by J. J. Kapka
She poured all her energies into trying to keep the boat from turning over. Her heart racing, she found it difficult to think. Several times she tried to give the sail a little slack, but that only served to threaten to slap her over to the other side, where it would undoubtedly just fill again. Tears stung her eyes, as she recognized that she’d stupidly gotten herself in way over her head. And the scariest part was that it could cost her life.
The sun shone deceptively overhead, but it took every fiber of her lagging muscle strength to maintain her upright position in the face of the incredibly powerful wind. Maybe it was pointless to try to keep upright if she was just going to keep moving farther and farther away from the island. Perhaps her best plan of attack was to let the boat go over. That way, she could at least stay put so that Becker and Theo might be able to catch up to her if they could get their hands on a motorboat.
Gathering her courage, Maddie resolved that before she would be slammed down, she would at least give the attacking wind a fight. She tried as best she could to maneuver herself into a turn. Unfortunately, the whipping wind was too much for her amateur abilities. As she’d expected, Madison soon found herself capsized and struggling underwater amid an array of ropes that had entangled themselves around her as the currents began pulling at them.
Finally able to free the rope that had gotten itself between her legs, she pulled it to bring herself to the surface. Gasping as her head emerged above the choppy swell, Maddie saw the boat drifting on its side some ten feet away. Still pulling on the rope, she was at last able to reach out and grab hold of the side and haul herself halfway out of the water. She paused for a few minutes to catch her breath after her enormous struggle.
Thinking she might be able to attempt to right the boat by herself after she could breathe somewhat normally again, she tried climbing onto what had been the underside and using her weight to try to pull it back down again. But the weight of the waterlogged sail made that impossible. All Maddie could think to do at that point was to try to somehow lose the sail.
She was just about to swim underwater to the other side of the boat again, when the sound of an approaching boat motor caught her attention. Looking wildly around, she expected to see Becker and Theo. Instead a small, dark blue fishing boat approached her. The boat had obviously seen better days. When it got as close as it could and had turned sideways so as not to hit her and the Hobie, Maddie saw that the man piloting the boat had seen better days as well. The wrinkled face of a fisherman peered down at her, as if she were some new variety of fish. Maddie numbly wondered where Theo and Becker were; perhaps they’d sent this boat out to get her. But why didn’t they come, too?
Still, beggars can’t be choosers. With the last ounce of her strength, she swam over to the fishing boat’s side and gratefully reached up to grab the old man’s outstretched hand. For a minute, she thought she might pull him over, too, as she struggled to climb up the boat’s wet wooden hull. She finally got to a point where she could grab the top edge with her other hand. After that, Maddie was able to swing a leg over, and somehow, with a fair bit of pushing and pulling on both their parts, she was at last dragged over onto the deck, undoubtedly much like any of the countless fish this man must have caught in his lifetime. Today’s catch was a doozy.
Trying to retain some small semblance of dignity in the midst of her rescue, Maddie staggered to her feet and plopped, exhausted, onto the nearest chest. Suddenly, realizing how close she had just come to dying, she dissolved into tears, frightened and thankful and bewildered all at the same time. The momentum built, and before long, the tears turned to massive sobs.
All through this display of emotion, the man stood quietly and watched, finally reaching over to pat her on the back as if to say everything would be fine. And, in truth, now that she’d been rescued, it would.
Just as trains take a while to come to a complete stop, Maddie’s weeping took a while to diminish. Looking up through bleary eyes, she tried to get a grip on her sobbing. When it had become long-winded shudders, she finally caught enough breath to spill out a wholehearted stream of thank-yous to the old fisherman.
He stared uncomprehendingly. Shrugging his shoulders, he patted her again, as the worst was obviously over, shuffled back to the wheel, and put the boat back into gear.
With a sigh of relief, Maddie settled back against the rough boarding behind her and envisioned an ecstatic reunion with Becker once she got back on dry land. For what remained of the day, she would snuggle up with him on their bed in the cabin and have a good, long sleep. She could barely see the tip of Santorini on the horizon and remembered again her terrifying trip away from the safety of the shore.
As the boat puttered along, Maddie tried to guess how long it might take them to get back. She was eager to see Becker, and she knew he must be wild with worry over whether she was all right. The boat was slow, and the strange wind wasn’t helping matters any, but she tried to be optimistic. Maybe a half hour will do it.
She sat up straight and watched the faint outline of Santorini, knowing that as it grew bigger, she would be ever closer to Becker and dry land. With growing dismay, however, she realized that Santorini, as little as there was left of it, was disappearing by the second. Not wanting to get alarmed, she at first wondered if the fisherman had to come in at a different angle, or perhaps he would dock on another part of Santorini altogether.
But that notion was dispelled as with each labored puff of the motor, they lost all visual contact with the island. Judging by where the sun was, they were, in fact, heading directly away from it. With growing dread, Maddie got up with the intention of somehow trying to convey to the captain the necessity of her getting back to the little piece of Santorini she’d left behind less than an hour ago.
Try as she might, though, the man just shook his head. Every time she mentioned Santorini, he would only point behind them.
