Knockdown

by Brenda Beem

  Takumi swung the water onto his shoulder and groaned at the weight. “This boat was picked clean before everyone left. And it was a charter boat. No one lived on it. Let’s check the deck storage and then try another boat.”

  There were two large hatches up on deck. Takumi set the cases of water aside and lifted the cover on the port side. It led to a ladder that went underneath the stern. He climbed down and I followed close behind. The only source of light was from the hatch opening above us.

  “Toni, wait.” Takumi struggled to pull his cell out of his pocket. He tapped the flashlight app and shined it up ahead.

  “What?” I bumped into his back. We were both bent over. The ceiling was low.

  “Get back.” Takumi motioned for me to stop.

  I got to my knees and peered around his hunched form. A person sat huddled in the far corner of the stern. Takumi put his finger to his lips and shined the light at the corner. The person was a man with a thick gray beard.

  Takumi made his way toward him. “Sir? Sir? Are you all right?”

  The man with a gray beard didn’t answer.

  Takumi lowered the light and reached out his hand.

  The man didn’t move.

  Takumi touched the man’s shoulder. Gray Beard fell onto his side.

  I screamed and covered my mouth with my hand.

  Takumi placed his fingers on the man’s neck, seeking a pulse. After a few seconds he shook his head.

  I made my way to the corner. Gray Beard’s glazed-over eyes stared back at me.

  “Why didn’t he leave with the rest of the town?” I whispered.

  “We’ll never know. I’d guess this boat was his life and he didn’t want to leave it.” Takumi pointed. “See, he’s wearing a survival suit. I bet he thought he could ride out the tsunami in here. The lack of air might be what killed him. Now, the boat’s his tomb.”

  I glanced around at the cold storage locker. “We can’t leave him here!”

  “Toni, we’d have to carry him for miles to find land we could dig up. And that would be partially frozen. This is where he chose to be.”

  “But…” I started to protest but couldn’t think of a better solution.

  “It’s cold. His body will be protected down here.” Takumi placed a water-proof jacket over the man’s head. Now all I could see was his dark red survival suit. “If he has family, they’ll look for him here.”

  The thought of his family finding him convinced me we were doing the right thing, but I couldn’t leave the man without doing something.

  I took Gray Beard’s cold hand in mine and said the only prayer that came to mind. “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”

  “That was a little morbid, but nice.” Takumi put his arm around me.

  I tried to shed a tear for the poor, lonely man, but none came. I guess I was finally out of tears.

  We sat in silence and then slowly moved away. The storage locker was packed with deep sea fishing poles, a huge tackle box, and giant crab pots.

  “We should leave these for his family.” I opened the tackle box. It contained every lure and fishing hook imaginable.

  Takumi took a pole off the wall. “We don’t know for sure that he has a family, or even if they would be the next ones here. We need these. But we only need a few. And we can’t use the crab pots. They’re commercial. Too big for us to store or heft out of the water.”

  Takumi loaded four fishing poles in my arms. I started to say something about not taking the tackle box, but didn’t. Takumi was right. We didn’t need to be greedy, but the needs of the living were more important than the needs of the dead.

  We held hands for one last look at Gray Beard and whispered, “Thank you.”

  With our arms full, we headed back to the bonfire to unload before searching the other boats. The guys were excited to see what we’d found. We told them about the man and they agreed we’d done the right thing, leaving him.

  Zoë waved her arms on the deck of Whistler. “We’re ready to go ashore.”

  Boots barked.

  Nick took a deep breath. “I’ll go.”

  “You know, one dinghy isn’t going to be enough,” I said. “We saw some kayaks scattered around. There must have been a tour company here somewhere. Kayaks would be great to scout ahead in and there’d be another way off the boat.”

  The guys liked my idea. We decided Takumi and I would look for kayaks next. Nick and Takumi left the fire to load the dinghy with the bottles of water and the gear we’d found. They stood for a long time involved in a serious discussion. I was too far away to hear, but hoped it wasn’t about Dylan.

