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Charleston, South Carolina – Mile 469

“Hey, Pete!  Over here!”  Nick waved his arm to get the other man’s attention.

Nick had been waiting nearly two hours for the Sunset Voyager to arrive.  He felt a little silly at how eager he was for company.  His much touted desire for alone time had lasted less than one day.  Now he was not looking forward to nearly two weeks with no company but himself and his video games.

Nick puttered about on the boat for awhile, but there was really nothing to do.  He decided not to play a video game or watch TV because he would have to do that below deck and he didn’t want to miss Pete’s arrival.  He got his guitar out and sat on the back deck, playing it for awhile.  After the third person stopped walking up on the main dock area and cocked an ear in his direction, Nick put the guitar away.  Then he got up and went for a walk, wandering among the slips, admiring the other boats that were there and silently comparing them to the Lenore.

He was just returning to his own boat with the thought of a cold beer ahead of him when he saw Pete come out of the marina office.  He was alone.

“Hey, Pete!  Over here!”

Pete looked startled at the sound of his name.  He looked around him quickly and then spotted Nick.  He smiled and waved back, but Nick thought Pete was not all that happy to see him.

“Hey, Nick!  You startled me!  I didn’t think you were going to come this far today.  You weren’t meeting someone at the airport too, were you?”

Nick shook his head.  “Nah, I just like to get the first day out of the way, you know what I mean.  How’s Jo feeling today?”

Pete’s eyes narrowed.  Then he sighed and said, “Fine, I guess.”

“When does Mickey get in?” asked Nick.

“She doesn’t,” said Pete, with an edge to his voice.  “She’s got another meeting.”  Pete said the word ‘meeting’ like it had four letters in it.

“Oh,” said Nick, “sorry to hear that, Man.  I knew you were hoping she’d get here.  I was kinda looking forward to meeting her.”

Pete didn’t say anything for a moment.  “We’re over there,” he said finally, pointing off to the right.  “Where are you?”

Nick pointed to the left.  “I’m over there.  Do you want to come over for a beer or something?  I was just going to get one for myself.”

Pete heaved a sigh.  Then he seemed to give himself a mental shake.  His shoulders straightened, and he smiled.  “Thanks, but it’s my turn.  Why don’t you come on over to Granny Central?”

Nick laughed.  “Sure,” he said.  “That won’t disturb Jordana, will it?”

“No,” said Pete, “she’s awake.”  He looked down toward the boat and sighed again.

“How did she take it?” asked Nick.

Pete looked at him.  “How did she take what?”

“You know, Mickey, that’s she’s not coming yet.”

“Oh…oh yeah…that.  Well, to tell the truth, I haven’t told her yet.  I’m kinda glad you’re here.  She might be less likely to make a scene.”

“A scene?”  Nick did not want to be part of a scene.

“Yeah, she’s kind of fragile these days,” explained Pete.

That didn’t really explain anything to Nick.  “Yeah, you said that before, but you didn’t say…”

Nick didn’t get any further.  Pete shushed him to silence.  They had arrived at the Sunset Voyager.

The boat was much smaller than Nick’s; he guessed maybe 30 feet long.  It didn’t have the sleek contours of the Lenore but was more squared off.  The captain’s chair was made out of wood, and the instrument panel was as well.  The benches around the back deck were also wood with cushions covered in waterproof plastic.

Seated on one of the benches, with a bottle of water dangling from her hand, was Jordana Miles.  She looked awful, thought Nick.  Her eyes were red-rimmed, as if she’d been crying.  She looked up at Pete and Nick and sniffed, swiping at her nose with the back of her hand.

“Where’s Mickey?” she asked Pete.

Pete stepped down onto the boat.  “She’s not coming today,” he said.  He walked past her and disappeared down the steps into the cabin.  Nick remained on the dock.

“Why not?  Where is she?”  Jordana’s voice rose, and the sentence ended on an hysterical note.

“You know where she is,” said Pete, returning to the deck with a beer in each hand.  “Here, Nick.  Come aboard.  Have a seat.”  He turned his back on Jordana.

Nick wanted nothing more than to evaporate into thin air, but he stepped down onto the boat and took the beer from Pete’s outstretched hand.  “Thanks, Pete,” he said.  “Hi, Jo.  Are you feeling better today?”

Jordana glared at him.  “I’m fine,” she said.  She turned back to Pete.  “When is she coming?”

Pete sighed and leaned back against the railing.  “I don’t know.  She doesn’t know.  There’s this big flap going on in her office.  You know what her job is like.  She says she’ll get here as soon as she can.  We’ll keep her posted about where we are, and she’ll find us.  But she wants us to keep going.”  He spoke reassuringly, as if to a child.  “You know I have to keep going, Jo.  I have a contract.”

Jordana pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.  Then she took the cap off the bottle of water and took a long swallow.  She twisted the cap back onto the bottle very slowly and deliberately.

“I know,” she said, finally.  “But it’s just…you know, not what I was expecting…”  She looked down at her feet.

