Page 44 of No One Aboard
“A funeral does, right?” Tia had never really known someone who died before. Her paternal grandparents were dead long before the twins were born, and Lila had kept them from her own parents. They must have died at some point, but Tia hadn’t heard about it, and no one seemed sad, so it didn’t really count.
Nico tucked the clipboard under his arm. “You know, burials at sea were real common throughout history. They’d sew the deceased in cloth and put the last stitch through their nose to make sure they were really dead. Then they’d weigh down the body with cannonballs or rocks, and send it into the water as someone led a prayer and maybe a chantey.”
Tia imagined MJ’s body sinking into the sea, weighted with stones. “That’s probably something she would have wanted,” she said. “She was old-fashioned.”
“I’m sure her family will have her buried at sea in some way,” Nico said. “But that’s not up to us.”
“I know.” Tia shuddered. Instead of drifting into the bottomless ocean, MJ was sitting, bunched up, at the bottom of their freezer. She deserved something of dignity at least. “Maybe we could do the other stuff, though? The prayer? Or a chantey?”
She looked to see Nico’s reaction. He was nodding along.
“I can grab my guitar,” he offered.
Tia smiled a little. “Yeah. You know a song we could do?”
“I got an idea. Be right back.”
He bounded up the ladder to the deck, leaving Tia to sit again on the cold anchor-locker floor. She had never given much thought to an existence after death, or really death in general, but MJ had believed so strongly in heaven it must be true. At least for her. She had talked about angels like theywere overworked elementary schoolteachers and God like he lived just down the street. She was with them now, Tia decided, in whatever way she could be.
Nico reappeared in the mouth of the hatch, dreadnought guitar slung over his shoulder. He climbed down and sat shoulder to shoulder with Tia, who let herself lean into him.
Nico positioned the guitar on his lap. “The man who wrote this was leaving for the navy. 1950-something.”
“Ohh, a history lesson,” said Tia, half teasing.
Nico smiled. “It’s called ‘Grey Funnel Line.’”
And he began to play.
The fingering was simple. Bittersweet. Nico sang in a threadbare voice as the strums filled the tiny locker till it burst.
Tia saw MJ Tuckett standing at the silver wheel of a ship. She heard Pirate purring as MJ found his favorite spot beneath his chin. She felt the current of water that carried MJ like a sea creature.
Tia hadn’t known her as well as she would have liked or as long as she would have wanted, but she had known her, and she was grateful for that. She realized her cheeks were wet as Nico’s chantey came to its end, the final notes twining as long and low as wind.
“Thank you, MJ,” Tia whispered. She drew herself up with a breath that swept through her entire body and looked over at Nico. His eyes were shut, lashes beaded with tears. Tia couldn’t help her surprise. Nico and MJ couldn’t have spoken more than once or twice. They hardly knew each other. She placed a hand on Nico’s shoulder, and he blinked so fast that the tears vanished. Like she’d imagined them.
“It’s a great song,” he said.
“What now?” asked Tia.
“That’s up to you, I think.”
Tia thought, keenly aware of how hollow the locker feltwithout the sounds of the guitar. “Get off this boat. And then...”
And then the last thing Tia had promised to do with her family would be done. The trip would be over. She’d leave. She had a wide-open world waiting for her. She was going somewhere far—Iceland, maybe. Or Alaska. She would get a job on a boat like Nico had done and work her way up to be a captain like MJ. Maybe she’d circumnavigate, maybe she’d swim with whale sharks, maybe she’d make a whole new family, and the Camerons would be an old story she’d tell during storms.
She’d make MJ proud.
“Then this is over,” she finished.
“All of it?” Nico asked. He slung his guitar back over one shoulder but made no move to push away Tia’s hand. He leaned one of his tattooed arms against the wall above Tia’s head so that his body made a crescent shape above her.
“Is there something you don’t want to be over, Nico?”
He lowered his face to hers.
The overhead door opened and blinded them both. Nico retracted his arm, and Tia craned her head to see the silhouette of the person climbing down into the locker.
