Mary and Alvin Ch. 29

"Right over there!" Bonita shouted. Alvin looked where she was pointing. He saw an object in the water, and then a motion. It was a waving arm. It's the boy, he realized in a rush of anguished excitement.

Bonita jumped down to the deck and went to the starboard rail. Alvin turned hard, putting the boat between the boy and the wind. His mind was racing, trying to figure out how to handle the situation. If he left the wheel to try to fish the kid out of the water, the storm would overwhelm them. But he didn't think Bonita had the strength to hold course against so much wind.

"Nita," he shouted, "I'll try to get close. See if you can toss him a line."

She crossed the deck towards the rope locker, but another swell struck and her feet went out from under her.

"Baby, are you alright?" Alvin called out, but by the time he'd gotten the words out, she was on her feet. She fetched a rope and half walked, half tumbled back to the rail.

The next swell was the biggest yet, strong enough to turn the bow. SeaJay dove into the trough and the next wave broke across the deck. Alvin was momentarily blinded by the spray of salt water, but he could feel the boat plunge sideways. He wrestled her back into line, only to feel the stern veer. Again, SeaJay rose and plunged. Another wave crashed against her and swept across the deck.

He saw Bonita leaning over the rail. "Nita," he shouted, "Get below deck!"

Ordinarily, she obeyed him without hesitation, but she did not respond. Alvin wondered if she could hear him. Sheets of rain obscured his view.

"Bonnie! Goddamn it, Bonnie, answer me!"

He held the wheel with one hand and turned to try to see her in the dim light. His wrist strained to hold the boat in line, but he had to know she was all right. He could see the rail through the rain, and she was not there.

"Bonnie!" he yelled, as loud as he could, "Bonnie!" She can't be gone, he thought, fighting against panic. A series of short swells rocked the boat, but he fought through them by instinct. All he could think about was his granddaughter.

The wind began to taper off, the main force of the squall moving away to port. Alvin heard an odd wailing sound and looked to the stern. Bonita was huddled on the deck, her back to the rail. She gripped the anchor chain with one hand and had her legs and her other arm wrapped tightly around Jamie Mitchell. The boy was holding her as if his life depended on it, and crying in loud wracking sobs.

"Nita, are you alright?" he yelled over the wind. Without letting go of the boy, Bonita wiggled her fingers in affirmation.

"Get him below and warmed up."

The boat was still rocking, but it's motion was smoother, gentler. Bonita unwrapped her legs from around Jamie and tried to nudge him forward, but he would not let go of her. Alvin could hear her speaking to him, but he could not make out her words. Finally, Jamie let go of her and slowly crawled on his hands and knees to the cabin door.

When Alvin saw Bonita duck into the cabin behind Jamie, he let out a deep sigh of relief. He realized his hands were shaking. He had been sailing these waters for almost fifty years, and he could not remember a time when he had been so frightened.

The clouds were soon behind them and the water lapped gently against the hull. Alvin locked in a course for Londonderry Bay and unhooked the radio handset from behind the wheel.

"Londonderry, this is SeaJay. Over."

Ralph Ennis spoke on the other end. "Hey there, Alvin. Hope you missed that squall."

"We caught a bit of it. Ralph, we found the boy."

"Jeezum crow. He all right? What about the parents?"

"Can't tell you much yet. I'm about to go down and see what I can learn. The granddaughter's got him below warming him up."

"Well, get back to me quick as you can. His folks might still be out there in the water. Meantime, give me the co-ordinates where you picked him up and I'll contact the coast guard."

Alvin estimated the location where they'd found Jamie, and gave Ralph the info.

"Alvin..." the harbor master said in a quiet tone.

"Yeah, Ralph?"

"Just wanted to say bless you for rescuing that boy."

"I ain't the one earned that blessing, Ralph. I'll get back to you in a little bit."

He rehung the radio and went down to the cabin. Jamie sat on the edge of the bunk, wrapped in blankets. He held his life vest on his lap. I wouldn't feel like letting go of it either, Alvin thought. Bonita stood in front of him with a bottle of water. "Only sip a little bit at a time," she was telling him, "Otherwise you'll just puke it out."

Alvin sat down on the bunk next to the boy. "He drink much?" he asked Bonita.

"Just a few sips. I made him take off everything but his underwear. His skin is all puckered like when you're in the bathtub too long."

"You done right. You done way more than right. Have you still got one of those juice boxes in your kit?"

"I think so." Bonita rummaged in her backpack and pulled out an apple juice.

"That might be better for him. More nutrients."

He rubbed the boy's back while Bonita opened the juice and handed it to him.

