3

 

After dinner, Jim put the atlas on the table and held it open with four ornaments. The time for plotting was over. Time was running out and he needed to focus and make a solid plan.

“The only problem with this,” Lou said, “is that England is in the crease.”

“I know where we are though,” Staci told her. “Where are the Philippines?”

“Your parents live there and you don’t know where it is?”

“I don’t like geography. Besides, it’s boring stuff like roads and traffic pollution.”

“Don’t start again, please.” Jim pointed to the page. “Right there. In the Pacific. Just to the right of Australia.”

Staci looked worried. “Isn’t it dangerous going all the way round the bottom of America, Jim?”

“I’ll go through the Panama Canal,” he said and showed her. “Start off going through the Windward Pass, stop in Jamaica to refuel and stock up again. Then, across the Caribbean Sea, through the Panama Canal, and into the Pacific.”

“That’s a long way to go on your own,” Lou said, with that irritating ‘I’m right and you’re wrong’ tone in her voice. “You should take Staci and me with you.”

“It’ll be easy,” Jim said, more confidently than he felt. “I’ll need to make several stops to stock up. Maybe stop in Cornwall just before I start the Atlantic crossing.”

He had no intentions of taking either of the girls with him. What he was planning was far too dangerous for either of them.

Nichola stuck her head round the door. “Lou, bedtime.”

“But Mummmm...”

“Don’t you ‘but Mum’ me. You know what being grounded entails. Bed.”

Lou stood up and sighed. “Night.” She flounced out of the room and into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Staci looked uncomfortably at each him.

Nichola took a deep breath. “I need to talk to both of you.” She sat down and looked at them. “Your Aunt Edith rang last night. She’s not happy with you staying here anymore and insists on Staci going back to boarding school. She said it would improve your grades.”

The color drained from his sister’s face and she clung to his hand tightly. ”I can try harder,” she whispered. “Just don’t like the teachers here.”

“She’s already spoken to the head teacher and arranged for you to go back. She’s paid for the rest of this term and for the whole of next year. I’m to drive you up there on Sunday evening.”

“Don’t you like having me here?” she asked.

Nichola crouched down next to her and put her arm round her. “Oh, sweetheart. Of course I do. But with your parents missing, social services has stepped in and involved your aunt. Edith thinks it’s the best thing for you right now, to be back with your friends in a school you enjoy going to.” Nichola sighed and raked at tears in her eyes. “I tried arguing with her, but she insisted. You can come back every other weekend and all the holidays. If I don’t send you back there, she’ll take you away completely.”

Staci looked down.

That was Nichola’s way of keeping them in her life. She had no claim to them whatsoever.

Jim kept his face as expressionless as possible. “Actually that would be a good time for me to move into Matt’s. We’ve been talking about it for a while. Assuming you don’t mind me staying the weekends that Staci’s here.”

“Of course not. You’re always welcome, you know that.”

“Thank you. Is it all right if I use the Internet, please? There was a website I wanted to show Staci.”

“Sure. It’s all yours. Use the printer if you like, as well.” She sniffled a little more. “I really don’t want either of you to go.”

“It’ll be OK,” he whispered. “We still have the holidays here and weekends.”

Jim took Staci’s hand and led her to dining room. He loaded the live feed of a container ship traversing the Panama Canal, but not even that garnished a smile.

Jim clicked a bit further down the page and showed Staci how the lock system worked. The canal, crossing land as it did, required two locks, one at each end. The first at Colon City on the Atlantic side was a series of three, which raised the boats twenty-six meters above sea level into Gatan Lake. At the other end, Balboa Point, there was another set of three, which lowered the boats into the Pacific Ocean.

“I have to show Lou. Can you save the page?” Her voice was barely a whisper, and she looked haunted and heartbroken.

Jim smiled at her. “That would leave a record on the computer as to what we were looking at. I know the address though. It’s www.pancanal.com.” He paused as he read, then looked up. “I’ll have to book,” he said. “I’ll also clear the browsing history once I’m done here in a few.”

“That won’t be a problem will it?”

“No. I can do that from here and give them an update from the boat later.”

“We don’t have a computer on the boat.”

“It says here that you need to radio when you arrive at the Atlantic side for inspection and quarantine checks. They then give you a pilot to guide you through. It’ll cost quite a bit. Let me print this. Then, we can show Lou tomorrow. I can print off the booking forms tomorrow when everyone else is out.”

“How much?” Staci read the screen then looked at him.

