by Brenda Beem
I couldn’t stop shaking. We continued to back up, only slower.
Then Zoë jumped up and down, squealing. I saw it too, a tiny speck of light in the water on the starboard side. Dylan backed Whistler, following our directions. We’d found them. The little dog barked again and again. Makala and Cole remained quiet.
“I’ll be right back.” Takumi leapt down the steps.
When Whistler got close, Dylan flipped off the engine. Nick threw the boat’s life ring. Cole reached for it, but missed. He could barely raise his arm. Nick moved fast, retrieved the ring, and tossed it again. This time it hit Cole’s shoulder. Cole managed to loop one arm around the ring and lean onto it. With his other arm, he clutched Makala and the little dog tight to his chest.
Jervis grasped hold of the rope that was tied to the ring and pulled them in.
Angelina sobbed hysterically. I told her she was going to scare Makala. She clamped her mouth shut but continued to quake and stare wide-eyed.
At last Makala, Cole, and the dog were at the swim platform. Nick leaned out over the water and snatched the dog from Makala’s grip. Jervis hauled Makala out, easily swinging her up on deck with one hand. I wrapped the blanket Zoë had been bundled in earlier around Makala and got out of the way so Dylan could help Cole.
Jervis removed the large dripping lifejacket Makala wore. Somehow Cole had taken his life vest off and wrapped it around her in the water. Makala shivered so hard, her teeth clanged together. Jervis snagged a dirty towel and carried Makala to the cabin. Angelina and Nick followed. Nick cradled the quivering dog.
I found another towel and headed for the stern. All of a sudden there was a loud splash. Zoë started screaming. I rushed to the swim step. Zoë stood by herself, clutching the life ring, and a glove. Dylan and Cole were gone.
“Where are my brothers?” I grabbed Zoë by the shoulders. She stopped sobbing and pointed.
A head popped up in the water a few yards away from the boat.
“Light! Need light!” Dylan gasped.
“Dylan!” Zoë yelled.
He plunged back down into the black and icy sea. His shoes splashed the top of the water. I aimed the spot light on the ripples that were left behind.
Zoë whimpered.
“What happened?” I clutched her arm.
She took a deep breath. “We were hauling Cole in. He wasn’t moving. I couldn’t find a pulse.” Zoe’s eyes filled with tears. “He…he, slipped off the ring and sank.”
“No!” I dropped to my knees.
Dylan’s head appeared in the water. He struggled to keep his mouth above the waves. He gulped water in with air and dove again.
Takumi moved me aside and aimed the light to the spot Dylan had been. “Keep that light on Dylan.”
“What are you doing?” My hand shook. Without answering, Takumi dove off the platform and swam toward the spot Dylan had been. It took me a few moments to realize he was wearing a wetsuit.
“Keep the light on them!” Jervis screamed from the deck above me.
I was shaking to hard I couldn’t hold the light still. We were floating away. I couldn’t see Takumi anymore.
“Back up! We’re losing them,” I yelled at whoever was driving the boat.
Slowly Whistler reversed. I couldn’t find them. Dylan, Cole, and now Takumi were gone. Then I heard splashing and raised the light. Two figures bobbed in the sea.
Jervis cut the engine and climbed down to where Zoë and I knelt. He pried the life ring from Zoë’s hand. The boat continued to float backwards, towards the guys. When we were close, he threw the ring. It landed inches from them. One of the figures in the water looped his arm through the ring, held onto the other person, and Jervis towed them back to the boat.
I kept the light shining on the pair. Soon I could tell it was Takumi holding onto Dylan and the ring.
“Cole. Where’s Cole?” I screamed.
Takumi gasped for air. “Take Dylan. I’ll… go back for Cole.”
Dylan didn’t move or make a sound.
“Out of the way!” Jervis yelled. We watched from above on the stern as he rolled Dylan onto the swim platform. Takumi, still in the water, handed him the ring and started to push off.
Jervis reached his huge hand out and grabbed a loop on the back of Takumi’s dry suit. “Dude. Stop! Cole’s gone. It’s been too long.” Then, almost too softly to hear, he said, “We’ll lose you too.”
