The Less Fortunates

by Charles C Martin

10

  Forest began cutting off small strips of the fish while Becca and I strung each one through some of the fishing line we had. It was pretty time consuming, and the more we strung from rail to rail, the freakier it made the boat look. It reminded me of Christmas ornaments, but instead, dangling pieces of flesh. We were the boat of death now.

  I wanted to talk to Becca so badly. I was sitting right next to her and couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. Any ideas I had were corny, forced, and obviously trying to start a conversation. It was better to just keep quiet. I felt so nervous around her. I wished she would feel nervous around me, but that was way more than wishful thinking. It was pretty obvious that me sitting next to her was irrelevant. Damn. We neared the end of the pile and both reached for the same strip.

  “Sorry,” I said and released it. So did Becca.

  “No, you take it,” she said.

  “No, no. Go ahead. Please.”

  “You’re being weird,” she said.

  “No I’m not. You are.”

  I stood up and acted like I had something important to do like check on the rigging to make sure it was still tight. What a dumbass thing to say. It was the only thing that came to me. I wished she was just some dude, and then it would be way, way easier to talk to her. But she wasn’t a dude. She was a girl. A cool and really beautiful girl. It was just different. No way to get around it or pretend it didn’t exist. We finished with over a hundred strips of whatever fish it was tied between the bow rails.

  The wind picked up and continued out of the north. I looked up at the sun and figured it was early afternoon. We had been on the boat for over twenty four hours now, and the O’Day was sailing along at near top speed in small one to two foot waves. I gave Forest a break at the tiller and struggled to guess the correct direction with the sun directly overhead. It would be easier once the moon rose.

  The heat of midday and the ocean had lulled Becca to sleep. She lay on the bench across from me with her left arm over her face. I could hear her stomach groaning every few minutes. I hoped the fish would dry and be at least somewhat edible so she wouldn’t be so hungry.

  “What the hell is that?” Forest shouted from the bow with his finger pointed at the water below. Becca awkwardly woke up and stumbled to her feet.

  “There!” he pointed just off the port side.

  I tried to get a glimpse from the back of the boat, but couldn’t see anything and didn’t want to leave the rudder.

  “What?” I asked.

  “It’s huge,” said Forest. “It’s stalking us. Look.”

  Becca’s mouth dropped open.

  “Shark?” I asked.

  “Monster,” said Becca.

  “Octopus, whale, what is it?” I asked.

  “No man,” replied Forest. It’s wider than the boat. Wings and horns. Like it’s flying under the water. Tail like a dragon.”

  “Somebody take over so I can see.”

  Becca came to the cockpit and took control of the tiller.

  I held onto one of the port side cables and immediately took notice of the unusual shape. The creature was beautiful. Massive and flying through the water like a pterodactyl.

  “Beautiful. It’s a ray. Manta ray or Eagle ray,” I said.

  “Is it dangerous?” asked Forest.

  “No, no I don’t think so.”

  “It smells our fish,” he said.

  “Probably not.”

  We watched it slowly swim down to greater depths.

  “Freaking amazing,” said Forest while it slowly disappeared from view.

  “This,” said Forest.

  “What?” asked Becca.

  “This. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

  “Sail?” I asked.

  Forest looked up at the mainsail, fully drawn and pushing our boat toward the setting sun, in almost dead silence.

  “Yeah. Sail.”

  “Yeah. Yeah, me too,” I replied.

  The O’Day sliced through the waves effortlessly while the sun began to set and darkness approached like a mysterious friend. Navigation was simple now. Sail away from the setting sun and toward the rising moon. I figured we were probably pointed southeast at midday. If not exactly southeast, at least east, or maybe northeast.

  The only time Forest sat was when he was manning the tiller. The rest of the time he stood at the bow looking out, always looking, even then he was on his feet most of the time. It made me wonder where he was getting the energy. Our water supply was diminishing, and Becca and I looked hungover. Night had fallen, and we hadn’t eaten since early that morning. Some sucky cafeteria rolls at that.

  Forest was finally lying down at the front of the boat with his feet resting on the rail. The contrast was stark from the chaos of the night before.

  “I can take over for a while,” said Becca.

  “Sure, you see those three stars in a line and the bright one underneath?

  “Yes.”

  “Head to the one underneath.”