"Listen, buddy," Alvin said to him, "can you tell us what happened?"

Jamie sobbed and shook his head.

"I know you don't want to talk, but if you can tell us just a little bit, maybe it will help us find your Mom and Dad."

He sipped the juice for a minute, then shook his head and said "Too late."

Alvin shrugged. He didn't know what to do. He was afraid that pressing the boy to talk might further traumatize him.

"Please tell us," Bonita whispered.

Jamie stared at the floor for a moment, then spoke in a rush of words. "Daddy said that the storm was coming and we had to go back to land. He said we were going to go to Stony Town and eat lobsters. But then he fell down and he wasn't breathing. Mommy tried to wake him up, and he wouldn't wake up and it was starting to rain and I didn't know what to do. I tried to steer the boat, but I never did that before. Mommy said go find the radio and I went downstairs to look for it. The boat was rocking back and forth and I kept falling down."

Alvin glanced up at Bonita and saw tears flowing down her cheeks. He put his hand around the boy's shoulders. "Did the boat tip over, Jamie?"

"Yeah."

"But you got out. And you had your life vest on."

"Mommy said I had to wear it all the time. There was all kinds of stuff in the water. I grabbed hold of a cushion from one of the chairs and I held on to it."

"You're a smart boy," Alvin said. He hesitated a minute, then asked, "Did you see Mommy after the boat tipped over?"

"I saw her when I was swimming out of the boat."

"Where was she?"

"Way down below me."

Alvin stopped breathing for a moment. "Alright," he said, "You don't have to talk no more now. You want to lay down and rest?"

"Okay," Jamie said. He laid back on the bed and clutched the life vest to his chest like it was a favorite stuffed animal.

Alvin stood up, "Let's let him rest," he said quietly to Bonita.

"I'll sit here until goes to sleep."

"Alright, baby." He put his hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes. He could not articulate his thoughts to her in that moment, so he just kissed her head and left the cabin.

There was a helicopter hovering over the water back in the direction from which they had sailed. Alvin got Ralph on the radio.

"It's bad, Ralph," he said. "Sounds like the father had a heart attack or a seizure or something as he tried to outrun the storm. The boy says they were headed for Stonington. When the storm hit, it swamped them."

"Christ," Ralph groaned. "The mother?"

"Boy saw her floating below the surface."

"God damn it. What a christly bad thing for a kid to see."

"Alright, Ralph, we're on our way in."

"There's an ambulance here, waiting to take the kid to the hospital for a look see. Oh, and a TV crew from Bangor."

"A TV crew? Jeezum. Alright, well, we are about an hour out."

Bonita came on deck. She hopped up on the forecastle, and sat down, dangling her legs, near where Alvin stood at the wheel.

"He asleep?" Alvin asked.

"Yeah." She fished a protein bar out of her pocket and took a bite. "Eck," she spat, "This is all wet."

Alvin chuckled. He reached over and squeezed her foot.

"Papa, can I ask you about something?"

"Of course, you can."

She furrowed her brow. "When we were, um, when you were hollering at me in the storm..."

"What about it, honey?"

"You kept calling me Bonnie."

"Did I?"

"You never called me that before."

Alvin realized that she was right.

"That was your wife's name, right? Before Mama Mary?"

"It was."

"She was my grandma."

"Yes. You were named for her."

"But she died?"

"She did."

For a long moment, Bonita looked lost in thought.

"You thought I was going to die."

Alvin dropped his eyes. "You scared the shit out of me, Nita."

"I'm sorry, Papa. But I had to try to get him."

"Come here, baby," Alvin held out his arms and Bonita jumped down into them. He gritted his teeth to keep from sobbing as he held her.

An air horn sounded and Alvin looked up to see a coast guard cutter heading outbound on their port side. Bonita dashed to the rail and waved as Alvin sounded SeaJay's horn in response. A crewman on the deck of the cutter waved back and raised his hand in the air in a thumbs up gesture.

A mile out of Londonderry, Alvin's cell phone made a connection and started to buzz. He looked at the screen. He had more than a dozen voicemails. He skipped past the unknown numbers from Portland and Bangor and clicked Return Call when he saw the first one from Mary.

"Why don't you go check on Jamie?" he asked Bonita while he waited for her to answer.

She nodded and descended to the cabin. Mary picked up on the fifth ring.

"Alvin, honey, is everything okay? Ralph says you rescued the little boy. Is he alright? What about Bonita?"

"Slow down, sweetheart. We are fine. Yeah, we fished out the boy."

"And the parents?'

"I think they are gone, honey."

"Oh no. Baby, it's not your fault. You know that right?"

