The Pike: Ships In The Night (4 page)

He chuckled and swallowed. “Just laying some groundwork.  Jesus Sparks, you don't make anything easy for people do you?”

I shook my head and dunked my sandwich into my au jus and took a bite.

He chuckled and said, “Well he has an...”  He searched for a word.  “Opportunity... nay, an offer for you.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Nay?  Did you really just say nay?”

He blushed, and that just made his cacophony of freckles stand out on his cheeks more prominently.  “Shut up.  I'm trying to expand my vocabulary.”

I shrugged, giving that one to him, I was too busy scarfing down the food to tease any more than that.  PT made me ravenous.  What kind of opportunity was he talking about?  I started to get a bad feeling.

He set his sandwich down and braced his arms on the table as he looked at me.  Then he just came out and said it, “Gonzales is retiring at the end of the month.”

I set my sandwich down and pushed back from the table, suddenly not hungry as my stomach tightened into knots.  “A goddamn Fire Inspector?  That's the offer?”

He looked around quickly, looking sheepish and apologetically at the people around us.  I saw Dave and Chuck pause on their way out the door, shooting looks of empathy toward me as Trip held out a hand in a calming gesture as he patted the table. “Just let me speak.”

I wiped my mouth with my napkin and stood, grabbing my cane.  “Thanks for the meal, Trip.”

He stood quickly and dropped a couple twenties on the table as he pursued me out of the Cafe.  “It'll keep you in the business, and you know your shit, Allison.  Cap has the Chief holding off on filling the slot.  The qualification training is only six weeks.”

I whirled on him, and he almost bumped into me.  “Keep me in the business?  You mean all except the actual firefighting?  Guys who wash out of the academy or decide they don't need to risk their lives every day before they retire become fire inspectors.”

He got defensive and called me on that, “Hey.  That's not fair.”

He was right.  I was lashing out.  There were some pretty damn respectable fire inspectors out there.  Gonzales was one of them.  The old leather lung was a hose jockey until age slowed him down too much.  Instead of retiring, he had donned the badge to stay in the game.  He was a lifer.

I stopped and leaned my back against the wall and nodded. “Yeah.  Sorry.  I know.  It's just frustrating.”  Then I made an admission to him as I looked down at my scarred hand on the cane, “I don't know if I can be around the red beast and not be able to...  It would hurt too much Trip.”

He rested a hand on my arm near the cane and squeezed once.  “Just say you'll think about it?  It will get the old man off my ass.”

I nodded then smirked at the man. “Fine.  I'll think about it.”

He gave me a cheesy grin. “Great.”

I rolled my eyes at him and couldn't hide my smile. “Fuckin' probie.”

He nodded his unrepentant agreement and said, “I'll let him know.”  Then he added, “Oh and I already sort of told him you agreed to be at the company barbecue next Sunday.”

I blurted, “What the hell man?”

He just gave me a truly evil look. “Too late to back out, the whole company knows.”

I growled at him.  I didn't want to be around them, but on the flip side of that coin, I missed them all so much.  Trip and Old Man Porter are the only guys from the Station who saw me in the goddamn wheelchair, and I had reservations about being around any of the others with my cane.

I exhaled in defeat and then pushed away from the wall. “Fine, whatever, you're lucky I love you, or I'd slap that shit eating grin off your face.”

He shrugged. “I'm too pretty to slap.”

I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.  “There, first base.  Farthest you've got with a woman since Shaylynn.”

He grumbled as he started walking off toward the Five.  “I would have scored with her if you hadn't stolen her away.”

I chuckled. “I didn't steal her away, she was transmitting on all lesbian frequencies.  You were just too drunk to notice.”

He waved me off with his middle finger and gave me a beaming smile.  I watched him go then stood there for a minute.  Feeling suddenly alone.  I looked around then exhaled and started back toward the docks for the ferry ride home.

Maybe I could put off going home a bit by hitting a matinee at the theater, then I could stop by the Pike on the way, to drop off the mug in my bag.  The sisters were always up for some banter and distraction before the Market's closing bell at four pm, and keeping my mind off the fact I had no place to be.  They'd get the evening rush after that until they closed their doors at six.

I hit a screening of Heartsong Warriors Three – Off Key In the Void.  I may or may have not been snorting and snickering my way through the movie.  There were only a handful of other people at the one o'clock showing, and they were laughing louder than me.  Babette Stevenson is a comic genius.

True to form, Zoey and Eve kept me well entertained after the movie.  They had an easy way about them.  I sat past the closing bell and then went to catch my ferry when the late rush of market vendors passed through on their way home.

