Chapter 33: Saralinda

I was bored. We'd been in Fiji for, like, three weeks – in cabins on the hillside for the first two, and back on Furthurmore for the third. Gary and Kate had been gone the whole time, off alone together, trying to figure out whether Kate was going to get her groove back, or whether she was going to bail. Without Gary, everything seemed – I don't know – aimless.

Malia was gone too. She'd stayed with me while we were in the cabins, but now she was a rather old freshman at the University of the South Pacific, taking classes in botany and biology and everything she'd need to save the endangered plants of Hawaii, and maybe the birds too.

And I was just bored.

Malia had tried to talk me to into joining her at the University. It was a cool idea, kind of. But Gary would have had to, like, pull even more strings to get me admitted than he'd had to pull for Malia. Especially since I didn't have the grades or the transcripts. Plus, he wasn't around to do that. And anyway, I wasn't at all sure I wanted to leave Moira. Or Gary.

Malia also knew what she wanted to do with her life. I didn't have a clue.

When Furthurmore had come back from maintenance, Moira decided that I should have my own room. There seemed to be a growing buzz that I was going to become a permanent member of the ship's company, and that I should move into the empty room. I didn't want to, but Moira showed me that not only was the room right next door to hers, there was a connecting door between them. She was not kicking me out, she stressed. We'd just have more space, and she'd have her closet back to herself. With that shopping trip on Maui, I now had things to fill my own closet ... But I'd finished moving in, and everything was already in its place.

I had no idea what day of the week it was, nor how much longer Gary and Kate were going to be gone, nor where Moira was. She was off-ship somewhere with Joanne, and she hadn't even asked me if I wanted to come along. At least half the crew was off-ship, and I didn't know where any of them were, either. Some of the others were training in the dojo.

I went down to the galley, but I didn't really want more coffee, and it was after breakfast, and a long time until lunch. I grabbed a banana and watched Michelle look very busy cutting things up. Jake wasn't around.

"I think he's in Kate's office, trying to catch up on the work Kate isn't doing," said Michelle in a way that sounded like she was a bit pissed off at her. I continued to watch Michelle's incredibly quick hands chopping with that incredibly sharp-looking knife, while she continued to ignore me. I got the hint, said goodbye, and left.

Without any real intent, I went down below, and found myself at the door to Kate's office. Jake was looking frazzled. He'd picked up a stack of papers in one hand, and was pawing through the heap below, looking for something. He wasn't finding it. "Fuck," I heard him mutter.

"Knock knock," I said. The door had been open, so there wasn't really anything to knock on. Jake looked up at me, as if hoping he'd find his savior there, but it was just me. His shoulders drooped.

"Oh, hey, kiddo," he said. Ouch. I was twenty-four years old, and he wasn't exactly ancient. Maybe he caught my look. "What?" he said, sounding half concerned and half-defensive.

"I'm not a kid," I said, stepping inside. I didn't want to make a big deal of it though, so I asked him what he was doing.

"Oh ... sorry. " He sighed. "I'm trying to get the bank statement balanced, and I'm having trouble finding some of the receipts, and I don't know where Kate puts things, and I don't really know what I'm doing in the accounting program. And when I get this done, Gary wants me to run a report on his investments. And there are bills to be paid. And the tax guy in San Diego has his panties in a wad. And none of the crew has been paid this month yet, and Henri's getting a bit crusty about it ... Other than that, I'm just chillin'"

"Can I help?" I asked. I'd had an accounting course in high school, and had gotten an A...

"No. Yes. Maybe. I don't know ... I'm a fucking nurse, Saralinda. And my aikido black belts don't help me here either. Nor does my god-damned chauffeuring license."

He sounded like he was about to cry. There were papers heaped on all of the work surfaces, not even in piles. Just then, the fax machine started up, and as Jake and I watched, three pages slowly printed out, only to slip from the already-full tray and onto the floor.

"Is there, like, any order to this mess?" I asked him.

"Well, bills are over there, kind of," he said, gesturing to one side of the computer, " ... and receipts are over here. Except for those there," he added, pointing to some papers behind the monitor.

I picked up one page at random. "R&G Painting. Invoice #31004" It was stamped "Paid" in red at the bottom. The next paper said "Alki Delivery" at the top, and "Total Past Due: $542.57" at the bottom. It was not stamped "Paid".

"I think that one is paid, though," said Jake. "It just isn't stamped."

"Do you know it's paid, she asked pointedly?" Mamma used to talk like that sometimes. I smiled as Jake squirmed.

"Okay, Jake. Out. Swim, or go to the dojo, or join Ingrid in the hot tub, or help Michelle chop veggies. I'm going to sort papers. Just sort. I won't actually do anything, so I can't, like, screw anything up. Okay?" I smiled as sweetly as I could. Jake practically ran out of the room, but not before making me promise, one more time, that I wouldn't do anything, and then thanking me, like, ten times.