Dangerous Shores: Book Three; The End of the Road

by Christine Conaway

  “Okay. Ready?” Frank asked. “When I put this on there’s no taking it off without a hacksaw.”

  They spent time walking through the house and gathering odds and ends to finish off the packs. They lined them up beside the front door and went out to plant the makeshift gun safe. By the time they had filled the hole back in and tamped the ground on top it would be hard for anyone to see what they had done without knowing in advance. Frank and Rob, lined the rain barrels up with the down spouts. Margaret and Ellen scattered dried leaves and twigs around the bases in an attempt to hide the fresh soil.

  From a distance you couldn’t see that anything had been done and a few days would effectively remove any trace of their work.

  Ellen faced Margaret, “Do you have everything you want to take?”

  “We’re coming back for the night aren’t we?”

  Ellen looked from face to face. “I don’t think we should. I think we should go back to the boat and either anchor the other side of the blockade or make arrangements for someone to open it first thing in the morning. I’m concerned by the fact that we could get dragged into the middle of their battle with the cattle rustlers.”

  “She’s right,” Frank offered in her defense, “If those guys decide to come and see what this town has going for it besides the cattle we could find ourselves right in the middle of a fight. Myself, I think the sooner we leave the better for all of us.”

  While they were talking, Margaret had walked through the living room, picked things up looked at them and set them back down. Tears in her eyes she finally came to stand beside Rob, “I have everything that is important to me.” She put her arm around Rob, showing exactly where her thoughts lay. Rob dropped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her.

  They gathered the backpacks and black plastic bags and set them outside the front door. Frank and Ellen walked out into the yard to give Rob and Margaret time to say their goodbyes in private. The possibility of them ever coming back were very slim and they all knew it. The chance for their new beginning lay farther up the west coast in Washington.

  Chapter Twenty-six - Contact with Neah Bay.

  They heard Jake about the same time he turned the corner. It was obvious they were not his first stop. A group of people were already riding on the flatbed trailer. Some sitting on bales with others hanging their legs off the edge. The air of festivity surrounded the wagon. Ice chests and boxes were stacked at the front.

  To their surprise there was a dog riding on the seat beside Jake.

  As soon as Jake stopped they threw their belongings on the bed. They had already decided it would be Margaret who would ride up front with Jake if it was at all possible. Other than the dog, the passenger part of the seat was empty. Frank helped Margaret up to the seat and he climbed on the bed to sit beside Ellen.

  When they reached the town, there was a distinctive air of festivity. There were no carnival rides or parade floats, but where highway 101 and First street intersected, tables had been set up. People milled around as if it was a long awaited event. They stood around in groups of three or four. While someone talked they all listened but at least one pair of eyes from each group was constantly surveying the area. The one common denominator for every male adult and some of the older boys was that they all carried firearms of some sort. Some of the woman were carrying as well. It was clear to Ellen’s group that the times had truly changed. Everyone walked around with two apparent purposes, one was to enjoy each other’s company and the second was safety.

  There was no yelling crying or screaming from the few younger children. They sat as a group at the center tables as if it had been planned that way, and maybe it had. For the four or five hundred people in town there were no more than two dozen children ranging in ages of a couple of months to ten or twelve years.

  A group of teenagers grouped around an outside table, and each one of them had something slung over their shoulder. They had an air about them that would be hard to miss. They had been turned into instant adults with responsibilities. They were hard and they were tough and they were going to be the future if they survived.

  Someone had spread a variety of food stuffs out on a trestle of tables put together end to end forming a three sided capital E with the kids table forming the middle bar. Across the open ends were four gas barbeques. The aroma emanating from them screamed beef.

  The smell of roasting beef set Ellen’s saliva glands into overdrive. She could see it working on the others as well.

  “Was someone going to bring Alan, Hannah and the girls in?” Ellen was speaking to Frank but Jake overheard her.

  “I sent one of the boys down to the dock but they declined. They asked that one of you guys bring them plates. I said I’d pass it on but I don’t see why they didn’t come in. Those two young’un’s might of liked to visit with our kids.”

  “No, it’s okay. The girls are responsible for our puppy and they take that responsibility seriously. She is still being bottle fed every two hours so I guess that’s why they wanted to stay. We’ll fix them plates and take it back.”

  While they had Jake handy Frank told him, “We’d like to move to the outside of the barricade tonight before it gets dark. We want to get an early start with the sunrise.”

  He raised his eyebrows, “Wow, you’ve only just gotten here and you already want to leave us? Why not stick around a few days?”

  Margaret walked up right then, “Jake, I already told you why. Don’t give my friends a hard time.”

  “But Maggie…”

  “Don’t Jake. We can’t stay. So be a good guy and go open the barricade. We’ll be leaving now.”

  At hearing Margaret, Frank and Rob hurried to where a couple ladies were setting plates filled with roasted beef on the table. As if they had already discussed who would get what Frank began piling on beef while Rob filled another plate with potatoes and vegetables. A woman saw what they were up to and must have guessed what they were doing. She took both of their paper plates which were both sagging in the middle and dumped the contents from each into a Tupperware container. She put lids on them and handed them back. Rob leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. She ran the palm of her hand down his face and watched him walk away.