  Two enormous stainless steel pans rested precariously on grates placed over the roaring fire. Water steamed from the top.

  “I can’t believe how long it takes to boil water.” Jervis threw some boards onto the fire and checked the water.

  Upside-down plastic buckets sat around the fire pit in a semi-circle. They’d been placed there the night before. I took a seat on one closest to the flames. Jervis joined me.

  “This feels so good.” I reached out to warm the palms of my hands.

  Jervis stood and checked the pot. “I planned to go off on my own when we got to land.”

  “Jervis!”

  ‘I’m just in the way.” He sat back on his bucket.

  “You’re not in the way. We need you.”

  “Look at me. I’m too big for a sailboat. And I need to find Mom and my sisters.”

  Takumi appeared. “The best way to find your family is to stay with us. We’re sailing south. We’ll reach California long before you could make it there on foot.”

  “You’re probably right.” Jervis glanced back at the town. “I didn’t expect things to be this…muddy.”

  Takumi put his hand on Jervis’ shoulder. “The trip down the coast is going to take all of us on watch. Twenty-four seven. We need your help more than ever. Especially now you’ve got a real coat.”

  Jervis ran his hands down the side of his jacket. “Fine. I hate the idea of slogging through all this mud by myself for days anyway. I just wish…”

  I stood and heated my backside. “It’s a long trip ahead. All I know is we are stronger together.”

  Jervis nodded.

  I rotated from front to back, loving the warmth. “I wish we could build a fire on the boat.” I leaned over and let the flames flicker around my fingers and moaned with pleasure.

  “I’ve been thinking about that.” Takumi stirred the coals. “If we found a heavy barbecue, we could put it in the cockpit to build fires in.”

  “You think so?” I thought for a moment. “Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”

  “We couldn’t have a fire in rough seas, but we could secure it well enough in calmer waters. We could even use some mud and bricks to insulate the fiberglass. And we’d keep a bucket of water close by in case of a problem.”

  “Really?” I gazed at the fire. “I don’t see how it would work, but if you think it might, I know the perfect place on board to store firewood.”

  We smiled at each other.

  “Jervis, yell if you need us.” Takumi took my muddy hand in his. “Come on. Let’s go find a barbecue and kayaks.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Super Yacht, Six Days to Go

  We made our way to the fire-pit dragging four plastic kayaks. They’d been easy to spot. The kayaks were brightly colored, plastic, and light. Since they were scattered all around, we figured they must have floated above the waves, and landed on top of all the wreckage. In any case, we found more kayaks than we needed. But the paddles were nowhere in sight.

  The two kayaks I hauled kept getting caught on wreckage. “Why don’t we just take yours back and check for leaks? We can get these later if we need them.” I tugged the one behind me away from the fence it had snagged on.

  “We’re almost there. Here… Stack yours on mine,” Takumi offered.


  I shook my head. “That’s okay.” I slid the kayak on my right between a crumbled brick wall and a smashed school bus.

  We could hear the group talking around the fire before we got there. Zoë, Dylan, Angelina, and Makala sat on buckets near the fire. Dylan saw us and began to run to us.

  “Careful.” I held a hand up motioning for him to stop. “You’ll fall if you try to—”

  Dylan’s foot disappeared in a hole, his arms whirled in the air, and he landed, face first, in the mud.

  “Dylan!” I dropped the ropes I’d been pulling.

  He climbed to his feet.

  The only things not covered in mud were his blue eyes.

  “Are you okay?” I tried to choke back a laugh, but it escaped anyway.

  “It’s not funny,” Dylan snapped. “I’m a mess and there’s nowhere to clean up.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from giggling. “You should have seen the way you just, just, face planted. Sorry, but it was kinda funny.” I pulled a wad of paper towel out of my jacket pocket.

  “Give me that.” Dylan jerked the towel out of my hands and smeared grime across his eyes. Now even they were muddy. I found that hilarious.

  Takumi showed up with all the kayaks. “You okay?” If he’d been laughing, there was no sign of it on his face.

