Once the girls got back to the house, they fell down laughing.
“Sue’s face when she flung open our door,” Jenny giggled. “She looked like a terrified child.”
“And when we left,” Tara laughed. “You could tell she didn’t want to deal with the drunk English weenie throwing up all over her place. A completely charming date.”
The girls laughed, but their laughter was cut short when Sue came through the front door again, without knocking this time. They all stared at her.
“I don’t want to be alone,” she whined.
“What’s Jonny doing?” Lacy asked.
“He’s sleeping.”
“He stop throwing up?” Roni questioned.
“I think so,” Sue said, sitting down uninvited in one of the kitchen chairs.
No one spoke or offered her anything. They really didn’t want her to stay. The girls looked from one to the other. After hearing of Sue’s behaving so loose and talking about it like it was something to be proud of, they sort of felt like they wanted to keep their distance.
“It’s kind of late and we were sort of ready to wrap up the night,” Roni said.
Sue either didn’t comprehend Roni’s suggestion or refused not to as she sat nervously picking at her fingernails.
“How did he get so wasted?” Jenny finally asked.
“He started early. Even before we headed to Nippers, he was pretty drunk. And then he just kept going,” Sue answered. “Nippers was pretty crazy…”
“You know that it’s always crazy,” Roni said in a condescending tone.
Roni knew Sue had been to Nippers plenty of times over the years. Sue knew it could be a drunken fest. She wondered how they got there and back as there was no way that Jonny had sailed his boat.
“Yeah, but he was falling down drunk,” Sue complained.
“Glad he’s yours,” Roni said.
They were silent again and still Sue didn’t make any movements towards leaving.
“Sue,” Roni said softly. “I don’t mean to be rude, but we were headed to bed.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll go home,” Sue said, her shoulders slumping as she stood up.
Roni walked with her to the door.
“Remember to have Jonny drink water,” Lacy reminded.
“You’ll be fine,” Roni said, patting her back. “You probably could use some sleep too.”
Sue nervously stepped into the porch and Roni shut the door before she went out through the screen door. She turned around toward the girls.
“Really?” Roni said, throwing her palms in the air. “Seriously we couldn’t make this stuff up if we tried.”
“Lock the door,” Tara said. “We don’t need her back.”
––––––––––––
Roni heard the air conditioner kick on and rolled onto her side, squinting as morning light splashed across the floor and corner of her bed. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and glanced over at Jenny in the other bed, curled into a little ball. She reflected on the previous evening’s events and smiled. They would certainly run into Jonny again. The island was too small not to. Roni wondered how embarrassed he would be, if he even remembered. To be so young and dumb…serious Euro trash. Roni picked up her running watch and looked at the time, six-thirty. She wished she could sleep in like the other girls, but her internal clock just wouldn’t let her. They’d agreed to run at eight, so she had time to kill before she could roust Jenny and Tara. As she set her watch back down on the nightstand, she thought about her expensive Movado watch in the drawer. She hadn’t missed it. Hadn’t even thought about wearing it. It sort of symbolized her life in New York, not the slow pace of the island.
As she made coffee in the kitchen, her thoughts drifted back to her old life, the one at Lehman Brothers. It was almost like she had been brainwashed all those years: believe in the company, act as expected, the politics, the stress, the lies. She wondered now why she hadn’t seen through the mask of the corporate bullshit. The island was so unpretentious, nothing even close to Wall Street, except maybe gambling. Gambling. It’s exactly what the powers that were had done, but they called them different things like derivatives, credit default swaps, mortgage-backed securities. Roni questioned some of the practices, the ratings, the validity of things that could not be clearly defined, merely to be told she was overthinking things, she should believe in the company. She looked out the kitchen window. It was drizzling slightly and the sky was light gray, the weather that Devin had predicted. Nothing too ominous-looking. Roni played with more details of the travel venture in her head. It would be her own, no one telling her what to do, believing only in herself, her abilities. As much as she didn’t want to leave Green Turtle, she was also excited about talking it through with Mack. Getting started, laying out exactly what the new business was going to look like. The only thing overshadowing her excitement was their situation. The coffeepot let out a spurt of steam as it finished brewing, pulling her back to the present.
