| |
Jessica sat up abruptly as the cabin was plunged into darkness. “What happened?”
“I think we were struck by lightning.”
Sed sounded calm, as if being struck by lightning wasn’t a big deal. As if the lights going out unexpectedly was romantic instead of terrifying. As if they weren’t in peril. Jessica tried to cling to his calm, but her racing heart wasn’t having it.
Her hand tightened on Sed’s as she hoped his strength would seep into her. “What should we do?”
“Wait until the storm passes and then assess the damage.”
“Wait?” She wasn’t good at waiting. She needed to know what they were up against now.
“If we go out now, one of us could be washed overboard or worse.”
“Worse? What could be worse than that?”
“Being struck by lightning.”
Yes, that would be worse, but it would be quick. Drowning would be a miserable, panicky sort of death.
Sed drew her closer and kissed her head. “We’ll be fine,” he said. “I won’t let anything harm you or the baby.”
She wrapped her arms around him, squeezing and probably cutting off his air supply in her terror, but she let his words sink in, deep into her heart and soul. After several moments, she allowed herself to believe his reassurances and began to relax.
Once her death grip loosened slightly, Sed shifted away from her, and terror gripped her chest once more. His hand remained on her shoulder, even when she heard a cabinet open next to the bed. Something cool and heavy landed on top of her.
“Put this on,” he said.
“What is it?”
“A life vest.”
Another life vest? Did she need it? They were safe below deck, weren’t they? He’d told her that they didn’t have to wear the preservers when they were in the cabin. His hand left her shoulder. Gasping with fear, she reached out and found him putting on his own life vest. So they must not be safe.
“Do you need help?” he asked as he clicked buckles into place.
She scrambled to put her vest on, but couldn’t figure out which way was up or down, front or back, much less how to fasten the buckles. “I can’t see what I’m doing.”
He assisted her by feel, and when they were both securely trussed up in the bulky contraptions, he pulled her back into his arms, tucking her head under his chin and sheltering her in his embrace. Even when the life vest began to get uncomfortably hot, she didn’t move from the security of his hold.
They lay in the absolute darkness, tangled tightly in each other’s arms, for hours. Or days. It felt like days. Thunder rumbled, lightning crackled, the wind howled, the ocean roared, and the boat creaked and groaned under the strain, but as long as she could feel Sed’s warm skin beneath her palm and hear the steadiness of his breath, Jessica had hope. As the storm intensified, the boat rose higher and fell lower, rolling so severely that it threatened to tumble them from the bed onto the floor, but still they lay waiting for the calm. She’d never prayed so hard in her life.
Eventually the rocking began to still, the thunder faded, and the boat quieted as if it had fallen asleep after a trying ordeal. Only then did Sed sit up and push the covers from their legs.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “I probably bruised you by holding you so tight.”
She’d been holding onto him just as tightly. “I didn’t mind,” she said. “It kept me from totally freaking out.”
“Me too,” he said, squeezing her wrist.
“You weren’t freaked out,” she said. “Not even a little.”
“Believe that if you must.”
She did believe it. She had to. “Is it over?” she asked.
“I think so. I’ll go check.”
There was no way she was letting him out of reach. He was her lifeline. Her life. “I’m coming with you.”
Something thunked, and Sed cursed in the darkness. “I thought this boat was supposed to have an emergency backup generator,” he grumbled.
“Could lightning wipe that out?”
“Only if it fried the entire electrical system.”
She had a sinking feeling that it had done exactly that. How would they get back to shore if all the electric gadgets and doodads that raised the sails and helped Sed navigate had been rendered useless? Her feet found the floor, and she shuffled in the direction she’d last seen the door, using a hand on the edge of the bed for guidance. When she ran out of mattress, she reached out and found smooth warm flesh. Sed’s arm. He took her hand, and the blind led the blind out of the bedroom and into the lounge. It was equally dark out there, but with slow steps and a few stubbed toes, they ventured forward. At the top of the steps, Sed wrestled with the hatch door until it finally released and swung open. Cool air rushed over Jessica’s face, and the light from a fading sun made her blink. It was near sunset, and the dark bank of clouds further muted the limited light. Soon it would be pitch black outside without even starlight to guide them.
