The Raft
Chapter 10
“I figured I'd be seeing you today sooner or later,” Tea Queen said, a baby cradled on her left hip. She was standing in the companionway of her small sailboat, the Strange Dream, watching Maggie secure their two crafts together. “Cup of tea?” she asked.
“Please,” Maggie replied, stepping across from the deck of the Soft Cell to the deck of the Strange Dream. Tea Queen and the baby vanished down into the companionway. Maggie, with Rachael in tow, circled around the small craft's deck and down its short cabin ladder.
The cramped cabin below was dominated by the baby's crib. In fact, it consumed the entirety of floor space of the tiny twenty-foot yacht. Tea Queen deposited the fussing baby into the large, high-railed structure and leaned over it to start a kettle of water on the galley stove. Beyond the crib, on the boat's fore bunk, sat a young bearded man working at a laptop. He raised his head as Maggie and Rachael shoehorned themselves into what free space there was below decks.
“Rocket,” Maggie nodded at the young man. Like Tea Queen, Rocket had an unwashed, hippie air about him. His blond hair was a nest of messy, half-matted dreadlocks, his shirtless chest hidden behind a sizable collection of necklaces.
“You know Tea ain't had nothing to do with any of it?” Rocket said with a bleary-eyed quality to his voice. “Right?”
“And what would 'it' be?” Maggie replied, leaning herself up against the companionway's steps.
“Meerkat.” Rocket poked a finger at his laptop's screen. “It's already hit the Exchange. And here you are, not twenty minutes later... Tea didn't have nothing to do with any of it – whatever happened. Last Tea saw Meerkat last night, she was okay...”
“I just came to talk,” Maggie held up a calming hand. “I'm not here to accuse anybody.”
“Good, 'cause -”
“I came to talk to Tea Queen,” Maggie interrupted. “Unless you were aboard the Geoduck last night, too?”
“Nah,” Rocket replied after a pause.
“How's Firecracker?” Maggie asked Tea Queen, leaning forward and holding out a finger to the baby. “You're getting big, yes you are...” she said to the child in baby babble.
“Healthy and sleeping nights,” Tea Queen replied, not looking away from the galley stove. “All hands and grabbing things, though, so I can't take my eye off the stove. But then you know what they say about watched pots...”
“You were out last night?” Maggie got to the point.
“I was,” Tea Queen said forthrightly. “With Meerkat, on the Geoduck, as you already know, or else you wouldn't be here – and before you ask, she was alive and well when she dropped me off here. Last I saw of her, she was motoring off in her dinghy, heading home to the Straight Dope. It was late, and I'd been drinking, sure, but Meerkat was stone-cold sober. It weren't no sailing accident, I can tell you that.”
The baby, Firecracker, had grabbed Maggie's finger and they were playing tug-of-war. The kettle started boiling, Tea Queen busied herself with the pot.
“You were celebrating?” Maggie asked, almost absentmindedly.
“No, no celebration. A goodbye party.”
“A what?” Maggie looked up in surprise.
“Meerkat was putting her boots on. Though she hadn't told anyone but me.”
“Meerkat was leaving the Raft?” Rachael asked. “Why?”
Tea Queen poured the boiling water into the teapot and covered it with a cozy to steep. She turned away from the galley and looked at Maggie and Rachael for the first time. “You know how we used to be...” Tea Queen began, almost apologetically.
“Sure,” Maggie nodded.
But Rachael didn't. Tea Queen seemed to feel a need to explain. “We were wild, all of us.” She cocked a thumb at Rocket. “But we cleaned up our act when Firecracker came along. You have to, you know, when it's not just you anymore. At some point you learn there are things more important than yourself...”
“Yes,” Rachael agreed.
“But it wasn't so easy for Meerkat, you understand? Living with Horus... in his line of work, with the shit around you all the time... it was getting bad. You know, you don't see it until you clean yourself up, just how bad everyone else has gotten. It's like you suddenly get your sense of smell back and realize how bad the whole world stinks. And Meerkat was starting to reek, if you know want I mean. And I think no one knew it better than Meerkat herself.
“So, she got it in her head to get clean. But she knew she wasn't gonna do it out here on the Raft... with no resources and living with Horus, almost right on top of each other. She put her boots on, sneaked ashore. Checked herself into one of them places – rehab. Two-week program. I don't know if Horus even realized she was gone.”
“When was this?” Maggie asked.
“Six months ago? Maybe. Right after Firecracker was born,” Rocket interjected.
“And Horus was okay with it?”
“Must have been,” Tea Queen shrugged. “Once Meerkat got back, once she got clean, she had outpatient visits. Horus used to sneak her ashore to attend them. Well, had Chemical Ali do it when he was making deliveries.”
Maggie gave Rachael a knowing look.
“But Meerkat had finally had enough? She was putting her boots back on permanently?”
“That's what she told me.” Tea Queen suddenly remembered her pot and turned to the galley. She poured out the tea into four small, plastic cups and passed them out to everyone present. A little tea, she poured into a sippy cup, along with a large helping of milk, and handed it to Firecracker. “Called me up out of the blue and told me she had finally cleaned up all the mess she'd left onshore. She was free to return home, get off the Raft. And with her life back together, she was going to take the chance. So we rowed for the Geoduck and made a night of it. I guess I really did the celebrating for both of us.”
“And nothing happened aboard the Geoduck? No arguments, no fights?”
“Nope, just drinking and dancing.”
“Meerkat dance with anyone in particular?” Rachael asked.
“No, we just danced together,” Tea Queen answered over the rim of her tea cup. “You know how girls are.”
Rachael blushed.
“And she brought you back here? At what? Three?”
“Something like that.”
“Rocket?” Maggie looked over at Tea Queen's scruffy husband.
“Yeah, she woke me and I remember looking at the clock. Maybe 2:45.”
“And she just motored off, back towards the Straight Dope? Where was it moored? Where were you moored? Here?”
“No, we were both at the rim of the main Raft, circling the Kalakala. Rocket moved us here into WiFi range this morning while Firecracker and I were sleeping.”
Maggie listened, nodded, and sipped her tea.
For a long moment, the cabin was filled only with the sound of Rocket tapping away at his laptop and Firecracker sucking at her bottle.
“One more thing,” Maggie asked, breaking the silence. “Was Meerkat... pregnant?”
“What?” Tea Queen recoiled in surprise. “What, no. I mean, she'd have said. No. Why?”
“We found tests... aboard the Straight Dope.”
“No, she was...” Tea Queen started and then trailed off. “No, she would have told me,” she said flatly.
“Thank you for the tea,” Maggie handed her cup back to Tea Queen. Rachael realized that was the cue to leave, and quickly gulped down the last of her cup.
“Thank you,” Rachael also passed back her cup.
“Are you going ashore?” Tea Queen asked as Maggie turned to climb the companionway stairs. “After Horus?”
“Sorry?” Maggie turned back.
“The Exchange says that Horus put his boots on. Are you going after him? Bringing him back?”
“I-I hadn't thought about it,” Maggie answered honestly.
“Bring him back and let the Raft take care of him, Maggie,” Tea Queen said sternly, still holding the two tea cups in her hands. “Don't
let them dryfoots get him. Let the Raft take care of this. Even if Meerkat was going ashore, she was still one of ours. Don't let them dryfoots punish Horus for a crime that happened aboard the Raft.”
“I won't,” Maggie assured. “Thanks again,” she said and pulled herself up and out of the companionway.