CHAPTER 4
The sun was low in the sky by the time Sam and Bear showed up at Kallik’s house. When he’d left the cannery that afternoon, Sam had taken his dog for a long walk, trying to cool down and decide what to do about work. First, Travis had given him grief about Kallik, then Crompton had come down on him about Bear; it was like being in a dysfunctional family with those two. He was tired of being second-guessed by guys who’d never hauled fish for a living and sick of working hard while somebody else took most of the profit. It was time to take charge of his future, and the only way to do that was with a ship of his own.
He’d been working on his plan for a while now, but so far, the dream had remained out of reach. The perfect ship would be gone before he could bid on it, or the price would be too high, or the seller too flaky. Interest rates that had held steady for years were suddenly going up, too, making any money he borrowed that much harder to pay back. Some days, it felt as if the whole universe were against him.
Marilyn answered the door when Sam knocked, her baby bump proudly displayed under a fitted T-shirt. Pregnancy suited her, he thought, filling out her thin face and making her cheeks glow. Kallik was thrilled, but Sam wasn’t sure he’d have had the guts to try again after so many disappointments. Then again, maybe he’d feel braver if he were in their position. Kallik and Marilyn were both pure Tlingit—the First Nation of Ketchikan. For them, a baby represented more than just family, it meant the survival of their people. Sam just hoped that this time, the two of them would get the happy ending they deserved.
She leaned against the doorjamb and lifted an eyebrow.
“Well, if it isn’t Sandy Sam and his shaggy companion. What brings you two here on this fine evening?”
He grinned.
“Any chance we could steal your husband away for a little while?”
“Didn’t you already steal him away this morning?” she said, her eyes twinkling with mischief. “You and that boat are as bad as a mistress.”
“No way,” Kallik said, stepping up behind her. “I’d be home a lot more often if I only had a mistress to take care of.”
He gave her a squeeze and looked at Sam.
“What’s up, Skipper?”
“Got time to talk? Over a drink, maybe?”
“Ah, that sounds like a serious talk,” Kallik said. “Let me get a jacket.”
As her husband walked off, Marilyn reached out and gave Bear a snuggle. Sam had noticed that his dog was less boisterous around her since the pregnancy. Newfoundlands were especially attuned to human vulnerability; he wondered if Marilyn’s condition was drawing out the dog’s protective nature.
“Try not to bring my husband home too late,” she said, patting her belly. “Me and Junior don’t sleep well without him.”
“Don’t worry,” Sam told her. “I’ll keep an eye on the time.”
Kallik returned and gave Marilyn a kiss on the cheek.
“Don’t wait up for me, baby. This might take a while.”
The two men headed down to the Sourdough, a place where locals could hang out, have a drink, and play pool without being hassled. They ordered their beers at the bar and took them to a table in back while Bear wandered off to visit some of the regulars. Sam pointed to the pictures of famous shipwrecks on the wall.
“Kind of makes you humble, doesn’t it?”
Kallik nodded. “Being humble is the only way to stay alive on the water. You start thinking you’re the one in charge, it’s over, man.”
Sam stared at the bottle in his hand. It had taken hours to work up the courage to share his plan with Kallik, and now that they were face-to-face, he was having a hard time getting started. Getting the engineer’s buy-in was crucial for his plan to work; if the answer was no, he’d be done before he even got started. He took a second to scan the room before laying out his proposition. The last thing he wanted was for word to get back to the ship’s co-owners and crew. Finding the right ship might still take time, no matter how eager he was, and neither one of them could afford to lose his job.
“I’ve decided to buy my own ship,” he said. “Not someday—now. As soon as I can get my hands on one.”
Kallik took another sip of beer.
“You have the money?”
Sam shrugged. It was a fair, if uncomfortable, question.
“Not all of it,” he said. “Not in cash, anyway, but rates are still low and my credit’s good. I can borrow the rest and pay it back with the extra I’ll be making as owner.”
The engineer was making condensation patterns on the table with his bottle.
“I don’t know, man. Debt’s like a weight around your neck, always pulling you down. You have a bad season, miss a few payments, you lose everything.”
Sam clenched his teeth in frustration. He hadn’t gone there to hear what he already knew; he was looking for support.
“Then again,” Kallik continued, “most people who borrow do okay, and you’ve got other resources. I suppose you’d be fine.”
“That’s right,” Sam said, relieved.
“You’re still gonna need a crew, though, and the season’s already started. Most guys out there have a ship by now.”
