by Dawne Knobbe
“Pleased to meet you,” Nate said, shaking his hand. “I’m Nate, that’s Kat.” He pointed to Kat, still perched cross-legged on the log. She’d twisted her hair up and secured it out of the way with a stick. She was wearing the one-piece bathing suit that matched her fiery hair. Nate couldn’t help comparing her well-covered torso and girlish slenderness to the well-developed curves Tanya and Stef were parading along the water’s edge. Some part of him acknowledged that he preferred Kat’s subtlety, but the older girls were mesmerizing as they tossed their bleached hair over their exposed golden shoulders.
“Wow, you have a great tan,” Tanya said, coming up to Nate and running a finger playfully down his left bicep.
Nate’s skin prickled where she’d touched him, and he stepped back.
Jimmy licked his finger then held it up in the air.
Nate thought he seemed a lot older than the young women, but maybe it was the guy’s scruffy beard and greasy hair. He had a kind of weathered, worn look around his eyes; probably ’cause he never seemed to quit grinning. Only there was something unfriendly in the set of his jaw, like it masked another purpose. Nate shook his head. What was he thinking? He hadn’t been exposed to people in so long, apparently he’d become suspicious of everyone. Just like he had been of Kat when she’d arrived.
“Hasn’t been a shit-lick of wind for three days,” Jimmy said, scratching at his stringy hair. “Can’t sail a boat without wind. Motor’s been running on fumes. Barely made it to this cove. Sure don’t look like there’s a marine gas station around here, either.”
Nate shrugged. “There’s nothing on this tiny island. Ask Kat. I don’t know the area around here, but she does.”
Although Jimmy had taken no notice of Kat before, he now focused in on her. His rubber grin slid into place again as he sauntered up, hand outstretched. She shook, but when he turned her hand over and started pulling it toward his mouth, she snatched it back.
Nate stood planted to the beach. Part of him wanted to run up and slug Jimmy, who hadn’t really done anything wrong.
“Just trying to be friendly, doll,” Jimmy said, his voice cool as if his feelings were stung. “Can you help us, honey?”
She pointed without cracking a smile. “There’s a store and marine station on San Juan, over there.”
“Doesn’t look so far,” Jimmy said.
“It’s farther than it looks.”
“Could I row there?”
“Take you all day.”
Nate watched Jimmy turn and pointedly stare at Kat’s sailboat with the motor firmly attached to the back.
“You could give us a lift, love,” he said.
“Not today. Wouldn’t make it there and back before dark.”
Jimmy stepped closer to her. “Sure we will.”
“I’ll run you over there in the morning,” Kat said.
“Oh, come on,” Jimmy whined. The serpent tattoo on his shoulder writhed as he reached toward her.
Kat stood her ground as she let out a shrill whistle. Rye leaped to the sand beside her as if out of nowhere.
“Nice doggy,” Jimmy said, dropping his hand and backing up.
Kat reached down and took hold of Rye’s collar. “Most of the time,” she said.
“Tomorrow, then,” Jimmy said. “That’ll be soon enough.” He turned his back on Kat. “It’s bloody hot. Come on, Nate, let’s have a beer while I show you my boat.”
“Kat,” Nate asked as he joined the three visitors at their rowboat, “you coming?”
She gathered her shells without looking up. “Not me,” she replied coolly. “I’m gonna take a nap.”
“Charmer. Nice name,” Nate said as he climbed into the stern of the boat.
Jimmy tossed him a beer. He couldn’t be all bad. “Drink up, my man,” he said, collapsing onto the cushions in the cockpit. “So, is San Juan Island in Canada or the U S of A?” he asked casually over the rim of his beer can.
“It’s one of the American islands,” Nate said.
“Where’s the border?”
“Kat says it’s somewhere out there in the middle of the ocean.”
Jimmy strolled over to the mast. “Go figure,” he said. He glanced around the bay then ran the Canadian flag down the mast. He clipped it off and folded it into a small bundle. “Don’t suppose there’s a customs station on this rock?”
