The Raft (11 page)

“You've been reading Von Mises, again.”
Rachael smiled.

“I think the whole Raft has. We call it Sum.
We'd call it money... but then, you know, the tax man would want
his share. But it's money by another name. Better than money in
many ways.”

“And the Wizard's horde of treasure?”

“Gandalf's insurance policy.”

“Insurance?”

“Yes, for the Exchange. To encourage people
to accept Sum as currency. See, Sum
isn't
anything tangible.
No more than the US Dollar is. Both are total fiat currencies.
They're worth something because people believe they are. But the
dollar is backed by the might and grandeur of the US government.
And its use of its police powers to extract taxes. If there was
ever a run on the dollar... well, people understand that there's
something there backing it: the tax base of the American people.
The Exchange has no tax base, no user fees, no actual value to back
its promissory notes should there be a run on the bank. So, with
what greenbacks Gandalf had, he bought gold. Gold ingots, gold
jewelry, gold plates, gold teeth – anything gold. And with that he
backed his currency. Rumor has it all hidden away in the bowels of
the
Kalakala
– in a secret treasure room – filled to the
brim with gold. Should the value of Sum collapse, Gandalf can throw
open his vault doors and prop up the currency. Thereby saving the
Raft.”

“That isn't true, is it?” Rachael
laughed.

“No, I doubt it, but the legend has done the
trick. Everyone trusts Sum. Everyone on the Raft. And scarecrows
like Tea Queen willingly trade their hard earned greenbacks for the
mythical existence of the magic room full of treasure.”

“You're all insane,” the realization hit
Rachael. “Certifiably insane.”

“Perhaps,” Maggie winked.

Chapter 10

“I figured I'd be seeing you today sooner or
later,” Tea Queen said, a baby cradled on her left hip. She was
standing in the companionway of her small sailboat, the
Strange
Dream
, watching Maggie secure their two crafts together. “Cup
of tea?” she asked.

“Please,” Maggie replied, stepping across
from the deck of the
Soft Cell
to the deck of the
Strange
Dream
. Tea Queen and the baby vanished down into the
companionway. Maggie, with Rachael in tow, circled around the small
craft's deck and down its short cabin ladder.

The cramped cabin below was dominated by the
baby's crib. In fact, it consumed the entirety of floor space of
the tiny twenty-foot yacht. Tea Queen deposited the fussing baby
into the large, high-railed structure and leaned over it to start a
kettle of water on the galley stove. Beyond the crib, on the boat's
fore bunk, sat a young bearded man working at a laptop. He raised
his head as Maggie and Rachael shoehorned themselves into what free
space there was below decks.

“Rocket,” Maggie nodded at the young man.
Like Tea Queen, Rocket had an unwashed, hippie air about him. His
blond hair was a nest of messy, half-matted dreadlocks, his
shirtless chest hidden behind a sizable collection of
necklaces.

“You know Tea ain't had nothing to do with
any of it?” Rocket said with a bleary-eyed quality to his voice.
“Right?”

“And what would 'it' be?” Maggie replied,
leaning herself up against the companionway's steps.

“Meerkat.” Rocket poked a finger at his
laptop's screen. “It's already hit the Exchange. And here you are,
not twenty minutes later... Tea didn't have nothing to do with any
of it – whatever happened. Last Tea saw Meerkat last night, she was
okay...”

“I just came to talk,” Maggie held up a
calming hand. “I'm not here to accuse anybody.”

“Good, 'cause -”

“I came to talk to Tea Queen,” Maggie
interrupted. “Unless you were aboard the
Geoduck
last night,
too?”

“Nah,” Rocket replied after a pause.

“How's Firecracker?” Maggie asked Tea Queen,
leaning forward and holding out a finger to the baby. “You're
getting big, yes you are...” she said to the child in baby
babble.

“Healthy and sleeping nights,” Tea Queen
replied, not looking away from the galley stove. “All hands and
grabbing things, though, so I can't take my eye off the stove. But
then you know what they say about watched pots...”

“You were out last night?” Maggie got to the
point.