“The mast looks fine.” Sed craned his neck to peer up at the tallest structure for miles, which had undoubtedly served as a lightning rod in the storm. “The antenna has seen better days, however.”
Antenna? How important could that be? It wasn’t as if they had to listen to the radio to survive.
Sed moved to the cockpit, walking gingerly on the slippery deck. Every inch of the boat was drenched, and Jessica was surprised they’d been able to stay completely dry below deck. The hatch had done an excellent job of sealing out the elements.
Sed fiddled with gadgets, but the entire instrument panel was dead.
“We’re in trouble, aren’t we?” Jessica said, staring at the dark screen of the navigation device as if sheer will would fix it.
“Sailors have been navigating the seas without fancy electronics for centuries,” he said.
“So you know how to get us home?”
He licked his lips and smacked the side of the screen with his palm. It didn’t respond. “Of course. First thing we need to do is figure out which way is north. My dad showed me how to navigate by the sun and stars.”
Jessica turned her gaze skyward at the blanket of clouds that concealed the entire sky. “I don’t think stars are an option,” she said.
“Well, the sun is setting portside, so that means land is that way.” He pointed to the right side of the boat.
“But how far?” And where along the Californian coast would they end up?
“It can’t be too far. We only sailed about an hour out.”
But they’d been drifting at the mercy of the storm for many times that long.
“I think we should call for help,” Jessica said.
“I’ve got this,” he said, turning the ignition key. The engine didn’t respond. Not even after Sed’s pleading, “Come on, baby.”
“Can we call for help now?”
Sed released a heavy sigh, as if he didn’t think they needed assistance, and said, “If it will make you feel better, I’ll send out a distress call.” He switched on the radio knob, but like every other electronic device on the boat, the radio didn’t respond.
The nervous jitters in Jessica’s belly shifted into crippling fear, and she sank into the captain’s seat. The cold pool of water that had collected there made her shriek.
“Radio’s out. Navigation’s out. Engine’s nonresponsive. Sails are down and”—Sed flicked a switch—“the electric winches are dead.”
“We’re screwed.”
“Someone will find us.”
“No one knows where we are.”
“I called my mom before we left.”
“But you told her we were sailing out to the barrier islands. There’s no telling where we are right now.”
Sed tapped the compass on the boat’s dash. “Look at this crazy thing,” he said, as if they’d run out of gas next to the filling station pump and had nothing to worry about. “It says that way is east.” He pointed out at the orange streak of the setting sun along the horizon. “But that’s obviously west. Unless the planet suddenly shifted on its axis.”
Maybe it had. Jessica’s world certainly felt off-kilter. She blew out a breath, trying to come up with a solution to their problem.
“Cellphones,” she said, hopping to her feet and hurrying to the steps.
“Good thinking.”
She peered into the inky darkness of the cabin below. “Damn, it’s dark down there. Do you have a flashlight?”
“Dad probably stowed one around here somewhere.”
He was so cool, she was surprised fog wasn’t forming over his skin.
She didn’t know if her husband was in denial or was seconds from completely losing his mind. How could he possibly be so calm? They could die out there.
He rummaged through a compartment in the cockpit and pulled out a lantern, a flare gun, a first aid kit, and a portable radio.
“Yes!” she said. “We’re saved!” She reached for the portable radio and switched it on. It made a squelching sound, the red light of the digital display glowing in the twilight. She pressed the button and said, “Help us. Our boat was struck by lightning.”
She released the button and waited. Nothing but static greeted her eager ears.
“Are you on the right channel?” Sed asked.
“Sixteen?”
He nodded. “That’s the distress frequency.”
He turned on the LED lantern, which gave off quite a bit of light. It was comforting in the rapidly descending darkness.
“Why sixteen?” she asked. “That’s hard to remember. Why not channel one?”
“How should I know? Maybe you’d like to Google the reason.”
She let his snippiness pass. He was probably as stressed out as she was, even if he was better at hiding it. She tried calling for help again. No response.
“Why aren’t they answering?” she asked.