It was partly his fault, he thought. He should have told Jim Mitchell no, that it was too late in the season.

"Alvin? Honey?"

"I'm sorry, Mary. We are coming into the outer harbor now. Be home in a few minutes."

He slipped his phone back into his pocket and called for Bonita to come back up top.

"Let's trim sail and take her in, matey," he said when she popped her head out of the cabin.

"Aye aye, Papa."

As Alvin docked SeaJay, he saw that the landing was crowded with people. An ambulance and a sheriff's cruiser blocked the top of the gangplank. Mary and Jennifer leaned over the railing and waved. He waved back as Bonita tied the boat to the floating dock.

There were loud footsteps on the wooden planks. Alvin saw Danni rushing toward them. The harbormaster was right behind her, along with a man in a coast guard uniform.

Bonita looked up and saw Danni, then looked at Alvin with a worried expression. Alvin shrugged and thought, you're on your own with this one, kid.

Danni jumped down to the deck. Bonita took a step back but Danni pulled her into her arms and hugged her, then squatted in front of her to look into her eyes.

"You know you're in big trouble, right?"

"Yeah," Bonita said in a scared, tiny voice.

"Okay, well, we'll talk about it later." She stood up and looked at Alvin. "Where's the Mitchell boy?"

"He's down below in the bunk."

"He hurt?"

"No, but he was in the water a long time."

The harbormaster and the coastie came aboard, while a pair of paramedics wrestled a gurney down the gangplank. Alvin and Danni stepped aside to allow one of them to descend into the cabin.

"I'm Commander Montgomery," the coastie said, extending his hand to Alvin. "You're Andy's uncle, aren't you?"

Alvin nodded and shook his hand, then stepped aside as the paramedic led Jamie up from the cabin. He and his partner helped the boy on to the gurney, wrapped him in warm blankets and strapped him down. As they lifted him up to the dock, Jamie turned his head and looked at Alvin and Bonita. He spoke in a voice so weak that neither or them could hear him, but they both knew that he had said "Thank you."

"You and the girl most likely want to get home and get warm and dry, get some hot food in your belly," Montgomery said to Alvin. "You think you can come down to Rockland tomorrow and we can write up a report?"

"Sure," Alvin said. They all climbed on to the dock and walked up the gangplank to the landing. Andy was waiting at the top.

"Just radioed in, chief," he said, but turned to Alvin, "chopper spotted Annie Mac about two miles off Cape Rosier. We've got a cutter on the way, it will tow her into Rockland."

"Alright then." Alvin said. "Is anyone going to be there for the boy?"

"He's got an aunt flying in from Ohio," Danni told him, "We'll have someone stay with him until then."

Mary and Jennifer came from around the ambulance. Mary hugged Alvin.

"You had us all scared, love. When we heard about that squall coming through..."

"Now, Miss Mary, you need to have faith in my sailing skills."

"I do, baby, but I was still scared."

Jennifer wrapped her arms around Bonita. She kissed the side of her face and the top of her head. "I'm so mad at you," she said, while sniffling back tears. He took hold of her daughter's shoulders and held her at arm's length.

"Bonita, do you have any idea how worried we were about you?"

Bonita shrugged. "I was safe, I was with Papa."

Jennifer shook her head. "That's not the point. You know, you are lucky that I don't believe in spanking children."

Danni bent down close to Bonita's face. "Just so you know," she said, "I'm not sure I agree with that policy."

"Now, don't be too hard on her," Alvin said.

Jennifer turned and wagged her finger at him. "Now, you, I might hit."

"Excuse me, Captain Faulkner?"

Alvin turned around to see a short blonde woman in a blue pantsuit. She was holding a microphone and a small plastic step stool. A few feet behind her, a scruffy looking man was pointing a video camera at him. The woman put the stool down on the ground, stepped on it and stuck the microphone in Alvin's face.

"Captain Faulkner, I'm Carly Cameron, Bangor Action News. I understand you rescued Jamie Mitchell."

"No, I didn't rescue the boy," Alvin said.

She frowned. "I spoke with Harbormaster Ennis, and he told me..."

"I just steered the boat," Alvin shrugged, "My granddaughter's the one spotted the boy. She navigated us over to him, and she fished him out of the water. She rescued the boy, all I did was steer the boat."

Danni and Jennifer both stared at him, and then at Bonita.

Carly Cameron stepped off the stool.

"What's your name, dear?" She asked, holding out the mic to Bonita.

"Bonita Maria Ortega-Faulkner."

"How old are you, Bonita?"

"Eleven."

"Can you tell me how you rescued Jamie?"

