Smooth Sailing (18 page)

“A winch.”

“Right. This?” She reached behind her head.

“The…wait…I know this.” Laurie bit her lip, thinking. “The vang?”

“No. Try again.”

“Darn it, it was one of the first things you taught me.”

“Want a hint?”

“Sure.”

“It’s what I wish you could do.”

Frowning, Laurie thought, quietly saying, “What you wish I could…” Her face lit in a sad smile. “Stay. I wish I could too. I really do.”

*

To thank them for their hospitality, Laurie offered to take Kaatje and her parents out for a nice dinner. Kaatje wasn’t crazy about the idea, but she admitted her parents would appreciate it, and she called with the proposal. After speaking for a few minutes, in Dutch, she hung up. “Bad news.”

“They can’t make it?”

“No,” Kaatje said, pouting. “They can.”

*

Laurie didn’t have any clothes to wear to a nice restaurant, so she convinced Kaatje to take her shopping. Kaatje swore she hated shopping for clothes, but she was very helpful, looking Laurie over and suggesting different colors and styles she thought would suit her. It took an hour, but they were successful.

When they reached the Hoogebooms’, neither Theo nor Antonia were home yet, and they went into Kaatje’s room to change.

“Do you stay here often?”

“Never. My mother calls this my room, but it’s really the guest room.”

“Never? Not ever?”

“Well, I lived here when we first moved to the island, but I haven’t slept here in a long time.”

“Do you just like being independent or…?”

“I live on my boat. It’s my home. Why would I sleep somewhere else?”

There was clearly more to it than that, but it didn’t seem that Kaatje was in the mood to expound.

“What did you do when you first came to the island?”

“Oh, it was a hard road,” Kaatje said, frowning.

It was hard to decide how much veracity to put into Kaatje’s pronouncements about work. She wouldn’t last a week at Luxor, and that was being generous.

“I worked on a series of boats, doing all kinds of scut work. It took me five years to get to where I felt confident owning my own boat, then another two until I’d saved enough to make a down payment and qualify for a loan. But I’m glad I took my time. I made most of my mistakes on other guys’ boats.”

Laurie grinned at the dry way she put things, then started to remove the tags from her dress.

“My mom likes you,” Kaatje said, making Laurie do a double-take.

“Where’d that come from?”

“I was just thinking about when I brought you here that first morning.”

“How do you know she likes me? Have you talked to her? You haven’t had a spare minute.” She tried to waggle her eyebrows, but was largely unsuccessful.

“No, I haven’t spoken with her. But she made you breakfast, and that’s not like her.”

Puzzled, Laurie looked at her blankly.

“I think this is a cultural difference. It’s one of the things West Indians will never understand.”

“Dutch people don’t eat breakfast?”

“No, we do, but we have to know you to welcome you into our homes. Did you think my dad was very friendly?”

“Uhm…” She looked around the room, acting interested in the books on the shelves over the desk. “Did you ask me a question?”

“Right. He might have seemed distant, but that’s pretty common. My mom has loosened up since we’ve been here, but my dad thinks it’s peculiar to have strangers over for more than coffee.”

“Interesting. If I told my mom I had a friend passing through Ohio she’d tell me to have you stop by and spend the night if you were gonna be within a hundred miles.”

“That’s not very common in Holland. We take it slow. First we have coffee, then you have us to your place for coffee. Then we’d have you over for dinner if those coffee dates went well.”

“My mom has the mailman come in for cocoa when it’s really cold out. For all she knows, he’s a serial killer.”

“That’s not the Dutch way. At least that’s not how my parents are. I’m more like a West Indian. I offered you a place to stay when I’d only known you for a couple of hours.” She wore an angelically innocent expression that had Laurie giggling.

“Yeah, but I had to take my pants off first.”

“Only for your comfort. You were comfortable, weren’t you?”

Laurie sat down next to her and kissed her firmly. “Remarkably.”

*

Theo drove them to a restaurant on the French side of the island. Other than many French language signs, it didn’t look much different to Laurie. After they passed a large swath of undeveloped land, they went along a stretch of road lined by houses held together with nothing but hope. The brown dogs were everywhere and most of the residents were on the street corner or on their ramshackle porches. Men congregated in cliques, and everyone was holding a beer. The women and small children sat on kitchen chairs or sofas left in the yards. It was as poor a neighborhood as Laurie had ever seen—making the least advantaged parts of LA look prosperous.

She wanted to ask about the stunning poverty, but she didn’t know how to frame the question. Maybe this was common in the Caribbean. But if so, why? And why didn’t anyone do anything about it?

The neighborhoods slowly improved, and they passed two and three story apartment buildings and tidier single-family homes. They were close to the ocean, but only caught brief glimpses of it between buildings. Laurie was still thinking about the island when Theo squealed to a halt next to a parking place on a very narrow street. Antonia and Kaatje exclaimed something in Dutch. Evidently, finding the spot was some sort of accomplishment.

The restaurant was open-air, but it was a big step up from the lo-lo, with white tablecloths, a French speaking maitre d’, and an upscale crowd. After they were settled at a nice table overlooking the ocean, the Francophone server left to get their drinks. “It’s very nice of you to take us to dinner,” Antonia said. “But it’s not necessary. We only let you use our computer for a few hours.”

“You saved me a huge phone bill,” Laurie insisted. “International roaming costs an arm and a leg.”

“We were surprised to see you’re still visiting,” Theo said, looking at Laurie with eyes that reminded her of Kaatje’s.” I thought you were in a hurry to get to St. Thomas.”

“I was.” Laurie couldn’t help but spare a fond glance at Kaatje. “But Kaatje is such a good hostess, I couldn’t make myself go.”

“What was the situation? You were on a ship?”

