Golden Autumn - Part Twenty
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.
As the week has gone on, no matter what I’m doing, my thoughts keep drifting back to Robin and Faith. I hope Robin is hanging in there as days keep passing by without Faith being found. I hope that Faith is hanging in there, too. Wherever she is.
I’ve been distracted all week thinking about it, but this afternoon I was met with a nice surprise, one that took my mind off of things for a moment. Blue was wide awake, waiting for me to arrive with his snacks when I went out to the coop. His eyes were looking brighter than usual, and while his feathers are still all patchy, in a few spots it looks like fresh feathers are starting to peek out. After he ate I watched him take a vigorous dust bath, with obvious relief that suggested he was very itchy before. Another sign that he might hopefully be growing new feathers.
Raj and I made a sizable run for the coop, so Blue has plenty of protected space to walk around in. Still, after scoping the sky for predatory birds and spotting nothing, I decided to let him out to range around the garden for a little bit. I wanted him to have some real freedom, if he felt up to it.
He came out slowly and settled down to rest in a patch of sunshine. It felt good to see him out in the open air, cozy in the little hollow he made for himself in the dirt. He sat there quietly surveying the garden, like it was his first time really seeing it.
I left him there and came back into the kitchen to do the dishes. I’m still only halfway through them now, since I’ve been going very slowly. I’m deeply immersed in my thoughts, barely aware of doing the dishes at all. Only half aware of other things, like the birds lazily chirping, Luna’s whiskers twitching as she dreams, the slants of autumn sunlight spilling in through the windows. The late afternoon glow illuminates the amber crowns of the trees outside, warms my cheek as it falls across my face.
I hope Port Sitka is also having a beautiful afternoon, and that maybe it’s some small comfort to Robin during all this excruciating waiting and searching. I can’t think how worried she is, given that I’m this worried, and I’ve never even met Faith. Glad as I am that Robin agreed to take us to the mountains, a large part of me hopes the trip will be canceled because Robin will call us to say that Faith has already turned up. But… so far, nothing.
Oh, god. Here I am again, fretting endlessly over this. I hope Aiden hurries up and gets home from work soon. It’s infinitely easier to relax when he’s here.
I spot a lavender candle on one of the kitchen shelves, take it down to light it, then look up as the kitchen door swings open. Noah comes breezing through it with Tycho trotting at his heels.
“Oh, dude, perfect!” he says brightly, taking the candle out of my hands and using the flame to light the blunt in his mouth. “Couldn’t find my lighter.”
“What-?” I let out a sputter of indignation, snatching the candle back from him. “Excuse me, I’m trying to calm down!”
Noah considers that, then takes the blunt from his mouth and offers it to me. I let out a sigh of laughter, take it from him, and have myself a puff. Taking a second look at him as I do, realizing that he looks a little worried and distracted. It’s just beneath the surface, but I know him well enough to tell.
“Everything okay, man?” I ask.
“Yeah, just…” Noah hesitates, then takes something from his pocket. A letter from his sister, all folded up. Must be, because the torn-open envelope with it is covered in French postage marks. “My sister is coming back to Ketterbridge for a visit soon. She’s gonna stay for a little while, too.”
“Oh, that’s great! I mean – isn’t it?”
Noah nods immediately, running a hand over his long hair.
“Ouais, of course, but there’s something…” Noah pauses, then goes on more slowly, a note of anxiety coming into his voice. “I’m not sure, but I feel like Noelle sounds kind of, um…”
I tilt my head to the side, watching Noah with growing concern. “Is she okay?”
“Yeah, just – can we have a games and ganj night soon?” he asks, tearing his gaze from the folded letter to look hopefully at me. “Maybe when you and Aiden get back from your trip?”
“Sure, of course,” I answer, caught by surprise. “But what are you doing here now, then? Why do you have Tycho?”
Noah doesn’t need to explain, because a second later Aiden comes striding into the kitchen, too, followed by Ralph, who sort of casually lounges in like he’s only here because there’s nothing more interesting going on elsewhere. Noah hastily stuffs the letter back into his pocket before he turns around to face them.
“Why are you always running ahead whenever we get anywhere, Noosh?” Aiden asks, then stops to take in the sight of us, raising an eyebrow. “Wow. He beat us to the house by less than a minute, and he’s already gotten Jamie to take a hit of the blunt.”
“Is anyone surprised?” Ralph sighs affectionately, snagging the blunt for himself.
Aiden leans down to give me a kiss, bringing with him the soft scent of aged paper. “Hi, you. Why are you holding a candle?”
“Because – I was – lavender is supposed to help you calm down, right?”
