A Fine Cast of Characters - J. Dane Tyler [18]
Embarrassment burned Kelly’s palms and face but her fear drove her on. “Everyone down in that cabin is going to be looking to you for answers, guidance, leadership. If you’re not the ‘expert’ skipper we were told you were, either come right out with it or start faking it pretty damn quick. The last thing you want is Charles or Edward taking charge.”
Flanagan sniffed a sharp breath through his nostrils and set his jaw, staring out the windshield at the gray. “I’ll … think of something. The dinghy, maybe.”
“Are you sure the dinghy works? I mean, nothing else you’ve tried does. Don’t you think you ought to test it?”
Flanagan bit his thumbnail. “I … we can’t. If it inflates, there’s no way to un-inflate it.”
“Then you’d better inflate it, because we need to know if it works or if the storm took it out too.” Kelly shrank into her frame at the thought of even the inflatable raft failing. She shuddered again.
Flanagan nodded at Jurgen and the mate sighed, pushed away from the console and went down the ladder and across the sundeck to the hold again. Flanagan turned to Kelly.
“I’m gonna tell the others what’s happening. Hope to hell it don’t cause mayhem and panic.”
“You might as well be ready for panic and mayhem from Charles,” Kelly said. “He panicked before he knew we were screwed. Now that we are, mayhem is next.”
“Great.”
Flanagan moved down the ladder in no particular hurry, drew a deep breath and opened the cabin door. Kelly stayed on the bridge, shut her eyes and waited.
She didn’t have to wait long.
“OH MY GOD!” She recognized the voice before Charles burst through the cabin door, Flanagan following with hands on hips, shaking his head. “OH MY GOD, WE’RE GONNA DIE OUT HERE! HEELP! HAAAAAAAAAAAALLLP!” Charles waved his arms in frantic flaps over his head, jumping up and down, rocking the boat side to side under his bulk, face red, veins popping on his forehead.
“Mr. Beaushanks, please calm down,” Flanagan put his hands on the pudgy little man’s shoulders. “This isn’t helping. Just settle down!”
Sam’s voice cut through Beaushanks’ wails. “For Christ’s sake, you incompetent jack-ass, what’re we going to do?” She took the skipper’s arm and spun him to face her. “Huh? What the hell are we going to do now? No motor, no radio, no emergency beacon? Sounds fucked to me! Is that what we are, ‘Captain’? Fucked?” Her face flamed, chin thrust forward, hands on hips. She wheeled toward Edward. “Do something, Edward! Jesus, act like a man for a change and do something!”
“Honey, please,” Edward reached for her, but Sam slapped his hands away.
“Get your greasy goddamn paws off me! Be a man, Timmerman! Do something, for God’s sake! We’re stuck out here! Call one of your ‘people’, you lousy fuck!” Tears leaked through her flaring eyes and raced down her mottled, blushed cheeks. “Goddamn it! Somebody do something!”
“Please, Ms. Whitaker, we are doing something, I just need everybody to calm down a little bit here …”
Sam’s voice strained through clenched teeth. “You son of a bitch! You lousy, shit-for-brains son of a bitch!”
Flanagan kept his voice even. “Just settle down, all of ya. Willy’s getting the life raft now, and we’ll have it ready for—”
“Life raft?!” Charles’s eyes popped farther from his skull. “Oh, Christ, we’re sinking, aren’t we? Oh God, oh GOD!”
“Mr. Beaushanks, please! Screaming ain’t helping matters none!”
“GOD IN HEAVEN, WE’RE SINKING! HAAALLLP! HAAALL—”
Flanagan slapped Beaushanks across the face, raising an angry red welt on his flabby cheek. The Edward’s head sailed around on the force of the blow and he crashed to the deck in stunned silence. Everyone froze. Kelly heard her heart throbbing in the sudden stillness, just under the lapping of waves against the sides of the boat.
“Now, I’m sorry ‘bout that, Mr. Beaushanks, I really am, but we gotta have some kinda order here.”
Beaushanks stared up through watery eyes, his chubby hand caressing his inflamed cheek, his expression that of a whipped puppy. Sam had her hand over her mouth, Edward taking advantage of her distraction