Chapter 7: Gary

At the appointed hour, I went to the Jade Room and knocked. Hearing no answer, I tried the door. It opened, but when I looked in, I could see that the bed had been stripped. The place looked empty. Shrugging, I left, and headed to Moira's room, next door.

A knock there was immediately answered by Moira's "Yeah, come in. It's open."

When I opened the door, I saw Moira and Saralinda lying on the bed under a blanket. Judging by the pile of clothes on the dresser and the two toothbrushes on the vanity in the bathroom, I figured that Moira had moved Saralinda in with her. It probably made sense given that the Jade Room only had a single bed. Maybe Moira didn't want her to be alone. Or maybe there was more going on. It wasn't my place to speculate.

Moira's room always looked very comfy. She had incense and candles burning, and I could hear – maybe some Joy of Cooking? Moira really took her obscure acid rock seriously. She was naked, at least from the waist up, except for a crystal hanging on a cord around her neck. Saralinda had a blouse on, but the bit of her leg that stretched out from under the blanket was bare.

As far as I could tell, Saralinda looked okay – she didn't flinch from my sight, nor had she been crying. There wasn't that haunted look on her face – in fact, it looked like she'd been laughing. That was good.

"Hi Moira, Saralinda."

"Hi Gary," said Moira, "What's up?"

"Well, I've got to talk with Saralinda about some things," I told her, turning my focus to the younger woman. Her face showed some signs of concern, even when I smiled at her.

"Hey, girl – how are you doing with the seasickness? Is that patch working for you?"

"Um – I guess I'm doing alright. My mouth is a bit dry from it, I think. Moira got me some ginger ale, and that seems to help."

"And are you still feeling seasick – any remaining problems?"

"No – I guess I've been fine since, like, this morning when I woke up."

"Have you been able to eat anything?"

She shrugged. "Yeah – I had a banana muffin thing for breakfast, and Moira brought me a sandwich for lunch."

"Good," I assured her. "Most people adapt in a day or two. I'll talk to Jake about it, but it's probably best to just try leaving the patch on for now; it should be wearing off slowly over the next day or day-and-a-half. If you're still OK, then I think you're set. I hope you can join us in the dining room at 6:30 for dinner tonight."

I watched as Saralinda looked to Moira, who gave a shrug and raised her eyebrows, as if to say, 'It's up to you'. Finally, Saralinda turned back to me. "I'll see how I feel then, but I think I'll be up for dinner."

"Great."

Now I had to get to the heart of the matter.

"There's another thing I wanted to talk with you about," I said, lowering my voice a bit. I'd tried imaging how to bring this up a dozen times already, and I still didn't feel like I had a good plan. Oh well.

"How are you doing? I mean, are you okay being aboard Furthurmore? We're coming into Hawaii in a couple of days to refuel, and, well, I was wondering whether you'll be leaving us there..."

Saralinda suddenly looked frightened, and Moira took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

"You're very welcome to stay with us," I told her in as comforting a voice as possible. "And you don't need to make up your mind, right away, but..."

She interrupted me. "Um – if it's okay to stay – I don't want to ... I just want to..."

"Saralinda, Honey, I think what Gary's trying to say is that if you want to stay with us for a few weeks or a few months, or longer, you can do that. Nobody is trying to get rid of you," Moira told her softly.

Saralinda looked up at me. "I don't want to go back there. And I don't have anywhere else to go! And..." And her voice broke off as she looked at Moira.

"That's fine," I cut in as smoothly as possible. "I'm glad you'll be staying." I gave her a big, and hopefully reassuring smile. "We'll be in Hawaii on Thursday – probably stay there a day or three while we refuel. And then we're on to Fiji, which takes about a week or ten days more.