As we straggled back to the resort, supporting Paul who stumbled along between us, I said to Gator, ‘You know that mini-sub that Jaime deep sixed?’
‘Yeah?’
‘He lied. It’s out there. Under the plane.’
TWENTY-ONE
SATELLITE WIND DATA, AIRCRAFT RECONNAISSANCE AND LOCAL REPORTS CONFIRM HURRICANE-FORCE WIND OF 100 KNOTS IS LASHING ABACO. EXPECT A WIND SHIFT AS THE CENTER OF HELEN PASSES IN A FEW HOURS, BUT A CONTINUING BLOW AS HELEN CONTINUES TO INTENSIFY THROUGH THE NIGHT AND WIND IN HER EAST-QUADRANT WILL BE AT ITS HEIGHT.Chris Parker, Wx Update, Bahamas, Fri 5, 10a
Rain blew sideways into the club room as we stumbled through the double doors. It took both Gator and Henry to pull the doors closed, lock them and drop the hurricane bar into place.
‘Anybody got a first aid kit?’ Molly shouted when she caught sight of Paul.
‘It’s in the kitchen,’ Jaime called out. ‘I’ll get it.’
Molly hustled off to the restroom to dampen some paper towels, while we settled Paul into my lounge chair and covered him with the sleeping bag. Kneeling next to the lounger, I rested my head on Paul’s chest, grateful for the strong, steady heart beating against my cheek. ‘What were you thinking, Paul?’
His hand found the back of my head and rested lightly on my hair. ‘Henry’d flown his wife out to Lauderdale a couple of days ago, but wanted to get back to the park. The captain goes down with the ship and all that.’ A laugh rumbled up from his chest. ‘We’d been in touch… well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.’
‘I’d listened to the reports,’ Henry said from behind me. ‘I was sure we could get as far as Treasure Cay airport before the storm hit, and I was right. But the skies looked good over Hawksbill, so we decided to come on in. Rookie mistake.’
Beneath my cheek, Paul stirred. ‘I don’t think I’ve properly thanked you, Henry, for a masterful job of flying. Sorry about the plane, though.’
‘That’s what insurance is for.’
When Molly returned, she took the first aid kit from Jaime, motioned everybody out of the way, and got to work.
‘Better hurry before the power dies,’ Jaime advised. ‘I’ve just come back from checking the generator, and we’re running low on fuel.’
‘I used to be a nurse,’ Molly said, dabbing lightly at the cut on Paul’s forehead. ‘Once we clear the blood away…’ She leaned closer, patted Paul’s knee. ‘You’ll live. Won’t even need stitches.’ Using a pair of scissors she found in the kit, she cut a strip of adhesive tape into a butterfly and used it to close the wound. ‘You’ll have a headache tomorrow, but that’s what aspirin’s for!’
‘Aspirin?’ Paul frowned. His eyes shot toward the empty bar. ‘Don’t we have anything stronger than aspirin?’
‘I can make you a Bahama Mama,’ I said helpfully as Hurricane Helen began to howl, took hold of the doors and rattled them against their hinges in her fury. She threw rain against the roof, hard as marbles. She clawed at the hurricane shutters. There was a screech of tearing metal as something was ripped from the roof and carried away.
I fixed Paul a drink, then sat on the floor next to his chair with my back against the wall. The whole building seemed to vibrate, humming like a cello. I pulled my knees up under my chin and hugged them, making myself as small a target as possible as the wind screamed like the engines of a 747 preparing for take-off.
‘Gotta go while there’s still a restroom to go to,’ I whispered to Paul after a while. He mumbled sleepily.
‘Wait for me,’ Molly said.
I took her hand and headed toward the Ladies’ room with the wind pushing against our backs as we staggered drunkenly along the narrow hallway. ‘It’s a wind tunnel,’ I shouted as something crashed against the roof. I flinched and we jumped back, pressing our backs against the wall. ‘Something’s open somewhere.’
I dragged Molly the last few feet along the wall, and we fell through the door into the restroom.
Inside, it seemed quieter. I entered the stall gratefully, feeling safer somehow as I closed the door and threw the latch. Stall, inside restroom, inside building, with me cocooned in the center like a Russian nesting doll.
Yet Hurricane Helen had long fingers. As I sat down, she stirred the water in the toilet, sloshing it up against the sides of the bowl. On the inside of the stall, someone had posted a sign: If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down. Classy. I was feeling grateful for the Tamarind Tree Resort power generator so I could read the sign, and thankful for their desalinization plant, too, as I did what I had to do, then flushed.
When Molly and I got back, Paul was napping. How he could sleep while the wind roared and thundered like an oncoming locomotive, tearing at the roof of the building like some wild beast trying to get in, I’ll never know. I waited until Molly was safely back on her lounger, then said, ‘I’m going to check on Alice.’
I found her stretched out on a blanket in her hidey-hole behind the bar. Somewhat surprisingly, Alice seemed to have left her size five-and-half Manolo Blahniks on the floor under her bed and put on a pair of sensible white sneakers. She wore white jeans and a green t-shirt that said: I love vegetarians. More meat for me.
‘Why aren’t you sitting with Jaime, Alice?’ I asked as I sat cross-legged on the blanket beside her.
‘I’m not speaking to him.’
Although I could think of a thousand reasons, I couldn’t resist asking why.
‘I put my foot down, Hannah. I teared up and I put my hands on my hips and I said nuh-uh, no-way, fuhgeddaboudit.’
I felt like I’d tuned in to the middle of a sitcom, lost without the script.
‘He gave me this ring, and now he wants it back.’ She leaned sideways, bumped her shoulder against mine. ‘I think he wants to pawn it.’
Alice offered her right hand for inspection. On her little finger, she wore a small emerald and gold ring. ‘Jaime needs money?’ I asked as I admired the ring.
Sally Parker had owned a ring like that, I thought. My stomach churned.
Alice shrugged. ‘Who. Freaking. Knows. Every time I mention money, Jaime tells me to shut up. So I do.’
‘Where’s Jaime now?’ I asked his bride. ‘I haven’t seen him since he brought the first aid kit.’
She reached for her teddy bear. ‘He’s probably with his precious sister, hiding under daddy’s desk.’
The lights flickered once, twice, then died. As Jaime had predicted, the generator had run out of gas. ‘Are you going to be OK?’ I asked Alice as I squinted at her into the dark.
‘I think so.’
‘Do you want me to stay with you?’
‘I’m OK. I’ve got Mr Patches.’ She grabbed the bear’s paw and helped him wave goodbye to me.
‘I need to go check on my husband, Alice, but if you want company, just bring Mr Patches and come join us.’ I patted her knee, comforting her just as I would a child.
I made my way back to Paul largely by feel, guided by the beam of the flashlight Molly had turned on. As the storm continued to rage, I straddled the end of Paul’s lounge chair, thinking about Alice’s ring. A thin gold band with an emerald perched on top. There must be thousands like it in the world.
Yet I was convinced Jaime had stolen it from Sally.
As I stared into the dark, my eyes slowly adjusting, I wondered if I should confront Jaime about the ring as I had about the boat. I scanned the room, but didn’t see him.
A Coleman lamp burned in the corner where two sailors huddled, reading in its light. I could see Gator’s Nikes, a ragged disgrace to the brand, sticking out from beneath his blanket as he slept with his head under a table, curled up next to his dog. Every once in a while a flashlight would play eerily over a face as it was flicked on, played around the floor as if looking for something, then switched off.