Nathan Hystad - The Event

I woke some hours later and left Ray in the bed snoring lightly. Carey was sleeping by my feet when I woke up, and I was happy to see him finding himself a little more at home here. The sun was just coming up as I carried a sleepy dog up the ladder. Vanessa and Mary greeted me and offered me a cup of tea. The ship had a propane stove that was giving us just enough to make this almost seem like a normal trip across the Caribbean Sea: four friends heading to Panama for an excursion.

“Good morning, Dean. Ray still down for the count?” Mary asked, her gaze lingering on my eyes for a moment before she looked down to her cup.

“Yep, I left him snoozing like a baby. Are we still on track?” I asked, enjoying the lemon tea with a dash of honey. My mom always used honey in her tea. The worry for her and everyone I cared about was like a constant buzzing in the back of my mind, but I had to push it to the back of my thoughts to be able to keep functioning. It was easy to forget that everyone was somewhere out there, and that was the whole point of us heading down to Peru. Most of the time, it just felt like we had one small task at a time. Get to New York, get to Washington, get to Florida, get on a boat, and get to South America. It was a series of small tasks that would eventually make up one huge, immense task.

“Yes. We’re about six hours from land – one hundred and twenty miles. We made okay progress through the night. We got lucky last night,” Mary said matter-of-factly.

“Don’t we know it. I’m pretty sure I had a nightmare that we capsized, and the last thing I saw as I was being pulled under the current was Carey swimming towards me, wearing a life vest.” I patted the loyal guy’s head as he sat beside me, tongue already hanging out the side of his mouth in the warm morning heat.

“One bad wave or one more minute with full sails and that might have been the case,” Vanessa said.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell them, but I decided I should. “In the midst of the lightning and the storm, ship swaying in all directions, I thought I saw a ship,” I hesitantly said.

“Sure, there were probably a couple ships out there getting tossed about along with us. It could have been much worse; we could have hit one of them. Then we would have been going for a swim.” Vanessa had missed my point.

“Not that kind of ship. One of the big silver ones. I swear I saw one looming there, watching us. I saw it for two lightning strikes, and then it was gone. It could have been my imagination, but given all that’s happened, I think it was real.” There; I told them.

“I believe you,” Mary said. “They may not have known there was anyone on the boat, though. It could have just been one of their patrols, or whatever those ships are. Patrols, scouts… either way, they’re probably looking for us, but it doesn’t mean they found us. Otherwise, I have a feeling they would have red-beamed us, and we’d be searching for Spanish gold on the bottom of the ocean.”

I heard Ray banging around in the galley below, and soon we were smelling bacon and eggs: a real heart-healthy breakfast. The old me would have wished for something a little lighter, but today I was drooling almost as much as Carey when I went down to help Ray bring the food up.

We ate, finished our tea and started to pack up our stuff as sea ate up the hours. Before we knew it, land was in sight, and Ray and I brought all the bags up to the front of the deck.

“I’m not looking forward to the trip back,” Ray said.

“God help us if we’re sailboating back. Let’s bank on us flying back with big fat medals around our necks,” I said with a laugh.

Vanessa directed us to reel the sails and we slowed the ship, then used the motor to bring us closer to shore. Panama’s landscape looked beautiful and lush.

“We’re coming up to the Gulf of San Blas. There should be a few mooring points, and I bet there are a few resorts down here. How could there not be? Look how amazing this water is,” Mary said, waving her hand over the water like she was Vanna White on a game show.

“Tell them what they’ve won, Pat,” Ray said, mirroring my thoughts. We all had a good laugh, and soon we were coming up to a sailboat dock a couple hundred yards from the shore-line.

There was a four-seater tender there, waiting to take us to land. We took a couple of trips on the tiny boat, hauling our supplies along with us. The thing’s motor sounded like it needed tuning up, and the noise echoed down the bay. We were happy to finally be off the boat and on shore, though my legs told me otherwise. The world felt like it was moving, and I was standing still as I tried to get my bearings on the sandy beach. I could see the others also trying to adjust to being on land again. Carey gave up and settled for lying down and rolling in the sand.

“It’ll take a while, but before you know it, you’ll all be back to normal,” Vanessa assured us. She broke into a violent coughing fit and turned from us for privacy. I tried not to watch, but I had my suspicions about her, and I’d heard that same coughing from Janine. I swore there was blood on the sand before she kicked at it with her foot. If Vanessa was one of them, what did it mean? My wife, Bob, and Kate all seemed to be on the right side of whatever internal alien conflict was going on, so all I could do is hope Vanessa was too. But the way she’d casually killed that man back in Tampa weighed heavily on my mind. She’d helped to get us this far, so for the time being, I told myself that I’d have to trust her. Trust her but keep an eye on her.

I could see Ray watching her too, out of the corner of his eye.

“Are you okay, ‘Nessa?” Mary asked, concern thick in her voice.

“Yes, I’ll be fine. I’ve just been over-exerting myself. Let’s get moving.” Vanessa grabbed a bag, slung it over her shoulder, and started to walk toward the road.

“Let’s do this,” Ray said, following suit.

We got to the narrow road and could see signs for resorts down the street. There were a few vehicles a couple hundred yards down, so we made for them, hoping there was something we could all fit into. We found a van from a local tourist company. The back was full of snorkel gear, which we proceeded to toss out onto the ground.

“Maybe we better keep a set,” Mary said. “You never know what we’re going to be up against out here.”

I didn’t see a case where we would need goggles, but she was right. We really didn’t know what we were in for. Once we were loaded up, we all filed into the white van. I took the driver’s seat, adjusted it, and off we were.

“Where are we going, other than east? Do we need to make any stops?” I asked.

Mary was sitting beside me, Ray and Carey in the middle row, and Vanessa was all alone in the back, lying down. Mary brought up the GPS. “Let’s hang a right in a couple minutes. About five miles down, we’ll turn left, and we’ll eventually hit the main highway. Hopefully, there won’t be a lot of cars blocking our way. It’s not like we’re in the best off-roading vehicle.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said. “I wish we could just stop at one of these resorts first, play a round of golf, have a couple Mai Tais.”

“I can float in a pool for hours. We don’t have a lot of nice outdoor pools in the ‘burg. I used to go down to the Y twice a week and do laps. That was in my twenties, and before Kate passed away. I don’t think I’ve been to the gym since. We used to go together all the time. She brought out the best in me, always pushing me to run with her. Hell, I even did yoga. Take a guess how many black guys in Pittsburgh there were at the yoga studio. None. Just me. I miss it all, though. Maybe I just miss her, I guess,” Ray said.