Page 65 of Sea La Vie
Paul draws closer to my boat and hops off his captain’s chair on the second deck. He tosses a rope over to me, and I scramble to catch it while his deckhands move around quickly, securing our boats together. When we’re finally attached, I let out the tiniest sigh of relief.
“Paul…I never thought I’d say this, but boy am I glad to see you.” Paul cracks a smile, and I take in his appearance. He’s still in the same Columbia PFG but he’s added a rain jacket and hat to the ensemble, keeping him mostly dry. “How did you find me?”
“I kept an eye on you as long as I could when you began drifting farther and farther away. Eventually I had a bite of my own I had to reel in, and when I looked around for you, you were gone. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, considering you were out here alone in this piece of junk, so I tried to ping your GPS and couldn’t pick you up.”
I decide to let the comment about the junky boat go, considering he did just save my life, and the motor did fail at the worst possible time.
“The Coast Guard has been searching everywhere for you, but they eventually had to call it off because the swells were so big.” He pauses and crosses his arms, then looks out to the water. “I couldn’t go back knowing you were out here alone.”
Tears sting the backs of my eyes, and I blink them away.
“I knew we’d be fine, considering this gem is designed for the roughest of seas, so I decided to come find you. We’ve been looking for hours.” He gestures to his boat like it’s the love of his life, and I realize it probably is.
“Thank you, Paul,” I manage as I wipe my eyes.
“Do you know what’s wrong with your motor?” he asks, eyeing the dinosaur.
“I thought I did,” I say. “But I’ve been working on it for hours and haven’t had any luck.
He glances toward my broken antenna and frowns. “That explains why I couldn’t ping you, I guess.”
I groan. “How in the world am I going to pay for all these repairs,” I mumble.
Paul glances at the nearly dark sky. “I don’t think we have enough time to stick around and try to fix that. And I don’t think hauling it is a possibility either, considering we’re running low on fuel.”
I glance around the old boat and gulp. When Paul’s eyes meet mine, he nods his head ever so slightly, and I know what I haveto do. “You ready, girl?” I ask Midge. She yips, and I pick her up and hand her over to Paul. She surprisingly gives him a big lick across the face, causing him to grimace and set her down. She immediately gets to work introducing herself to all the deckhands.
“Can you give me one minute?” I ask.
Paul checks his watch, then sighs. “One minute. We really need to get out of here.” I hobble to the cabin of the boat and gather the few things I came with and surveySea La Vie. From this angle, I can see every part of the boat. The bow, the stern. Every part of this boat has been such a key part of my family’s success in the past years. It was the place my mother loved to spend the most time, minus the time spent in her garden. A tear slides down my cheek as I realize this is the last time I’ll ever be on this boat, too. “You’ve done good,” I whisper, then wrap my knuckles along the steering wheel. “Thank you...for everything.”
When I limp to the back of the boat again, Paul is still waiting, his hands on his hips. His crew has loaded up my catch that I’ve already forgotten about but must’ve stayed cold enough on the ice to keep. “Thank you,” I mumble, winning the competition the furthest thing from my mind now.
Paul’s boat is gleaming, so shiny and clean you can almost see your reflection in it. Everything is top of the line, brand new, not a speck of rust or dirt anywhere. “You ready?” he asks and extends a hand. I grit my teeth as I bear weight on my busted ankle and throw myself over to his deck. He catches me then grimaces as he notices how much pain I’m in. “Have you surveyed the damage of that yet?” he asks, nodding toward my foot.
“I haven’t even taken my boot off,” I say. “I knew if I did, I wouldn’t be able to get it back on.”
Paul points to the door leading into the cabin. “There are some dry clothes in there and a little bed next to the stove. Feel free to heat yourself up some coffee and change.”
“Thank you,” I say, the thought of a warm cup of coffee enough to make me smile for the first time since the tournament began.
“Better make yourself comfy,” he says. “You managed to drift about two hundred miles down the coast. We should make it back in about ten hours.”
I blink, surprised. “Wow,” I mutter. Then I turn and shuffle into the cabin. I eye the coffee pot and sit on the edge of the bed, needing a small break to gather my thoughts. “I’m okay,” I whisper, and feel the tension begin to leave my shoulders. I lay my head down on the pillow, just for a second to gain my bearings. “I’m okay.”
Midge noses her way into the cabin and jumps up onto the bed to join me. When she nuzzles into my arms my eyes grow heavy, and I can’t help but close them. “Just for a second,” I tell her. Then, the world grows dark.
I wake up as the sun is beginning to rise and scrub at my eyes. Midge whines and covers her nose with her paws. The smell of coffee wafts over me, and I breathe in deeply, groaning as I stretch. I stand then fumble around the kitchen until I find a mug and pour myself a cup.
My ankle feels slightly better, but I still wince as I bear weight on it, and again when I notice I’m still in the same damp, disgusting clothes.
“Morning,” Paul says, as he climbs down the ladder from the top deck.
I lift my mug to him. “Morning.”
“You snore,” Paul says. “And you didn’t even budge when I started the coffee. You must sleep like the dead.”
“I feel like I could be dead,” I mumble. “Where are we?”