I was almost to the door when Eve called out, “Hey, Sparky, got a sec?”

I glanced back, and she had a pleading look on her face as she stood halfway out the kitchen door, making a muscle with her arm.  I smiled and nodded and headed back with her and chuckled at Zoey who was grunting and groaning at the dishwasher.

She stopped struggling when I went up the lever.  I winked and reached over and with a grunt of effort and the slight squeal of metal dragging on metal, opened the doors.  She blushed and said, “Thanks, Allie.  Ash promised to be here first thing tomorrow morning to fix the vexing machine.”

I smiled and said, “No problem. Anytime.”  Then I turned to the door. “I better get a move on if I'm going to catch the ferry, or I'll be stuck in the Emerald City another hour.”

They both gave me cute waves. “Thanks.  See you tomorrow.”

I nodded then paused at the door when I looked at the wall.  I hadn't seen it this morning when I came into the kitchen because the door was open with Eve standing there.  Most of the entire wall was covered with old polaroid photos.

Most were of the prior owner of the Pike, Mrs. Zatta with all sorts of people.  I blinked as I recognized a good majority of them.  Most were famous people like Mandy Fay Harris or Roberta Valentine.

Then I smiled, as around the only area not covered in photos, were photos of either Zoey, or Eve, with rock stars, or local heroes.  I smiled back at them. “What's this?”

Zoey shrugged and joined me as she smiled fondly at the wall.  “Mrs. Z had a tradition of putting up this wall of memories to remind her of her extended family.”

Then Eve got an evil look on her face as she joined us with an ancient camera.  “Speaking of.”

Zoey hugged my arm in a cute ambush move, and I was blinking away spots that swam in front of my eyes from the camera flash.  The evil sisters chuckled at me as they pinned the developing picture to the wall.  Then the elder redhead said, “Now shoo before you miss your ride across the Sound.”

I smiled at them as I shook my head and headed out to catch said ride.

I cussed under my breath as I arrived at the dock just to see the Bremerton ferry, the Hyak, steaming away.  I had to stop to rest my leg once I got to the bottom of the stairs at the Market.  Now I was stuck here for another hour before the Hyak's sister ferry, the Kaleetan, made it to this side of the route.

I settled in on one of the benches and split my time between looking out across the Sound, watching the tourists scurrying around by Ye Olde Curiosity Shop and the Aquarium.  I purposefully didn't look at Station Five just a stone's throw from where I sat, keeping my mind off of the backdoor job offer the old man shamelessly had Trip deliver.

I checked the time on my cell frequently then paused and just chuckled at myself.  Why am I in such a hurry?  It's not like you have anywhere to be Allison.  I just exhaled and relaxed.

Cars had started arriving for the next ride across the water, and the foot traffic had started trickling in.  It seemed there was less and less foot traffic each year and more cars.  Were we, as a people, getting lazier?  Or just didn't have the time to be walking anymore?  One thing I have seen is an increase in the number of bicyclists on the route.  I guess that was at least something.

Almost as if the thought had conjured them, I nodded to myself in appreciation as a group of bicyclists came up and dismounted.  They took off their helmets and hung them on the handlebars.  They were all seniors.  The youngest was no younger than sixty-five or so.  I wondered if they knew they were kind of inspiring to us younger lot.

I had to grin when I saw that familiar woman from the Pike wander toward me down the dock and sit on the bench across from me.  That short girl with the thick wavy black hair and the cute, big round glasses.

Her head was in that book again, and she was turning the pages at a rapid pace.  Could she really read that fast?  I found myself smiling at the enthusiasm on her face when she paused, her dark eyes going wide and she pulled out a seemingly disorganized sheaf of papers from her bag and started furiously scribbling notes.

She seemed oblivious to the world around her but almost exuberant about whatever she was working on.  It was great to see people enjoying what they did.

Then it hit me.  That's why she seemed so familiar at the Pike earlier.  She was always on the lower deck of the ferry with her head in her papers in the morning, I preferred the upper observation deck so I could feel the wind and ocean spray in my face.  I didn't ever see her on the return trip because I usually took an earlier ferry.

She paused, her pen stopping on the paper, and she glanced up at me then she blushed and looked back down at her papers.  Oh, shit, I had been staring, trying to figure out why she looked familiar.  Way to go Sparky, make the girl nervous.  I looked away, toward the approaching ferry boat.