“Yes.” The server brought their drinks and Laurie took a sip. “I was on a cruise and missed the boat because I…told Kaatje the wrong time.”

Frowning, Theo said, “That wasn’t very wise. What about your traveling companions?”

“I didn’t have any.” At his puzzled look she said, “I work for the company that owns the boat. My boss sent me on a cruise to get me out of the office for a while.”

Theo looked at Kaatje and said something in Dutch.

“No,” Kaatje said, chuckling. “You understood her correctly. Laurie doesn’t like to take vacations.”

“I don’t either,” Theo said, still looking stern. “You leave for a week and you worry about the office while you’re gone, then you have to do twice as much work when you get back.”

“Exactly!” Laurie sensed a kindred soul.

“Theo likes to go into work on holidays,” Antonia said, raising an eyebrow at him. “He says that’s the best day to catch up.”

“I’m with you on that. Even the cleaning crew doesn’t come in on holidays.”

“We have altogether too many holidays on this island. Everyone who’s done anything to merit an entry in the history books has a holiday named for him. It’s ridiculous. Do you have any idea how many lost man-hours we suffer from each of these so-called holidays?”

“I can imagine,” Laurie said, while Kaatje and her mother exchanged weary looks.

“Tell me more about your job. You must have an important position if your company sends you on a cruise.”

“She’s very important,” Kaatje said, smiling at Laurie. “I’m surprised they’re still in business after having her gone for just a few days.”

“What is your title?” Theo persisted.

“I’m a vice president,” Laurie said, “but they throw titles around instead of money.”

“But you’re going to be promoted,” Kaatje prompted.

“Yes, I should be promoted to senior VP in a month or two.”

“How old are you?” Theo asked.

“I’m thirty-one.”

He pushed his steel-framed glasses up on his nose and nodded solemnly. “That’s remarkable for such a young woman. I’d like it if Kaatje got her first steady job by the time she was your age.”

“How old are you?” Laurie asked, having never thought to bring it up.

“Twenty-eight. Well, twenty-eight in May.”

“I thought you were at least my age,” Laurie said, then she backtracked quickly. “Not that you look older than you are, but…”

“I’ve always looked older than I am.”

“Tell us about your job,” Theo said, ignoring all of the cross talk. “What division are you in?”

Laurie reluctantly pulled her attention away from Kaatje and said, “I’m in Theme Parks and Hotels. Ever since I started I’ve been working on our new park set to open in Osaka in June.”

Again Theo sat back in his chair, looking very surprised. “The earthquake hasn’t scrapped your plans?”

“No. It set us back a bit, but the government wants us to proceed with the original date. They think it will be a sign that Japan’s open for business.”

“Hmm,” Theo said, narrowing his eyes. “I’m not familiar with Osaka. Is that where you’re located?”

“No. I’m in Los Angeles, but I go to Osaka every other month.”

“I didn’t know that,” Kaatje said, frowning. “Every other month?”

“Yeah, that’s how it works out.”

“But that kind of travel is awfully tiring. You haven’t been exposed to any radiation, have you?”

“Travel is sitting in a chair,” Theo said, scowling at his daughter and completely ignoring the question of radiation exposure. “It’s a good time to catch up on things without interruption.” His stern gaze landed on Laurie. “Do you agree?”

She did. Intensely. The thought of having cell-phone service in the air made her break out in a rash. It would just force her to take calls when she could be getting real work done. But she didn’t care for his manner, and she ignored the question to get back to the original thread. “On the months I don’t go to Japan, my boss does. Ideally, one of us would be there full time, but we need to be in LA to deal with the corporate side of the company.” She made a face. “Accounting, finance, personnel, government regulations. All the fun stuff.”

“ You’re the second in command for the whole project?”

“Yes, for the operations side of it, that is. Other divisions are responsible for construction and ride design and a million other things.”

“But won’t you have to relocate there when the park opens?”

“Oh, no. I didn’t make myself clear. I’m in project management. My division does all of the planning and implementation for new parks and the remodeling and expansion of old ones. Once the park is operational the permanent staff takes over. I’ll have to be there for a month before and a few months after, but then I’ll move on to the next project.”
Maybe in a Florida location that’s awfully close to the Caribbean…

“Will that be out of the country again?”

That snapped her out of her daydream. “It’s impossible to know. I’ve worked on this project since the day I started with Luxor. If everything goes well, I might get to choose my next assignment. If not—I might be swabbing the decks of a cruise ship.”

Evidently, Theo didn’t share his daughter’s wry sense of humor. He kept probing, ignoring Laurie’s mild joke. “That’s a very, very important job. I can’t imagine what kind of compensation package a senior vice president at a major US corporation would receive.” He sat up even straighter, as though his comment had surprised himself. “Not that I’d ever ask such a rude question, of course.”

Laurie could tell he really wanted to know, and she offered up a tidbit. “Luxor is a little on the cheap side, to be honest. But they award a
lot
of restricted stock to senior VPs, reasoning that we’ll fight to increase profits if our compensation is tied very closely to the bottom line.”

He nodded, looking at her with undisguised admiration. “Maybe you can convince my daughter that working for a corporation can help secure her future.”

“I love my work,” Laurie said, looking at Kaatje, “but I don’t think Kaatje would care for it. I’d be better off if I could copy some of her views.”

“My daughter has, as we say, ‘gone native.’ I don’t think her work ideas would help you advance.”

His attitude irked her and she found herself showing off, something she rarely did. “There are only two people above me in Theme Parks Operations, and they’re both fairly young. I probably won’t have an opportunity to move up for quite a few years. I’d be fine if I slowed down a little to enjoy life. To be honest, I don’t have time to spend what I earn now.”