Chapter 13

Andi woke up to Paul’s gentle kisses. They were both naked, and she now loved waking up naked, mostly because it meant she went to bed naked with Paul. Or got naked in the middle of the night with Paul. Prior to meeting him, she never, ever slept naked for any reason at all. When living with Frank, she even wore her bra to bed under her flannel nightgown. But here, down in the tropics, it just felt right, and it was a feeling she would take back home to Springville.

Home to Springville, she thought to herself, not home to Denver. She smiled again. Andi hardly knows the area, but Paul is there, and that’s all she needs for it to be home for her and her babies.

Andi rolled onto her back and felt Paul between her legs, kissing her pussy. “Mmmm what are you doing?” she purred.

“Kissing your pussy,” he said. “What does it feel like?”

“It feels like I want to go back to sleep.”

“Come on sleepy head, the twins are up and are driving Stan and Yi nuts. Come on, let’s go watch the sunrise.”

The gentle rocking of Andi’s Dream threatened to rock Andi back to sleep, but she fought off the groggy sensation and realized the groggy sensation was not the boat rocking but the wine she drank last night. She crawled out of bed and put on a bikini that Paul told her fit perfectly, but she knew in her heart of hearts it was too small. Over that, she slipped on a pair of cut-off shorts. She ran a brush through her hair and over her teeth, then climbed up on deck. As she stepped up to the galley, Sandy, Madeline and Bitty serenaded her with:

I’m Henry the Eighth, I am Henery the Eighth, I am, I am I got married to the widow next door She’s been married seven times before And everyone was a Henery (Henery) She wouldn’t have a Willie or a Sam (no Sam) I’m her eighth old man, I’m Henry Henery the Eighth, I am!

The three girls sang at the top of their lungs. Andi’s head pounded with each word, and she looked over at Yi, who was busy in the galley. “You taught them that, didn’t you?”

Yi feigned innocence and continued to make pancakes. “We can go camping now!” said Sandy.

“We have a camping song!” said Madeline.

“You can’t make a s’more without a camping song,” said Yi as she prepared breakfast. “Is there anything I can get you Mrs. Jarecki?”

Still not used to being called that, especially in the morning mists before sunrise, so she didn’t answer.

“Doctor Jarecki?”

Finally, through the fog, Andi’s brain ground into gear; “I’m Doctor Roberts. He’s Doctor Jarecki, and I think one of us wants coffee.”

Andi found a seat at the mezzanine facing the stern, which was still pointed to the east. The sun was just peeking above the horizon, and the girls were eating breakfast. “Where’s Mr. Jarecki?”

Sunny gestured to the cockpit. “Morning prayers.”

Andi sipped the coffee handed to her, kissed her daughters and Bitty on the head, then stepped down to the cockpit, through the transom door and out onto the swimming deck. There was Paul, kneeling in prayer. She knelt next to him and prayed as well. She prayed a prayer of thanks for everything that has happened to her so far, and prayed for the health of her babies, and she prayed for a boy.

She looked up, and the sun was fully above the horizon, it’s reflection on the glassy surface of the ocean was almost like an answer to her supplications. She looked at Paul and there was a tear or two on his cheeks. “You ok daddy?” she asked softly.

“Yeah baby, I am. It’s all just hard to believe, that’s all. Let’s go swimming.”

“Are you crazy? It’s...” she was going to complain that it was too early, but he wrapped his arms around her and leaned over, and they slipped into the water. The water was warm and inviting and really helped her clear her head. Now she was sure of the hundred different ways she was going to kill her husband.

The twins were watching, and both said “Whoa!” around a mouth full of pancake and ran down to the cockpit and out on to the swimming deck as their mother appeared above the surface, still clutching her coffee cup. “You two get back on to the boat. You’re not allowed out here without a life vest!” even while drowning and plotting her husband’s murder, she was still looking out for her children. Paul had kept a grip on the swimming deck, so they didn’t slide very far at all below the surface. He rolled up on the deck and hoisted Andi up out of the water, spouting and cursing. She was mostly angry for his spoiling a very good cup of coffee. Several sea water salty kisses later, they were back in the water enjoying a morning swim.

Andi can’t really swim, she can only dog paddle, and she’s not very good at that. Paul took it upon himself to teach her to tread water. “If you end up in the water, this is the very first thing you need to remember. Treading water properly will save your life.” He taught her the proper hand motion and kick for treading water. Andi soon felt comfortable treading water, and it was time to move on. Paul had her lean back; “You’re going to lean your head way back, let your body do what it wants to do, keep leaning back until the water comes up over your forehead and almost to your eyes ... that’s it ... relax and let your feet come up...”

And before she knew it, Andi was floating on her back. Her toes were actually sticking up out of the water. She could barely hear him because the water was covering her ears, but Paul told her to move just her hands in a “jazz hands figure 8” and when she figured out what he was telling her, she realized that doing this was propelling her through the water slowly.

“Mommy’s swimming!” Sandy yelled from the mezzanine breakfast table.

“She is! She is!” shrieked Madeline.

“So?” asked Bitty. “I’ve been swimming since I was born.” Stan and Sung-mi enrolled Bitty in infant swimming lessons as soon as they could.

“We’re from Denver,” Sandy insisted. “You can’t swim in Denver. There’s too much altitude.”

Madeline and Sandy tried to explain to Bitty that their mommy lives in a city and in a city you don’t swim, you call Uber. But the discussion got out of hand and turned into a shouting match over swimming until Sung-mi assured Bitty that when they went to the beach, she can help the twins learn to swim.

