The Pirate Queen Read online

  Liam was a sponge, soaking up everything the adults had to say, only to squeeze it all out again at inopportune moments.

  “Nana, can Tobias come on the boat?” asked Eddie.

  “What if he gets sick?” she asked.

  “He won’t. I’ll make him swear.” Eddie was begging.

  “I’ll call Jamie right now. It’s up to his mother,” said Saphora. After the swimming pool incident, Jamie had gotten more protective of where Tobias could go.

  “He won’t get sick,” said Eddie. He sounded worried. But Eddie was a born worrier.

  Captain Bart sent a text message to Saphora. “Clear skies all day—thought you’d like to know.” Turner drove them down the street to the Oriental Marina. Captain Bart waited on the dock.

  Ramsey brought Liam and left the twins with Celeste. That was all for the best, Saphora decided. Liam argued with Eddie. He wanted to be first man on the boat.

  “They quarrel like brothers,” said Turner.

  “Like us, you mean?” asked Ramsey. “We were good kids.”

  “Didn’t I hear Jamie say she’d bring Tobias?” said Saphora out loud to herself.

  “Ahoy, mates!” said Captain Bart. He had his cane but didn’t seem to be relying on it this time. His morning coffee was in a mug that said USS Titanic. “Had your breakfast?”

  “We ate before coming,” said Saphora. “But I brought a picnic for later.” She had put some of Sherry’s fixings in a picnic basket.

  Ramsey hauled a cooler of drinks and beer from the car trunk.

  “Brought you boys something,” said Captain Bart. He fished something out of the pocket of his windbreaker.

  Eddie said, “I like your hat. Can my dad wear one?”

  “Just my ball cap, Eddie,” said Turner. “We yachters don’t stand on ceremony. We wear what we want.”

  “Got some pirate tattoos for you both,” said Captain Bart to Eddie and Liam.

  “Stick-ons,” said Liam, not at all impressed.

  “I’ll take them,” said Eddie, “for me and my friend Tobias.”

  “Give me mine!” said Liam.

  It came to Saphora that Jamie first told her she would keep Tobias home. Then Jamie called back. Tobias was giving her what for, telling her that he wanted her to treat him like other kids. She caved in. But there was no sign of her car in the lot.

  Saphora imagined Tobias on board with his weak stomach. “They have those tattoos in all the shops, Eddie. Go on and give Liam one, and we’ll buy one for Tobias.”

  Eddie halfheartedly gave up the tattoo to his cousin.

  “I’ve got bags of them. One for you too,” said Captain Bart. He pulled out another tattoo and offered the Jolly Roger to Saphora.

  “Nana’s a pirate queen,” said Eddie. “Tobias calls you that, Nana.”

  Turner laughed.

  “Tobias thinks the next-door neighbor’s a pirate,” said Saphora.

  “We watched you and Luke next door digging late one night, under the moon,” said Eddie. “He kissed Nana.”

  “Not that kind of kiss!” said Saphora. Eddie made it sound like something it wasn’t. “He thanked me for helping him with a chore.”

  “Mama, you were in the neighbor’s yard digging at night?” asked Ramsey. “And kissing?” he asked, laughing.

  “He’s a grieving man. And very young. Lord knows what you all would do if you were in his shoes,” said Saphora.

  “Time to shove off,” said Captain Bart. He kept the schedule like an English nanny.

  “All aboard, everyone,” Saphora said.

  Eddie was the first on board. Turner led him to the mainmast while Saphora ran down the dock and untied the dock line.

  “Where you headed?” asked Bart.

  “We’ll go to Luken’s Cemetery,” said Saphora. “Old Town. I know that route now.”

  Ramsey took the wheel. He put on a captain’s hat. Liam stood beside him, holding the wheel with his daddy.

  A shout went up from the dock. Jamie waved, standing behind the open door of her car. She was honking her horn while Tobias yelled, running up the dock and waving his arms like a little squid. “Wait, I’m here!”

  Jamie stood down from the dock on the walk. She shrugged at Saphora and held up her cell phone. “Have him call me.” She looked fresh and happy to see him try out boating.

  Eddie said, “Hey, you didn’t chicken out!”