Takumi gazed up at me. His lips were blue.
“No!” I had one leg over the rail. Hands pulled me back. “Let me go! Let me go!” I fought Nick then collapsed sobbing in his arms.
“Cole!”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Eight Days to Go
Zoë yanked the comforter off my bed. “Get up.”
I rolled onto my side. “Go away.” I studied the wood-grain in the slats of the cabin wall. A wave of grief washed over me. I kept seeing Cole floating in deep black water. My only escape was sleep.
“Come on.” Zoë shook my shoulder and rolled me to my back. “You’ve been out of it for two days now. We need you.”
I closed my eyes and slid a pillow over my head. “Leave me alone.”
She climbed onto the bed. Her breath moved my hair. “Dylan’s been drunk since Cole… since the accident,” she whispered. He won’t talk to anyone. Not even me. We had a storm yesterday and the sails are messed up.”
“Not my problem. Go away.”
Zoë jerked my pillow away. “It is your problem. You and your brothers brought us out here. We don’t know how to do this sailing thing. You owe it to us to help.”
I glared at her. “I don’t owe you anything.”
A high-pitched scream sounded from above. It was Makala. I sat up. Zoë crouched next to me. We stared at the ceiling, as if trying to see through it.
“What’s going on?” The cold air hit me and I shivered.
“Dylan!” Zoë hissed.
I scrambled out of bed. My legs were weak and when I stood I saw stars. Zoë held my arm as I started to sway.
“Sit down.” She helped me to the captain’s chair. Angelina and Jervis were arguing up on deck. I couldn’t make out the words.
She handed me an open can of Coke. I studied the can. “Soda for breakfast?”
“It’s two in the afternoon and we’re out of water. Now hurry.” She helped me up.
I stumbled on the stairs. When I got to the deck, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Dylan leaned over the stern railing, holding the little dog out over the water.
“Don’t do this!” Angelina pleaded.
Makala beat on Dylan’s leg.
“Dylan,” I screamed. “Put that dog down.”
He laughed hysterically and leaned further out, dangling the wide-eyed dog.
Takumi, Jervis, and Nick charged him. The guys seized Dylan and pulled him back from the rail, the dog squirming in his hands. Dylan giggled and crumpled on the deck.
I rescued the puppy moments before he rolled on it. “What do you think you’re doing?” I cried.
“Tha’ dog … kill Cole,” Dylan slurred. He reeked of alcohol.
“What? No, Dylan. That’s not right.” I shook my head. This couldn’t be my level-headed brother.
“If he hadn’t gone in to, to, try and save Makala and that, stinking dog, he wouldn’t have died. It’s the dog’s fault.”
I handed the puppy to Makala. “And if you’d jumped in to save them instead of Cole, he might still be alive.” The minute the words were out, I wished I could take them back.
Dylan reeled as if I’d punched him. He curled into a fetal position on the deck and moaned. “Don’ you think I know that?”
Zoë ran and helped him to sit. “Dylan, baby. Cole wasn’t getting better. I tried to tell—”
“Get away from me!” Dylan shoved her.
Jervis leapt and caught her before she fell.
“You don’t un’erstand. None of you un’erstand.” Dylan rocked back and forth.
Zoë gl
ared at me.
I wrapped my arms around Dylan and swayed with him. “It was an accident. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.” At first Dylan fought me, then clutched onto me so tight I could hardly breathe. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
“I can’t do this anymore,” Dylan wailed. “I can’t. Not without Cole.”
“I know.” I gripped him close. “I know.”
After a long while we stopped crying and just hugged. Finally, I helped him up and we made our way below deck. While I pulled off Dylan’s shoes, Takumi waited in the doorway with crackers, peanut butter, and a can of Sprite.
I sat next to Dylan, making sure he ate and drank the soda. He groaned, fell back, and dropped off to sleep. I grabbed an almost empty bottle of tequila from the bookshelf and left.
