After the Storm (2 page)

‘And all the different types of coral you can see,’ Owen was saying. ‘Elkhorn and staghorn, flower coral, smooth starlet, grooved brain, pillar coral…’

‘Such great names…’ Rob said.

‘We could take you there. Show you the unspoiled places. Kimmie and I wanna do a last run out there before we sell the boat and head back to Florida for good.’

Rob looked over at Anna, his face lit up. She half smiled back and didn’t say anything. She was trying to convey wordlessly her reaction which was ‘be careful’. Kimberly had said nothing in support of the plan either. Her head was bent over her glass and she looked ill at ease.

‘We don’t have a lot of money,’ Rob said when he could see that Anna was not going to commit to any such plan.

‘I don’t know how much you charge to charter the boat? We’ve got enough for the two of us to get around for the next three weeks…’

‘Well you’d be doing us a favour. We wanna say goodbye to our friends on the island. If you were willing to share what money you’ve got we could provision the boat and take you to Roatán. Show you the reefs and the hidden places. Think about it and let us know tomorrow.’

‘We will; thanks,’ Rob said.

It was dark and the rum bottle was empty when Anna and Rob left the boat and headed back along the quay and into the streets of Belize City. Owen and Kim sat on in the cockpit. He moved closer to her and started to play with her hair.

‘Do you think they’ll do it?’ he said.

‘Owen for Chrissakes, why are we even thinking of going out again?’

‘You can’t wanna leave all this, Kimbo?’

He gestured at his boat and at the sea. She tried to think of the words to use. They had just completed what she thought was their last sail and it had been a tough one. The plan had been to sell the boat in Belize City. She knew he hated the idea of returning to Florida, but she felt they had reached the end of the line. It seemed he did not.

‘I’m not sure how safe it is any more.’

The sails were worn, the sail stitches were rotted and the lines were chafed. They both knew this. The engine had failed them on their entry into Belize City. He was a fine sailor but even fine sailors need their boats to be seaworthy.

‘You know I hate to say goodbye to her, but we only just made it here this time. It’s best we bite the bullet and sell her now.’

She said it gently. She knew how much he loved his boat.

Owen had worked in boat repair and maintenance in Clearwater for fifteen years. He had often had to patch up their boat over the last three years. He had sewn ripped sails and nailed planks back in when they had sprung. That was what happened with an old wooden boat. It needed a lot of upkeep. You expected that. But the engine was a worry to him because it was corroded inside and he couldn’t afford to buy a new one.

‘I can replace the lines that are bad and I’ll work on the engine tomorrow.’

He stroked her earlobes knowing she liked that.

‘One last run out… Come on Kimmie.’

‘I think they’ll say no. He wants to do it but she’s gonna put a stop to it.’

‘You think?’

‘She seems a buttoned-up English type to me with those big serious eyes of hers, looking and reckoning and not saying much.’

They sat in silence for a while, listening to the slap of the water against the boat. She didn’t say it but she hoped fervently that the English couple would say no. It was time to sell the boat and go home to Florida.

‘I can pawn my wedding ring if they say no,’ she said.

‘I don’t want you to do that.’

She looked at her ring. It was a thick gold ring. She had wanted a big wedding ring. She wanted the world to know that she was married to Owen Adams.

‘It would give us enough till we made the sale.’

Anna and Rob said little as they walked back to their hotel on Orange Street. Rob seemed to know the direction. Anna gripped his arm tightly as they passed through the poorly lit and unfamiliar streets. Rob was moving purposefully but was watchful as they were far downtown and in a poor neighbourhood. Then he noticed a man standing in a dark doorway. There was something about the way the man was standing that alarmed him. The man was poised on his feet, like a cat when it’s ready to pounce on its prey. Rob could see a lighted road ahead, some way in front of them. He took Anna by the hand and said quietly:

‘When I say go, run as fast as you can to that lighted street, and
don’t
let go of my hand…’

‘Oh Rob.’

She gripped his hand and they took a few more steps, their hearts knocking. Then Rob shouted ‘Go!’

