Beached

by Brenda Beem

  Suddenly I gasped. The kayaks! They were there. But no one was in them. I kneeled down and squinted. Kat and Takumi were in the water. Were they just swimming around? I kept watching. Something was wrong. Kat was holding onto Takumi with one arm and a kayak with the other. Takumi wasn’t moving.

  I cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled, “Takumi!”

  Kat stared up at me. “Help!” she called out. “He’s hurt.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Takumi needed me. I dropped my crutch and pulled off my shoes, pants, and jacket. I found a rocky ledge that jutted far out over the sea. I scooted to the edge on my bottom and stared down into the bay.

  I was at least forty feet above the water. The number one rule of diving was to never dive into water you were unfamiliar with. But, I didn’t give myself time to think about that. Takumi was in trouble.

  I searched for the darkest part of the sea and dove. My body was long and straight. The minute my fingers sliced through the surface, I tucked and rolled, trying to stop my momentum.

  My underwater summersaults slowed me and I searched for the light above. My legs shot out and touched bottom. I pushed off and followed the bright beams. The surface was a long ways away, through water that stung my eyes.

  Something grabbed my leg. Precious air escaped my lungs. I kicked and pulled. My right leg was caught. I fought the panic and clasped my lips together.

  I had to confront whatever had hold of me and forced myself to look down. It was just seaweed, wrapped around my ankle. I swam hard for the surface. The seaweed held me back. I pulled and pulled. My leg didn’t budge.

  My lungs screamed for air.

  I reached down and tried to unwrap the strand. I couldn’t find a way to unwind it. I couldn’t feel the edge. It was all slimy. Panic filled me. I was going to drown.

  Anger washed over me. I’d failed. And Takumi! He would die too. With her. All because of a stupid strand of seaweed.

  Then I heard Takumi’s calm voice in my head. “The harder you pull, the tighter it becomes!”

  When had he’d said this? Stars swam before my eyes. I needed air.

  All of a sudden, I remembered. Takumi and Makala had been playing with a woven finger puzzle. “The harder you pull, the tighter it becomes.”

  Was seaweed like the finger game? Every instinct screamed at me to swim to the surface. Instead, I used my arms to push myself down.

  My lungs ached.

  I was dizzy.

  The seaweed loosened its grip. I pulled my foot free and shot up.

  I had a long ways to swim. My lungs demanded oxygen. Stars flashed before my eyes. Just when I thought I couldn’t hold my breath for another second, I broke the surface.

  I gulped mouthfuls of air and floated on my back.

  But only for a short moment.

  Takumi! Where was he? I turned from side to side trying to get my bearings. He and Kat were a short way off to the right. I took one more deep breath and swam to them.

  “What happened?” I grabbed Takumi’s arm.

  Kat sank under the sea. I worried I’d have to rescue her, but she popped back up with the kayak line. “Takumi dove to catch a lobster. When he came up, he was in terrible pain. He said he stepped on a stingray, and then passed out.”

  I grabbed the lifejacket from the bottom of the kayak and managed to get it on him. The jacket held his head up and out of the water. I held onto the loop on the back of it.

  Kat rested her head against the hull. “I tried to get him into the kayak, but couldn’t. I don’t know how much longer I could have held on.”

  I rolled Takumi onto his back and let him float. “Takumi,” I patted his face. “Takumi!”

  His eyes fluttered open. He groaned. “Toni!” He began to thrash around and moan. “God. It hurts so…!” He winced and grabbed his foot. “Stingray. Stinger’s still in.”

  “What should we do?” I stroked his face.

  “Pain’s spreading. Need to get it out.” Takumi gasped. He was having trouble breathing.

  I searched the bay for a place to go ashore. The edges of the steep cliffs seemed to shoot straight up from the bay. There was not a beach or land area to drag him to.

  Kat was shivering. They’d both been in the cool water too long.

  “Kat?”

  “What?” She raised her head.

  “If we float him on his back, maybe I can take out the stinger.”

  Takumi cried out with pain.

  She held him while I examined his foot. A sharp barb with a hook on the side was sticking out of his foot.

