by Brenda Beem
“I’ll do that.” Angelina motioned to Cole. He put his hand on the throttle.
“Just a minute,” I said. “Dylan, our dinghy and outboard are gone. We could give them our cans of regular gas.”
The Commander stood, suddenly alert.
“Toni!” Dylan glared at me. “They just tried to kill us.”
“I know, but look at them. They’re desperate.” I pointed at the tattered raft.
Cole removed his hand from the throttle. “I agree with Toni. But we can’t let them get too close.”
“We could put the gas cans in the bins we just brought back and set them to float.” I picked up a red and green plastic tub.
Dylan closed his eyes and shook his head.
Angelina, flanked by Nick and Jervis, held their guns on the commander as my brothers loaded two gas cans into the bins.
“Watch out for swimmers. They might try to go over the side and board us,” Dylan warned.
Jervis walked around and around the sailboat, watching the water.
I ran down to the cabin and came back with a couple of six packs of Coke.
Dylan grabbed my arm. “What are you doing?”
“We don’t have any water to spare, but...” I pulled the cans from the plastic holder.
Dylan rolled his eyes.
“One per sailor,” Cole whispered.
I stuffed four cans of pop into each bin, helped Cole secure the lids, and dropped them in the water.
Dylan walked back to the rail where our armed crew stood guard.
“Already I regret this, but we’re floating two cans of gas out to you. You can decide after you fill your tank to come after us, or head to shore. Remember, we still have a police pistol and two spear guns. And we won’t be so easy to sneak up on again.”
The commander sighed. “Thank you for the gas. Please send the message. Some of my men are badly injured.”
Cole pushed the throttle down.
“Wait! Please! Just a little water?” A sailor cried as we motored away.
Chapter Twenty
Ten and a Half Days to Go
I stood on the stern and watched as the sailors rowed to the bins. When they were tiny dots in the distance, Cole slowed Whistler, and aimed her into the wind. Dylan pulled up the main sail. It puckered in the middle, but we cheered when it filled with air. The boat listed to port as Nick rolled out the jib and Dylan turned off the engine. The sails weren’t perfect, but we were moving. We were sailing.
The clouds grew darker. I shivered with cold. Frosty air escaped my lungs. It appeared the scientists were right. This definitely wasn’t typical Pacific Northwest, August weather. I checked my cell. Still no service, but we had lots of time. Dad didn’t expect us to meet him in Southern California for ten days. I wondered where he and Mom were. They’d be so proud if they knew what we’d just done.
Angelina stood beside at the rail, the gun in her hands. Jervis grinned at her.
“Oh. My. God. You were amazing,” I told her.
Angelina smiled sweetly. You’d never know she’d just held a gun on a raft of Coast Guard sailors.
“You really are.” Jervis glanced around. “Where’s Makala?”
“Makala!” Angelina checked the safety, shoved the gun into the waistband of her jeans, and raced down to the cabin.
Nick, Jervis, and I followed. I expected Makala to be hiding under the bed covers.
“I put her in here.” Angelina opened the deep storage closet in our bedroom. “What if it’s airtight? What if…”
We peeked in. At the bottom of the closet Makala and the puppy snuggled together. The little wiener dog raised his head, sneezed, and sunk back down on Makala’s chest. Makala sighed.
Jervis and I chuckled.
Nick gently swung Angelina around. “You’re incredible.” He bent to kiss her. She glanced down at her sleeping sister, and then melted in his arms.
Jervis staggered back, his mouth agape. I pushed him toward the stairs. His shoulders slouched as he climbed up on deck.
I stayed in the main cabin, my back to the pair. The growing tension between Jervis and Nick wasn’t good, but I didn’t know how to make it better.
Wrapping a blanket around me, I shivered on the couch and worried.
Nick whispered something to Angelina and left to go up top. Angelina plopped down next to me. I handed her the edge of my blanket. She scooted closer and snuggled into it. Her face was flushed. “Are you mad I didn’t tell you I had a gun?”