“Maybe we’re too far from their receiver. The boat has a huge VHF antenna to send signals vast distances.” He pointed at the tip of the mast. “But it’s scrap metal now.”
When she squinted up through the gloom, she could just make out the broken skeletal remains of the antenna far above them. “That must be where the lightning struck,” she said. At the pinnacle of the mast, the VHF antenna had been the highest point of the boat.
“I’d say so. I’m going below to find my cellphone and see if we can get a signal. Are you coming?”
She didn’t want to be left out on the deck alone. She pressed the radio against her chest so she didn’t do something stupid like drop it overboard, and rose to her feet. A cool breeze blew across her damp backside, and she couldn’t help but giggle.
“Maybe I should consider putting on something other than this life vest.”
Sed grinned, and some of her tension eased. He extended his free hand in her direction, holding the lantern in the other. “Personally, I think it’s a great outfit. If the fashion industry catches wind, it will be on all the top runways by fall.”
She laughed and took his hand, finding even more steadying strength at the touch of his fingers. “Sure. You could set trends wearing this look onstage. Your female fans wouldn’t complain.” But Jessica would. No one got to view that spectacular cock of his but his wife.
They ventured below deck, which was far less creepy by lantern light, and Sed located his discarded swim trunks near the bedroom door. Jessica dug out the bag of clothes she’d brought aboard and was grateful to slip into a pair of dry underwear and shorts. She didn’t take the life vest off, though. Not even to put on a T-shirt over her bikini top.
Sed pulled his phone out of the pocket of his trunks and powered it on. “No signal,” he said, glancing up from the screen.
Jessica wasn’t surprised. The cards kept stacking against them. Still, she had to believe they’d make it home. Sed was an important person. Hundreds of thousands of people would care that he was missing. They’d come looking for him. On the other hand, the only person who cared enough to look for her was also lost at sea on a disabled sailboat.
“Maybe we can get a signal outside.” She took her cellphone out of her bag and tried to get a signal on hers even though his didn’t have one; there was always the possibility that her phone had superpowers she was not aware of. Yet she couldn’t get a signal no matter how far she extended her arm over the edge of the boat.
“Remind me to have a satellite dish installed on this boat when we get back to port,” he said.
“Why? So lightning can strike that too?”
“No, so we’ll have backup to our backup’s backup. Dad thought installing satellite Wi-Fi was too highbrow and unnecessary.”
“You seem to think I’ll willingly get back on this boat in the future.”
He smiled. “I know you were hooked. Well, until that storm caught us unaware. But what are the chances of lightning striking twice? Especially on the West Coast?”
She wasn’t sure what their odds were. The lightning strike of her feelings for Sed had struck twice, so such occurrences couldn’t be totally unprecedented.
“Sailing was wonderful before I knew what it meant to be at the mercy of the sea,” she admitted. “Can we set off a flair now?” She might feel better if they were doing something that might get them rescued.
“We’ll set off our flare if we see a boat or if someone answers our distress call on the radio and needs a visual to locate us.”
“It’s getting dark. If there’s someone nearby, they’ll see the flare for sure and know we need help.”
“If there isn’t someone nearby, shooting it off will be a complete waste of our flare. Then what?”
Jessica swallowed as she realized he’d used the singular flare and not once, but twice. “Flare? We have only one?”
“Afraid so.”
So shooting flares off every ten minutes wasn’t an option. “What do you suggest we do?”
“Hold tight until morning, when I can better assess the damage. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get something working again or at least hoist the sails manually and steer us toward the coast until we’re close enough for our distress call to be heard.”
She supposed that made sense. The damn compass wasn’t even functioning correctly, and with no stars to guide them, they were sure to get even more lost than they already were if they tried risky maneuvers. The ocean was vast, and they were but a speck on its waves. One wrong move could end their happily ever after before it had really started.
“What do we do until morning?” she asked. She was too amped up to even consider sleeping. What if they didn’t hear a summons on their handheld or if another storm blew in? Or what if they ended up in the direct path of a giant cruise ship?
Sed smiled and set the lantern on the deck. Taking her hand, he drew her body against his, the gentle sway of the boat moving them together in a slow and tranquil dance. “We honeymoon.”