This is Chapter 30 of a YA novel. To see where the story began, check out the GIRL, UNPLUGGED table of contents post, or head to the GIRL, UNPLUGGED section of the Story Hoarder Substack page to see all the chapters.
This chapter is a 10 minute read.
CHAPTER 30: Sail Mary
I ran over to Rainbow and covered her eyes from behind, “Guess who?”
“Well, your hands smell like socks, so —“
“What?!” I shrieked, smelling my hands quickly. Russ, Colin, and Rainbow all continued their seemingly unending laughter. They had evidently been talking about our sock war the night before and they all wanted to know where the hell I came up with the idea for such a weird activity. I was happy to relive the memories of good times with Amy and Rog and laugh with this new group of friends about all those hijinx. As the conversation and the laughs continued, and Russ shifted from holding my hand to putting an arm around my shoulders and then even a full blown embrace from behind while we talked, part of me wished I could live in that moment forever.
I was certain the only other joy-filled surprise left for us was getting to the front of the line and on a boat home. Then I saw the familiar gait of a man I only barely got to know, but would forever be a part of my life story: Dr. Davies. He was at the front of the line of people waiting to go to Staten Island, bopping his head in and out of the crowd, looking left and right, speaking briefly to some, ignoring others, shaking his head at every turn. I stepped out of Russ’s arms and shouted, “Dr. Davies?”
He turned our way and ran, pumping his arm in victory. “Yes! You are here!” As he approached us he took us all in looking from face to face. “Are you all here? Where is Matthew?”
I pointed over to where Murph had stumbled, imagination first, back into his sketchbook. “Murph! It’s Dr. Davies –” I could barely hear myself say his name because everyone around me started shouting and cheering at once.
“That’s not all,” Mrs. Krimble said, smiling at me as I turned. “Oh! Oh – be gentle,” she said through soft, weak laughs, as Princess and Terrell nearly tackled her from both sides with their hugs.
I was speechless while everyone else’s questions and conversations filled the space. It was already some kind of coming home being all back together, then Dr. Davies gave us even more good news, a boat had been waiting specifically for us if he and Mrs. Krimble could gather our class. Everything moved quickly then.
The sun was high in the sky, but it had passed its peak so it was probably about one or two o’clock in the afternoon. According to what we were told on line, the trip across to Staten Island would take anywhere from one to two hours. We were told to go to the bathroom and to drop any weight we could to help the trip go even faster. I really hoped that I wouldn’t be sick on this trip.
The boat was beautiful. It was all white except for the thin blue line around its rim which matched the letters in the boat’s name, Sail Mary. The boat’s Captain, Bud Sanders, was a retired bus driver who kept cracking jokes about how he thought his time with commuters ended a long time ago. His wife, Carol, was dressed as if this were just another day of sailing for her. She acted that way too. The couple looked like they had been plucked off the top deck of some leisure cruise on its way to the Caribbean – her sun visor cutting through her too-red-to-be-real hair, his socked-and-sandaled feet, both smiling in a way only the truly relaxed, free from worry people can manage. When we got on the boat, Carol greeted us individually with a big smile and then, from a giant box, she pulled out a necklace of flowers for each of us. She ceremoniously placed one around our necks one by one.
Bud said, “Don’t mind my wife, she just likes to ‘ley’ everyone who comes aboard. It is just her way of being friendly.” And he laughed hysterically at his own joke.
My flowers were sky blue and I loved them. They were the first clean thing I had put on since the morning I left for the museum. Between them and the salt water air, I felt more refreshed than I had in days. Carol then came around with a pitcher of iced tea that was actually cold, filling up the plastic cups she handed us when we all got our seats. I thought it was a miracle. I looked at the ice in my cup and I remembered Janice and what she was willing to do to save the ice and food for the people who needed it. I thought about how excited she got when she saw the refrigerators filled with chilled drinks. I savored each sip.
“Excuse me, Carol?” I said as I watched her dip under the deck of the boat to get even more ice and iced tea.
She turned and looked at me with her luminescent smile, “Yes honey?”
“Where did you get the ice?” I asked.
“From the cooler, of course. Why?”
“Sure, I know that, but it should have melted by now. You can help a lot of people with this ice if you’ve been able to keep it cool for this long,” I said.
Bud turned from his navigation and said, “We’ve finally got a smart one here, Car!”
“We’ve done at least six trips today and no one has picked up on that yet,” Carol said. She put down her iced tea pitcher and walked back over to where we were all sitting. “Bud hasn’t wanted me to tell anyone about it until someone noticed.”
Bud turned to me and said, “You were the first person to understand the enormity of the ice, young lady. The first one. Why do you think that is?”
