“Just so Señor Cofresí and Ms. Parque de Bombas end up sleeping on the bench pads on opposite sides of the galley table like it’s planned. I suppose it’ll all end well,” Anna said. “And tomorrow night, no rum till after we’ve made our rendezvous and loaded our cargo. We’ll need all hands to get a heavy casket aboard, and we can’t have anyone so drunk they fall overboard.”
“Yes,” Max agreed. “Not like in the old pirate days. Despite too much rum tonight, all will be shipshape tomorrow night, indeed.” He took a few bites of the jambalaya. “Hey, this stuff Captain Jim cooked is really good.”
“When he puts his mind to something, he’s quite a cook.”
“So all is still well on the high seas here?”
“Pretty much.” Anna leaned over and tapped the radar screen. “Except for one little thing.”
Max stopped eating and squinted at the screen.
“There’s a blip that seems to be following us,” Anna said. “If it’s the Coast Guard, they should go away after we get out into international waters.”
“But not yet?”
“They’re out of sight, but they’re right on our tail.” Anna sighed. “I’m keeping an eye on that, for sure.”
Chapter 10
The three male members of the crew had divided the daytime into two-hour shifts at the wheel so Anna could sleep. Coffee was on early, but most of those on board had been up pretty late on their first night out at sea. About noon Captain Jim made scrambled eggs and sausage for anyone who was interested.
Max was focused on keeping the correct heading during his turn at the wheel. He had had a good meal of eggs and sausage before his second shift, and he was totally focused on the task at hand, so he was startled when the wheelhouse door suddenly opened behind him. He spun around and saw Anna.
“How are things going?” she asked as she leaned over and scrutinized the compass, then checked the other instruments. “At least you’re still right on course.”
“Aye, aye,” Max said. “Steady as she goes.”
Then Anna took a long look out the windshield and glanced back at Max with an irritated look. “That’s Ms. Parque de Bombas out there sunbathing on the bow without her top on.”
“Yes, she is,” Max agreed.
“You’re the captain. You make the rules.”
Max shrugged. “We’re on course. The weather’s good. We’re making good time. Cofresí hasn’t bet my family’s tuna plant in their card game. Everything seems shipshape to me.”
Anna shook her head. “Where did Señor Cofresí find this mainlander chick?”
“I’ve been in Europe,” Max said. “It’s normal in a lot of places over there. I know in parts of the Caribbean it’s just fine, too.”
“True,” Anna admitted. “Most Puerto Rican women are more conservative, though. I suppose it’s their Catholic tradition from the Spanish Empire days. Still, lots of people don’t much follow the inconvenient parts of it.”
“So,” Max asked, “shipshape all around?”
“As long as she stays out on the bow.” Anna laughed. “The boys are playing a game of three-handed poker in the galley. Maybe my father’ll win enough from Señor Cofresí to buy himself another boat.”
Max was upset. “Then what’ll I do for a crew?”
“Find some young guys and sail off to Europe, or to one of the topless islands, maybe,” Anna said.
“Please…” Max groaned.
Then they both laughed.
When Anna looked at the radar screen, she became serious again. She pointed. “That blip is still behind us.”
“Been there my whole shift, and the first shift I did, too.”
“I was afraid it’d be that way.” Anna frowned and thought for a few moments. “There’s nothing we can do, really, and we don’t know for sure who it is. Maybe it’s the Coast Guard. And maybe it’s some crooks who know what Señor Cofresí is up to and have it in for him. We’ll just have to keep on our course and make the rendezvous. There’s really nothing else we can do.”
“Should we consult with Cofresí?”
Anna thought again. “Naw, let’s give it some more time, just in case it’s nothing but another boat that’s going the same way. Besides, we want to find out what he’s up to. Let’s give that part of this all the time we can.”
“Aye, aye,” Max agreed. “Last thing I want him to do is panic and have us turn back, and then we don’t find out anything.”
