Having Zack’s extra hands available made removing the deck fittings go a lot more quickly. With one of them inside and one outside, the work went along steadily – well, fairly steadily, since Beffy took an interest in the proceedings and had to see what was going on, which always called for a brief halt for petting. But that was all right; Amanda and Zack never seemed to lack for things to talk about.

Amanda told him about her plans for the boat, of course. That included things like what she wanted to do to fix it up, and what she intended to do when it was ready to go. She didn’t get very detailed about that, since she wasn’t real sure herself, but did admit that perhaps she’d like to take it to the Bahamas, or maybe even farther.

Zack had to admit that Amanda knew a lot more about boats than he did. He told her that, since he was from the heart of the Great Plains in Kansas, he had never even seen the ocean until he’d arrived at the Coast Guard Station at Cape May, New Jersey, for his basic training. In fact, he’d never been aboard a boat of any kind, even a rowboat, until that happened. “It often makes me wonder just what I was thinking of,” he told her. “But it really hasn’t worked out too badly. I’m out on the water a lot and I’ve come to like it. This is an interesting place, and there always seems to be something happening.”

“To tell you the truth,” she admitted from under the deck up in the front of the Rag Doll – they had the fore hatch open so they could talk back and forth – “I’ve seen very little of the city myself.”

“This is the biggest city in the country,” he told her. “Can you believe that?”

“No way.”

“Well, it is, at least in terms of surface area,” he replied. “Of course, a lot of that surface is rivers and swamps sort of like this. It’s still a pretty big city in terms of numbers, but it’s pretty spread out. While I was at Cape May, some buddies and I went up to New York for a weekend. Have you ever been there?”

“Never have. I figure it’s got to be an awful lot of people.”

“Yeah, it is. It’s not the kind of place I was expecting, that’s for sure. I wasn’t real comfortable there, and I don’t know how much I’d like it if I’d been stationed there.”

“I suppose there are those who would like it but I’m not one of them.”

They talked about his job, mostly riding around on a small patrol boat inside the harbor. The primary concern was the steady shipping traffic in and out of the port, but could run to other things including search and rescue and watching for unsafe boating practices. “One thing I have to say is that every day is pretty different,” he told her. “It usually doesn’t get dull.”

Eventually it got to be afternoon. “We probably ought to take a break for some lunch,” she told him. “I usually don’t eat a very good lunch, just peanut butter and jelly sandwiches along with chips or something. But we could button up the boat, leave Beffy here, and go someplace for a real meal.”

“If it’s all right with you I think I’d just as soon stay here so I can play with Beffy,” he said. “Having her here has made me realize just how much I missed having a cat around.”

So they did just that. It was a comfortable day in the mid-seventies, so they just had sandwiches and chips in the Rag Doll’s cockpit, played with Beffy a little, and watched her chase a little fuzzy ball around the cockpit floorboards. After a while they got back to work removing fittings, sometimes sanding lightly to remove bedding compound where it had actually been used, then moving on to the next one.

As the afternoon wound down the job wasn’t complete. In fact, there was still a lot to do, since the lifeline stanchions around the edge of the boat would have to be removed and filled, but considering everything, including the alligators in the bayou, Amanda didn’t want to have them down for a while. When the time came to fill the soft spots around their bases she planned on taking them down one or two at a time, doing the work, then putting them back up as soon as possible. Eventually the lifelines would have to be re-strung with new ones, but there was no point in trying to do that until later.

The sun was getting down in the sky by the time they decided to call it a day. “I’d like to offer you dinner,” she told him, “but I’m afraid if I do it’ll have to come from a can. I tend to eat pretty simply here, and it’s going to have to be that way until I get the galley rebuilt.”

“Tell you what,” he said, eyeing Beffy’s sleeping form – the little cat was obviously tired after all the playing and petting she’d enjoyed today – “why don’t we button up here and go find a place where we can sit down and eat food you don’t have to cook?”

“Talked me into it,” she said. “Let’s get stuff picked up and put away before we go.”

It took a while, and Beffy woke up in the middle of it. Amanda took the opportunity to give her more cat food while they were working; the little cat went right through it and then laid back down to sleep. “I guess she’s not going to miss us if we’re gone for a while,” Amanda said as she closed the hatch.