“Plus an inspection fee, but I’ll get about two thirds of the transport fee back once I’ve gone through the canal.” Jim quickly tapped off a couple of e-mails from his dad’s account: one to the Panama Canal enquires office and one to the Royal Yachting Association. Then, he turned on the printer and clicked print.

The door opened. “Find what you wanted?” Nichola asked.

“Yes, thanks,” Jim replied as the printer started to whirr.

“Good. It’s bedtime, Staci.”

“OK. Night.”

 

~*~

 

Lou put down her book as Staci came in. She’d obediently put on her pj’s and sat in bed, but that was as far as she was willing to go.

“What are you reading?” Staci asked.

“Book for school, it’s boring, but I’m in enough trouble. What did you and Jim do?”

“We looked up some stuff on line. Jim printed it off to show you.” Her face fell. “But...I’m leaving on Sunday.”

Lou shut the book in horror. “What?”

“Aunt Edith’s made it so I have to go back to boarding school. I’m here every other weekend and holidays. It’s either that or Aunt Edith takes us away forever. So, Jim is moving in with Matt. He goes Sunday, too.”

“That’s not fair,” Lou said. “Your aunt can’t do that, can she?”

“The social services have given her temporary guardianship. You mum only has the one stating she’s acting guardian until they return and since they’re missing...there’s nothing anyone can do. It’s not fair. I don’t want to go.”

“I don’t want you to go either.” She rubbed her temples and winced. The pain in her head got worse at the thought of being left alone. “My head hurts.” She put the book away and got under the duvet.

“Do you want your headache pills?”

“No. I’ll try and sleep it off.”

But try as she might she couldn’t sleep more than an hour. The intense pain and flashing lights in front of her eyes, mixed with misery and anger made a bad combination.

Wednesday morning dawned bright and sunny. Staci leapt out of bed and pulled the curtains back, flooding the room with light.

Lou moaned and pulled the duvet over her head. “Shut them please. The light hurts.”

Staci immediately shut the curtains and got Lou’s mum.

Nichola sat on the edge of Lou’s bed. She put two tablets and a glass of water on the bedside cabinet. “Another migraine, Lou?” she asked gently.

Lou moaned in response.

“I’ll make you a doctor’s appointment. These are the last of your pills.”

Nichola left the room.

Lou surfaced long enough to swallow the two pills and then retreated to the dark again.

 

~*~

 

Jim smiled as Staci entered the kitchen. “Good morning, campers,” he said. “Cornflakes?”

“Hi, Jim. Please,” she replied. “Lou’s not well.”

“What’s wrong with her? Skivitis?”

“She’s got a migraine.”

Nichola came into the kitchen and switched on the kettle. “The doctor can’t come until lunchtime. I’ve got a meeting at work I can’t get out of, but I don’t want to leave Lou home alone.”

“You don’t need to,” Jim said. “You go to work. I can stay here all day. What time is the doctor coming?”

“Sometime between twelve and two. They couldn’t give a more precise time.”

Staci looked worriedly at her aunt. “Is Lou going to be all right?”

“She’ll be fine, love. She gets migraines quite a lot. She just needs peace, quiet, and rest. I’ll be home the usual time, hopefully. Staci, you should leave, you don’t want to be late. I’ll ring your head teacher this morning after my meeting and arrange to have your records transferred back to Holdran.”

Jim exchanged glances with his sister. It was really happening. He’d hoped he’d dreamt it.

Once the others left, he picked up the phone and rang Matt.

Matt answered just as Jim was about to hang up. “Cobden boat yard, Matt Woodhouse speaking.”

“Hey, Matt. It’s Jim,” he said as he sat down. “Have you had chance to think about what I asked?”

“I’d like to do it, but I can’t. If you want to take the boat out, that’s cool. But you’ll have to do it during daylight hours.”

“That’s fine. I understand.” He paused. “I’m going to do some shopping over the net and get it delivered to the boat. Is that going to be a problem?”

“Listen mate, the less I know of your plans the better. I just need to know before you take her out, that’s all. Otherwise the boat gets reported stolen.”

“That’s fine. It’ll be the weekend. Not sure when yet. As soon as I know, you’ll know.”

“OK. I got to go, someone’s just come in. I’ll speak to you soon, ’bye.”

As Jim hung up, Deefer started whining. He sat mournfully outside Lou’s bedroom. “You can’t go in there, boy. She’s not well.”

The doorbell rang and Jim let the doctor in. Lou didn’t appreciate being woken up, but submitted silently to the doctor’s examination. He left her some more painkillers and a prescription for six more months’ worth of pills.

