Stone Undercover

by Bob Blanton

  Hanna patted her pink and purple life vest. “I’m ready.”

  “Our little captain,” Mr. Winthrop said. “The rest of you make sure you know where the life jackets are. If someone goes for a swim, I want them to have at least two jackets thrown to them or you’re all going for a swim.”

  “Yes, sir,” Jason said. “I’ve shown everyone where the lockers are and they’re all unlocked.”

  “You can cast off now,” Mrs. Winthrop said. “Brea, you’re responsible for Hanna.”

  “Mommy!”

  “We’ll take turns.”

  “Come on, Hanna,” Brianna said. “Do you want to sit outside?”

  “Yes, with Jessie and Sonja.”

  “Mom, I’ve got Jessie,” Matthew called out. “Let’s sit right here so we can watch Mr. Winthrop driving the boat,” Matthew said, grabbing the seat at the front corner of the cockpit.

  “Let’s sit by Matty and Jessie,” Brianna said to Hanna. “We can watch Daddy and make sure he does everything right.”

  “Okay.”

  “May I cast off, Captain?” Mr. Winthrop asked Hanna.

  “Yes, cast off,” Hanna called out, waving her arm.

  Jason undid the mooring lines and pushed the boat away from the pier. “You’re free,” he yelled, as he walked down the side and collected the fenders. He stowed them in the locker and sat down next to Emily and Sonja. “Mom, you’ve got the best seats.”

  “We deserve the best seats. We had to do all the work to get ready,” Mrs. Winthrop said. She patted the pad that she, Mrs. Brandt and Mrs. Stevenson were sitting on at the back of the boat.

  It took twenty-five minutes to motor out of the Port Jefferson Harbor into the sound, but it was sunny and everyone enjoyed the quiet ride.

  “Okay, Jason, you can raise the jib now,” Mr. Winthrop called out, as he cut the engine. “Ladies, any preference on how aggressive we sail?”

  “We’ll just see how the girls handle it,” Mrs. Winthrop said. “They did fine last week.”

  “Okay, we’ll do an upwind reach first, get her heeled over and see how much they are comfortable with.”

  “Make sure the girls still have their hair tied back,” Mrs. Winthrop called out. “We don’t want it whipping into their eyes.”

  “We’ve got it covered,” Brianna yelled back. “Make sure it’s all in the pony tail,” she instructed Matthew.

  “Yeah,” Sonja yelled, as she stood on her knees and faced the wind.

  “You two might want to move to the lee side,” Mr. Winthrop called out.

  “Come on, Sonja, let’s go sit with Hanna,” Emily said. She held Sonja’s hand as they worked their way down to the other side. The boat was starting to heel over quite a bit as they picked up speed.

  “We’re going fast!” Hanna yelled. She was facing the wind and her ponytail was blowing straight out behind her.

  Matthew made room so that Sonja could get next to Jessie and Hanna at the front of the cockpit. That way they’d be in the corner where they would be more sheltered and have higher walls around them.

  “Get ready to tack,” Mr. Winthrop called out. “Make sure the girls are clear of the lines.”

  “We’re good,” Brianna called out.

  “Hard-a-lee,” Mr. Winthrop called out, as he cranked the wheel hard. The nose of the boat came up to the wind and the jib started to luff.

  “I’ve got the jib,” Jason yelled, as he cranked on the windlass to pull the jib tight on the other side of the boat.

  “Hold this while I change sides,” Mr. Winthrop instructed. Jason held the wheel as his father moved to the other side of the boat and took control of the matching wheel. “I’ve got her.”

  “Hey we’re going to fall down,” Jessica said, as she had to fight to keep her seat on the uphill side.

  “We need to move to the other side of the boat,” Brianna said. “Matt, go over and catch them as they come your way.”

  The little girls slid down the deck to Matthew and took up their places in the lee corner of the cockpit.

  “That was fun,” Sonja said. “Can we do it again?”

  “In a little bit,” Emily said. “We want to sail like this for a while first.”

  “Kids,” Matthew whispered.

  After a few more tacks, the girls were well trained but bored. “Carl, put us on a long down-wind reach and we’ll do lunch,” Mrs. Winthrop called out.

