More than Magic: Semester Aboard (5 page)

I frowned, what on earth was he talking
about? I was pretty sure he was talking to Dani, I'd heard them
call him "Danio" before. But where was he? Why would he call
Charlie from somewhere else on the ship?

"Yeah, yeah. Hey, what’s all that
noise?...Oh, it’s Fend? Hi Fend! So Jon’s already there, then?"

I froze. Jon?

"Yeah, sure… Hey, Jon!... Nah, everything’s
toasty here. What’s the plan?...Dinner tomorrow?...Yeah, I’ll tell
her. I think we dock at nine...Oh, I don’t know what her trip is
tomorrow...No, it won’t be overnight; there aren’t any of those in
Panama, but my trip will be out late…Hot! I’ll see you then...Hi,
Mariana…swim was good?...Toasty, toasty...yeah, I heard...Where are
you and Dani staying? ...Oh, ok...tell me there's a sauna
there!...Hot!...Yeah, yeah...why not, put him on...Hiya! So where’s
dinner?...Right on the dock, huh? Do they have hot wings?...Phew! I
miss spicy food. That’ll be great...yeah, TS’ll be thrilled! Can’t
get him to shut up about rare meat...Ok, so burger place on the
dock at eight. What is that, fifteen-hundred? ...I was kidding!
Twenty. I know…Yeah, I don't think I'll make it, but I'll tell
Jen...Right, I love you too. See you tomorrow."

Charlie left the room. I sighed and leaned
against the couch. More mysteries. How was the
swim
? He
couldn’t mean…Mariana and Dani couldn’t have swum from the ship to
Panama! I went over to the window and looked out, no shore in
sight. We had a good twelve hours of travel left to go. Swimming
was impossible. And yet…I had a feeling that Dani could have done
it. He must have, and Mariana too! Then there was that ‘I love
you’. Charlie couldn’t have been talking to Jon. Maybe, what was
the name, Fend? I heaved another sigh. I had hoped his conversation
would clear things up. Now I was even more confused.

I dragged studying on until long after I
heard Charlie’s group leave. When I got back to my room I found a
folded note stuck to my door. I grabbed it and squinted at the
sloppy handwriting.

Jen – Jon’s in panama. wants to meet you.
dinner at a burger place right on the dock at 8 tomorrow night.
can’t miss it. will your trip be over by then? drop by my room or
call me – 3044 and let me know! - Charlie

Well, why not? I grabbed the ship phone off
of my roommate's desk and dialed the room number.

"Hello?"

"Charlie?" I asked.

"No, it’s Mark. Charlie’s not here."

Mark, hmm? I wondered if Mark was in on their
little secret. "Can you tell him that Jen says eight o’clock is
fine?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Thanks, bye."

I sighed after hanging up. A part of me was
excited to dock in our second country and see new things. I
couldn’t wait for my trip tomorrow. And yet there was another part
of me that just wanted to skip the clock up to dinner so that I
could find out just what was up with these people. It was a miracle
that I fell asleep at all.

I got up early enough for the tradition of
watching the sunrise in port, but it was too rainy and cloudy to
see anything. The sunrise in Mexico had been spectacular;
disappointed, I went to breakfast much earlier than usual. I
spotted Charlie across the dining room, but didn't see anybody
else. Maybe Dani and Mariana really had somehow gotten off the ship
early. I ate quickly, hoping to avoid Charlie. I knew that he
couldn't have known that I overheard his phone call, but with all
the strange things happening, it wouldn't have surprised me if he
did.

He caught me anyway. "Hey, Jen. Did you get
my note?"

"Yeah. I left a message with um..."

"Mark," he said dryly. "Figures. Does eight
work?"

"Yeah."

"Toasty. Have a good day!"

Much to my relief, he didn’t say anything
else. I went back to my room to get ready and made my way to the
gangway to disembark. We couldn’t dock in Panama, we had to anchor
out in the bay and use our lifeboats to cruise into the dock. They
separated us into groups of twenty to fill the lifeboats and let us
out one at a time. When it was finally our turn we lined up and
swiped our ID’s to check ourselves off of the ship.

"Hello again!"

Just my luck, Charlie, TS, and Thomas were
all in my group. I grumbled a greeting back to Charlie. Thomas
nodded at me before stepping through the metal detector. He swiped
his ID and headed for the small staircase that led down to the
lifeboat. The girl behind him did the same and then moved through
the metal detector.