“Oh, this is useless,” Maddie muttered in frustration. But she didn’t want to offend this kind old man who had saved her life, so she decided to let the chips fall where they may and went back to her perch. Thinking back to when he’d picked her up, she concluded he hadn’t been sent by Theo and Becker after all. He just happened to be passing by. And by inference, that also meant Becker had no idea where she was and whether she was dead or alive.
~~~
The Becker Chronicles—Santorini
Becker had watched with a small amount of uncertainty as Maddie had sailed off by herself. He wasn’t entirely sure she was up to managing the Hobie by herself, but he was also sure she probably wouldn’t have wanted him to point that out to her. He thought he’d made some real strides in winning her back, and he didn’t want to screw things up just as they were getting so close. So, with some trepidation, he’d stood there for a few minutes with Theo, making sure she got off okay.
Not only had she done okay, she’d done amazingly well. He felt his heart swell with pride as she’d tacked back and forth with apparent ease. Still, he was comforted by the fact that Maddie kept herself within the limits she’d promised Theo. After the first few anxious minutes, he breathed a sigh of relief and settled down onto the beach with Theo, where they started speculating on Nick’s progress in overseeing the repairs on the sailboat.
At the same time that the sun came blazing out, they felt the wind do a tremendous shift around. Almost as one, Becker and Theo rose to their feet to see how Maddie would handle this. At first she seemed fine: she hadn’t been flattened, and the sail still seemed to be under control. But with mounting alarm, they watched as she passed her usual turnaround point. The farther the Hobie raced from that point, the greater their sense of dread that something was not quite right.
Theo angrily slapped his hand on his leg. “I should never have let her go out alone.” He told Becker that even beyond her amateur skill level, there was the problem of the meltemi winds that would kick up in summertime around many of the Greek islands. They would suddenly go high and usually stay that way unti
l sunset. He further explained that Maddie was justifiably afraid of turning around in the high winds. He figured she knew she would certainly turn over if she tried to reverse directions.
Helplessly, they ran up to the water’s edge, waving and calling to Maddie to come back to shore. Even if she overturned, they could easily grab another sailboat and go out to get her. But with each passing second, the ferocious wind blew her farther and farther out to sea. Realizing it would be futile to attempt to chase her in a sailboat by this time, they went over to the Hobie rental stand, which kept a motorboat on hand to help people who got into trouble. Unfortunately, the boat was already being employed by the attendant, who had gone out in the opposite direction to help yet another person who had run into trouble.
Looking at each other, they made a split-second decision to make a mad dash back to the marina to find someone else with a motorboat. Even at a flat-out run, they didn’t get there for another ten minutes. By then, Becker’s heart was beating nearly out of his chest from fear and from putting his all into the run.
Theo dashed around trying to find someone on board a boat, to no avail. With the earlier clouds and winds, people had moored for the day and gone into town.
Just as they were about to give up, a small boat came motoring back into the harbor. As the man on board prepared to tie up, Becker and Theo jumped onto the craft. Going full tilt in Greek, Theo explained their dire situation.
The man simply nodded in acknowledgement and immediately set out at a full roar. They headed parallel to the beach until they got to the point from which Maddie had departed, then turned out toward the sea. But just as the winds had worked against Maddie, they also worked against the small motorboat. Wave after wave came crashing over the hull, as the boat struggled to get beyond the surf and out to the swells.
As the small boat labored, Becker knew they were losing precious time. In fact, he scanned the horizon and couldn’t see Maddie at all. Accepting a pair of binoculars from the man operating the boat, Becker gratefully raised them to his eyes. But searching through them proved a struggle as the boat dipped up and down, and the many intervening waves and swells did the same. After having gone back and forth along the horizon three times, on the fourth try, Becker finally made out a spot of white. Now that he had something to train the binoculars on, he focused in further. His heart dropped in his chest when he saw that it was the sailboat, and that it had overturned.
Excitedly, he handed the binoculars to Theo, who proceeded to shout out directional instructions. It took what seemed like ages to fight their way over the waves, and as each minute passed, Becker grew increasingly frantic. When they at last drew up next to the overturned Hobie Cat, Becker fully expected to find Madison still clinging to its side. As he anxiously searched first one side and then the other to no avail, he felt hysteria welling up inside him. “No!” he shouted out loud. “This can’t be. She can’t have drifted away from here. She’s a strong swimmer…”
Meanwhile, Theo jumped off the motorboat and dove underwater to see if perhaps Maddie had gotten tangled in the ropes and been unable to get back to the surface. Finding no trace of her below the water, he bobbed back up to relay that one piece of encouraging news to Becker. Then he worked hard to right the boat again and tie it to the back of the motorboat, lowering the sail to make it easier to tow.
His heart thudding, the only thing Becker could think to do was to once again pick up the binoculars and scan the entire area, in hopes that somewhere in the vicinity, he would see Maddie treading water. The rising and falling swells continued to make such a search difficult. With each passing minute, in which he could spot nothing but water, he grew ever more frantic that the opportunity to rescue Maddie had passed. The only thing he could make out was the receding outline of what appeared to be a fishing boat heading away from Santorini. His heart skipping, he wondered if, by some small chance, the boat had encountered Maddie.
