Big Water by Andrea Curtis

Author:Andrea Curtis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459815735
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2018-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Nine

I’m sorry, I think with every stride. “I’m sorry,” I say before I even see Daniel, before I have time to figure out if he’s all right. My lungs are tight, breath coming out in short, sharp gasps.

The lifeboat is unchanged, but Daniel has moved. He’s lying on another, more sheltered part of the gentle, rocky slope. He’s on his back, eyes closed.

“Are you okay?” I call, quickening my pace.

He doesn’t answer.

“Are you all right?” I try again when I’m nearly at his side. Up close, I can see his chest moving up and down. He moves his fingers in a feeble wave.

I sink to the rock beside him. He’s still alive, still conscious. “What happened?”

Daniel is a bit sweaty. It must have taken a lot of effort for him to get here on his own. He’s even taken off his jacket.

Except, I realize with a great heave of my stomach, it’s not just his coat on the rock beside him. It’s a body, face and torso covered.

I feel as if I’m back on the boat, pitching up and down in the waves. I can tell it’s the cabin boy by the small, swollen hand poking out from beneath Daniel’s jacket.

Daniel rolls his head toward me, eyes wide and unblinking. The sound I heard was probably him lifting the body out of the boat. No wonder he’s out of breath.

“My head hurts,” Daniel says eventually.

I nod.

“We need to get the rest of them out of the lifeboat,” he says. “Bury them if we can. If we’re going to paddle to Parry Sound with one oar, we’ll need to be light.”

The thought of touching the dead men, their cold flesh giving way beneath my fingers, makes my throat constrict. I try to position myself so I don’t have to look at the cabin boy’s thick fingers or his legs bent at an awkward angle. His trousers have ridden up, and I can see his calf, smooth and nearly hairless.

“Okay,” I say, gulping back dread.

But neither of us moves for a long time. We stay on the rock without speaking, the wind banging the lifeboat gently against the shore.

When we finally begin our terrible task, I have to close my nostrils and breathe through my mouth again. The men are heaped in the bottom of the lifeboat like sacks of flour, faces pale, lips gray.

Daniel and I lift the captain out first. He’s heavy, stiff, like he’s been frozen solid. I take his feet, his boots scuffed and worn smooth on the bottom. Daniel carries his head and shoulders. We walk slowly, methodically, careful not to lose our grip. Daniel pauses often to close his eyes and breathe deeply. We lay the captain down gently on the rock near the cabin boy.

I return to the shore to rest a minute, but Daniel doesn’t join me. Instead he moves quickly to a tangle of juniper bushes near the trees that guard the forest. I see him bend at the waist and retch loudly, over and over, his body shaking with the effort.

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