"Oh my god, he fell in the water!" the girl
in front of Charlie screamed.

The crewmember checking us off of the ship
raced forward. "Stay here!"

I could hear everyone on the lifeboat
freaking out and the crewmembers shouting orders. I craned my neck
but couldn’t see what was happening. I noticed movement and looked
over at Charlie. Rather than trying to see what was happening,
Charlie had calmly swiped his ID. I looked at the screen where our
data appeared and to my surprise saw Dani’s picture appeared with
Daniel Pelagos above it. Charlie slid the ID into his pocket and
then pulled out another and swiped it as well. The name Mariana Bar
and her picture popped up too. Charlie turned and noticed I was
watching. He shot me a look that plainly said to keep quiet.

The checkout crewmembers returned.

"Everything is alright now," one said.

"I haven’t swiped my ID yet," Charlie told
him innocently.

The man nodded and Charlie swiped his own ID,
and then vanished out the door. After they looked in my purse I
checked out and got onto the steps. At the bottom two crewmembers
took my arms and helped me jump from the steps into the arms of the
crewmembers waiting on the boat. It was a bit freaky, but also fun.
I stepped down into the lifeboat and looked for a seat. And there,
soaking wet and wrapped in a blanket, was Thomas. Charlie and TS
were sitting across from him so I sat down in an empty chair next
to him.

"
You’re
the one who fell in?"

He nodded sheepishly. "Slipped."

"Or did you fall in so that Charlie could use
Dani and Mariana’s ID’s without anyone seeing?"

Thomas glared at me. "You are entirely too
observant."

Charlie and TS glanced at each other and
shrugged.

"So, where are you off to, Tom?" TS asked.
Seeing as they probably spent a lot of time together, I doubted
that TS really didn’t know Thomas’ plans for the day.

"Indian village trip."

"Me too! Keen!" They high-fived and I rolled
my eyes.

"I’m doing the half-day rainforest tour,"
Charlie said. "Then I’m taking that sunset Panama Canal boat
ride."

"I’m doing the rainforest tomorrow," TS said,
"Let me know how it is."

"Will do. What about you, Jen?" Charlie
asked.

"Lake Gatun boat tour." As eager as I was to
meet Jon and figure out what was going on, I was excited for the
trip. We’d be on a boat on one of the largest man-made lakes in the
world.

The little boat, rocking violently, started
across the bay.

"I’m gonna be sick," TS groaned.

"You’re fine," Thomas said. "We’re only on
for a few minutes."

It was a short ride and TS was practically
the first person off the boat.

"Don’t forget, that restaurant down there at
eight!" Charlie reminded me, pointing down the dock.

Thomas argued with the crew for a bit before
they agreed that he was perfectly fine, just a bit wet. After he
pointed out that we were practically on the equator in the middle
of summer and he’d dry off fast, they let him go. He and TS headed
off toward the bus marked with their trip number. The bus next to
it closed its door and Charlie groaned.

"Oh clinker! That’s my trip! Gotta go, give
this to Danio, will you?" He thrust Dani’s ID at me and ran off
toward his bus.

I frowned after him and made my way to my own
bus. I almost felt bad that I didn't have time to find Dani, but I
didn't want to miss my own trip. A teacher seemed to be arguing
with someone and as I went around of the front of the bus I saw
Dani. So, he was on this trip with me then. Charlie must have known
that.

"I swear, I had it when I got off the ship,"
he said. "Ask anyone, I really am a student, you can’t kick me off
the trip!"

"No ID, no trip," the teacher said.

"Dani!" I called and hurried over. "Here, I
found this down on the dock."

I handed him his ID and he grinned.

"Thanks, Jen! You’re a lifesaver!"

We got onto the bus and ended up sitting
together.

"You know, Thomas fell off of the lifeboat
and into the water."

"Really?" I noticed that he seemed curious,
but not at all concerned.

"Yeah. And then Charlie used the distraction
to swipe your and Mariana’s ID cards."

Dani hummed under his breath and smirked.
"You really keep an eye on us, don’t you?"

"Well, I am curious. But I meet Jon tonight,
right?"

Dani nodded.

