Chapter 8

When Max got up the next morning, he found Captain Bob and Captain Jim were sitting in the wheelhouse drinking a late morning round of coffee. They graciously poured one for Max, and he sat down with his crew.

“Anna’s already gone off to the bar,” Captain Jim informed him.

“Wow, it’s open this early in the morning?” Max asked. “I just can’t imagine the crowd there as Bloody Mary or mimosa drinkers.”

“They’re not,” Captain Jim said. “That crowd drinks beer any time o’ day.”

Captain Bob smiled. “Perhaps we all should add a little rum to the coffee we have here.”

“No, thanks.” Max declined the offer. “I’ll wait till cocktail hour.”

Captain Jim laughed. “We got us a damn New Englander and an almost teetotaler for a captain, I see.”

Max toasted him with his coffee mug and took a drink.

“There’s leftover arroz con frijoles in a pot on the stove,” Captain Bob offered. “You can ask one of the chickens for an egg, but you’ll have to cook it yourself. Jim here only does breakfast when we’re out at sea.”

Max shrugged. “Maybe I’ll have some later. After this trip is over, I’m going to see if I can find a grocery store around here that has some English muffins and bacon. Make us all some bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches. You’ll have to teach me how to ask for English muffins and bacon in Spanish. I know queso is cheese. I learned that from menus in Mexican restaurants. Con queso means with cheese. And we have all the eggs we want. I won’t even imagine I could ask for all the ingredients for Eggs Benedict. I was a short-order cook one summer. I learned to make a mean Eggs Bennie.”

“If only you weren’t Captain,” Captain Jim sighed. “You could cook out at sea. And, if Anna ever gets asked out to dinner, you could be our cook here in port.”

Captain Bob raised his hands in a “What can I do?” gesture. “She’s always hanging around here when she’s not in school or working. That girl of mine never seems to have time for any fun.”

Max did not comment on that. “Yes, gotta keep it all shipshape.” He nodded. “But I’ll talk to the in-port cook and see what I can do.”

“Good.” Captain Jim smiled.

Max sipped his coffee. He was starting to feel more awake. With their trip starting out that night, he knew he would be up now for quite a while.

Captain Bob spoke up. “That was some story you told about the day you had yesterday.”

Max shrugged. “I never know what my family’s going to get me into.”

Captain Jim laughed. “And I bet you never thought you’d be owner of a tuna boat.”

“A boat that’s been hired on the side by the very guy you’re here to check up on,” Captain Bob added.

“Yes,” Max agreed. “It’s all gotten quite complicated. Soon as I got here, it got all too complicated real fast.”

“Max,” Captain Bob said, “I don’t think you quite understand yet that we all live at a much slower pace down here in the Caribbean. We just don’t like things that happen real fast or have too many complications. That is not our way.”

“Those men of Cofresí’s at the plant moved pretty damned fast yesterday. None of that slower pace shit for them when they were after me. There’s so much going on here that I don’t understand.”

“Still,” Captain Jim said, “you drew the two black kings. You must have some connection to good fortune.”

“Let’s not go back to that,” Max objected. “I have a feeling that poker game was all a set-up to get me to lose a lot of money and be in Cofresí’s debt. And so was that woman Ms. Parker, yesterday, that he dangled in front of me. If I’d gone for it, Cofresí’d have an indiscretion to hang over me for my good report to the family.”

There was a moment of silence.

Then Captain Bob spoke up again. “You are one smart mainlander.” He toasted Max with his mug.

“Thanks.” Max smiled and returned the gesture.

Their attention was attracted by a big car that suddenly pulled in on the street by the dock. It was the same car that had come to collect Max the day before. Cofresí’s driver got out and headed toward the Señorita Anna.

Max looked at one captain and then the other. Proper seafaring protocol won out.

“I’ll go down and see what he wants,” Captain Jim volunteered.

The other two captains waited somewhat safely hidden in the wheelhouse. Max noticed the driver carried a big manila envelope. He met Captain Jim where the deck met the dock. There was a brief discussion. Then the driver handed the envelope to Captain Jim. They both nodded a farewell, and the driver walked back to the big car.

Captain Jim brought the envelope up to the wheelhouse as the car drove away. He handed it to Max. “Says it’s some kind of financial reports you asked for.”

“Oh, right.” Max nodded. The envelope was pretty heavy. “This’ll give me something to read on the trip, I suppose.”

“Sounds pretty boring to me,” Captain Bob said.

Captain Jim suggested, “Maybe Señor Cofresí’ll bring that Ms. What’s-Her-Name along, and she can read them to you.”