  “Do you have a knife?” I asked.

  Kat shook her head.

  “It needs to be cut out. Okay then. We leave it alone until we get help. Let’s get him out of the water.” I held Takumi facing the kayak. He passed out again. I was glad he wasn’t feeling any pain, but he also couldn’t help us.

  I motioned for Kat to go to the other side of the kayak. “I’ll dive and push him up from below. You pull. Just get him up and across the top.”

  Kat was shaking so hard I worried she wouldn’t be able to lift Takumi at all, but I couldn’t do it alone. She leaned across Takumi’s kayak and grabbed the straps of his lifejacket.

  “Ready?” I inhaled two deep breaths. When she nodded I dove, wrapped my arms around Takumi’s legs, and kicked as hard as I could, propelling him up. When my head broke the surface, Takumi’s feet dangled in my face from the kayak. He’d made it.

  We rolled him over and pushed him as far down into the bow of the kayak as we could. He was still unconscious.

  I searched the bay. “Where’s the other kayak?” I had to find it. There was no way all three of us would fit into one.

  Kat helped me look.

  “There it is.” I pointed. “Stay with Takumi.”

  Her teeth chattered. “Hurry!”

  I sprinted toward the loose kayak, found the line that was tied to the bow, and towed it back. I wrapped the long line through the handles on the sides of both kayaks and tied them together, side by side.

  “Okay! Now get in this one,” I told Kat.

  Kat shook her head. “I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can.” I clenched my teeth. “You have to. I can’t do this by myself.”

  Kat took a deep breath and pulled herself up on the side of the kayak. She kicked to propel herself higher. The kayak tipped over far on the side she was trying to enter from. Both kayaks rocked. I dove down and pushed her up from below. On the third try, Kat made it up onto the flat kayak deck. She managed to wiggle around and stretch her legs out.

  The cold was getting to me. I started to pull myself up onto the back of Takumi’s kayak.

  “Wait!” Kat cried. “We need the other paddle.”

  “What!” The cold was seeping into my bones. I looked around. “Where is it?”

  Kat searched the calm bay. “I don’t know. Takumi bungeed his to his kayak, but mine floated away.”

  I couldn’t see the other paddle anywhere. One would have to do. More than anything I wished it were a real, two-bladed kayak paddle, and not the single dinghy paddle we’d found in Grays Harbor. But one was better than none.

  I tied Takumi’s kayak to our stern. I was shivering hard. My strength was almost gone. When I got up on the side of Kat’s kayak, she yanked on my sweatshirt and pulled me across the stern. Now all I had to do was figure out how to straddle the thing.

  “Squeeze in behind me.” Kat moved as far forward as she could, leaving a small gap behind her.

  It was tricky, but I managed to squeeze in and wedge my legs down alongside her.

  “Ready?” She pulled out the paddle.

  “Ready!” I checked on Takumi. He seemed secure in the kayak behind us, but his head was down. Was he still breathing? I couldn’t tell. Fear engulfed me.

  My trembling intensified.

  Kat paused paddling and took off the lifejacket she’d been wearing. “Here! Maybe this will warm your back.”

  I stared
at her full, pink bra as I took the lifejacket. She’d been swimming with Takumi in her underwear.

  My imagination took flight. Takumi and Kat. All alone. In their underwear. I tried to shake the images out of my head, but they wouldn’t go away. I argued with myself. What they’d been doing before didn’t matter––Takumi was dying. And the entire crew had been swimming around in our underwear when we first got to the island.

  But my face burned. Jealousy was doing more than the lifejacket had to warm me.

  We paddled in silence out of the bay. The gentle ocean waves rocked the kayaks. I spent my time focusing on Takumi: Furious with him one moment, then concerned about him the next.

  Kat was slowing down. I was about to tell her I’d take over paddling, when I saw a couple of fins. “Look!” I smiled.

  “Oh my God. Sharks!” She squealed.

  “I don’t think so. Yesterday we saw some…”

  Before I could finish, dolphins leapt in the air and swam up and around us. One stood on its tail and squeaked.

