Dreams Adrift (A River Dream Novel) (21 page)

Rhiannon seemed about to say something but
stopped herself. “Thank you again, Mike, for everything. I’ll see
you next time you’re in town?”

“
You can count on it, though I
don’t know when that will be. I’ll write you and let you know how
the trip is going.”

“
You had better,” Rhiannon said.
“And I intend to hold you to that promised lunch when you’re in
town.”

“
I know you will,” I said. “In
fact, I’m counting on it.”

Rhiannon looked at me quizzically for a
second. “Bon Voyage, Michael,” she said as she hugged
me.

When I got to the truck, I turned around to
wave good-bye, but she’d already gone inside. I climbed in and
began the long drive back to River Dream.

Thirty-one

My dad and I left River Dream aboard a fully
provisioned
Cuarto
on the day after Labor Day. We traversed
the Inland Waterway to Beaufort and spent the first night tied up
at the town docks. Working our way about twenty-five miles a day
down the coast, alternating between the ocean, the sounds, and the
waterway, we arrived at my mom and dad’s house on the evening of
the fourth day of our cruise.

Mom and Malori made a big deal out of our
arrival. Mom cooked her special chicken supreme for the occasion.
Since it was probably the last home-cooked meal we would have for a
while, I had two extra helpings.

My father slept in his own bed that night. I
slept on the boat. I called Rhiannon, but she wasn’t home, so I
walked up to the pier and, sure enough, there she was behind the
counter.

“
Hey sailor, I thought you’d be in
Nassau by now,” Rhiannon said.

“
Not quite yet,” I laughed. “Four
days at sea and this is as far south as we’ve gotten.”

Rhiannon laughed with me. “Well, you did say
you’d be stopping in on your way by.”

“
Yeah, but we’re heading out at
O-Dark-Thirty,” I said.

“
Then shouldn’t you be getting
some sleep?” Rhiannon asked, frowning with concern.

“
I should, you’re right. I just
wanted to stop by and say ‘Hi’ since I was here.”

“
I’m glad you did, Mike,” Rhiannon
said.

I stayed for a little while longer. She told
me how she was settling in to her new job and the house. I told her
what it was like sailing with my dad. All too soon I realized I
needed to get back to the boat to get some sleep. I said good-night
and left Rhiannon to her work.

Ten days after pulling away from my folk’s
dock on Masonboro Sound, my father and I were hunkered down in
Savannah, Georgia, waiting out Hurricane Hugo. We were very lucky
to find a place for
Cuarto
that allowed her to weather the
storm with no significant damage. What harm was done was fixed up
in a day, and we were back underway.

Savannah wasn’t in the direct path of the
hurricane. That honor was reserved for Charleston, South Carolina.
Once the storm passed and the seas were safe to venture out on, we
left Savannah and set sail south. Two weeks later we docked in Fort
Lauderdale. My father and I spent a few days in Fort Lauderdale
relaxing while he helped me make sure
Cuarto
was ship shape
for the crossing to the islands. Then he caught a flight home, and
I caught a west wind for the Bahamas.

When Thanksgiving came, I sent home my regrets
that I wouldn’t be able to make it home for the holiday. A week
after Thanksgiving, Hans had joined me on board
Cuarto
to
spend a week of vacation sailing the Islands. When he flew home,
Hans took with him my gifts for everyone and my explanation of why
I was staying in the Islands for Christmas. I just wasn’t ready to
face the holidays without Maeve. There in the Islands I could
pretend, in a manner of speaking, that they weren’t really
happening.

Chase, who was teaching technology at North
Carolina State, joined me for a couple of weeks right after
Christmas. We spent New Year’s Eve on Saint Croix. I wound up
dancing with Rochelle, a beautiful young lady from Rouen,
France.

Rochelle’s skin was the color of cafe au lait,
her hair was long and black, and her eyes were so dark I couldn’t
tell the irises from the pupils. Her father was from Senegal, and
her mother was from Aruba. I never did quite understand how they
came to be in Rouen - something about the company Rochelle’s father
worked for. Rochelle was a second year student at the American
University in Paris, on Saint Croix with some school friends for
the holiday.

I don’t know what attracted Rochelle to me.
Maybe it was the grizzled sailor look or the deep tan I’d developed
over all those months at sea. It could be that she just liked older
guys more than the school boys among her peers.

Why didn’t really matter. We enjoyed the
evening talking and dancing, but when the party broke up I’m afraid
I disappointed her when Rochelle suggested that we could go back to
her room. While I’d enjoyed her company, I wasn’t looking for
anything like that. Rochelle said she understood, thanked me for
the evening, kissed me gently, and said good-bye.

“
Mike,” a noticeably inebriated
Chase said. “I don’t know how you let her just walk away. She
obviously dug you.”

As I tried to steer him toward the dock, I
wondered that myself. “Yeah, I know. Maybe I’m an idiot, but it
just didn’t feel like the right thing to do.”

Chase nodded his agreement. “Anyway, I guess
we need to head back to the boat. You drive.”

Being that the club was only a short walk from
the harbor, and we had indeed walked there, Chase was acknowledging
that perhaps he’d had a bit too much to drink and needed my help
finding his way back to the dock. Perhaps if I had taken a drink of
something stronger than club soda and lime, I would have followed
Rochelle back to her room. I put my arm around Chase’s shoulder,
and we found our way back to
Cuarto
.

When the season for college spring break
approached, I made port and arranged to leave
Cuarto
docked
for a week or so while I flew home to spend time with the folks.
The sea, sun, wind, and friendly folks on the Islands had been
working their therapeutic magic on me. I was feeling much more at
peace with myself.