They took Zack’s car to go to dinner, a Denny’s a couple miles away that Amanda hadn’t seen before. They sat and talked, ate, had an after-dinner cup of coffee, and talked some more until the light outside grew dim. “I hate to have to say this, since I’m really enjoying talking to you,” she told him, “but with the gators that hang around the boatyard, I want to be inside the boat and buttoned up for the night before it gets dark.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” he agreed. “They are kind of fun to look at, especially since we don’t have anything like them in Kansas. But at the same time, I don’t want to get too close to one.”

They finished up and went back to the Rag Doll. Zack parked his car close to the boat. “Hey, thanks for putting up with me today,” he told her. “I don’t know many people around here, even at the station, and since I’m often on a different schedule from everyone else I don’t often get the chance to hang out with them.”

“Believe me, it was a thorough pleasure to have you here today,” she replied. “And I think I can speak for Beffy in saying that. You’re welcome to drop by any time.”

“It won’t be tomorrow, I’ll be out on a patrol boat unless something comes up. I’m not sure when my next day off will be, but I’ll probably come over to see you and Beffy. I really enjoyed working with you today and getting to know you. I think you’re going to have a real nice boat when you get it done, but I can see it’s going to be a lot of work.”

“I sure hope so, and I enjoyed getting to know you, too,” she replied as she wondered if she ought to offer him a little goodbye kiss. She wasn’t opposed to the idea, but really, this hadn’t been a date, just him helping out with the boat. But still, it had been a friendly day and she could see she was well on the way to making a friend with him. She let it go for a minute, deciding that if he made the first move she was going to go along with it and enjoy it in the process – but he didn’t make one, at least that she could discern. After a few seconds, she gave him a little squeeze on the shoulder and said, “Thank you for coming over to help out today. You can come see me any time you like.”

“I’ll be here,” he said. “You be careful, and pet Beffy for me.”

She got out of the car, climbed onto the Rag Doll, and stood watching as he drove away. He really is a nice guy, she thought. Maybe I should have kissed him anyway, but it could be that he’s just shy around girls. Maybe next time I’ll have to be a little more forward about it. A guy that nice could get real habit forming, real fast.

She opened the hatch and the companionway to go below, and found Beffy waiting for her. “You really were a busy little cat today, weren’t you?” she said to the kitten as she picked her up to give her a hug and a little petting. “I think you made us both another friend.”

Things slowly started to get into a routine after that. Amanda and Beffy got up early; most days Amanda went to breakfast, sometimes seeing Cordy at Earlene’s Kitchen, and sometimes not. Almost always she had to make a swing by the grocery store or a hardware store, and sometimes by the storage shed, but usually an hour or so after she got up she was working on one project or another on the Rag Doll.

The list of things that needed to be done was still getting longer, but at least a few items were getting marked off of it. She knew she was still working around the edges of what needed to be done, for several major decisions remained to be made, and several of them she needed her father’s input or actual assistance on. But there was still plenty to do, and she worked steadily on whatever project she was taking on that day.

There were interruptions, of course; Cordy usually stopped by for a chat at one point or another during the day, Sid occasionally did, and even more occasionally Maybellene. And, of course, when she got tired of whatever she was doing it was always refreshing to spend a few minutes playing with Beffy. The kitten was usually pretty curious about what was going on, and always seemed to want to check it out, but still, she spent a lot of time playing and sleeping, too. A few minutes with Beffy could take the sting out of whatever bad news or complication arose in the project.

After she’d showered or taken a quick basin bath, most evenings were spent in the cabin of the Rag Doll, working on her list of things to do, making plans about what to do about things like the wiring plan, the lighting, or the cabin arrangement. And she’d usually read for a while and play with Beffy before the two of them turned in for the night.

Ron came by in the evenings occasionally, not that often. They soon figured out that she was calling it a day by the time they knocked off and it was still a long drive over to the boat yard from Mayport. He did make it over on the following Saturday, and they got a good day of work in; he was there for a shorter time on Sunday, and brought Shades with him.

Ron reported that Zack had said he had a really good time working with her earlier in the week, and looked forward to coming over again. “He’s a nice enough guy,” Ron told her. “But when you get down to it he’s not very sociable and doesn’t have many friends. I don’t know much about his background but I get the impression he wasn’t very good at it in high school, either.”

“That’s sort of the impression I get,” she agreed. “I sort of got the hint that some family trouble was involved, although he didn’t exactly come out and say it. But, like you said, he does seem to be a really nice guy.”