  Becca sat in my place and took control of the tiller. I sat on the bench across from her.

  “It’s backwards,” she said.

  “I know. Weird, isn’t it?”

  “Now I see why you hit that boat,” she said. I quietly laughed.

  “You can go get some sleep,” said Becca.

  “I’m good.”

  I wondered if me sitting there made her feel awkward. If she wanted me to go, I should go. It was too quiet. I felt awkward. Did she feel awkward? Oh this was such bullshit. I should just say something, and it wouldn’t be weird. Once again, I couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. I felt like I was in a room filled with filing cabinets, frantically opening each one with nothing in it.

  “Do you like sports?” I asked.

  What the hell was I doing? What a loser, sappy question to ask. Anything else would have been better. Are you hungry? thirsty? All better. Shit.

  “No, not really,” she said softly.

  I nodded and looked away toward the rolling waves that were now lit up by the moon.

  “So why did you and Forest get in a fight?” she asked.

  On no man, not that.

  “Um. I said something that he kind of took out of context.”

  “What?”

  Ugh.

  “I said you were hot.”

  “What?”

  “I said you were smokin’ hot. Sorry.”

  She politely laughed, “Well, you seem nice. But I’m not interested.”

  “Oh yeah. No, I know that. It’s cool,” I quickly replied.

  It was nice of her to say that, and being direct was just her style. Honestly, my feelings weren’t even hurt. I never really considered the possibility of her being interested in me. She was more like a sunset or something, nice to admire from a distance. But, I sure as hell didn’t want to annoy her. Somehow her comment made me a bit more at ease.

  “I did manage to get a punch in.”

  “Nice,” she smiled.

  “Yeah, it was a good one.” I said jokingly, and looked back toward the water, figuring our brief conversation was over.

  “He actually has a soft side,” she said. Her odd comment caught my attention and made me curious.

  I shook my head. “I’m not so sure I believe that.”

  “He does. When we were little he would steal chocolates for me every Saturday.”

  “Hm.” It was kind of weird that his soft side involved stealing, but whatever.

  “How far do you think we’ve gone?” she asked.

  “I don’t know how much we got thrown off last night. But I bet we’ve sailed at least for twenty hours.”

  “So, maybe a hundred miles,” she said.

  “I guess.”

  “How far to the closest island?” she asked.

  “Bimini. It’s only fifty or sixty miles away from Miami.”

  “So we missed that one completely,” she said.

  “Yeah, it’s really small. We didn’t reall
y have a chance. But the largest island is about 100 miles long and it’s 140 miles out from Miami. That’s where I hope we end up.”

  “What’s it called?”

  “Andros,” I said.

  Becca smiled, “Let’s name the boat Andros.”

  “Hell yeah. Forest!”

  He looked back at us from the front of the boat.

  “Andros. Her name is Andros,” I shouted patting the side of the O’Day.

  “I like it,” he said.

  Andros sailed beautifully through the midnight waters. The wind had dropped off slightly, but she still maintained good speed. The gentle sounds almost made me high. No traffic noise, school bells, old people spewing out facts from text books. Sailing that night was the most peaceful experience of my life. Other than the gnawing hunger, life felt sublime in those moments. I also felt a sense of belonging in that awkward family at sea. But it was a family that we chose, and that somehow made it special. I wasn’t sure if they felt the same. Part of me feared if we made it to the Bahamas they would say ‘see ya later, Joey’.

  “You stink,” said Becca.

  I lifted up my arm and winced. It was pretty awful. I didn’t have deodorant, a hairbrush, toothbrush, nothing. Forest came to the back and sat with us.

  “Sorry. Trust me I’d fix that if I could,” I said.

  “Fix what?” asked Forest.

  “Becca said I stink.”

  “I’m sure she does too,” said Forest.

  “Shutup, Forest,” she said with a laugh.

  “Let’s take the sail down. Jump in and take a saltwater bath,” said Forest.

  “Now?” I asked.

  “Yeah, why not,” he said.

  Becca and I looked over the side. The blue water was black at night like a mysterious dream that could abruptly turn into a nightmare.

  “I bet there’s a whole lot of wild shit down there,” I said.

  “Like that fish,” said Becca.

  “Yeah. Imagine that thing biting you in the ass.”

  “I’m jumping in,” said Forest. He was already on center deck pulling the rope to lower the sail.

