Knockdown (5 page)

I climbed up the four steps to the cockpit opening. “Cole. Ready for lunch?”

Angelina and her sister jolted awake. The little girl rubbed her eyes. “I am!”

Cole nodded. “Sounds good. What you got?”

“Takumi’s making lunch. Mom loaded us with lots of perishable food. We’ll use it first.” I glanced at the girls.

Makala
scrunched her face.

“What’s wrong
, munchkin?” Jervis leaned across the cockpit.

“I don’t like per’s
hible food,” she whimpered.

I managed a weak grin and waited for Takumi to join me.

Chapter Five

Fourteen Hours Before

The seas were still calm. The boat rocked gently. I sat in the captain’s seat across from the galley and watched Takumi make sandwiches. I rested my elbows on a desk Dad called the ‘chart table.’ The constant hum of the engine filled the salon and heated it.

“Do you think anyone will want mayo?” Takumi opened the loaf of
organic whole-grain bread.

“Probably.” I didn’t care for mayo, but my brothers did. “Just put a little on all of them. We can’t start by making special meals for anyone.”

He laid nine pieces of bread out on the cutting board that fit over the stove. Finding a knife in the drawer, he began slicing and piecing the chicken sections onto the bread.

“That’s a smart way to do it.” I grabbed the hand rail as the boat gently rolled.

Takumi kept working. “How would you do it?”

“I’d make one sandwich at a time, I guess.”

“You don’t cook much, do you?” Takumi spread another thin layer of mayo on the top bread slices.

I shrugged
. “No. Mom tried to teach me, but cooking takes too long. You spend hours making something that disappears in minutes.”

Takumi smiled. He had a nice smile. I felt a rush of heat on my face.

“Cole likes to mess around in the kitchen when he has time. And Dylan barbecues. I’m happy with yogurt. Easy and fast.”

Slicing the sandwiches in half, Takumi searched for a plate in the cupboard above the fridge. “I like to cook. My fathe
r gave some cooking classes to Mom a few years ago and I went with her. It was kinda fun.”

I fiddled with the panel switches. “Guess everyone has a different idea of what’s fun.”

He became quiet, his eyes downcast while he piled the sandwiches on a large plate. “I think cooking is creative.” He held up the plate for me to see. “What else?”

“There are chips in the locker.” I pointed. “And grapes. We can open a box of cookies for dessert.”

He stood still for a few seconds and then set the plate down. “This food has to last a long time, right?”

I nodded.

“We should leave the chips and cookies for later. Grapes and sandwiches are good for now. If the chips and cookies are sealed, they’ll keep. Grapes and bread won’t.”

“Fine,” I agreed. “And after lunch, why don’t I show you where
we’ve put the rest of the food we brought. You can figure out the best way to use it.”

“Whoa, I didn’t mean to sound like an expert. I just thought…” Takumi’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Yeah, you did, and I didn’t. That’s the point. I get hungry. I eat. I don’t think about it, nor do I want to. If you can make this food last, and think it is fun to create meals out of what we have, then it should be your job.”

“My job?” H
e washed the grapes and put them in a bowl.

“I’ll help, but I wouldn’t know where to begin. And having someone in charge is good.”

“I …I …,” Takumi stuttered.

With sandwiches in hand
, I started up the stairs. The sun was warm. There was no wind and the waters were flat, except for the occasional swell. I couldn’t remember ever making the passage when the sea was so calm. Maybe it was because there weren’t any other boats. Or maybe we just happened to hit the tides right.

The
seating area in the back of the boat, called the cockpit, was crowded with nine people. We opened the teak table and put the plate of sandwiches and bowl of grapes in the middle. Jervis and Zoë sat on one bench. Angelina and Makala sat across from them on the other. Cole stood behind the wheel. I handed him a sandwich.

Dylan and Nick settled into the molded seats at the corners of the stern. I climbed
in behind Angelina and Makala, making their back support my seat. I slid my legs between them. Takumi handed out bottles of water and then sat the same way between Jervis and Zoë.

“Everyone gets two halves. That’s it.” I took my sandwich.

“Good sandwiches,” Cole said with his mouth full.

“Yeah, who made them?” Dylan grinned at me.

I laughed. “Okay, you guys. I know I’m no good in the kitchen, or in this case, the galley. But I did something better. I found us a chef. Takumi has taken cooking classes.”

The group stared at Takumi. He started to take a b
ite of his sandwich, but then rested it on his knee. “I was twelve.”

“Has anyone else had cooking lessons?”
I saw nothing but blank faces. “Okay, then. Job’s yours.” I smiled at Takumi.

He frowned
.

Zoë
opened her sandwich and threw the chicken overboard. “I’m vegetarian.”

I glanced
at Takumi. We’d been wrong. We should have asked what they would and wouldn’t eat. We couldn’t afford to waste food.

Jervis
finished the last of his halves and licked his fingers. “Great. What’s for dinner?”

Smiles
filled the cockpit. It felt weird to be having lighthearted conversation after what we’d just been through, but it was also nice.

Makala
whispered in her sister’s ear. Angelina nodded, took the little girl’s second half of her sandwich, and held it out to Jervis. “She wants you to have this. She says you are big and she is small.”

Jervis
’ eyes glistened as he took the sandwich. He held it gingerly, but didn’t eat it.

“Want me to
take a picture?” Dylan feigned reaching into his pocket.

Jervis
shoved the whole sandwich into his mouth.

Makala
giggled.

We passed the bowl of grapes around, flicking the stems into the water. For a
long while we were each lost in his or her thoughts. I checked my cell for service. It was still out.

