Smooth Sailing

by Susan X Meagher

  When everything was shipshape, Kaatje called her father and gave him their estimated time of arrival. To Laurie’s surprise, they motored over to the dock rather than going to get them in the dinghy. “It’s kinda cool being able to drive over to pick your parents up,” Laurie commented.

  “My father can catch a line and help me touch and go. He’s a good sailor. It’d be nice if I could do this for my paying guests, but I’d be in dry dock every other week handling the repairs.”

  The Hoogebooms were right on the dock, looking more casual than the last time Laurie saw them. Theo wore khaki shorts and a short-sleeved Madras plaid shirt, making him look ten years younger. And Antonia looked lovely in a simple print sundress. As they approached, Laurie mused over how much they looked like a couple. There was something about them that made them fit together, and she wondered if she and Kaatje would someday be the same.

  Antonia boarded quickly, vaguely ignoring Theo’s instructions and following Kaatje’s quieter ones. Kaatje winked at her mother when she passed by, then held a hand out to her father who jumped aboard like a cat, quick and sure-footed as Kaatje was. With barely a second’s pause they motored away from the dock.

  Antonia offered Laurie a hug. “We’re very happy to have you back.”

  Theo’s greeting seemed sincere, but more formal. “Very good to see you again. Kaatje’s told us all about your big success.”

  Laurie poured wine for all, while Kaatje guided them out of the harbor. “It was more successful than I had any right to expect. But I’m very, very glad that part of my life is over.” She held up her glass and tapped it against Kaatje’s. “To my second act.”

  *

  They sailed out into open water, skimming along small waves in the steady breeze. It was a picture-perfect night, with a few clouds in the west serving as stunning backdrops to the setting sun.

  Antonia said, “Kaatje showed us hundreds of photos from the park, but I admit to being jealous of her. I’d love to see it for myself one day.”

  “Show them the DVD,” Kaatje said, urging Laurie towards the galley. “Her staff gave her a wonderful going-away gift. She makes it sound like they were glad to get rid of her, but you can see how much they love her by this.” She looked over at Laurie with a proud smile.

  Laurie sat between Theo and Antonia, opened her laptop and inserted the DVD. Even though she’d watched it five or six times already, Kaatje dropped the sails and came over to perch on the railing behind her parents. “It’s really cool,” she said, exchanging a bright smile with Laurie.

  The disk started by showing a close-up of the Bee Hive, then it pulled away at a very fast clip to provide an aerial view of the entire park. “They used some canned footage,” Laurie said. “They didn’t hire a helicopter to shoot this just for me.”

  “They would have,” Kaatje said, still grinning at her.

  As they took the viewer around the park, Laurie’s staff commented on the role she’d played in bringing each attraction to fruition. There were a lot of inside jokes, and a few shots obviously taken from security cameras, one which showed Laurie kicking a stalled car on a ride, then falling onto her butt from the impact.

  “Could I convince you I did that just for a joke?” she chuckled.

  The disk was fairly short, just ten minutes, but it gave the viewer the very clear message that Laurie was held in high esteem by the people she worked with the closest. At the end of it she felt tears come to her eyes, and she wiped them away, embarrassed to show how it had gotten to her.

  “It must feel a little like a death in the family,” Antonia said.

  “It would feel like being released from prison for me,” Kaatje said. “But that’s not how Laurie feels about leaving.” She put her arm around her and hugged her tightly.

  “No, it didn’t feel like prison until the very end when I wanted to leave to be with Kaatje. You’re right, Antonia, it was like being in a big family.”

  “And now you have to ride out those feelings of loss.”

  “I don’t think of it like that,” Laurie said. “That part of my life is over. I’m going to be too busy to think about Teddy Bear and his friends. I have to learn to be a sailor, or I’ll never get promoted to first mate.”

  “If you were to go back, what would you do next?” Theo asked.

  “She’s not going back, Dad,” Kaatje said, somewhat testily.

  “But you haven’t resigned, right?” Theo asked.