“Haven’t banged into any official-looking squirrels,” Nate said.
He saw a look pass between Jimmy and Stef, then she stepped forward, picking up a bottle of suntan lotion and pouring some into her hands.
“Shame on you, Nate. You don’t have any sunscreen on. Lie down and I’ll lather your back.”
Nate didn’t argue. He lay on his stomach, his half-closed eyes but still watchful. He didn’t trust these guys; they were acting kind of jittery, but he didn’t get why.
Jimmy clipped an American flag onto the rope and ran it up the pole. It hung as limply against the mast as the Canadian one had.
“Well, that fixes that, ladies,” he said, grabbing another beer.
Nate slipped in and out of sleep. One minute he felt the firm and pleasant massaging of Stef’s hands, and the next they had slipped away. He heard the creak of someone stepping into the rowboat, and a smell like paint drifted into his nostrils. He had taken only a few sips of beer, but the heat and the gentle rocking of the boat proved too much for him.
He woke sometime later to the girls whispering.
“He’s still sound asleep,” Stef said.
“You sure?”
“Out like a log.”
“Let’s smoke a joint.”
Charmer dipped slightly when Jimmy climbed back on board.
“Are you crazy?” he said in an angry whisper.
“What’s wrong with one teensy little joint?”
“Tanya, you get whacked on two tokes of that B.C. Bud.”
“I’m sure Nate’s smoked a joint before. He won’t care.”
“If you had your way, all our profits would go up in smoke! This is a working holiday, ladies, not a party holiday. Besides, Little Miss Priss on the island over there might smell it.”
“Yeah, what’s up with her, by the way?” asked one of the women. “We haven’t done anything but ask for a little help.”
Nate’s nerves tingled to hear him and Kat being discussed. Kat had seemed edgy about these guys from the start. She’d sensed something she didn’t like, and that’s why she hadn’t come out to the boat. Nate felt like an ass. He’d known these guys were trouble too, but he’d given in to the lure of beer and bikinis. He faked sleep as long as he could bear, then yawned and stretched, trying to look natural.
“I better go check on Kat,” he said, rolling to his feet.
Jimmy stood too. “I’ll row you ashore.”
“No need,” Nate said, jumping off the back of the boat. He surfaced eye to eye with the writing on the stern. A small stream of white ran from it, forming a milky patch along the waterline. He could have sworn it had said “Vancouver, Canada,” when he’d boarded. Now it was blank.
“You okay?” Jimmy asked, shielding his eyes to frown down at Nate.
Nate shook the water from his hair. “Just a little dizzy from the beer and the heat.” He waved his hand carelessly in what he hoped was a slightly drunken gesture. “Thanks for the beers, guys.”
He swam toward shore as casually as he could.
19
“Kat, Kat, where are you?” Nate bounded into camp. She sat leaning against a tree, a book in her lap and Rye snuggled beside her.
“What’s got your panties in a wad?” He skidded to a halt and bent to catch his breath.
“You’re all red and blotchy. You’re not dehydrated again, are you? It’s really stupid to drink beer in the hot sun . . .”
“Yeah, yeah, shut up for once and listen,” he said, still panting.
“You know, Nate, just because that creep treated me like shit doesn’t mean you have to.”
“
I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to. How’d you know he was such a creep?”
“Wasn’t hard to see.”
“What do you mean?”
Kat shrugged. “It’s easy to get a feeling about people.”
“What, you psychic?”
Kat shook her head. “People give you clues most of the time.”
“Well, you were right on about these guys.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“I think they’re drug smugglers!”
“Seriously?” Kat sat up abruptly. “Don’t joke around about stuff like that. I thought they were just a bunch of jerks.”
“I didn’t see any drugs or anything, but Jimmy started asking me about customs stations and whether this island is in the States or Canada. When I told him we were in the States, he pulled down the Canadian flag. Then he gave one of the girls a look and she tried to distract me while he ran an American one up the mast.”
“Whoa, that’s definitely not okay. If you’re sailing a Canadian boat, you have to fly a Canadian flag.”
