Hurricane (19 page)

“
Nobody would do such a thing.”

“
If somebody wanted you to think there was something wrong with your motor, all he would have to do was sabotage one tank. When he wanted the engine to quit he’d go below and switch from one tank to the other and the engine would stop. The danger is that he could cause permanent damage, but he didn’t. Your engine seems to be okay.”

“
Would you do me a favor and not tell anyone the engine’s working?”

“
You don’t want the White Trinidadian to know?” Henry asked.

“
Not so much him as the Germans on that black schooner. But you’re right, I don’t want him to know either.”

“
But he’s your daughter’s boyfriend,” Darla said.

“
He is not,” Julie said, but she was starting to think otherwise. She’d been wanting to talk to Meiko about it, but the only thing they ever argued about when she was growing up was boys. It seemed like whenever she didn’t like one, Meiko went out of her way to like him more. So she’d learned to keep her mouth shut.

“
Yes he is. You should see them holding hands when you’re not around.”

“
It’s true,” Henry said.

“
In that case I really don’t want him to know. Shit, he’s my age. We’ll leave tonight, if we can get out of here without the Germans seeing us.”

“
They’ve been spending every night at Sophie’s bar. I’ll ask her to let them drink for half price tonight, and I’ll ask her to serve them doubles.”

“
Now all I have to do is get past the reefs after dark,” Julie said.

“
Very dangerous,” Henry said.

There was a steel band playing in the background as they brought up the anchor. Julie hung over the bow pulpit with her foot on the windlass button and watched the anchor rode come up. The sound of the band on shore helped cover the sound of the rattling chain as it clanged over the bow roller.

She wanted to leave the bay with as little attention as possible. The black schooner was dark, the crew was ashore. Henry had reported that they were drinking heavily at Sophie’s.

She stepped away from the bow roller as the anchor came up and thudded into place with a clang that reverberated through the bay. She was a second slow off the button and now everybody knew someone had an anchor up. Julie hoped the Germans were sitting close to the pan players and not looking out over the anchorage.

Meiko added a little forward throttle and they started to weave their way among the boats, paralleling the reef. Julie knew that only the experienced or the foolish left Clifton at night, but she was more afraid of Snake Eyes and her crew than she was of the reef.

There was a breeze battling the current and the water was choppy. Boats were bobbing at anchor, their anchor lights, atop the tall masts, weaving patterns in the night. Julie bent over and held on to the lifelines as she made her made her way back to the stern. She grabbed onto the mainsheet, hanging off the boom for support and swung into the cockpit.

“
The marker,” Julie said. “Left, left, left,” and Meiko started spinning the wheel. They heard and felt a crunching sound as the keel scraped the bottom. The boat shuddered and for a second Julie thought it was all over, but the shuddering and scraping stopped and the boat moved back into deeper water.

“
That was close,” Meiko sighed.

“
See the lights on the south end of Palm Island?” Julie said.

“
Sure, that’s the hotel,” Meiko said, and Julie wondered how she knew that.

“
Try to stay halfway between them and the red buoy on the left. That should keep us off the reef until we get out of this channel.”

“
Then what?” Meiko asked.

“
Then we’re through the most dangerous part.”

Meiko steered and Julie kept watch. The wind increased and Julie wished she had gotten a weather report. It was turning into a chilly night. Then the rain came, but not hard, just enough to keep them cold and uncomfortable.

“
Mom, we’re in twenty feet of water.” Meiko was bobbing on her toes and heels.

“
It’s okay, as long as we stay between the lights,” she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt.

“
Mom, it’s fifteen feet.” Meiko stopped bouncing, but her knuckles were white on the wheel. She was waiting for them to hit bottom again.

“
We’ll be all right,” Julie said. “Stay between the lights.”

“
Twenty-five feet, forty, forty-five. It’s getting deeper,” Meiko said, reading the depth sounder. Then they were through the reefs.

“
Turn a little to the left,” Julie said, “and aim for Mayreau. We still have another set of reefs to negotiate. There should be a lighted beacon. Keep your eye out for it.” She had to go to the bathroom. “I’m going to the toilet, will you be okay up here for a minute or two?”

“
Sure, no problem.”

The boat was rocking gently in the five foot swells and Julie held onto the bulkheads as she made her way forward to the head. She pumped some water into the bowl, pulled down her shorts and sat on the toilet. She finished and was pumping fresh seawater into the bowl when a screeching sound assaulted her and the boat shook. She felt like she was in an earthquake and she braced herself between the walls for support.

“
Mom, help!” Meiko called out.

The small bathroom rocked back and forth, knocking Julie into one wall, then another. She felt like she was the clangor inside a giant bell. She pulled the door open, and with hands against the walls for support, she scrambled to the cockpit.

“
Turn right and full power,” Julie yelled as she came up the ladder, and Meiko obeyed, sliding the throttle forward and spinning the wheel away from the reef. The scraping continued as the boat grated on the coral bottom, and they were barely moving.

“
Are we going to be all right?” Meiko asked, eyes wide. Then the boat broke free, and for the second time that night they moved into deeper water and off of a reef.

“
What happened?” Julie asked. Meiko backed off on the throttle.

“
There wasn’t any light. By the time I saw the beacon it was too late. I’m sorry.”

“
It’s okay, we’re all right now.”

“
Thank God,” Meiko said.

“
Keep your current course. I’m going to run below for a second and look at the chart.” She saw the look in her daughter’s eyes. “It’ll be okay, we’re a mile away from any more reefs.”

“
That’s comforting,” Meiko said, and Julie went below. The boat was rocking more, because they were away from the shelter of the reefs. Julie held onto hand rails for support and made her way to the chart table. It took her less than a minute to decide what to do.