“That’s all I need.” Max laughed. “Is that all Cofresí’s driver wanted?”

Captain Jim thought a moment. “If you ask me, he had an eye on one of our chickens. He offered to wait as long as you wanted and to drive you anywhere you wanted to go.”

“And you told him no?”

“Yup, sent him on his way, I did… Ol’ Fricassee, Lo Mein, and the rest of them are safe when I’m on watch.”

Max smiled. “I must say, I certainly have a good crew. You guys are worth everything I pay you.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Captain Jim said, and the two captains toasted Max with their coffee mugs again.

“I do want to go talk to Anna at the bar,” Max said. “I tried hard to memorize the way when we drove home from the bar yesterday. It’s not really that far. I’m pretty sure I can find it, and I think I want to walk there on my own.”

“There’s a store right up the street over there,” Captain Bob pointed. “You should stop and buy yourself a good captain’s hat, if you’re going to be walking that far in this bright sun.”

“Ah, good idea,” Max agreed. “I was thinking of getting a straw hat and a new suit. But you’re right. I’m a captain, and I don’t have a captain’s hat. That’s what I’ll do. Besides, it goes with my title, and I shouldn’t be the only captain here who doesn’t have one.”

“We’ll take the boat over to the gas pumps and gas up for the trip while you’re gone,” Captain Bob said. “Anna’s going to stop at the grocery store on her way back from work to get us stocked up. Captain Jim’ll do as much fishing as he can as we go along, and we’ll be all shipshape with our pantry stocked for this big job.”

Captain Jim echoed, “All shipshape indeed.”

Max smiled. He put down his mug and gave them a proper naval salute. “Carry on,” he said, and he headed off to buy himself a captain’s cap and see Anna at the bar.

The two other captains watched him walk down the street and turn the corner before either of them spoke.

“I think that Max is smarter than we thought he’d be,” Captain Bob said.

“Still, he drew the two black kings. I don’t think that was any more than luck for him,” Captain Jim ventured.

“Even though I had my jack of diamonds, I should have known we were in trouble when he refused the rum.”

“Good point. But remember, when we were riding in the car together on his way to claim Señorita Anna, he said he learned how to figure out the odds playing blackjack in the casinos in Europe. And when a man who knows blackjack sits down to play poker, it’s almost like he already has two black kings in his hand.”

“You speak the truth,” Captain Bob agreed. “My poor jack of diamonds never had a chance. I wonder if Max really believes that Puerto Ricans are into voodoo and shit?”

Captain Jim shook his head. “I wouldn’t trust that voodoo, Anna’s saints and gods, or even Cofresí scares him. No, he is one sharp dude.”

“Still, Max was very generous with our pay in advance. He won it fair and square. It was all his money, if he wanted to run. He could have just walked away from us all.”

“No,” Captain Jim disagreed. “I think he’s very loyal to that family of his, and he’s going to do his best on that job they gave him.”

“Then what’s he going to do when the job’s over? I don’t own my dear Señorita Anna any more. What will Max do with her when he’s done?”

Captain Bob looked totally distressed. For a moment Captain Jim searched his mind for something reassuring to say. “Well, maybe Max will fall in love with your Anna, and he will stay as our captain.”

Captain Bob rolled his eyes. “Max hasn’t even asked her out to dinner. I think maybe he misses his lobsters too much.”

“We live just fine without ’em. He can learn to do it too.”

“Maybe,” Captain Bob agreed. “If we weren’t mainlanders, maybe we could figure out how to cast some kind of lovers’ spell?”

Captain Jim shrugged. “They’re no books, at least none in English that I know of, for that. And none of the natives I know will talk about it in any detail, at least not to me. I guess it’s just our fate to be lovers of the Caribbean but just still visitors here in many ways.”

“Our fate!” Captain Bob raised his hands in a gesture of hopelessness. “That attitude is so damn Caribbean. You’ve really gone native on me.”

“I guess so.” Captain Jim shrugged. “I lost my boat, but I’ve got food and a place to sleep in a beautiful part of the world. I get to fish and drink beer. Hell, I don’t need to be captain of any boat any more, or run a tuna plant, for that matter. I do just fine. What we gotta do is talk Max into thinking more my way.”

“Good luck. He’s pretty easygoing, but he makes it clear, to me anyway, that he’s got a job he’s determined to do. Good rum and women just don’t seem that important to him.”

“It’s a god-damned shame,” Captain Jim agreed. “That boy oughta relax, drink more rum, or even beer, and start courting Anna. There are some people I’ll just never understand.”