  “You’ve got it.” He let the boat fall off the wind until it was going mostly down wind. The sails quieted down and the boat came to an even keel. “Steady as she goes!”

  After sandwiches and milk, the girls decided to play in the cabin. Mrs. Brandt sat with them and read a book while they explored all the various drawers and doors in the cabin. Eventually they settled down with coloring books.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Jason, go ahead and put the jib away. We’ll motor in the rest of the way,” Mr. Winthrop called out. He started the diesel engine up and headed back to Jefferson Harbor.

  “Jib’s stowed,” Jason said, as he made his way back to the cockpit.

  As they approached the mouth of the harbor, the engine sputtered and died.

  “What’s up,” Mr. Winthrop said. “Jason, check the fuel tank. The gauge says full and Gerald said he had it fueled up the last time he sailed it.”

  “Aye, aye,” Jason called out, as he flipped up the seat covering the fuel cap. He used a stick to test the fuel level. “Dry,” he called out.

  “Damn, we’ve hardly got enough wind to sail her in,” Mr. Winthrop complained. “It’ll take an hour to get someone out here to fuel us up.”

  “Matt,” Emily said.

  “What?”

  “We practiced this.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “No, just put it high up on the mainsail. It’ll be normal. I’ll tell you what to do.”

  “Okay.” Matthew opened his portal against the mainsail up high and the other end much higher above the boat where there was still wind. He adjusted the angle until there was pressure against the sail.

  “Jason, go ahead and call us in,” Mr. Winthrop said. “Tell them we’re getting a bit of wind now, so we might make it under sail.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What’s happening?” Jessica asked, as she came out of the cabin.

  “We’re just sailing home,” Matthew said. “It will be slow, but without the engine it will be nice and quiet.”

  “Good,” Jessica crawled up into Matthew’s lap and snuggled up against him.

  Sonja came out and crawled into Emily’s lap and Hanna decided she should camp out on Brianna’s lap.

  Mrs. Brandt came out and took a seat on the rear deck with Mrs. Stevenson and Mrs. Winthrop. “Isn’t that sweet,” she cooed, pointing to the three girls nestled in the laps of their older siblings.

  “Yes, it is,” Mrs. Stevenson said. “Reminds me why I was crazy enough to have another one after ten years.”

  “Me, too,” Mrs. Winthrop said. “Last-chance baby, a lot of work, but worth it.”

  “Yes, a lot of work,” Mrs. Brandt agreed.

  “At least Matthew wasn’t a teenager when Jessie hit the terrible twos,” Mrs. Stevenson said.

  “Yes, you were lucky there,” Mrs. Winthrop added.

  “Hey, I was working and didn’t have a nanny,” Mrs. Brandt said.

  “Oh right! I guess you win the pity party,” Mrs. Stevenson said. “And the prize is a glass of wine.”

  “Why are you two getting a glass?” Mrs. Brandt asked.

  “Well, you wouldn’t want to drink alone would you?”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “It’s so nice to have a full table,” Grandma Winthrop said, as everyone took their places. The three little ones had already eaten and were in their room with Yvette. An antique Chippendale dining set filled the room. There were ten places at the table with a china hutch and a buffet along the walls, along with four more chairs.

  “What lovely china,” Mrs. Bran
dt said. “Antique?”

  “At our age, everything we own is antique,” Grandma Winthrop jested. “But yes, it’s from the 1870s. It’s my great grandmother’s wedding china.”

  “The crystal is from my great grandmother,” Grandpa Winthrop said. “Baccarat from France. Of course we’ve had to replace a few pieces, but most of it is original.”

  “And real silverware,” Mrs. Stevenson said.

  “Yes, my great grandmother’s, also,” Grandma Winthrop said. “Towle Sterling.”

  “Isn’t the chess set antique, too?” asked Matthew.

  “Yes, it is. French 1780,” Grandpa Winthrop said. “And young man, next time I’ll be ready for you.”

  “Yes, sir,” Matthew replied.

  “When did Matt start playing chess?” Mrs. Winthrop asked.