She scooted out from behind the table and went topside. “Turn left,” she said.

“
But it’s the wrong way.”

“
We’re going out to sea.”

“
But I thought we were going to hug the islands. You said it was safer.”

“
We’ve come a hair’s breath from running aground twice. We might not be so lucky the next time. If we head up toward Martinique we’ll have better winds and we won’t have to worry about any reefs.”

“
Martinique, that’s at least two days away.”

“
I know,” Julie said, “and it’s the last thing Snake Eyes will suspect. They’ll be looking for us in the Southern Grenadines, Bequia or St. Vincent. Meanwhile we’ll be in the French Islands, where they have real law and real police. If they try anything there they’ll go to jail for a long time.”

“
We’ll have to sail during the night.” Meiko pushed the hair from her eyes. The wind blew it right back. It was a constant battle she couldn’t win, but she kept trying.

“
We’re sailing during the night now, well, we’re motoring anyway,” Julie said and mother and daughter laughed. The sky was clear behind, but there were clouds ahead, covering the stars and blocking the moon. Julie hoped they wouldn’t bring more rain.

“
You know what I mean. Two days without rest, just the two of us. Do you really think we can do it?” Meiko asked. She had one hand on the wheel and the other holding her hair back.

“
Of course we can. People do it all the time,” Julie said, and she pulled a band out of her hair, “Here, you need this more than I do.”

“
But we’re so inexperienced,” Meiko said. She held the wheel with her foot while she put her hair back with the band.

“
Can you think of a better way to learn?”

“
Sure, Victor could be here teaching us.”

“
Helping us is more like it,” Julie said.

“
What do you mean?” Meiko asked.

“
He did all the work, he never really showed us how to do anything.” And that bothered Julie. Every time she asked him a question he put her off. As if he didn’t really want to teach her. As if teaching a woman was beneath him.

“
Come on, Mom, we learned a lot.”

“
By watching.”

“
That’s just his way of teaching. He wanted us to learn by experience, not by being told.”

“
Well I didn’t like it. Every time I asked him why he did something he just said, ‘Because, that’s the way you do it.’ It felt like he was putting me off, and it was beginning to feel like he was in charge.”

Thunder rumbled ahead and Julie shivered as they started to move under the clouds. In a few minutes they’d be far enough from the reefs and they could turn toward a course for Martinique.

“
We wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for him. We owe him a lot,” Meiko said.

“
I know that,” Julie said. “He’s been a great help. I keep forgetting he’s a Trini. They all have that macho Trini attitude, black or white. I’ve never been able to get used to it.”

Thunder rumbled again, louder, closer.

“
Think we’ll get more rain?” Meiko asked, and Julie sensed that she wanted to change the subject away from Victor. She ached to tell her daughter that she was too young for him, but she thought it best to hold her tongue.

“
Maybe not,” she said. “Turn to zero three zero.”

“
Turning to thirty degrees,” Meiko said, and she slowly spun the wheel to the right until the compass needle told her she was on course. Now the dark skies were off to the right and the wind was from the east, on the beam.

“
I guess it’s time we got our feet wet and raised a sail.”

“
You want me to turn into the wind.”

“
No, I don’t think we’ll use the main just yet. Lets see how she does with just the jib.”

Julie freed the port jib sheet, then she freed the furling line from the self tailing jaws, but she kept four wraps on the winch as she cranked on the starboard jib sheet. She stopped cranking when the sail was halfway out, and she cleated off both the furling line and the jib sheet.

Wind filled the sail and the boat started to pick up speed.

“
You want me to shut off the engine?” Meiko said.

“
Yeah.”

“
Shutting down.” Meiko shut off the engine. “Wow, it’s like magic.”

The boat healed over and seemed to be gliding through the sea. Rain was falling on the left, but the squall wasn’t affecting them. It was clear on the right and clear ahead, the waves were coming from behind and Meiko was wearing a smile that would light a Christmas tree.

“
We’re doing seven knots with sixteen knots of wind and the jib is only halfway out,” Julie said. “This boat can really sail.”

The winds aloft shifted and the cloud cover moved over them, blanketing their world in darkness, but they were steadily moving away from the squall.

“
It’s kind of spooky,” Meiko said. “Like one of those Jack Priest horror stories. I can see it now, mother and daughter abducted by women starved aliens.” Then she turned and scanned the horizon. “Hey, Mom, I saw a light.”

“
Where?”

“
Behind us.”

Julie turned.

“
There’s nothing there now.”

“
There was,” Meiko said. “It was on for a few seconds, then off. It looked far away.”

“
It could have been fishermen. They go out horribly far in those little boats.”

“
At night?” She was behind the wheel, and Julie heard the tension in her voice.

“
Easy, we’re both a little jumpy. There’s no way they could have followed us. We’re safe from them. We only have the ocean to worry about.”

“
And the wind and the rain,” Meiko said, loosening up.

Six hours later Meiko was back on watch, and she saw the light behind them. “Mom, I saw it again,” she said, softly.

“
What, honey?” Julie said. She was waking from a dreamy sleep on the starboard cockpit seat. She sat up, stretched and yawned.

“
The light behind us. It’s still on.”

Julie turned and this time she saw it, too. Then it winked out. “Could be fishermen,” she said.

“
It’s not,” Meiko said. “Not this far out. Not this late.”

“
You want to let out a little more sail?” Julie asked.

“
Yeah,” she said, and Julie rolled out a little more head sail. Their speed increased from seven to seven-point-eight. “Roll it all out, let’s see how fast we can go with just the jib,” and Julie rolled it all out.