  Back at the marina Frank shook hands with Jake and thanked him for the hospitality. The whole way back, Jake had used every argument he could think of to get them to reconsider their departure.

  “We could really use a couple extra guns. We’re going to go after those guys that been getting them cows. Couple more good hands with a gun would sure come in handy,” was his final attempt at changing their minds.

  “If I didn’t have the girls to think about, I might have stayed but I swore I’d get them home. Now, we appreciate everything you’ve done for us but we have to go.”

  “Hey you guys, did you bring us some of that food we’ve been smelling the past while?” Alan stepped down to the dock and big grin on his face. He hurried to the wagon to help unload and carry stuff to the boat. “Wow! Do we have room for all this?” His eyes took in the four full back packs and several black garbage bags stuffed full.

  Ellen walked around the wagon bed and grabbed one of the back packs. She grunted when she picked it up, “Damn…who loaded this one?” Stooped over with the weight she carried it to the boat. She was puzzled because she and Margaret had stuffed the back packs and could have sworn she hadn’t put anything in them that would weigh them down.

  An hour later the Annie-C motored past the barricade, with Frank behind the wheel. When he didn’t stop and drop anchor immediately Ellen asked him where they were going.

  “I don’t want to be anywhere close to the barricade. Jake was trying awful hard to get us to stay and as much as I hate to say it, I wouldn’t have put it past them to make it impossible for us to leave.”

  Rob had been down below helping move the bags down while Margaret told the girls a story about the journal her grandmother had kept.

  He had overheard Frank, “That
was a good call Frank. They had plans to engage those guys up in Willow Creek for stealing their cattle. I overheard two guys and they had plans for us to lead the attack. I told them it wasn’t going to happen and they both assured me we would have reason to help.”

  “What reason would we have to help them? It almost sounds like…well never mind we’re out of there and personally, I think we need to go.” Ellen sat and stared off behind them. “I just don’t understand why these people can’t realize that they will be the start of a new society and it would be in all of their best interests to work together, not kill each other off.”

  “We’ve been away from all of this for months and I think we’re just getting a small dose of what we’ll face at your farm. No matter where we go, there will always be someone who wants to be the ruler or leader or the head honcho…whatever. At this point we have no idea what we’ll face when we get to Washington. May not be any different than what we found here.” Frank had followed the channel out looking for someplace to drop anchor. He looked at Ellen, “You said you wanted to go?” He nodded at the opening to the ocean beyond the rock jetty.

  “Well…yes! We would have to stand watch if we stayed so why not stand our watches behind the wheel. At least that would give whoever was on watch something to do.” She looked around to get a reaction from the others.

  “Mom is good with whatever we decide. She actually surprised me today. I don’t know why but I thought she would stay behind.”

  “I heard that! There was no way I was going to let you all sail off without me. Just because I was sad to leave didn’t mean I would even consider not watching my only Granddaughter grow up.” Margaret’s voice came from the small window into the cockpit from the aft cabin.

  They all heard the girl’s laughter and thought she must have said something funny to them.

  Alan and Hannah were sitting on the bow talking. His arm was around Hannah’s shoulder and she was snuggled as if the night chill was too cold.

  The farther north they had sailed the cooler the air had become. It was downright cold to the former Floridian’s.

  Between what Rob and Margaret had brought for warmer clothing all of the adults had warm things to wear. They would be sharing outer wear with the person on watch wearing the warmest. While Dana’s were too big for Olivia she didn’t complain. She rolled sleeves on the shirts and cuffs on the pants. Their living quarters had been trimmed down with all the new belongings and additional food but no one complained.

  They talked about what they left behind and wondered if they’d ever have the opportunity to return to Eureka or if they even wanted to, but Ellen reminded them that someday if there were no changes, they may want to set up some kind of trade options with the people there.

  “Damn, damn, and damn!” We didn’t try that guys radio! We might have sent a message to the Sergeant or up to Washington…How could I be so stupid.” Frank’s voice was raised in anger and caught the attention of Alan and Hannah.

  “It’s not on you alone Frank. None of us thought of it. We were too busy and then the potluck and all that food made us forget. Made all of us forget!” Ellen stressed the words all of us. “It is not up to just you to see that everything gets done.”

  “Well then, one of us should have sent the message as soon as we heard they had a working radio.”

  “Oh come on Frank, we were on our way out to the farm. Maybe we should have…”

  “I did.” Alan said as he walked back to the stern with Hannah in tow. “Well not me personally, but we had the girls on the dock and this guy came riding up on a horse and was asking us questions. He said his name was Charlie. When the girls asked him if they could pat his horse he told them he didn’t see why not. So we took them on to the road and he gave them each a turn in the saddle.” As he spoke his chin rose in a defensive gesture as if he was challenging Frank to give him hell for letting it happen. “We had the boat in our sight the whole time.”

