Dangerous Shores: Book Two; Hell or High Water

by Christine Conaway

  “How is it going to help us if we get sick and we all die? If that’s what you want, then by all means bring them aboard. Don’t you think you should ask Hannah if she wants to die?”

  “Stop this! Frank is right, we can’t help them. Other than the guy and little girl, I think everyone else is already dead. The guy is sick for sure but maybe the child is and maybe she isn’t but she will be. If she’s not sick, she will die anyhow when the boat motor stops or it runs aground, or it sinks.”

  “I wonder why the little girl doesn’t look sick?” Ellen voiced Frank’s thoughts.

  Frank had witnessed some caregivers who did not get sick in Africa and others who had followed procedures exactly and had contracted the plague.

  Frank asked, “Ask him how many are dead and how long they have been out here.”

  “Wait a minute. Good thinking this might be important.”

  “¿Cuántos de ustedes están enfermos?”

  “¿Cuánto tiempo has estado aquí?”

  “Nueve días.”

  “Nine days,” he said and took seconds to think. “She should either be very sick or dead as sick as her father is. She could be immune.”

  “Frank?” Both Ellen and Alan stared at him as if it were his decision alone. He saw Hannah standing on the steps slowly nodding her head yes. He briefly wondered how he got to be their leader.

  Against his better judgement, he nodded, “Okay. Tell him we’ll take her.”

  Alan turned to face the boat. With relief in his voice he yelled, “Sí, vamos a llevarla.”

  “How are we going to get her without exposing ourselves?” Ellen asked.

  “Oh my God,” Hannah exclaimed. “Oh God no!”

  The man had shut his motor off and struggled to his feet. In his arms he held the little girl. She was screaming as if she already knew what was going to happen. He leaned over and slipped her into the water. She tried to grab the low gunnels on the boat and he pushed her away. They could hear him yelling at her between his own sobs. Again he had to pry her hands off the gunnels. He grabbed an oar and pushed her farther away from the boat. She was floundering on the water, screaming. Quickly the man started the old motor and chugged away.

  “Well son of a bitch!” Frank exclaimed as he dove into the water. When he came to the surface, he frantically searched. She was gone. With a few quick strokes he arrived where he thought she had been and dove. His fingers tangled in her hair and he grabbed a handful. On the surface he saw she was not breathing. Three strokes and he was back at the stern of the boat. “She’s not breathing,” he yelled as he pushed her up to Alan’s waiting hands.

  Alan pulled her in and flipped her on her stomach, a few hard pushes between her shoulder blades and she puked water over the deck, and began to cry.

  Hannah was there with a large beach-towel and wrapped her up. “I’ll take her,” she said and lifted her up. “You’re going to be okay little one,” she crooned. “I got this,” she said letting everyone know she was in charge. She took the little girl down below.

  The man had motored his boat close enough to yell at them. “Gracias. Estamos todos muertos aquí.”

  “He is thanking us for taking his daughter. He says they are all dead.”

  “Ask him why they are all sick and does he know what it is.”

  “¿Qué es? ¿Sabes por qué estás enfermo?”

  “Todos ellos están muertos en tierra. Es la plaga negro.” He coughed for several minutes and turned his boat away as if he thought they would give back his daughter.

  Frank shook his head, he recognized the man’s words. It was the plague. If he was a betting man he would place his money on pneumonic.

  They heard the motor sputter as the boat turned back to them. When he was close enough the man hollered, “Su nombre es Olivia. Por favor, decirle que la amaba.” He turned and putted away. The sound of his coughing followed him.

  Alan was trying to keep it together and didn’t immediately translate for them. Finally, he said, “He wanted us to know her name is Olivia, and to tell her someday that she was loved.” Without another word he went down below.

  “I can only imagine how that man must feel,” Ellen completely broke down and threw herself into Franks arms.