  “No, not technically. I’m on a leave.”

  “Couldn’t they offer something you’d consider?”

  “That would be a very tall order. The chances are slim. I assume I’ll resign when my leave is over.”

  “But what might you do…if you went back?”

  What would be a job worth taking? That was a tough one, especially since Luxor would have to figure out a way to get Kaatje legal status. But where there was a will… “I’ve been in project management since I started, and there isn’t much left for me there. I’d probably want to get some experience in park management. If you want to get to executive VP you’ve got to show your versatility.”

  “How many executive VPs do they have?”

  “Not many. Fifteen or sixteen.”

  “Were you aiming for that?”

  Laurie laughed. “I was aiming to be CEO.”

  Looking a little surprised, Theo said, “Did you have a chance?”

  She leaned back, stretching while gazing up at the darkening sky. It was hard to answer that without sounding like a blowhard, but an honest question deserved an honest answer. “I had a good chance. I was the third youngest senior VP, which means I’d have time to get there. If you’re made SVP when you’re forty, you can run out of years. Another thing in my favor is that they try very hard to promote women. The president of my division is a woman, and she’s on the short list of people who could take the next step. But she’s fifteen years older than I am, and she might time out. If I made president of a division by the time I was forty-five, there isn’t a reason in the world I couldn’t keep going. At that point, timing has a lot to do with it. And keeping yourself in the business news as much as possible, of course. The market has to believe in you.” She sat there for a second and let herself consider what it would be like to run a huge, international company like Luxor. It made a thrill chase down her spine, but when she caught Kaatje’s gaze, the pleasure of that thought disappeared. Kaatje would never be happy being the spouse of the CEO. That was an eighteen-hour-a-day job, with tons of international travel, and it didn’t matter that the pay was in the millions. Those six free hours a day didn’t allow for a happy family, and that’s what she wanted from life.

  *

  After taking Theo and Antonia back to the dock, they moored, and Kaatje started to clean up. Laurie wanted to help, but a wave of fatigue hit her and she sat down, hoping it would pass quickly. She was still waking up every hour or two, and not getting a full-night’s rest. Her body believed it was ten in the morning, and no matter how much she wanted to sleep at night, her internal clock was sure it was daytime and that she’d pulled an all-nighter.

  “Tired?” Kaatje asked, giving her a look.

  “Very.” Feeling like she could fall asleep in seconds, she stretched out on the banquette. “But when I get into bed, I lay there for hours. The only time I’m sure I could sleep is the middle of the day, when we have guests.”

  Kaatje walked over and sat next to her and started to play with her hair. “Can I help?”

  “No, you’ve been very thoughtful. I have to just let it run its course. My body doesn’t understand why it’s not running around like mad, and why we’re up at night and asleep during the day.”

  “Regrets?” she asked very, very quietly.

  That not only woke Laurie, it propelled her into a sitting position. “No! I’ve never been happier in my life.” She held onto Kaatje, burrowing into her body. “Don’t ever think anything like that.”

  Kaatje gently stroked her bac
k, murmuring into her ear. “Sorry. It hit me when you had such a ready…and complex answer for my father. It made me wonder if maybe…”

  “Kaatje,pay no attention to that. That’s how corporate people entertain themselves.” She pulled back and said, “Have you ever seen male dogs walk down the street?”

  “Uhm…yeah.”

  “Notice how they try to mark higher and higher to let other dogs think they’re big?”

  Kaatje smiled. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

  “That’s what corporate people do. We boast about how big we are and try to show everyone else how high we can pee. It’s just a game. It means nothing.”

  “Are you sure? If you really need to stay in the corporate world we might be able to figure something out.”

  “I’m absolutely sure. It wouldn’t be good for us, and us is all that counts now.”

  Kaatje put her hands on Laurie’s shoulders and gazed into her eyes for a long time. “This is a very, very big change for you, Moppie. It would be a smaller change for me to move to Florida or LA than it is for you to be here. Make sure you’re comfortable with this before we get too invested.”