I don’t know what I would have done if she’d told me when she came on board that she’d brought a gun. I’ve never been a fan of guns. I probably would have made her get rid of it. But now all that changed.
“Of course not. You and the gun saved us.”
“I don’t like having it in the cabin with Makala. Will you find a safe place to hide it?” She handed the gun and loose bullets to me.
“This is what you were hiding in your backpack?” My fingers shook. I’d never held a gun before.
“Guess I acted a little strange.” She checked on her sister. “Makala’s still asleep.” She closed the bedroom door. “Is it okay if I use the radio? I need to make that call for the commander.”
I nodded and she flipped on the radio. There was no response from the first channel she called. On the second try, she got a warning. It took a few minutes for her to convince the operator that she had military business. Finally, the operator said they’d try to send a helicopter for the sailors. All water vessels were badly damaged.
I was glad we were able to help them.
Angelina was smiling. “Are you staying down here?” she asked.
“For a little while.” I glanced around for a good place to stow the gun.
“Let me know if Makala wakes up.” She stood to go.
I wrapped the blanket around me tighter. “Are you and Nick, now…well, you know?”
“Not sure.” She shrugged and left to go on deck.
I started to tell her to talk to Jervis, but decided to stay out of it.
After searching the boat for a safe hiding place, I settled on stuffing the gun under the logbooks, in the pull-up lid of the chart table. I put the bullets in a baggie and stowed them in the back of the silverware drawer.
Just as I closed the lid, Takumi showed up and wrapped his arms around me. I told him where I’d hidden the gun and bullets.
“Wasn’t Angelina awesome?” he said. “She’s so cool.”
I’d just said the same thing, but somehow didn’t like hearing it from him. I leaned back. ”You were pretty cool yourself.”
Takumi shook his head. “Spear guns are better at short distances. I’ll wait until I’m closer next time.” He nuzzled the back of my neck.
“Let’s hope there isn’t a next time.” My stomach growled.
Takumi smiled. “I can take a hint.”
He’d been so sad since the President’s message it made my heart sing to see him smile. I peeled potatoes and he unwrapped steaks that had defrosted.
“Wish we still had refrigeration. I could have made at least three meals out of these.” He pulled out a long cast iron griddle and flipped on the burners.
Makala woke up and the dog started barking. I ran to the closet and switched on the overhead light.
“Puppy’s scared,” Makala whimpered. “Where’s Sissy?”
I reached for the dog and sat it on the floor. It raised its leg to pee and I snatched it back up. “Makala, I’ll be right back.” I climbed the stairs with the dog and handed it to Angelina. “It has to go potty.”
“Where? There’s no grass or place—”
“It has to learn to go on deck. Praise it when it pees and then rinse off the area with sea water. It’ll learn. We have boating friends who take their dogs all the time.”
She seemed skeptical but carried the dog to the bow.
Makala munched on crackers while she watched us make dinner. Not only did the cabin get hot, it smelled wonderful. One by one, Nick,
Zoë, Cole, Angelina, and the dog filed into the main salon. Dylan and Jervis stayed up on deck to attend the sails and watch for debris.
The dog yipped and yipped, begging for the steak. Takumi started to give it a tiny piece but I stopped him. “If you feed him when he barks, he will bark all the time. He needs his own dish. And no feeding him when he barks.”
Nick shed his coat. “That smells amazing,”
“I’m a vegetarian.” Zoë made a face.
“Good. More for me.” Nick leaned over and inhaled the aroma of cooking meat.
Cole glared at the yipping dog and headed for the v-berth. “My head hurts. I’m going to lie down.” His voice sounded slurred.
“Shush,” I told the dog.
Makala snuck him a piece of cracker. I pretended not to notice.
I watched Cole close the v-berth door. “I’m worried about him,” I said.
Zoë collapsed on the couch. “Me too. Remember when Aaron Wilson cracked his head on the goal post? The doctors said he might have died if his skull hadn’t broken. The swelling would have gone into his brain. Instead he had a huge lump. Cole hit his head hard, but doesn’t have a lump.”