When Stacey got home, Jim slipped out to the chemist, taking Deefer along for a walk. While he was in the chemist, he picked up a whole load of things he needed for his trip. Sea sickness pills, suntan lotion, sunburn cream, pain reliever pills, along with shower gel and the hair gel he used. Something Staci teased him mercilessly about.

The whole way back, he argued with himself about leaving the girls behind. With Staci going back to boarding school, she’d be safe. OK, it wasn’t what she wanted, but it was for the best. And Lou…well, she’d be fine. She had Deefer and her mum and Staci at the weekends.

Yes, he told himself firmly. This was for the best. It was the only way to go.

 

~*~

 

Stacey crept into the bedroom. “How are you?”

Lou opened her eyes feeling better than she had earlier. “Slightly human, now. Those new painkillers are great. They actually work. How did school go?”

“Don’t ask. Honestly, if it didn’t mean being sent away, I’d be thrilled to be going back to Holdran. Especially now Jim’s moving out.”

Lou grunted and turned over, burying her head under the duvet again. She waited until the others finished dinner before getting up and going into the lounge.

Only her mum went out to the midweek church meeting, leaving Jim in charge until she returned. Normally, this would irk Lou, but tonight she didn’t care.

Making the most of having the place to themselves, Jim did his shopping via the Net. Arranging for the lorry to deliver the items to the boat tomorrow sometime between twelve and three, Jim then checked his e-mail and printed off the replies before deleting them.

“According to this. The Atlantic can’t be crossed from June until September”--Jim read to them--“because of the danger of hurricanes. The easiest route is south to the Canaries, then taking the favorable trade winds across to Jamaica. UK to Canaries takes two weeks, then the Canaries to Jamaica a further four weeks.”

Lou looked at him. “Then go that way. But you can’t sail all the time.”

“Single handers snatch small amounts of sleep at regular intervals, say, ten minutes every two hours or so. Radar gives warning of impending collisions with other craft or land. Sleep would be impossible in shipping lanes or busy areas such as the Dover Strait. Also, the boat can’t anchor mid-ocean as it is too deep. Single handers use autopilots almost all the time. Sleep is taken within easy reach of the cockpit.”

“Cockpit?” Staci asked.

“Bridge—as in navy or science fiction.”

“So where are the Canaries?”

“Off the coast of Africa. My only concern is the warning about hurricanes between June and September,” Lou said. “That’s going to make it hard on all of us.”

Jim glanced at her. He’d been very careful to use the word I in all his planning and not we. Surely, no matter what the girls said, they didn’t think they were coming too? Because they weren’t. “I don’t have much of a choice. Seeing as how June starts on Sunday, and that’s when I have to go. Besides, I can’t leave it any longer. It’ll take a while to get there and every day counts.”

“Will you be all right?” Staci asked.

“I’m boldly going where lots of people have gone before, how could I not be all right?”

Lou giggled as she rolled her eyes. The misquote was from a science fiction television show they all loved. “Wondered how long that would take you. When are we leaving?”

“I can’t leave too late,” Jim said. “The yard closes at half past eight.”

“I was thinking that if we pad the beds out, make it look like we have gone to bed, Mum won’t know we’ve gone until morning. That way we’d have time to clear the Solent at any rate. Or at least get a few miles between us.”

“Since when do you ever go to bed before eight?” Jim logged off and shut down the computer. He swung the computer chair round. “You do know I’m going alone, right?”

Lou scowled. “Why?”

“Because it’s too dangerous. I have no idea what’s going to happen either on the crossing or when I get there, or how long it’ll take me to find them. Staci will be safe at school and here with you.”

“No…” Staci whispered.

For a moment, her shattered look almost broke through his steel reserve. “I’ll text you every day. You’ll be so busy at school, you won’t miss me. And I’ll bring them home, I promise.” He hugged her. “You’ll see. I’ll be home before September.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“You’re an idiot.” Lou stood. “I’m off to bed. Night.”

“Night.” Jim watched her go. What was wrong with her? She knew he was right. This was the only thing to do.

 

~*~

 

Thursday dragged.

Lou stayed in bed with her headache, which was there, but only half the story. She was incredibly mad at Jim. He was determined to go off on his own. Couldn’t he see that was a sure fire way of getting himself killed? It’d take two to sail safely, especially to the other side of the world. She had to go with him.

Soon, Jim went to the boat yard to wait for the shopping.

