Golden Autumn - Part Seventeen
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here.
“Ralph?” I call out, shutting the door of his house behind me. “Calla? Anybody home?”
No answer, but I think I hear something from the backyard, so I head down the hallway towards it. Noticing as I go that there are lots of signs of Calla around here, lately. A very soft blanket at the end of the couch that wasn’t there before, a big tea thermos covered with stickers on the coffee table, a few of her jackets hanging in the entryway. A magazine left open that I doubt Ralph was reading, unless he’s suddenly developed enough technical knowledge to understand an article on the history of the 1801 series CPU.
In the kitchen I stop to run my delighted eyes over Ralph’s houseplant. It’s standing very beautifully now, with real strength. It really looks nice in his kitchen, too. I mean, I always think more plants are better, but this one adds some sweet gentleness to a room otherwise decorated with things that I suspect might be stolen. Not without reason, either. Occasionally Noah will point to something in here and idly say: I stole that.
Distracted as I am with admiring the happy houseplant, it takes me a second to notice that the kitchen door has been left open, letting the afternoon breeze drift into the house. I’m definitely sure I’m hearing some noise from outside, now.
I leave the box I brought on the kitchen counter, then lean out through the door to peer into the backyard. An extremely surprising, extremely baffling sight meets my eyes.
I’m still standing there in bewilderment when Tycho charges over to give me an enthusiastic, high-energy greeting. I automatically reach down to scratch her silvery-white ears as Ralph and Calla stop what they’re doing and look up at me in surprise.
“Hey, Jamie!” Calla calls out, straightening up. She plants one hand on her hip and lifts the other in a wave, bright-eyed and pink-cheeked from the autumn sunshine. “What’s up?”
“Hey…” I call back, my puzzled eyes watching Ralph. He’s already gotten back to what he was doing. “I just came by with some herbs for Ralph.”
Calla lets out a laugh, wiping her hands off on her overalls. “No need for that. If there’s anything Ralph is all set on, it’s herb.”
“No, I mean herbs from my garden, like for cooking. I ended up with a lot more than we can use. I was hoping Ralph might be willing to trade for the kind of herb you’re talking about.” I stare in confusion at the new addition to Ralph’s backyard. “What are you guys doing? When did this get here?”
“Right now, pretty much,” Calla pants, backing up to take a look at it. “Man, that wasn’t easy. But we did it.”
Ralph’s backyard is dappled with golden sunlight, which dances as it filters down through the trees. Ralph is standing in the shady farthest corner, with a boat.
It’s a pretty small one, and it’s in rough shape. Even the green algae crusted to the sides is faded with age, and so is everything else. Busted, broken, or sun-bleached to the point of cracking. The boat is sagging raggedly, perched on some kind of wooden rack that Ralph is in the process of adjusting.
“So, um – why is there suddenly a boat in the backyard?” I ask Calla, since Ralph barely seems to have noticed that anything is going on at this end of the yard.
“I have no idea,” Calla laughs, watching Ralph adoringly. “He hasn’t really explained, but I decided to help regardless.” She leans in towards me, then adds confidingly - “I like it when he gets all intense like this, to tell you the truth.”
“Okay?” I laugh.
“And when your boyfriend wakes you up at two in the morning to ask if you want to steal a boat he just managed to track down, you say yes. Any girl in my position would have done the same.”
“Steal-?” My attention snaps to Ralph, my eyes opening very wide. “You stole this boat? Ralph! As if you couldn’t afford to just buy it!”
“I wasn’t about to pay for it, Jamie.” Ralph shoots me an incredulous glance, like I said something absolutely ridiculous. “You think I was about to hand my money to the fuckin’ debt collector what seized it? If anything I righted a debt. This boat was owed to me, it’s fucking mine.”
His voice comes out as a low growl, and Calla nibbles her lip beside me, watching him with dilated eyes.
I turn back to her in disbelief. “You helped Ralph steal it?”