  Chapter Five

  Hannah had given Olivia a bath with some of their fresh water, rinsed her hair, dried her, fed her and put her to bed in the v-berth. She had laid down with the little girl who was confused, and scared and stuck in a situation with people she not only didn’t know, but people who didn’t speak the same language. She had cried herself to sleep wrapped up in Hannah’s arms. Once she was asleep and unlikely to wake, Hannah went to the cockpit.

  The rain had settled into a fine mist with indications of stopping completely.

  “Ellen, I gave her a taste of your sleep aid and some of the doxycycline I found in the emergency medical kit. I’d like to keep her on the antibiotics for a full ten days. As hard as it is to believe, I don’t think she is sick at all. But, I have heard of people who have natural immunities to viruses. She has no temperature or cough that I can detect. We’ll keep an eye on her and if anyone gets so much as a sniffle or cough or doesn’t feel good in any way you need to say something. If this is the plague it needs to be addressed immediately.”

  “Wow” Frank said, “that is the most I have ever heard you say in one sentence ever.”

  “Maybe it’s the first time you’ve ever listened to me.” Hannah joked back.

  “So what are our plans going to be now?” Alan asked. He had slid over to sit by Hannah who was staring off into the mist, but seeing nothing.

  “I think as soon as it’s daylight we should go ahead and leave like we talked about. We now know that we have to keep our contact with others to a minimum. We don’t even know exactly where those people came from.”

  “Yes we do,” Hannah interrupted. “Santiago De Cuba. Olivia said they live in Santiago.”

  “Well, I guess we do know then. Which doesn’t bode well for Cuba then,” Frank said. “I think we still need to get gone. We don’t want any more boat people to show up.” He looked at Ellen pointedly, “We don’t have room for any more refugees.”

  “Her father did say they were all dead. We don’t know if he was talking about them in the boat or the people where they came from. My guess without power, the Island of Cuba will be decimated,” Alan said, “What do you think it will be like in Panama?”

  “We’ll have to worry about Panama when we get there. Having to go by Jamaica and Columbia will be our next ordeal. We can use the sails until we get close to Jamaica, but I’d like to use the motor to get away as fast as possible. Then we can worry about Columbia.” He looked at Ellen and asked, “How much extra fuel do you have?”

  “Whatever is in the tank; the gauge is pretty accurate and the jugs I took off of the trawler, so about thirty-six gallons in the jugs. There is another jug but I don’t think it’s diesel. It’s not gas for sure. Maybe you can check it out.”

  “I’ll do that in the morning.” A scream tore through the air stopping all conversation. They all leapt to their feet thinking they were being attacked.

  “I’ve got her,” Hannah said, “She’s probably scared to death waking up all alone.”

  “I guess the sleep aid didn’t affect her like it did Hannah when I gave it to her.” Alan commented.

  “Hannah probably didn’t give her enough, considering how upset she was. That’s okay we want her to sleep when we do, not be up all night.”

  Hannah came back to the cockpit with the little girl wrapped around her body. Her arms had a death grip around Hannah’s neck. “Hey everyone, look who woke up.”

  She sat down with Olivia facing her. “Olivia, do you want to meet my friends?”

  Olivia shook her head no. Everyone was surprised because it looked like the girl understood what Hannah had asked her.

  “Does she…” Ellen began, but stopped at a nod from Hannah.

  “Guys this is Ol
ivia. She is six years old and she speaks English. She was going to school because her Momma said she was so smart.”

  “Momma?”

  “Yes Honey. Remember I told you Momma and Papa went to be with God. They gave you to us to look after until it was your turn to go.”

  “And Nana too. My Momma told me she was going to see Nana because Nana needed her.” Olivia’s arm’s had slowly slipped from Hannah’s neck. She was now twisting Hannah’s long hair around her fingers.

  Alan leaned toward Hannah, “Hello Olivia. My name is Alan.”

  Olivia turned her head and gave him the full benefit of her smile, then buried her face in Hannah’s breasts.

  Ellen was never sure of herself around children. She had never been a babysitter growing up, nor did she have friends who had small children. She never knew what to say to them. It was obvious that Hannah had a way with children. Olivia didn’t want to have anything to do with anyone but her.