“I’m not real sure about his schedule, but I think he’s caught a long stick of days on duty. I think he’ll be off maybe Wednesday or Thursday, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes over to see you again.”

That was what happened; he showed up on Wednesday morning, not long after she’d gotten busy with the project of the day. The two of them worked along steadily, with help from Beffy, of course. Once again they had sandwiches for lunch in the Rag Doll’s cockpit, although this time he had brought them from a sub shop. He even brought her a sub just how she liked it; she was a little surprised at it until she realized that Ron must have been involved. Once again, they went out to dinner and sat talking until it was close to dark before he brought her back to the boatyard; this time she did kiss him, just a little peck on the lips, nothing serious, or at least that was how she’d intended it. It wasn’t until he was on his way back to the station that she realized that it was the first time that she’d kissed a boy in any manner since she’d been in high school – and that was years.

Maybe, she thought, she was a little antisocial as well. If so, maybe she was getting over it; she was looking forward to seeing him again. She didn’t think there was anything serious starting between them, especially since she’d be heading back north in the spring, but that didn’t mean the prospects were unpleasant, either.

October became November. With that, the fishing season was over with at Winchester Harbor, and in a way it had been a shame to miss the tail end of it. Although it was possible to have nice days up there this time of year, the odds were against it. With the end of the season, there’d be a big mobile crane come in to take the fishing boats and the family sailboat, the Pixie, out of the water for the winter. This time the Moonshadow would be going on the hard too, or at least that was what the plan had been when she’d left. There had been many times that it had been cold and blowing when the boats came out for the winter; sometimes there had even been snow. Amanda felt a little guilty that she wasn’t there to help with the project; several hands were useful, but at least she thought Adam would have stayed around to lend his support.

Even with the boats out of the water, there still would be several days’ work to get them buttoned up for the winter. By now she’d called and talked to her folks several times, just keeping them updated on what was going on, and to discuss some of the problems she’d run into.

A couple days after the first of the month, she called home in the evening to see how it was going, and to see if perhaps her father might be thinking about making a quick trip down to see her. Even his opinion on a few things would open the door to her being able to start some of the more serious projects on the Rag Doll that she’d put off. “Actually, it went better than it usually does,” he told her after she’d asked about the annual chore. “We had to get the Moonshadow on a cradle and yank the mast out of her so we could get her in the shop, but that went pretty well. I’m not going to start in on it right away, though. Adam has some business he has to tend to downstate. That means he isn’t going to be breathing down my neck, so I guess I could make a quick trip down there to see what kind of a mess you’ve gotten yourself into.”

“I’ll be glad to see you,” she said. “Are you going to bring Mom with you?”

“Not this time. The Channel Stop is still pretty busy, and it’ll get a little busier until deer season is over with at the end of the month. I don’t see how I could stay down there very long, but at least I ought to be able to touch base with you about what I can be doing on your boat.”

“That’s good. If you’re coming, there’s several things I’d like you to bring with you.”

“If you can do without this trip, it’d be best,” her father told her. “I don’t want to be gone for too long because I want to get most of the work on the Moonshadow done before Adam gets back. He’s a nice guy but he’s not a shop guy. What I’m saying is that I’m planning on flying down.”

“Well, there’s nothing I really need to have that badly,” she said. “At least if you’re coming down again later.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to. I do want to get the work done on the Moonshadow before Adam gets too antsy about it, even though he won’t be able to do anything with it until spring. We may or may not have to stay up here for the holidays. My mother wants to have a big family Christmas like the old days. We’ve turned her down the last couple years, but I don’t think there’s going to be any getting out of it this time.”

“I suppose I could come if I had to, but it would have to mean flying up and back, and not staying long. There’s too much that has to be done here.”

“Don’t worry about it. Ron says he probably won’t be able to get away, either. Being in Florida gives you both a good excuse to avoid overeating and hearing stories about relatives you never met. I wouldn’t mind avoiding it myself, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to get away with it this time. If I fly down, you aren’t going to have any trouble coming over to pick me up, are you?”

“I shouldn’t have,” she told him. “The airport isn’t that far away. I haven’t been there but I think I can find it.” If she thought she really needed it, she could probably get Cordy to go with her over there, but there was no need to worry about it now. “It would probably be best if you can arrive during the day, though. It’s a little primitive on the boat, so you probably want to think about getting a motel.”

