Terns of Endearment by Donna Andrews

Author:Donna Andrews [Andrews, Donna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published: 2019-08-05T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

I stood up to leave.

“Meg!” Grandfather waved me over to where he and Caroline were sitting.

“This business of stopping in mid-ocean,” Grandfather said. “I don’t like it.”

Caroline rolled her eyes and pulled her sun hat over her face. I deduced that whatever Grandfather was on about had worn out her patience.

“I don’t think any of us likes it,” I said. “But it’s not as if the crew are doing it deliberately.”

“How do we know they’re not?” Grandfather was frowning with suspicion as he scanned the horizon.

“What possible reason could they have for stopping the ship in the middle of the ocean?” I wondered if he was trying to crack a joke and failing more dramatically than usual.

“I think that’s what we need to find out.” He abandoned his study of the horizon and fixed his gaze on me, from which I deduced that he was actually expecting me to do the finding out.

“Maybe they’re in league with pirates,” Rob called out from his recliner on the other side of the deck. “And they’ve stopped the ship here so the pirates can ambush us.”

“Now there’s an alarming thought!” Grandfather didn’t look particularly alarmed. He looked as if he was under the delusion that a pirate attack might be entertaining.

“Unlikely,” I said.

“How do you know?” Grandfather asked. “You read all the time about modern piracy being on the rise.”

“Off the coast of Africa, definitely, and in southeast Asia,” I said. “But there’s not a lot of it in the Western Hemisphere, and most of that is in waters off the coast of South or Central America, and aimed at cargo ships carrying valuable stuff. And they don’t attack out in the middle of the ocean, where they’d be sitting ducks if anybody’s navy came along. If you look at the map of where modern pirate attacks take place, it’s always off the coast of some country that doesn’t really make a whole lot of effort to catch them.”

“There’s a map?” Rob, who had strolled over to join the conversation, sounded interested.

“It’s called the Live Piracy Map.” I might regret telling him this. Then again, he’d probably forget all about it in an hour or so. “The International Chamber of Commerce maintains it. Look it up when we get Internet back.”

Rob was pulling out his phone and making a note.

“And you know this because…?” Grandfather seemed suspicious.

“About a week ago Aunt Penelope saw one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and had a panic attack about whether pirates could attack the cruise,” I explained.

“Not a big Johnny Depp fan, then?” Rob suggested.

“Evidently not,” I said. “Mother told me to figure out a way to calm her down and keep her from canceling. So I did a little research.”

“Doesn’t completely rule out piracy,” Grandfather said.

“It was enough to convince Aunt Penelope,” I countered.

“Stranger things have happened.” Grandfather didn’t give up easily.

“Yes, much stranger things, I’m sure. For example, maybe they’re out here waiting to rendezvous with an alien spaceship.” Probably not a suggestion I should make in front of Aunt Penelope.

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