  Alan and Frank were in a discussion about their departure and with Hannah busy entertaining Olivia, Ellen sat and studied her crew. Alan had changed the past couple of weeks. She suspected it was from Franks influence. He seemed more sure of himself or maybe he was just growing up. He had already taken on more than most full grown men. Frank had taught him to break all of their guns down, clean them and put them back together. He knew which clip or magazine went with each gun and the target practice he and Frank had been doing had improved his aim. While they had only been shooting the twenty-two he seemed more confident around the guns.

  As far as Frank went, he was Frank. She found herself drawn to him and she felt he felt the same about her. She would catch him occasionally watching her. When he was caught, he simply smiled and took his attention elsewhere. Maybe someday when they were safe she would explore her feeling to a greater depth. Until then there wouldn’t be any time for romance. She thought it would complicate both of their lives. Their minds needed to be one keeping them all safe. Now that they had Olivia to worry about she doubled that complication. They would all have to do what they could to keep her safe.

  Alan stood and helped Hannah to her feet. While Ellen had been lost in thought, Olivia had fallen asleep and by the looks of it, Hannah was ready to turn in also.

  “Good night Ellen…Frank. Wake me early so I can fix breakfast and sandwiches for lunch.”

  “Sandwiches? We have bread?” Frank asked with interest. “I thought we lost all the flour?”

  “You’ll have to wait and see tomorrow.” She carefully climbed down the ladder. Alan hovered making sure she didn’t fall.

  “That is so sad. We may have the only living survivor of Cuban descent. I can’t imagine how her father felt when he put her in the water. That poor little girl.”

  Frank didn’t see it her way, “That poor little girl as you called her is the luckiest little girl I know. What if we hadn’t been sitting out here? She would have been floating around in a boat full of corpses. The best she could have hoped for was for the boat to sink and her drown. Much better than starving or sitting with that mess until she did die. I would say this is her lucky day.”

  “You do have a way of putting things in perspective don’t you? Once again you’re right. I can’t imagine how our lives are going to change starting right now. Olivia could be the most important person on this boat.”

  “True, right along with Hannah and Alan. They could be the beginnings of our new population”

  “Yep, we can put them in cages and breed them like farm animals. Then sell the babies for profit.”

  Ellen had risen to go below; Frank was taking the first watch. It took several seconds for Ellen to process what Frank had said. She wheeled to face him. Seeing the look on his face they both burst into laughter.

  “You are incorrigible!” she finally managed to gasp.

  Chapter Six

  Daylight found them motoring past the south-western tip of Cuba. They had been farther down and closer to the coast of Cuba than they had previously thought. Somehow, Franks star sights had been off by a hundred or so miles. This error in navigation explained how the chug had reached them. They were normally used by refugees fleeing to America seeking political asylum and not used for long range boating. The chug, so named because they were usually primitive and “chugged” along held as many refugee seekers as it could hold.

  As close to the Cuban shore they had been, they were fortunate that they had not been attacked or boarded earlier. They agreed to use better security in the future. Being boarded at all would be a disaster, but to be boarded by people who were sick would be devastating.

  By noon the wind had started with barely a ripple and quickly escalated to a pleasing 15-20 knots. Frank decided to put up the main to save their fuel. He and Alan had jury-rigged an old sail that Ellen had to use as a main with the spinnaker to act as their jenny. The original sails had been confiscated at Garden Key by the military group who had taken over the island, in order to prohibit Ellen from leaving.

  The set-up was far from ideal, but it did move the boat along at a good clip. Without the wind gauges, Franke estimated their speed around five knots. Having nothing else to do, Ellen and Alan sat in the cockpit relaxing and keeping watch.

  Hannah was entertaining Olivia in the v-berth. They didn’t have children’s toys so Hannah told her stories, and through conversation was able to learn more about the circumstances on land. It sickened her that this child had been through so much for her age. The things Olivia told her would have been difficult for an adult to handle let alone this small girl.