Staci went to school under protest, her argument being there wasn’t any point if she were starting a new school the following week.

Her mother went to work.

Lou slowly rolled out of bed and started to pack what she thought she might need. She tried to keep to two bags, but found it incredibly difficult. She hated to admit it but it was one thing Jim was right about—women always over pack. She crammed as much as possible in the way of clothes into one bag, and started to fill the other with things she thought they might find useful. The only thing she wouldn’t pack yet was her mobile phone or charger.

She crossed to the bookcase and pulled several books off the shelves. These went into the bag, along with a pack of cards, the tin opener from the picnic basket, and the spare first aid kit.

Then, she shoved in another pair of jeans and a thick jumper.

Deefer jumped onto her bed and worried her hand.

“Hey, don’t worry, you daft dog. I’m not going anywhere without you.” She put the bags inside the wardrobe, then raided the medicine cabinet and took more of her headache pills. She got back into bed and tried to read for a bit with Deefer lying heavily across her feet. When she woke it was evening. She sat up and looked at Staci. “What time is it?”

“Six o’clock Friday evening.”

“No, it’s Thursday.” She pulling on her dressing gown and stood.

“Friday. You slept for almost a whole day. Feeling better?”

“Hungry.”

“Your mum just dished up.”

Lou followed her into the dining room.

“Hey, it’s sleeping ugly,” Jim said.

Lou poked her tongue out at him and sat down next to Staci. She looked at the plate of food in front of her. “Thanks, Mum. So what did you guys get up to today?”

“This and that,” Jim said. “Staci went to school. I walked the dog, read a book, walked the dog, unpacked a case to find something and then re-packed. Walked the dog again...”

“Fun filled day then.”

After dinner, Mum insisted she’d do the dishes on her own, so the three of them went into the lounge. Staci shut the door.

“So what did you really do today?”

“Walked the dog and just looked for something,” Jim said.

Lou nodded. “Are you still going ahead with this stupid scheme of yours to go alone?”

“I have to. Everything’s set for Sunday. I’ll go after Nichola and Staci leave for Holdran. Staci’s fine with the idea, and I’ll keep in touch by phone.”

“That’s all right, then.” She shoved her hands into her robe pockets. “Doesn’t matter what I think.”

“Why should it?”

Anger flared through her, and she almost told him why it mattered. But he didn’t like her the way she wanted him to. If he did, he wouldn’t be leaving her. Instead, she reigned in her annoyance. “No, you’re right. It doesn’t matter. I don’t matter. I’m going back to bed. Do what you want.”

She headed out, shutting the door firmly. She’d take one bag tomorrow when Jim put his stuff on the boat. He’d never notice an extra bag amongst all of his.

 

~*~

 

“Can I borrow the car, please? I want to take my stuff over to Matt’s.”

Nichola nodded at him. “Sure, so long as you’re back by lunchtime. I have tickets for the cinema this afternoon. I have a couple of errands to run. So don’t be too long.”

Jim picked up some of his bags and took them out to the car. When he came back, there were three left. He frowned slightly. He didn’t remember packing the blue rucksack.

Lou glanced at him. “Something wrong?”

“Did I really pack this much stuff?”

“That blue one I packed for you. Stuff from the kitchen I thought you might need.”

He hefted it in one hand. “This is heavy. What did you put in it?”

A faint smile crossed her face. “Everything up to and including the kitchen sink.”

“Won’t your mum miss the kitchen sink?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Shall we go?”

They piled into the car, the dog included, and Jim drove them to the boat yard. He carried all the bags aboard, while the girls walked along the towpath with Deefer. He gave the boat a once over and went across to the office to make the final arrangements for his departure with Matt.

“Are you sure about this?” Matt asked.

Jim nodded. “Yeah. Staci is going back to boarding school tomorrow afty, and I can’t just leave my parents out there. I’ll sleep here tomorrow night, and leave first thing Monday.”

Having done that, he rejoined the girls and suggested that they set off back to the flat. The afternoon passed quickly as the film was one they had all wanted to see. They decided on pizza for tea and ate it in the lounge in front of the TV.

When Lou decided to go to bed at nine, Jim said he’d go, too.

“No, I’m not sick,” he told Nichola. “Just tired.” He followed the girls out of the room with a chorus of goodnights. At the door of their room, he paused. “Sleep well,” he told them. “Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives.”

“Not quite,” Lou said. “That’s the day you turn forty. Tomorrow is the day I lose both of you. Nothing to look forward to at all.”