The only way to explain it was to tell them the story of what happened at the deli. Nothing could more vividly describe the preciousness of ice than the battle fought over it with guns held to my friends heads and Janice throwing her body in the way to save us all from unknown horrors. Maybe everyone else who traveled with the Sanders was too caught up in the dramas and horrors of their blackout battles, but at least one of mine actually was related to the need for ice.
“I was helping out in Times Square, we all were, really. But I was helping out in the food gathering with this lady named Janice.” Everyone looked really worried when I mentioned her name. “She was – is – really an amazing person. She was trying to get as much food to people as possible while we were there. The restaurants and stuff donated stuff, some of them just gave us the keys to go in. When Janice and I went to this deli, I never saw anyone get so happy about ice and refrigerators. That was my first clue. But when two men came into the store and held guns to the heads of my friends… for ice?”
“I don’t think it was just for ice, Natalie,” Colin said.
I looked at him right in the eyes, “Before you guys came in, the only thing they wanted was the ice, Colin,” I said.
Russ cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. I grabbed his hand.
Carol looked pallid. Her perky demeanor was wiped away and replaced with horror.
“You see, Carol?” Bud said, “That’s why we don’t put the lights on at night. That’s why we don’t advertise. And that’s why we waited for someone who was brave enough to ask.”
“I’m sorry for bringing everyone down,” I said.
“Honey, you didn’t bring me down,” Bud said, “You just proved something to my wife that I have been telling her the last ten years: Most people are wonderful, but you never know when you’ll meet the rest. I’m sorry you had a bad encounter, but I think you earned the right for us to tell you.”
“Tell us what?” Mrs. Krimble asked.
“We are survivalists!” Bud exclaimed.
“My nutty husband has been preparing for something like this for years. It has essentially been his job ever since he retired, in fact,” she said almost begrudgingly.
“Sail Mary was my first big purchase!” he said with a smile. “Can’t really be a survivalist and live on an island if you don’t have a boat!”
“And I wasn’t about to agree to a row boat,” Carol said.
“But how do you keep the ice cold without power?” Rainbow asked.
“Who said we don’t have power?” Bud said as he winked at Rainbow.
“Oh wow. He’s going to make us work for it, isn’t he?” I asked Carol.
“Believe me, after 47 years you get used to this nonsense,” she responded.
“Okay Captain Sanders, how do you still have power when the entire Metro New York has a fried grid?” I asked.
“I built Faraday cages around my generators!” he said with flourish.
“Oh shit,” Russ said, “really?”
“Oh snap,” Brenda said.
Mrs. Krimble gasped.
“Oh ho! This group is getting better by the minute. Are you telling me this crew knows what a Faraday cage is?”
“High School Science teacher, at your service,” Mrs. Krimble said.
“Dr. Davies and Smithe and Mrs. Krimble were talking about them yesterday, to protect our phones or something, but it was too late,” Russ said.
“Also, Dark Times talks about them a lot,” Brenda said which led to Murph groaning.
“What do you think, Carol?” Bud said.
“Couldn’t have asked for a finer, more deserving group, if you ask me, Bud,” Carol said.
“For what?” I asked, looking back and forth between our boat’s crew.
“Bud’s been looking for a group, or family, to share his survivalist training with. A group to give one of our Faraday caged generators to, but he wanted to make sure they would appreciate it and be able to understand ‘the enormity of it’,” Carol said.
“Too many people these days are primarily concerned with the loss of their gadgets and TVs,” Bud said, “I’m all for that when there’s enough power to go around, but during times like these, you have to know what is important.”
“Like iced tea,” said Carol, raising the pitcher and pouring another round.
“Like iced tea,” Rose said quietly. We all laughed, raising our glasses in a toast.
For the rest of the trip home Bud and Carol told us about their home, their preparations and what they had hoped for the future. Bud said that while he was truly fearing some future where there would be some sort of food shortage, he never ruled out a massive grid failure. He was shocked to find out that it was caused by a natural event and not some enemy attack, so we were useful in providing him with that good news.
Carol explained that their house wasn’t a big one, but they have a nice sized backyard. That’s where they started growing their own food and raising chickens. Daria jumped on that. “You really have chickens? I have a vlogging buddy in Brooklyn that has chickens, I was always sort of jealous of him. What do you guys do with them in the winter?”
“They have a coop,” Carol said. “They are actually fine in the winter, you only have to add extra heat if you want them to keep laying the same amount of eggs, but, otherwise, it hasn’t been getting cold enough lately for it to be necessary for their survival. Honestly, the chickens are my favorite part of Bud’s whole endeavor.”
“You’ll insult the boat, Carol!” Bud said feigning offense.
“Well, of course I love the boat,” Carol said rolling her eyes, “It just hasn’t been quite as cost effective as my birds.”
“I say this boat is priceless,” Terrell said.
“Here, here my boy!” Bud said. “Free boating lessons to the smart one in the corner!’
I leaned over to Carol, “I only have like thirteen dollars on me, but I’m sure my parents would give you something for the ride.”
