Knockdown (6 page)

“No. Of course not
,” I assured her.

Makala stopped crying and put her thumb in her mouth. Th
e boat rocked. The engine roared in the back bedroom and made it hot and stuffy. I opened an outside hatch to let some air in.

“Our mom
is in the hospital,” Angelina said and glanced at her cell.

“Oh
, no!” I sat back on the bed. “What’s wrong with her?”

She showed me the ‘no service
’ message and powered off the phone. “Our stepfather hurt her.”

I rested my hand on her leg. “I’m so sorry.”

“
Daddy died two years ago.” Her head hung low. “I had to get Mom to the hospital. When I got home, our stepfather was drunk and…” Angelina hesitated. “I packed some camping gear, Makala, and ran away.”

I
closed my eyes and grimaced.

“When
our mom is better we’re going to go to Mexico and live with my grandparents. Mom’s family lives in Mexico.”

I hoped her mother was well enough to get out
of the city before the tsunami, but I didn’t say anything.

“
Um, excuse me. Have you seen my backpack?” Zoë stood in the cabin doorway, her shirt covered in blood.

I jumped, startled, and almost hit my head
. “It’s gotta be here somewhere. I tossed all our packs on the bed earlier.” Lifting quilts and pillows, I searched for her bright green and gold bag.

Zoë
had a puzzled look on her face. “Are you girls all right?”

Angelina muttered, “We’re fine.”

I picked up Angelina’s large pack to check under it. Angelina dropped Makala onto the bed, lurched, and snatched the pack from my fingers. She quickly shoved it behind her, placed a pillow on top, and leaned against it.

Zoë
raised her eyebrows. I didn’t know what to think. I reached for Zoë’s green and gold bag. It had been under Angelina’s larger one.

“Is there someplace I can store my
things?” Zoë climbed up beside me.

“You can have that locker,” I pointed to the cupboard at the head of the bed, closest to the door.
“Angelina and Makala, you take the locker at the far end, and I’ll put my stuff in the middle.”

I stood and opened the mirrored closet door. “We’ll have to share the closet, but it’s bigger than it looks. Really deep. And see, we have our own sink and mirror.”

“I don’t need much room. I didn’t bring much.” Zoë dumped sport shoes, socks, and pom-poms out of her pack, and heaved them into the overhead locker.

I forced myself not to
roll my eyes again. At least she had some shoes besides the flimsy sandals she was wearing.

Makala sat up, eyes twinkling at the pom
-poms. I grinned and watched Zoë pull ace bandages, Ziploc bags of Band-Aids, and instant ice packs out of the bottom of her pack.

“What’s all this?” I picked up a medical manual.

She pulled out a blood pressure cuff. “I was afraid of this. I don’t have any cotton.” She cocked her head to the side. “Do you have a first aid kit on board?”

“Of course,” I gestured to the piles of medical supplies. “But why do you…” I put the book down. “Why do you have all this stuff?”

“Didn’t Dylan tell you? I take classes in sports medicine at the University of Washington. I get credit for helping out with the sports teams. I have to be at school to do cheer anyway.”

My
jaw dropped.

“My parents
and my sister are doctors.” She picked at the fuzz on a quilt. “Anyway, they want me to follow in their footsteps, so I agreed to give it a try.” She zipped her now empty bag closed and shoved it into the cabinet. “Where’s the first aid kit?”

“This way
,” I said.

Zoë
gathered up the medical supplies and followed me.

I opened a cupboard across from the bathroom and showed
Zoë to the foot-long white plastic box that sat on the top shelf. Below the shelf, bottles of liquor, wine, and plastic cocktail glasses were scattered.

“This is great.”
Zoë placed her medical supplies on the shelf next to the kit and picked up a bottle of gin. “We can use this to disinfect wounds and even dishes if we can’t boil water.”

This girl was full of surprises.

She handed me the bottle, then took some cotton balls out of the first aid kit. Nick walked up behind us and peeked into the liquor cabinet. “Party time!”

“No way, dude
.” Zoë pushed him away. “Medical use only.”

“Debbie Downer,” Nick mumbled
and hurried into the bathroom.

Zoë
and I laughed. For a moment I wondered if we could someday be friends.

M
akala stood in the bedroom door with her thumb in her mouth.

“How about a quick tour
?” I asked the girls.

Zoë
gazed up the stairs to the deck. “Let me pack Dylan’s nose and get ice on it first. I think it’s broken.”

“Broken,
” I squeaked.

“Yeah, it’s not all that serious. A nose is just cartilage and
heals fast, but if I pack and tape it, I might keep it straight.” She opened the freezer and began to make an ice pack. “Don’t want to mess up that handsome face.”

Nick and
Zoë left to go up top. I turned to Makala. “Why don’t you get your sister? I need to show you guys how to use the toilet.”

Makala had fun moving the toilet pump handle up and down, and since
it was salt water, I let her pump it again and again. Angelina quietly watched, clutching her large pack.

Zoë
came back and I looked at her quizzically.

“He’ll be fine,” she said. “But he’ll have quite the sinus headache.”

I asked Makala to show Zoë how to flush. She was an enthusiastic teacher.

I opened the cupboard door in the back of the shower. “Here’s wh
ere I store the towels. Mom usually assigns each of us a towel for the week. Guess I should do that too.”

“We take showers in
my mommy’s hospital room,” Makala said brightly.

“I need a shower.”
Zoë examined her blood-splattered top and face in the mirror. She turned on the water in the sink. Steam began to rise. “I didn’t have time this morning.”