“Yeah,” Ralph answers, with obvious amusement. “But I don’t think you’re supposed to hold the candle directly under your nose and huff it while you also smoke a blunt.”
“No, that’s not what I was doing!”
“Are you kidding, dude?” Noah lets out a scoffing sound of disagreement at Ralph. “Sounds like exactly what you’re supposed to do. My mans is power-relaxing. I get it. Here, Jamie, let me try.”
I put the candle back on the shelf instead of in Noah’s outstretched hand, suppressing a laugh. “Well, I guess everyone’s just here now, so do you guys want some tea?”
“You better make it good,” Noah informs me. “Because Mel makes the best tea for me and Raj, the bombest tea. My standards are real high now.”
Ralph sweeps a hand at Noah, catching my eye. “Don’t waste your generosity on this ungrateful tea-drinking fool, Jamie.”
“Okay, so what is that, a yes? Everyone wants some tea?”
Aiden is rooting around in the cupboards, pulling out some snacks. Luna, on the counter beside him, has deigned to lean down far enough to let Tycho give her a sniff of greeting.
“Nobody change the subject,” Aiden says, turning around and pointing at me with a bag of chips, as if that’s what I was doing. “The point is, Noosh, Robin told us flat-out that you could never make the trip on a Sea-Doo. Never.”
“Okay, and what I’m saying is that every trip is possible with either a Sea-Doo or a Ski-Doo, and the right amount of determination. And precision skill. And heroic sense of adventure. And rugged wild man toughness.”
“But who will make you your specially good cups of tea while you’re out on all those rugged wild man adventures?” Ralph asks sweetly, then ducks as Noah takes a swipe at him.
“Bro, I bet after you see me do a sick Ski-Doo jump you won’t be…”
Noah disappears back into the living room as he speaks, with Aiden and Ralph falling in behind him to continue their argument. Luna considers for a moment, then hops down from the counter, takes a luxurious stretch, and goes elegantly stalking after Tycho. Just like that, I’m alone in the kitchen. I turn away with a soft laugh, putting some water on for the tea.
It sounds like Aiden has filled his brothers in on how our upcoming trip is shaping out, because they’re talking about it when I join them in the living room a few minutes later. Having a little conference, gathered up in close conversation. The space around the coffee table is all full of long legs. I have to pick my way over them to sit down on the rug beside Aiden.
He accepts his mug of spiced tea and folds an arm around me without losing his place in the conversation.
“Calla offered to help Robin get past the passcode on Faith’s phone, in case that would help,” he’s saying to Ralph. “But it turned out that Robin knows the passcode. She’s already looked through the phone, and there was nothing out of the ordinary. Faith just stopped replying to anything and opening new notifications all at once, the night before she was officially reported missing by her coworkers.”
“Shit,” Ralph sighs, sitting back against the couch. “Looking through her phone was gonna be my only suggestion.”
Yeah, I can tell that Ralph and Noah have been all caught up. Noah has let the blunt go out, and he’s sitting in the armchair with his jet-black eyebrows furrowed in troubled concern.
Ralph’s expression is almost the same. He runs a thoughtful hand over his jaw, then asks -
“Did Kasey have any ideas about what might’ve happened?”
“No, but you just summoned her, so she’s here now. She brought Will, too.”
A chorus of fond greeting goes up. Aiden works the ghost glasses out of his pocket so he can see our new arrivals.
“Are we talking about Faith?” Kasey settles down in front of the fireplace, stretching her legs out in the fading sunshine. “I have no idea what happened to her. I wondered if maybe there were any security cameras near her place that might’ve caught something. Then I realized the cops should’ve already checked for that, so I told Jamie to ask Calla if she could get us the police file on the case.”
“Can she manage something like that?” Noah asks, impressed.
Ralph looks wholly unsurprised when Aiden holds up the copy of the case file that Calla gave us. He looks a little smug, even, his grey-green eyes glinting with affectionate pride. But his smile falls away when he sees how thin the file is.
“Jesus,” he murmurs, taking it from Aiden and flipping it open. “This is it? There’s barely anything in here. I’ve got to think this blurry little picture is way out of date, too?”
Aiden nods in confirmation, a deep frown darkening the blue of his eyes. “It’s the one from her driver’s license. Taken years ago.”
“Which means she probably looks nothing like this anymore,” Ralph sighs, then closes the file and hands it off to Noah. “Nothing too helpful in what little is written in there.”
“Except that the notes say there were no nearby security cameras to check,” I finish, resting my chin on my knee unhappily.
“Has there been an increase in criminal activity in Port Sitka as of late?” Will asks, directing the question to Ralph.