  “I’m happy here. Being on this boat with you is a life most people couldn’t even dream of. It’s like being on vacation every day of the year. Who wouldn’t want that?” She tickled under her chin with a finger, and joined in when Kaatje broke into a fit of the giggles. For scant seconds and with a great deal of sympathy, she thought of Aaron and Andrea and Hiroshi and Toshi and Michiko just getting to work in Osaka. Poor fools. They’d kill to be able to trade with me.

  *

  The next two weeks gave Laurie nothing but positive feedback on her decision to be first mate of The Flying Dutchwoman. Their days were perfection, with clear skies, moderate wind, and happy customers. It was as if Luxor had engineered the experience, and that perfection was assured.

  It took the two full weeks, but Laurie was finally on Kaatje’s schedule. After work they relaxed on the boat, or went back out on the ocean for a little snorkeling. Now that Laurie was well rested and alert, Kaatje began teaching her to scuba dive, and she was ready to buy her own gear.

  It was a warm afternoon, warmer than it had been in weeks, and after Kaatje took their guests back to the dock, she gazed up at Laurie from the dinghy. “You look like you want to jump in,” Laurie said.

  Kaatje lobbed the painter up at her. “I do. And I’m going to.”

  “Hey, why don’t we go to the beach? We haven’t been since I’ve been back.”

  “Sure. Do you have your suit on?”

  Laurie pulled her shirt up, showing her bright red suit. “Hang on. I’ll grab your book and a couple of towels.”

  “I’m hanging.”

  Soon they were on Kaatje’s bike, driving across the island to her favorite beach. Most of the tourists had gone back to their hotels, and they were almost alone on the wide cove of calm, aquamarine water on the French side. Kaatje laid their towels out and plopped down, smiling up at Laurie. “I’m happy.”

  “I thought you wanted to go into the water.”

  “I did. But I’m perfectly content now. You go in for me.”

  Laurie ruffled her hair, then playfully pulled on an earlobe. “You’re constantly inconstant.”

  “That’s what keeps you interested.”

  Bending over, Laurie kissed her head. “Among other things.” Waving, she ran for the water and submerged herself as soon as it was deep enough. Then she lay on her back and kicked until her legs were tired. The water was still shallow, but the color changed dramatically just ten yards further out, turning a dark indigo. She’d learned that meant deep water, so she stayed where she was, watching for fish.

  She squealed in delight when a tilefish skimmed right across her foot. The water was now shallow enough to walk, and she slogged through it looking for more, when she spotted a pair of starfish. They looked completely inert, letting the current move them where it would. It struck her that she was doing basically the same thing, and she suddenly needed to share that with Kaatje.

  Because she had been working on her fitness by swimming for at least a half hour every day, she was able to return quickly. Nonetheless, she was winded when she tramped out of the surf and stood, dripping, over Kaatje. “Guess what I am?”

  “A big drip?”

  “Funny girl.” She sat next to her, and spent a moment just gazing at her. Kaatje was pretty in every light, but she was never lovelier than when she was outdoors with the late afternoon sun burnishing her face. Her dark hair shone brilliantly in the light, and her eyes held flecks of gold and many shades of blue, making tiny mosaics of them.

  “So what are you?”

  Now that she had to state her musings, they sounded funny. But she spit it out anyway. “I’m like a starfish.”

  Kaatje leaned back and narrowed her eyes. “A starfish, huh? I think I need a little more explanation.”

  Laurie reached over, took, and squeezed her hand. “I was looking at a pair of starfish and thought about how they just float along. That’s how I feel. Like I don’t have a schedule, or a boss, or a to-do list. I just let you and the ocean guide me.” She knew she was grinning like a kid, but she didn’t have to act like an adult with Kaatje.

  Kaatje put a hand on her cheek and looked at her tenderly. “Does that make you happy?”

  “Don’t I look happy?”

  Kaatje grinned and nodded. “Yeah. You look very happy.”