“I was,” Tea Queen said forthrightly. “With
Meerkat, on the
Geoduck
, as you already know, or else you
wouldn't be here – and before you ask, she was alive and well when
she dropped me off here. Last I saw of her, she was motoring off in
her dinghy, heading home to the
Straight Dope
. It was late,
and I'd been drinking, sure, but Meerkat was stone-cold sober. It
weren't no sailing accident, I can tell you that.”

The baby, Firecracker, had grabbed Maggie's
finger and they were playing tug-of-war. The kettle started
boiling, Tea Queen busied herself with the pot.

“You were celebrating?” Maggie asked, almost
absentmindedly.

“No, no celebration. A goodbye party.”

“A what?” Maggie looked up in surprise.

“Meerkat was putting her boots on. Though she
hadn't told anyone but me.”

“Meerkat was leaving the Raft?” Rachael
asked. “Why?”

Tea Queen poured the boiling water into the
teapot and covered it with a cozy to steep. She turned away from
the galley and looked at Maggie and Rachael for the first time.
“You know how we used to be...” Tea Queen began, almost
apologetically.

“Sure,” Maggie nodded.

But Rachael didn't. Tea Queen seemed to feel
a need to explain. “We were wild, all of us.” She cocked a thumb at
Rocket. “But we cleaned up our act when Firecracker came along. You
have to, you know, when it's not just you anymore. At some point
you learn there are things more important than yourself...”

“Yes,” Rachael agreed.

“But it wasn't so easy for Meerkat, you
understand? Living with Horus... in his line of work, with the shit
around you all the time... it was getting bad. You know, you don't
see it until you clean yourself up, just how bad everyone else has
gotten. It's like you suddenly get your sense of smell back and
realize how bad the whole world stinks. And Meerkat was starting to
reek, if you know want I mean. And I think no one knew it better
than Meerkat herself.

“So, she got it in her head to get clean. But
she knew she wasn't gonna do it out here on the Raft... with no
resources and living with Horus, almost right on top of each other.
She put her boots on, sneaked ashore. Checked herself into one of
them places – rehab. Two-week program. I don't know if Horus even
realized she was gone.”

“When was this?” Maggie asked.

“Six months ago? Maybe. Right after
Firecracker was born,” Rocket interjected.

“And Horus was okay with it?”

“Must have been,” Tea Queen shrugged. “Once
Meerkat got back, once she got clean, she had outpatient visits.
Horus used to sneak her ashore to attend them. Well, had Chemical
Ali do it when he was making deliveries.”

Maggie gave Rachael a knowing look.

“But Meerkat had finally had enough? She was
putting her boots back on permanently?”

“That's what she told me.” Tea Queen suddenly
remembered her pot and turned to the galley. She poured out the tea
into four small, plastic cups and passed them out to everyone
present. A little tea, she poured into a sippy cup, along with a
large helping of milk, and handed it to Firecracker. “Called me up
out of the blue and told me she had finally cleaned up all the mess
she'd left onshore. She was free to return home, get off the Raft.
And with her life back together, she was going to take the chance.
So we rowed for the
Geoduck
and made a night of it. I guess
I really did the celebrating for both of us.”

“And nothing happened aboard the
Geoduck
? No arguments, no fights?”

“Nope, just drinking and dancing.”

“Meerkat dance with anyone in particular?”
Rachael asked.

“No, we just danced together,” Tea Queen
answered over the rim of her tea cup. “You know how girls are.”

Rachael blushed.

“And she brought you back here? At what?
Three?”

“Something like that.”

“Rocket?” Maggie looked over at Tea Queen's
scruffy husband.

“Yeah, she woke me and I remember looking at
the clock. Maybe 2:45.”

“And she just motored off, back towards the
Straight Dope
? Where was it moored? Where were you moored?
Here?”

“No, we were both at the rim of the main
Raft, circling the
Kalakala.
Rocket moved us here into WiFi
range this morning while Firecracker and I were sleeping.”

Maggie listened, nodded, and sipped her
tea.

For a long moment, the cabin was filled only
with the sound of Rocket tapping away at his laptop and Firecracker
sucking at her bottle.

“One more thing,” Maggie asked, breaking the
silence. “Was Meerkat... pregnant?”

“What?” Tea Queen recoiled in surprise.
“What, no. I mean, she'd have said. No. Why?”