I repeat it for him, and Ralph firmly shakes his head.
“Not a chance. This has got to be an isolated incident, otherwise I’d have heard about it. I have people in Port Sitka, I’ve got product moving in and out of that port all the time.”
Aiden lets out a huff of laughter. “That explains why Robin told us she’s not available for smuggling when we never once hinted we wanted her to do that.”
“I told my boys there to keep an eye out for anything unusual,” Ralph goes on, nibbling at his thumbnail with a worried crease between his eyebrows. “But I don’t think they’ll see anything now. It’s been two weeks, I mean…”
“It’ll have been three by the time we actually set out,” I answer quietly.
A troubled silence falls over the team for a minute. Eventually Noah looks up, having just finished reading what was in the file. He’s blushing visibly as he closes it. I get the impression he’s hoping we didn’t notice how long it took him in comparison to Ralph. As if we’d hold it against him! If anything, it makes me realize how much time it must take him to read all those long letters from Noelle, but clearly he’s been reading them anyways. Reading them carefully and thoughtfully, if he found something in them he wants to talk to me about before she gets here.
I shoot a fond glance across the coffee table at Noah, then draw back in surprise as he announces:
“Whoever took Faith is gonna get stomped. That’s just how it has to be.”
“We don’t know for sure that someone took her, Noosh,” Aiden points out. “That’s what we were just saying, we have no idea what happened.”
Noah tosses the file flat on the coffee table, scowling angrily at it. “But if someone did snatch this girl from her apartment in the middle of the night, it’s stomp time for us, right?”
Ralph and Aiden glance at each other, considering, then turn back to Noah with a simultaneous shrug and nod of agreement.
“Sure,” Ralph concedes. “We’ll give him his due. Assuming Robin doesn’t want to keelhaul the bastard herself.”
“Yeah, sounds good,” Aiden agrees. “But tracking down Faith is the first priority. Stomping and keelhauling comes later.”
“Sad I won’t be able to get in on that,” Kasey sighs.
“As am I,” Will growls.
“Are you sure you don’t want us to come with you?” Ralph flashes a worried look at Aiden. “I know the illusion is dead, but there might be some kidnapper involved now.”
“It’s not that we don’t want you guys there, it’s just that Robin said her boat can’t sleep all of us.”
“Which is why I said we should just ride along on a Sea-Doo,” Noah jumps in, his tone indicating that it’s the obvious and only choice.
“Once again, Noosh, Robin said that’s out of the question,” Aiden answers firmly. “But don’t sweat it, I need you guys to stay here anyways. We may need you to help out Roger and Luca if we have to direct a rescue from afar again.”
“We also need one of you to look after Blue while we’re gone,” I add. “Destinee doesn’t want to do it. She’ll handle our plants and Luna and Jumble, but she says she ‘doesn’t do’ chickens.”
“Alright, fine,” Noah says, although the way he says it makes it sound like a violent complaint. “But don’t you two get hurt out there. Or I will come after you on a Sea-Doo, Aiden, je te jure. Not that I have a Sea-Doo. Guess I’d have to steal one…”
“Don’t,” Ralph says warningly. “Or there’ll be hell to pay.”
But he directed that at me and Aiden, not Noah. It was actually like he was agreeing with Noah, telling us we’re not allowed to get hurt on our trip.
Difficult as it is to get Ralph to admit he cares, this is practically a giant hug. I give him a warm, knowing smile, and he glances away uncomfortably.
“Stop that, Tycho,” he says, catching her by her collar.
Tycho – who was just nosing around as usual, and doesn’t understand that she’s being used for a deflection – sits down and looks at Ralph in apologetic confusion, then forgets about it immediately when he begins scratching her under her chin. Luna, who was sauntering past at the same moment, is caught up by Noah and pulled onto his lap. She lets it happen, but only under protest.
“Are we sure Robin is safe at Rose and Leyla’s house?” Noah asks, as Luna settles down on his lap and begins pointedly grooming her fur where he messed it up. “Just asking ‘cause someone took her girl in the middle of the night, and whoever it was might still be around.”
Ralph breathes out a laugh, gently pulling one of Tycho’s ears between his fingers. “Oh, Robin will be fine with Leyla there. She can handle herself. She could turn you out in a fight, Noosh.”
“What the fuck, man!” Noah sputters, scandalized. “I wouldn’t never! Fighting an old lady, somebody’s grandma? That’s bad sport!”
Ralph breaks into a grin, flicking a hand at him.
“That rule doesn’t apply to this old lady, I promise you. Robin will be safe there.” He looks at me and Aiden, growing serious again. “I’m more worried about when Robin runs off with you three to some campground in the middle of nowhere. Where we can’t get to you if anything goes wrong.”