  “You can clean up at the beach before we head back to the boat.” I snorted, and then giggled hysterically.

  Dylan stomped back to the fire mumbling. “I was coming to help you.”

  The crew stood around the flames. From the grins they tried to hide I could tell they’d seen Dylan fall. Zoë ran to the water’s edge and dampened a paper towel. Makala gawked, wide-eyed. The rest avoided looking at him.

  “Where’s Nick?” Takumi asked.

  “He stayed on the boat so I could go ashore.” Dylan plopped down on a bucket and began scraping goo off his coat. Zoë tried to clean his face, but only made it worse.

  “Where are we going to put four kayaks on the sailboat?” Jervis asked, the corners of his mouth twitching.

  “We only need two, but we couldn’t tell if they have cracks or not. After we wash them all off, we’ll see which ones are solid and pick two.” Takumi headed for the shoreline.

  Boots barked from the deck of Whistler. I hoped he was tied up or in the closet.

  “Dylan wouldn’t let Boots come with us,” Makala whined.

  “I’m glad. Boots would have gotten even muddier than Dylan.” I scrunched my nose.

  Angelina, Nick, and Jervis glanced over at Dylan and burst out laughing.

  Zoë kissed Dylan’s muddy cheek. “You did look funny.”

  Takumi cleared his throat. “Can someone check out the kayaks? Toni and I need to find paddles and a barbecue.”

  “Barbecue?” Dylan scowled. His mud encrusted hair stuck straight up. “What in the hell do you plan to do with a barbecue?”

  Takumi explained his plan for building a fire pit on the boat.

  “Are you out of your mind?” Dylan tossed the muddy towel in the fire.

  “It’s worth a try,” Takumi replied in a calm voice. “If it doesn’t work, we can always throw it overboard.”

  “I agree.” Jervis lurched at Makala as a spark flew at her from the fire.

  “Me too.” Angelina pulled Makala up on her lap. “Makala and I can be in charge of the kayaks. We’re better off staying here on the beach than trying to walk into town, anyway. Besides, the fire feels great.”

  The beach area was clear of all but heavy wreckage. From the high tide line to the water’s edge smashed cars and trucks lay strewn, but if it could float, it had been taken out to sea with the tides. I checked to make sure the dinghy was tied up high enough on shore. I was surprised to see the old makeshift raft we’d built up on the beach too.

  “Are we saving that for some reason?” I was shocked it hadn’t already become firewood.

  Angelina smiled and headed for the kayaks. “We have a plan for it, but we’ll tell you about it later. Go find a barbecue and the paddles. Makala and I will gather some wood when we’re done with the kayaks.”

  “I want to check out the fancy yacht we got the dinghy from.” Zoë zipped up her coat and stood to leave. “It was too dark to see much last night.”

  Dylan asked Jervis, “Are you okay watching the fire for a while longer?”

  Jervis watched Makala throw a rock into the bay. It hit a kayak instead. “Yeah, but we’re going to have to take these pots to the boat soon. And I’ll need some help refilling them.”

  Since we had no idea where we might find a barbecue, Takumi and I decided to head toward the fancy boat too. We held hands and carefully followed Dylan and Zoë.

  The yacht’s name was the Lazy Susan. It stood upright a few blocks inland on top of what used to be a retail shop. Since the roof of the building it landed on was completely collapsed, and everything was covered in mud, we couldn’t tell what the shop had been. It didn’t look safe to climb under the broken beams to check it out.

  Takumi took the lead and showed us how they’d climbed onboard the night before. He rubbed mud off the lettering on the stern. It read ‘Ocean Alexander 180.’

  “That’s the make of the boat and how long it is,” Takumi said. “One hundred and eighty feet.”

  “That’s more than four times the size of our boat.” I ran my hand over the woodwork I could see through the layer of goo. I’d never been on a private boat this big. Even covered in mud it was beautiful.

  ”Where’s the master bedroom?” Zoë rushed past me without waiting for an answer.

  Dylan rifled through the cockpit lockers.

