Phoenix Rising

Tattoos embellished her, from breasts to the tops of her thighs, a pattern that Henry found fascinating, sort of a paisley pattern, like a quilt of colour that faded at the edges and was strongly colorized in the middle where it vanished under her slight bikini bottom. Then there were those breasts. The sun caught the flash of gold at their tips that were the reflections on gold piercings that adorned the nipples.

Last on the list to be under the inspection glass was Valerie. She spent a great deal of the time at the wheel letting her long red hair flow in the wind as the cutter made its way north through the crowded sea lanes between the various islands of the Bahamas. She wore tight clothing, jeans and blouse, which showed her figure to considerable advantage. Large breasted and wide hipped she had compensating long legs that put the picture in balance. There was no way that Henry would have described her as beautiful, but he had to admit that she had something; something authoritarian and potent in her personality even if she was more than twice his age.

Valerie expected her orders to be followed and Henry could understand how it was that they were! She had a sort of natural formidable personality that brooked no contrary word.

At night they moored in the lee of some small cays and then they pressed on, but in a leisurely fashion. With Hugh making the drinks and Steve tending the engines.

As Henry had no idea about navigation, and in fact never even thought about it, he did not realise that they were not heading south east where the Turks and Caicos Islands beckoned but north, parallel to the coast of Florida, but with that land well below the horizon.

Henry started to enjoy himself despite the tyranny of Valerie’s po-faced rule. He polished the brass work and got useful experience with steering the vessel as they went. His omelettes were celebrated and in demand and the bit of tidying and work that he had to additionally do under the watchful eye of Valerie did not stop him enjoying the sight of Trudy and her quilt-work markings.

Chapter 4 : Swimming In Deep Waters.

***

The weather held, so Henry figured that he could expect the full two weeks on the boat. For some reason he found that he was enjoying himself enormously, such a change from the pseudo delight of the craps tables and the solace of all that Bourbon.

West End Key is a western extension of Great Abaco, a narrow bar of sand, coral and rock that extends like an accusing finger pointing at Florida. Below it, just to the south, are a collection of cays that nestle in the shallow waters and provide sighting marks for sailors and a distraction from the intense blue for tourists.

The fishing is good and the diving is great there, amongst those slivers of land. It was there that the Phoenix finished up with its four diverse passengers.

They spent a day fishing while Steve spent his day gazing through the powerful binoculars that he pulled out of his cabin.

It was Valerie that most seemed to want to reel in a big Bluefin but it was Trudy that attracted the fish. The pan fried steaks that resulted were one of the best meals that Henry had ever eaten, or maybe it was just the blue of the sea in the sunset and the gentle swaying of the cutter that lulled him into his state of enjoyment.

The next day Valerie moved the boat closer to the small cays and Steve, Valerie and Trudy did some scuba diving. The water was shallow and clear as crystal so Henry spent his time watching the three of them as they swam.

To his imagination Trudy was like some exotic fish, the patterns of her tattoos seemed like scales on her body. Steve was a whale, even through the surface of the azure he seemed huge and powerful, a deliberate and purposeful swimmer. Valerie was the lurking shark, she stayed by Trudy and swam to and fro as she kept a watch over her prey, continually looking up to check that the cutter was still in sight.

In the end Henry got bored and turned to the various small tasks that Valerie had given him before the dive. He was a little jealous of the other three, but then, not only had diving and swimming never really appealed to him, he convinced himself that one of the four had to stay aboard.

The sun burned down and Henry put on a huge battered straw hat that he had found in a locker. Starting at the front of the boat, over his own cabin he worked his way back, polishing the brass before working on all the varnished wood that formed the decks of the boat. Finally he lifted the hatches over the engines so that he could polish the gratings and he got a surprise.

Anyone who is interested in American cars will know about the Hemi-426. Henry, who was a bit of an aficionado, immediately recognised the four huge Chrysler car engines that sat in the rear of this boat that would make it one of the fastest things on the water! This was untrammelled raw power even if these engines had not been tuned.