I closed the v-berth door behind me and turned to Zoë, Takumi, Jervis, Angelina, and Makala. The little girl sniffed and clutched her dog. It whined and licked her tear-streaked face.
“Dylan needs to sleep it off. He’ll be okay now,” I said, even though I knew we’d never be okay. Not without Cole.
“He tried to kill Boots,” Makala whimpered.
“Boots?” My head felt groggy.
Angelina petted the dog. “Makala named the dog ‘Boots’ after Dora the Explorer’s monkey friend.”
“Makala, sorry Dylan scared you. He isn’t himself.” I hated the bottle in my hands.
“Remember how Walter was when he drank alcohol?” Angelina scooped Makala and Boots up. “Walter is our stepfather.”
Makala buried her face in her sister’s shoulder.
Despair overwhelmed me. It was all too much. What the girls had gone through. Our homes destroyed. And now Cole. It wasn’t fair. None of it. I couldn’t do this anymore either. I headed back to bed and oblivion.
Nick seized my arm. “We miss Cole too. We’ve all lost a lot. But, we need you. You can’t give up.”
I handed the tequila to Zoë. She shoved it back in the cupboard.
“Maybe we should find another place for that stuff,” Jervis mumbled.
My heart actually ached. It hurt to breathe. For a moment I didn’t care what happened to any of them. I closed my eyes and hoped they’d just disappear. But when my eyes opened, they were still there, staring at me.
I took a deep breath. “Okay. Zoë said the sails are messed up. What happened?”
Takumi, Nick, and Jervis began talking at once. While I’d been in mourning, we’d sailed through a storm. I vaguely recalled rocking and rolling.
The guys explained that they’d shortened the main sail by reefing it. When they tried to take the reef out, they couldn’t. We were sailing with only half our sail. We’d run out of water that morning and had only a little cooking gas left.
I sighed. “Let’s go check out the sail.”
They’d reefed by dropping and securing the bottom portion of the sail to the boom. I traced each line, from the cockpit to the top of the sail, but couldn’t see anything wrong. “I’ll go up in the boson chair,” I offered.
A huge swell swayed the boat.
Takumi put his arm around me. I stiffened and shrugged him off. He watched the white caps on the sea. “It’s too dangerous for you to go up the mast in these swells.”
I studied the line clamps. They were covered in towels and blankets. I peeled off the linens and found the lines going into the clamps were tangled and knotted. I cleared each one, even pulling a thin rag out of one of the clamps.
When the lines were free, I called to Nick, “Try taking the reef out now.”
The guys cheered as the reef lines released and they were able to pull the sail up to full size. The boat took the next swell much better.
“Don’t throw stuff on top of these clamps, okay?” I patted the line clamps then collapsed in the cockpit, shivering. My warm bed called to me. Takumi wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and sat beside me.
“Thanks.” I slid away from him.
“How can I help you?” Takumi hung his head.
I forced myself to face him. “I never thanked you for jumping in to save Dylan.”
“I wish we had an underwater light. I might have been able to find Cole. The water was too dark.”
“But you tried. And I remember you bringing me food and sitting with me. That was nice.”
Takumi jerked as if I’d slapped him. “Nice? Of course. Toni, I care about you.”
I shrugged. “I can’t…everything is…is different now.” I could see I was hurting him, but I couldn’t help it. I felt numb. I didn’t care. Not about him. Not about the boat.
“What do you mean?”
I gazed out at the water. “I don’t know.”
Takumi’s eyes narrowed.
Nick came on deck and dumped a chart book in my lap. Takumi sighed and walked away.
“Dylan and Cole planned to go ashore and refill the water tank.” Nick tapped the book. “Did they tell you where?”
Takumi moved to the rail. I glanced at Nick. “Can’t we wait until Dylan sobers up to find fresh water?”
“We just passed this marker off Cape Elizabeth.” Nick pointed to a spot on the map.” This seems like a safe bay, Grays Harbor. It’s not too far from the marker.”
Takumi joined Nick. “Lots of fresh water streams flow into that bay.”
I glared at the broken instrument panel. If only we had a GPS and depth finder. Entering any harbor and anchoring was going to be hard without a way to gauge the bottom. However, we couldn’t continue on without water.