“Yeah, why not? I was already here. I was just gonna come to Ketterbridge for the weekend, but I decided to drive down a day or two early. I wrapped up the software I was working on, so I’m done for the week anyways.” Calla breaks into a satisfied grin, folding her arms over her chest. “You should see how it turned out, too. I am so damn good, it’s crazy.”
“Your clients don’t deserve you,” I answer dazedly, then laugh when she arches an eyebrow as if to say: exactly right. “So you decided to come see Ralph early and, um – do some felony larceny? At two in the morning?”
“It’s a good thing we left that early, it took us a while to get there and back,” Calla explains brightly. “Then we had to wait for the right moment to strike, and crossing state lines with a stolen boat in tow is a delicate process. We just got home now. Had ourselves a proper little crime spree. The only disappointing thing is I wanted to find a luxury yacht to torch while we were already so close to a marina, and Ralph was up for it, but we ended up having to bolt before we could.”
“Next time, baby, I promise,” Ralph murmurs distractedly, adjusting part of the boat rack.
Calla lets out a satisfied giggle, and I recognize in her raspy voice the last traces of one of those serious adrenaline highs that she loves. I can’t help but wonder if she and Ralph got chased during the boat theft. Something about the way she said delicate process makes me feel like it was in fact a wild process, but I think it would be smarter not to ask.
Whatever happened, Calla can’t seem to hide how very deeply in love with Ralph she is this afternoon. She’s watching him as he paces around the boat, her hazel eyes shimmering with fiery warmth, her lip caught between her teeth. I steal a knowing look at her, trying not to smile.
“It’s good you didn’t torch a yacht without Ripley,” I tell her. “Luxury yacht destruction is one of his passions, too.”
“Really?” Calla’s eyes glitter with laughter as they flit back to Ralph. “Your friends and I have so much in common.”
“Yeah, like causing havoc,” Ralph mutters, to a wide grin from Calla.
“So is this, um – what you two consider to be a date?” I ask her helplessly, pointing at the stolen boat. “Or was there some point to all this?”
“You’ll have to ask him,” she says, with an adoring nod at Ralph. “I’ll leave you to it. I’ve got a lunch date with Mel, Alix, and Kasey. Gabby’s meeting us after, once she’s done at City Hall. Mel just finished reading a book about Arawakan, so I’m sure she’ll have some interesting things to tell us about.”
“Oh, have fun!” I step out of Calla’s way, weaving around Tycho. “Tell everyone hi from me!”
Calla turns towards the kitchen door, and Ralph pops up from behind the boat, pouting.
“You’re leaving?” he calls to Calla.
She crosses back to the boat and folds her elbows on it.
“You’re not the only one I miss when I’m not in Ketterbridge.” She reaches across the boat and tweaks a strand of his blonde hair. “Just the one I miss the most. By a wide margin, admittedly.”
Ralph breaks into a little grin. “Hah. Soft.”
“I stole a motorcycle for you this morning, Ralph. As a distraction. After you refused to even explain what this mission was for.”
“So you did,” he says, grinning wider. “And that was pretty soft of you, too. You fit right in, in Ketterbridge.”
Calla breathes out a laugh, rolling her eyes as she starts to turn away. Ralph catches her chin, firmly but gently lifts her face to his for a kiss.
“You have a good day, alright?” he murmurs, in a tone like he’s insisting, not asking.
Calla laughs softly, then sets off across the yard.
“How can I not? First of all, Melanie made homemade lavender lotion bars, and she’s gonna bring one for each of us. And second of all, after lunch we’re gonna go see that photography exhibition in Greenrock that you boys already went to.”
Ralph stops still, breaking into a startled grin. “Really? You’re going to that?”
“Mhm. None of you will tell us what exactly it was, and we’ve noticed you all get shy when we ask about it, so now we’re all curious.”
Ralph and I exchange a swift glance, images from that exhibition flashing through our minds. Just thinking of half the stuff that was on display makes my cheeks burn. There’s a reason the car ride back was spent largely in uncomfortable, too-horny silence.