  “Let’s check out the top deck. There might be a barbecue there.” Takumi pointed to the ladder that went to the flying bridge.

  “I was going to check out the galley.”

  “We did that last night. There was nothing.” Takumi motioned for me to go first.

  “Nothing?” I began to climb.

  “Just lots of booze,” he whispered.

  I flashed on the memory of Dylan drunk. But when I got up top I let it go and focused on the view. In the distance, mountains loomed, capped with snow. As far as I could see inland, buildings and trees were flattened and the land, brown. Mud coated and colored the world.

  “This is where we found the dinghy.” Takumi patted a crane-type machine at the far stern. “And look! Over there. I was right.”

  Close to where I stood was an outdoor kitchen, complete with a sink, refrigerator, and cast-iron barbecue. Takumi opened and shut the barbecue top and checked the storage area beneath.

  “We can just unscrew the base. And this top will be great. We can even use the lid to close off the fire if the seas get rough.” He pulled out the drawers in the kitchen. “I’m going to need some tools and Dylan’s help.”

  I left to find Dylan.

  Dylan had a couple of oars in his hands. “I know these aren’t kayak paddles, but we could use them like canoe oars.”

  The oars were better than nothing. The guys turned to the task of dismantling the barbecue. I went to explore the rest of the boat and found Zoë in the master suite.

  Our entire boat could have fit inside it. Zoë’s pack bulged. She was filling a pillow case she’d taken off the bed with prescription medications she’d found in the bathroom.

  “Look at that closet!” Zoë gestured to the opened double door walk-in. Glittery gowns, silken pantsuits, and dresses hung in rows. Obviously the owners of this boat had a completely different boating life than the one I’d grown up with.

  “Most of the outfits are a size too big, but who cares. Look at these labels.”

  “Zoë, this stuff is worthless.”

  “What do you mean?” Zoë’s mouth dropped open. “We’re going to California, right? Everyone dresses up in L.A.”

  I left the bedroom without a word. I don’t think Zoë even noticed.

  Somewhere on the boat there had to be items that might save our lives, or at least
make our lives easier. It was too big a boat to not have a crew. I slogged through about a foot of muddy water to find the berths located on the bottom level of the yacht. The first storage area I came to held foul-weather jackets. They hung just high enough to have stayed dry. The greatest find was a linen closet full of fluffy white towels. I almost didn’t want to touch them, I was so dirty. I followed Zoë’s example and gathered ten into a pillow case. The case was bulging. I put three jackets in another pillowcase, and had all I could carry.

  As I was leaving, I passed the crew bathroom. I slid open the vanity, and there on the shelf, were four toothbrushes in an unopened package, suntan lotion, and bug spray. I grinned and added the toothbrushes to my pack along with the can of bug spray. I was surprised there was nothing else. Not even hand soap. The crew must have needed to bring their own bath products to and from the boat.

  Takumi and Dylan lowered the barbecue to the bottom deck using the dinghy lift. I was too loaded down to help them. We called and called for Zoë.

  Finally she appeared with four pillow cases and her back-pack stuffed full. “I could use a little help here,” she whined.

  Dylan and Takumi stood balancing the paddles and heavy barbecue between them.

  “I’ll carry one of your pillow cases,” I offered, then groaned when she handed me the one that held all the shoes.

  Nick and Jervis arrived back at the fire the same time we did. They were carrying pots of water and placed them on the fire.

  “I think this is the last batch,” Nick said. “I checked the tank when we dumped the last load and it’s almost full.”

  “Who’s watching the boat?” Dylan asked when he and Takumi loaded the barbecue in the dinghy.

  “Jervis needed help getting water from the stream. I gave Angelina the gun and told her to fire it if she saw anyone coming.” Nick pointed. “The boat’s right there. No-one can get to it without our seeing them.”

  Dylan’s eyebrows knitted together.

  Takumi picked up one of the large plastic buckets. “Toni and I passed a broken brick wall when we brought back the kayaks. I’m going to gather a few bricks.”