Page 40 of Prisoner of War
A smile flickered at the corner of Carmen’s mouth. That was all, but Minnie sensed the air between them shift and change.
“What the hell are you doing here anyway? A rendezvous with this character?” Carmen tapped the card on the table betweenthem. “No, wait, what am I saying? I’m forgetting the late, great Eduardo.”
“Duardo,” Minnie corrected. “And not so late.”
Carmen rethreaded her fingers and Minnie spotted the tremble in them as she moved, then they were hidden as she fisted her hands. Carmen gave a dry snort of derision. “What, were you stealing the boat to go get him?”
Minnie caught her breath at this accurate stab in thedark.
Carmen’s eyes widened. “My God, you were,” she breathed. She stared at Minnie, taking her measure. “Well, you’ve got guts,” she said at last. “I don’t know that I’d want to handle this boat on my own.”
“I watched Nick start the engine and I know how to use a stick shift in a car. I figured...use the engine all the way across...”
“And run out of fuel halfway, “ Carmen replied tartly. “Thisis a sailing boat. It’s supposed to besailed. It’s just a tiny little six-stroke motor and a teaspoon’s worth of fuel.” Carmen ruffled her hair with one hand, her eyes narrowed. “No, you’d need to cast a short jib sail. Keep it simple—the spinnaker’s too much, though it’d be faster. Short-sheet the sail to keep it under control. It could be done. Although a second person would make a world ofdifference.” She refocused on Minnie. “So I’ll come with you.”
“What, are you kidding?” Minnie stood up.
“I’m drunk, but I’m not drunk enough to be stupid—”
“You were going to take on three guys you didn’t know, how stupid is that?”
Carmen’s eyes narrowed again. Into the hot silence between them came the silvery tinkle of a pulley slapping against metal, somewhere on the deck above them. ThenCarmen gave a low laugh and the tension drained instantly. “Yeah, how stupid, huh? I gotta tell you, Minnie, for the last few weeks, I’ve been watching myself and wondering what the fuck I thought I was doing. I still can’t answer it. But I do know this, the idea of going back to Vistaria, to home, is appealing. I don’t care what the troubles are there—I just want to go back to the places I know.”She shrugged. “Tell me if that, at least, makes sense?”
“Yes, it does. It really does,” Minnie confessed.
“Let’s go, then,” Carmen said, standing up.
“Now?”
“Why not? You got anything here to hang around for?”
Minnie thought about that. “I have more reasons to leave,” she confessed. She tapped the card on the table. “That’s one of them.”
Carmen looked at it. She smiled slowly. “Holy cow,you were bullshitting those jerks. This dude here tried to put the pinch on you, didn’t he? You and your father, I’m guessing.”
“Something like that.”
“Then let’s get the fuck out of here, huh?”
“Wearing these?” Minnie said and touched her dress.
Carmen looked down at her own bright red satin and rhinestone creation and then up at Minnie and laughed. “Figure they’d notice us trying to blendin with the city folk on the Avenue of Nations?”
“They just might,” Minnie said with a smile.
“Let’s see what Nick has stashed away in the lockers. He’d stay out on the water all weekend at times, so I know he must have supplies here somewhere.” Carmen stepped past her, heading for the forward corridor where the bunks and lockers were and hesitated. “You don’t mind, do you? I mean, I can come,can’t I?”
She was asking. It was a rare gesture. Minnie had heard the ache in her voice when she had spoken of home and wanting to be back in places that she knew. So now she nodded. “I’d like you to come with me.”
Carmen’s smile was radiant and quite genuine. “Great.” She headed for the forward corridor. The boat rocked over the wake of a passing vessel and she put her hand against the bulkheadand her other to her temple.
“Why don’t I make coffee while you look?” Minnie offered. “Strong coffee.”
“Very strong,” Carmen agreed with a croak.
* * * * *
Two hours later, the last of the lights of Acapulco slipped below the horizon behind them, while the ghostly white jib and dark blue spinnaker pulled them through a jet black sea. Minnie sat at the big wheel dressed in a pair of nylonoveralls that smelled faintly of mold and more strongly of salt. She watched the compass and kept the boat pointing due west while Carmen climbed all over the sloping deck, adjusting ropes she called “sheets” and trimming the sails for better speed. Carmen climbed back into the cockpit next to Minnie and nodded her satisfaction, pulling the cable-knit sweater she wore away from her sweaty chest. “It’lldo until the wind changes.”