“What?” Calla asks suspiciously, taking in the expression on Ralph’s face.
He gives his shoulders an innocent shrug. “Nothing. Just – excited for you to get back here after that.”
“Aw. Cute.” Calla steps up to the kitchen, stretching her arms above her head in the sunshine. “See you later.”
Ralph leans back against the boat and folds his arms over his chest, his eyes sparkling with silent laughter. “Hey, you know what? Buy us a print, if you see something you like. My treat.”
She pauses, narrowing her eyes at him. “What are you up to?”
“Nothing,” he says again, then gives her a wave. “Enjoy the show.”
Calla shrugs her shoulders, gives my shoulder a slap goodbye, and heads into the kitchen. I move past her to join Ralph by the boat. He steps back to survey it, and I stop by his side, glancing uncertainly between him and the thing he went to so much trouble to steal.
“Is this – the one you meant to get?” I ask, not sure how to put it more delicately than that.
“Mhm, it’s the one. I’d recognize it anywhere, although it’s never looked quite this bad before. At least it’s still in one piece. More or less.” Ralph touches his fingertips to the side of the boat, running his eyes over it. “It was hard to track down. Had the whole force of my business out scoping junkyards and boatyards. Had to tell the boys that the boat had a lot of cocaine stashed in it.”
I draw back in startled disbelief. “What? This boat has a cocaine stash?”
“No, that’s just what I told my boys so they wouldn’t ask questions about why I wanted it.”
“Oh.” I drop my bewildered gaze to the small, ragged, battered boat. “Then – why did you actually want it?”
“Like I said,” Ralph murmurs, resting his hand flat on the boat. “It’s mine.”
“But what do you need it for?” I ask, as Ralph starts picking up some folded tarps from the ground.
“Right now, nothing. I’m just keeping it here for a day or two until I can have someone work me up a clean registration, then I can arrange to have it put in dry storage. I’ll take it back out of storage when time comes that I need it. Just gotta get this tarp on it in the meantime. Need to keep the rain off.”
“I mean… the boat is pretty run down, man,” I answer uncertainly, watching Ralph open up a tarp. “If you need it sometime soon, you may want to get to work on having it fixed up now, so it’ll be usable by then.”
“That’s not the point, Jamie,” Ralph says distractedly. “It’s actually in perfect shape for what I’ll be wanting it for. Should take a good long time to fix it, if it’s fixable at all. And don’t tell Calla what it’s for!”
“You haven’t told me what it’s f-”
“I don’t want her to think I’m presuming things and getting ahead of myself. I’m not. It’s – just in case. I want to have it if I need it.”
I stare at Ralph in fond bewilderment, then let out a laugh. “You’re incomprehensible when you – how did Calla put it? When you get all intense.”
Ralph pauses and looks at me, his focus finally breaking away from the boat. It’s sort of like he just now realized that I’m here.
“Hey, Keane,” he says, leaning his elbows on the boat. “I went to visit my dad’s grave this week. Funny thing, there’s a nice little rosebush growing on it now. Don’t remember that being there before. There was also some tiny glass thing full of water stuck in the ground beneath the bush, and when I started to pull it up, this fell out.”
He takes something from the pocket of his black jeans and shows it to me. A little note, in my handwriting, which reads: Don’t mess with my irrigation system, Ralph <3
“I knew you’d start investigating,” I sigh, leaning my elbows on the other side of the boat. “You didn’t pull the water bulb out, did you? The bush needs it.”
“No, I left it.” Ralph gives me a small smile, tucking the note back into his pocket, then adds gruffly - “Thanks for doing that. Looks nice.”
“You’re welcome,” I answer fondly.
