The Voyage Continues

By the time we are gliding past Moshe Cove Winona was starting to get some color back into her face. Grandpa and I had decided to use the sheltered cove as a place to anchor down since Winona was taking to sea travel so poorly but she insisted that she was feeling better and urged us to continue the voyage as planned. As we pass I sit beside my recovering girlfriend and take advantage of the last bit of signal we’d have until we were on the other side of the island. My phone held so that both she and I could look at the screen we watch videos of my father’s greatest moments.

“I c-can see it.” I say as we watch Blaze step up onto the podium with his arms raised in triumph. Without even hearing him speak that flashing smile and radiant charisma leapt off of the screen for anyone with eyes to see. And the way he joked and interacted with those on and around the podium made it clear that he was one popular guy. “I can see him in m-me a little.”

“Me too.” Winona says as she lightly rubs my neck. “A couple of smokin hot cuties.”

“I thought you said he was a s-silver fox.” I quip, calling back a comment she’d made at one of his more recent pictures.

“He can be both!” She chuckles. “He’s no Sprout but…mmm mmm!”

“He he he. You stop that.” I shift as close as I could get to her, she kisses my head for the effort. “I’m like him and M-Mom and Grandpa all rolled into one.” My smile grows as I watch him bow down to accept the bronze medal around his neck. At this point in history I was barely more than a fertilized egg and to this day he didn’t even know of my existence, yet somewhere inside of me I feel a glimmer of pride at my biological father’s accomplishment. Both of us laugh as when the flower presenter hands him his bouquet he grabs the guy’s head and smooches him right on the lips! “Ha ha ha!”

“Cheeky!”

After that we watch a video highlighting his venture into **** winter sports culminating in the accident that **** him to slow down. Thankfully the accident wasn’t too graphic as it the only footage came from a camera he wore on his body which basically just showed a lot of flying snow as he spun and tumbled before a bone-shattering stop at the base of a boulder. Seeing it almost through his eyes I could imagine how scary it must have been. As the signal weakens we check out some of his recent social media posts where we see a content family man, a community volunteer, a tireless advocate of skiiing and fitness, and someone who was living every second of his life to the fullest. He was just so…cool! For me the coolest thing of all was to see him marching with his family in his local Pride parade. It gave me hope that if we were to ever meet certain facets of who I was wouldn’t be a problem. In short, he was everything that the man I called ‘Dad’ was not.

As the signal starts to fail I pocket my phone and stare off toward the island as it passed by.

“What are you thinkin, Sprout?” Winona pets the back of my head.

“I’m thinking…that I’d l-like to meet this man.” I say. “But…I d-don’t want to ruin what he’s got going on.”

“Ruin?” She pats my back. “Baby, you’re not going to ruin anything. He’s a man with a past. I’m sure he won’t be that shocked that it caught up with him. He and your Mom were way before his current lady. It’s not like she can be jealous or anything.”

“Yeah.”

“Think about it.” She kisses my cheek. “And when you’re ready, we’ll go.”

I smile. “Thank you, Winona.” Looking up toward the cockpit I say. “I should take a turn on the helm. G-Grandpa’s gonna need to be sharp when we head through the tail. It can get a bit tricky getting in there.”

“Go ahead.” She says. Taking her mug of tea she kicks back, sips, and tilts her beautiful face toward the sun and breeze. It was so nice seeing her more herself again.

Up at the helm Grandpa asks as I step in. “Well?”

“He’s…amazing.” I grin. “Really amazing. I almost feel like I d-don’t deserve him.”

“Boy!”

“I know, I know.” I giggle. “I deserve all the good things.”

“That’s right.” He nods. Without a word needing to be spoken he cedes the wheel to me and sits on the bench. After a short coughing fit he takes a drink and says hoarsely. “You know, Avery. No matter what happens with you and Blaze, you got plenty right here at home. Dads come in all shapes and sizes.”

I glance over and hold his gaze. In his eyes was love and concern. Grandpa was never one to hide his feelings but with his own mortality staring him in the face they’d never been closer to the surface. Just in the way he was looking at me I could tell he wasn’t referring to himself.

“Amos?”

He nods. “He’s a good man.”

“I know.” I say. “Seeing him and Winona…they’ve r-really got something special. He’s just like a dad should be.”

Rubbing my shoulder he mulls over saying something more but instead takes a long raspy breath and kisses my cheek. “If our winsome one is feeling better I’m going to give her a proper look at the engine.”

“She’ll like that.”

“Then I’m going to lay down a spell. You’ll be okay?”

“I’m okay, Grandpa.” I say, wishing SO HARD that I could do more about his flagging vitality. “If you need anything…”

“I know, Buttercup.” He gives me a smile then uses my shoulder to help himself to his feet. Kissing his fingers he reaches up to touch Grandma’s photo. “Look after my lady.”

“I will, Grandpa.” I say. “Always.”

***

With the current pushing at our stern Bella is zipping along as fast as a big, stout girl like her could go. Over the next hour and a bit I keep us along Ehkolie’s western flank. The lush forests and mighty mountains of the north, or ‘head’, of our whale shaped home were all behind us now as the land tapered down toward the inhospitable archipelago that made up the ‘tail’. The land here was craggy and windswept, completely inhospitable for settlement, but it had a stark beauty all its own. The seabirds made homes of patches of bare stone, the tough and twisted vegetation clung to every crevice and crack with even the scantest hint of soil, and the seals huddled on the beaches out of reach of the orca that relentlessly patrolled these waters. Life down here had to work hard to make a go of it and you couldn’t help but admire the tenacity.

Winona expresses as much when she comes to visit me. Sitting on the bench, her one knee hugged to chest, she peers out and lets out a long breath. Oh how I knew the sound of that breath when the majesty of nature reminds you of just how shallow and fleeting our civilized wonders really were.

“Pretty.”

“Yeah.” We take each other’s hands for a quick squeeze. “How ya feelin?”

“Queasy, but a lot better.” She says. “This ship is so cool. That engine’s a BEAST! Ha! Grandpa’s gonna let me work on her once we’re back. I saw a couple things I could tighten and tweak.”

“He doesn’t let too many touch Bella. He t-trusts you.”

“I know.” She says, understanding just what that meant to me. Her eyes widen as a sprawling colony of thousands of noisy Murre’s drifts into view. “Would you look at that!”

“Cool, huh?”

“So cool! I’ve never been this far South before.”

I wasn’t surprised as few had, even among the locals. The ferry from the mainland circled around the North of the island then returned the same way to avoid the shallows and swirling currents of the tail.

“It’s like a different world down here.” She continues.

“You d-don’t know the half of it.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve got things to show you that’ll blow your mind.”

“Only my mind? Disappointing.”

“Pfft! He he he!” I nudge her arm. “We’ll see what else gets blown.”

“Heh! So what kind of things are you talking about?”

“Only the c-coolest stuff ever.” I say. “But you’ll have to wait and see.”

“Ooo, a mystery!”

“You have no idea.” Turning the wheel a few degrees I line us up with the jagged trio of rocks that marked one of the only safe entrances through the tail. “You wanna go wake up Grandpa.” I say. “We’re gonna n-n-need him for this.”