Henry quickly put the hatches back in their place all the while he wondered why a boat like this, a pleasure cutter, a casual cruiser, might need over two thousand horsepower under its bonnet. It really didn’t make any sense unless... unless of course the boat was some sort of ‘go fast’, in other words a smuggling boat.

But what was there to smuggle here, on a diving and fishing trip in the north Caribbean?

Well, he decided it had to be drugs, what else was there to move from South to North America that could be worth enough to afford this type of boat?

A shiver passed along his spine as thought that he was involved in some sort of illegal activity that was punishable by life in jail. Somehow he had to get off this boat. Then another thought occurred to him.

They knew who he was!

If he cut and ran then some crazy drugs cartel or some such would be after him, he knew the boat, the people and now that they were smuggling.

A rising tide of fear made his legs feel weak and a pit in his stomach full of nervous butterflies made him feel enervated. It had all seemed such a lark, a way to pick up a little money and spend a couple of weeks lounging around. A couple of weeks that would bring him ever closer to his all important twenty fifth birthday.

‘So should I stay or should I go?’ he asked himself, ‘If I stay there will be trouble...’

The song rattled through his head and somehow made it all look like some sort of television story. Miami Vice or something else dated from the eighties like Magnum. Glamorous smugglers and their innocent, naive but clever dupe.

‘Well they haven’t been caught yet and they don’t even know that my name is anything other than just ‘Henry’,’ he thought as he wondered about bailing out. ‘I’ll just go along for the ride and disappear.’

Then it occurred to him that his passport was in a drawer his cabin, he’d better hide it or keep it with him to make sure...

He made his way to the small cabin and opened the top drawer where he had put the passport, but it was gone. Frantically, and somewhat illogically, he looked around before starting a search of the tiny space.

He opened the second drawer to find the passport safe and sound. He paused as he tried to remember when he had moved it; he had been so sure that it was in the top drawer. He flipped it in the air and slid it into the pocket on his cargo pants.

At that moment he heard the return of his three passengers and he headed to the deck to meet them.

Chapter 5: Revelation.

****

A couple of days passed in a seemingly idyllic setting.

A boat sitting on the azure waters of various lagoons with the palms and beaches of the cays in the background. Frosty Valerie, painted Trudy and silent Steve dived and fished. Sometimes with scuba gear and tanks, sometimes just snorkelling they enjoyed themselves while Henry sat on the deck and watched the boat.

It was starting to look as if Henry’s fears were unfounded.

He was expecting to see them hauling packets of drugs from the sea or some such, but even though he watched every move that they made they only brought up speared fish for their meals.

“We have to be heading back soon,” said Trudy to Henry one evening, “but the weather is perfect and the moon is full so Valerie wants to do a midnight dive tonight.”

“How long will the dive be?” asked Henry, concerned about having to steer the boat at night when he could not follow the divers.

“Just an hour or two.”

“Where?”

Valerie entered the galley and put an arm about Trudy possessively.

“Around here, the coral is perfect,” said Valerie.

“I’m not sure if I should come along,” said Trudy as she held up her hand with the bandage that covered a cut that she had got whilst on the last dive.

“Nonsense,” said Valerie. “That little cut is nothing.”

“Please, it hurts.”

It was the first time that Henry had seen the pair of them argue or act anything other than like the perfect couple. He stayed out of the squabble, not wanting to get involved.

“The conditions are perfect, you really should come.”

There was a moment’s pause and Henry wondered whether Trudy would take the way out or not.

“No, really,” said Trudy as a slight whine entered her voice. “The sea water will make it worse.”

Valerie made a dissatisfied sound and then stared at Henry as if he were the cause of the disagreement. Finally, since he said nothing but continued to beat the eggs and grate the cheese for the evening meal, Valerie gave up and stomped out of the galley and paced the deck.

Henry did not speak to Trudy he just continued making the meal.

“I just hate diving,” said Trudy confidentially to Henry. “I just do it because Valerie says that I have to!”

“Mmm,” replied Henry.

There was no way that he was going to get involved in this spat between lovers, he had decided that all he wanted to do was get off this strange ship of fools and get back to Miami. He would breathe a sigh of relief when it was all over.

*****