****

Anna hadn’t been at the bar serving morning beer to the regulars very long before she looked up and saw a woman she had never seen before enter the door. Besides being a complete stranger, the woman was dressed in a dark business suit. Except for the fact that her skirt was rather short, she did not at all fit the casual look that almost everybody chose for a place like the La Salida. Anna had on a pretty blue “I love Puerto Rico” shirt that day. And what Anna didn’t know was that the visitor was Ms. Parker from Cofresí’s staff at the tuna plant.

Anna watched as the woman stood for a moment looking around and thoroughly checking out the clientele. Then she walked over to a free space opposite Anna at the bar.

She had a deep tan and dark hair, but Anna sensed the newcomer was a mainlander and not a native. Anna spoke in English. “What’ll you have?” she asked her usual question of anyone whose “usual” drink she didn’t know.

Ms. Parker paused a moment and frowned slightly, as if Anna’s question had surprised her. She said, “I came in here looking for a particular man.”

Anna almost said the standard, “Aren’t we all.” But there was more than one thing that made her feel leery of this woman. Instead she asked, “Does this particular man have a name?”

“His name is Max,” the newcomer stated. “He’s a mainlander. He’s here on business. My employer has been here with him in this bar.”

“Max isn’t here right now,” Anna answered with information that was obvious. And she knew her answer did tell the stranger that she knew who Max was. There was silence for a moment. Then Anna asked, “And do you have a name?”

The woman thought a moment before answering. “Parker,” she said. “Jane Parker.” And she extended her hand.

Anna slowly reached out and shook it. She was thinking, Ms. Parker? Isn’t that the name of the woman Max said…? Oh, my God…

“I think you also know my employer, Señor Cofresí,” Ms. Parker added.

Anna smiled. She was thinking, And he thinks you should be Señorita Parque de Bombas. But Anna said, “Yes, Señor Cofresí comes in here from time to time. He has drinks with my father and his friend, and your employer sometimes brings us groups of businessmen. Your employer doesn’t share drinks with me. I know him in passing, that’s all.”

“I see,” Ms. Parker said. “But do you expect Max to come by here soon?”

Anna shrugged. “He hasn’t shared his schedule with me. So you work at the tuna plant? Can I get you a drink? I can put it on Señor Cofresí’s tab.”

“You are drinking a coffee,” Ms. Parker observed. “If you have more available, I’ll have one too.”

Anna looked at the diver’s watch on her wrist. “At this time in the morning, yes, we do.”

Ms. Parker hoisted herself up on a bar stool and sat quietly while Anna got her a mug of strong, dark Puerto Rican coffee. She looked a bit uncomfortable. Anna wondered why. “Milk or cream?” Anna asked.

“Milk,” Ms. Parker answered.

Anna set the mug down in front of Ms. Parker and waited for her to say more.

“Is your father the one whose boat Señor Cofresí hires for his night fishing trips from time to time?” Ms. Parker asked.

Anna waited till she took a sip of the coffee and set the mug back down. “He had a boat and did that in the past,” Anna answered. She remained guarded. “He is the one.”

“My employer says your father’s boat has the very best pilot in the fleet, and he will hire no other for his trips.”

“I have heard he says that,” Anna agreed. “Actually, I have heard him say that myself.”

Ms. Parker frowned again. “He also says the pilot is the captain’s daughter?”

“That’s true too,” Anna agreed again.

Ms. Parker took another sip of coffee and thought the answer over. “Then, you are also a pilot?”

“I am the pilot.” Anna nodded. “I am that pilot, the one your employer seems to count on.” She did not smile.

“Ah, and you are also a bartender,” Ms Parker said, as if she suddenly understood.

“All true. But my father no longer owns the boat, and he is no longer the captain.”

“But Señor Cofresí has hired the boat for a fishing trip tonight?” Ms. Parker was still confused.

Anna smiled. How long can I keep this up? she was wondering. “My father lost the boat in a card game, a card game right here in this bar. Señor Cofresí lost a bit of his own money in the same game, too.”

“Oh…” That was obviously news to Ms. Parker.

Anna took pity on the newcomer from the tuna plant. “This Max you’re looking for was in the game too. He won big. The boat is his, and he is now the captain.”

“Oh.” Ms. Parker took a moment to think that over. “Then you’re not the pilot any more?”

“No, I’m still the pilot,” Anna answered. “My father and I are both sailing with Captain Max. Why did you come here looking for Captain Max today? Do you want to hire his boat too?”

“Oh, no. I…” Ms. Parker seemed flustered. “What I came for… It is something I can only talk to him about.”

Anna gave her a skeptical look.

“It has to do with the plant and business,” Ms. Parker said. “Max is also here on tuna plant business. I did not know about the boat.”

