Doug had been right about one thing. The storm had come up fast and it had come up strong. Within the hour, both the Driftfeather and the Storm Roamer were being tossed in 15-foot seas, making it a struggle to keep moving into the waves as the wind kept pushing them sideways against the surf.
“I want your man to back off just a bit now,” Doug radioed to Alex. “Mara says she can see the whites of your eyes and that’s too close in these kind of seas.”
For the next two hours, both seiners struggled against the storm as they moved through driving rain and gale-force winds toward the shore. As instructed, Alex and his crewman managed to keep the Driftfeather far enough back so as not to endanger the Storm Roamer, yet still close enough to maintain visual contact.
About thirty minutes out, Alex radioed that Emily had hit her head and was bleeding.
“Hold ‘er steady, Alex. Emily conscious?”
“Yes,” Alex replied.
“You’re going to have to stay steady now, Alex. Can you put one of your men with Emily? We’re only about fifteen minutes out now.”
“I can see the shore,” Alex radioed. “Emily’s moaning. My crewman says she’s fading in and out of consciousness.”
“Stay focused on getting to shore, Alex. You’re not going to be much help to her or to yourself by flipping the Driftfeather in these seas or banging up against the rocks because you didn’t keep our cool. Now take the wheel back from your crewman and do exactly what I tell you to do.”
“I should be with Emily,” Alex called.
“Alex! Stay at the wheel. Alex! You do what I tell you, you hear! You need to stay at the wheel!”
For a few seconds there was no answer, leading Doug to call back to Mara to see if she could see anything.
“I’m not sure, Doug,” she called to him. “Wait, I think I see him. I do. Alex is at the wheel and they’re holding steady right behind us.”
“Keep her steady, Alex,” Doug said, his voice flat and steady. “You’re doing fine, now. Keep her steady.”
Visibility had deteriorated and the wind had increased as the two seiners made their way into the safety of the harbor. Doug had already radioed the harbormaster, who had authorized emergency docking for both vessels and who had arranged for an ambulance to take Emily to the hospital located in the small seaside community of Cordova.
By evening, he had arranged for temporary docking for both the Driftfeather and the Storm Roamer, and with the help of their crews, adequately secured the seiners. The crewmembers had elected to sleep on board, but Doug and Mara had taken a room at the hotel right next to two others they secured for Derrk, and for Alex and Emily.
As it turned out, according to Alex, Emily would have to stay the night at the hospital for observation due to the circumstances of cutting her head, even though her neurological signs were stable and the medication she had been given had eased the vomiting. The other news: Emily was pregnant.
“The doctor says she shouldn’t go back home on the seiner,” Alex told Doug. “Right now, he wants to watch her for a day before he’ll even allow her to fly.”
Doug watched Alex dial his cell phone as he relayed what the doctor had said.
“Emily wants me to call her brother,” he said looking up as he dialed.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Friend in Need
Thankfully, according to the doctor, Emily’s baby seemed to be okay and the nausea had only been a part of the early pregnancy that was aggravated by being at sea. The doctor had also reassured Alex that the bump on Emily’s head did not appear to be serious, especially since they had kept her under observation for twenty-four hours, so he released her to fly back to Juneau.
“I totally understand that you need to be with her,” Mara told Alex. “Doug and I will figure out how to get the Driftfeather back to Juneau, or we’ll leave it here till you can come back.”
Her words seemed to reassure Alex and so he agreed to leave with Emily that afternoon. She also asked Alex to check on Sandy and Thor, which he said he would do as soon as they got back and found a place to stay. That got her to thinking that maybe Alex and Emily could stay in Stu’s place since Joe and Sal had pretty much emptied it out—an idea that Alex quickly embraced.
“Hell’s afire, she’s pregnant?” Sal bellowed into the phone when Mara called her with the latest news. “No wonder she was upchuckin’ her brains out on that seiner.”
Not only was Sal willing to let Alex and Emily stay in Stu’s cabin, but she also said that she and Joe would leave earlier than they had intended to in order to bring down the bed they planned to put in the cabin so they could use it for a getaway spot.
“The only other thing we have to—” Mara began.
“We, Jane? Somethin’ about the way ya jest said we tells me ta ask about jest what we means,” Sal interrupted.
Why was it simply impossible to keep anything from Sal Kindle Michael? And, so Mara told Sal about Doug and the Storm Roamer and the Driftfeather and the whole story of the trip that had somehow righted both of their lives.
“Well, hell’s afire again, Jane. We was wonderin’—me and Joe that is—when ya was both gonna come ta yer senses.”
“But weren’t you the one who told me to get over Doug?”
“What I said was that yer man fell by the wayside’s what I said, Jane. Don’t mean he stayed there, accordin’ ta what yer tellin’ me now. My Joe, fer one’s, gonna be mighty glad ta hear that, too.”
Mara laughed out loud as Sal talked. In spite of everything that had happened, her heart felt lighter than it had in a long, long time.
“Ya sound like a twitterin’ schoolgirl, Jane. I kin hear it in yer voice,” Sal laughed back. “Now what about them seiners?”