Russ agreed and so did the others. Dustin already had his wallet out.
Carol just laughed and put her arm around my shoulders, “I don’t want your money, darling. This is the first time the boat is paying for itself. Service is the greatest reward anyone could ask for. I would never take money from a bunch of students on a class trip anyway, that’s unconscionable!”
By the time we reached the Staten Island shore Bud and Carol had given us their home address and told us to come by anytime we liked.
At the dock we each thanked Bud and Carol and shared hugs all around. A group of us had made solid plans to go visit them on Saturday to see what their place looked like and to get started on our own survivalist training. Daria was going to go the next day so that Carol could start showing her the ins and outs of being a chicken owner. She said that she could bring home one or two of her baby chicks by the end of the week if she could put together a suitable coop for them. Daria was so excited. And she wasn’t alone. The entire boat ride, the super sweet tea, the edging closer and closer to our home soil energized us all. My face was frozen in a smile while my hand was glued to Russ’s. Murph had spent a good portion of the ride sketching and had added another six pages to what he had already done. I couldn’t believe how quickly he was turning out these sketches now, or how good they were. He let me see most of them, but not all. Rainbow had sung a couple of songs with Bud, and Princess and Terrell had cozied up in the back of the boat, both with huge content smiles throughout their entire conversation. We really looked like a bunch of people out for a leisurely sail boat ride. It was nice.
Bud and Carol hitched their boat for a while to go home and “check on things.” The rest of us were going home for the first time in two days, to families who didn’t know what had happened to us, to families who had their own two-day tales. We all made arrangements for pairing up to walk each other home as efficiently as possible. “I’m walking you home, just so you know,” Russ said.
“Yeah you are,” I said, swinging his arm.
“I was just wondering,” Rainbow spoke up, “this may sound dumb, but I really just don’t know… how are we going to get in contact with one another?”
Everyone just stood there silently.
“It’s just that I always used whatsapp and tumblr for that, you know?” she said looking around, “I mean, it’s not even like we can use regular phones, can we?”
Murph said, “I don’t think so.”
“So then what?” Rainbow said.
Everyone looked at me. Again. It was weird, but I was starting to get used to it. It was like my blog, Talia’s Tales, when any news came out of the Barista Boys or Wolf Nights production companies, I knew all eyes would be on me to update my peeps with a post. This wasn’t unfamiliar ground, I realized, it was just new information.
“Why don’t we make a plan now to meet up somewhere?”
“Tomorrow I’m going to Carol’s,” Daria said.
“And god bless you for that,” Stella said, “because if I have my way I am sleeping straight through the next 24 hours.”
“Why don’t we just meet the next day at the school?” Rose said.
“You think you’ll be up to that?” Daria asked.
“If I’m not, you’ll inform the group, okay?” Rose said.
We all agreed that was a good idea, but then we got really confused about what time we should meet.
“I’m good at noon,” Russ pointed straight over his head. “I haven’t really mastered the rest.”
“Wow, this is really advanced stuff, guys. Bud and Carol have no idea how much work they have in front of them,” Daria said.
“Okay,” I said to recap. “Not tomorrow, but the next day, I might go by the school at” and I pointed my hand right over my head.
We all laughed.
“Okay, seriously though I need to get home,” I said, “Who lives the furthest?”
“I do,” said Stella, “But Dustin is going to go with me, so I’m okay.”
“Okay what about everyone else?”
Everyone had a walking plan with a pair, if not a trio. After saying all of our goodbyes we laughed when we realized we all had to walk up the hill from the water anyway. When we passed the police precinct, two officers immediately stopped us, asked us what we were up to and informed us of the 6:30 pm curfew which Colin pointed out was both “unnecessarily constrictive and insanely accurate in a world without watches.” That didn’t rub the officers the right way (no big surprise, Colin has that effect on authority figures), but their entire attitude changed when Rainbow explained who we were. One of the officers ran back into the precinct bringing out a whole crowd of cops with him when he came back out, “It’s the Prep kids!” he announced. The crowd of officers cheered and clapped.
They asked us where we were when everything happened, how we made it back and what it was like in the City. We told them as much as we could. Colin reminded them that we couldn’t keep on with our story if we needed to be in our houses at 6:30. They laughed at him this time and separated themselves among our traveling parties. We all hugged each other before separating.
Leave a comment - Question of the Week
Thanks for continuing to read the GIRL, UNPLUGGED. Upon getting ready to publish I realize I left the Dr. Davies thing a bit open in this draft. In one draft I had included a long good-bye, in another a section on him travelling back to Staten ISland with the group and even meeting Mrs. Krimble’s parents! I’m wondering, if, before reading this question, if you had any thoughts about Dr. Davies beyond the reunion at the beginning of this chapter. Let me know, in the comments, if you feel you needed a stronger conclusion to this character.
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