One of Anna’s regulars, seated a number of stools down the bar, called for another beer.

“Sorry, I am working this morning,” Anna said, and she left Ms. Parker to tend to her other customer. Anna filled a fresh glass from the beer tap and served it to the man. When she looked back around, she realized Ms. Parker had slipped off her bar stool and gone out the door. All that remained of her visit was the coffee she had hardly touched and a five-dollar bill on the bar.

“Holy shit, what was that all about?” Anna asked out loud.

“Who was that woman?” one of her regulars asked in Spanish.

“Some real bitch business woman,” Anna answered in English. “She sure doesn’t fit in here.” Then she realized the man was having trouble understanding her. She laughed and said simply, “Su Señorita Parque de Bombas.”

****

Max found the hat shop the other captains had told him about right around the corner from the street that ran by the dock. The shop had mostly straw hats, fedoras, and the like. There were a number of baseball caps, and a fairly large display of nautical and captain’s caps as well. Max spotted the one he wanted right away. It was identical to the ones worn by the other two captains on his boat. Undoubtedly they had purchased theirs in this shop too.

Max was quite proud of himself. He was able to communicate in his limited Spanish enough to buy a great-looking white captain’s cap from a proprietor who seemed to speak only Spanish, except when it came to giving the price in dollars. Then he spoke and understood English very well.

Max walked out the shop door, cap proudly perched on his head. He then headed past the other stores on his way to the La Salida bar. The street was filled with a mix of various businesses—an open fruit and vegetable shop that had things like mangos, plantains, and sacks of rice and beans piled on the floor, a coffee shop complete with sidewalk tables, a few even occupied by native-looking retired men. The old men gave the captain with the jaunty new hat a good looking over. Max ignored them. Then a little farther on down the block something in the dingy display window of a sort of secondhand junk shop caught his eye among the pots, pans, candlesticks, decorative plates, painted scenes of sailboats and tuna boats, and other things. It was a little plastic statue just like the ones Anna had in the wheelhouse of his boat.

The store’s proprietor, an older native woman, saw Max stop and look in her window, and she came to the open door. She sized up her potential customer and asked, “Su Capitán?”

“Si, soy Capitán de Señorita Anna,” Max answered.

“Ah!” the woman said, as if being captain of such a boat were something special. She also switched to English for him. “You see something in my window you like?” she asked.

“That little statue there.” Max pointed. “It doesn’t have the same robes as the Virgin Mary’s usual blue. Is it some other saint?”

“Ah, because that is Saint…Saint Anna.” The woman smiled. “Same saint as the name of your fine boat. She is protector of ships’ captains. She will protect you.”

“Will she?” Max was skeptical.

“She was mother of our Blessed Virgin, grandmother of our Blessed Savior. How can your boat sail without her watching over you?”

“You don’t say,” Max said.

The woman frowned. It was an expression in English she did not know. “You are going on a long voyage.” She said it as fact, not a question.

“Yes, in fact tonight,” Max agreed.

“It will be a dangerous and uncertain voyage. You will need your saint to watch over and protect you.”

“I suppose.” Max was thinking, Oh God, here’s another woman with a prediction. At least this one’s only talking recognized saints and not that Santería stuff.

“Our good Saint Anna has watched over many a poor soul at sea…”

“Well, hmm…” Max thought a moment. “How much?”

“She is precious. She should be priceless,” the woman said.

“How much?” Max asked again.

“For a fine sea captain such as you…” The woman thought it over. “Five dollars.”

Max smiled. “Sold.” He pulled some bills from his pocket and found a five-dollar bill.

The woman retrieved the little statue from her window, lifting it as if it were truly a precious relic of the Church.

“Don’t bother to wrap it,” Max said. He handed her the five dollars and shoved the little Saint Anna into his side pocket. “She will ride with me, and she will protect me on my way.”

A broad smile of approval spread across the woman’s face, and the five-dollar bill disappeared into a pocket of her dress. “Gracias, señor,” she said.

Max nodded, and he went on his way.

****

Max found Calle Vingo and the La Salida bar. He walked in with his jaunty new captain’s cap on his head, and he smiled at Anna from the door.

“Que tal, Capitán?” Anna asked when he reached an empty stool at her bar.

“I bet you say that to all the guys.” Max grinned.

“Where’d you get that hat?” she asked. “You haven’t gone native on me, have you now?”

“Well, more ex-pat than native. Like your father and Captain Jim, I think. I got it in a shop not far from where the boat’s tied up. Your father and Captain Jim recommended it. They said I shouldn’t be out walking in this sun without a hat on my head. I know I said I was going to get a straw one, but this fits my current rank and title a lot better, of course. This place sure does have too much sun. I suppose that could explain why so many folks around here are kind of crazy.”