“We’ll be okay,” Aiden says.
Something in his deep voice stops Noah’s knee from bouncing and Ralph’s eyebrows from furrowing any deeper. He turns to Will, raising an eyebrow, and adds - “Are you gonna be okay, Will?”
“Oh, I’ll manage,” Will assures us. “Even if the illusion were still alive, I’d not be afraid. Logging men had all manner of creatures to think about, back in the day. Splintercats, whintossers, the tripodero. And the Hyampom hog bear, of course.”
“The – what was that last one?” I ask in alarm, halfway through repeating the words.
“All you heard was bear, knowing you,” Aiden laughs, rumpling my hair up with his fingers.
I realize that Will is grinning playfully at me, too.
“Stories for the new lads at the camp,” he explains, when I look at him inquiringly. “Told in very convincing fashion. A bit after my time, but I often went to the campfires to listen.”
“They had old-timey cryptids, huh?” Ralph asks, surprised. “That long ago?”
“Yes, but back then they were called Fearsome Critters,” Kasey giggles affectionately, stretching her legs out across Will’s legs. “Aw, baby. I’m gonna miss you while you’re away. Are you sure you don’t just want to stay home?”
“No, by thunder,” Will says sternly, giving her chin a gentle little cuff. “Stop asking, pretty creature. I told you many times I’d liefer go in your place. We can’t have you representing the ghosts in every mission!”
I can tell that Will is nervous about leaving Ketterbridge, but it’s equally clear that he has no intention of changing his mind. Kasey can tell, too, and she doesn’t push the issue. She gives him an adoring smile, running her fingers over his blonde hair.
“Okay. Fine. Aiden, Jamie, take good care of him.”
“I mean – what could happen to him?” I laugh affectionately.
I’m noticing that already being dead doesn’t seem to prevent the ghosts from worrying about each other. We got almost those same exact instructions from Will when we left for Port Sitka with Kasey.
“Still,” Kasey insists, then turns around as the front door of our house opens.
I let out a helpless laugh, glancing at Aiden. “No one ever knocks.”
“Since when do I need to knock?” Gabby asks indignantly, setting her coat on the table beside the door. She gestures at the kitchen, making her golden bangles jingle. “Aiden, Jamie, a word.”
Aiden and I obediently get up, and Noah powers on my Xbox, handing a controller to Ralph. The ghosts cozy up together so they can watch. Will is deeply fascinated by video games – doubly so when he’s watching the wild way Noah plays them – and Kasey likes to listen to Will’s comments as he watches. I can tell by the way she snuggles up to him, stealing a little glance up at his face, that she wasn’t exaggerating. She’s going to miss him a lot while we’re away this weekend.
Gabby turns around to face us as soon as we stop in the kitchen. She extracts a folder from her purse and briskly hands it to Aiden. He opens it up, to reveal a City Hall form that’s already been filled out.
“What’s this?” Aiden asks, running his eyes over it.
“I approved your request to work out-of-office for the next two days.” Gabby meets Aiden’s eyes with a meaningful look in her own. “Now you can attend that archival studies conference you wanted to go to.”
A puzzled crease appears between Aiden’s eyebrows. “What archival-?”
“Or,” Gabby says lightly, “If you have something much more urgent to do, something that really can’t wait, you can take care of that with those extra two days. Watch the recordings of those conference lectures and panels later, whenever you have time. And Kent asked me to relay that there’s nothing urgent going on at the flower shop over the next two days, either. Jamie isn’t particularly needed.”
Aiden and I exchange a surprised glance, realizing at the same time what Gabby means. She gives us a nod, picks up her purse from the counter with a soft jingling of her bangles.
“City Hall paid for your access to the conference, Aiden, since it’s professional development. The passcode to get your digital badge is on the form I just gave you. But again, it’s all being recorded. No rush at all.”
She heads to the door, then pauses with her hand on it and looks at us over her shoulder.
“Find that girl,” she says, quietly but firmly, like she’s issuing us a command.
Then she heads out of the kitchen, leaving us with the approval for Aiden to take off from work two days early. Aiden drops his gaze to the form, looking truly impressed.
“Man, Gabby works fast. I only told her about the situation with Faith this morning, and she had a solid excuse for me all ready to go by the end of the day. This means we don’t have to wait for the weekend, Jamie. We could leave tomorrow, if we want to.”
“That’s true! I’ll text Robin to ask if she’d be cool with the change of plans.” I wince at Aiden as I slip my phone out of my pocket. “I have a feeling she’ll say yes. She must be sick of searching the same places over and over again.”