Anna tapped the radar screen. “Keep an eye on it,” she ordered. “And keep an eye on Ms. Parque de Bombas, too.”
“Aye, aye. You can count on me.” Then he thought a moment and became serious again. “What if that boat back there speeds up and whoever they are tries to board us?”
Anna didn’t have an immediate answer. “I could take a few evasive tactics, make a few quick moves, I suppose. But depending on what kind of boat it is, they still might catch up to us. If they do, well… You’re the captain. That’s going to be all up to you.” She put a gentle hand on Max’s shoulder, smiled, and left for her cabin.
****
Anna took over at the wheel again after darkness fell. Captain Jim cooked them all a hearty fish stew, which they had with fresh biscuits right out of the galley’s little oven. Ms. Parker had dressed for dinner. She had on cutoff jeans and a T-shirt, dressed for action on deck just like the men.
Max joined his crew and passengers for dinner. They were all mostly quiet. Max marveled at their seriousness. His crew was drinking beer, but a new bottle of rum on the table remained, without his having given the order, unopened. There was tension and anticipation in the stuffy air. “Anna says we’ll make the rendezvous about midnight,” he announced. “I’ll call you all in plenty of time.”
“I’ll help with the loading too,” Ms. Parker volunteered.
“Thanks.” Max smiled. Then they all fell pretty much silent again.
After he ate, Max returned to his post with Anna in the wheelhouse. “Steady as she goes?” he asked.
“All the same here,” Anna replied without levity. She was focused on her piloting. “That boat’s still behind us, and it’s a while before I should be seeing any indication of the one we’re meeting up ahead. How’s the crowd doing below?”
“Quiet. The rum is unopened. Everybody seems to be anticipating the rendezvous. I’m amazed you can find anything in the dark, let alone another boat.”
“I do use the instruments for this part.”
“I really am amazed,” Max said, “and I’m impressed as hell.”
Anna paused and looked over at him. “Come on, I’m just an empty-headed little girl who drives a boat.”
“Jesus…”
“Oh, be careful,” Anna warned. She pointed to the little plastic statue at the windshield. “I really need his help tonight too. I need all of them.”
“Okay by me.” Max patted his own new little plastic saint at the ready in his side pocket.
The tension broken a little, Anna piloted on, and they rode in silence for a while.
Max became more conscious of the Señorita Anna’s rise, fall, and sway. He watched the blip on the radar screen. It remained roughly the same distance away.
About eleven forty, Anna and Max were startled when the wheelhouse door opened suddenly. Señor Cofresí came in. He hugged his trombone case with one arm.
“How are things going?” Cofresí asked.
Anna looked at her watch. Then she held out her arm for Cofresí to see. “Soon,” she said. “We will be at the spot your directions give right on time.” She looked at her compass again. “We’re good. We are progressing well.”
The man who had hired them smiled. He held the trombone case now in both arms.
Max noticed that Anna did not ask if he was going to play them a tune, nor did she show their customer the radar screen. Perhaps this would be a good time. But they still hadn’t learned anything more about Cofresí or the mission they were on for him. Max silently agreed with Anna’s id
ea of holding out as long as they could.
Cofresí looked out the windshield, trying to see ahead in the dark.
“We’ll hit the lights soon enough,” Anna said, “and they will do the same.”
“Until then, you will rely on your instruments and the feel of the waves?” Cofresí asked.
“Yes.”
“Señor Max, you have an excellent pilot.”
“I know,” Max said.
Cofresí turned back to Anna. “When we have our meeting, I want you to hold something here in the wheelhouse for me.”
“What?” Anna asked.
“I need this to be ready, just in case,” Cofresí said. He opened the trombone case and took out an assault rifle.
Holy shit! Max thought. He tried his best to show as little shock or adverse reaction as he could.
Anna did not. “Hold on, now,” she said. “This isn’t what usually happens when we meet your Cuban friends.”