  “His father started teaching him to play at five,” Mrs. Brandt replied. “David always had a board set up while he played some friend over email or the phone. He had to set up a second board and teach Matt so Matt would quit moving his pieces around. It was very funny. He’d come home and sit down to contemplate his next move and be confused about whether he’d already made it. Matt had figured out the moves on his own by watching, so when David was gone, he’d make a move for both sides.”

  “That must have driven your husband nuts.”

  “Yes, they were good moves, so he kept thinking he must have forgotten. He’d call the person he was playing and they would be just as confused.”

  “It was like you had house elves,” Brianna said.

  “Speaking of house elves, I have an even funnier story about Matt when he was six.”

  “What?” Brianna asked.

  “Mom!” Matthew cried.

  “Mother’s prerogative,” Mrs. Brandt said. “Anyway, Matt always loved to follow his father around and watch him work. He was always having to do some repair on the house. Anyway, David’s job started taking more and more of his time, so he stopped being so helpful. I would complain about things not working, but you know how it is. Then one day everything started getting fixed again. I’d thank David and he would just nod. Then one day he turned to me and said, ‘You know, thanking me for doing something won’t give me more time to actually do it’. Well, I was shocked. I told him that I was thanking him for actually doing it; that in the last few months he’d fixed all the things I’d asked him to. Well, then David was shocked. He said he hadn’t had time to do anything.”

  “So Matt was fixing everything?” Mrs. Stevenson asked.

  “Yes, he was only six, but he had learned how to do most of it by watching his father. And he’d learned how to look things up on the Internet. When we asked him, he just said, ‘Daddy’s too busy’.”

  “How did he get the parts?”

  “He’d just throw them in the cart when he went to the hardware store with his father. David could be pretty oblivious about small things.”

  “Does he still fix things?” Mrs. Winthrop asked.

  “Yes, it takes a bit longer some of the time, but he does get it all done.”

  “Mom!”

  “You should have seen Jason teaching Brea how to play tennis,” Mrs. Winthrop said.

  “I thought you taught her,” Matthew said.

  “I did, but this was before. She was four and could barely hold the racket by the head with both hands. Jason would hit the ball to her and she would punch at it with the racket. I was terrified that he’d hit it too hard and she’d be smacked in the head with the racket. But he was very careful.”

  “Ah, that is so cute!”

  “Aren’t we ready for the first course?” Emily asked.

  “Oh, you think that will keep us quiet,” Mrs. Stevenson said.

  “One can only hope,” Emily replied.

  “We were so worried about Emily when we had Sonja,” Mrs. Stevenson said. “She’d been an only child for so long. I took her with me to a few mothering classes to try and help her feel more comfortable about her new little sister.”

  “Mom!”

  “Shh. That might have been a mistake. When we brought Sonja home, Emily was the perfect sister slash mother. We thought we were so lucky. Then she started bossing Yvette around, telling her how to take care of Sonja, or saying she’d just do it herself. I thought the poor girl was going to quit.”

  “Now that you have managed to embarrass us all,” Emily said, “can we change the subject?”

  New Haven Retreat

  “Bye, Brea,” Matthew said. “See you, Jason. Don’t have too much fun in Italy.”

  “Don’t worry,” Jason said. “Mom will make sure we see enough museums to balance out any fun. And I have to play tennis with Brea every day so she’ll be ready for the Junior U.S. Open.”

  “Ah, poor baby,” Brianna said. “It’s not as much fun when I beat you, is it?”

  “You’ve only won ten sets out of thirty,” Jason said.

  “But I’ve won four out of the last ten,” Brianna countered.

  “Hang in there,” Matthew said to Jason, giving him a slap on the back.

  “I’ll try,” Jason replied, rolling his eyes. “Here’s our plane.”

  “Isn’t that the Stevensons’ jet?” Matthew asked.

  “Yes, we wound up chartering it for our flight over. It’s here and they have a charter to bring a bunch of Swiss tourists for their flight back.”

  “Nice timing,” Matthew said.

  “Well Rebecca takes care of it all.”

  “Bye Cara, bye Carl,” said Mrs. Brandt. “And thank your father for letting us borrow the Expedition.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It just sits in the garage most of the time, and he’ll think it’s a good trade for you bringing us to the airport,” Mr. Winthrop said.

