After the Storm (17 page)

She arrived at the post office and there was no sign of Anna. She watched as a long limousine drove up and parked in front of the building. The driver got out from his seat and opened the door and Barbara Carter got out. She saw Kim and waved to her. Kim waved back noticing how Barbara’s peach linen dress hung perfectly from her slim frame.

‘How nice to see you, Kimberly. Now I’m hoping something rather special I’ve bought for Gideon has arrived and is still in one piece. I asked them to send it here because it’s a surprise gift.’

‘Is it his birthday?’

‘It’s our wedding anniversary, twenty years…’

‘Well many congratulations to you both.’

‘Thank you. I’m having a party to celebrate, in four days’ time at our villa. I do hope you and Owen can come?’

Kim flushed with pleasure.

‘We’d love to. Thanks so much. So what did you get him?’

‘I found the most exquisite porcelain figure, for his study. It’s china gifts for twenty years you know. You will keep my secret, won’t you?’

Barbara Carter smiled conspiratorially and walked into the post office.

Anna arrived five minutes later.

‘Did you get the tickets?’ Kim asked.

‘Yes thanks; got us onto a connecting flight.’

‘Owen and I just got invited to a fancy party, by Barbara Carter.’

‘The woman at the hog roast?’

‘Yeah, and I’m gonna need to buy a dress for it.’

‘I’ll help you choose one.’

‘Great. But not here.’

They walked up Main Street and Anna saw a large handicraft shop and made a move to go in.

‘I want to get something quickly, can you wait?’

Anna stepped into the shop. It was full of locally made artefacts: carved wooden bowls, hand-thrown pottery and brightly coloured blankets. She spotted a picture frame which had a mosaic pattern around its edge in a vibrant blue, similar to the colour Kim had liked so much in the photo-spread. Anna picked up the frame and looked at it more closely. It was more expensive than some of the other picture frames. She bought it and the shop assistant wrapped it in tissue paper. She came out of the shop and handed the package to Kimberly.

‘To replace the frame I broke,’ she said.

Kim unwrapped the paper and took the frame out.

‘Aww, it’s real pretty.’

‘I know you like that shade of blue.’

‘I do. Well thank you kindly. You shouldn’t have,’ she said.

They headed off to find a café.

It was early evening when Cesar dropped Owen and Rob off near the pontoon. They were both mildly drunk. They had spent the day going from bar to bar in West Bay and then West End, the area of the island with the spectacular beaches. This was where the cruise ships brought in large numbers of day trippers and where the bars charged tourist prices. They had been offered drinks while making their sales and had hardly eaten all day. Anna and Kim were sitting in the cockpit and Anna was rubbing after-sun lotion onto her arms and shoulders.

‘Hey. So did you guys make a good profit?’ Kim said.

‘Oh yeah, we both did fine,’ Owen said grinning over at Rob who shot him a quick warning look. He had been feeling guilty because he hadn’t told Anna he had used their ‘escape money’ as she called it. Kim now shot Owen a look too and the atmosphere in the cockpit became tense. Anna realised that the three of them were in on something that she knew nothing about. She felt left out, angry and hurt. She couldn’t bear to go on sitting with them for a minute longer. She put her bottle of lotion in her bag, stood up and said curtly:

‘I’m going for a walk.’

She stepped off the boat and charged along the pontoon. Rob followed her. When they were out of earshot she turned to him.

‘What was that profit comment all about?’

‘I should have told you,’ he said.

‘Told me what?’

‘I bought five of those cases of booze when we were in Belize. Owen said we could make a good profit by selling it to the bars down here. And we did.’

‘So why didn’t you tell me?’

‘I used our escape money and I thought you’d disapprove. I’m sorry.’

‘You know the thing I really hate is you having secrets with
them
and keeping
me
in the dark.’

Rob took a half step back. Anna was right to be angry about him not telling her, but as it happened it had increased their pot of money substantially. And it hadn’t been illegal.

‘I said I’m sorry. Don’t go giving me the third degree,’ he said.

‘Can’t you see how we just do what they want us to do all the time?’

‘That’s not true.’

‘It took us ten days to get here, Rob. Ten days of our holiday.’

‘So what? We had the best time getting here. Why do you have to be so difficult about it?’

‘Oh go back to your precious friends. I want to be on my own.’

