After the Storm (19 page)

A shadow crossed her face.

‘Why didn’t he show up?’

She hesitated.

‘He and Owen fell out badly years ago. So he decided to make a big point of it and not show at our wedding.’

‘I’m here now to avoid a wedding,’ he said.

He regretted it the moment the words were out of his mouth. Too late to unsay them. So he told Kim about Elliot and his mum as they watched the waves roll in under the wooden decking beneath their table. She had picked up some of his story the night before, when he’d opened up to Owen.

When Owen got back to the boat he found Anna sitting in the cockpit looking ill. It was getting hotter so he fitted the canvas cover over the cockpit to give her some shade. He went to work on his engine. She watched as he dismantled and meticulously cleaned each piece of the machinery. She sipped her water feeling too ill to write in her notebook or even to read. Her scalp felt tender. That was the problem with a hangover; you had to live through the wretched hours until the alcohol poison had worked its way out of your system.

‘Sorry I was such a grouch last night,’ she said.

‘It’s OK.’

‘I felt left out you know. I didn’t know Rob was in on selling the booze.’

‘We made a good profit, and he did it to help your situation.’

‘I know, I know. It’s just I hate secrets.’

‘Everyone has secrets Anna.’

She felt rebuked. She realised she cared about having his good opinion.

‘I probably do set too much store on being told the truth. It’s hard for me to think it doesn’t matter.’

‘There are many ways to be good and even more ways to be bad in this world,’ he said.

She had noticed that Owen had a way of saying things that had the ring of authority about them but that also closed down conversations. She offered to make him a coffee. She squeezed past him into the saloon and put the kettle on. She made black coffee for him and tea for herself and put a big spoon of sugar in her tea. He sat with her at the saloon table and wiped his oily hands on a rag before picking up his mug.

‘I like Vivienne so much. She was very kind to me last night,’ she said.

‘She’s a good person.’

‘She is; a lovely warm woman and I’d like to thank her somehow. Maybe take her some flowers.’

‘She wouldn’t expect that.’

He finished his coffee and looked at his engine and his expression darkened.

‘Can’t you mend it?’ she said.

‘Probably not. I think folks throw things away too easily and most things can be mended. But there comes a point when something has reached the end of its life and I think my engine has reached that point.’

‘But you don’t like that idea.’

‘What?’

‘The idea of things wearing out…’

‘You trying to psychoanalyse me?’

‘God no, my head aches too badly for me to analyse anything.’

‘You should eat something,’ he said.

‘Maybe.’

He stood up and looked in the cold box.

‘I could fry us some eggs?’

‘Thanks for the offer but I couldn’t eat fried eggs.’

‘There’s some ham.’

‘Better. I’ll make us ham sandwiches. You get back to work on your dying engine,’ she said.

They had finished the bottle of wine and the plates had been cleared away and they’d had coffee and it was late afternoon as Rob and Kim went to find the dinghy. As Rob rowed them back to the
El Tiempo Pasa
Kim noticed the shape of his arms. He had nice shoulders and arms and a thought flashed into her mind which made her blush and which she pushed away at once. She had wondered what sex with Rob would be like.

Anna made herself get off the boat and walk down to French Harbour in the hope that some exercise might make her feel less ill. When she got into town she went into Eldon’s supermarket and bought herself a large carton of coconut water and sat on a wall and drank the whole thing. A man went by on a bicycle balancing a crate with two live chickens on the handlebars. A short way along the road she saw the yellow building with the sign French Harbour Public Library, which she had seen from the bus. It was a modest but cheerful looking building and she decided to take a look inside. She pushed the door open and saw children’s artwork stuck up on the walls and a poster asking for donations towards the cost of children’s school uniforms. Then she heard a voice she recognised coming from the depths of the room. She peeked around the corner of a bookcase and saw Vivienne sitting on a beanbag with a circle of young children seated on the floor around her listening as she read them a story. She couldn’t see Vivienne’s face, only her back, but she heard how she was using her voice expressively to make the story come alive. She repeated some words several times with relish and looked around the circle as the children wriggled and smiled. They looked like children from the shanty town. Vivienne was wearing a navy top and a full patterned skirt, also navy blue with a design of brilliant orange and white fans all over it. One little girl was nestled up close to her and kept stroking the fabric of her skirt. Anna stood and watched for several minutes as Vivienne turned the pages and the children sat entranced by her voice and her story-telling. She decided to slip away without speaking to her.