“That’s not all. On the stern, below the name Charmer, I’d swear it said ‘Vancouver, Canada’ when I boarded, but when I left, it was blank and there was something white clouding the water. I think he painted over it. If it says USA tomorrow, I’m gonna freak.”
Nate plopped beside Kat. “What’re we gonna do?”
“Let me see if I have any juice left in my cell,” Kat said, digging it out of her pocket. She pushed the power button.
“Shit! Totally dead.”
Nate leaped up to pace between two trees. “Okay, okay, stay calm. We’ll think of something.” He pulled the phone out of her hand and jabbed at the power button. Nothing. He tossed it aside.
“One of the girls has the same phone,” he said, pacing again. “Her faceplate’s pink.”
Kat made a face. “Gross. That definitely wouldn’t go with my wardrobe.”
“Very funny. We need to be serious, think of a plan. If we could just get her phone . . .”
“Take it easy. We haven’t really seen anything illegal.”
“The girls wanted to smoke a joint, so I know they have dope.”
“But not necessarily a whole boat full.”
“Alarm bells are clanging in my head this time, and they’re real loud.”
“We could just leave,” Kat said.
“Yeah, like they wouldn’t notice us packing our gear?”
“Okay, chill out. I’ve got an idea,” she said, sitting back against the tree. “When I motor Jimmy the Pothead to the marina for gas, I’ll slip away and call Gramps, get him to come with his Coast Guard buddies. Piece of cake. They’ll probably beat us here.”
“Right,” Nate said, collapsing cross-legged in the dust. “It should be easy enough for you to slip to a pay phone. But won’t you be freaked going over there with him alone? I could invite myself along, say I need to get supplies.”
“I’ll take Rye. He won’t let Jimmy get near me. You can keep an eye on the girlie-girls.”
“Yeah, I’ll go to the boat, see if I can learn anything more.”
“Oh, that’ll be a chore,” Kat said, rolling her eyes.
He poked her in the ribs. “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”
“Ouch! That hurt.”
“No it didn’t. I barely touched you.”
She poked him back hard.
“Now that hurt,” he said.
“Good, it was supposed to.”
He pounced on her and began tickling her all over. But Kat gave as good as she got, and before long they were rolling around in the dust.
“Stop, stop,” Kat said, trying to catch her breath between giggles. “We’re going to roll into the fireplace.”
Nate raised himself up over her. “You give?”
“Yeah, I give,” she said, her eyes sparkling.
Nate was poised above her on his knees, one leg on either side, his face just inches from hers. He could feel her breath, warm and sweet, and he wanted to kiss her. Impulsively, he moved toward her, but she kicked him hard in the shin and twisted out from under him.
“Come on,” she said, brushing dust from her shirt. “I’m hot and filthy. Let’s go swimming.”
“Okay,” Nate said, following her lead. He was hot, filthy, and disappointed. A swim would cool him off, drown the butterflies in his stomach—or whatever. He rubbed his hands over his dusty face and through his cropped hair. “Let’s swim on the other side of the island. I don’t wanna be anywhere near those guys.”
“Good idea,” Kat said, looking over her shoulder toward where the sailboat lay anchored. She seemed to be avoiding his eyes, not looking at him head-on in her usual way. Maybe she’d wanted him to kiss her, Nate thought. Were all girls this confusing?
“I’ll just grab my towel,” she said.
“You don’t think those guys will try to take your boat gas, do you?” Nate asked.
“Nah, Jimmy’s smart enough to have noticed I have an old engine that takes a weird mix of gas and oil. It would screw up his engine.”
“Good. Let’s get a move on then.”
They swam together in the smaller bay on the far side of the island, but they might as well have been on opposite ends of the beach from each other, Nate thought. Kat wouldn’t look him in the eyes, and every time he tried to swim closer, she dove underwater and slipped away.
“How can you hold your breath for so long?” he asked after she’d eluded him for the fifth time.
“Practice,” she said, rolling over to float on her back.