She strode away from him as fast as she could. She did not know where she was headed but her anger buoyed her up. After she’d been racing along for a while she decided she would go to Vivienne’s Bar.

Rob let her go with a heavy heart. He thought she had started to relax into their life on the boat. He thought she had grown closer to Owen too and had started to like and trust him. He had even wondered if she was attracted to him. Owen was the kind of man that women found attractive: tall, strong, practical, a man of few words who had an air of mystery about him. He knew that Anna still felt a bit awkward around Kim, but they’d been getting on so well the last few days. He felt mildly attracted to Kim himself and wondered now if Anna’s resistance to her had an element of female rivalry to it. The two women had such different approaches to life. Anna was physically afraid of so many things although, paradoxically, she was strong emotionally and would face up to difficult personal situations. She was afraid of flying, of drowning, of cockroaches, of walking under a scaffold. Kim was less afraid of the world. He found himself increasingly admiring her courage. He liked the way she could gut a fish and cook a good meal even in choppy waters. She was resourceful and made the best of things. When they ran out of stuff she improvised to make life as comfortable as possible for them on the boat. Rob watched Anna’s retreating figure. She was headed towards the centre of French Harbour. He walked back to the boat slowly.

‘I landed you in it, didn’t I?’ Owen said.

Rob nodded glumly.

‘Sorry buddy.’

Kim brought up two bottles of beer and handed one to Rob and then one to Owen.

‘I saw Barbara Carter in Coxen Hole today and we’re invited to a swanky do at their house in four days’ time. They’ve been married twenty years and…’

‘Do we have to go?’ Owen said.

‘Of course we do. I always wanted to see inside their house. And I’ll need to buy a new dress.’

Owen rolled his eyes.

‘There goes my small profit,’ he said.

‘You beast, when did I last buy a new dress?’

Kim went back down into the saloon. Anna had over-reacted and her sympathies were with Rob. Jeez he had sold the liquor to make them some money. What was the problem here? Anna could be uptight sometimes. She rummaged in her make-up bag and took out her nail polish and her tweezers. Now they were going to be on Roatán for a while she wanted to spruce herself up. She painted her toenails a bright glossy orange and plucked her eyebrows as her toenails dried.

In the cockpit Rob and Owen were drinking their beers.

‘I love Anna more than anyone, but she has this strong thing about telling the truth. And I guess I grew up not thinking it mattered that much.’

‘I’m with you there.’

‘She has an uptight dad you see, and even though she’s not close to him she’s taken on his attitudes.’

‘She told me about her granddad.’

‘Oh yes, he was a good bloke and a much easier man than her father. She was inconsolable when he died. I don’t like her father if I’m honest. You know one of the most difficult conversations I ever had was when I had to tell her I’d done time in a Young Offenders’ Centre. I was scared she was going to dump me.’

‘What happened? Wait. I’ll get us another beer.’

Rob told Owen his story. After his hated stepfather arrived in his life Rob had become a troubled kid. When his mum got pregnant with his half-sister, Elliot had moved them out of the commune and into a flat. Rob was ten at the time and had only ever known life in the commune which was like being part of a large extended family.

‘So now it was just the four of us, after Savannah was born, and Elliot was a devious prick from the start. He acted all reasonable towards me in front of mum, but when we were alone he was always digging at me and accusing me of stuff. He would call me a loser. I got into the habit of going back to the commune and staying with my mates. I only came home when Elliot was away on tour with his band.’

‘How did your mom take that?’

‘Mum is a very feminine woman and she needs to have a man around. She said I shouldn’t try to break her and Elliot up; that she had plenty of love to go round. I knew she’d never leave him.’

Rob swigged at his beer.

‘I smoked weed at the commune, we all did, but none of us were dealers. Then someone tipped off the police that there were drugs there.’

‘Yeah?’

Rob nodded.

‘I’m sure it was Elliot. The cops did an early morning raid and they found some stuff. When they tried to search my rucksack I struck out at two of them. That’s what got me into trouble, my fighting them. I punched one in the face. Well, I was an angry kid. They found a few ounces of weed in my rucksack and I was sent down.’

Owen went below and got them two more beers. Rob was breaking his own rule, but it was cathartic to tell Owen what had happened all those years ago and he knew Owen wouldn’t judge him.