"So…how did you get here?" I asked. "Did you
and Mariana jump off the ship and swim all the way to shore?" I
left out the fact that ‘all the way to shore’ would have been over
100 miles.

He just smiled at me. "Everything will be
explained, I promise."

"But you did, right? If it were anybody else
I’d say that it was impossible to swim that far, especially in an
ocean. But you did."

"Keep your voice down! Yes, all right? We
swam here to meet Jon."

"Last night."

Dani looked shocked.

"You weren’t at dinner."

"Fine, fine. Keelhaul me, why don’t you?" he
hissed. His eyes were doing that weird thing again where darker
blues looked like they were splashing with his normal color. "Yes,
we did. Now drop it."

He turned away from me and I knew that the
conversation was over. He and Mariana had swum from a ship in the
ocean to shore in the middle of the night. It just wasn't possible.
The more I tried to figure it out, the more supernatural my
thoughts became. I decided that I needed to lay off the fantasy
books.

The trip went well. We took the boat around
the little islands on the lake and saw some huge ships bound for
the Panama Canal. There were monkeys in the trees and crocodiles in
the water. While we were eating lunch I noticed that Dani was
nowhere to be seen, but when we all went to a swimming hole after
lunch he was back. I climbed up some rocks and sat down by a small
waterfall. I watched Dani while he swam below me, half hoping that
he'd do something out of the ordinary. A few minutes later he
scaled the rocks and settled down next to me.

"Done swimming?" I asked. "Isn't that your
thing?"

He let out another one of his lyrical hums
and leaned back against a rock. "Don't like the water," he said
with a shrug. "This little swimming hole is gross."

I looked down at the water; it had looked
fine to me. Dani stretched out in the sun and I realized that he
hadn't changed into a swimsuit; he was still wearing his shorts and
t-shirt.

"Your clothes are going to be wet for
hours."

Dani chuckled. "You think wet clothes are
going to bother me?"

His eyes were their usual cheery blue, but in
the sunlight I could swear that the irises were still slowly
moving. It reminded me of gentle waves.

"So, where were you?" I asked.

"Hmm?"

"During lunch. You vanished."

He narrowed his eyes and I could see the
flecks of blue-gray appearing. "I was around." His tone sounded
worried and I realized that "worried" was the exact word I'd use to
describe what his eyes were doing too. I thought of Charlie and how
his flared red when he got upset. It was like their eyes reacted to
their emotions! It was the strangest thing I'd ever seen. A little
voice in the back of my mind kept saying
inhuman.

"We ate lunch on a tiny boat, you weren't
there."

His eyes got even lighter, but streaks of
dark blues starting churning in. It was fascinating and so strange
to watch. "Maybe I was hiding to make you suspicious."

I glared at him. Then, without another word,
he slid down off of the rocks and jumped back into the water.

I didn't talk to him until we were back on
the bus a couple of hours later. I had a feeling he was avoiding
me. It seemed like there was a lot more to what was going on than
just the fact Dani had gone overboard. With every new thing that
he, and the others, tried to hide from me my curiosity grew. I sat
down next to him on the bus and couldn't help but feel a bit smug
that I'd stopped his avoiding-game. It was time to get some more
information.

"Is Jon your boss too?"

He glared at me. "Yes," he finally muttered.
His eyes swirled to dark blue as I watched.

I never really thought of blue as an angry
color, but his irises reminded me of waves during a storm. They
really did react with his moods. I stared, mesmerized as they grew
darker and darker. The colors in them crashed against each other
like waves on rocks.

"Is there a reason you're staring at me?" he
chuckled. "I'm married, you know."

"Sorry," I said quickly. "It's just..." Just
what? Your eyes are weird? I didn't think that would be very
polite.

"Just?"

"Your eyes are...interesting."

He looked confused for a moment and his eyes
stayed dark, but the movement slowed. Dani studied me for a moment,
almost like he was curious. "Interesting how?"

"They uh..." I wasn't sure how to say it
without sounding crazy. "Change color." Eyes did that. Not nearly
in the way that Dani's did, but it didn't sound as insane if I said
it like that.

That got his attention. Now he was definitely
curious. He almost looked surprised. "Change color? What do you
mean?"

"Like, different shades of blue." Well, now
that I was telling him... "And they move. The colors sort of, I
dunno, splash around. It's like water."