Stephen Cannell - The Plan

They finally arrived at a protected cove in Mexican waters about six miles south of Ensenada. It was nine-thirty in the morning when they dropped anchor. With sleep still in her eyes, Lucinda got the sail down, gathered it in, and lashed it to the boom with a line. Then they sat in the cockpit and drank coffee. Lucinda turned on the radio for some music to lighten the mood, and while they listened to the distant sounds from a San Diego station, they admired the beautiful, but barren, Mexican coast.

At ten o'clock, the radio station announced what most of the world already knew-Haze Richards had won the California Democratic primary. He would control the national convention scheduled in Denver.

Ryan shut off the radio, then got his crutches and moved forward on the deck of the boat.

"Where are you going?" Lucinda asked.

"I'm going to get this leg in shape."

She watched as he stretched out and hooked his right leg under his left heel and started doing leg lifts, using the right leg to help. He was sweating and grimacing with pain. He did ten reps, counted to twenty, and did ten more. Over and over, he repeated the exercises.

He had no strength in the leg and after a while, Lucinda could watch no longer and went below. In the small cabin, she could still hear the thumps as his heel hit the deck. She had seen the mangled leg up close. She knew that most of his muscle had been lost.

Up on deck, under the Mexican sun, Ryan continued his leg raises. Sweat was rolling off him, but his mind was miles away. He was back at Stanford University on the practice field in the shadow of Maples Pavillion. He was nineteen years old, lying on the ground in his practice uniform doing grass drills with the backs and ends. He could hear the fitness coach, Zoran Petrovich, screaming at them with his German accent, Lass go. Come on ya lazy pussies, two, free, fo'. . two, free, fo'. .

Ryan struggled with his damaged leg, trying to lift it, using less and less help from the right until he couldn't lift it at all.

Lass go, ya pussies. . A bunch a' fooking Frauleins. . Yah?

In his thoughts, he was back in time. He was young and healthy. There was no fear of defeat-only open fields and touchdowns stretched before him.

Come on, let's go. . One, two, free, fo'. .

He had always been at his best on game day. He wasn't going to give up. He wasn't going to let Mickey win. . not after coming this far.

Six hundred miles south of the border, they found a sheltered bay listed on the map as Magdalena. They anchored in the cove.

May turned into June, and June became July.

They found a world without worry. Ryan worked out twice a day for almost two hours, concentrating not only on his leg, but the rest of his body as well, building muscles long left unused. Lucinda cooked and swam and sunned herself in the nude on the forward deck. At night, they made love under the stars.

Weeks passed and their only connection with the world was the ship-to-shore radio and the occasional Mexican lobster boat that came into the cove looking for fresh beds. Twice a week, they called Kaz and Cole, who'd had no luck finding David Robb. Kaz said he'd worn out his welcome at the Justice Department and could no longer even get a visitor's pass. They both sounded tired and frustrated.

Atmospheric conditions allowed them to pick up a San Diego all-news radio station one evening in late June and they learned that Haze Richards had gone to Europe and was discussing world events with heads of state. He returned to the United States the third week in July for the Democratic National Convention, which neither Ryan nor Lucinda saw because they were out of TV reception. Kaz told them about it on the cell phone.

"This fucking guy. . You should have heard him. He's gonna make America work, my ass. He'll make it work for that bunch of oil cans in the mob. UBC said he was the candidate of the nineties, the Roosevelt of a new era. I was so depressed, I wanted to shoot myself."

After the convention, Haze had picked Senator Ben Savage from California as his running mate, then went back to Europe where he had his picture taken with Arab kings and Balkan presidents. Kaz passed the events along to them. He seemed to get more desperate with each call. To Ryan, it all had become distant-part of something he'd left way behind.

In two months, Ryan had strengthened his leg enough to be able to take short, hesitant steps without crutches. The leg felt spindly and strange under him.

One afternoon, Ryan and Lucinda had taken the Avon to shore. It was warm and they seldom wore any clothes. They were alone in the secluded cove. It was their Eden. All the darkness in their lives, all the shadows were washed away by the ocean, then burned away by the blazing sun. They had taken beach towels and food and the small rail barbecue off the Linda, Ryan was determined to walk the length of the beach. Lucinda looked at him, smiling as he fell out of the boat, twenty yards from shore, and started swimming. His stroke was graceful and his kick getting stronger. She had removed the stitches two months before. Ryan had turned a deep shade of brown, except for the angry red line that marked Dr. Jazz's stitching and cut a diagonal stripe across his leg.

She watched him as he pulled himself out of the water, tan and muscular, his blond hair long and almost white from the sun. She beached the boat and he helped her pull it up. Then she took the towel and ran to the end of the beach.

"Where you going?"

"You can have me if you can get me," she teased.

He chased after her on his bad leg, having difficulty in the sand. She moved backward, laughing. Finally, she threw the towel at him and he caught it and lunged at her, going down hard in the sand. She thought he might be hurt so she ran to him, naked and brown from a month in the sun. He grabbed her leg and pulled her down beside him and they hugged each other.

"God, I love you," she whispered in his ear.

"I don't know why," he said honestly.

She kissed him on the mouth, and then he was kissing her body, her nipples erect with the heat of passion. Both found release once he was inside her. They longed to have more of each other. The penetration of mind and body couldn't seem to fill the ache of love. She pledged herself to him and was prepared to give up her life for him. He vowed no harm would ever come to her and would die before losing her. They marveled at the intensity of their feelings.

"I wish this would never end," she said.

"The memory never will."

That night, they unwrapped the last two steaks from the boat freezer and cooked them over the metal barbecue on the beach. Because there was no town in which to buy groceries, from now on they would live off of the dwindling supply of canned goods aboard, and the lobster and fish that they caught by hand.

After dinner, Ryan and Lucinda lay in the sand holding hands and thought back to the first time they had met, when Ryan had been invited to the Alos' house for Thanksgiving.

"You came through the door and I fell in love with you. How can that be?" she said. "I was only seven years old. It's as if God said to me, this is the one."

Ryan talked about Matt.

"The worst part is all the things that I wanted to do with him." Ryan was looking up at the stars and wondering if Matt could hear him. 'Things that will never happen. They're losses that I can't get over because they live in my imagination and change as I do."

Ryan thanked her for making the shadow dreams go away. . Thanked her for explaining Terrance's drowning to him. . For taking that darkness out of his life.

"If we survive this, will you marry me?" he finally said.

She propped herself up on one elbow and looked at him, the moonlight catching the blue in his eyes. "You better believe it, buddy."