“A penny for your thoughts,” Tara said.
Roni jumped.
“Oh, you scared me,” Roni said, turning from the window.
“Sorry,” Tara said. “You had such a serious look on your face.”
“Reflecting, looking forward, thinking about home,” Roni said.
“We still on for today?” Tara asked.
“Hell, yeah, a little moisture isn’t going to get you and Jenny out of a run,” Roni teased.
“I didn’t mean the run, I meant Nippers,” Tara said.
“We’re going unless Ty says otherwise,” Roni said as she glanced back out the window. “It’s really light, so it will probably blow over. Coffee?”
“Sure,” Tara said, sitting down at the counter. “Have you tried the Internet?”
“No, hadn’t gotten there. Jump on, see if we’re back up,” Roni suggested as she poured coffee.
“So, Nippers,” Tara chuckled. “How many Jonnys does it turn out a day?”
Pulling her hair into a ponytail she opened her laptop.
“You and Lacy were brave, I wasn’t going to deal with that shit. I didn’t like it when my kids threw up, and I love them. Deal with someone else’s barf? Forget it,” Roni said. “It was all I could do to deal with Sue’s bullshit. She’s a grown woman for god’s sake, fucking around with a grown man.”
“It’s back,” Tara said.
Roni spun around quickly, a concerned expression on her face.
“What?” Tara asked, confused, staring at her. “The Internet…it’s back.”
“For a minute I thought you meant Sue,” Roni said relieved.
“You locked the door, remember,” Tara reminded. “We had to go, Roni, you know that. We all saw the look on her face. She was scared. Scared can be stupid, or it can be serious.”
“I know,” Roni said. “I’m just glad you and Dr. Lacy handled Jonny B. Bad.”
Tara started to laugh.
“I think it will be interesting when we run into him. Will you still be his first choice?” Tara joked as she batted her eyes.
“Fuck off,” Roni said.
“Wow, it’s sort of early for you to be saying ‘fuck off’,” Jenny said as she came out from the bedroom.
“Well, good morning, princess, you are looking fabulous,” Roni said.
Jenny had a case of bad bed hair and her face was still puffy from sleep.
“Too busy being fabulous,” Tara sang.
“Okay, fuck off the both of you,” Jenny said as she attempted to smooth her hair. “What were you talking about?”
“We were sort of recapping our exciting evening,” Tara said.
“Devin creaming you at dominoes, or the crazies across the street?” Jenny said taking a seat on the couch.
“The crazies. You want coffee before our run?” Roni asked.
“Please,” Jenny said.
––––––––––––
When the three girls returned, Lacy was sitting at the kitchen counter, her reading glasses on, looking at her laptop.
“The Internet is working,” Lacy said, not taking her eyes away from her computer.
“Yeah, we tried earlier,” Roni said.
“How was the run?”
“A tad wet,” Jenny answered.
Lacy turned around and, when she saw them, she started to laugh. Their hair was wet and plastered to their heads, and their running gear was soaked and stuck to their bodies. Tara sat down on a kitchen chair and started taking off her tennis shoes, which were caked with sand.
“We tried to get out of the run, but Roni wouldn’t allow it,” Jenny said. “I’m going to shower, I know I’ll probably get wet on the boat, but I refuse to go stinky.”
“She made us run on the beach,” Tara said. “Like running isn’t hard enough. I think it was payback for us giving her shit about Devin winning.”
“Me? I would never do such a thing,” Roni teased. “It’s nine, so we have about an hour. We’ll head to the dock about ten to.”
When they left the house, bathing suits on under shorts and T-shirts, the rain had stopped, but the sky was still gray.
“At least the temperature is still warm” Jenny said, feeling the humidity was higher, almost balmy.