Zoë
listened to old messages, over and over again. Jervis shared pictures on his phone of his three little sisters and his mom. For a second I thought his eyes welled up, but I might have been mistaken.

I put my phone away. “Someone tell me about the volcanoes. Why did a whole bunch of them go off?”

“Volcanoes?” Angelina swiveled to face me. “I thought you said a tsunami?”

“Dylan said volcanoes set off the tsunami.” I searched for someone to fill me in.

Nick grabbed a handful of grapes and threw a rotten one overboard. “A guy on the radio said there was a big tectonic plate shift on the other side of the Pacific. Over half the volcanoes in Indonesia went off.”

“
What’s In’o’esia?” Makala asked.

“It’s an island country between India and Australia
,” Takumi said. “What about Japan’s volcanoes?”

Nick put a grape in his mouth.
“The radio didn’t say anything about Japan, except that the tsunami was headed straight for it.”

“My parents are there.”
Takumi’s voice cracked.

Nick shook his head
. “Sorry, dude.” He threw a couple more grapes overboard, and then continued. “The radio also said the last time a giant volcano went off in Indonesia, there was a year of winter around the world. Since so many erupted this time, no one knows how long this winter might last. It might even trigger another Ice Age.”

“Ice
Age?” Zoë yelped.

Nick spoke with his mouth full. “The radio dude said something about sulfur blocking the sun.”

Dylan nodded. “That’s why we’re taking the boat out to sea and sailing south. The weather will be warmer the farther south we go.”

“I don’t get it. Won’t the mega
-wave crush this boat?” Zoë asked.

Cole and Dylan stared at
each other. It was Cole who finally answered. “When a tsunami is far out at sea, it’s just a fast-moving bump, or giant swell. Most boaters don’t even realize they’ve gone over a small tsunami.”

Dylan put his hand on C
ole’s shoulder. “If we close this sailboat up tight, even if the tsunami bump is huge and we tip completely over, the boat will come back up. Sailors call this a knockdown. But we have to be far out to sea for this to work. Close to shore the wave will crest and smash—”

Cole nudged Dylan. Makala’s eyes had grown wide with terror.

“What?” Dylan scowled.

Cole smiled at Makala. “Close to shore
, the tsunami will look like the wave you are thinking of.”

It was a lot to take in. I nodded at my brothers and the
y went back to eating. Takumi watched the passing shoreline. Angelina hugged Makala. I shivered, although the sun was warm.

When all the sandwiches were gone,
Dylan brushed the crumbs off his lap and onto the deck. “So, Angelina, how did you two end up living in a tent?”

Jervis
jerked upright and growled, “That’s none of your business.”

“What’s your problem?” Dylan squared his shoulders.

“You’re my problem. You’ve been harassing Angelina since she showed up at the dock.”

Dylan leapt to his feet. “Harassing? I asked a simple question.”

Jervis glanced down at the girls huddled on the bench across from him. “It doesn’t concern you why they were living in a tent.” He fixed his eyes on Dylan. “I’m sick of you acting like you’re some kind of god. Deciding who can come on your precious boat. Who we can save.”

“Oh yeah
?” Dylan gritted his teeth.

“Yeah!”

“Well, get used to it.” Dylan snarled. “This is my boat.”

“Dylan!” Cole glared at our brother
.

Jervis
leapt across the stern. Dylan braced himself. Cole grabbed Jervis and got an elbow in the ribs. Cole fell to the deck, letting go of the wheel. The boat spun in a circle, out of control.

Dylan
fell and smashed his nose on the cockpit bench. Blood covered Dylan’s face.

“Knock it off
, you guys!” I screamed.

Nick and Takumi grabbed Dylan by the arms and pulled him away from
Jervis. I grabbed a greasy deck towel for his nose.

Jervis
scrambled to his feet and prepared to come at Dylan again. Nick stepped in front of Dylan. The boat rolled to the side. Dylan fell back onto Takumi and Zoë, his blood splattering Zoë’s designer top.

“This isn’t cool
,” Nick shouted as he blocked Jervis.

The boat rocked again. Nick’s arm circled
Jervis’s neck.

Jervis
stopped struggling. “Okay, okay,” he said.

Nick relaxed his hold and let go
.

Takumi
helped Dylan onto a bench. I pressed the towel against his nose.

Cole got control of the boat, turned to
Jervis and pointed. “Go sit in the bow and cool off.”

We held our breath.
Jervis stared angrily at Cole, but finally huffed and made his way to the front of the boat. He plopped down, his back to us.

I g
lanced around the cockpit. Grapes rolled on the blood-splattered floor. The bowl and sandwich plate had slid off the table and onto the seat where Jervis had been. Half-empty bottles of precious water were spilling onto the deck. I hurried to pick up the bottles. I snatched up the sandwich plate and glanced around.

Ang
elina and Makala were gone.

Chapter Six

Eleven Hours Before

I stood at the bottom of the stairs and let my eyes adjust to the darkened cabin. I found Angelina and Makala huddled on the bed in the stern. Angelina was holding Makala, who whimpered in her arms.

“Are you guys hurt?” I asked.

Angelina shook her head.

I sat on the edge of the bed
. “I’m sorry if the guys scared you.”

Angel
ina nodded. “We didn’t mean to cause trouble.”

“Of course you didn’t.” I reached out and patted her knee.

“Your brother doesn’t want us here.”

“Dylan di
dn’t mean anything.”

Sh
e brushed Makala’s hair off her face. “Will your brother make Jervis leave the boat?”