit his lips. I didn’t want that fucking pound.

  Virgil hit the hand against the side of the disc and the spinning metal ripped the skin from his knuckles. Julius howled and shook like a rattle in Jonah’s arms. Jonah felt beads of panic shaking within himself.

  What about Jonah’s boat? Virgil said. His voice whirled. Spit hung from his lips. You think you can run around and sink boats you little clamfuck?

  Julius didn’t answer.

  What the hell happened to Nic?

  He got done living.

  You’re a scared little clamfuck just like your father, aren’t you Julius? You did it, didn’t you?

  Julius smiled. His muscles tightened with a shot of adrenaline. His jaw worked for a moment before releasing its words. So what if I did? Maybe I did throw the old cocksucker in the pound. I’ll throw your fatfuck ass in there too.

  Virgil seemed to shrink. He wiped his lips dry. Jonah watched him breathe in and out. Then just as fast Virgil puffed his chest and latched onto Julius’s hand with renewed conviction and he shoved the fingers toward the hauler discs and the rope wound and Julius’s hand hit the rope.

  Jonah and Julius both landed on the floor and Virgil stood above them as Jonah worked his way out from beneath Julius. Julius stared at them and his mouth and nostrils and eyes all were black caves.

  Christ, Virgil said. He sped up the pot hauler so the traps rose quickly then he stopped it and in the slight delay before the traps began sinking he pulled the rope free of the discs and block. He dropped the rope overboard and tossed the buoys with it and throttled the boat into the night.

  Tie him back up, Virgil grunted to Jonah as he steered.

  Jonah tied Julius’s free hand behind his back again and shoved the rag back into his mouth and said into Julius’s ear, You owe me.

  Julius didn’t respond. Jonah left him on the floor and stood next to Virgil.

  I don’t know, Jonah said.

  I guess you didn’t quite give us a chance to know.

  That would’ve cut his damned hand off.

  Virgil faced Jonah and there was a gentleness in Virgil’s eyes. He shook his head and mouthed the word, No. Then he said, But don’t you fuck with me like that again. I saved your ass and now you go clamfucking me.

  They veered north into the cove that sheltered Osmond’s house and wharf and moored boat. Virgil switched the GPS off and the slight neon glow that had lit their faces disappeared. Osmond’s boat heaved in the chop. The hull was ringed with ice like a billowed skirt. The house and wharf were dark but Jonah could make out the gray cedar shakes and white trim breeched against the woods. He knew Osmond could hear them and thought, This will be bad.

  They came alongside Osmond’s boat and flopped Julius over the rails and onto the fiberglass deck. Jonah jumped over with him and wrapped him in the blankets and looked below and found several sets of oilgear and a few more blankets which he added to the pile. He pulled the bloody oil-soaked rag out of Julius’s mouth and leaned in close and saw Julius looking childish and frightened. Jonah felt the same way and wanted to apologize and untie him but thought of Charlotte again and his boat again and his father again and said, Next time you will be in a fucking trap.

  They pulled away and steamed downwind with the chop breaking against the stern. They both leaned against the bulkhead and wondered at the amount of ice forming on the boat. The engine grumbled. Virgil flipped the GPS on and watched the compass and steered south-southwest then west.

  Jonah peered at Virgil through the darkness then looked back at the water. He looked at Virgil again before he spoke. You believe him then, Virgil? That he did it? Drowned the old man in the pound?

  Virgil grimaced. No.

  Jonah was surprised. No?

  He’s full of shit, Jonah.

  I don’t know, Jonah said. Doesn’t seem full of shit to me. Why the hell would he lie?

  The boat rumbled and between the rumblings came a hard silence. Virgil looked Jonah in the eye. It was me, Jonah. I put Nicolas in the pound.

  Jonah shivered and clenched his hands and repeated to himself what Virgil had said but he knew he’d heard wrong.

  I put old Nic—, Virgil began again but his voice was drowned by the groan of the gong buoy that burst from the darkness with a sudden flash that lit the boat. The groan was eerie and deafening and in that frozen instant Jonah saw Virgil grimace then deflate as if he’d lost some piece of himself.

  The buoy disappeared as fast as it had come and Virgil spoke again.

  What happened was Royal James fished Nic up in his urchin drag. I took Nic’s body. And I dumped him in the pound. I should have told you, Jonah.