  “Maybe they’ll tow us,” Kat whispered.

  “They aren’t trained animals. We can’t make them tow us,” I sneered.

  I glanced back at Takumi. He was awake and gulped in air like a fish out of water. All of a sudden I didn’t care that he’d been almost naked with Kat. I loved him and he was hurting. I took the paddle from her and started stroking hard.

  “But I’ve heard stories of how dolphins have saved swimmers,” Kat insisted.

  The dolphins came alongside us. Then, almost as if there was a signal, they took off.

  “Wait!” Kat yelled. “Come back.”

  The dolphins swam incredibly fast, just under the surface. They reminded me of torpedoes. I searched the horizon for their target. It was a game I’d seen them play during our summer sailing trips.

  “Is that Whistler?” I squinted and searched the horizon.

  Kat shaded her eyes even though there was no sun. “I can’t tell. But it’s a sailboat. “Help!” she screamed and waved her arms.

  I joined her in yelling, even though I knew we were too far for them to hear us. I lifted the paddle high above my head and waved it back and forth. The sailboat continued on its path. It was entering Prisoners’ Harbor, the bay we’d made our home in.

  I told Takumi to hold on. He was moaning and writhing with pain.

  Exhausted, I pushed myself to keep paddling. The dolphins returned. They both scooted on their tails, squawked, and shot back out toward the boat.

  I kept paddling.

  “Don’t go!” Kat yelled. “Toni, make them help us.”

  “Right. How do you suggest I do that?” I passed the paddle across to the other side. Kat ducked.

  “I don’t know, but we’re too far out. They don’t see us.” Kat started to cry.

  “Keep waving your arms.” I pulled the paddle through the waves.

  The large boat kept heading toward the shore. It was going into the bay. Either Kat was right and they didn’t see us, or they didn’t care.

  This time when the dolphins returned, Kat wiggled a line in the water and pleaded with them to take it and tow us. They seemed to laugh, got into formation, and took off for the sailboat again.

  The large boat slowly disappeared behind the cliff that protected the bay. They weren’t coming to help us. We had about a quarter of a mile to go. Both Kat and I were beyond tired. Takumi was thrashing around, his pain growing. I’d never felt so helpless.

  Tears streamed down my cheeks. Kat sobbed as she took the paddle from me.

  “Toni!” Kat cried.

  I didn’t respond.

  “Toni, look. The boat. It’s back. Maybe it did see us.”

  I sniffed and stared at the horizon.

  Takumi screamed in pain. He thrashed around from one side of the kayak to the other. His kayak almost tipped over.

  I pulled my legs up and out of Kat’s and my kayak and slid into the water. I swam to Takumi and grabbed his hand. “You have to stop moving around so much. Squeeze my hand instead,” I begged him.

  I checked the sailboat’s progress. Its sails were full and it was headed straight for us.

  The dolphins appeared behind me. I reached out to them. One almost let me touch it, changed its mind, and rolled onto its side. It stared at me with one eye.

  “Thank you!” I sniffed. “You showed that boat where we were. They wouldn’t have spotted us if you hadn’t.”

  The dolphin jabbered at me, joined its friend, and swam out to sea.

  The sailboat kept coming.

  I ignored the cold and stayed at Takumi’s side. He yelled and squeezed my hand so hard I thought my fingers might break.

  “Hold on, Takumi! Help’s on the way. Just hold on,” I said, over and over again.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The boat heading toward us was Whistler. It had a dark blue hull, the sails had duct tape hanging off them, but the biggest clue was Zoë’s high-pitched voice. It carried out over the sea.

  For the first time ever, I was excited to hear it.

  Dylan dropped the main sail.

  Zoë stood at the wheel and shouted, “Where’s the brake on this thing?”

  The boat glided past us.

  I would’ve laughed if I hadn’t been shivering so hard.

  “What’s going on?” Zoë yelled as they zoomed by.

  “Takumi kicked a stingray,” I shouted. “The stinger’s still in. He’s having an allergic reaction. Can’t breathe.”