Meanwhile, Andi added kicking to her activity and was propelling herself away from Andi’s Dream. Paul had her stop and go back to treading water. It was then that she realized how far from the boat she had gotten. Panic set in, but Paul was able to get Andi to tread water again. Once she settled into the rhythm, he moved up behind her. “Where did you learn to teach people to swim?” she asked.

“We like to take the kids at John’s church to the beach on Lake Canandaigua, but there are no lifeguards. So, John and I took red cross lifesaving classes and got our life saving certificates so we can take the kids to the lake.”

“So, you can rescue me,” said Andi.

“Yes.”

“That’s called burying the lede!” she practically screamed.

“Let me show you,” said Paul as he swam up behind her. “This is what I am going to do when you need me to rescue you,” and he put his arm around her ribcage and started swimming toward Andi’s Dream with a strong, sure side stroke. It isn’t comfortable to be rescued in this manner. Just keeping the water out of your nose is difficult, but soon, sooner than she would have guessed, they were standing on the swimming deck again. When she realized the twins were on the swimming deck congratulating her, she chased them off again, scooped up her coffee cup from where she had left it, and headed back to the galley for more coffee.

“Ahoy!” cried Yi, “You’re not coming up here in my nice clean galley, dragging the Atlantic Ocean with you! You wouldn’t believe what fish do in that water. Shower up first.”

“How? What?” Andi was confused because to get to her suite where the shower waited for her, she had to walk through the galley, to the salon, and then down below deck.

“This way,” said Paul, and he showed her a door on the fishing cockpit bulkhead that led below deck. There was a small cabin with pullman bunks, a small, stacked washer and drier, and a small day head with a shower head. “This is Yi’s cabin. It’s a bit noisy, so I said she could stay in the fore cabin until we pick up ‘the gang’.” Andi dropped her shorts and bikini and pushed Paul away.

“If I let you touch me, we’ll never get out of here.”

“I can stop when we need to,” he complained.

“I’m not talking about you,” and gave him a saucy wiggle of her womanly hips then she rinsed off and wrung out her bikini and cutoffs and put them in the drier, then went above deck wearing only the t-shirt Paul had taken off before going in the water (she could wear it as a dress) and a towel around her waist. Paul joined her, wearing a towel around his waist like a kilt.

“What say we try to catch a dolphin or two before heading in to get John and the gang?” asked Stan.

“Sounds good to me, and maybe we can find some porpoise for the kids to watch,” replied Paul, which confused Andi.

“You’re going to catch a dolphin? And watch a porpoise?”

“They’re delicious! I love cooking them,” grinned Yi.

Andi looked about her in horror. These people are crazy! Catching and eating a dolphin?

“They talk about Mahi-Mahi,” said Sunny as she brought a pot of coffee from the galley and set it on the table. “It real name is dolphin and is a fish, not a mammal, and Yi is right, are delicious.”

“They’re uuuuuuuuugly!” chimed in Bitty, “but they have a pretty green color.”

“Here you go, Eggs en Cocotte with mushroom, chorizo, and fresh tomato with brioche toast,” said Yi as she put plates down in front of Paul and Andi. The pancake eating kids at the end of the table looked on with interest.

“Eggs en Cocotte?” Andi looked at the sumptuous feast before her. Eggs en Cocotte was a ramekin filled with whatever the chef wants to add, in this case chorizo and mushrooms with an egg on top. The Ramekin is placed in a water bath and put in a 375° oven for about 15 minutes and when it’s done, the with roasted tomato goes on top of that. The eggs were done perfectly, and the yolk was creamy.

Yi explained, “Eggs en Cocotte is the fanciest way on earth to describe the easiest way on earth to cook eggs. I put some sliced mushrooms and chorizo in a ramakin, put an egg on top, and toss it in the oven which gives me time to roast the tomatoes, toast the brioche, and finish off the open bottle of wine you guys left in the galley.”

“I thought I finished that,” Andi said to Paul quietly.

“No, if you had finished that, I’d still be dipping you in the ocean to wake you up.”

Stan and Sunny joined them, and Paul insisted Yi sit down and eat with them. Breakfast was simply marvelous. Neither Paul nor Andi had ever had an egg cooked to perfection like that before. As they finished and downed the last of their coffee, Paul said, “I can’t wait to take this boat fishing.”

“If you want to go fishing, let’s go fishing,” said Stan.

“Yeah, let’s do it,” said Paul, and again he helped Yi clean up the galley.

“You don’t have to do this,” said Yi. “It’s part of my job.”

“It’s part of my boat,” said Paul. “Would you rather have me helping with the engines?”

Yi thought for a moment, then handed him a coffee cup and said, “you missed a this.”

After breakfast was cleaned up, it was time to go fishing. Stan manned the flybridge, and he taught Andi how to use the fish finder. They purred around for a while and scanned with the ‘fish finder’ until Stan pointed out that they found a small school of mullet. “Ok, nice and easy ... we pull up on them,” said Stan and he headed to the school as quietly as Andi’s Dream would move.

When they neared the school, Paul on the stern threw chunks of frozen chum into the water, then, collecting his net, he stepped onto the swimming deck. As the mullet rose to the chum, Paul tossed the net onto the boiling sea and netted up a good size collection of the small fish. He dragged them on to the cockpit and poured the fish into the two live bait bins.

Some of the mullet got loose and were hopping around on the deck and the twins were in a panic, trying to pick them up, but as soon as the fish moved, they would run away yelled “Fish! Get in the tank!”

“Look, pick it up behind the face,” said Bitty, and she tried to show the twins how to pick up a fish, but they were terrified.

“Come here,” said Paul and he held a small fish. The twins were terrified, but Paul said, “pet his tummy, see? They’re slippery and wiggly, but they can’t hurt you.” Soon he had a fish in the hands of each twin. “Don’t squeeze too hard, just let him wiggle.”