  “I wouldn’t,” said Tobias. He came aboard.

  Eddie whooped and startled the sea gulls hitchhiking along the stern. He pulled another pirate tattoo out of the bag and gave it to Tobias.

  Ramsey steered them toward Pamlico Sound. Saphora showed him the chart points toward Old Town. She sat on deck facing fore, not far from Turner and Eddie.

  “Put on your pirate tattoo, Nana,” said Eddie. When she closed her eyes and did not answer, he kept saying it until she sat up and moaned.

  “Eddie, leave Nana alone,” said Turner.

  “It’s all right.” She pulled the tattoo out of her pocket. “Where do I put it?”

  “On your arm, like a sailor,” said Eddie. He was hoarse from giggling.

  “You won’t see it there. I’m wearing a jacket.” She bent and peeled it back and then pressed it onto her calf.

  That sent Eddie into spasms.

  Tobias dragged a chair next to Eddie. He put on a big pair of Mafia black sunglasses. Then he started pouring on sunscreen so thick that Saphora got up and squatted next to him. “Let me help.” She took his lotion and squeezed some into her hand. As she took his thin left forearm, she noticed that she could see nearly every vein inside his arm. His skin was so pale, like a fish floating upside down on the surface of the water.

  “Other arm,” she said.

  He gave her the arm, surrendered to a woman he had known only a few weeks.

  Not about to be left out, Liam pushed his chair next to Tobias, beside where Saphora squatted.

  “Next, shoulders and back.” She could feel every spinal stem down his back. “Eddie, I’ll do you next and then Liam.”

  “We need to get some meat on your bones, boy,” said Turner.

  “He has AIDS, Daddy,” said Liam. He was grinning as if happy to finally beat Eddie to the announcement. “What is that anyway?”

  It was as if Liam had announced that he had just put away his toys and lit a dynamite stick.

  Ramsey came up out of his stupor in the captain’s chair. He was looking over the top of his sunglasses at Tobias. “Liam, why did you say that?”

  Liam pulled his feet up off the deck and tucked them close to his body.

  Saphora imagined the boys had been up in the tree house when Eddie blurted it out to Liam as if he knew everything in the entire universe.

  “He must have heard that somewhere. Liam, it’s not nice to say that,” said Turner to his nephew.

  “Why did you say that?” asked Ramsey.

  Tobias’s face was without any expression. His eyes were hidden behind the sunglasses. “Do I have to go back to the dock, Mrs. Warren?”

  “Of course not, Tobias,” said Saphora.

  “Mama, what are you doing?” asked Ramsey.

  “I’m getting a tan,” said Saphora. She used the tanning lotion on her exposed calves, doctoring carefully around the Jolly Roger so as not to tatter the edges.

  “He can’t have AIDS. That’s not possible,” said Turner. He had a nervous laugh.

  Tobias was so accustomed to adults talking over his head that he sat still, perched on the edge of his chair, staring down at the deck.

  “What’s going on? Someone tell me. It’s a joke, right, Liam?” asked Ramsey.

  “Sure, a big joke,” said Tobias.

  “Liam, come back over here,” said Ramsey. “Help me steer.”

  Liam sat up but did not jump up. He was torn between his daddy and his friend.

  Saphora poured more lotion into her hands. She rubbed it on her nose and into her cheeks. “I want everyone to calm down and talk abou
t other things.”

  “You can’t get it by touching me,” said Tobias. He was trying to curry a little favor with Ramsey behind that stretched smile of his.

  A lost butterfly alighted on the stern. It was white with black spots.

  “You don’t have to explain yourself, Tobias,” said Saphora.

  “So he really has it?” asked Turner.

  “Why is everyone acting so weird?” asked Eddie. “Liam has a big mouth.” He was batting back tears, fighting an emotion he could not explain.

  “Shut up!” Liam exclaimed. “You told me.”

  “We should have been told,” said Ramsey. “These are our kids, Mama.”

  “Tobias is my friend, Uncle Ramsey,” said Eddie.

  “What do you think, Ramsey?” asked Saphora. “That this little boy is going to breathe and you’ll get it out here in this wind? I’m not kidding. Let’s talk about something else.”