“You might have something there. Why don’t you see what you can set up for me? That way I won’t screw up and reserve someplace that’s most of the way across town.”

“That would be a long way,” she agreed. “When do you think you’re coming?”

“Don’t know yet,” he told her. “I still have to see about reservations. Why don’t I figure on calling you tomorrow night, if you’re going to be around?”

“That works for me. I don’t go anywhere in the evenings anyway.”

“Oh, I figured you’d be out with your boyfriend somewhere.”

“What boyfriend?” she replied. “I don’t have any boyfriend, I just have a kitten to keep me company in the evenings.”

“I thought you were hanging out with some Coastie from Ron’s station. I didn’t catch the name. Ron tells me the two of you have been seeing a lot of each other.”

“He’s just come over to help me out with the boat on his days off,” she replied honestly, wondering where her relationship with Zack had gotten blown out of proportion along the way. “He is a nice guy, and we usually have dinner together after we’ve spent the day working on the boat. There’s nothing serious going on there.”

“Well, I guess we misunderstood what Ron was saying. I know Ron says this guy thinks a lot of you. He seems to be real impressed.”

“Well, I’m impressed with him in a way, but it’s a long way from being serious if anything happens at all.”

“That’s good, I guess,” her father replied. “I mean, it’s not like your mother has been searching on the Internet for some dress to wear at the wedding, but she is at least a little curious.”

“Tell her to not get any big ideas. When and if the time comes that I get married, I don’t plan on having anything elaborate. If you’ll remember, the two of you got married out on the lake on the stern of the old Chinook. I’ve seen enough pictures of that to know that she didn’t wear anything like what you could call a wedding dress.”

“You’re right on that,” her father sighed. “And I caught hell from my mother about it, too. The only way we ever got away with that is that your mother’s mother was wearing blue jeans out on the boat, too. Anyway, to get away from us teasing each other, let me know if there’s anything you really need from up here, at least if it’s small enough that I can stuff it into a carry-on bag for the airliner.”

“No, just having you here is the biggest thing,” she replied. “I mean, I can think of some things but I can just imagine what would happen if you were to go through airport security carrying, oh, a power saw or something.”

“That might not be the greatest idea,” he agreed. “Don’t get me wrong, it’ll be good to see you and see what this boat is like. From what Ron has said, he seems to agree that it’s going to be a lot of work, but that you’re getting a good start on it.”

“I think so, but there still seems to be a lot to do.”

“Any boat project seems like that at some point or another. Don’t forget, this time last year you were up to your neck in the Knick-Knack and didn’t know which way to go next.”

“I’m right at that point now, but this is a lot bigger project,” she told him. “That’s why I need your input. It’ll be good to see you, Dad. How much time off Ron will be able to arrange while you’re here is kind of an open question, but from what he says he’s free most weekends. He has a few good ideas about the boat, too, but they’re all something we need to talk about.”

“Well, we’re going to have the chance to talk about it,” he replied. “I suppose we could talk on the phone till we’re blue in the face, but without having seen the boat, or even a picture of it, it would mostly be wasting time. I’ll give you a call when I know about airline reservations.”

“I’ll be here,” she told him. “Dad, it’s been good to talk to you, and even better to know you’re coming down to see this. I don’t know how much you’re going to like the boat, but I think you’ll like Beffy.”

It took a while longer for them to get off the phone, but Amanda was in considerable relief when she did hang up. In many ways she felt like she was on dead center on the Rag Doll, or at least just nibbling around the edges and not coming to grips with some of the really heavy work that had to be done.

Beffy had been on her lap all during the conversation, seeming half-asleep or at least very comfortable. “Well, little girl,” she said to the cat, “I guess that means I’m going to have to get serious about organizing what questions I really need to be asking Dad.”

“Meep?” Beffy asked.

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll like you too,” she smiled at the kitten as she reached for the notebook that was running the project. There were several things Amanda needed to have his input on, with the soft deck, the interior plan, the engine, and the wiring plan heading the list. Probably everything couldn’t be settled on this trip, but at least she felt like she was going to really be making some progress.

She glanced around the cabin; it was kind of a mess. Several things were sitting out because there hadn’t been an “away” to put them in. I need to do something about that, too, she thought as she yawned. I wouldn’t want Dad to get the wrong impression.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.