Cofresí set the case on the floor behind them. Then he efficiently snapped in a clip of ammunition and chambered a round. “Señorita Anna, tonight is not a usual matter.”
“Maybe not,” Anna agreed, “but I’ve never seen an undertaker that packed a gun.”
“Just what are we expecting when we meet this other boat?” Max asked.
Cofresí laughed, though it was humorless. “Oh, we’re expecting no problems at all,” he said. “They just transfer the cargo to us. I pay them, and we both go on our way.”
“You just want to be completely prepared for any problems that might somehow arise, then?” Max asked.
“Precisely, Señor Max. This undertaker is reliable, but he is doing something illegal in the eyes of our government. I know we signed on willingly, but as I see it, this is something that no completely honest man would do.”
Anna spoke up. “Your whaling ancestors had to be prepared to fight off pirates and shit. I’m sure those whaling captains did a thing or two no honest man might do. I guess the boats of this here tuna fleet have to sometimes do the same.”
“I see.” Max nodded, but he didn’t really agree.
Anna looked intently at her watch, checked all her instruments, then looked at her watch again. “Get the crew up on deck,” she suddenly said. “In about five minutes, I’m gonna hit our running lights, and we’ll see if your friend does the same.”
Cofresí bent over and set the rifle down against the wall.
“Okay,” Max said to Anna. “I’ll get the crew.”
The others had known the time was near. Max opened the galley door and was about to shout, “All hands on deck,” but they were already on their way. Soon they had all gathered on the deck, ready for the other boat to appear.
Max returned to the wheelhouse and his post with Anna. She checked her watch and the instruments again.
“Okay.” She nodded, then reached to the switch and snapped the Señorita Anna’s running lights on. In answer, the lights of another boat came on from the darkness ahead.
“There she is,” Anna said. There was a triumphant feeling in her tone.
“Good job, Pilot,” Max said.
“Gracias, mi Capitán,” Anna replied.
She throttled down the engine, slowing their forward motion, while the lights came closer.
“Max, tell Captain Jim to go forward and Dad to go aft,” Anna ordered, “and get ready to throw them a line and lash us together side by side. Tell the rest to stand by where the cargo’ll come over the side.”
“Aye, aye!” Max went out on deck and relayed Anna’s orders as if they were his own. With various words of agreement, the others responded, all totally intent on the task at hand.
Anna turned the deck lights on. The other boat did the same, and Max could at last see better what was going on. The waves and wind were moderately tossing and turning the Señorita Anna. Both boats were easing toward each other, both pilots working together with each other even though they were total strangers and could see only the lights of the other boat and the blips of each other on their radar screens.
Girl knows her shit, Max thought. Our bow ties to their aft, and we load across with the decks side by side. The other boat appeared to be of similar size and construction as their own. As the gap closed between the two boats, they aligned, each facing the opposite direction, side to side. Max was able to make out a man standing on the aft deck and another at the bow of the other boat. Captain Jim waved his arm.
“Mira,” the man shouted across the waves to him, and a line suddenly flew toward the Señorita Anna from each man on the other boat. Both captains, Jim and Bob, caught their respective lines, and they soon had the two boats lashed securely together. Now they rolled and swayed with the waves as if they were almost one.
“Good catch,” Max said to Captain Jim as he was the first of the two captains to join the rest of the crew and passengers at mid ship.
“That’s why they always let me play first base.” Captain Jim smiled.
Three men stood opposite, on the deck of the other boat. Señor Cofresí had leaned over the rail and was talking to one of the men, who leaned toward him. Cofresí handed an envelope to the man. Then he and the other men moved quickly. They soon had a heavy casket lifted up and over the other boat’s rail. Max and the Señorita Anna’s crew and passengers reached out and pulled it on across their own rail and onto the deck. Max was amazed at the weight of the box. It was all he could do to hold up his share of the load. He was glad Ms. Parker was lifting with them too.
“It’s Cofresí’s brother,” Captain Bob yelled above the grunting lifters. “We can’t just put him in the freight hold. We need to get him down to the galley.”