“I suppose it could,” Anna agreed. “You want a beer?”

“Still a little early for that, isn’t it? How about some of that good Puerto Rican coffee?”

“Comin’ up.” Anna left and got him a steaming mug, just as she had done for Ms. Parker.

“Thanks.” Max smiled, then remembered his other new purchase. “Woman in a shop just down the street from the hat shop sold me this as well,” Max said. He pulled the little plastic statue from his pocket and set her on the bar. “Now, this might be a sign that I’ve gone native on you…”

Anna looked around quickly, and she lowered her voice to say, “Max don’t make fun of religion. Not in here. There’re too many superstitious people around…”

“Okay, okay,” Max said quickly. He stuffed the little Saint Anna back down in his pocket again. “Woman said it was Saint Anna, same name as my boat. Said she would protect me on a dangerous and uncertain voyage tonight. She said my little saint would protect me like the ones you have in the wheelhouse on the boat.”

Anna was slightly peeved. “Right, Max, just don’t make fun of it.”

Max shrugged. “Maybe I’m actually starting to believe all this stuff. I did draw the two black kings…”

“Please, don’t start that again,” Anna implored him.

“Hell, maybe my little saint’ll even protect me from Ms. Parker at the tuna plant.”

Anna laughed. “You just missed her, you know. Ms. Parque de Bombas was just here looking for you.”

“What!”

“Sashayed across the floor here in this business suit with a really short skirt, pulled herself up on that very same bar stool you’re sitting on now, and she said she was looking for a guy named Max.”

“She asked for me?”

“You’re the only guy named Max I know. Said she worked at the tuna plant with our friend Señor Cofresí. Said he told her he had met you here. She must have figured you might hang out here or something. And she said she wanted to talk to you.”

“Wow.”

“She said you were in town on tuna business with the plant, but it’s curious she didn’t seem to know anything about the card game and the fact that you’re now owner and captain of my father’s boat.”

“Oh?”

“She still thought Señor Cofresí was hiring him for our trip tonight, not you, the new captain. I admit I was being a little cagey, I guess, about me being the one who’s the only pilot Señor Cofresí wants for the trip, but when I explained about the game and all, she kind of got a little flustered. I went to take care of another customer, and she hauled ass—or rather, sashayed like she came in—right out of here.”

“That’s fascinating…interesting. Why does she want to talk to me so bad? Is Cofresí that determined to get me into a compromising position through her? Is that why he’s sending her to a bar after me?”

Anna shrugged. “Time will tell, I suppose. After this trip, you’ve still gotta figure out what’s going on at the tuna plant.”

“I’m hoping I’ll get some kind of insight on this trip to Key West,” Max said. “I’m hoping if we find out what Cofresí’s up to with his Cuba connections we’ll know what’s going on with the plant, as well.”

“Well, I’m hoping for that too,” Anna agreed. “At least you’re safe from Ms. Parque de Bombas on the trip. As far as I know, Señor Cofresí and his dead brother are the only ones on the passenger list for this run.”

“Yes, his dead brother.” Max patted his pocket. “Thank God I’ve got my little Saint Anna here. I’m gonna trust she’ll protect me from all the bad karma of moving a dead man’s bones.”

“I suppose she will.”

“In fact, I’m gonna set her up right with your others in the wheelhouse as soon as we get back to the boat.”

“Oh, no,” Anna objected. “I don’t want another saint in my wheelhouse. She might completely upset the good karma I’ve created there.”

“Really?”

“Balance. My universe has to be in balance when I navigate with the feel of the water and the wind. I can’t have some strange saint possibly throwing it all off. No, Max, you keep little Miss Saint Anna with you.”

“Okay.” Max held up his hands in an “I didn’t mean to offend you” gesture. “I had no idea…”

“Good,” Anna said. “I mean thanks. I know you’re the captain and all, but I can’t compromise on my saints and gods. I just can’t. I mean, as long as things are in balance as they always are, I’m sure the trip’s going to work out just fine, from my end anyway.”

“Right,” Max agreed. He reached up and felt the new cap on his head. “Anyway, I made two really good purchases today.”

“Two?”

“My hat and my saint. What more could a good captain want?”

Anna started to say a captain and a man might certainly want something more.

Max gave her a big smile. “Now I look like a proper captain, and I have a saint of my own, even if she’s in my pocket, to take care of me.”

A customer called for another beer, and Anna had to move away. When she got back, the topic was forgotten, and Max decided it was late enough in the day to switch from coffee to beer.