Thirty-two

Malori, who was home for Spring Break, picked
me up at the airport in my GTO the Monday afternoon I
arrived.

“
Dad thought you might like to
drive your own car while you’re home,” she explained.

“
That was thoughtful of him,” I
said, holding my hand out for the keys. “And you just happened to
be available to drive it out here to meet me.”

“
Hey, what can I say, I’ve missed
my big brother,” Malori said.

We got into the car. I drove. We headed out to
the beach.

“
How long are you going to stay
home, Mike?” Malori asked once we were on the road.

“
I’ll be here at least a week,
maybe longer. My return ticket is for next Monday. I can always
change that if I decide to,” I said.

“
It hardly seems worth going all
that way back just to turn around and come back for Easter,” Malori
said.

My coming back for Easter wasn’t a sure thing,
but I didn’t want to tell her just then.

“
What are you talking about? I’ll
get in more than two good weeks of cruising,” I said
instead.

Snickering, Malori said, “The Islands will
never be the same.”

I laughed. “What are you trying to say, sister
mine?”

“
Oh, nothing at all,” Malori said
with all the innocence she could muster. “You know that UNCW is
closed all this week.”

“
It usually is,” I
said.

Malori looked sideways at me as we rode along
Eastwood Road. “That means that Rhiannon is off all this
week.”

“
That would stand to reason,” I
said.

“
You did say you would take her
out to lunch when you were home,” Malori reminded me.

“
I said we could get together for
lunch,” I corrected her. “That’s not quite the same as taking her
out.”

“
You are splitting hairs,” Malori
said. “I told her you were coming home today.”

“
You didn’t have to do that,” I
told her as we stopped for the light at the drawbridge. “I had
written and told her last time I made landfall near a post
office.”

“
I know,” Malori informed me, “she
told me.”

“
Do you and Rhiannon talk much?” I
asked, feigning annoyance.

“
When I was at UNCW I would see
her almost every day. We usually had breakfast together at the
Hawks’ Nest before she went to work,” Malori told me. “Once I went
off to Notre Dame, we wrote each other a lot. She kept me up to
date on what was going on around here, and I kept her in the loop
on what I’d heard from you.”

The light turned green, so I put the car in
gear and we rolled over the bridge. “Oh, really, isn’t that
interesting.”

“
We ran into each other a couple
of mornings early last semester and it just sort of became a
routine,” Malori explained. “She’s been kind of like a big sister
to me.”

That brought a twinge. I could see it did for
Malori, too. Maeve had been the big sister Malori had longed for. I
guess I was glad Rhiannon had been there to step into that role and
yet…

Looking at me, Malori said, “I still miss her
too, Michael.”

“
Yeah,” was all I managed to say
as I fought back tears. We rode the rest of the way to our folks’
house lost in our own thoughts.

Thirty-three

My father must have had some kind of early
warning radar. He was waiting for us at the bottom of the steps
when we pulled down the road to the house. He came around to the
driver’s side as I shut off the engine.

“
Welcome home, Michael. How was
your flight?”

“
It was long and circuitous,” I
told him as I climbed from the car. “I couldn’t go straight from
there to here. I had to go several other places first.”

He laughed, “It still beat walking, I
reckon.”

“
Yes, it did. Especially since I
would have to swim a lot before I could walk,” I joked
back.

He gestured to the stairs. “Well, come on
inside. Your mom’s dying to see you.”

When I went into the kitchen, I could smell
lasagna baking in the oven.

“
Hi, Mom, that smells delicious,”
I said as I gave her a hug.

“
I am glad you think so. I have
been keeping it warm for you since your birthday,” my mother said
with a straight face. “You did not show up to eat it.”

“
It was a long swim against an
outgoing tide,” I offered as a way of excuse.

“
I am sure it was. It is good to
see you, Michael,” my mother said.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath,
drawing in the familiar scents of home. “It’s good to be here,” I
said.

“
It still has a while to bake, so
we can sit down and you can tell me all about your travels,” my
mother said, wiping her hands on a towel and pulling out a
chair.

My father fixed us some iced tea, and we sat
around the kitchen table while I told them all about what I’d been
up to since I dropped my father off in Fort Lauderdale.

By the time I finished my story, my mother
announced that supper was ready. I’d just stood up to see what I
could do to help when I heard a car pull up outside.

Looking from me to the door and back at me, my
mother said, “I hope you do not mind, Michael; I invited Rhiannon
to join us.”

Since it must have been Rhiannon who’d just
driven up, I don’t think it mattered much if I minded or not. My
father and Malori went out to meet her.

Presented with a fait accompli, I chose to be
gracious. “No, I don’t mind. It will be good to see
her.”

Interestingly enough, as soon as I said it, I
realized that it really would be good to see her.

“
Rhiannon has been such a good
friend to Malori since she moved back. And she has been looking
forward to seeing you as well,” my mother told me.

“
Really,” I said, a bit surprised.
“Do you see her often?”

“
In the evenings your father and I
usually take a walk up to the pier. It is how we get our exercise.
Rhiannon has been helping Ed and Lind out in the evenings now and
then. We usually have a chance to chat while your dad is talking
with the guys.”

“
Is that how you’ve kept your
youthful figure, Mom?” I asked with a grin.

Blushing lightly, my mother laughed, “Michael,
do not be fresh. But thank you for noticing.”

I got up from the table and went out onto the
deck. Rhiannon had just started up the stairs. She looked up,
spotted me, and broke into a big smile.