He rubbed his eyes, took a deep breath and nodded. “She’s over there at the bow. When Tim woke me up to change out with him she was already sitting out here. She hasn’t moved in a couple of hours. I think I really hurt her, Emily. I don’t know if an apology is going to be enough to fix this.”
Emily left the wheel to Mason and moved to the side to get a better view of where Lisa was sitting. The girl had her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped tight around them. With a frown she turned back to Mason. “I went into our room this morning to get some clothes and Mark was sleeping in our bed. I think he was being a jerk and didn’t want to take his turn on the couch. He probably figured with me in David’s room he should get to share the bed with her. No wonder she came out here.”
Mason looked away from her and asked, “I know it’s none of my business now but are you and David together?”
“What? No! Mason, I told you this before. David is one of my best friends. I just needed some space from you and Lisa so I stayed in his room. This really isn’t the time to be playing musical boyfriends. Anyway, I think I’ll get Lisa a bowl of oatmeal and try to talk to her but you need to as well. We need to fix this mess before we hit land. There will be enough to worry about then without us fighting with each other.”
“You’re a really good person, Emily. I wish things had turned out differently,” Mason told her.
She gave him a sad smile and squeezed his arm before taking his empty bowl and going down to get Lisa some breakfast. She filled another bowl and said good morning to a sleepy David when he came out of the bathroom. Mark had still not come out of the main bedroom and she knew Tim would sleep for hours after staying up at the wheel all night. She handed the filled bowl to David and made another one to take up to Lisa. She considered eating it herself before taking one up to Lisa but the image of her sitting at the bow looking so alone made Emily push the thought aside. Grabbing another spoon, she carried the bowl up on deck and carefully made her way to the front of the boat where Lisa was sitting in a tight ball.
Lisa didn’t seem to register Emily coming up beside her but when she kneeled down, the girl jerked away like she was going to be hit. The eyes that met Emily’s were huge and had a sheen of tears on them. Taken aback by her reaction, Emily frowned in confusion.
“Oh Lisa, it’s okay. I just brought you some breakfast!” she said compassionately.
Lisa took a deep breath and seemed to relax slightly. “You brought me breakfast?” she said, looking down at the bowl that Emily held out to her. When she looked back up into Emily’s eyes, the tears started to trickle down her face. In a choked up voice she said, “After everything I’ve done to you, you brought me breakfast?” Lisa broke down into sobs. Her shoulders shook as she gasped out, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! I’m a horrible person and you are so nice. I’m sorry!”
Emily set the bowl down on the deck and wrapped the crying girl in her arms. She made soothing noises and rubbed her trembling back. It took a while but eventually Lisa’s sobs quieted and she pulled back from Emily.
With red puffy eyes and a dripping nose, Lisa took a shuddering breath. “How can you be so nice? Why don’t you hate me?”
Emily looked out at the waves while she considered Lisa’s question. Finally, she turned back and tried to explain.
“We weren’t friends. You obviously wanted to be with Mason before we started to date and I know you didn’t sleep with him to hurt me.” At Lisa’s confused expression, Emily changed tact. “Alex is my best friend and has been for years. When I started dating Mason, I betrayed her by dropping her from my life. I dumped her for a guy. What I did to Alex was way worse than what you did to me, and Alex forgave me. She yelled at me first but she forgave me. So how can I not forgive you? Besides, you hurt someone else way more than you hurt me,” Emily said sadly.
Lisa cast her eyes down in shame and whispered, “Me.”
Emily put her hand on Lisa’s shoulder. “You are going to have to forgive yourself. And then there’s Mason.” At that, Lisa scowled in his direction. “What he did was pretty crappy and I’m not going to make excuses for him but I talked to him this morning and he’s feeling pretty awful. Strange as this may sound, I think he really gets what he did and wants to make amends.” Emily picked up the now cool bowl of oatmeal and held it out to Lisa. “You should really eat this. The last thing you need right now is another round of sea sickness. Not eating and being tired can start that up again.”
Lisa took the bowl and ate a spoonful. “Emily, I just want to say thank you. Even though we weren’t friends before, you have treated me like one - so thanks.”
Emily bumped shoulders with her and said, “Hey, we’re outnumbered! Us girls need to stick together.” Emily laughed. “Did you even get any sleep last night? I went in to our room this morning to get our dirty clothes to wash and saw Mark snoring away in our bed. Did the jerk decide he didn’t want to sleep on the couch? Just because I stayed in David’s room doesn’t mean he gets to kick you out of there!” Emily said hotly.
Lisa looked away but not before Emily saw dark shadows come into her eyes. “Yeah…he wanted the bed,” Lisa mumbled.
Emily knew what a bully Mark could be and shook her head. “Well, don’t worry about it. It won’t happen again. I’ll be staying with you in there now that we’ve worked stuff out and I plan on giving him a piece of my mind!”
Lisa’s head whipped around and she grabbed Emily’s arm. “No! Don’t do that. It’s fine. It’s not worth the fight. Just stay away from him. He will be trading with David tonight so it won’t be a problem,” she said almost desperately.