  “Let’s keep going. You don’t know what’s down there,” said Becca.

  “I know it’s a big ocean and we’re a dot in it. Something may bite me. But probably not.”

  “Joey, tell him not to do it,” Becca whispered.

  “This ain’t no swimming pool man. Out this far it can get over a thousand feet deep,” I said. “It’s dark, middle of the ocean, sharks. ”

  “Damn you two are some old ladies,” said Forest as the boat eased to a stop and we slowly rocked back and forth with the small rolling waves.

  “Rude. Don’t splash around and make noise,” said Becca.

  Forest stepped over the rail and leaped into the air. Cannon ball. What the hell?

  The splash echoed. He surfaced with a smile that reached ear to ear.

  “Ahhhhh. Yes!! Woooo!” he shouted and lifted a fist in the air. It was really damn infectious. I laughed and took off my shirt.

  “You too?” she asked. “I swear I’m in a jaws movie right now.”

  I hit the water feet first, and it felt incredible. All the grime washed away and I felt a surge of energy.

  It was also spooky as hell. One second I was having the time of my life, and the next second I wondered if a shark was circling me underwater. It was impossible to know. The not knowing was trippy because my mind could almost make it a reality. At the same time I was certain that this was the greatest experience of my life. There I was suspended in the middle of the ocean, the only lights were stars, and beneath me hundreds maybe thousands of feet of water to the ocean floor. Shit.

  Becca stood at the bow and started to take off her shirt. I wanted to look so unbelievably bad, but I made a promise to Forest and turned around. It was hard as hell though, like my head almost involuntarily locked into place.

  “Turn around,” she said. Forest noticed I already had and seemed pleased with that. But my imagination was shooting fireworks. I heard her splash and turned back around. I quickly glanced and noticed the dual pale stripes beside her neck and tight shoulders.

  “Awesome,” she said. Becca slowly glided through the water on her back while looking at the stars. Though I was only sixteen, I had accumulated a lot of bad memories in that brief amount of time. This was something I would never forget, and I wondered if memories like this would help wash away the ugly ones.

  Fortunately, we weren't in a Jaws movie, and nothing bit our asses. We could only tread water so long, and before I knew it we were back underway. It was probably past midnight by now, and we all wanted to go to sleep. We decided to take shifts of a few hours each on the tiller. There was no way to tell the time, so we just had to guess how long we had been steering. Instead of sleeping in the cabin, we all spread out in the cockpit. I had first watch while Becca and Forest lay down on the benches. The night remained calm and peaceful. We cruised along at three to four miles per hour in a soft breeze.

  “Seems like something should go wrong,” said Becca.

  I thought she was asleep. “Yeah. I know what you mean.”

  “How did we make it this far?” she asked.

  “I have no idea. Baffles me. We just kept going. I didn’t even think we would make it out of those woods.”

  “I thought we would make it to the marina,” said Becca while looking up at the stars. “Then get picked up. When that didn’t happen, I was sure we would sink in that storm.”

  “Oh yeah. Several times I thought I would probably die or go to jail,” I replied. I couldn’t see her face too well in the dark, but I thought she smiled.

  “I can’t wait to see the Bahamas. Do you think we will actually make it there?” she asked.

  I scratched my head, “I mean, yesterday I would have said no way. Now though, it may even be likely. Still it’s hard to say because we don’t really know what we are doing or exactly where we are going. With all of the currents we could land in Columbia or right now we could be on course for Iceland. If that’s the case, then we won't ever see land again.”

  “I didn’t sign up for Iceland,” said Becca, and I laughed.

  “In the Bahamas are you going your own way or are we staying together?” she asked.

  “I think staying together would be good,” I replied.

  “Me too,” she said. “I hope we don’t have to steal. I want a job or something.”

  “I bet there is some way we can make money,” I replied.

  “How?”

  “Fishing. We could catch fish and sell them. We know how to catch fish now.”

  “Psh,” Becca laughed.

  “We’ll figure out something,” I said.

  The night carried on, and Becca took a long shift, followed by Forest. Dawn was approaching, and I was out like a drunken sailor. We had been sailing for almost thirty-five hours straight now. When I was asleep I didn’t dream. But I thought about the boat, the ocean, and Becca while I was still conscious. The deep black was growing into lighter shades when Forest scared the hell out of us.