Page 30 of Win Some Love Some
“No thanks,” I said with as much snark as I could muster. “I prefer living as a human in this world and not a soulless robot.”
“Does. Not. Compute.” Nick countered in a robotic voice.
I rolled my eyes and he laughed in my face. Then he reached over and ruffled my hair.
“Stooohaap,” I protested and slapped his hands away.
“Missed you Normal Nora. Missed you a lot.”
He hopped out of the truck and slammed the door shut behind him. For a second I sat there and let his words seep in.
Missed you. Missed you a lot.
Pretty normal stuff. Basic. We’d been best friends and I’d been gone for six years. You’d expect your best friend to miss you.
Except, I knew him too well. For him to say it meant he had to feel it.
For him to feel it, meant he had to acknowledge an actual emotion.
Which made it real for him.
Which made it even more real for me.
Ugh. I really had missed him. And it was so nice to be back in this stupid truck with him.
I followed him down the pier to where my dad’s boats were docked.
Gingerly, I stepped onto the deck and then into the open cockpit. Not too much wave action. So far so good. Nick jumped on the boat with both feet and sent the boat jostling.
My stomach turned over.
One hour. I only needed to make it one hour.
5
Nora
“You owe me a hundred dollars,” Nick said.
I spat out the last of the vomit in my mouth over the side of the boat and held my hand out for a water bottle. Immediately, one was pushed into my hand. I drank, spit, drank, spit, gargled a little until I couldn’t taste acid anymore, and then took a few cautious sips.
I turned and slid down into the wet cold bottom of the cockpit and waited to see if I would live.
“I’m turning the boat around,” Dad announced from the wheel.
“No! I’m fine. It’s gone now. I can do it.”
“Nor, you didn’t make it twenty minutes without hurling up your guts,” Nick pointed out from where he sat on the bench on the other side of the cockpit. The sun was up over the water, a hazy yellow egg yolk behind streaky pink clouds.
“I can do it!” I shouted. “What’s the big deal? It’s just some puke.”
I pulled myself up and steadied my feet on the deck. The nausea was there, but it wasn’t crushing. Once I started to put my back into the labor of pulling up the traps, I’d be fine.
We hit a wave and my stomach lurched. I burped, but it was vomit free. Probably a good thing I only had coffee that morning.
“Roy, I need you to turn the boat around anyway,” Nick called out. “I gotta get back to the garage. I just wanted to make sure the engine was running smoothly before I left.”
“Got it.”