  Jonah put his palms on his ears and pinched his eyes shut. He didn’t want to hear another word. They rounded the head of Stone Island.

  Jonah?

  Jonah didn’t answer.

  You okay, Jonah? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.

  I’m just fucking cold, Virgil. I’m cold.

  The boat swayed. Virgil put his arm around Jonah and pulled him close as if to warm him but neither held any heat. It’ll work out, Virgil said.

  I really don’t care.

  Imagine that, Virgil said.

  Jonah let the words tumble in his head. He stepped away from Virgil. Imagine what?

  Virgil rotated his head as if it were a saucer spinning atop his neck and he peered at Jonah through the electronic glow. The Highliner don’t care.

  Jonah ground his molars together. He clenched his fists and breathed a lungful through his nostrils. I don’t care? I don’t fucking care, Virgil? You feed my father to fucking lobsters and tell everyone Osmond done it? I know why you did it, you sonofabitch. I know you. It’s because they never let you in the pound, ain’t it? Because my dad partnered with Osmond, you sonofawhore. After this long?

  No, Virgil whispered. The words leaked like bile from his mouth. No, Jonah.

  The hell not. Then you near rip Julius’s fucking arm off? And you say I don’t care? Well fuck you, Virgil. Fuck you. You’re fucking insane and you’re a goddamned liar and that’s it. I am done with you. Jonah looked off into the darkness. He could feel Virgil’s silence. Anger and adrenaline spiked like a cocktail through his body. And you know what, Virgil? I feel bad for Celeste. She don’t deserve such a fucked-up husband as you and slut daughter like Charlotte. You and her both can go to hell.

  Jonah, Virgil said but his voice was brittle and it fell as if frozen.

  When they reached the harbor Jonah pulled himself up by the davit and walked the iced rail to the bow. He settled to his knees and gaffed the mooring and pulled the rope through the iced chocks and over the bit. The water looked like tar beneath him. He sat in the bow of the skiff as Virgil rowed them back to the float and when the bow touched the float Jonah climbed out and left Virgil in the skiff.

  Jonah put his hood up and walked down the road. He didn’t look back at the harbor where Virgil sat in the skiff with his head in his hands and his entire body shaking as the skiff carried him into the silent and frozen night. Jonah tucked his chin to his chest and clasped his hands together within his sweatshirt pocket. He wa
lked toward the village. He looked at the few houselights. He pictured Virgil adrift in the skiff and felt a deep loneliness. He had nowhere to go and no one to go to. He’d lost both parents and he’d lost his girlfriend and his boat and now he’d lost Virgil. All that remained was his brother and for a moment he thought about Osmond and faith in blood but even from his brother he felt estranged.

  Eventually he heard Virgil’s truck start and climb the hill above the wharf and turn toward him. He thought of hiding behind a tree but didn’t have the energy. He kept walking. He hoped Virgil would drive by but at the same time hoped he would stop. The truck approached. Jonah didn’t turn then as it passed he thought with a satisfied fury, Fine.

  Then the brake lights flashed.

  Jonah reached the cab and the passenger side window rolled down.

  I’m sorry, Jonah, Virgil said and the voice shook and struggled.

  Jonah kept walking. Virgil waited a moment before catching up.

  Jonah stopped.

  We had that storm surge right after Nic went lost, remember? Those big tides and onshore winds. He would’ve sunk and those currents would’ve pinned him to the No Where Ledge that Royal drags. It all funnels into that ledge.

  So what? So he fell the fuck overboard and washed into a ledge. That don’t mean he was murdered, and it sure as shit don’t give you reason to put him in the fucking pound. Are you fucking psychotic? Why didn’t you call the police? They could’ve done a autopsy and found out how the fuck he died. Maybe he had a heart attack. Maybe he choked on a fucking cigarette butt.

  Jonah, Virgil said again.

  Jonah saw that Virgil was crying and it was a strange thing to see but he didn’t care. Just leave me alone, Jonah said and he walked off the road into the snow and disappeared among the trees.

  Celeste was still up when Virgil stepped shivering into the kitchen. She waited for him to say something but he didn’t. She saw blood spattered on his face and his face red and swollen and she said, Oh God, Virgil, are you okay?