Chapter 20: Petetra

Abba

"Petetra, Petetra," the two chorused, dancing about and making me scared that they would run off the paved area and straight into the water. I really did think that they were going mad. Sarita just looked on, using that bored sort of expression she sometimes adopted when looking at me. Was she saying to herself, 'children will be children'?

I had seen Petra, pleased she had been taken shopping and revelling in the new clothes that had been thrust away into bags. Peter was a different kettle of fish. He was far more serious and I know that Sarita was concerned about his hand which, temporarily, had a bandage wrapped around it. He had displayed that he understood many of the ramifications of the impact of this bloody plague stuff. The utter joy with which he shouted and screamed made me see him for what he was; a little boy whose emotions could rise and fall at the drop of a hat.

"We're all going on a can-al holiday!" the pair chanted in high voices. There were reminiscences of an ancient pop song; 'We're all going on a Summer Holiday', that I had heard on Gramm's turntable. They alternated this with shouting, "Petetra, Petetra, Petetra," as they dived towards the canal.

I thought they'd fall in and I broke into a run but one metre from the edge of the water they skidded to a halt and looked around for us to follow. Hopping up and down on one leg and looking behind themselves, they tried to draw attention to somebody else. I thought it was a person.

"It's Petetra." Have you ever tried to understand screaming and excited children who speak in 'childese'. Apart from anything else, their high-pitched screaming made it impossible to work out exactly what the words were. It was quite clear they had made an automatic assumption that somebody called Petetra was coming too.

I was looking around for another child and my heart was dropping. Please, not another one to foster! I had already seen the reaction of both of my companions when I initially brought Victoria on board. Sarita's face had dropped when I had arrived in the store, a child in each hand. And there was Kari to face yet.

Peter came back and pulled me by the hand, "It's Petetra." He spoke seriously but with more than a hint of Petra's excitement in his tone.

I must admit he had to direct my attention to the long vessel moored just up the towpath. It was with relief that I saw 'Petetra', was inscribed in colourful rainbow writing on its bow.

"Yes," I uttered, "we're going on a canal boat trip but we have our own canal boat. I'll go up and have it brought down to load up with your clothes and those sponge puddings. It's a half a mile away."

"Can I get my toys and books please?" Peter asked in a staid fashion.

I had never asked if he had any more toys other than in his mother's bedroom. I suppose we could go back to the terraced house. I fervently hoped that his toys were kept in an outhouse and I shouldn't have to step inside the door once more.

"Silly," that was Petra, "no one can get on our canal boat. Daddy had that lock put in that no one can get past." She was standing there, adopting a mock 'severe mother' look.

So that's how they do it? They must train girls from an early age. I never knew, not having had sisters.

Peter said nothing for a second, then, "I can," he announced firmly.

Me, I was only just catching up with the look of Petra before I recalled something about their canal boat. Already they were carrying on a conversation as if I knew what they were talking about. They assumed that I knew that their canal boat was moored here and, on it, were their toys. I was just appreciating the fact that it was locked up when Petra insisted that it was impossible to break in, "Of course you can't, no-one can."

By this time, I just about caught up to what was happening. I saw that look on Peter's face; it said it all. I did not want to be the one to deny him, "Peter, if you can get in you can have your toys but we don't have a key." I was dreading the idea of returning to their house and searching for a tiny key. It could be anywhere. I refused to consider it. Poor Peter. Ah, we have the secret weapon; Kari. "Perhaps we can break the lock?"

"My Daddy was a lockersmith. He said no one would ever EVER get in our boat. It's special and the doors are reforced because we have vandal things around here. I don't know what they are but they get in every other boat but not ours."

I must admit that I had to follow him carefully and make sense of words like 'lockersmith' and work out that his 'reforced' meant reinforced.

And if I weren't sure what vandals were, Petra officiously put me right, "They're nasty robbers who break things."

I realised, with a despondent heart, that he would be disappointed but I had to give him a chance to open the door. With his unimpaired hand, he pulled me towards the craft with patches of bright rainbow paint on it.

He opened his arms to me and indicated that he be swung on board, not at the stern but onto the bow deck, which was more difficult for the youngster to reach from the towpath.

"Careful with your hand," I entreated, and hefted him over from the quayside to stand on a small seat that backed on to the side of the vessel. The design here was different from that of Traveller. The deck level was much lower and appeared to be at the same height as the cabin floor. He jumped down onto the deck and crouched down. I followed him over.