  “I’ve honestly never been happier in my life. If you’d told me a year ago that the biggest accomplishment of the year would be that I’d fall in love and move to the Caribbean, I would have told you you were mad. But I’ve fallen in love with a woman, and an island, and an ocean.”

  “Don’t forget the Dutchwoman,” Kaatje teased.

  “And a boat. But the woman’s at the top of the list.”

  “You’re at the top of my list too.” Kaatje slipped an arm around Laurie’s shoulders and pulled her close. Her lips were warm and dry and felt fantastic when they touched Laurie’s.

  “Let’s go home and make love,” Laurie breathed.

  “You read my mind.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  THE PERFECT WEATHER was finally exhausted. Laurie woke, gazed out the window, and lay back down. A few minutes later Kaatje lifted her head, looked outside, then started to get up.

  “It’s not even dawn,” Laurie yawned.

  “It’s eight thirty.”

  “No.” Then with less certitude, “Really?”

  “Yeah. It’s really gray. It’ll probably start to rain soon.”

  Laurie got up and went to the galley, staring out at the gray, gloomy day. “What do we do when it rains?”

  “Get wet.”

  Laurie turned and saw Kaatje’s smirk. “I know we’ll get wet. But what do we do?”

  “Whatever we want. Read, go shopping, go hang out at my mom’s.”

  “What can we do on the boat?”

  Kaatje walked over to her and wrapped her arms around Laurie’s waist. “We can make love.”

  “All day?”

  “I could manage.” She leaned over and nibbled on Laurie’s neck. “Are you tired of me already?”

  “No, of course not, but what if it rains for two days?”

  “What happened to being like a starfish? Letting the wind and the weather carry you?”

  She tried not to show the anxiety she felt. “I’m good with that. But…I don’t know where they’re gonna carry me.”

  Kaatje playfully patted her bare butt. “That’s the fun of being carried.”

  Being carried. Suddenly the thought of being carried along without direction wasn’t very appealing. A starfish didn’t look like it had a brain, and if it did it wasn’t a big one. Sailing was wonderful, and having guests was unpredictable and often more fun than she’d imagined. But sitting on a boat while it rained was going to take some getting used to. How did you get used to doing nothing? More important, why woul
d you want to?

  *

  They spent a long time making breakfast, something they didn’t normally have time for. Laurie was beginning to like Kaatje’s favorite Dutch breakfast dishes, and to pay her back she cleaned the galley.

  By the time they’d finished, it was raining. It wasn’t a downpour by any means, but it was August, peak of the hurricane season, and they were relying on last minute reservations to fill out their week. Kaatje was reading, and she had some of her favorite CDs in the stereo. Laurie poked around in Kaatje’s small library, finding nothing that caught her interest. Eventually, she got out her laptop and found a project that pulled her back into her favorite level of concentration—deep.

  *

  Around six o’clock, Kaatje walked up behind Laurie and tickled her neck. Then she leaned over and put her lips against Laurie’s ear. “Want some dinner?”

  Flinching, Laurie turned and stared at her in surprise. “It’s dinner time?”

  “Pretty close. We should go into town, since we didn’t go outside today.”

  “Okay. That’d be fun. Just let me finish one last thing.”

  Kaatje stayed standing behind her. “What are you doing?’

  Laurie finished the note and started to shut her laptop down. “Writing thank-you notes. Seemed like a good day for it.”

  “Thank-you notes?”

  “Yeah.” She stood and picked up her laptop to return it to its secure spot in their cabin. “I sent out a mass e-mail after the park opened, but it wasn’t personalized. A personal note is the least I can do for all of the people who helped.”

  “How many do you have to write?”

  Laurie’s eyes shifted skyward. “I wrote around sixty today. I probably have another twenty to do.”

  “Damn, that’s a remarkable number. Are you writing to every person who cooked a hot dog?”

  “No. Just the ones I know by name.” She patted Kaatje indulgently. “Wouldn’t be very personal if I didn’t know them. I’m trying to mention something they did to help us succeed.” She slapped the side of her head with her hand. “It’s really taxing my memory.”