I had a feeling Ralph wouldn’t want to talk anymore about the experience he had at the bar in Greenrock a few days ago, but I wanted to find some way to let him know that I was thinking of him as he processed everything. Seems like the rosebush got the message across. Also seems like I was right about him not being in a rush to talk about it, because the next thing he says is -
“Anyways, can you go get a rake while I deal with the tarps? Can’t leave a bunch of damp leaves under the boat. I need it in bad shape, but it can’t actually fall apart.”
“I… I still don’t understand what exactly…” I trail off, give my head a baffled shake, and turn towards the house. “Okay. I’ll just go get the rake, then.”
Noah comes breezing out of the kitchen door right as I reach it, then stops when he sees me. He stuffs something into his pocket, not quite fast enough to hide that it was another long letter from his sister.
“Hey, Keane! What’s good? You smoking some joints with Ralph?”
“We need a rake, Noah,” I tell him distractedly.
Noah lifts his pierced eyebrows, impressed. “Really? You got that many joints?”
“No, dude, not to rake up a pile of joints, I mean for the-” I break off and slip my phone out of my pocket, waving a hand at Noah. “Just hang on, there’s a lot happening, I’m totally lost about this boat situation, and now Aiden is calling me – Aiden, hi!”
“Hey, you. Everything okay? You sound a little flustered.”
“Oh, no, I’m fine! I’m just trying to keep up, but I’m not sure what’s going on. There was no cocaine in the boat, after all? But Ralph needs a rake, so I should-”
“Sorry, what?” Aiden cuts in, with a growing note of alarm in his deep voice.
“It’s all good, bro, he’s hanging out with us,” Noah informs Aiden, having plucked my phone from my hand. “And he brought like a thousand joints, apparently. Which means he doesn’t have time to talk to the world’s most buff archivist. We need to get busy smoking.”
“Give him the phone back, Noosh! What was that about a cocaine boat?”
Noah glances across the backyard at the boat, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “Huh, yeah. That wasn’t here before. Hey, Ralph! Is there snow in the boat?”
“No!” Ralph calls back.
“Oh.” Noah thinks about that for a moment, puzzled, then shrugs his shoulders. “Nevermind, Aiden. Guess the one we’ve got here isn’t the coke boat Jamie was talking about. How many boats are in the mix?”
“Since when are there any boats in the mix?” Aiden asks, bewildered. “Where are you guys?”
“Ralph’s backyard.”
“What-?”
“Hey, okay, everything is fine!” I cut in, snatching my phone back from Noah. “There’s no cocaine in the boat, so don’t worry about that! What’s up?”
“I was calling to ask what you wanted for dinner? Trying to decide if I need to hit the store on the way home.”
“Oh, okay! Whatever you want to make sounds good! Tahchin, or – no, more kunafa! With the yogurt dip!”
“More kunafa?” A soft, huffing laugh makes my heart all melty, even through the phone. “How many times in a row-?”
“It’s just been turning out so good, I – look, I don’t have to explain myself!”
“Not about the kunafa, maybe, but I want to know what’s going on with the cocaine boat when I get home.”
“Fair enough, love you, bye!” I hang up, take a second to catch my breath, then turn around in alarm. “Where are you going, Noah?”
“Didn’t you say we need a rake?” he calls over his shoulder, circling around to the side of the house.
Sounds like that’s taken care of, so I head back over to the boat and stop beside Ralph, who’s working on spreading a tarp over the top. I catch the far end of it so I can help him. Tycho, who’d gone bounding after Noah, seems to decide he’s going too far from Ralph to be followed. She comes back and settles down in the sunlit grass by the boat to take a nap. Closes her eyes with a puppy sigh.
“So…” I begin tentatively, glancing at Ralph.
He breathes out an immediate sigh, leaning into the hands he has on the boat. “Aiden told you. That my dad had a boyfriend.”
“He said you told him it was okay to tell me!”
“I thought he might wait more than a few days.”
“With news like this? I don’t think so. We had to have a little freakout about it.” I draw the tarp over the battered side of the boat, shooting a quick, warm smile at Ralph. “Your dad and Julian, huh?”