  Frank stared at Alan as he was speaking. He seemed to be thinking before he spoke. His whole demeanor seemed to relax when he couldn’t find fault with Alan leaving the boat.

  “Okay…well that’s good. At least one of us was thinking. What did you say?”

  Alan laughed, “Don’t worry I know what you’re thinking and you would be right. It wasn’t like I talked to him with a pre-determined plan. It just happened. We got to talking and he mentioned he had a ham and did we want to contact anyone.”

  “We weren’t sure if he would be around by the time you got back so Alan told him we would. He only lived a couple miles from here so I took the girls back to the boat and Alan went with him on the horse.”

  Frank interrupted her, “Damn it you guys! How could you go with him? What if something happened? Did you even think…”

  Ellen stepped in, “Frank, stop it. They are both adults and made an adult decision with all of us in mind. If they all had gone with him, then we would have reason to be upset at leaving the boat unprotected, but they didn’t. Obviously they used good common sense and accomplished what we had all forgotten about. So get over it!”

  Frank glared at Ellen for a moment and then his face relaxed. He chuckled and said, “Wow for a minute there I sounded just like my Dad.” He looked at Alan and Hannah, “Sorry that was uncalled for. I would have done the same thing in your place and not found fault with my decision at all. I would probably have explained it the same way you just did. So, did you happen to make contact with anyone?”

  “Actually, Charlie got to talk to an old man up in Neah Bay, but only for a few seconds. The signal wasn’t very good, but at least we know there are people up there. He did say he would try talking up north and see who he found.”

  “Neah Bay?” Frank asked, “Where exactly is that?”

  “It’s the farthest point of land out into the Pacific where you turn into the Straits of Juan De Fuca. Basically it marks the entrance to the Puget Sound. If we’re going to get bad weather, that’s where we’ll get it.”

  Hannah groaned, “Oh my God, don’t remind me. The few bad days we’ve had were enough.”

  Ellen’s prediction for when they would hit the bad weather was wrong. Far wrong.

  Chapter Twenty-seven - The loss of the rudder.

  It had been Franks turn at the helm and he had already woken Ellen. He thought it was almost sunrise and he was looking forward to some sack time. He figured that somewhere offshore a storm was brewing. The ocean had changed the past couple hours from what he would call calm, two to three foot waves and a ten knot wind to five to six-foot waves with a blustery fifteen to twenty knot winds.

  The past three days, they had managed to save on their fuel by sailing. They had all of their sails up and with tacking they were slowly moving up the coast. With the clear night time sky, he had managed to plot their trip. He figured they would soon pass the turbulent water where the Columbia River emptied into the ocean. He’d thought about going farther offshore to bypass the area completely, but realized it could add days to their journey.

  After a week with no sight of land tempers were beginning to get short. Even Olivia and Dana were quarreling with each other. Hannah was seasick and yelled at Alan for hovering over her.

  “If I want to puke, I want to do it alone! I don’t need your help, thank you!” and she’d slammed the door to the head.

  Alan had slunk off to his bed. It was times like this that Ellen wondered how they had gotten in the position they were in. They had too many people on her boat. No one had space to call their own and tempers were on edge despite all of them trying their best to keep an even keel.

  Margaret spent all of her time with the girls and puppy in the aft cabin and Ellen had felt obligated to move some of their provisions out to give them room. Now the V-berth had food totes lined up against the hull on both sides. With no way to secure them, if the boat rolled it was nothing to get wakened by packages of food falling on you.

  Ellen climbed the ladder with two cups of coffee in insulated
cups. She blessed Margaret for having the sense to store it up.

  Without saying anything she handed one to Frank and sat down. He tightened the wheel down and rested his foot on the bottom of the wheel. He sat back onto the captain’s seat.

  After taking a sip of the hot coffee she asked, “Is it my imagination or are we getting a little more water action?”

  “Nope, the wind had been rising the past two hours too. Look at the horizon.” He pointed off to the left.

  A thin line of blood red hung in the space between the skyline and water. Ellen murmured under her breath, “Red sky in the morning sailors take warning.”

  “Can we beat it up the coast?” She asked.

  “Nope, if we move to much farther north we’ll be sitting out from the Columbia River and I don’t think that’s where we want to be in the middle of a storm.”

  “Nope, I’ve been out in a couple of these and tried crossing the bar when we had no business being there. That was on a 52-foot boat and it was scary as hell. No way would I ever try it with this.” She thought for a moment and said, “We could head out and meet it head on and tack back. At least it would be on our terms and maybe have it pass us faster.”

  “That’s probably not a bad idea. The waves would be bigger but farther apart and not hitting us on the beam. If it gets too bad we could always heave to, batten down and just ride it out.”

  “And we wouldn’t have to worry about getting washed up on shore, nor would we be sitting in the trough like we are now. Something tells me it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Poor Hannah, she was just starting to feel better.”

  “I’m going to wake Alan and have him help me tie everything on deck down. Did you have any more line anywhere? I’d like to get those fuel jugs tied better and the dinghy.”