‘My mum was beside herself when I was sent there. She came to see me, on her own, and said it meant I had a record now and it would affect me for the rest of my life.’

‘Tough rap buddy.’

‘Yes. So I told her it was Elliot who got me sent there, that he was the one who had shopped us. She didn’t believe me. She was crying and trying to convince me I’d got it all wrong. I told her she never saw the real Elliot and he had
always
wanted me out of the way. I never lived at home again so I guess he won.’

‘I would have hit the bastard,’ Owen said.

‘I wanted to, very much, but that would have backed up his story that I was a delinquent kid and out of control. My mates at the commune stuck by me and they’re the guys I set up the brewery with.’

‘And Anna didn’t dump you did she?’

‘No, she didn’t. I told her the whole story and she took my side, bless her. She said she could tell Elliot was a liar. You know I ought to go look for her. It’s been a while.’

‘I reckon she’s gone to Vivienne’s Bar,’ Owen said.

Anna was getting steadily drunker. When she’d arrived at the bar she had bought a bottle of red wine, found herself a corner table and taken out her notebook. She had written a lot of her anger against Rob out of her system. The bar wasn’t as busy as the last time and she was oblivious to any looks she was getting as she sat there drinking and writing. After a while she noticed that her writing was getting uneven and she closed her notebook.

Vivienne had recognised Anna as Kim’s friend and she was keeping an eye on her. She was a pretty young woman and she was alone and getting drunk. It was a dangerous combination in this place. She saw a couple of men looking over at Anna and one of them she knew to be predatory. A while later she saw this man walk over to Anna’s table and speak to her. Was he offering to buy her a drink? Anna looked up at the man and shook her head vigorously. The man slouched back to his table. Vivienne waited a moment and then joined Anna at her table.

‘You all right
cherie
?’

Anna was drunk and had lost her inhibitions.

‘Not really no; I had a row with Rob, a bad row.’

‘Was it so bad?’

‘Yes I think it was. They were all in on this deal to sell the booze. And I knew nothing about it. It made me feel awful and I had to get away from them.’

‘They’re on the boat?’

‘Yes. The three of them. This holiday was going to be our great treat, but it’s not worked out like that.’

‘You all seemed so sympatico the other night.’

‘Rob was very keen to go on the boat, but I didn’t want to.’

‘Why not?’

‘I was worried about living up close with two strangers. I’m not good with new things. Rob is. He always fits in so easily. And I’ve been useless on the boat, clumsy and scared and no help to man or beast.’

‘I’m sure that’s not true.’

‘Oh it is. I’ve found it difficult.’

‘Well I find nothing ever comes off except buttons,’ Vivienne said.

‘What a funny saying.’

Vivienne’s smile broadened.

‘I suppose it is. My grandmother used to say that to me a lot.’

‘
Nothing ever comes off except buttons
. I must remember that,’ Anna said.

‘Have you two been together long?’

‘Five years. And I hate fighting with him.’

It was comforting to talk to Vivienne. She had such kind brown eyes and a way of listening that felt truly sympathetic.

‘I’m being awfully self-pitying, aren’t I?’

Vivienne patted her hand.

‘We all have our insecurities,’ she said.

The combined effect of Vivienne’s kindness and drinking a bottle of red wine made Anna start to cry.

Rob came into the bar. He saw Anna sitting with Vivienne and as he approached the table he could see she was very drunk and in tears. The moment she saw him she stumbled to her feet and fell into his arms. He nodded to Vivienne and helped walk Anna back to the boat and put her to bed.

Now that they were at a busy mooring Owen had tried to sleep next to Kimmie on the berth in the saloon. It was no good; he had been restless all night. He got up, trying not to disturb her, took his hat and a bottle of water and went up on deck. All the other boats were silent, shrouded in sleep. He sat and watched the sun come up. This was the morning he had arranged with Money Joe to deliver the package from Raul. Money Joe lived at Sandy Bay on the west of the island. He went back down to the saloon and looked at Kimmie lying curled and peacefully asleep. The night before he had taken the package from the back berth and put it into his rucksack. It was important she know nothing about this. She murmured sleepily as he kissed her and said he was going out. He walked for an hour through the cool of the morning and caught a bus to Sandy Bay.