“If we find the buoys marking the harbor, do you guys think we should sail into this bay?” I asked.
“We don’t have a choice. We’re out of water and only three cans of soda left,” Nick said.
Dylan was going to be angry. This was Dad’s boat and his decision to make. I took a deep breath. Until he sobered up, he had no right to say anything. And then… well, then things would just be different.
“Grays Harbor.” I closed the book. “Let’s go for it.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Seven and a Half Days Left
We heard the buoy that marked the entrance before we saw it. My heart thumped with the rhythm of the clanging bell. The chart showed we were on top of a huge underwater shelf. The shallowest point was eighty-seven feet, but it made the sea rough. Huge swells swallowed us and then spit us out.
Luckily, we had enough wind to control the boat, although at times I struggled with the wheel. I wished Dylan would wake up and help. The other guys offered, but I needed to do this.
Nobody complained about the cold anymore. The thought of getting off the boat was on everyone’s mind. I worried about what we would find when we finally got on land. There was still no cell service. For once I was glad. How would I ever tell my parents about Cole?
Makala, Boots, and Angelina stayed below deck with Dylan. It was too rough for Makala to be on top. The rest of us sat in silence, staring at the coastline, searching for some sign of life. What land we could see was barren. The huge trees that had stood for centuries were gone. Even most of the shrubs that dotted the coastline had been washed away. All that was left were steep rocky cliffs.
“Look,” Takumi handed me the binoculars.
“What am I trying to see?” I asked.
“There. At the top of that ridge.”
A beautiful cedar tree stood tall and proud––at least one had survived. I smiled sadly. That tree might be the only one left. But at least there was one. And a hundred years from now, there’d be more trees.
I aimed the binoculars to the south, searching for the second buoy that marked the entrance to the bay. I shook my head and passed the glasses back to Takumi.
While he continued to examine the coast, I glanced at the map. The opening to Grays Harbor was two miles wide, but from out at sea, it was impossible to spot. If we sailed too close to shore, we’d get caught in the surf, and crash into the cliffs.
“Can I borrow those for
a while?” Zoë reached for the binoculars.
She made her way to the bow, ducking under the mainsail. She crawled on top of the cabin next to Jervis, held onto the rail, and scanned the coastline.
“Check this out,” she told Jervis, indicating where to focus.
“There’s a marker.” He pointed. “Zoë found it.”
“Okay, okay.” I gripped the wheel. “We found a marker. That’s good. That’s good.” Everyone was watching me.
“So what do we do now?” Nick asked. “If we go farther south, we’ll pass it.”
“Yeah. I can see that. But there should be two markers. What color is the one you found?”
“What?” Zoë made a face. “What difference does it make what color it is?”
I ignored her. “Nick, Takumi, can we sail into the harbor without tacking?”
Nick nodded. “We should be good as long as the wind keeps blowing this direction.”
“I still need to know the color of the buoy.” I waited but nobody spoke. “Red, right, return. Red, right, return,” I whispered and adjusted the wheel.
“What are you mumbling?” Takumi asked.
“A saying Dad had. The markers we are searching for, one will be green, the other red. When you are returning to a harbor, you keep the red marker to your right.”
“Cool.” Takumi repeated the phrase to himself. “Red, right, return.”
“Okay. Prepare to come about.” I’d made a decision. “Zoë, tell Angelina and Makala to hold on below. Nick and Takumi, ready the lines. Let me know when you’re set.”
After a few moments Nick held his line in the air. “Ready!”
“Watch your heads. Coming about.” I spun the wheel toward the buoy Zoë spotted.
Nick brought in the main sail, and then let it out after the turn. Takumi did the same for the jib. The sails fluttered. A wave hit us from the side. I held my breath.
The sails filled, but we heeled too far over, overpowered by the wind.
“Let out more sail!” I gripped the wheel.
Soon we were moving fast toward the marker. I prayed we’d either spot the second marker, or see the color of this one.
Zoë squealed. “Land. Here we come.”