“
Zoë, we have to conserve water.” I quickly shut the tap off and handed her a wash cloth. “Sorry. No showers.”

A look of horror
flew across her face. “What! No shower? Never?”

I thought for a second. “We could set up a sun shower. It’s a big thermal bag. We could fill it with seawater and set it in the sun to warm. It has a tube and shower head we could put in here.
” I pointed at the shower stall. “Remind me to fix it up later.”

“A salt water shower?”
Zoë made a face.

“Better than nothing.”

She sighed, scrubbed the blood off her face, and followed me out of the bathroom.

We peeked into the cabin in the bow of the boat. It had always been my
parents’ bedroom. “Dylan and Cole should sleep here.” We moved to the main salon. “This is like the living room of the boat. That table folds out to twice the size.” I pointed to the tabletop attached to the wall and then to the sofas. “And this couch becomes a double bed. I guess Nick and Takumi can sleep here. My brothers say that when they race the boat, one spreads out this way and the other sleeps the opposite way.” I pointed. “They have to stare at each other’s feet, but it’s better than face to face.”

Makala giggled.

We turned to a couch on the other side of the room. “And Jervis can sleep on this couch, although it will be a little small.”

Makala fro
wned at the narrow sofa.

“The cushion back comes off. See?” I pulled off th
e sofa back and the couch grew almost twice as wide. Makala still didn’t look convinced.

“We’
ll take turns day and night sailing the boat, so we won’t all be in bed at the same time. It won’t be as crowded as it seems.”

“A TV
!” Makala squealed as she climbed on Jervis’ couch and began pushing the flat screen’s buttons.

“M
akala, get down.” Angelina scowled.

The little girl’s face fell
and she put her hands behind her back.

“Sorry
,” I chimed in. “It doesn’t get reception unless we are at a port. But we have DVDs and a cord to connect tablets to it. But once we start sailing, power will be a problem.”

Makala climbed
down, grabbed her sister’s leg and pouted.

I opened a locker on the wall next to the chart table and took out a pile of movies. Makala and Angelina pushed away some of the gear on the couch, sat, and began to sort through them.

Zoë followed me to the small, U-shaped galley kitchen.

“This
of course, is the kitchen, or galley. We can only keep the refrigerator going while the engine is running.” I opened a door to the side of the sink. “Garbage goes in here.”

“And
now we’re back at the girls’ room,” I pointed to the aft cabin we’d started out in. “We’ll sleep here.”

“You mean all the girls?”
Zoë took a step back. “The four of us will have to sleep together? All in the same bed?”

Medical girl or not, she didn’t seem to be getting it. “We are a little short on beds
,” I reminded her.

Zoë
eyed my brother’s cabin and raised her brows at me.

“Whatever.” I shrugged.

Chapter Seven

Ten Hours Before

Zoë removed her pom-poms and shoes from the storage in the girls’ room and stowed them in Dylan and Cole’s cabin. I wondered how Cole would feel about sharing his bed with her and Dylan, but decided to let him deal with it. I hunted through my clothes for a shirt that would fit Zoë. Most of my tops would be too tight. I told her we could go through Mom’s things later. She didn’t look pleased.

I
left Angelina and Makala with the old DVDs and climbed up on deck. I was surprised to see Nick behind the wheel. Cole was talking softly to Jervis.

Zoë
cradled Dylan’s head on her lap. I joined Takumi on the bench across from them. He smiled at me and I smiled back. I waited. Sure enough, my cheeks burned.

Cole came back to the stern and stopped beside the wheel. He chec
ked the wind, and asked me to gather together all the lifejackets I could find.

I groaned. I’d just sat down. But I
searched around and ended up tossing the life vests the guys found and the ones we already had into a big pile on the floor of the cockpit.

Cole cleared his throat. “Okay
, guys. We need to talk. Angelina and Makala, would you come up please. Jervis, we need you here too. Dylan, sit up.”

Jervis
stood next to the cabin, halfway between the stern and the bow. He held onto the frame of the canvas cover.

Cole squared his shoulders. “First thing, w
e will be in the open ocean in a few hours. Everyone who comes up from the cabin from now on needs to wear a life jacket.” He pointed to the stack on the floor.

“Second, we are living in close quarters. No matter how angry we get, we
cannot threaten or harm a fellow shipmate.”

Jervis
glared at Dylan.

Dylan shrugged.

Cole faced Jervis. “The tsunami is going to hit in ten hours. We have to sail all night. My brother’s hurt and I need his help.”

Dylan piped in, “I’m
fine.”

Cole held up his hand. “The point I’m trying to make is that we can’t afford to have anyone injured.
” He pointed at Jervis. “No matter what, Dylan and I are in charge of the boat. What we say goes. Are you good with that?”

Jervis
bit his lip and nodded.

“Dyl
an, this is not your boat. It’s our parents’ boat and now home for all of us.” Cole gripped the wheel. “If things go well, we are going to be together for a long time. Are you okay with Angelina and Makala on board?”

“What?” Dylan
seemed totally surprised. He turned to Angelina. “At first I couldn’t believe that Toni would ask people we don’t even know to come with us, but I’m fine with having you on board.”

“Good.” Cole glanced at Angelina and back to Dylan. “What about you and
Jervis? Can you two get along?”

Dylan nodded and
took the ice pack off his nose. His nose and eyes were turning black and blue. “Jervis? We good?” he asked.

Jervis
grimaced at Dylan’s bruising. “Yeah.”

“Okay.”
Cole rubbed his eyes. “Now everyone pick out a lifejacket.”