  A sea gull was screeching like a crazy hawk. It dropped down from the sky, dive-bombing the cruiser. It snatched away the white butterfly and was gone.

  South River wound through the Outer Banks like a twin ribbon to the Neuse, emptying out at Old Town. Saphora picked a spot where they could weigh anchor, and Ramsey parked the craft in the deep-water lagoon. Saphora got out the fishing poles from below and gave one to Eddie and Tobias. Tobias was cheery.

  “I’m sorry that we’re idiots,” said Saphora.

  “I can tie on my own lure. I watched you do it,” said Tobias. His fingers worked the line around the lure, a popper that might attract a bass if the boy would impose some patience on his line.

  Ramsey had fallen quiet, pouring all of his attention on Liam—not a bad thing, in Saphora’s estimation. She hated the way young parents wound their lives around busyness and competitive activities instead of sharing from themselves. Fishing broke out of loud culture and forced the attention on the simplicity of seducing small, elusive, submerged creatures. Ramsey worked with his boy on improving his wrist action.

  Once Tobias dropped his line, Saphora helped Eddie pick out a lure. “There could be some trout still left out here in these waters,” said Saphora. “Use this furry black one. It’ll look like a juicy bug to a trout.”

  Turner kicked back in the shade of the mainmast with his ball cap over his face. He was snoring already.

  An hour passed and only Ramsey had caught a fingerling. He threw it back. “This spot is fished out.”

  “I’d like to take the raft inland,” said Saphora.

  “I’m starving,” said Liam.

  “There’s sandwiches down below.” Saphora was hungry too.

  “Let’s take a sandwich on the raft,” said Tobias. “I’m going with Mrs. Warren,” he told Eddie.

  “Any other takers?” she asked.

  “What time is it?” Turner came awake. “Did I burn?” Still in a stupor, he was rubbing his arms for signs of a sunburn.

  “We’re going below to have some grub,” said Ramsey. “You’re not burned, big brother. You fell asleep in the shade.”

  “I guess it’s just you and me, Tobias,” said Saphora.

  Turner lowered the raft into the water. Saphora climbed down the ladder and steadied her feet as she climbed into the craft. She told Tobias, “Climb down using both hands. Eddie, you bring us two sandwiches and two cold sodas.”

  “Can I drive it?” asked Tobias. “It’s a small motor. I know how.”

  “Let me show you a few things first. Then I’ll sit fore of the raft and tell you where to go,” said Saphora.

  Eddie came galloping back across the deck. “Liam stuffed a whole sandwich into his mouth. He looks like a puffer fish.” He jumped onto the ladder and climbed down. “Uncle Ramsey put your food and drinks in a bag.” He handed the bag to his grandmother. “Here, Tobias, I’m giving you this.” It was Bender’s water bottle. Eddie had adopted it, and now he was giving it to Tobias.

  “You sure you’re not coming with us?” she asked Eddie.

  “Daddy?” he asked. “Can I?”

  “You stay here with me,” said Turner, self-consciously avoiding eye contact with Tobias. “We need some father and son time.”

  “Hand me two rods and reels and the small tackle then,” said Saphora.

  Turner handed her two sets over the stern. “Here’s your tackle box,” he said. “The signal’s weak on cellulars this far out, so don’t stray on us.”

  “If we’re not back in an hour, send a posse,” she told him, still suffering pangs on account of Tobias.

  Tobias held up the Wake Forest water bottle. “Thanks, buddy.” He strapped on his backpack. “I brought fruit, Mrs. Warren. Dr. Warren told me that if I’m ever lost at sea, I could live a long time on apples and oranges.”

  “He told you that? We’re not going to get lost, Tobias.”

  The South River floated like a pond in some places. Tobias figured out the small motor’s workings as fast as a racetrack grease monkey.

  The landscape was part riverbed, part marshland.

  “There’s an old cemetery out this way,” said Saphora.

  Tobias was overly eager to navigate. Finally he aimed the dinghy straight down the middle of the river. “It’s a riot!” he kept saying. It wasn’t a phrase she had heard from any of her grandsons. But Tobias said it whenever he gunned the small motor. “It’s a riot!”