In the evening the four of them sat together in the cockpit having their rum and limes. Anna was drinking pineapple juice. The sky was streaked with clouds of palest pink and silver.

‘I got us some cabins for the next few days, over in Oak Ridge, up the coast from here. We can move into them day after tomorrow,’ Owen said.

‘What a great idea,’ Anna said.

‘But how much will it cost?’ Rob asked.

‘Almost free, just a contribution towards the cost of electricity. Someone I know. He said we could use them.’

‘Thanks Owen,’ Rob said.

‘I thought you two might appreciate more privacy,’ he said.

Kim leaned over and kissed the side of Owen’s face.

‘Thank you for doing that darlin’.’

Anna came out of the forecabin. She was wearing a long T-shirt over panties and Kim noticed again, and envied, her long tanned legs.

‘
What are you two gonna do today?’ she asked.

‘Rob said he’d take me out in the dinghy to a small beach he found yesterday. Do you want to come?’

‘Thanks but I’m gonna stay here and start work on the drapes.’

As Rob rowed them over to the beach Anna could see how his arms had got more muscular over the last two weeks and he handled the dinghy well.

‘You’re getting good at rowing.’

‘I may take it up when we get home.’

‘I’m so glad about the cabins.’

‘They may be a bit basic Owen said.’

‘They’ll have a shower Rob, and a bedroom, away from the others.’

They reached the small beach and there was no-one there.

‘Brilliant, we’ve got it to ourselves,’ he said.

They pulled the dinghy ashore and when they were sitting on the sand Rob said:

‘So at the hog roast I was talking to Doug who runs a dive boat out of Oak Ridge.’

‘Which guy was that?’

‘The tall guy with the red hair, did you see him? He said he could take me out for a day and a night and we could get in two big dives around the reefs.’

‘And you want to do it?’

‘I’d love to. But it means my being away for a night on his dive boat. Are you OK with that?’

‘You really want to do it don’t you?’

He nodded.

‘OK. I think you should do it.’

He kissed her.

‘Sweet face, thank you. Owen and Kim will be close by if you get lonesome. Now why don’t we sunbathe naked? We’ve got the beach to ourselves.’

She grinned at him and took her book out.

‘Sorry, I’m near the end and I’ve got to finish it.’

He persuaded her to take off her top but not her bikini panties. She lay on the beach on their towel and opened her book and he rubbed cream into her back and over her shoulders and down on her thighs as she read on. He stretched out on his back next to her and closed his eyes. He was hot and happy and had a half erection. He was going to dive the reefs. He heard her turning the pages of her book. She was a passionate reader; had studied English at university and could have gone further with her studies. Her father had wanted her to stay on and do a post-graduate degree, but she was committed to the idea of becoming a speech therapist. That was the legacy of her granddad who believed in public service. Unlike Anna’s, his own education had been a fuck up. It hadn’t been going well even before he got sent to the Young Offenders’ Centre. But after those bruising months he had lost all interest in studying. When he returned to school he started to miss classes and later became a hard-core truant. If he hadn’t set up the brewery with his mates he wasn’t sure what he would have done workwise. His qualifications were meagre. Anna believed in him though. She was convinced he was clever and should go back into education. She was always bringing home brochures for evening classes. One day he’d follow up on one of them.

He heard a faint buzzing and opened one eye. An aggressive looking insect like a June bug had landed on Anna’s bottom. She was oblivious to it and would freak out if she knew. He got up onto his side and looked at the bug with curiosity. It had a long proboscis that it used to pierce skin. He flicked it off her bottom before it could do her any damage.

She closed her book with a happy sigh.

‘Brilliant. He’s the master.’

‘I’m glad to hear it at 900 pages. There’s something I need to tell you.’

She sat up. She was still deep in Dickens’ world but this sounded serious.

‘What is it?’

