Chapter 78

Aboard

 

Complicated did not begin to describe what it was like on board the Father Skolnik Maru. First we had to walk on a gangplank that was a long, bendy board about six inches wide, as the boat bobbed in the water. Once we were on deck, everything was crowded and difficult, and there were about a hundred large, clumsy Lake Scouts milling around and tripping on things. A couple of times I was almost knocked overboard.

Finally Geets and I got into place to row. There were little narrow hard benches, offset and stacked three high, and the oars were of three different lengths, the longest at the top, then shorter, then shortest. The way things were set up, if you were not at the top—I was at the bottom—the oar of the rower above you could smack you in the face if you were not leaning back and pulling when he was.

It was about a hundred rowers, one to an oar, and except for Geets and me, all of them were Lake Scouts. I hoped they knew what they were doing—I certainly didn’t. Geets didn’t seem bothered by any of this, I supposed because he had been in the navy for a little while and that built his confidence. But I was pretty certain they hadn’t given him trireme-rowing training.

Golyat was on deck—he was a passenger and wasn’t going to row. Geets’s friend Hugebee was onshore with Glugo, the boat builder. And I thought I saw my father! But I was peering out of the oar hole and couldn’t get a good view. Victor was with us, and also the two weird whitewashers—they had brought a drum onboard, a smaller version of the giant one. Obviously they were going to tap out a rhythm for us to row to.

Victor poked his face down into the little cramped space. “Hey, kids! Glad you made it! I’ve been wanting to take this trip back to the island for most of my life!” He was all excited.

“Say, Victor—about this island . . .” I started to ask, but then Captain Shmendy started to holler and everyone got quiet and listened.

“Crew! We’re about to get under way. The tricky part of this voyage will be getting the craft out of the harbor. There are lots of small craft at anchor, and we will have to thread our way among them and sink as few as possible. Listen to my commands, and obey instantly.”

Geets was sitting in front of me. “What commands? How do we know what to do?” I whispered to him.

“Just do what the others do,” Geets said. “How difficult could it be?”

Incredibly difficult is how it was. Fortunately, the Lake Scouts all moved as one person, and by simply freakishly panicking and scrambling to do what they were doing while actually whining with fear, I was able not to get my oar tangled up with the oars of the rowers before and behind and above me.

This is what Captain Shmendy said, one command after another, without stopping:

“Prepare to give way! Give way together! Easy, starboard! Easy, port. Easy, easy, port! Back, starboard! Hold water, port! Blades up! Blades down! Lay on your oars! Belay that command! Hale up the brails! Helm’s-a-lee! Handsomely now! Hold water, all! Sharp, starboard! Forge ahead!”

I have to hand it to those robot zombie Neanderthal or whatever they were Lake Scouts. I had no idea what they were doing, but they did what they did the moment Captain Shmendy hollered a command, and they all did it together. I was sweating and whimpering and going insane, but I managed to move my oar more or less where they moved theirs and just a little after.

It took at least an hour—maybe two.