He was standing near the bow doors to the cabin and already had eased off what I thought was a plastic cover of a light.

"Daddy was a lockersmith," his voice echoed with pride. "He showed me."

Exposed, was a circular panel and with his good right hand, he punched a green 'ENTER' key, the six digits of what I later discovered to be his date of birth and then pressed a maroon coloured key. "Can you turn it?"

The whole lamp mechanism twisted round and kept on twisting. Later, I was to discover the process was retracting a metal bar on a ratchet.

"Vandal things get in other boats but they'll never get in Petetra," Peter repeated with the undoubted pride that his father had averred, using the same expression, well almost.

Suddenly there was a "Click" and like a rocket the little boy was down through the open door, not bothering with a light, flying through the darkened vessel. A minute later, I heard a diesel engine start up and the boy was back diving to the doorway, a yellow life jacket was half on as he held his injured hand across his front for protection. In his other hand, he carried a second jacket for his sister.

He turned his back to me to ask me and asked me to fasten the strings. I signalled to Sarita that I'd go and fetch our vessel while he and his sister found their toys. "When you're finished supervising the children perhaps you and Sandra can start piling our stuff on the quayside."

The children hardly noticed my disappearance. Sarita was supervising them and Sandra, ignoring the supplies, was gobsmacked and wanted to get on board and look around the canal boat, the first one she'd ever been near. I suppose she was like me, never having lived near the canal because she came from the far side of town.

The last I heard was Peter. I could almost imagine him sitting near listening to his father as he expounded proudly on their own canal boat, " ... and it's just over sixty feet in length with an outboard beam of just in excess of six feet, one inch. The interior width is..."

From what I could assess, Traveller was probably within walking distance. The stroll along the towpath took a good ten minutes in the brisk winter's day. I called out as I neared the berth and Kari appeared, crossbow in her hand. She looked sleepy and I was sorry to see I'd awoken her but was amazed. It was already two o'clock. Had we been gone that long?

"We're off further downstream to find a better place to load our goodies. Off you go, get dressed and put the kettle on. It's a something 'au gratin' for lunch, a pre-packed dinner."

She yawned.

I popped in to see Victoria who was overjoyed at my return. Naturally there was no alternative but to sit down and chat for a few minutes. I drank the cup of coffee thrust in my hand until Kari ambled in, "I got the impression you were in a hurry to get off?"

"Not got any drugs yet, got to go back for them," I answered. There was time enough for her to see the increase in the size of the crew.

Quickly I took in the forrard mooring rope and went to the stern to start the main engine.

It was not long after, I gave a burst to the bow thruster to get her pointed midstream. Oh yes, we'd found out what the other switches were for now. I put the main engine ahead at slow speed, then half ahead.

I'd not thought I'd been long but as we drew into view they were now busy loading Petetra!

As I eased alongside they had me moored alongside the children's vessel as there were no unoccupied berths around here.

It was Sandra who enlightened me, "Sarita told me to tell you, that you need both boats. The children have everything set up for them to sleep here and you need the extra room to carry all that you've got and what you're going to bring next."

Sarita emerged onto the rear cockpit of Petetra. "I'm going to see Victoria. Can you finish loading up? All my medics' stuff needs to be on the original boat. Most of the food and stuff can go on here." With that she was off, stepping onto Traveller, even as Kari was just finishing mooring the two together.

For a few moments I considered this and started to work out the repercussions of taking two vessels. Had Sarita carefully considered the logistics of running two at night? It was going to be very demanding; three of us taking two vessels through locks was something she hadn't thought about. As far as I could see, Kari would be captain of one vessel and there was no alternative but for me to pilot the second. So Sarita was going to have the job of running around opening sluices and pushing open and closed the lock gates. It was her choice so she would see what a balls-up she'd made of making decisions off her own bat* without consulting others. How she was going to manage that with her duties, including looking after Victoria, I wasn't quite sure. I reckoned after the first day we would all be squeezing back onto one vessel.