“That’s a good question, Sal. Let me get back to Alex and Emily and then I’ll call you back with more details. And, Sal …”
“Yeah, Jane?”
“You’re the best.”
“Well, ya ain’t fried potatas yerself, Jane,” Sal said before hanging up.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Will You …
Doug and Mara’s reunion had softened the drama surrounding Alex, Emily, and the sudden change in everyone’s plans, so they took it in stride when Derrk got called Outside for a death in his family.
According to the phone conversation Mara had with Sandy, Thor’s paw had just about healed and she was taking him for his daily walks, sometimes even taking him to work with her, which she said he seemed to love. She also told her that Alex and Emily had arrived and settled into Stu’s old place and that Emily’s brother had flown in to stay with them and help out. She also said that Alex had told her to let her know they were fine.
“The two men have been coming and going a lot so I figure that the woman—Emily, right?—must be doing okay,” Sandy said. “They said to tell you that since Sal and Joe were going to fly down to Cordova to help with the seiners, they would just use the cabin a little longer and then meet you and Doug back in Juneau.”
Strange, Mara had only heard of Emily’s brother for the first time in Cordova. She couldn’t remember meeting him at the wedding. Well, families were like that nowadays, always drifting in and out of each other’s lives. Emily’s brother had probably just escaped her notice or maybe hadn’t been able to attend the wedding for whatever reason.
Later, over dinner that night, she filled Doug in on all the latest.
“Sal told me that she and her first husband used to own both seiners. She said she sold them after she lost him at sea.”
Doug raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“Wow! Like Sal would say, I didn’t see that coming, but nothing having to do with either Sal or Joe should surprise me.”
He reached across the table and laid his hand over Mara’s, knowing that accidents and even death at sea were a risk that all fishermen and their families faced each time they went out on another trip.
“I can’t believe you’re back,” he told her, making her blus
h.
“Me either,” she laughed before fixing her eyes on his.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said, “and I understand how you’re wondering if this is going to … if it can really work out this time.”
“Not really. You see, as much as I wanted to blame it all on you, all that’s happened since we split up … all of this has made me who I am right now, and that me is someone who is telling you that we both had things to learn.”
Doug furrowed his brow. He had accepted full responsibility for everything that had gone wrong between them—now Mara was saying that she had somehow been part of the problem?
“I know it sounds weird,” she said, sensing his confusion, “but for reasons even I don’t understand, this all happened the way it was supposed to. Before, I was so impulsive and so naïve and so one-dimensional. Now, well, the truth is that I’m not afraid to lose you anymore because I’m not afraid to be alone.”
Doug watched her, his eyes locking with hers. There was something different about Mara now—something stronger. It was as though she had become a better version of the wonderful person she had always been.
“I know I don’t deserve this second chance,” he told her, suddenly getting up from his chair and getting down on one knee right then and there in the restaurant.
Mara felt all eyes in the room look their way as she let Doug take her hand and propose.
“This time we’ll have a real wedding,” he said when she answered yes.
Just then, Joe and Sal walked in, catching the two in an embrace in front of the applauding crowd of diners who had joined in the excitement of the occasion.
“We’re getting married—again,” Mara laughed as she hugged first Sal, then Joe.
“Well, hell’s a blazin’, even I didn’t see that one comin’,” Sal said, sounding completely surprised.
Joe was surprisingly quiet. Was that a tear he was dabbing from the corner of his eye? Mara walked over to him and hugged him in the biggest bear hug she could muster.
“Are those tears of happiness or sadness?”
“I was just thinkin’ about your father,” Joe said. “And about how proud of you he’d be right now.”
“Well, it’s not like I got it right from the get-go. It’s taken me a while to find true love’s path, but you know, in spite of everything—well, I know it’s right. It was always right with Doug. It’s just that we lost sight of who we were, and I feel in the bottom of my soul that neither of us is going to let that happen to us again.”
“So the two dots worked,” Joe said with a deadpan expression, referring to the feather with two dots that he had given her back in Glenallen.
“So they did,” she said, kissing the old man on the cheek. “But I don’t think … I can’t imagine that they will stick unless you swear to me in front of Doug and Sal right now that you will give me away at my wedding.”
This time, the tears in Joe’s eyes spilled down his cheeks as Sal reached over to dry them with the corner of her sleeve.
“Well, I suppose we’d better get those seiners back to Juneau so Sal and I can get some new clothes,” Joe said, pulling both Doug and Mara toward his open arms and squeezing them as if he’d never let them go.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Injustice?
“Wake up, Jane!” Sal’s trembling holler rang through the hotel room door as Doug and Mara were packing the remainder of their clothes in preparation for the trip back to Juneau later that morning.
All five foot two of Sal Kindle Michael pushed through the door before Doug could even finish opening it to let her in.
“The Feds got Joe. Hell’s almighty, they took my Joe ta the dang slammer.”
“Hold on, Sal,” Doug said, guiding the old woman to a chair. “What do you mean they took Joe to the slammer?’