  Saphora laughed each time. “Take her over to that old dock. There may be some fish under that old wood.” It was also a good place to drop a line and eat a sandwich. She opened the sack lunch.

  “Were there soldiers that died out this way?” he asked.

  “Why do you ask?”

  “You said there was a cemetery.”

  “Could be. There’s one story says the plague hit here back in the last century. The survivors had to leave, so they resettled farther down the Neuse. Some think that’s how Oriental got started.”

  “The plague. What was it?”

  “A terrible disease. Everyone died of it. Now wet your line.”

  Tobias squeezed a sinker onto his line and then let her fly. The lure slapped the water and dropped dead into the green stink of the marsh. He held the rod between his knees and stripped off his black windbreaker.

  Saphora gave him the sandwich. “It’s ham. Hope that’s all right,” she said.

  “I like ham. I like everything. Unless it’s yellow.”

  “What’s wrong with yellow?”

  “Yellow is the color of one of my meds,” he said like an old doctor.

  “How much medication do you take?”

  “Sixteen different kinds. Some of it tastes so bad I throw up. So I have to keep taking it until it stays down.”

  “It’s not fair.”

  “You’ve got a bite,” he said.

  The tip of her rod bent toward the water’s surface. She jerked the reel and set the hook.

  “You always catch a fish?” he asked.

  “I think you’re my lucky charm,” she said, preparing to wrangle her catch.

  “My mom told me that too.”

  A pretty green trout flipped into the air.

  “You’ve got to be patient with this guy,” she said. “Trout can outsmart humans.”

  Tobias put down his rod to watch. “Don’t let him go, Mrs. Warren. We’ll make the others jealous they didn’t come.”

  “That’s right. They were too interested in eating.”

  “It’s me, Mrs. Warren. I know that. I’ve seen it before.”

  “Don’t say that,” she said. She reeled the trout toward the raft. It had a lot of fight in it. She gave it some line and then started reeling again.

  “I don’t keep a buddy long.”

  “Eddie’s your buddy for always.”

  “Sometimes I get mad about it. But what’s the point? What am I going to do? Yell at my dead mom for giving me AIDS?”

  “This guy is not going to come to us easily,” she said. For a second, she thought she had lost him. Then he flipped into the air and
slapped the water before submerging. “Did your mother know you were sick?”

  “I don’t know. She was passing through town. She stopped long enough to have me and then dropped me off at the hospital’s emergency room door. She left me in a hamburger sack. The nurses told that to the cops, so the McDonald’s baby is what the newspapers called me.”

  Saphora was trying not to laugh. But Tobias heard her and then he laughed. “My dad always asks if I came with a side of fries.”

  Saphora finally laughed out loud.

  “Great guns, Mrs. Warren!” he said, standing up in the raft. “You lost him.”

  Saphora came up too, reeling up the nothingness of an empty hook.

  Tobias looked disappointed and flopped back into the raft.

  She asked, “When did your mama pass away?”

  “A month after I was born. A nurse kept up with her. She didn’t take good care of herself.”

  “That has nothing to do with who you are,” she said.

  “I’m who I decide I’ll be. That’s what my mom says.”

  “What are you going to be when you grow up?”

  “A wrestler.”

  She laughed.

  “Or a businessman like my dad.”

  “First one sounds more glamorous.”

  “I know.”

  “Your line is moving,” she whispered.

  Tobias came up out of the raft. He set the hook as if he were catching a whale. He yanked hard.

  “I think you outsmarted my trout,” she said.

  “I’m bringing him in,” he said. “I caught him, I caught him!”

  Sure enough, it was the big trout. Saphora said a quiet prayer: Give him this one wish, God. She had not promised God anything, like she normally did when things went south. She had not even asked God to save Bender. It wasn’t for lack of caring. Her prayers in the past few years seemed to be hitting a brass sky. She felt she had not known how to pray until right now.

  Tobias reeled and waited and continued as if he had the patience to fight the trout all day. Finally the fish was beside the raft, its gills flapping in and out from the fight.

  Saphora brought the net under him and lifted him into the boat. “You did it.”

  Tobias beat his chest and whooped so loud a crane lifted from behind the marsh grass. “Wait’ll Eddie sees him!”