“Yeah, guess so.” Ralph still seems a little dazed by it. “Wasn’t expecting… I just didn’t know. To be fair, I don’t even know if my dad knew that about himself before he left home. I don’t think so. Sure sounded like the whole thing came as a surprise to him.”
I nod understandingly, picking some damp leaves off of the boat. “Happens like that sometimes.”
“And Julian’s neck being full of Catholic tattoos definitely threw me off. Felt pretty sure none of you would be into Catholicism. For obvious reasons.”
“Mmm… I think you might be overestimating your understanding of the nuances of the gay experience,” I tell Ralph, biting back a laugh.
He gives his shoulders a baffled shrug. “I didn’t think I had any understanding of that whatsoever. Now I realize I somehow knew even less than I thought.”
“You can ask Julian about it the next time you see him.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Ralph says firmly. “Be a weird thing to ask about only the second time I’m seeing him, after knowing him for like a week and a half.”
My eyebrows fly up in surprise. “You’re already seeing him again next weekend?”
Ralph shrugs his shoulders, removing some rotting leaves from the back of the boat. “Some reason I shouldn’t? He’s a cool guy, probably got tons of interesting stories from his work. And he spends half the year in Alaska, so. Should fit in the time before he takes off for a while, right?”
“Oh, when is he leaving?”
Again, a little shrug from Ralph. “He said on the phone it’ll be in a couple of months.”
That actually sounds like plenty of time to see Julian again before he leaves for a while, a situation that requires no urgency at all. But I’m not about to point that out to Ralph. Nor am I about to ask him if he’s noticed that we’ve been talking about something to do with his dad for a minute now. Something he normally won’t talk to me about at all.
“Ralph,” I begin, straightening up to lean against the boat, looking at him with warm fondness. “I’m really so glad that you-”
“Enough,” he says roughly, before I can get any further.
Yeah, I thought so. But it was still more than usual, and I have to hide an affectionate smile as I catch the end of the tarp he’s sliding to me. I’m happy for him. I’m also deeply relieved that he finally told Aiden the truth about their respective ages, because I was afraid I might accidentally let the truth slip one day.
Sounds like the truth has reached Noah, too, because he stops beside the boat, plants the rake in the ground, and asks solemnly:
“Where do you want this, little brother?”
“For fuck’s sake.” Ralph stops what he’s doing to take an exasperated swipe at Noah. “That’s enough out of you.”
“No, I don’t think so,” Noah says, grinning widely. “Turns out you got no authority to tell me what to do.”
“Why did I ever tell you dipshits the truth about this?” Ralph sighs, closing his eyes.
“I’m genuinely amazed that you and Aiden didn’t figure out that Aiden is the big brother in this relationship,” I tell Noah. “I can tell just from watching you three.”
“We never questioned it, dude. Ralph’s the oldest, ‘n therefore the smartest. Just made sense. But now I know the real truth, and it means I’m smarter than Ralph, and only Aiden is smarter than me. Pretty cool, huh?”
Noah drops the rake as he talks, falls to his knees, and startles Tycho by diving right on top of her. She wakes up with a bewildered scrambling of paws, then eagerly dives into the wrestling match Noah just initiated, trying to spring onto his chest. Ralph and I move out of the way as the two of them go rolling past us, kicking up autumn leaves and quickly growing muddy.
“You havin’ fun there, sport?” Ralph asks, watching Noah get pinned to the grass by Tycho. “Does this right here strike you as smart?”
“Not small like a puppy anymore, is she?” Noah wheezes, struggling to fight her off as she starts enthusiastically licking his face, her wagging tail thumping against the side of the boat. “And maybe it’s smart, depending on your incubation! Mine was to wrestle a dog!”
“Think you mean inclination, Noosh, not incubation.”
“Whatever!” Noah manages to get Tycho off of him with great difficulty, then staggers to his feet. “Point is, I’m officially smarter than you, so-”
“Watch the rake, Noah!” I jump in hastily, just a little too late.