Aiden flinches at the thought, then nods in agreement and turns to the fridge.
“I better get busy making the food for our trip, then.” He takes out some oranges and butter and coconut milk, stacking things on the counter. The saucepan immediately wakes up on its hook, gives itself a shake, and hops down to wait patiently on the stove. Aiden adds a stick of butter to it and turns the flame on, talking to me over his shoulder. “Father Leo says that being at sea makes you hungry, and that we should pack more food than we think we need.”
“That’s always good advice for us,” I laugh softly, busy texting Robin. “You think everything will be okay here, babe? With us leaving early? This doesn’t leave us time to talk to Thorn, or Floyd and Spencer. I’m also a little worried about leaving Luna here alone with Blue. I know he should be safe in the coop, and she hasn’t seemed interested in him at all so far, but maybe if we’re not here supervising – what…? Oh my god, Aiden, look!”
Aiden turns around, then freezes when he catches sight of the startling thing I just noticed.
A very large, rust-brown tomcat is sitting just outside the glass of our kitchen window. Gazing in at me and Aiden, his big amber eyes revealing that he’s wholly unafraid of us. He might have been a handsome thing once, but it looks like he’s lived a rough life. His thick fur is broken up in several different places with big, old scars, the results of brutal bites and scratches. The edges of his ears are more than a little nibbled.
None of that seems to have gotten to his spirit, however. He’s got something unbothered about his face, a sly, cheeky sort of cheerfulness.
He doesn’t so much as blink when I slowly open the kitchen windows.
“Hello,” I say gently, baffled. “Who are you?”
He blinks at me, then looks past me. I look down in surprise as Luna springs up onto the kitchen counter, then climbs out onto the window box beside the ragged tomcat.
He’s a tough-looking thing, but he tamely submits to a brisk bath of his ears and nose from Luna. If he minds that she’s pinning his head down with her paw to do it, it doesn’t show at all. I actually think I hear him purring.
“Excuse me,” Aiden sputters, as I let out a startled laugh. “Who is this, Luna?”
She shoots us a brief look as if to tell us it’s none of our business, shakes out her sleek grey fur, then hops out into the garden. The big tomcat eagerly hops down after her, following at her heels as she goes strolling off.
“Oh, my god,” I laugh, shaking my head as I turn to face Aiden. “Okay. I guess Luna is too busy to pay any attention to Blue. But do you think he’s healed up enough that we can just-?”
I’m stopped again in the middle of my sentence, this time by a soft, fast fluttering noise from just outside of the open windows. Aiden and I turn to look at them, just in time to see Blue come sweeping and scrabbling up. He lands on the window box, steadies himself out with a few more flaps of his black and blue wings, and peers curiously into the kitchen.
Aiden and I freeze again, caught by surprise. Up until now Blue hasn’t been up to much more than the occasional little walk around. I guess he has some more energy today, though, and suddenly I’m not sure what he’s going to do.
“Hello,” I say tentatively, holding very still.
Blue looks around some more, ruffles his feathers again, then suddenly cranes his head back and lets out a sharp, prolonged cry, crowing so loudly that Aiden and I both take an instinctive step back. It rings through our quiet kitchen and echoes out over the garden, reaching the distant peach and plum trees. It’s a strangely regal sound, the way it pierces so powerfully through the air. Aiden and I stare in wide-eyed silence at Blue, startled and impressed.
He hops lightly back down into the kitchen garden, then wanders off in the direction of the coop.
“Wow,” I laugh, rubbing my ears. “Someone’s feeling better, huh?”
“Yeah, I think things will be fine here,” Aiden says firmly. “We should go. Assuming Robin is ready, too.”
I don’t get an answer to that question until a few hours later, when Aiden and I have gone upstairs to get ready for bed. I started packing just in case, and Aiden prepared all the food we’ll need, and Kasey started charging up Will with her energy. Now I’m glad we all moved into action. I had a feeling. Robin’s text only confirms it.
“Robin says that the weather isn’t great tomorrow, but it’s nothing she can’t handle. She’s ready to head out if we are. She thinks she can have everything ready by afternoon, even with the late notice.”
“Good,” Aiden says, with immense relief. “I’m starting to get antsy sitting around waiting to leave. Poor Robin must be ready to go to pieces.”
“Yeah, I feel the same way.”
“I just hope we can help,” Aiden murmurs, a trace of fretful anxiety revealing itself in his deep voice.
I tuck a folded flannel into my bag, then turn around to look at him. He’s standing by the branch window, with his back to me, lifting his dumbbells while I pack. Sometimes he does that when he’s nervous or worried.