Quickly, I worked out the logistics of loading the stores; anything for the twins went into their vessel. I included most of the food in that. All for the three adults and Victoria was dropped into the old vessel. Most of the long-term storage that we didn't need straightaway should be going into Petetra. This included the bulk quantities of medical supplies, all the fridges and freezers containing their food and most of the cans and packets of food that we had brought from Marks & Spencer's. Two of the bulky warm-suits were put on one vessel and two in the wet room of the other. The same with the night-vision equipment.

All the medical supplies which were either for emergencies or going to be used for Peter or Victoria were put into the saloon for Sarita to sort.

Petetra had two sleeping cabins. There was one with a double bed and then the twins' cabin with bunk beds. I think that there were facilities for extra bunk beds in there but I was too busy carrying parcels, bags and packets to look very closely.

In my own mind, was the fact that the twins could sleep on their vessel. They would be happier on their own boat. Of course they would have to be supervised. Kari would have to do that or me I suppose? Mmmm, there was a second master bedroom with a double bed; I had a good idea who would be sleeping there.

Time to concentrate on the loading of the vessels. I didn't want to move Victoria because there were a lot of medical things already in and around her cabin and she was settled in the room where she was. Obviously Sarita would have to be in the same vessel. I was slightly annoyed that Sarita had made this decision and asked myself if she had considered where she would sleep with me if the situation arose.

Why did I feel guilty? I caught a glimpse of Sarita as she gave me a look that could only be described as smouldering and anticipatory. I had a good idea that there would be no choice but to be spending time with her. No, it was something to look forward to. I still felt guilty. Two girlfriends! The idea certainly didn't rest easy. The only students I knew at College who had had two girlfriends were stringing one along.

I was trying to work out the logistics here, and concentrated my mind to ignore such problems; I think we were used to the galley in the original vessel so we would probably continue to cook there mostly. When the saloon was not being used, we would probably make it up into a dining area which five of us could share. Later, when she was more active, Victoria could join us in there, without her having to transfer between vessels.

Sarita emerged, coming up into the saloon just as I was dropping my bag of clothes there. She appeared to be cross with me, "You never told me how much you were getting. There's no other choice but we are going to have to use both boats."

I've never seen someone move so quickly. Kari took hold of her by the shoulder of her jacket and yanked her across to her vessel. I knew I'd better keep away. There were no voices raised. The twins never noticed but Sandra was wary of Kari, "Who's that woman? I'm scared." She could hardly believe that we had chosen to be with such a scary character.

I couldn't stop giggling. The one I was scared of, if either of them, was Sarita. Of course, I never suggested anything like that to Sandra.

Sandra and I continued to bring stuff out of the large van. I'd never known that so much had come from the hospital stores. When it was obvious that we had extras like two dozen sheets, they went into Petetra, as did most of the spare sets of scrubs or washable protective clothing for a doctor or nurse.

On the emergence of my two friends, Sandra retired briefly. Before I could defuse the situation, Kari spoke, "Sarita wants to ask you something. I'm not having her go off at you like that again. She does it too much. Did you know that she's commandeered a second boat? I love her so much but she just doesn't respect you. If she does that again, I'm not going to let her sleep with you."

I must admit that I agreed with the lot of what Kari said except for one thing; it was bad enough having Sarita telling me what to do but there was only one response I could make, "Don't you think I'm old enough to decide who I want to sleep with? Perhaps I don't want to be taken for granted by either Sarita or yourself. Perhaps I don't want to sleep with either of you, the way you're behaving."

My temper was just started to boil up and overflow. Eh, I have an excuse, everybody was stressed out and I was too. Didn't Kari see that she was doing exactly what Sarita had been doing? "You will never try to tell me if I can or cannot sleep with one of my girlfriends. You're behaving just like Sarita." I stomped off angrily.

That certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons. A second later, I wished I had not spoken so harshly.

Of course, I couldn't win. No man could, not against two weeping women under whom he was immediately submerged, both offering abject apologies.

What did surprise me was that they both acknowledged they'd, each of them, been in the wrong. I didn't need to say anything else to make my point. I gave each a kiss and a pat on her behind. It surprised me because I thought that little tap was a very chauvinistic thing to do but Kari threw a grin over her shoulder and it made her realise she was forgiven.

Sarita insisted on staying, "I'm sorry, it was my fault. I just kept seeing more of things that I might be able to use. And I went mad with the stuff in the stores. I'll take back all the clothes to Marks & Spencer's." Finally she asked, "Shall we squeeze into the first boat? Or the children's boat might be better? What do you think? I'll carry everything from one boat and put it into the boat we want to take. I'll do it on my own."