“Why would you practice?”
“I dunno. I think every little girl likes to pretend she’s a mermaid. And sometimes I pretended I was my mother. I wanted to see what she felt like when she went under and never came back up.”
“That’s sick.”
“I know. I don’t do it much anymore. But it’s awful peaceful down there.” She stretched her arms together over her head and dove backward beneath the surface.
Nate had two parents, yet he could understand her pain. He thought he knew how alone she must feel. Yet no matter how rough things got with his parents, at least he had them. Both. He wanted to put his arms around her and hold her. Not kiss her or anything, just take the cold loneliness away. Then he wondered, her loneliness or mine?
He could do something to cheer her up, he thought, feeling impetuous. He dove deep, swimming along the sandy bottom until he saw her legs above. Popping up next to her like a cork from a bottle, he spit a stream of water in her face, then reached over and dunked her. “You’re it,” he said, when she surfaced spluttering, and then he swam for shore as fast as he could. Once he hit the beach he tore across the sand and onto the slippery rocks, taunting her into following him.
“You can’t catch me,” he chanted in a singsong voice.
Kat was on the sand but didn’t take the bait. “Why would I want to?”
Nate slowed. “Come on; I wanna show you something cool.” He slipped around a ledge of sandstone, purposefully out of sight. He was counting on her curious nature to make her follow.
When she ducked into the three-foot-wide opening, he was sitting against the back wall, hands behind his head.
“Fancy meeting you here,” he said.
Kat looked at him warily then glanced around. It was a small cave, about six feet deep and high enough to stand in. The ceiling and sides were a rounded, glinting mix of tiny grains of sand. Nate had discovered the cave while beachcombing, and he had often used it as a welcome escape from the relentless afternoon sun.
“Cool! I love these sandstone caves,” Kat said. “You know how they’re formed?”
“No, but I bet you’re gonna tell me.”
“Not if you don’t want me to.”
“Come and sit beside me.”
“Why? Nate, you’re not going to start coming on to me, are you?”
Embarrassed, he studied the smooth wall. “I call this cave the ‘Dino Egg.’ It sort of looks like a big
petrified egg, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“So how are they formed?”
“They’re nature’s sculptures. In winter the winds can blow hard around these islands, and the sea will sometimes rise higher than you might think. They batter the sandstone slabs and carve them out.”
“Why don’t you like me, Kat?” Nate asked, turning to stare her right in the eyes.
She shifted her gaze. “I do like you, Nate, but I’m kind of a loner. In fact, I don’t think I have a single friend who knows as much about me as you already do.”
“Really?” he asked.
“Really.”
“Well, that’ll do—for now,” he said, ducking out of the cave.
Nate tapped his pencil on the journal’s page. What to write? he wondered. Visions of Kat giggling under the tree and in the cave swam through his brain, followed by Jimmy slipping over the back of Charmer with a can of paint. He began to scribble
Day 13
Good/bad.
Gone off the deep end over Kat—bad.
Nate shook his head and scratched through the last word, replacing it with “Good.” Then in big bold letters he wrote:
Jimmy—Definitely bad. Dangerously bad!
As he put the pencil down, he seriously hoped he was wrong about that last one.
20
Jimmy was storing empty gas cans in the bottom of Kat’s sailboat when Nate and Kat came down the beach, Rye glued to her side.
“You’re not bringing that stinking old dog?” he asked.
“Rye goes where I go,” Kat answered.
Jimmy scowled but said nothing. Kat hopped in, and Rye followed. Jimmy swung himself in and slumped in the bow as far from them as he could get.
“All aboard, captain,” he said.
Nate was nervous about Kat going without him, but Jimmy was definitely scared of Rye, so that made him feel a little better.
Nate waded further out and turned the boat around. He squeezed Kat’s hand where it lay on the engine before shoving them off. He watched Kat lower the small outboard motor into the water and pull the cord. The motor hummed to life instantly, and Nate listened to the steady drone as the boat moved toward the mouth of the harbor.