He pointed out the boat to Theo, who then engaged in another rapid-fire exchange with the man who had so kindly brought them out here. Clearly, the man did not buy into Becker’s thought to give chase to the boat. Apparently, he had his own idea.
“He says it’s time to alert the authorities. We’ve already lost a lot of time coming out here by ourselves. While there’s still daylight left, our only hope is to go back in, report her missing. and try to get as many people out to the search area as possible. They will also be able to alert other island harbors. Wherever that boat is going for the night, the word will be out that we’re looking for Maddie. If she’s on it, the boat owner will undoubtedly be in touch.”
Grudgingly, even guiltily, Becker agreed. How foolish of him to think that they alone could have handled this. He should have gotten the authorities involved immediately. Crestfallen, Becker slumped on his seat with his head in his hands, as they turned and headed back into the harbor.
They made much better time going in, since they didn’t have to fight both the waves and the wind. As soon as they tied up at the dock, Theo leaped out, with Becker close behind following him as he went into the office, and reported what had occurred. The Port Authority immediately put a boat into service and sent out a call for volunteers to help with the search. Seemingly out of the woodwork, people streamed onto the docks and set off in their boats to help with the rescue. Since it was unfortunately a regular occurrence to have fishermen run afoul of the weather or tourists get in over their heads, the response was amazingly and gratifyingly quick and effective.
While the various boats headed out of the harbor, Becker stood helplessly on the dock, not knowing whether to jump on a boat, go into the office and wait for news, or just hang around outside where people could find him.
His dilemma was resolved when Nick came striding up to him, grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him back to the boat. Word had quickly filtered down to his end of the docks, and concern etched his face. He commiserated with Becker as best he could, knowing that the outlook was grim.
As they stepped on board the damaged boat, Becker noticed the workmen packing up their tools and glancing over their shoulders at him with looks of pity on their faces, which he just wasn’t prepared to deal with.
Nick ushered him over to the table and asked if there was anything he could get him.
“Coffee would be good right now,” Becker said. “It looks like it’s going to be a long night.”
~~~
July 23—Late
The first stars were starting to twinkle in the sky as Maddie and her host chugged into a small, sheltered harbor. God only knew where they were, except that it definitely was not Santorini. Since it was long past the time when the other self-respecting fishing boats had returned home, the dock was deserted, as was the short little main street bordering the area. Lights were on in the houses, and the smell of food wafted in on the breeze. The winds had died down as soon as the sun had set, their previous erratic behavior nothing but a bad memory.
The old fisherman tied up the boat and went to work unloading his day’s catch, which by the looks of it, was fairly meager. Probably that’s why he was out on the water when Maddie had needed him: still trying to find enough fish to make the day worthwhile.
Maddie stood back out of the way, having no idea what she could do to help. By the time he finished transferring his catch to a little wheelbarrow that he’d produced from somewhere on the dock, Maddie wondered if he even remembered she was there. He started walking away from the boat, but after about ten paces, he turned around. Apparently surprised that she wasn’t right behind him, he signaled for her to follow him.
They walked to the end of the main street, where it petered out against a hillside, and then turned left onto a very small lane. There were only a few houses on either side; the man pushed his load up the path to the second one on the right. The house was dark.
Not a good sign, Maddie thought. She had hoped someone would be home, maybe someone who could speak English and help her get back to Santorini.
; The little fisherman led her around to the back door and showed her into a bare-bones kitchen, where he proceeded to transfer his catch to a chest freezer. When he finished, he washed his hands at the sink and gestured to Maddie to follow him. He led her to a small bedroom, obviously hardly ever used, showed her where the bathroom was, and then took her back to the kitchen, where he puttered around for some minutes fixing up a cold dinner. Pushing a platter with cold fish, bread and some chopped cucumbers and tomatoes toward Maddie, he poured her a glass of ouzo and quietly started eating his own food.
Maddie was flustered. Surely there was some way for her to call Santorini and get word to Becker that she was okay. But how to convey that to her rescuer? She pantomimed a phone, but the man only shook his head. Either he didn’t have a phone, or he didn’t think making a call was urgent. Giving up for now, Maddie quietly ate her own food and hoped that after dinner, perhaps they could go back down the road and find a phone.
When they’d finished, the man pushed back his chair, cleaned the plates, and made ready to go to bed. Maddie continued to act out the need to get to a phone, but he only shrugged his shoulders and moved off to his bedroom.
Maddie decided to try it alone. Slipping out the back door, she headed down to the main street. This place was obviously not a tourist destination, but rather a small fishing town. In fact, it appeared to be fairly isolated. The only indication she could find of a commercial hub was a single bulb burning in a large open room in what passed for a restaurant/pub. When she wandered tentatively over the threshold, the half-dozen or so people sitting at the tables turned and stared at her as though she’d just stepped off the moon.
“Does anyone speak English?” Maddie called out, deciding to cut to the chase.
The youngest man in the room raised his hand, stood up, and walked over to her. “I am not speaking good English. But,” he swept his hand over the remainder of the regulars, “they no speak any English.”