“Ow! Fuck! Shit!”
“Saw that one coming,” Ralph sighs, extending a hand to pull Noah back to his feet again. “You alright?”
“Yeah,” Noah groans, rubbing his chest where the rake handle caught him. He makes a wounded face for a second, but immediately brightens up again, running his grey eyes over the boat. “So what are we doing, fixing this baby up? You get inspired by my bitchin’, beautiful, gorgeous warrior of a car?”
“You mean the indiscernible hunk of metal in your garage?” Ralph shakes his head in disbelief, then pauses, reconsidering. “Although I will say with all the grime washed off it’s almost sort of starting to look vaguely car-shaped.”
“Got a guess yet?” Noah asks.
Ralph thinks about it for a moment. “Pontiac, maybe? Couldn’t take a stab at the make or model, though.”
Noah grins widely. “You’ll see.”
“Well, we’re not fixing the boat up, it just needs to be weatherproofed for a few days.”
“Sweet.” Noah knocks his knuckles on the boat. “Should we grab some beers while we do this? Nice afternoon for it.”
Ralph blinks at him in confusion. “I mean – I didn’t ask for help, I was just gonna-”
“Heyo, brothers!” calls a voice from across the backyard. Raj comes striding out of Ralph’s house to join us, tossing his dark curls out of his face. “Noah, thanks for charging out of the car and not helping me with the car seat at all.”
“I was excited to wrestle Tycho!”
“Hello, you!” I call adoringly to Nikita, who’s sitting up in Raj’s arms, holding a fistful of his shirt. “Hey, Raj! I thought you and Noah were in Port Sitka today.”
“We were, man.” Raj stops beside me, then hands Nikita off to Ralph with obvious relief. “We’re back now.”
Ralph’s grey-green eyes soften as Nik beams up at him, clearly pleased to see him. He gives her nose a gentle tap with his fingertip, then laughs softly when she points at him accusatorily.
“We’re going through another pointing phase, lately,” Noah laughs, smoothing a loving hand over her dark curls.
“Thanks for holding her, Ralph,” Raj says, stretching out his elbows with a wince. “She didn’t want to stay in the car seat, and my arms are sore from work. But it was worth it! Noah and I fixed up the wall where Eduardo’s cafe got, um – sliced off of the hotel, it looks like. Treehouse will be underway once the cafe is functioning again.”
“We saw Ramón,” Noah tells Ralph, breaking into a grin. “He was having a blast helping out with the hotel demolition. He asked us if you’ll come too, next time.”
“Aw, he’s such a little fan of yours,” I tell Ralph, unable to hold back a laugh.
“Shut up, Keane.” Ralph glances between Raj and Noah, who are both clearly trying not to laugh, too. “And what are you two snickering about?”
“Nothing, just – Ramón was doing a lot of this,” Raj explains, then leans back against the boat and folds his arms over his chest, tilts his chin slightly up. “The way you do it, Ralph. Like, the exact way. He was doing it better than I can.”
“Like I’m the only one of us who does that?” Ralph asks, exasperated.
“I don’t know how to explain it, but it was easy to tell you provided the model,” Noah snickers.
“Aw!” I laugh, earning a dark scowl from Ralph.
It’s less intimidating when he’s holding Nik, who’s deeply absorbed in sorting through the handful of his blonde hair that she’s caught in her tiny fist. Tycho puts her paws up on Ralph and cranes her head up to say hello to Nik, catching her by surprise, tickling her with her whiskers. Nik giggles and hides her face against Ralph’s neck, then draws back and lets out a spill of earnest baby babble at him, pointing at Tycho.
“You have a lot to say lately, don’t you?” he laughs, then looks up in bewilderment as more new arrivals come out through the open kitchen door. “Oh my god, and what are you guys doing here, now?”