“Said it’s embezzlement,” Sal said, struggling not to cry. “Said he siphoned money outta Stu’s account inta his own ta the tune of a hundred and eighteen grand. Said they found the receipts to prove it in his glove box.”
“I didn’t know Stu had that kind of money, Sal,” Mara said. “He was always talking to me about how he was living on a fixed income and could barely get by if something broke down around the house or some emergency came up.”
“I dunno, Jane. I dunno,” Sal said, getting up and pacing around the hotel room. “All I know is that my Joe ain’t no embezzler and now they got him locked up like a … like a dang criminal.”
Before Mara could say anything, Doug bolted out the door, returning two hours later with a very tired and stressed-looking Joe Michael.
“I posted bail,” Doug said simply. “Now we need to get back to Juneau and get to the bottom of all this.”
“I’ll alert my lawyer,” Mara said, while helping Joe with his coat, “and ask him to refer us to someone specializing in this type of defense.”
Suddenly Joe clutched his chest with one arm and lowered himself onto the bed with the help of the other. “Call 911,” he gasped through lips that were as pale as Della’s had been the night she was shot.
Minutes later, paramedics were taking him out Mara’s cabin door on a gurney, and wheeling him along the boardwalk to the ambulance waiting on the street.
The oxygen the medics had started had already improved Joe’s color and relieved some of the pain, the rest of which was eased as soon as he was given meds in the ER to alleviate what doctors were calling spasms in his heart artery.
By late afternoon, the medevac helicopter had arrived and spirited him away to Juneau with the staff allowing Sal to ride along since Joe’s vital signs had remained stable for the past two hours.
Joe Michael had already survived one near-death cardiac experience, a subsequent coronary artery bypass surgery, and a full year of cardiac rehabilitation just a few years before. No one said out loud what they were all thinking. At seventy-four years of age, would Joe be able to continue to survive this latest episode with his heart? Late that evening, after stents had been placed into two of Joe’s coronary arteries, everyone heaved a sigh of relief on learning that Joe Michael was feeling much better, even though incredibly tired.
Mara, Doug, and Sal took turns visiting him in the CCU, each praying silently between visits that he would be able to withstand this latest crisis. Somehow, all of them knew that they would do all they could to get to the bottom of whatever or whoever had created the circumstances that had led to Joe’s present life crisis.
“Bein’ as we rented out Stu’s place to Alex and Emily, I’ll just stay here at the hospital with my Joe,” Sal said as nighttime approached, looking as tired and frail as Mara had ever seen her.
“You’ll stay with Doug and me and Thor at my cabin,” Mara said decisively. “It’ll be a little cozy, but it’s just the way it’s going to be. Alex and Emily will be right next door to help out if we need them.”
“I’ve got to fly back to Cordova and see to the seiners anyway,” Doug said. “I’ll leave tonight and be back here by tomorrow night.”
By 9 p.m. Doug was on his way to Cordova and Sal was back at Joe’s side after deciding that the short nap she took at Mara’s place was all the rest she would need.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
New Information
Mara hadn’t seen Emily or Alex since she had returned. As it was, she had barely had time to pick Thor up and get Sandy out of her cabin prior to flying in with Doug and Sal. When she met up with Alex the next day, he looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“Everything okay with Emily and the baby?” she asked.
“Yeah, they’re fine,” Alex answered, “but there’s something going on I need to talk to you about.”
“Okay,” she answered, inviting him in and setting them up with a fresh cup of Kona out on her deck. “I need to talk to you, too.”
The thing was that she just wasn’t sure how or when she should tell Alex about what had happened to Joe.
“Well, the first thing is that Emil
y and I have been talking that maybe the seafaring life is not for us, you know—especially now with the baby coming?”
She leaned forward to listen. Not Alex now. What was going on with everyone in her life?
“I was thinking about how I would tell you and what we could arrange with the Driftfeather and all that,” Alex continued. “I pretty much had it worked out that I would offer to sell out my share to you—especially since you already put quite a lot on those misplaced payments, which is another thing I want to talk to you about.”
She could see that the conversation was difficult for Alex. It almost sounded like he had lost his passion for fishing and all things seiner, but he had a wife now and a child on the way, so she could understand how his focus might have shifted. Maybe everything with the bank account was getting to him. It was getting to her and she was financially established. Imagine how it felt to a young man just starting out in life.
She reached out and put one hand on his and spoke slowly, telling him how much she admired his work, and that she understood that now that Emily was pregnant his priorities might have changed. One thing seemed certain: this was not the time to tell him about Joe Michael.
Alex sat there, not saying anything for a while. He looked distracted, as if organizing his thoughts. When he finally did speak, he stared at the top of the table instead of looking her in the eye like he usually did. She had always admired the way that Alex spoke directly and with full confidence. Now, though, something was different.
“Another thing is that my father had a stroke last week …”
“Oh, no,” Mara gasped.
Maybe that explained the change in Alex’s demeanor.
“He’s going to be okay,” he was quick to interject. “The doctors say the residual damage should be minimal, but that’s another reason that I want to take Emily and move back Outside—to be near my folks now that they’re getting older.”
Driftfeather on the Alaska Seas Page 10