The man had sprung out of the doorway and was chasing them. The road was rough and uneven and Anna was gasping, finding she couldn’t get enough air into her lungs as she ran. Her fear was making her breathing so shallow. She looked back over her shoulder in terror and the man was closing the gap between them and his face had a look of focused aggression. She was nearly tripping in her panic and Rob was yanking her along the road. They reached the lighted street. There was no-one about and still the man pursued them, close behind them now, almost at reaching distance. Rob noticed a house on the street with its door slightly ajar and light pouring out from it. He pushed the door open, hauled Anna in and shut the door behind them with a bang.

They had stumbled into someone’s house. A large family were sitting around a TV set. Some of the small children were asleep on the sofa and the crashing door woke them up. The older children and their father turned as one as the door was slammed shut.

‘Sorry. Sorry,’ gasped Rob. ‘
Lo siento. Perdon.
’

He spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness while he tried to get his breath back. Anna stood there unable to speak, her chest heaving from the chase. She felt she might throw up as Rob nodded towards the street.

‘A bad man…’ he took a deep shuddering breath. ‘
Un hombre malo…
’

The man of the house had stood up and he came over to them.

‘
Ingles…?
’

‘
Si. Perdon, perdon…
’

‘OK. OK,’ the householder said to them making soothing gestures with his hands.

His young children had all got up now and were gathered around their father and staring up at Anna and Rob. A woman had come into the room from another door and she was staring at them too.

‘You are
desviados
… er… lost, no?’ said the man.

‘Yes,
si
, we are looking for our hotel on Orange Street,’ Rob said.

The man nodded.

‘I show to you.’

Anna looked at the children, such large dark eyes gazing up at her. One little girl had her hair in cornrow plaits from her forehead to her nape. Anna wished she had something she could give them. The man spoke to his wife briefly and then indicated that they should follow him. He opened his front door and there was no sign of the man who had chased them. Their guide kept to lighted streets and delivered them to the door of their hotel a few minutes later.

‘
Gracias, gracias…
’

Rob shook his hand warmly and insisted the man take the ten-dollar note and the coins which were all he had in his pocket. Most of his money was swinging in the bag around his neck and he wasn’t going to reach for that in this street.

Anna and Rob entered the dimly lit foyer of the hotel and hurried up the stairs to their room. Rob closed the door, locked it with its big old fashioned key and hugged Anna. They were both clammy with sweat.

‘He had a knife, didn’t he?’ Anna was trembling.

‘I think so. I think I saw something flash.’

He hugged her more tightly to him knowing how scared she got.

‘It’s OK now.’

‘We were lucky we found that man,’ she said.

‘Yes.’

‘And all those lovely children…’

She kissed him and pulled away.

‘I need a shower.’

She stripped and stepped into the plastic cabinet shower in the corner of the room. It was a useless shower that trickled tepid water. She soaped and rinsed herself as best she could and wrapped the thin towel around herself. As she got out she saw a huge brown cockroach on the wall below the window.

‘Oh God, it’s huge. It must be four inches long.’

Rob looked at where she was pointing in horror and he put on a thoughtful face.

‘Three and a half inches I would say.’

‘Rob…’

He flattened it with one of her shoes that was lying on the floor. Even after he had battered it hard several times she noticed that its antennae still seemed to be moving slowly. Plaster dust had fallen where he had swatted the wall. Anna sat watching the cockroach lying in the dust as if mesmerised. She remembered a vivid moment from her childhood. Her granny hated wasps and to get rid of them she would smear raspberry jam on a jar, and half fill it with water. She would leave the baited jar at a forty-five degree angle on the steps near the back door of their cottage. Anna was five years old and living with her grandparents. She had come out into the garden and had seen the jar and its contents. In the bottom of the jar were the accumulated bodies of many drowned wasps. Above these more doomed and drowning wasps were trying to crawl out of the jar over the bodies of the dead. To the little Anna it was a jar of horrors and she started to wail in terror. Her granddad came out and saw her distress. He picked the jar up, took it to the top of the garden and poured its contents onto the compost heap. A few of the half-drowned wasps had crawled away. Anna had had a horror of wasps and insects ever since. Rob kissed her wet shoulder now and she jumped. He nuzzled her neck.