“I’m not worried about finding a crew; there are always guys on the dock looking for work. The hard part will be finding an engineer.”
Their eyes met.
“Will you do it?” Sam said. “If I find a ship, will you join me?”
Kallik took a deep breath and shook his head.
“I can’t, man. I’d love to, you know that, but with the baby—”
“Come on. Travis and Jack have been giving you crap for months. You don’t like working for them any more than I do.”
The engineer nodded, then fixed Sam with a hard stare.
“Let me ask you something. You been talking about getting your own ship for as long as I’ve known you. What’s the hurry all of a sudden?”
Sam looked down the row of tables and saw his dog padding toward them. Everyone Bear passed smiled or said hello or gave him a pat on the back. It had been that way on the ship, too. The crew liked having him around—Oscar even said that having a Newfoundland onboard was good luck. Why were Jack and Travis so anxious to get rid of him?
“You know they’ve been after me about having Bear onboard.”
“I thought you guys worked that out.”
“I thought so, too—at least temporarily—but then Bear got spooked and ran into the cannery this afternoon. He knocked some girl down.”
“Aw, crap.”
“I thought it would be okay. I mean, it didn’t look like she was hurt, but that NOAA inspector showed up and started yelling at us to get out. Just my luck, Jack Crompton was standing right there on the dock.”
Kallik shook his head.
“The guy went off on me like a bomb. Said Bear was a liability he couldn’t afford. Told me not to bring him on the ship anymore.”
“What are you going to do?”
Sam finished his beer and set the bottle aside. For the next few days, at least, it would be a moot point. After that day’s poor harvest, the regional administrator had declared all fish in the area uncatchable in hopes of staying within the allowable ocean harvest goals for the season. Once that restriction was lifted, though, he’d be back on the water—without Bear.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I admit I haven’t been looking that hard for a sitter, but it isn’t easy to find someone with enough room for Bear. He can’t just sit in a little cage all day. He needs to stretch his legs or he’ll go crazy.”
“What about Tiffany? She’s got a place of her own now, doesn’t she?”
“It wouldn’t work,” he said. “Too many issues.”
Sam had actually considered asking his ex-girlfriend if she could take the dog, just for a while, but had decided against it. Tiffany and Bear still got along and the place where she was living had a decent-sized yard, but her drug habit had only gotten worse since the two of them broke up, and the guy she was living with was bad news. If Sam left Bear with them, he’d never be able to concentrate on running the ship. He couldn’t afford to risk everyone’s lives just so his dog could have a place to stay.
“Can’t you just leave him at home?”
“I’ll have to,” Sam said. “At least until I can find someone to watch him. But Bear’s a big guy, and he gets bored if no one’s around. I don’t want him getting out and wandering the streets while I’m gone.”
Kallik was thoughtful a moment.
“Why don’t I ask Marilyn if she knows somebody? There’s a lot of girls in her women’s circle who could use a few bucks working from home.”
“That’d be great. Thanks.”
“So, problem solved?”
Sam shrugged. “One of them, anyway.”
Kallik lifted his empty bottle and gave it a waggle.
“Well, if you need me to solve another one, you’ll have to buy me another one of these.”
“You got it.”
Sam got up to fetch them each another, stepping carefully over Bear, who had fallen asleep at their feet. When he returned, the dog lifted his head, blinked sleepily for a moment, then lay back down and continued his nap. Sam set the bottles down and took his seat. Kallik was looking at his phone.
“Everything okay?”
He nodded. “It’s Marilyn. She’s got another name she wants to run by me.”
Marilyn had been looking for a traditional Tlingit name for the baby, something they could both agree on—so far, without luck.
“What’s this one?”
“KaGák.”
Sam repeated the word as best he could, trying to get the emphasis right.
“I like it,” he said. “What’s it mean?”
Kallik looked up. “Mouse.”
“Uh-huh. So, what do you think?”
“Not sure yet. Giving kids the names of animals isn’t my thing, but it’s traditional, and Marilyn’s always felt bad that she wasn’t given a native name. Mostly, I just want something that doesn’t sound like something nasty in English.”
“Well, it’s not too bad. Doesn’t sound like anything a kid could make fun of, but then, kids can be pretty creative when it comes to making fun.”
“I’ll tell her it’s a maybe.”
He sent the text and put his phone away.
“So, problem number two?”
