Passage On The Cardena by Mel Dagg

Author:Mel Dagg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / General, FICTION / Historical, FICTION / Cultural Heritage, FICTION / Sagas
ISBN: 978-1-927129-34-0
Publisher: Touchwood Editions
Published: 2012-09-11T16:00:00+00:00

IX

“ANY LUCK, MATT?” ASKED MONICA.

“Nothing. The worst part was, and this happened twice, I said, ‘I’m looking for my father.’ And they just looked at me and said, ‘Wattsa matter, kid? You lost?’”

“They didn’t mean anything by it. Maybe they thought you were lost, that you’d got separated from your father.”

“That’s a laugh,” he said. “I got separated from my father the day he left to go logging up the coast.”

It was the first time he had confronted this hard truth. He could say it now, but it only deepened his sense of abandonment and rejection.

They watched Emily stop at the ramp that led to the lower dock for small craft, set her bag down, and turn to wave at them where they stood on the forward deck of the Cardena.

Monica and Matt waved back. “What a strange lady,” said Monica.

“I like her,” said Matt. “I met her on the dock in Vancouver before we boarded the ship.”

He was remembering what she had told him about being alone. He watched her make her way down the dock, the sun dropping in the west behind the trees, the Cardena backing away from the wharf, and he saw that she was truly alone.

“Hey Matt!” yelled a voice behind him. “Give us a hand with these lines!” On a Sunday evening, Matt’s day man duties didn’t apply but the deckhands weren’t going to let him talk to a pretty woman while they worked.

Bill “Soogie” Phelps bent over the head line, his shirt sleeves rolled up, his tattoos showing. Matt knew all the deckhands now, their names, their nicknames.

“Tell your friend to stay out of the bight!” chimed in Paddy “Springline” McLean. He had been gassed in the First World War, had come over on the Cardena from Scotland, and never got off the ship, living onboard. The Cardena was his home; the crew, his family.

“Got it!” Matt grabbed a line. He would never be alone as long as he stayed on the Cardena.

• • •

MONICA TURNED AND walked away from the men working the lines. She was about to step inside, midship, when she saw a man with his back to her standing at the stern. She knew who he was before he turned around.

“I thought I’d never see you again. I couldn’t find you in the crowd. We didn’t even say goodbye. What happened?”

“I met a friend. We had a drink. Talked over old times. As to what happened, I don’t know. When the tree fell, something snapped. Cracked. Splintered.”

“Yes,” she said. “Everyone heard it.”

“No. Something inside me. I can’t explain it. When that tree fell, it was as if it fell on me.”

“I’m glad it didn’t,” said Monica, amused, but not understanding.

“Everything changed. I can’t go back to logging, and I can’t leave you.”

“And here you are,” she said, flattered, pleased, but knowing Cameron meant trouble. He didn’t fit into her plans.

“Yes,” he said, astonished. “Here I am.” For the first time in his life he felt free. On the return trip he would see his land.

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