Max wondered how they would ever get him to either of those places.
The four men and one woman moved their cargo toward the below-deck door. The men on the other boat had cast off the lines that held the two boats together. Spray flew across the deck of the Señorita Anna as the other boat hit full throttle as soon as it was more than a few feet away. It was obvious the Cubans did not want to stay around, now their delivery was done. Max, his crew, and their passengers held their ground.
“He is one heavy dude,” Max said, but no one seemed to hear him.
They got the casket to the edge of the doorway and tilted upward, ready to be lowered to the table below. Anna was making a slow turn in the water, and a wave hit the boat hard. They lost their grip, and the casket slid downward.
With grunts and curses all around, they saved it from falling and possibly flattening the table in the galley. They finally wrestled it to a safe position on the table. Miraculously, the table held the weight.
Max mentally thanked his little saint. The casket completely dominated the room, but it appeared to be okay. It was a very simple wooden casket, nothing fancy. The wood was finished, and it looked well made, definitely strong enough to be up to the task of transporting a dead man’s bones from one boat to another and stand up to rough handling as well.
“Sorry we almost dropped him, Cofresí,” Captain Bob said. “We don’t mean no disrespect for the dead.”
“We have him aboard,” Cofresí said. “That is what is important now. I am taking him to our family. I am taking him home.”
“Max, go tell Anna we’re all shipshape down here,” Captain Bob ordered.
Despite the fact that he was now the captain, Max said, “Aye, aye,” to the former captain of the boat. The oddity seemed lost to everyone but Max.
“Where’s that bottle of rum?” Captain Jim asked.
“Right here,” Captain Bob answered him.
Max left them with their ghoulish cargo and the rum and made his way back to the wheelhouse. His back, his knees, his arms, and his shoulders all hurt from the weight of the load he had lifted. Maybe, he thought, the real captain here, the one who owns this boat, should take charge and have the first drink from that bottle of rum.
Max reached the wheelhouse door and went inside. He noticed the assault rifle was still by the
wall. “Well, we didn’t have any use for that,” he said. “Guess we should thank all our saints and gods and all for that.”
“For sure,” Anna agreed. She was intent on her instruments and carefully turning the wheel. “Okay, we are now bearing northwest, straight for Key West.” Her face lit up in a satisfied smile.
“Cofresí’s brother is secure, and all seems shipshape downstairs,” Max reported.
“Below decks,” Anna corrected him.
“Oh, right. I mean, except that we’re now transporting a dead man’s bones, and they’ve opened the bottle of rum.”
“Rum’s okay now.” Anna smiled. “You stay sober, though. Someone’s gotta relieve me in a while, and we need someone left who isn’t too drunk to steer.”
“Aye, aye.” Max saluted. He smiled, happy to take commands from his pilot. “Steady as she goes.”
Max glanced over Anna’s shoulder at the instruments. He was able to confirm that they were headed toward the northwest. Then he looked at the radar screen. There were two blips. One was the boat from Cuba now leaving them, and the other was the one that had been following them, at the same distance, all the way from Puerto Rico.
Chapter 11
They sailed on through the night for a while, Anna intent on her piloting and Max stretching a little to relieve the stiffness he felt from lifting the heavy load.
Then there was a light knock on the wheelhouse door, and Ms. Parker let herself in. She had her beach bag slung over her shoulder, and she put it down on the floor.
“I didn’t want to stay down there and get drunk with them,” she said. Then she pointed to Cofresí’s assault rifle. “And I wanted to make sure that was secure too.”
“It didn’t make sense we needed that,” Max said. “Did Cofresí send you up here to make sure we weren’t going to come down there and shoot him or something?”
“No. I came up here on my own.” She leaned over and picked up the rifle.
Max quickly gauged the distance between himself and the wheelhouse door. Anna did not look back at her instruments or anything. Her eyes were glued on the rifle.
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