I silently adore him with my eyes, watching the rippling of his graceful muscles. The dance of the moonlight on his hair, which he keeps fidgeting with whenever he’s not holding his weights.
He may not be the Guardian of Port Sitka, but I think being a Guardian at all is enough to make him feel that he’s the one responsible for everybody’s safety. It’s abundantly clear to me that he counts himself as the one responsible for Faith.
I come up behind him, fold my arms around him, and begin gently stroking his smooth, warm torso with my fingers. He goes motionless immediately. I feel the flutter of his pulse through my roaming hands, through my lips slowly brushing kisses up his spine. I let my hands travel further down, and he turns to face me with a smirky, playful little grin.
I give him a deep, deep kiss. More intimate and serious than he was ready for. The teasing grin slips away as he loses himself in kissing me back.
My hands go on exploring until there’s the sound of a soft, indrawn breath from Aiden. Followed by a muffled thump as one of the dumbbells slips out of his hand to land on the rug. He curses and draws back, blushing in embarrassment, then breaks into an eager smile when I laugh and push him towards the bed. I wouldn’t want him to get a bad night of sleep before our trip, after all.
I know the best way to wear him out. And I proceed to wear him out so comprehensively that – to my secret, immense delight and satisfaction – he’s still laying there, dazed and wrecked on the rumpled bed, by the time I come back from my shower.
He slowly, shakily sits up, watching me pull on a pair of shorts. His blue eyes are wide and dreamy, his pupils blown all the way out, his cheeks a deep shade of crimson. His skin is haloed with a soft golden Heliomancer glow.
He eagerly catches me in his arms as I go past the bed. Starts brushing breathless kisses up my side, trying to pull me down into his embrace.
“I have to pack, Sugar Maple,” I laugh, gently, adoringly pushing him away.
He stretches out to watch me, gone all quiet and shy. So quiet, in fact, that I go on packing for a while before I realize he’s dropped off to sleep. I didn’t notice because he’s still glowing.
I give Jumble a snack, turn off the lights, and climb into bed with Aiden. The sheets are scented with sex and vetiver and a trace of laundry soap. The fabric is toasty warm from Aiden’s body.
The familiar chiming of the malachite tree drifts in through the branch window as Luna breezes into our bedroom and hops up to take her usual place at the end of our bed.
“Hey, you,” I laugh quietly. “How was your date?”
She settles down on my feet and tucks her paws beneath herself, blinks serenely at me. I give her ears a scratch, then stretch out next to Aiden and softly kiss his shoulder. He folds an arm around me in his sleep, pulling me in close. I snuggle up in his light, wrapping my arm around his waist.
I shut my eyes to savor one more night of cozy sleep in our own bed before we leave. I need some good rest, too. It’ll be hard to leave home, Luna, Jumble, the saucepan, and Blue tomorrow, but…
Gabby is right. This can’t wait any longer.
We need to find Faith.
~~~~
Port Sitka is windy this afternoon, stretched out beneath a sky full of fluffy grey clouds. The sunshine is a pale shade of white gold. The docks are busy, the restaurants bustling. Everyone looks like they want to eat or work and then get home before the rain arrives.
Ralph is coolly running his gaze over the terrace of the fanciest of the dockside restaurants. The tourists there are eating delicate little fruit tarts and sugar-spun desserts, paired with miniature cups of espresso.
“Man, I’ll never understand.” Ralph looks at me and Aiden, widening his eyes in baffled disbelief. “Rich people can afford three huge, hot meals a day, every day, and what do they eat? Tiny flavored pieces of air.”
Aiden breathes out an affectionate laugh, watching Ralph genuinely try to puzzle through it.
“Yeah, if you and Noah are staying for food I’d try that place instead,” Aiden says, pointing at the restaurant where Robin took us for dinner. “Try and get John for your waiter. He’s the best.”
I bite back a laugh, looking anywhere but at Ralph. He and Noah didn’t explain why they came with us all the way to Port Sitka just to watch us leave, but I’m getting the impression they wanted to see us off safely. Ralph will know that I’ve figured it out if I look at him, and presumably tell me to fuck off, so I keep my eyes trained on the docks instead.
It’s quite a picture. Sailors and dockworkers are hurrying around, unloading and reloading, doing repairs or construction, exchanging good-natured insults and shouted instructions. Seabirds wheel around overhead, or dive down to land on the dripping hawsers running from the ships. Operating schedules are being posted. Smaller boats are weaving between the big ones. Live music drifts from the terrace of one of the restaurants, where a few people are dancing.
