68 Knots by Michael Robert Evans

Author:Michael Robert Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781933718651
Publisher: Tanglewood Press

Crystal woke everyone early the next morning. She had just come back from her sunrise swim; her short blond hair was wet, and she had a towel wrapped around her shoulders for warmth. Her thin muscled legs bristled with goosebumps in the chilly morning air. “Hey, everybody,” she said. “We’re not alone. Get the fuck up! There’s another boat here. It might be the guy BillFi was talking about.”

It took the crew little time to leap out of their sleeping bags and scramble up the gangway. The morning was thick with silvery fog, and everyone blinked and strained their eyes to cut through the murky air. Tucked up close to the beach was a small dark-green sloop with rust-colored sails. The boat had a tiny cabin—not much longer than a bed—and the rails were cut low to the water.

On the beach was a woman dressed in ragged khaki shorts and a faded blue chambray shirt. She was thin and fit, her skin the color of mahogany and her gray-and-black hair loose and coarse. She was tending to a small smoky fire. She looked up at the Dreadnought, nodded a stiff greeting to the eight onlookers standing on deck, and turned her attention to a black frying pan resting on the sand. She squatted next to the pan, sitting on her bare heels, and scraped something out of a tin can. She put the pan on the fire and began breaking driftwood into more kindling.

“Is that the ‘guy’ you were thinking about, BillFi?” Crystal asked, putting her hands on her hips.

“It must be,” BillFi said. “It has to be her. There’s no one else around. It has to be her.”

“It’s a bit foggy—BOOOO-oooo—” Logan said, giving his best impression of a foghorn, “but can I, like, interest you all in breakfast on the beach?”

Two quick dinghy-trips later, the crew was on the beach. As Logan built a fire and cracked eggs against the edge of a battered frying pan, Arthur stepped forward and introduced himself to the woman in the ragged shorts.

“Bonnie,” the woman said, shaking Arthur’s hand briefly and turning back to her cooking. She was frying some pancakes in the pan, and she had pushed another tin can into the near edge of the fire. She had ashes in her hair and black streaks of soot on her hands. Around the second toe on her right foot was a diamond ring, and around the same toe on her left foot was a golden band; both rings were wrapped with string to make them fit. “I only have enough food for me.”

“That’s okay,” Arthur said. “We have plenty. In fact, we were wondering if you’d like to join us.”

Bonnie looked straight into Arthur’s hazel eyes, unimpressed. “I don’t mind eating with you,” she said, “but I’ll eat my own food. I don’t take anything from anybody unless I can replace it.” She turned back to her cooking without a word.

Dawn shrugged and helped Logan with the sausage. They worked quickly,

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