  “Matthew, let’s go,” Mrs. Brandt said.

  “Okay, Mom,” Matthew said. He gave Brianna a quick kiss and waved to Jason before getting into the Expedition.

  “Yvette, are the girls still buckled in?” Mrs. Brandt asked.

  “Yes!” yelled Sonja and Jessie.

  “Okay, then it’s off to Grandmother’s house we go.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Hi, Mom,” Mrs. Brandt said, as she greeted her mother-in-law. “You’re looking good.”

  “Of course, I always feel good when my grandchildren are coming to visit,” Grandma Brandt said.

  “Hi, Grandma,” Matthew said and gave his grandmother a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

  “Hi, Grandma,” Jessica yelled, as she finally worked her way out of the seatbelt. “This is my friend, Sonja.”

  “Come and give Grandma a hug.”

  Jessica ran over and hugged her grandmother who was squatting down to her level.

  “And this is Yvette, Sonja’s nanny,” Mrs. Brandt introduced Yvette.

  “Nice to meet you, Yvette; call me Winnie,” Grandma Brandt said.

  “Hello, Mrs. Brandt,” Yvette said.

  “Come on in the house so you can get settled in,” Grandma Brandt said.

  “Come on, Sonja, I’ll show you our room,” Jessica said, grabbing Sonja by the hand. “We were here for Christmas and I got to see heaven. That’s where my daddy is.”

  “Really? Cool,” Sonja said, as the two girls raced into the house.

  “Margaret, you’re in Matt’s room, the girls in your room, it has the two beds. Matt, I’m afraid you’re on the sofa.”

  “That’s okay. It’s only four nights and it’s better than sharing with Jessie anyway.”

  “Oh Jessie’s not that bad,” Grandma Brandt said.

  “She isn’t,” Mrs. Brandt said. “She’s been sleeping better since last Christmas. She rarely comes into my bed now and when she does she sleeps very soundly.”

  “Wow, I didn’t realize she’d improved so much,” Matthew said. He thought about when he’d shown Jessie heaven, actually an alpine monastery, last Christmas. Maybe that had relieved her worries about where her father had gone when he died. “Mom, I’ll get the bags, you just go in w
ith Grandma.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Matthew spent the four days in New Haven helping his grandmother around the house. She kept telling him it was so nice to have a man around the house, her way of encouraging him to carry the heavy stuff.

  He checked in on Caruthers’ briefing each morning, which was much easier with both of them in the same time zone. He checked on Sayid whenever he could. The only thing that had changed was that there were margin calls on two of Sayid’s investment accounts. He had taken fifty million dollars out of the numbered account to cover the margin call and to purchase an additional thirty million in options on oil. Agent Giacomo had immediately noticed the influx of money, so Matthew didn’t need to do anything special.

  The girls had immediately created an adult-free zone in their room where they had set up their dolls. Yvette was allowed in, which was good since that’s where she was sleeping, too. The girls had breakfast with their dolls and held afternoon tea when they were home.

  They took the girls and to the beach every day where Matthew was directed to build sand castles by the two sidewalk superintendents. The girls would make believe that they were princesses in the castle and were being threatened by evil beasts and dragons. It wasn’t long before Matthew’s construction work was spread out and melting into the beach again.

  They even managed to take the girls to the Connecticut Children's Museum. They loved walking through the life-sized model of a whale and spent half an hour looking at the beehive.

  By the fourth day, Matthew couldn’t wait for Emily and her mom to pick him up for their visit to Yale.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Hi, Mommy!” yelled Sonja. She ran over to the car, and her mother scooped her up and hugged her.

  “How are you doing, baby?” Mrs. Stevenson asked. “Have you been behaving yourself?”

  “We’ve been playing with our dolls, and going to the beach; Matty builds sand castles for us, and we saw a beehive.”

  “Sounds like you’ve been busy.”

  “Yes,” Sonja exclaimed. “We got to walk inside a whale! Hi, Sissy,” she leaned over so Emily could take her from her mother.

  “Hi. So you’ve been having fun.”