“After my phone call with Jamie I figured I should come by,” Aiden explains, leading the way down the steps. “Make sure you weren’t involving him in some kind of – drug – boat heist? I don’t know.”
“I was at City Hall to see Alix, thought I’d come in case you were doing some kind of drug boat heist,” Ripley adds brightly. “Sounds like a good opportunity to sink a yacht.”
“I was at City Hall to see Gabby, and I thought I’d come in case any of you fools attempted to do any of those things, so I could stop you,” Kent finishes. He pauses to look at the boat, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Is this the one?”
“Smuggling, is it?” Will asks wisely, stepping out from behind Aiden.
“Okay, one more time,” Ralph says, covering Nikita’s ears, “There is no cocaine in the boat, and there never was. I don’t know how I can be any more clear about that.”
“Oh.” Kent lets out a breath of relief, coming over to say hi to Nik as I go past him to say hi to Aiden. “Good. Then what are we doing?”
“We gotta get the boat weatherproofed for a few days,” Noah explains, retrieving the fallen rake. “Think we were about to get some beers going, too?”
“As if my arms aren’t already tired,” Raj sighs, rolling up his sleeves. “We’ll have to prop it up higher to get the leaves out from under there.”
“I can do the heavy lifting, Raj,” Ripley offers, already trotting over.
“Show off,” Raj complains. “We all know you’re Aiden’s gym buddy, alright? It’s showing.”
Ripley breaks into a grin. “Oh, is it? Guess I didn’t notice.”
“This doesn’t seem like a job that needs all of us,” Aiden says, planting a kiss on the top of my head. “You still got that old grill around here, Ralph? I can make us something.”
“It’s around the side,” Noah answers.
“Herbs in the kitchen you can use!” I add, and Aiden pinches my cheek appreciatively before he strides off.
“I’ll go get some plates,” Kent says, heading back into the kitchen. “Do we want some music, too, or what?”
“What’s-?” Ralph shifts Nik into one arm so he can throw the other out wide in confusion. “I didn’t even ask for help!”
“Did you not want it?” I ask, caught by surprise. “I feel like I owe somebody some help, given how much help Raj and Ripley gave me this week getting the coop set up and repainted.”
“Oh, yeah, the coop.” Ralph flashes a grin in Aiden’s direction. “How’s the rooster doing?”
“Oh, god.” I give Ralph a worried look, twisting the heist ring around my finger. “I don’t know, I’m actually really concerned about him. He’s hurt, and now he’s healing, so he’s been pretty tired and quiet. He’s spent most of his time sleeping huddled up in one of the nesting boxes that are supposed to be for the hens… but yesterday he started walking around a little more, and I noticed – he’s losing feathers. Like, a lot of feathers.”
They’ve been blowing out of the coop. I found more this morning, tangled in various plants in the front garden. I thought about calling Mitch, but I don’t want him to think we’re doing a bad job looking after Blue. I’ve been trying my hardest, so it was awful to find his long blue tail feathers, already ragged before, laying in waterlogged ruin in the puddles.
Ralph doesn’t look as alarmed as I expected. “I mean – Aiden said his feathers were all fucked up.”
I wring my fingers together anxiously. “Yes, they were, but at least they were still attached to him! I don’t understand, we’ve been keeping him warm and dry, and he’s got plenty of space to roam around. I planted some marigolds around the coop so it looks nice. He’s got fresh food and water, all the sunflower seeds he wants, and I gave him a few banana slices as a treat. He’s eating more than he was before, I saw him take a little dust bath, I thought he was getting better. So why…?”
“He’s probably just molting his old feathers, dude,” Ralph says. “Bet he’s figured out that he’s someplace safe now, so he wants to grow new ones.”
“Oh. Oh…” I give my head a slow shake, thinking about it more. “Duh, of course! God, I just panicked when I saw so many feathers, and Blue looking even more disheveled than he was before, but it makes sense he’d want to be rid of them, they were a mess! Why didn’t I think of that? I’m the science one!”