Emily frowned but nodded. She knew that Mark gave her the creeps and Lisa must feel that way too. Lisa was right. It wasn’t worth getting into an argument with the guy.
“Okay, you’re right but that guy is a major ass…you know what! Anyway, I’m going to go down and grab something to eat and then wash out our clothes.” With that, she stood up to go.
Lisa looked up at her and shaded her eyes against the morning sun. “I’ll do the next laundry day if you don’t mind doing today’s. I just want to stay up here and do some thinking.”
“No problem, but I’m definitely holding you to that!” she promised. Emily went back down to the cabin, flashing Mason a quick smile as she passed. She had no idea that Lisa was desperately trying to avoid being in the cabin with Mark.
David was washing the breakfast dishes at the small sink and she asked him about his dirty clothes. She figured if she was going to do a wash she might as well do them all. Tim was still sleeping so his and Mason’s clothes would have to wait until later. As far as she was concerned, Mark could do his own. The guy hadn’t done any work on the boat so she had no problem letting him fend for himself. She ate a quick bowl of oatmeal while David gathered up his clothes and slipped her empty dish into the wash water. Adding David’s clothes to the pile, she hauled it all to the bathroom.
Tim had a large plastic bucket that she filled with hot water and soap. Setting it in the shower/bath tub in the bathroom, Emily plunged each piece of clothing in and swished it around and tried to rub the fabric together to clean it. It wasn’t the best way to clean clothes but it was all she could think of under the circumstances. After she had wrung the soapy water out of each item, she tossed it to the side. Once everything had been through the soapy water, she emptied out the bucket and filled it back up with clean water. Repeating the whole process with each article of clothing took forever and she had to stand up and stretch her aching back often. Emily let her mind wander while she worked and she flashed back on how much she used to complain when she had to do the laundry at home. Laughing at herself, she could only wish for the easy washing machine and dryer at home. She started to think about home and wondered if the generator they had on the farm still worked or if it was just as fried as everything else. That made her think of different ways they could get electricity and she made a mental note to ask David about a larger version of
a science fair project they had done a few years ago in school. It was a simple windmill that they had set up to charge a battery. If they could make a large scale one it could maybe run a few things to make life easier. She was sure her dad had already thought about all these things but she wanted to think of the future and what they could do not just what they had lost.
It took over an hour to finish the job and her hands were just as sore as her back from wringing all the clothes out. She dumped the rinse water out and shoved all the wet clothes into the bucket. It was really heavy but she carried it out of the bathroom and into the cabin where she collided with Mark as he came stumbling out of the main bedroom. She dropped the bucket and clean, wet clothes fell out onto the floor with a wet splat. Groaning in frustration, she kneeled down to scoop them back up. Mark didn’t even acknowledge her. He just walked past, stepping on some clothes as he went.
“Hey, don’t mind me. I just spent over an hour working on getting these clean,” she snapped sarcastically at him.
Mark spun around and scowled at her. “Watch your mouth, little girl!” and took a menacing step towards her.
Emily leaned back away from him and felt her back collide with a pair of legs. Looking up she saw that David was standing behind her glaring at Mark. The bully looked from David to Emily and gave his trademark smirk before turning and going into the bathroom and slamming the door.
Emily let out the breath she didn’t even know she had been holding and reached down to gather up more of the fallen clothes. David squatted down and helped her then picked up the bucket and carried it up on to the deck for her. He set it down near the rail and Emily started to drape the clothes over it. She used the clothespins that she had found under the sink to secure them so they wouldn’t blow away.
David stepped up to Mason at the wheel and quietly talked to him about Mark.
“What’s up with your buddy? He gets nastier every day. He just about took Emily’s head off down there and he was sleeping in Lisa’s room last night. I know he likes to play the big mean bully, but this boat’s a little small to have to deal with that,” David told him with concern.
Mason looked down the stairs but he couldn’t see far into the cabin. Turning to David, he shook his head.
“I don’t know what’s going on with him. I tried to talk to him last night but he just brushed me off. I’ll talk to him later and see if he’ll lay off.” Mason looked at David thoughtfully. “Truth is though, I don’t know if he’ll even listen to me. I’m realizing I don’t really even know the guy.” He looked away and sighed before continuing. “I uh, just wanted to, um, say I’m sorry for being such a dick to you before. I’ve made some mistakes and I’m trying to…uh…be better,” he stammered, his face turning red.
David studied the football player before responding. “Yeah, you definitely were a dick. But Emily saw something good in you or she wouldn’t have dated you and I trust her, so let’s just leave it in the past and work together to get home.”
Mason nodded and David turned away to help Emily finish hanging the wet clothes. Lisa was still sitting at the front of the boat and her expression said she was far away in her thoughts. Once all the laundry was hung, the boat looked like a floating clothesline but it was the fastest way to get everything dry. No one wanted to deal with Mark so they all stayed up on deck and enjoyed the sun. They had been very lucky with the weather and had only suffered from mild rain a few times. Emily hoped it would last until they made it to shore. She didn’t want to think about how it would feel to be trapped in the cabin during a storm.