The hustle and bustle of the people milling about just hummed with energy as the boat docked.  The anticipation of heading home after a day in the city.  I felt it too, even though it seemed this is all my life had been reduced to lately.  Going to PT and going home.  I needed to find something to keep me busy, or I was going to fall into the mindless drone type of life instead of embracing every moment of it like I used to.

We moved forward like sheep as the cars loaded first before the foot traffic.  I paused and looked back and had to suppress a grin as I watched the girl, oblivious to the ferry's arrival, jotting down notes on her paper.  I changed course and limped over to her and reached out to touch her shoulder lightly.  “Miss?  The ferry is here.”

She almost jumped out of her skin.  I hadn't meant to startle her.  Her papers fell off her lap, and I bent to pick them up.  Holy crap!  Every square inch of paper was covered in various formulae and equations that I'd never understand in a million years.

I offered them to her with an apologetic squint of one eye.  “Sorry.  I didn't mean to startle you.”

She just grabbed the papers I offered and held them to her chest as she looked down shyly and pushed some of that lustrous black hair out of her face.  She squeaked out, “It's alright.  I get lost in the numbers.”

Then she grabbed her other things without meeting my eyes and scurried off toward the ferry.  She paused and looked back and quickly said, “Thank you.”  She looked away bashfully and merged into the foot traffic that was now boarding the ferry.

I caught myself just smiling and watching her go.  Oh wait, I need to be on that boat too.  I followed quickly behind.  Just what I needed to do was to miss another ferry in my distraction.  The shy ones have always been my kryptonite.

Once I boarded, I paused at the steep stairs to the second level.  I took a deep breath and took the railing with my cane in hand and started climbing.  I could use the elevator like I had to in my wheelchair, but I wanted to get to the point where stairs like this weren't a daunting obstacle.  I had been improving daily.

I'd never recover fully and will always need the cane, but I could get to the point where it wasn't much harder than it was when I was more able if I just kept at it, and kept building muscle and tolerance to the pain.

I paused halfway up to take a couple breaths.  All the good the massage earlier had done in loosening up the knots was being undone.  I forced myself forward then contemplated the elevator to get to the observation deck.  I chastised myself and went up the next level and over to the railing, just as the ship started moving.

I smiled at the familiar motion and leaned heavily on the rail and just watched as the city I loved receded behind us.  I changed my focus ahead to watch Bainbridge Island growing on the horizon until it took up the entire view as we swung south around the Island.  I looked around at all the other ships and smaller pleasure craft gliding along the waters.

There wasn't any whale activity, which was always disappointing.  I loved the whales.  They are usually pretty sparse during the early fall months like this, but that would be picking up soon as we moved into winter.  Then it was almost impossible not to have a pod out there playing and shadowing the ships, just like in the spring.  Still, I spotted one or two a week off season.

I shivered and realized what a difference an hour made.  The sun was low on the horizon and would be setting in about an hour.  I'd have to start bringing a jacket for the ride across.  I sighed when we docked in Bremerton just a bit over a half hour after that, and I looked at the stairs, my nemesis, as the cars started unloading, and driving off toward their homes.

Down is easier than up for me, I've got most of my upper body strength back after wheeling around for months.  I might not be able to deadlift someone over my shoulders again... yet.  But I was getting there.

I was the only one on the observation deck, so I grinned and spread my arms to rest them on the railings and just slid down to mid-deck, the main passenger deck.  Then I leaned on my cane as I waited for the people heading out of the cabin and down to the auto deck.

The mathematician lady passed by, oblivious to the world as she shuffled in the herd down the stairs, completely immersed in her book.  When the last person had made their egress I again slid down to the auto deck and hobbled off the ship as they started loading the few cars that were heading back across to the city.

I made my way to the bus stop for the last leg of the journey home.  I know I could save a half hour in my hour and a half journey by bussing around through Tacoma and up the coast, but I love the water, and the extra time was worth the ferry ride every day.

As I sat, I watched the girl, still wrapped up in her reading as she walked, about a block away.  She stood at a corner up on Second in front of a little restaurant in a strip mall.  There wasn't a sign on the storefront except a handwritten one that proclaimed they had “Island Cuisine”.  She stuffed her papers into her bag then pulled out her cell and just stared at it.  Then her head bobbed like she was counting down.  She reanimated just as the bus pulled up at my stop, and she smiled at herself and strode into the restaurant.  She was sort of an odd platypus.

I showed my pass to the driver and made my way to the back of the bus, not too terribly excited to go home.  I just watched the other riders on the bus to keep my mind off of the lunch conversation with Trip.