Ty was waiting for them when they got to the dock and took their bags and helped them down into the boat. Lacy saw that it was a small, open-bow fishing boat, which concerned her a little because of the rain. The steering wheel was in a column slightly to the rear of the boat with a single high benchseat behind it. A half windshield rose above the column, which was covered by a small roof.
“Well if it rains again we won’t have much protection,” Jenny said as she checked out the boat.
“Two kin sit on da bench,” Ty said, “two kin stan’ or sit up fron’.”
Ty was a large Bahamian man, thick and solid, he wore a banana tied around his head and had a scruffy little beard. He was sort of no nonsense in giving direction, in a deep voice that would shame a bullfrog.
“I don’t mind standing,” Roni said.
“Me either,” Jenny said.
“I guess that leaves the bench for us, Lacy,” Tara said, climbing into the middle.
Lacy got in next to her while Roni and Jenny stood behind the bench.
“Ty, do you know what the weather’s supposed to do?” Roni asked.
“Mebbe like dis, mebbe some win’. It should be okay,” Ty said.
He untied the boat and came to stand next to Tara, taking the wheel to head out of the harbor.
“The water’s so much darker without the sun out,” Lacy said, thinking it didn’t look quite so inviting.
The rain started again not far offshore, and the water started to get choppy. The farther they got into the open ocean, the bigger the chop got.
“Sure about this?” Jenny asked nervously.
“Dis ain’ nuttin’,” Ty said.
Lacy looked behind her at Roni, and Roni could see her concern.
“It’s fine,” Roni said. “It’s not that far.”
As the small boat bounced along on the chop, water would come spraying back at the girls in sheets, and before long, no one was dry.
“Lacy shove our bags behind the windshield to try and keep them from getting wet,” Roni said.
Most of their bags contained a towel and a light sweatshirt. Lacy quickly stuffed their things as close to the windshield as possible. As she sat back Ty smacked a large wave and a wall of water hit Lacy and Tara in the face.
“Oh,” Lacy shouted stunned as she wiped the water from her eyes.
“Maybe slow down a bit,” Jenny suggested, a slight tension in her voice.
As they continued, the ocean got worse and worse. The boat was like a toy in a bathtub, riding up on the swells and crashing down. Now when the water hit them, it wasn’t just a spray, it was like buckets being thrown at them. The pounding as the boat slammed into the waves forced them all to hang on tightly, but it was getting harder because their hands were wet and so was the metal. Although they tried to laugh the circumstances off, they were nervous about their worsening situation. They watched walls of turquoise water rise up alongside them as the boat continued to try and cut through the water. Tara assessed that if the boat flipped over at least the water was warm and land could be seen. And, no doubt, the only thing they had to worry about was being injured in the flip or sharks.
“Are there life jackets?” Lacy asked.
“Yez, dere’s life jackets,” Ty said, annoyed. “In de side door.”
“Anyone want one?” Roni asked.
“Me,” Lacy said meekly as another wall of water hit them in the face.
Roni moved gingerly from behind the seat, carefully holding on with one hand as she opened the door and pulled out an orange jacket. Her foot slipped and she did a partial split.
“Damn,” Roni cried as she handed the jacket to Lacy.
“Anyone else?” Roni asked adjusting her grip.
Tara reached her hand out, as did Jenny. Roni handed them each one and pulled one out for herself. Ty gave her an offended look.
“Better safe than sorry,” she said and smiled at him.
The boat lurched as another wave hit them. Lacy almost slipped off the seat and Tara grabbed the back of her life jacket. Another wall of water came up along the side and again Tara thought about what to do if the boat flipped. She turned slightly to look at Roni who was also drenched, her hair hanging limpy around her face.
“It will be okay,” Roni whispered.
Tara was jerked around as yet another wave washed over the boat. She lost her hold on the rail and slipped into Ty. Lacy grabbed her and Ty moved his body to keep her in the boat.
“Fuck,” she shouted.
“I’m scared,” Lacy whimpered.