‘So how about it sweet face? Our chance to charter a boat…’

She picked up a comb and started to pull it through her long dark brown hair.

‘No way Rob, it’s far too risky. We know nothing about them.’

‘They seem like a good couple.’

‘They talked to us because they want our money.’

‘They talked to us because they want us to charter their boat. We both get something out of it.’

‘They could slit our throats on the first night.’

He laughed.

‘My darling Anna; frightened of everything…’

‘Why can’t we go on like we’ve done so far?’

‘Another three weeks on a coach? Looking out of windows? No thank you.’

‘We’ve seen lots of great things. Those villages…’

‘This is a chance to see places we could never get to,’ he said.

They both had a bad night. They covered themselves with insect repellent and pulled the sheet over their heads. They lay in a sticky fug of chemical smells and as they hugged each other Anna whispered that she couldn’t get that huge cockroach out of her mind. And did he think there were bed bugs in the mattress? She kept imagining bed bugs burrowing into her flesh. He lay in the sticky bed and thought about how to persuade her that they should go on the boat. It had taken a lot of persuasion to get her to fly to Mexico. Anna was always calibrating risk. Would he be able to convince her that they would be safe on the boat with the American couple?

Owen and Kim were up early the next morning giving the boat a thorough cleaning. They worked for two hours and then Kim brought four over-ripe bananas up onto the deck where Owen was sitting.

‘Breakfast time and it’s all we’ve got left.’

Owen groaned theatrically.

‘There’s a coconut somewhere too. Can you face that?’

‘I’m so sick of coconut and bananas. But you still look real beautiful on them,’ he said seeing that Kimmie looked troubled. She managed the food side of things and prided herself on making meals for them with whatever was to hand. But the cupboard was bare and they were down to their last few dollars. She sat next to him, peeled a banana and took a bite.

‘I’m out of butter to fry them in, and rum.’

‘I’m dreaming of fried chicken,’ he said.

‘Lobster with melted butter, or baked with a butter and honey sauce. I can never decide which is better.’

‘Keep it simple I say.’

Anna sat up in bed.

‘Horrible night,’ she said.

There was a slick of sweat under her breasts and between her thighs, wherever skin touched skin. She looked over to where the dead cockroach had been lying under the window and it had disappeared.

‘Where’s it gone?’

Rob sat up.

‘The cockroach, where’s it gone?’

He put on a serious face.

‘Its relatives took it off for a funeral.’

‘Ha ha… Where’s it gone?’

‘I didn’t want to worry you last night. You were freaked out enough. As I turned the lights off the room came alive with bugs. They’ve eaten it of course.’

She shuddered.

‘I want to get out of here now.’

‘There wouldn’t be any cockroaches on the boat,’ he said.

They showered, dressed and packed their rucksacks quickly, paid for the room and went in search of a café. There were several to choose from along the main street. Rob favoured the third one they passed and they went in and ordered coffee and fried eggs with tomatoes. When they arrived the eggs were runny. Rob tucked into his hungrily while Anna gave them a dubious look, but the tomatoes had lots of flavour and she ate these with the bread. Rob went back on the charge making the arguments for chartering the boat. Since childhood he had dreamed of having an adventure like this; he had an urge to seek out his own wilderness. He wanted to be on that boat and he wanted to see those islands very much.

‘You’re suggesting we hand over most of our money to them. That seems risky to me,’ she said.

Rob resisted a flash of irritation. Many of his discussions with Anna entailed the subject of risk.

‘That’s the deal Anna. They give us accommodation and food, so yes it will be most of our money. But see what we get for it, we get to see those islands and we learn to sail too.’

‘I’m worried about the lack of privacy. It didn’t look that big to me.’

He could see however that her resistance was weakening. Last night’s chase through the streets and the huge cockroach had helped persuade her in a way that none of his arguments could. Finally, and reluctantly, she agreed that they should charter the boat.