“George, get up!” Ms. Sarah put one foot onto the side of the boat.
The man wore a tank top and frayed shorts. He slept with his feet on the passenger seat, flip-flops dangling from his toes, one elbow resting on the console. His head was on the back of the chair and almost horizontal. A crinkled bucket hat covered his face from the glare off the surrounding chrome trim.
Ms. Sarah stepped easily into the boat – even with her heels on, quietly moving up to the man as he snored. She leaned down to put her mouth next to his ear.
“GEORGE!” She yanked off the bucket hat. “George! Get up, George! Get up you lazy, stupid man! I said, get up!” Ms. Sarah whipped the man with his own hat in vertical, then horizontal chops. The man jumped up, throwing out his hands to defend himself.
“You damn woman! Wach you dink your doin?”
“I’m waikin you up, dat’s what I’m doin!”
“Well, doonh be beatin me den!”
George held a hand out, arm fully extended like a football player stiff-arming to block. Ms. Sarah stopped swinging his hat and pointed at the boat’s steering wheel.
“Yesterday, I wait here one hour for you. Today, I woon’t be wastin my time. So, stop talkin and start drivin da boot den. I doonh got all day—”
“I gonna staut when you stop beat-in me wid my hat—”
Edward started chuckling. He set his luggage down on the pier, and wiped sweat from his forehead.
“Doonh you say nuttin. Don’t say nuttin. Start dah boot.”
“I will. Soon as yah get away, damn woman. And gimme back me damn hat!”
The man grabbed his hat away and returned it to his head. He pulled it down to straighten it, huffing out his shock. Ms. Sarah turned and examined boxes that lay inside the boat.
“You can get in, Mr. Tache. We’re ready to leave now. Sooner, we get you deer, dah sooner I can return to my office.”
Edward picked up his luggage and stepped in just as George started the two massive outboard motors. Exhaust sputtered into the air and horsepower vibrated through the boat. George got up while the engines idled. He jumped on the pier, untied two lines, and tossed them over before jumping back in. Edward made himself comfortable on a cushioned side bench as Ms. Sarah counted groceries inside the boxes.
“We make da supply deliveries evry two week,” she said. “If you need any ding else, you can walk to dah village.”
“The village?” Edward looked up at her.
Just as he did, he caught George looking back at them from the captain’s seat. George’s eyes widened, his lips stretched wide across his face and he turned to the controls while Ms. Sarah was still looking down. George grabbed the throttle and threw it up. Two seconds later the motors replied with a roar and began drilling into the water. The boat seesawed, the back dropping, the front jumping. Ms. Sarah, standing in her high heels, tumbled over the boxes like a felled tree. One of her hands came up reflexively, and this was all that cushioned her face as it smacked into the deck. She let out a murderous scream. Her hair, tied up in a bun on her head, had come loose and now flopped out onto the boat’s floor. George backed down the power as they moved along the pier. Three seconds later the boat leveled out. Edward jumped up to help Ms. Sarah into a seat.
“I killyou you damn fool of-a-man! I killyou!”
But she took the seat in a dazed state, looking like someone who’d just been in a car accident. She was clearly not ready to get up and follow through on her threat, and during the half hour trip, Ms. Sarah’s eyes remained fix on the horizon, appearing out of focus. Her only movement was working her hair back up, wrapping and tucking strands into place, feeling out its shape with her fingertips. George kept the boat at a high speed, even as they jumped and cut through the choppy waves of the open waters. And Ms. Sarah made no attempt to stand.
Finally, after crossing open ocean, they approached another island, running close to a coastline that looked like nothing but white sand skirting a ridge of green jungle and palms. The shore dropped away into a horseshoe bay on the far side. George slowed the boat and took them into waters that immediately calmed and grew lighter in color.
“No piles of trash. No piss puddles. No bus exhaust – I’ll have to get used to the fresh air,” he said across the boat to Ms. Sarah.
She stopped working her hair long enough to give him a glare. At the center of the bay, Edward stared down through the shaded water at seaweed, large rocks and a few fish that looked close enough to touch. George downshifted the engine again and turned the wheel. The boat glided up to the bay’s only pier. There were three houses, two large ones on the beach and one in the shade of a cropping of palms. Edward surveyed the shore, following it from one end to the other looking for a single lounge chair, towel, beach ball or float, but the only thing he saw was a pile of brush above the berm wall in front of the two large houses. All along the beach palm trees swayed, animating shadows on the sand below them.
“Wow, it’s really empty here, huh? Not a soul around.”
“And that’s what you sign up for, Mr. Tache.” Ms. Sarah looked at him with her head turned. “You know every ding before you come ‘ere, so I hope you not gettin no cold feet. You got TV and you got internet.”
“No – no, I know.”
George maneuvered the boat against the pier near a ladder, cut the engines, and climbed around the windscreen to throw a line around a pylon. After tying the rope snug, he came around and started moving boxes from the boat to the pier.
Edward put his laptop up, carefully leaning it against a pylon. He heaved up his suitcase next. By the time he turned to help with the boxes, George had already unloaded four. Edward put the last one on the pier, and then turned to Ms. Sarah, waiting for her to tell him what to do. She handed him a set of keys before putting her hands on her hips.
“Well, what you waitin for? You gonna get oud or not?”
Edward turned and looked at the ladder. He half shrugged and opened his mouth to speak, but Ms. Sarah stopped him.
“You ‘ave your duties book?”
“Yeah.” Edward pulled the booklet out of his computer bag.
“Den you know what to do. You ‘ave all dah time in dah world now, Mr. Tache.” She thrust her chin toward him. “Make sure yah doonh slack off.”
He folded the booklet and tucked it into his back pocket before grabbing the ladder rungs. When he was on the pier, he turned and looking down into the boat. George offered him a smile and made a motion that Edward mistook for a wave.
“My man, can you lif on over dat line.”
Edward nodded, looked over at the rope securing the boat. He stepped over and lifted it over the pylon, tossing it onto the front deck of the boat. George returned to the captain’s chair.
“If you ‘ave big problem, call me durin office hour.”
Edward slipped the keys into his pocket just as Ms. Sarah turned, hands still on her hips, toward George.
“Now, George, I needin a word wid you—”
Suddenly the engines were put into gear. Ms. Sarah grabbed a side bench and sat down just before the boat jerked forward. Edward stood on the pier and watched them move off. A minute later the boat turned and disappeared behind dunes. The buzz of the motors stayed in the air for a few moments longer. And then all Edward heard were the waves washing against the beach, the breeze.
And silence.
No revving car engines, no babies crying, no laughter drifting out of the park, no basketballs pinging on the sidewalks, no dogs barking out of windows, no cell phones ringing, no truck engines roaring, no cabs honking. These sounds were now just echoes in his head. He stood there for a minute more to see if any profound thought sprouted from his mind. But nothing occurred.