The Raft

by Christopher Blankley

  Chapter 11

  With the Soft Cell under sail once again, moving away from the Strange Dream, Maggie and Rachael sat in silence. The sails snapped in the breeze and Maggie steered towards open water, absentmindedly lost in her own thoughts.

  Slowly, it occurred to Rachael that she had to pee.

  All the ice water aboard the Geoduck and then a cup of tea with the Tea Queen, and Rachael could feel nature calling. As Maggie sat at the helm, musing, Rachael slipped down through the companionway of the Soft Cell, down the set of steps into the cabin below.

  Maggie's living quarters were far more spacious than the cabin shared by Rocket, Tea Queen and Firecracker. Maggie's boat, at twice the length, had far more than twice the space below decks. The main cabin was discernibly divided into separate areas for the galley and salon. A comfortable couch ran the length of the room starboard, and a galley table sat to the port. Through a pair of folding doors, Rachael could see the unmade fore bunk. To starboard, just behind the companionway, there was an unused aft bunk.

  The cabin was cozy, homey. Rachael was instantly hit with a sense of the familiar. She recognized some of the knickknacks here and there as Maggie's, items forever stuck in Rachael's memory from their former life together. Almost instantly, Rachael felt comfortable moving about below the decks of the Soft Cell. It was almost like stepping back in time, back to the house they'd shared so many years ago. The sent of Maggie's perfume, the hideous painting of a cowboy on a bronco that Maggie insisted constituted art. It was all there. Rachael took a moment to let it all sink in, resisting the urge to curl up on the long couch and turn on the TV.

  Then her bladder reminded her why she'd stepped below.

  Towards the bow, just before the fore bunk, was the toilet. Rachael pulled aside the concertina door. It took Rachael a few moments to fathom what she was looking at.

  “Maggie!” Rachael called out, yelling back towards the opening up to the cockpit.

  “Rachael?” Maggie's voice came back as she squatted down to peer through the companionway.

  “I know I shouldn't have to ask this, but...” Rachael glanced again at the device that sat where the toilet should have been. “How do you go to the bathroom?”

  Maggie laughed from above deck.