  “Hey Olivia, you stay here I have something I need to get. Okay? I’ll be right back,” she said and went to the cockpit ladder. “Alan, do you remember where you put my backpack?”

  He appeared in the opening, “Yep, it’s in the aft cabin. Not sure exactly where, but that’s where I put it. Some of the smaller things I grabbed are in a small gray tote. I wrote your name on the end of it.”

  “Thanks,” she said as she opened the aft cabin door. “Well crap!” While she had organized this room when at anchor, the motion of the moving boat had trashed the interior. She hadn’t bothered to look in any of the containers Ellen had stored there, just arranged them to make the room orderly. Now they were down, lids had come off and contents spilled. She did spot her backpack in the far corner. She had taken her clothing out, but nothing else. She knew Ellen had stuffed the backpack with things she thought Hannah might want sometime in the future, but she had felt too emotionally raw to consider looking through the stuff. Everything in it was from some time in her past divided from her now life by what had happened to her. She hadn’t felt mentally competent to deal with the before. Because of Olivia, she felt she was ready to see what they had packed for her.

  “Ah ha!” she declared spotting the gray container with her name written in black felt pen. Maybe, depending on what Alan had thought she would want, there would be something in it for Olivia. He had said they tried to gather as many personal possessions as they could.

  After rearranging loose food and partially filled containers, she had the backpack over her shoulder. Gripping the tote, she backed out of the stateroom and used her butt to push the door closed. The tote was heavy and she couldn’t imagine what he had put in there to create the weight.

  Olivia had not moved; she was sitting exactly where Hannah had left her. Not one of the kids she had baby sat in her past would have done that. They would have been tearing things apart; getting into everything. Olivia was the quietest child she had ever been exposed to.

  “Here we go. You want to help me explore in here?” She asked, turning to rest the backpack on the bed. The container she placed under the end of the v-berth.

  From the backpack, the first thing Hannah pulled out was her old jewelry box. The little ballerina on top would dance lop-sided from being bent over. She saw Olivia’s eyes grow big in anticipation, “Let me see what I have in here and then you can see it. She didn’t want the little girl to get her finge
rs stuck by anything sharp. She dumped it out on the mattress. There were strings of beads and faux-gold and real gold chains, earrings that had screw on backs and clip on backs. She remembered playing dress up when she was the same age as Olivia. However, she had friends her own age to play with. Olivia had just adults and Hannah hoped she still remembered how to play pretend.

  Hannah dusted out the velvet covered bottom so it would be clean when the returned the treasures to the box. Her finger snagged on the corner of a paper that had somehow gotten pushed down under the bottom layer. She pulled on it and the bottom popped out into her lap.

  “Hmmm, what do we have here?” It was notebook paper folded up into a small square. She wondered if it was a treasured note from a friend she had saved for some reason. Maybe a note from a friend now long gone.

  She would look at it later she thought and slipped into her shorts pocket. She pushed the bottom layer back in and set it in front of Olivia.

  “There, you can put whatever you want into it.” She spread the treasures out, removed a couple pieces that used pins to hold them on and told Olivia, “Actually how about if I give this all to you? You can play with this stuff whenever you want because it’s all yours now.”

  “You are one strange little kid,” she thought when Olivia simply touched each piece with the tips of her fingers, her eyes darting from Hannah to the jewelry as if

  From the opening of the pack, Hannah pulled two stuffed animals. One was all ratty and worn while the other was newer. She handled the worn out rabbit and thought of her Mom. She had gotten it from a quarter crane machine when Hannah was much younger. That rabbit; Thumper had been Hannah’s constant sleeping companion for years. He had listened to all of her problems and absorbed her tears in his furry body. She had even taken Thumper to college with her.

  She handed the bear to Olivia, “Here you can have this one. This bunny is all worn out.”

  Olivia, looked at the bunny and then the bear. She seemed to know, the value of the bunny, because she was looking at it with longing. Hannah couldn’t resist and offered Thumper to her. The bunny had helped her and maybe he could help Olivia too.