“It’s not about science, dude, I just had neighbors with chickens when I was a kid.” Ralph touches his fingertips to the side of the boat. “The feathers used to blow into our yard.”
I follow his gaze down to the boat, then take a closer look at his expression. He seems far away all of a sudden, his fingers lingering on the faded old paint.
“I – I bet it’s going to be a very nice boat, once it’s all fixed up,” I tell him encouragingly. “If you’re fixing it up, that is. I’m still not sure what’s going on.”
“Might be fixing it up,” Ralph says distantly. “Eventually. If I don’t fuck up, and things work out how I’m hoping.”
“Okay… well, can we hang out and help you, then? Or do you want Aiden to put the grill away and not make whatever delicious thing he’s planning?”
Ralph hesitates, then gives his shoulders a helpless shrug. “Dos Equis in the fridge.”
Noah slaps his hands together happily. “I’ll go get ‘em! And the charcoal for the grill!”
Raj pops up on the far side of the boat. “Someone pass me the rake, and Ripples, grab me a towel? This part is damp, we can’t wrap it up like that.”
“Here, too,” Will says, lifting his head out of the front of the boat. “Inside, by the little windows.”
“I’m on it,” Ripley calls, heading for the house.
We all break off into our various tasks, except for Noah, who pauses behind Ralph for a second.
“Hey,” he murmurs, quickly touching a hand to Ralph’s shoulder. “You okay?”
I get why he wants to check. Ralph came home from the G.I. bar pretty raw and ragged, according to Aiden. As he always is after anything emotional, he was exhausted, and ended up passing out on the couch sandwiched between Noah and Aiden halfway through the Transformers marathon they were doing.
Aiden said Ralph was definitely feeling better, not worse, but I can understand the worry in Noah’s eyes as he looks over Ralph now.
“I’m good,” Ralph tells him, quietly but firmly. “Honestly.”
Noah gives his back a relieved slap, then trots off towards the house to get the beers. I head over to Aiden, who’s in the process of dusting off the very old grill he dragged out from around the back of the house.
“He’s feeling okay,” Aiden murmurs softly, seeing the question in my eyes.
“Everybody’s going to be feeling more than okay soon enough,” I answer, breaking into a grin. “All the girls are headed to that photography exhibition in Greenrock. And they’re coming back armed with a lotion bar each.”
Aiden widens his eyes, his mouth turning up in silent laughter, and I hold back a laugh of my own.
“Everyone’s gonna scatter for home when they get back, then, so I better get grilling.”
“Speaking of things we better get doing.” I wrap my arms around his waist from behind, resting my cheek against his back. “Are we still going to Port Sitka this weekend to find a captain who can take us out to the mountains?”
We have a few things to do before we head out for the actual journey and attempt to find the territory of the dead illusion. We want to talk to Floyd and Spencer, and also to Thorn, and maybe touch base with Rose and Leyla. I also don’t think we should leave for a longer camping trip until Blue is more settled in at home. But Kasey pointed out that we should probably hire the captain in advance, and that’s something we can do this weekend. Calla told us that a lot of the ships have come in from their summer expeditions, bringing their sailors home to port. We should have options. The plan is to talk to the bartender at the sailor’s bar, like Calla suggested.
“Yeah, pretty sure we’re good to head out for a little.” Aiden takes a look over his shoulder at Ralph, then smiles as he turns back to the grill. “Think everything will be fine here.”
I take a look at Ralph, too. He’s got a cold beer in one hand, Nikita propped up in the other. He’s leaning against the boat, laughing at something Ripley is saying to him. Calla should be here all weekend, too. That always leaves Ralph in a state of happiness he has trouble hiding from the rest of us, despite his legendary poker face.
Yeah, I think he’ll be just fine.
“Well, let’s hope this Port Sitka trip goes smoother than all the others,” I tell Aiden, turning back to him.
He shrugs his powerful shoulders. “Should be pretty simple, right? All we have to do is find a captain.”
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