Chapter 6

By 8am, everything Grandma did in the morning was done and she began showing me where to look up all the information she knew off the top of her head. She showed me everything over the next two weeks. By the last few days before Christmas, I was getting pretty good at the job over Grandma's shoulder. Not like she was, of course, but good enough to take over when she did take the occasional break during the day. People were stunned to see me at the desk but slowly I realized that they were shocked to see anyone at the desk. Grandma was never sick. Grandma never took vacation. Grandma only took off when she had Dad an' Aunt Hanna 'cause Great Granddad threatened ta fire her if they was born in the dockhouse.

When the boats started coming back around 2:30 on the Wednesday before Christmas, Grandma was asleep.

"Hey, Grandma?" I called out, softly 'cause I didn't really want to wake her but I kinda didn't believe she was out like a light. "Hey, Candy." There was no way she'd let me get away with that one if she was awake. "Right." I took the desk.

"Where's Candy?" was the first question out of everyone for the rest of the afternoon.

"I've got the desk." I answered all of them, "ID Tag?"

Everyone who checked out, checked in. Grandma slept through it all. Granddad arrived around 6pm and frowned at me.

"Where is she?"

I tipped my head toward the back room. He looked in and I saw his face pass through about a hundred emotions.

I didn't want to ask what was going on. But when people start acting weird like that, you know bad news is coming. I didn't want to ask him, but I knew eventually he was gonna tell me whether I wanted to hear it or he wanted to say it.

"Is Grandma sick?" I asked. It sounded loud in the small space.

He nodded slowly. I didn't ask anymore questions. We let her sleep. I finished the daily paperwork, turned off the computer and grabbed my coat. "See you in the morning, Sir." I stopped because I wanted to say something else but I honestly didn't know what. Instead, I hugged him. My Grandfather was never a touchy-feely kinda guy. He was more likely to hit you than hug you in the best of times. That day, I hugged him and he hugged me back. He abruptly let me go and straightened his shoulders. I recognized the gesture immediately; I did the same thing when I was too close to an emotion I didn't want to let out. I stepped back and took a breath. "Goodnight, Sir."

As I opened the door to leave, he called out, "Don't be late in the mornin', hear?"

She needs someone here, he didn't say. I didn't think he had to.

Christmas Eve, officially, we were closed which really just meant that all the employees got a paid day off and family manned all the boats. It was mostly the guys but a couple of the girls turn out every year as well. That year we had a lot of orders for fresh catch because several of the local restaurants finally figured out that we actually fished on Christmas Eve day, so we needed all three boats manned. I was getting all the crew details in order when I realized that Grandma was late. I started to get up and ask where she was then I stopped. I had a kind of prickly feeling all over my skin. Grandma took the Christmas Eve shift off for the first time ever. Something was so wrong with that I didn't even know where to begin.

I finished typing up the assignments and went out on the dock to hand them out.

There were complaints — but they were mostly good-natured ones. Uncle Ed had a standing order that Uncle Jul and Aunt Rae couldn't be on his boat on the same shift because they'd spend the day makin' out even if Jul was over 60. Pete and Jean spend the whole day goofin' off if they on the same boat. Aunt Han once threw Dad over the rail so Granddad won't let them work together any more. The boats got underway more or less on time. Grandma didn't even call. I manned the radio alone all day and did the check in by myself when the boats got back around lunchtime. Granddad nodded when I showed him the daily reports — completed and filed — before I locked the office.