Pete looked at Nick, who was trying so hard to be invisible that he hadn’t even taken a sip of his beer.  Pete rolled his eyes and then said softly to Jordana, “Look, Jo, you know that Mickey wants you here when she gets here, but if you can’t handle it…”

Jordana’s eyes snapped up at his phrasing. 

Pete quickly backtracked, “…I mean, if you don’t want to stay and wait for her, we’ll just make arrangements to send you back home.”  He stared off into the distance, as if calculating.  “Let’s see, we can find out about a flight from Charleston…I wonder if they have information in the office about that…or maybe the shuttle service would…”

Jordana stood up abruptly.  “Never mind,” she said forcefully.  “It’s okay.  Never mind.”  She waved her hands through the air, erasing her mood.  She turned to Nick.  “I’m sorry.  I must seem so rude.  I don’t know what’s the matter with me.  I guess it’s hormones or something.”

Jordana looked from Pete to Nick and back again.  “Oops, there’s a word you guys never want to hear.”  She laughed at the look on their face.  Then she took a deep breath.  “Okay, it’s cool.  Pete, I’m fine.  I’m sorry to be such a…whatever.”  A pleading note crept into her voice.  “But the next time Mickey calls, can I please speak to her too?”

“Yeah, sure, no problem,” said Pete.  “It’s just that you were asleep and…”  His voice trailed off, and he shrugged. 

Jordana turned to speak to Nick, and behind her back Pete rolled his eyes again.  “So, Nick, how was your day?” asked Jordana, as she swept her long hair behind her shoulders and peered at Nick with interest.

“It was good,” said Nick, relieved that some of the tension had lifted.  He thought maybe he’d been right in his original diagnosis of Jo’s problem.  “I saw some dolphins.”

“Really?” replied Pete and Jordana at the same time.

Nick described his sojourn in the Nature Reserve and then the rest of his day.  He told them that he’d pulled into Georgetown at lunchtime when it started to rain.  He asked them what they had done.

Pete answered for them.  “Oh, we just motored on through.  Our little boat doesn’t have the guts yours does.  And it’s in my contract that I’m not allowed to leave the Waterway.  I can’t just zip out onto the ocean and kick it up if I get behind schedule.”

They continuing talking, and then Nick stood up.  “Well, thanks for the beer, Man.  It was nice seeing you again, Jo.”  He handed the empty beer to Pete.

Pete looked at his watch.  “It’s early, but I’m hungry.  Anybody up for seafood?  The restaurant here does it really well.”

Both men looked at Jordana.  She smiled weakly.  “I’m not much on seafood.  Do they have anything else?  Steak?  Or chicken?”

Pete laughed.  “You can get chicken anywhere, Jo.”

“True,” she said, and then she turned to Nick.  “Would you care to join us, Nick?  I promise not to be so moody.”

Nick was torn.  He didn’t want to get in the middle of anything that might erupt between Pete and Jordana, but he didn’t see how he could refuse.  And besides, he was hungry.

“That’d be great!” he said.

Jordana went below to get a sweater.  Pete followed her with the empty beer bottles.  Nick listened to see if there would be any raised voices, but he could hear none.  They came back on deck and the three of them made their way up the dock to the restaurant.

The dinner was a repeat of the night before.  Pete and Nick ate heartily, and Jordana pushed her chicken around her plate, only eating small bites.  Pete encouraged her and tried to get her to eat more by offering her tastes of his meal.

“Come on, Jo,” he whispered at one point, “you’ll never get better if you don’t eat.”

Jordana looked at him oddly but said nothing.  She reluctantly picked up her fork and speared a piece of chicken.

“So how far do you think you’ll get tomorrow?” asked Nick, trying to revive the conversation.

Pete shrugged.  “Hard to say.  I never make definite plans.  I set a minimum distance, and then when I’ve reached that, I see how I feel.  We might try for Beaufort tomorrow.”

Nick looked confused.  “Beeyoofurt?”

Pete laughed.  “B-e-a-u-f-o-r-t,” he said.  “The locals pronounce it Beu-furt.”

Nick shook his head.  “Man, I would never have guessed that.  I have enough trouble with my words when they sound the way they look.”  He noticed a small smile creep across Jordana’s face.

“Oh, so you’ve heard of one or two of those, have you, Miss Jo?” said Nick, laughing.

Jordana looked at him and smiled.  She shrugged and said, “Maybe one or two.”  She paused and them said “documentARIES,” placing heavy emphasis on the second-last syllable.

Nick groaned.  “I’ll never live that one down, will I?”

Pete looked from one to the other.  He had no idea what they were talking about.  “Anyway,” he said, “Beaufort.”

Whether it was the look on Pete’s face or the tone of his voice, it cracked the other two up.  Nick and Jordana laughed out loud, causing other heads in the restaurant to turn in their direction.  Pete did not look pleased.

“Beaufort,” laughed Jordana, picking up a paper napkin and wiping her eyes.

“Yeah,” said Nick.  “Maybe that’s what I can name the boat…the Beaufort.  The fans would never find me then.”

“They might think you were a little arrogant, though,” said Jo.  Then to Nick’s questioning gaze, “In French, beau means handsome and fort means strong.  Although, both those words fit you.”

Nick blushed.

Pete called for the check.