"I saw him in the water, but it was storming wicked bad and Papa couldn't see him, but I guided him and I got a rope and I had to throw it to him a couple times. I almost fell over the side, but he caught it and I pulled him over and hauled him in."

"That was very brave of you," Carly said, "How did you know what to do?"

Bonita turned her palms up and shrugged. "I just did whatever I thought Papa would do."

Carly returned to Alvin. "You must be a very proud grandfather."

"Yes, Ma'am. But I think right now her mama's want to get her home."

"Right. Well, thank you." She turned to her cameraman. "Let's get a shot over there by the boat. I'll do the wrap up in a voiceover."

Mary took Alvin's hand and they walked across the landing to her car.

"We had a little drama at home as well, honey," she said.

"Oh? What happened?"

"I found out what has been bothering Hannah the last few days. She got her first period."

"Jeezum. I guess I'd rather deal with the storm."

They got in the car and Danni and Jennifer climbed in the back seat with Bonita between them.

As Mary turned on to Front Street, Bonita tugged at Jennifer's sleeve. "Mama Jen," she said, "don't be mad at Papa. He didn't know I was stowed away."

"Maybe not," Jennifer said, glaring over the seat at Alvin, "But as soon as he found out, he should have turned around and come back."

"No," Bonita said emphatically, "He let them take his boat, so it was his responsibility to go try and find them."

Jennifer stared at Bonita, then at her father. "Did you tell her that?" she asked.

Alvin shook his head. "Nope."

Danni took Bonita's hand. "Bonita, honey, you may not understand this yet, but sometimes people can do the right thing, but in a wrong way. I am very, very proud of you for what you did, but you shouldn't have been out there in the first place."

"If she hadn't been out there," Alvin muttered, "That boy would be drowned."

Jennifer sighed and stared out the window.

Mary cleared her throat. "Can I...maybe make a suggestion?"

"Oh god, please do," Jennifer said.

"Well, first of all, Bonita, do you understand what Mama Danni was saying?"

"I guess so."

"If I robbed a bank and then used all the money to buy food for poor people, I would still be in trouble for robbing the bank, right?"

"Well, yeah."

"Okay, so you understand that you need to be punished. What I think is that to make sure you learn this, your mamas should not let you go sailing with Papa for a while. I'd say six months is about right."

Jennifer looked at Danni. "What do you think?"

"I think that sounds about right," she nodded.

Bonita scowled but didn't say anything.

Mary turned into the driveway. Before she could shut off the car, Hannah came running from the house, with Buster and Moosie at her heels. As soon as Bonita stepped out of the car, she was surrounded, Hannah hugging her tight, and both dogs jumping up on their hind feet to lick her hands and face.

"Come on, sweet baby," Danni said, "Let's get you home." She draped her arm over Bonita' shoulder. Jennifer put hers around her waist. With Moosie dancing at their feet, they walked together toward their house.

"Let me get you something hot to eat," Mary said. She kissed Alvin, then went into the house. Hannah and Buster were running in circles in the dooryard, kicking up leaves.

"Hey, Sweetie," Alvin called. Hannah stopped, looked at him for a minute, then ran to him. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

"How are you, honeypie?"

"I'm okay, Papa."

"You're growing up so fast."

"Mama told you, huh?"

"Yes, sweetie. It's nothing to be embarrassed about."

"Yeah, it is, a little bit."

"You know, you ain't the first girl I raised."

She hugged him tight. "I'm glad you didn't drown, Papa."

"It'd be a pisser if you weren't. Now, go ahead, play with your dog."

"Good, cause you're all wet."

Alvin chuckled and went into the house. Mary was at the stove, stirring the leftover chili.

"Why don't you take a hot shower and put on some dry clothes," she said, "I'll have your food ready when you finish."

"Sounds good," he replied. He started up the stairs, then went back down.

"Mary?"

"Yes, love?"

"You know I am about to put the boat up for winter, don't you? I don't expect to take her out again till spring."

"Of course I do, honey."

"Jennifer and Danni ain't numbies, they'll figure that out, too."

"Oh, I'm sure they already did."

Alvin shook his head, then clomped up the stairs and into the bedroom. After pulling off his damp shirt and t-shirt, he sat down in the chair by Mary's dresser and pulled off his shoes. He dropped them on the floor and then sat for a minute looking at his hands. They were trembling.

How long have I been out on the water, he asked himself. Damn near fifty years. Have I ever done anything so foolhardy as turning a boat into the path of a storm? If we had lost the wind, we'd have gone ass over teakettle, just like Annie Mac did. And if one of those swells had been just a touch bigger, we might have swamped anyway. And I took that chance with the most precious cargo in the world on board.