He took a deep breath.

‘I should have been more open with you. I know that now and I’m sorry.’

‘Tell me Rob.’

‘I booked our holiday so we could miss the wedding.’

‘Your mum and Elliot…’

‘I couldn’t stand the idea of being there, watching that arsehole going through the ceremony with my mum.’

She nodded, taking it in. Anna didn’t see his family very often but she liked his sister.

‘Was Savannah OK about us missing it? I mean it was her idea wasn’t it, the wedding?’

‘I said I’d got our plane tickets ages ago and couldn’t change them.’

‘Ahh, I see.’

‘I didn’t want a big scene.’

‘I can understand, after what he did to you.’

‘I thought you’d say we should have gone.’

‘No. He hurt you. He’s a liar and a nasty bit of work.’

He should have known she would be on his side. He should have trusted her. She reached for his hand.

‘Sometimes I think you hold back on telling me stuff, Rob, and I think it’s because you got into that habit with Elliot, hiding stuff, keeping stuff in.’

‘Maybe I do. I love you sweet face.’

‘I love you too and you can tell me stuff.’

Kim opened the saloon table to its full extent so she could work on it.

‘I’m gonna start work on the drapes now,’ she said to Owen.

He was stretched out on the berth with a book but now he got up and went up on deck. She took down the old drapes from the portholes. They had rotted and faded in the sun. She measured them carefully and wrote down the dimensions. She got out the new blue-and-white striped fabric. She kept a pair of scissors with her private things. She was singing to herself as she cut into the crisp new fabric.

She heard Owen talking to someone up above and a minute later he called down into the saloon.

‘Gary’s here.’

She left her work reluctantly but needs must. Gary was always so hospitable to them. He was sitting in the cockpit with Owen.

‘Now what can I offer you Gary, coffee, rum or a beer?’

She got them a couple of beers and put some pretzels in a bowl.

‘Join us Kimmie,’ Owen said.

She sat with them although she wanted to be down below making her drapes.

‘That was a great party,’ she said to Gary.

‘Glad you had a good time. What did you think of Gail?’

‘She seems real friendly.’

‘She’s great, isn’t she?’

Kim smiled.

‘You gonna ask her out?’

‘She’s kinda independent you know. And I don’t think she’s done with travelling yet.’

Gary’s mouth drooped at the thought that the highly desirable Gail would leave the island one day soon. Kim was looking at him and thinking that’s the problem for Gary, he’s stranded on the island because he’s got so much money and doesn’t have to work. His only role was to be the generous host and to hold his parties for the ex-pat community. Even if he got it together with Gail she couldn’t see it working long time. A woman like Gail still had lots of challenges ahead of her.

‘So, the reason I dropped by. Kim mentioned you’re looking to sell the boat. I met this guy who’s looking for a wooden boat. He’s set on it being an old wooden boat like yours. He’ll pay good money and I thought you’d like to know,’ Gary said.

Kim waited for Owen to say something, but he didn’t.

‘Good of you to think of us Gary. Who is he?’ she asked.

‘A Dutch guy, Sander, I don’t think you know him. He knows about boats and he came into some money recently.’

‘It would be good to meet him, wouldn’t it?’ Kim said looking at Owen.

‘Sure. Leave me his details,’ Owen said.

Kim found a piece of paper and Gary wrote down the Dutch guy’s name, Sander Haak, and his number and gave this to Owen.

‘And we sure do appreciate your thinking of us,’ Kim said since it was obvious Owen was not going to thank Gary.

After Gary had gone Owen and Kim sat on in in the cockpit.

‘Before you say anything I don’t wanna sell the boat here,’ Owen said.

‘There was no need to be rude to Gary.’

‘And there was no need for you to tell him we wanna sell the boat. That’s our business. Why did you do that?’

‘Why not? He’s a buddy and we have to sell her sooner or later don’t we?’

‘Not yet.’

‘By my reckoning we’ve only got a few weeks’ money left.’

‘We’ve got enough.’

‘You can’t have made that much on the liquor sale?’

‘Don’t put pressure on me. You know it has the reverse effect.’

She sighed with frustration and shook her head.