Shy heard Addie splashing down the boat, toward him. “What is it?” she said.
“Told you I’d catch a fish,” he said.
Addie leaned over the side of the boat, said: “Oh my God.”
When it was close to the surface, he reached down, pinched the line between his thumb and forefinger, only inches from the fighting fish, yanked it out of the water and flung it into the boat.
He and Addie watched the thing thrash around in the ankle-high water at their feet, still connected to his line.
“You actually did it!” Addie shouted.
“You doubted me, didn’t you?” he said.
“Never again,” she said, on the verge of laughter. “You’re the fish master.”
He wanted to tell her it was because of the oilman’s ring. It was their new good-luck charm. But on the other hand, maybe it was only good luck if he kept it a secret.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
He looked down at the flopping fish, shaking his head. He hadn’t thought it through this far. They couldn’t eat the thing when it was still alive. He looked around, then went and got the oar, raised it up over his head, and brought it down on the fish.
It went still.
“Jesus,” Shy said, staring at the gash he’d opened up on the thing.
“Here,” Addie said, picking up the dry pack Mr. Henry had carried with him from the raft. “Put it on this.”
Shy lifted the wet, scaly fish and tossed it on the pack. Wiped his hands on his jeans. They both stared at it.
The fish was a dull yellow and thin, but sort of long. Its eyes were seemingly fixed on Shy.
Addie surprised him when she reached down suddenly, removed the fish from the hook and then used the hook and her bare hands to split it down the middle, blood dripping through her fingers. She held out the bigger half to Shy, who looked at her like she was crazy. “What?” she said.
“I didn’t know I was out here with a damn cannibal,” he said, looking down at his mangled portion.
“I knew you weren’t going to do it.”
“I was getting around to it,” he said.
“Yeah, right.” She looked at the half a fish in her hand and said: “We just have to imagine we’re eating sushi.”
When Shy didn’t answer right away, she looked up at him and said: “Oh, my bad. You’ve probably never had sushi in your life, have you?”
“I’ve had sushi,” Shy lied.
They both cringed as they ate, sometimes pulling bones out of their mouths, chucking them into the ocean. It didn’t taste like anything more than warm, fleshy iron, but the thought of it made Shy nauseous. He had to force himself not to throw it right back up. What felt good, though, was having something in his stomach, and soon he was skipping the chewing part and just swallowing his bites whole.
Half the fish worked out to be very little meat, but his stomach had shrunk up so small it was still satisfying.
Addie tossed the scaly skin overboard and rinsed her hands in the water by their feet. Then she looked up at him with a full-on smile—the first he’d seen from her since the ship went down.
He smiled back and picked up the oar. As he started toward the front of the boat to get them going again, he fingered the ring in his pocket, wanting to believe it was good luck for more than just catching fish. Maybe it could keep them alive, too.
36
Face of Corruption
As soon as the sun started dropping below the horizon, Shy and Addie staggered to Addie’s section of the boat, completely exhausted, and sat beside each other against the side. It wasn’t cold enough to need each other’s body heat yet, so Shy didn’t put his arm around her.
“Sorry about earlier,” Addie said.
Shy frowned like he didn’t know what she was talking about.
“My tantrum,” she said. “I just—I don’t want this to be it. And when I think about it too much I start freaking myself out.”
“I’m the same way,” Shy said. “I just keep it inside.”
She shook her head and stared at the setting sun like she was thinking about something.
They were both quiet for a few minutes, and Addie leaned her head back against the side and closed her eyes. Shy thought they were done talking for the night, but then she bumped his knee with hers and opened her eyes again. “I’ve been thinking about you and LasoTech, by the way,” she said. “It honestly doesn’t make sense that they were so concerned about you, not if all you did was see David going overboard.”
Now it was Shy’s turn to lean the back of his head against the side. “They had to think I did something to him, right? But that Bill guy told me they knew it was a suicide.”
“Yeah, that can’t be it,” Addie said. “I think they wanted to find out how David was acting before he jumped. Or maybe they thought he said something to you. Something that could get them in trouble.”
Shy thought about that. He fingered the ring in his pocket, trying to remember the exact conversation he’d had with the comb-over man. Again. The vacation homes. The cofounding of his own business—with Addie’s dad, he now knew. Tell me I’m fat.
“Can you think of anything important he might’ve said?” Addie asked.
“You think I haven’t been trying?” Shy asked.
It was bad enough to think about all this stuff on the ship, when he believed he’d be home in eight days and he’d never have to think about it again. But then something occurred to him and he turned to Addie. “This was kind of weird,” he said. “At one point he said I was looking at the face of corruption. You think he was talking about the whole company?”
Addie sat up. “Wait, he said that?”
“Yeah,” Shy said. “At the time I just figured he was drunk—”
“Of course they were asking what he told you, then,” she interrupted. “I bet the company’s doing something illegal, and they thought David explained the whole thing to you. Like he was trying to clear his conscience before he jumped.”
“I see what you’re saying,” Shy said. “Too bad he didn’t explain anything to me.”
Addie shook her head. “I wonder what they did. What my dad did?”
Shy watched the sun as it slowly dropped behind the water to the west of their boat, taking a good amount of light with it. “He also said he was my betrayer,” Shy said, turning back to Addie. “Or something like that. Like he’d messed me over personally. Which obviously doesn’t make sense because I’d never seen the guy in my life.”
Addie stared at Shy for a few long seconds. “Maybe it has something to do with poor people, then.”
Shy frowned at her.
“No offense,” she told him.
“Yeah, right,” he said.
“What if they charge poor people way more than they’re supposed to?”
“But if they make hospital supplies,” Shy said, “they wouldn’t sell shit directly to people—”
“Or, wait,” Addie said, “maybe it’s some kind of insurance fraud. You can get in really big trouble for that.”
Shy didn’t know much about insurance fraud, but he was pretty sure Addie thought he was from some homeless family who picked through the trash for their dinner. Whatever. It didn’t even matter anymore. “Or maybe your dad’s company was just being paranoid,” he said.
“God,” Addie said, staring at the palms of her hands. “What if my entire life was stolen? My house, my car, my school. Imagine if all of it was paid for with fraud money?”