I could see that she really did accept that she ought to have asked me first and was prepared to give up the second boat if that's what I wanted.

I glared at her, not letting on that I had had time to consider the idea of taking two. In retrospect, I thought that she had not made too bad a decision. But I wasn't prepared to let her escape without taking some responsibility for her actions, "You will find it very difficult running about when we make our way up and down locks. When we do, I don't want to hear you complaining. You will be opening and closing sluices and lock gates after both vessels of gone through and then biking up to the next set of lock gates to prepare them for the first vessel to arrive so you can cycle that one through. Understand?"

I felt very sorry for her as she was considering the ramifications of that. But a few seconds later, I noticed, by the way she responded, that she was grateful that she had been given a penance. In reality, I knew that we would sort something out but she really should have considered the full ramifications of her decision. She should have asked me first.

"Yes, Abba," her response was very compliant before she asked me, "When I've had a look at Peter's fingers do you think I should arrange for Jessica to look after him, him and Petra? They do live here after all."

"Sarita, I'm perfectly happy with having them along but there are three people to consider in making such important decisions. Would you please go and introduce Petra and Peter to Kari. Ask her what she thinks. If she wants to talk it out with me, that's all right. I do think that you went off at the deep end, making too many decisions that affect other people apart from yourself. And another thing; you have as good as promised those kids a canal holiday and loaded up their vessel. What would you tell them now if they were to stay here? Could you really do that to them?"

That gave her some food for thought.

I still continued loading the items designated for the original canal boat. It wasn't long before Kari came up to me. Sarita was hanging about in the background, "What is it with these twins? Why should we take them with us?"

"They've been in their house a week where their mother had died. The place smelled to high heaven. They've hardly had anything to eat. Sarita has to look at Peter's hand and give it a couple of stitches. I found the pair of them and took them to Sarita to get some clothes and so she could put a couple of stitches in that cut."

"She's hardly looked at his hand."

"Well, you will have to ask her about that."

"And are they coming with us?"

"Kari, that is for you to decide."

"How do you feel?"

I had to consider my answer. "I was a bit put out when Sarita assumed that they were coming with us. But I have no idea what would happen to them if we left them here. I know I'd like to look after them but it can only be done with your help."

I tried to find the right words to express myself. "If they come with us, they are little people, and will need care and help. I can't help them without Sarita's help. And if she or I is helping them, we can't be devoting our time to you. If they come, even if you have nothing to do with them, their very presence will affect the relationship between all three of us. If you have any reservations then say so. If they do come, there may be times we may ask for your help in bringing them up. If you are finding that difficult, then the only answer is to leave without them."

"There's Victoria?"

I raised my eyebrows, "Yes, I brought her to you without asking either of you. And I make no apology about her. I'd have looked after her and risked losing you, either of you."

She didn't answer but threw herself into my arms. There was no need for one word to be spoken. I found a lot of problems were resolved like that. There were tears as she repeated, "They've no mum or dad?"

This problem was not yet wholly sorted out as I explained, "As far as I'm concerned, the most important part of our relationship is Sarita and me and you. If you have the slightest reservation I think we can ask a policewoman here, called Jessica, to look after them. After all they are in her town."

"They are sweet little things."

"They are endearing, I know but with tantrums, mopping up vomit, preparing all their food, washing their clothes, teaching them to read, correcting their naughtiness, coping with their adolescence, they are going to be a lot of hard work. And you'd have to be dedicated to looking after them. I'm not sure that a hasty decision made in five minutes is preparing any of us for all that."

"Abba, you're trying to make me think again." Kari shook her head, "I have not known you for long but there's no way you really want to give up either of those two. I can see why and given the circumstances that you found them in, we don't have any choice, do we? There's a right and a wrong. Sometimes it's not easy but in this case it is, isn't it? Can I just say that I want to help too? I think we'll all find it rewarding but judging from what my mum used to say there will obviously be second thoughts now and again and yes, it will be hard work. But," she spoke resentfully, "I'll never desert them like my mum did."

There was a look on her face at the moment that I'd never seen before. I hope I never see it again; it was a vague emptiness and absolute loneliness. I had no choice but to take her in my arms and I hugged her deeply.