Tears welled in my eyes. “What can we do?”
Zoë shook her head. “I wish I knew. Without a hospital or real doctors, all I can do is get him to rest.”
Takumi handed me the steak knives. “Cole will be fine. He just needs a little time to heal. We’ll all make sure he stays in bed.”
“Thanks.” I carried a stack of white plastic plates. How could we find a hospital? Then I remembered Angelina’s call to the Coast Guard. Maybe they’d send a helicopter for Cole? I’d ask her to make the call later.
We sat around talking as we ate. After a few minutes it felt like a normal dinner time with friends.
“What are you planning after graduation this year?” Nick asked Takumi.
Nick shoved a fork full of steak in his mouth, closed his eyes and sighed. He wiped his mouth. “The coaches at the U.W., Oregon, and LSU have been talking to me. ‘Course, it all depends on how I do this year.” He shoved another bite of steak into his mouth.
“Really?” Takumi sounded both surprised and disappointed. “I haven’t had any coaches’ call…”
“You’re going to be a junior, right? They wait until after your junior season to start recruiting.” Nick began cutting up Makala’s steak for her. I could tell the pieces were too big.
Takumi nodded and fixed his plate.
“Sissy and I wanna be policemen, just like my daddy.” Makala slipped a too-big bite of steak to the dog.
“Police women,” Angelina corrected. “We want to be police women.”
I smiled at Takumi. “Are you planning on being a chef?”
Takumi scrunched his nose. “No way. I see myself as a politician someday. Maybe a lawyer first… I just started looking at colleges.”
That surprised me, but I could see him as a politician. He always thought before he spoke and took in everyone’s thoughts.
“What about you?” He scooped up a pile of mashed potatoes.
I shrugged. I liked to swim and ride my bike, but I’d not thought too much about colleges. Not yet. Then it hit me. I closed my eyes and fought to keep from crying. None of our plans might even matter anymore.
Takumi seemed to read my mind and didn’t press for an answer. I couldn’t talk for a few minutes, and when I could, I didn’t. We were having such a nice, normal conversation. I didn’t want to be the one to ruin it.
Takumi and Nick left to go take over sailing. Dylan and Jervis came down. I noticed that Angelina and Jervis avoided one another. Makala and the puppy, however, were oblivious and climbed all over him.
I added a little gin to some sea water and washed up. Since we were out of towels, I just left the dishes to dry on the rack.
Dylan cleared his throat. “Now we’re sailing, we need to have teams on deck twenty four-seven.” He picked up his plate. “I was thinking Zoë and me, Takumi and Toni, Cole and Jervis, and Nick and Angelina.”
“Angelina needs to watch Makala.” Jervis glared at Nick. “She should stay below.”
“I agree,” I said. “And Zoë said Cole needs to stay in bed until he’s better.”
“But you guys can help watch Makala, now. That’s not fair,” Angelina protested.
“I’m happy to stay below and baby-sit,” Zoë offered.
“Of course you are,” I mumbled.
Dylan ignored us both. “Okay, then. Nick and Jervis are a team. Angelina is back up. I’m going up now and change the sails. Dad said we should try to stay thirty-five miles off the coast. It’s time to head south. We should have a more comfortable ride with the wind at our back. I just hope there will be enough of an angle we can sail without having to tack.”
“So, you and Zoë, first shift?” I asked.
“I’ll help Dylan come about.” Nick reached for his jacket. “Then I’ll get some rest.”
“Good. I’ll wait until—” Zoë began.
“No you don’t.” I leapt to my feet, determined that Zoë was going to do her part. “I’ll get Mom’s foul weather gear and we can take turns wearing it. Find a blanket and sit close to the cockpit. You’ll be fine.”
The sailboat heeled as the sails were changed, then righted herself. Whistler and her crew were headed south. Angelina carried Makala to bed. I took the dog up top to go potty and almost laughed at how miserable Zoë looked.