Sam hesitated. He hadn’t been planning to mention Travis’s visit when he asked Kallik to join him, but he figured it was better to get it out in the open rather than take the chance that someone would mention it later. As far as he was concerned, his engineer’s performance issues were a thing of the past, but that didn’t mean they’d gone unnoticed. The guy needed to know he was skating on thin ice.
“I got a visit from Travis this morning.”
“So I heard.” Kallik tilted the bottle neck toward him. “Oscar and Ben saw him leaving. They talk.”
“He’s concerned about some of the stuff that went on the last few months.”
“With me?”
“Yeah. You know: tardiness, lack of focus. The equipment we lost in that storm.”
Kallik’s face collapsed in on itself.
“I already paid them back.”
“I know that,” Sam said. “I’m not blaming you.”
“So, what did you say when Travis brought it all up again?”
“I told him the truth: you had a rough patch, but it’s behind you now.”
“Damn right. Why can’t he let it go?”
“Because that’s the way he is,” Sam said. “That’s the way they both are. They treat us like a bunch of little kids instead of professionals.” He leaned forward to press his point. “That’s why we need to get out of there—both of us. I need to know you’re with me.”
Kallik stared at the table and slowly shook his head.
“I can’t, man. Marilyn would never forgive me. She’d say a bird in the hand is worth a dozen flying free.”
“Yeah, well, what if the bird in your hand’s about to fly away, too?”
The engineer’s face flushed. When he looked up, his eyes were almost bugging out of his head. “What?”
Sam chewed his lip. He hadn’t meant to say anything about Jack’s threat, it had just popped out. Now that it was out there, though, he could hardly take it back.
“Travis told me that Jack wants to fire you. I don’t know how serious he is. Maybe he will and maybe he won’t, but I thought you should know.”
Kallik opened his mouth.
“And . . .” Sam continued, “before you accuse me of playing dirty, I didn’t tell you that so you’d agree to join me. I did it so you could be prepared in case the worst happens.”
His assurance seemed to do the trick. The engineer’s look of outrage subsided.
“I know that, man. You’ve always played straight with me. Sorry. I just—”
“Don’t worry about it. I’d have thought the same thing.”
The door to the bar flew open and a gaggle of young voices kicked the noise level up, disturbing the comfortable, low-key atmosphere. Sam turned and looked back over his shoulder.
“Who the hell is that?”
“College kids,” Kallik said. “They were in here last week, too. Think they’re locals now ’cause they’re here for the summer.”
Sam watched the four girls and two guys at the bar fishing out their IDs so they could buy drinks. One of the girls looked familiar.
“Oh, crap.”
“What?”
“That girl, the one in back. She’s the one Bear knocked down at the cannery.” He turned away and hunched his shoulders. “I can’t let her see me. She’ll come over and rip me a new one.”
The engineer craned his neck.
“Hey, she’s cute. You sure you don’t want to go over and say hi?”
“Positive.”
Sam pulled up his shirt collar and turned his face to the wall.
Kallik chuckled. “Then I hate to tell you this, man, but even if she hasn’t seen you, she’s definitely seen your dog.”
Sam reached down, but Bear was already on his feet. Before he could grab the dog’s collar, he’d taken off. As the Newfoundland trotted over, the group at the bar greeted him like an old friend. Seconds later, the girl walked up and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey there. Remember me?”
Sam glanced up into the same emerald eyes he’d seen that afternoon.
“Yeah, I remember,” he said. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Got a bruise on my shoulder, but that’s my fault. I saw that guy giving you crap out on the dock. Sorry if you got in trouble.”
How old was she? She seemed pretty poised for a college kid.
“It’s fine,” he said. “I was just worried about you.”
“I’m Emily, by the way.”
Emily stuck out her hand—it was really soft—and he shook it, feeling self-conscious about the calluses on his own.
“Sam,” he said.
She hesitated a moment, glancing back at the others.
“Well, as long as there are no hard feelings . . .”
“No,” he said. “No hard feelings.”
“Okay. Well, I’ll see you around, I guess.”
“Yeah. Sure. See you.”
She turned away and took a few steps, then looked back.
“By the way, what’s your dog’s name?”
“Bear.”
“Bear.” Emily nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good name for him.”
Sam’s heart was pounding. As he turned back, Kallik grinned.
“Oh, my my, those green eyes. You look like a kid with his first crush.”
Sam scowled. He’d never been able to hide his emotions; people always told him they could read his mind on his face.
“Come on,” he said. “I promised your wife I’d get you home by bedtime.”