Ty looked like he was wrestling with the steering wheel as the boat bobbed, lurched and tumbled in the waves.
“If de cap’n is scared, dat when ya git scared,” Ty said defiantly. “I ain’ scared.”
“How do we know what your ‘scared’ looks like?” Tara questioned her voice rising.
Ty shot her the same look he’d given Roni. As the boat continued and walls of water rose beside them or rushed over them Lacy thought they would never get there. The forty-minute boat trip to Nippers had turned into a two-hour roller coaster ride. When Ty finally pulled into the dock, and they were able to get off the boat, they were wet and shaking, more from fear than cold. The rain had stopped again, and the sky had some spots of blue breaking through. One towel survived the drenching, and they all used it to dry off a bit.
“I don’t know about anyone else, but the theme song from Gilligan’s Island kept playing in my head. The three-hour tour,” Roni said trying to lighten the mood. “We not only want a drink, we need one.”
Lacy felt like crying she was so relieved to be on land and she wondered how in the world they were ever going to get back.
“That was hell,” Tara said.
“Yas is crazy, dat ain’ nothin’, I bin over in way worse wedder dan dis.”
Jenny could tell Ty was extremely frustrated by their fear and she thought it best not to dwell on it. She also needed a drink to calm her nerves.
“Where’s Nippers?” Jenny asked.
“Up the hill,” Roni said thankful Jenny had changed the subject.
The four girls and Ty walked down the deserted dock in silence. Roni knew from the trip with the Lake’s that the dock was usually packed to capacity.
“Looks pretty quiet,” Roni said. “I’m guessing the weather.”
“You think?” Jenny said sarcastically.
The palm trees swayed in the wind as the group walked down the quiet paved street, and then up the dirt road to Nippers. Rivulets of water ran down the sides and the sandy dirt stuck to their shoes. Roni pointed out the brightly painted tractor as they started up the hill.
“That’s cool,” Jenny said.
The cheeriness of the colors made her feel some calm seep back into her body.
“And here is the poison wood tree,” Roni said. “Don’t touch it just like the sign warns, apparently it causes massive blistering.”
“That’s all we’d need,” Lacy said.
They made their way up the stairs into the bar and took a table under the thatched roof. The few patrons that did exist were sitting at the bar, which also was under the roof. The decks and the pool areas were empty. The colored picnic tables sitting in the open were shiny with rainwater. The ocean beyond didn’t seem to be calming down.
“This is a very different Nippers,” Roni observed. “Last time I was here, this place was packed.”
“No one else is crazy enough to venture here in weather like this,” Tara said. “Is there a hotel here? ‘Cause I’m not sure I’m going back on that boat!”
“Ya gals, it wus’n dat bad,” Ty said, shaking his head. “Goin’ back, we wif da water, so it wan’t be bad.”
“I don’t know,” Lacy said tensely. “I’m thinking a little like Tara.”
A tall Bahamian waitress came over and dropped menus on the table.
“Kin I git yas somethin’ frum de bar?” she asked, an expression of disinterest on her face.
“Can we start with five shots of tequila,” Tara said. “Take the edge off a little.”
“We’ll be ready to order when you come back,” Roni said.
The waitress turned away without responding and Roni wasn’t sure if she’d even heard Tara.
“Not very friendly considering she doesn’t have many customers,” Lacy remarked.
“Maybe her boat ride was rough too,” Jenny teased.
The girls laughed as Ty rolled his eyes. The waitress brought the tequila in small plastic cups, and they raised them without a word and threw down the clear liquid.
“Now we’re ready,” Roni said with a sigh.
They ordered lunch and a round of frozen Goombay Smash-type drinks that Nippers was famous for.
“These can creep up on you. They are easy to drink and full of rum,” Roni said then laughed. “I sound like the Surgeon General don’t I? Warning, warning.”
“I’m already feeling much better, knowing they’re full of rum,” Tara said.
Another round of light rain arrived with their meal. And, as they ate, drank, and laughed, moisture dripped from the thatched roof just beyond them.