“Wake me up in three hours.” I washed the poop off the deck and went below.
The little dog burrowed under the covers and growled when I pushed him over and climbed in bed.
“Angelina, would you call back the Coast Guard in the morning and see if they would pick up Cole and take him to a hospital?” I asked her.
“That’s a great idea. I’d be happy to. Don’t get your hopes up too much, though. They might be putting military rescues first right now.”
“I understand. But we have to try.” I closed my eyes.
I listened to Angelina tell a story about a dragon who lost her egg and worried about Cole.
I don’t know if it was the dog’s whine, or the door click that woke me. I reached out to search the bed and realized Makala and the dog were gone. Careful not to wake Angelina, I left to find them.
Chapter Twenty-One
Man Overboard
The boat was pitch black. I stumbled around Takumi, Nick, and Jervis as they slept in the main cabin. Jervis had given up trying to stay on the narrow couch and was sprawled on the hard wooden floor, snoring. I’d hoped I’d find Makala and the dog snuggled with him, but they weren’t. I glanced at the clock and groaned. I’d only been asleep two hours.
I checked the bow cabin. It was empty. So was the bathroom. Cole had gone up on deck. So much for his resting.
Whistler went into a steep dive as I headed up top. I hung on to the ladder, almost falling.
All of a sudden, Zoë screamed, “Makala, stop!”
I raced the rest of the way on deck and stared in horror as Makala chased after the dog. The two were headed toward the fount of the boat, which rocked from side to side. Makala tripped and fell onto the wet decking. Cole was right behind her, holding onto a lifeline.
Whistler hit the bottom of a huge swell. Makala rolled to the edge. Cole squatted to grab her. A giant wave washed over the top of the boat. I couldn’t see anything but spray.
When the water cleared, Cole knelt at the rail. Makala and the little dog were gone.
Cole pulled himself up and searched the water below. “Makala!” he yelled and climbed over the rail.
“Cole! No!” I screamed.
Cole didn’t take his eyes off the choppy seas. Perched on the toe rail, he took a deep breath, and dove.
“Cole and Makala are overboard!” I yelled at Dylan and clutched the rail where they’d gone in. I searched the waves but couldn’t see them. We were sailing away.
“Drop the sails,” Dylan ordered.
Nick a
nd Takumi appeared on deck. They hurried to bring in the boom and let the main sheet fall. I kept looking for my brother and Makala.
“Makala! Where is she?” Angelina stood on the cockpit steps.
“Overboard!”
“What?” Jervis roared as he stepped on deck.
I frantically studied the sea. “Makala and the dog fell over the side. Cole jumped in to save them. I can’t see them.”
Zoë and Takumi joined me.
Angelina collapsed sobbing on the seat.
Dylan started the engine and yelled, “Toni, get the light!”
I scrambled below for the large battery spotlight. My hands shook. I had a difficult time opening the cabinet door. It seemed like I took forever.
Finally, I tried to hand Dylan the light. “Why was Cole up here in the first place? He was supposed to be…”
“Not now.” Dylan adjusted the throttle and shoved the light back at me. “Shine it out there. Find them.”
The boat started backing up the way we’d come.
“Someone, go to the bow and make sure I’m headed straight.” Dylan adjusted the wheel while watching the water behind us.
Everyone was screaming. “Cole! Makala!”
“Quiet!” Takumi held up his hand. “We can’t hear them answer.”
I scanned the black water. Back and forth across the waves I aimed the light. The swells made us bob up and down. The sea had never seemed so large and empty.
“Are they both wearing lifejackets?” I asked.
“Just Cole,” Zoë answered.
Takumi put his arm around me. “Okay, then. There should be a light and maybe a whistle. Turn off the spotlight and listen.”
I shut off the light. In the distance a dog yipped.
“Over there.” Zoë pointed to starboard.
Jervis gestured to port. “No, this side.”
“Keep looking for the light on Cole’s life jacket,” Nick whispered.