Chapter 13
They had been up on deck for hours and Emily’s stomach was growling enough that she knew it was past lunch. A lot of the lighter clothes like tee-shirts and socks and underwear were dry and they had unpinned them and folded them up. The heavier jeans and cargo pants were still damp but in the bright sun and warm wind it wouldn’t take much longer until they were dry as well.
Emily was about to ask David if he would go down into the cabin and help her make some lunch when they heard a bellow from below. They looked at each other in confusion before taking a step towards the stairs. Lisa had bolted straight up at the first shout and now she scrambled to her feet. She grabbed Emily’s arm to stop her and frantically shook her head. She was about to ask her why she looked so terrified when she heard Tim cursing as he stomped up the stairs on to the deck. He looked furious and zeroed right in on Mason.
“You need to get control of your sidekick down there. He’s drunk! He drank my only bottle of Crown Royal and he’s spouting off a bunch of bullshit!” he halfway yelled at Mason.
Mason looked past Tim and frowned when Mark came up the stairs with an almost empty bottle of whiskey clutched in his meaty hand. Mark stumbled on the last step and fell to one knee. Tim had turned around and scowled down at him.
“Get back downstairs, you idiot! You’re so drunk you’ll end up overboard,” he said with disgust.
Mark lifted his head and met Tim’s eyes. With a slurred voice, he muttered, “Fuck you.”
Tim went still. The anger left his face and he stared down at Mark with contempt. He shook his head and looked away. When he turned back, Mark had gotten to his feet.
“Listen, kid. This is a big adjustment for all of us but getting trashed is not going to help you and insulting me is really not going to help you. Try to remember that I’m doing you a favor here and this is my boat so show a little respect.” He started to turn away when Mark started to laugh.
“Thanks for the favor asshole but I don’t think I’ll need your help anymore,” Mark spat out and pulled the gun out from under his shirt and pointed it at him.
Everyone froze and time seemed to slow. A click sounded in Emily’s mind as she flashed back to the empty box of bullets beside the dead convenience store clerk. At the same time, David stepped in front of her so that he was between her and Mark. Mason threw his hands out in a “stop” motion and Tim just managed to croak out a single word, “Don’t” before Mark squeezed the trigger.
It was as if Mark had shot them all. They all flew back away from him. Tim flew back against the rail and blood blossomed on his chest before he flipped back and disappeared over the rail into the ocean. Mason fell back onto his butt in shocked disbelief. David shoved Emily hard and they fell together onto the deck in a heap with him covering her. The only one who didn’t move away from Mark was Lisa.
Emily watched in shock as Lisa took three quick steps towards Mark, dipped down to the deck and came up with the long handled paddle that had been resting in its brackets against the outer cabin wall. Two more steps and she lifted the paddle like a baseball bat just as Mark let out a chilling bark of laughter and turned his body to face the front of the boat where David and Emily lay on the deck. As the gun in his hand arched towards them, Lisa swung.
The maniacal smile of triumph was on his face when the edge of the paddle blade struck him in the bridge of his nose. With the same crazy expression on his face, he staggered back and dropped in a heap on the deck.
No one moved for what seemed to Emily an hour. Lisa stood above Mark’s body with the paddle gripped tightly in her white-knuckled hands. Her chest was heaving and she seemed to be waiting for him to get up. It was her soft whimper that broke the spell and Emily shoved David off of her and struggled to her feet. She rushed to Lisa and put out her hand to touch her but stopped short of the girl’s arm. The whimpering had changed to a keening wail and the sound sliced through Emily’s heart. She stepped past her and stood between Lisa and Mark’s body to block the girl’s view. When Lisa raised her head and met Emily’s, the look was one of such devastation it took her breath away. Emily reached out and gently pulled Lisa’s hands away from the handle of the paddle and handed it off to David, who had stepped up beside her. Lisa looked at her empty hands and seemed to deflate into herself. She wrapped her arms around her body and started to rock back and forth. Emily stepped up to her and pulled her into an embrace and felt tears p
ouring down her own face.
She turned Lisa away from Mark as Mason and David crouched down to check on him. It didn’t take long for David to look up at her and shake his head. Emily looked away. Mark and Tim were both dead and they would have to find a way through this nightmare.
David and Mason moved to the back of the boat and scanned the sea for any sign of Tim’s body but neither boy could see him. They looked back at the girls and both felt lost at what they should do next. Mason’s eyes kept drifting back to Mark’s body and he finally had to speak.
“I can’t believe this. He shot Tim. He killed him! Where did he even get a gun from?”
David explained about the convenience store clerk and what Emily and he had suspected. Mason had a fierce frown on his face when he stepped over Mark and looked at Lisa. She had her head buried against Emily’s neck but her crying had quieted.
“Lisa, it’s okay. You did the right thing. You were just trying to stop him,” he said quietly with compassion.
The last thing any of them expected from Lisa was her response to his soft words. Her head came up and she pushed Emily away from her. The sorrow-filled eyes had been replaced with ones filled with rage.
Sea (A Stranded Novel) Page 11