Ralph, Aiden, and I weave through the bustling chaos down to the farthest end of the docks, looking for the snack & bait shop where Robin told us to meet her. Robin isn’t there when we find it, but it’s clear we’re in the right place. The dock extending in front of us is lined with much smaller boats than the giant workhorses at the opposite end. Personal boats are moored here, and at the far end of the dock I spot Rose and Leyla, talking to Robin.
Noah – who ran ahead of us, as usual – is near the stairs by the pier, chatting with a sailor. He must be saying something interesting, because Noah is listening to him with fascination in his grey eyes.
“-all the lights blinking red at once,” the sailor is telling Noah, when we come up to join him.
Noah lets out a low whistle. “Damn. Sounds like a bad short circuit.”
“A bad short circuit!” the sailor laughs, shaking his head. “That’s putting it lightly! When we got to the batteries, there were these crazy bands of light like lightning shooting between them. The marine electrician is sitting there concussed in nearly a foot of seawater, mumbling about we need to do something or there’s gonna be an explosion, a hole blown in the hull at any second. And we’re all arguing about who’s got the task of getting to the switch. It was on the other side of those little lightnings snapping across those huge batteries.”
“Holy fuck,” Noah says, his eyes getting wider and wider.
“And while we’re arguing,” the sailor goes on, gesturing down the dock at Robin, “Here comes Captain Cole herself, running down the stairs as if the ship wasn’t pitching like a carnival drop tower in the storm, and when she hears what’s going on, she dives right through all of it, somehow gets her hands on the master disconnect switch.”
“Are you fuckin’ serious?” Noah sputters, deeply impressed. “Shit, bro! That’s a hero move. If she’d touched any single one of those batteries, or those light bands you were talking about – that would’ve been it for her!”
“I know,” the sailor tells Noah, with a little laugh. “Sheer fucking luck she managed to pull the switch as she fell! And we were in a panic because all the ship lights turned off with the switch, so we couldn’t see her… the relief when we heard her shouting back to us! But that’s Robin Cole for you. Not all captains really mean it when they say they don’t ask their crew to do anything they wouldn’t do. The ones who do mean it are somethin’ special.”
The sailor shoots Robin a look of affectionate respect, then picks back up the boxes he had been carrying.
“That was a while ago, though,” he adds. “She’s been more careful with herself ever since she got her girl. We all used to joke that it took finding a sweetheart for Captain Cole to finally figure out the point of self-preservation.”
He lets out a fond laugh, gives Noah a wave, and sets off. Noah bites his pierced lip, his grey eyes growing very unhappy. It’s obvious that the sailor doesn’t know the sweetheart in question has since gone missing.
“Man,” Noah tells Aiden anxiously. “Thank god you guys are on this now. That makes me feel better. I’d feel better about anything if you’re involved, Guardian.”
“Aw.” Aiden slaps his shoulder, gives him a grateful smile as we go past him out onto the pier. “Appreciate that, Noosh. See you guys.”
“Okay, but just – just be careful!” Noah calls after us.
“Keep us updated if you can,” Ralph shouts, as we wave our goodbyes.
Rose and Leyla have said goodbye to Robin, and now they’re headed down the dock towards us. Leyla in a staggeringly elegant, silky jumpsuit in deep purple, with autumn orange patterning. Rose in a modest, dark grey sweater and jeans, with thick woolly socks designed for warmth.
Both of them are red-cheeked from the chill of the autumn afternoon, the salty breeze from the docks. A few droplets of rain sprinkle down as they get closer, and Leyla folds an arm around Rose’s shoulders to keep her dry.
“Take care of our Robin, boys,” Leyla tells us.
“Your Robin?” I laugh, shifting the strap of the bag on my shoulder, moving to let Rose and Leyla past me. “That was fast.”
“Good luck,” Leyla calls over her shoulder, with a fluttering wave.
Rose gives us a thumbs-up, smiling encouragingly at us. Aiden and I head down to the very end of the dock, where Robin is loading up the boat.
She straightens up and tosses her long braid over her shoulder when we reach her. Putting her hands on her hips, which affords me a better look at the tattoos on her hands. They make it look like a continuous string of rope is running between her fingers, and on the front of each knuckle is a different type of sailor’s knot.
She has laborer's hands, with thick calluses and a few little scars. I tend to trust people with hands like that.
My worried eyes rove over her face, taking a close look. Even more time has passed since Faith went missing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Robin was in worse shape now than when we saw her last. I know I’d be falling apart if I was in her shoes.
But it looks like her fiery determination hasn’t slipped at all. If her hope has been eroded by the days that have gone by, it doesn’t show. If anything her very expressive eyes signal that she’s more determined than ever.