“We found tests... aboard the
Straight
Dope
.”

“No, she was...” Tea Queen started and then
trailed off. “No, she would have told me,” she said flatly.

“Thank you for the tea,” Maggie handed her
cup back to Tea Queen. Rachael realized that was the cue to leave,
and quickly gulped down the last of her cup.

“Thank you,” Rachael also passed back her
cup.

“Are you going ashore?” Tea Queen asked as
Maggie turned to climb the companionway stairs. “After Horus?”

“Sorry?” Maggie turned back.

“The Exchange says that Horus put his boots
on. Are you going after him? Bringing him back?”

“I-I hadn't thought about it,” Maggie
answered honestly.

“Bring him back and let the Raft take care of
him, Maggie,” Tea Queen said sternly, still holding the two tea
cups in her hands. “Don't let them dryfoots get him. Let the Raft
take care of this. Even if Meerkat was going ashore, she was still
one of ours. Don't let them dryfoots punish Horus for a crime that
happened aboard the Raft.”

“I won't,” Maggie assured. “Thanks again,”
she said and pulled herself up and out of the companionway.

Chapter 11

With the
Soft Cell
under sail once
again, moving away from the
Strange Dream
, Maggie and
Rachael sat in silence. The sails snapped in the breeze and Maggie
steered towards open water, absentmindedly lost in her own
thoughts.

Slowly, it occurred to Rachael that she had
to pee.

All the ice water aboard the
Geoduck
and then a cup of tea with the Tea Queen, and Rachael could feel
nature calling. As Maggie sat at the helm, musing, Rachael slipped
down through the companionway of the
Soft Cell
, down the set
of steps into the cabin below.

Maggie's living quarters were far more
spacious than the cabin shared by Rocket, Tea Queen and
Firecracker. Maggie's boat, at twice the length, had far more than
twice the space below decks. The main cabin was discernibly divided
into separate areas for the galley and salon. A comfortable couch
ran the length of the room starboard, and a galley table sat to the
port. Through a pair of folding doors, Rachael could see the unmade
fore bunk. To starboard, just behind the companionway, there was an
unused aft bunk.

The cabin was cozy, homey. Rachael was
instantly hit with a sense of the familiar. She recognized some of
the knickknacks here and there as Maggie's, items forever stuck in
Rachael's memory from their former life together. Almost instantly,
Rachael felt comfortable moving about below the decks of the
Soft Cell
. It was almost like stepping back in time, back to
the house they'd shared so many years ago. The sent of Maggie's
perfume, the hideous painting of a cowboy on a bronco that Maggie
insisted constituted art. It was all there. Rachael took a moment
to let it all sink in, resisting the urge to curl up on the long
couch and turn on the TV.

Then her bladder reminded her why she'd
stepped below.

Towards the bow, just before the fore bunk,
was the toilet. Rachael pulled aside the concertina door. It took
Rachael a few moments to fathom what she was looking at.

“Maggie!” Rachael called out, yelling back
towards the opening up to the cockpit.

“Rachael?” Maggie's voice came back as she
squatted down to peer through the companionway.

“I know I shouldn't have to ask this, but...”
Rachael glanced again at the device that sat where the toilet
should have been. “How do you go to the bathroom?”

Maggie laughed from above deck.

#

“It's a composting toilet,” Maggie was
explaining a few minutes later, the two of them squashed together
in the tiny compartment. There was a latch, then a lid, then a
familiar looking seat, bowl and cistern. Once Maggie had shown
Rachael how to open the contraption, Rachael needed no more
instructions, but Maggie kept on explaining. “You see, on the Raft,
we literally shit where we eat. With fish being our only
significant source of protein, water quality is no laughing matter
out here. So many of us invested in one of these.” Maggie tapped
the toilet. It looked something like an industrial coffee machine
crossed with a deck chair. “It's sort of a toilet and septic tank
in one. Poop and pee in, clean water out.”

Maggie seemed rather proud of the device.

“Okay,” Rachael said with a smile.

“Yes,” Maggie nodded.

“Okay,” Rachael said again, more
forcefully.

“Okay,” Maggie nodded again.