  Banks and Brad, the two guys from the island, arrived on deck as Zoë disappeared below. Dylan hurried down to the swim step and threw us a line. Kat rowed both of the kayaks to the line. I swam to it, tied it to Kat’s kayak, and Dylan towed us to the stern. I told the guys to lift Takumi on board first.

  In seconds, Takumi was out of his kayak and in the cabin below.

  I prayed Zoë could help him as one of the island guys tied the kayaks to the back cleats.

  Dylan reached down for me. “Are you okay?” He yanked me out of the water and onto the swim-step.

  I threw myself into his arms and dripped all over him. “What took you so long? I was so worried.” My voice cracked.

  “We made an extra stop and had no way to tell you.” Dylan kissed my forehead. “Sorry!”

  “I want to hear all about it, but first, I need to check on Takumi.” I started down the steps.

  “Where’s Jervis?”

  “Um! Well. That’s part of the story.” Dylan’s head lowered.

  My hand flew to my mouth. “Jervis?”

  “No, nothing like that. He’s fine. At least he was. Go! Check on Takumi. We can talk later.” Dylan turned to help Kat out of the kayak.

  The island guys nodded to me as I made my way down the stairs. Takumi was lying on Jervis’ mattress in the middle of the main cabin. Zoë held his head in her lap and spooned a red liquid into his mouth.

  She glared at me. “About time you showed up. Hold his head. I’m trying to get some Benadryl into him. I don’t want him to choke.” She timed the doses carefully so he wouldn’t inhale the liquid into his already troubled lungs.

  He struggled with every dose and his breathing sounded terrible.

  “I hope that’s enough.” She tightened the lid on the medicine bottle. “I want to check his foot before he wakes up.”

  Whistler heeled hard to port. We were sailing. I steadied Takumi. Dylan needed to know about the island people and their threats before we sailed back into the harbor. But I couldn’t leave Takumi.

  “Is he going to be okay?” Kat appeared behind me. I hadn’t even noticed that she’d come down.

  Zoë stared at Kat’s bra, raised her eyebrows, and lifted Takumi’s foot. We almost bumped heads as we studied the stinger close up. It was buried deep into Takumi’s foot.

  “Does your father still have lots of antibiotics?” Zoë asked Kat.

  “I wouldn’t say lots. He has some.” Kat crossed her arms around her chest.

  “We n
eed to get this thing out.” Zoë gestured at the stinger. “But first, you two need to put some clothes on. You’re getting the bandages wet.”

  “I left my things up on shore when Takumi and I went kayaking,” Kat said.

  “Really?” Zoë glanced at me.

  “I’ll find something.” I searched through the clothes I’d left on the boat, changed, and handed an old, torn, Seahawks sweatshirt to Kat.

  She pulled it on over her wet bra and picked up a razor blade from the first aid kit. “A neighbor brought his dog to Dad with porcupine quills in his back. Dad said the secret was to make a small incision alongside the barb, and lift out the quill. Not pull it out.”

  Zoë peered down at Takumi’s foot. “Makes sense.”

  Takumi took a breath. His chest made a rattling sound. We heeled way over to the starboard side and I grabbed the over-head handrail to keep from falling. We were sailing fast and would enter the harbor soon. I was out of time.

  “I’ll be right back.” I ran for the stairs, stood at the top of the cockpit opening, and called to Dylan. “We need to talk.”

  “Okay. Talk!” Dylan adjusted the wheel.

  “Alone. Come down.”

  Dylan turned to the island guys. “Take the wheel for a minute.”

  I shook my head. “You have to drop the sails. We can’t go into the harbor.”

  “What do you mean?” Banks, or maybe it was Brad, shouted. “I need to get back. My wife must be worried sick.”

  Dylan stared at me. “Just spit it out.”

  I sighed. “The people on the island threatened us. I’m worried they might do something to Angelina, Nick, or Makala if we don’t give our guns and maybe even the boat to them.”

  “That’s bull.” One of the ‘B’ guys stood. “No one from the island would harm you.”

  “I’m dropping the sails and you’re going to explain,” Dylan told me.

  “You promised to bring us back,” the other B argued.