“Wow, Robin,” I say admiringly, when she gives us a nod of greeting. “This is a beautiful boat!”
Apparently exactly the right thing to say, because Robin manages to crack a proud smile.
“Moondancer,” she says, resting a hand on the boat. Like she’s introducing us to a dear old friend. “Take your shoes off before you make her acquaintance.”
Aiden pulls off his Timbs, then helps me onto the boat after him. Robin hands us our bags and hops on after us.
“Your cabin is on the starboard side when you go downstairs,” she tells Aiden, with a nod at our bags. “Better get your stuff stowed.”
He heads downstairs, and I do a slow lap of the boat, taking it in. Our home for the next few days.
I know basically nothing about boats, but Moondancer does strike me as very nice. She’s a sleek, mid-sized vessel, painted white and aquamarine. Not as big as some of the other boats around here, and definitely not as new. But if she has some years on her, she must have spent them being lovingly cared for. Nothing is out of place, nothing broken or faded. Even the paint is still fresh and bright, like it was redone recently.
The deck is wide at the back, with a small swimming platform currently folded away. A slender platform winds around either side of the cockpit at the center, connecting the front and back of the deck. A white roof throws shade over the helm station, and the little lounge area around it. The seats in the lounge are soft, with ivory-colored cushions.
The boat as a whole is cozy, but roomy enough. She feels loved and lived in, welcomingly comfortable.
I circle back around to the cockpit, to find that Robin has one of her bags on the seats. She’s unzipped it to reorganize it, but she must have stopped in the middle of doing that. She’s standing motionless, staring back at the docks, her eyes intent on something there.
I follow her gaze to one of the restaurants with an open terrace. The place with live music going on during lunch. The musicians are playing a soft, strumming song on their guitars, and – Leyla is pulling Rose off of the docks towards them.
As Robin and I watch, Leyla slips a few dollars to one of the musicians, murmuring something to him. The musicians pause to confer with each other, then start playing a new song. It’s hard to hear from here, but it sounds like Dedicated to the One I Love, by the Mamas & the Papas.
Leyla gracefully pulls a blushing Rose into her arms. The two of them begin slowly dancing together on the balcony, joining the other couples who had been swaying along. Rose is very pink in the face, but she smilingly tilts her head against Leyla’s. The two of them move with effortless closeness and intimacy, silver and white hair blustering together in the breeze. Somehow you can just tell that they’ve been dancing together for years and years.
Robin watches them with a wistful, longing, anguished expression in her eyes. She slowly lowers her head, biting her lip hard, and runs her fingers over something soft and pink in the bag. I watch her tell herself something firmly, then get back to organizing.
“Hey,” I say gingerly, coming down the little set of stairs to join her. “How are you doing…?”
I trail off, noticing what she’s got in the bag. It’s a fuzzy, coral-pink sweater that looks like nothing she would ever wear. She’s folding it in beside a big warm blanket, a pair of jeans, a pair of socks that would definitely be too small on her…
She packed a bag for Faith, I realize suddenly. For when we find her.
“I’m fine,” Robin says roughly, zipping up the bag. “Are you two all ready? Did you listen to the safety lecture I gave you over the phone, or do you need a review?”
“No, we’re good,” I answer softly, more than a little moved by the blowtorch fires of determination I see in her eyes, by the bag she was packing. “We’re ready. Let’s go.”
Robin gives me a brisk nod, then heads downstairs to stow the last of her stuff. Aiden comes out and joins me on the deck. We sit down in the little lounge behind the helm station, then change our minds and go up to the front, where we sit down a few feet ahead of the windshield on Moondancer’s sleek nose.
Robin pulls in our mooring, takes the helm, and the boat’s engines slowly, softly rumble to life. We glide out quietly onto the water. I twist around to watch the docks falling away, the people growing smaller and smaller.
At the edge of the harbor the waves begin to make themselves known, and the sound of the engine turns up as Robin starts to work it harder. Moondancer seems to hesitate, test the waters, and decide that she likes them. She surges forward with a great rush, cutting through the glittering blue-green ocean like a flying fish. Spray begins to rise up on either side of us. The salt breeze climbs to a fierce rushing wind that breaks against our faces. The boat hums and bounces beneath us.
I catch Aiden’s wrist to balance myself, taking deep, huge breaths of the fresh air. The harbor is already shrinking away in the distance. The towering Sitka spruces on the black cliffs become the dominating feature of the landscape, ringing the harbor like graceful, soaring giants. Then even they begin to grow small.
I turn around again, and find myself facing the open ocean.
“We’re away!” Robin shouts to us.
And we are.
Want to leave a comment? I would love it if you did, and you can do so on the Tapas episode!