As Adam drove back to his apartment the next day, he reflected that it wasn’t surprising that Carolyn had turned down his offer, but he’d felt like he’d had to make it. It would have been nice, but he’d been pretty sure it wasn’t going to happen. In any case, it was nothing to worry about, and his mind was more on the Brittany, Mary, and Matty situation anyway.

There was little doubt in his mind that Brittany was getting a lot closer to reality on the whole issue, and he wasn’t sure she was a threat any longer – but he couldn’t be sure about it just yet. He felt like he ought to talk the whole thing over with Mary, even if they didn’t reach a solution, but somehow a phone call didn’t seem like the right solution.

He thought about it for the next two or three days, and finally decided to go see her again. Since he didn’t have anything else to do, he thought he’d drive the trip again rather than go through the airline shuffle. He checked with Bob, who said there wasn’t likely to be anything needing his attention for the next two or three weeks but that after that there would be a few things on the new Ford job that it would be handy to have him around for.

That pretty well settled it as far as Adam was concerned. He sent an e-mail to Mary saying that he was coming again, and he got a reply in a few hours that he’d be welcome as always. It wasn’t long before Adam called Chuck to set up the car-truck swap for the next morning, and even before daylight he was on his way.

As always, he thought the complicated car-truck swap was probably overdoing it, especially with the recent revelations about Brittany, but it was already set up and there was no reason to get slack on security. It probably wouldn’t be needed that much longer, anyway; this could well be the last time he made the trip by road, especially if it worked out that he decided to sail to Blanche Tickle next summer. Sometimes that seemed like it was a little over-ambitious, and other times not – but if he did sail off in the Moonshadow to see the two of them, it was doubtful he’d be need to do it for a long time. For that matter, if he sold the Knick-Knack he wouldn’t need the truck to haul it around, either.

That line of thinking got him to wondering whether he needed the car, or even the apartment, if he went to Newfoundland in the summer, and then south for the winter. Both could easily be sitting unused for a year or more. Oh, he might have to be in town from time to time to deal with things at Caldwell-Deerfield, but there was no reason he couldn’t fly in, rent a room for two or three days, and get around in a rental car before flying back to the boat. He didn’t really have that much in the apartment that was worth keeping, and some of that would go with him on the boat. Getting rid of the car and the apartment would really cut his ties to his old life.

But whatever happened with that, it would have to depend on whether he decided to do the long-trip option as opposed to just staying on the Great Lakes. He wasn’t quite ready to make that decision yet, although the more he thought about it the more he leaned toward doing it.

The trip was familiar; he’d driven it six months before, and that helped at least a little. Much of it was close to the route he’d be taking in the Moonshadow if he decided to make the trip at all. For part of the trip he was often close enough to the St. Lawrence to see it and wonder what it would be like to see the highway from the river. The ride on the Caribou was mild, although on a gray and unpromising day, and the long drive across the island even seemed to go better.

Finally, on the afternoon of his fifth day out from home, he pulled into Blanche Tickle. On this cold gray day it seemed very different than it had been when he’d last been there in the middle of the summer. He noticed that the Mary Sue had been pulled out of the water, and was sitting in a rough-looking cradle over by the ancient crane that was used to take the smaller fishing boats out of the water when ice threatened over the winter. It was the only boat sitting out on land; the other boats were still fishing.

It was good to see Mary, of course, and good to see Matty, who was now two but acting reasonably in spite of everything. “So what news have ye got this time?” Mary asked.

“Really nothing much. I bought another boat, this one a little more comfortable to live on, so there’s a chance I might come sailing into the harbor here next summer. It’s at Jake’s right now so he can do some work on it, but I’m starting to get the itch for spring to get here so I can get out and get going.”

“An’ anythin’ about Brittany?”

“Not really anything that’s news,” he told her. “I’m of the opinion that she’s continuing to get better, and I’m beginning to think more and more that a meeting might be a good idea. But I talked to Dr. Preble, and while he didn’t really come out and say anything I get the impression that waiting a while longer might not be a bad idea.”

“Well, I guess it’s gonna be mostly up to ye. I’ve been thinkin’ about it now an’ then, an’ I like the idea of meetin’ somewhere ’sides here or there, so long as she doesn’t know where here is. I’m gettin’ a little tired of havin’ ta sneak around with ye.”

“I am, too, but for now I think it’s the best idea.”

The pace of things was much quieter than they had been in the summer. Mary had opened up one of the houses for him and had the heat on; it was late enough in the year it was a bit chilly. He only spent the nights there, and most of the other time with her and Matty.

He really liked Mary; there was an earthiness to her that was refreshing. More than once he toyed with the idea of pushing the relationship a little further than what they had, but always decided against it – the age differential was considerable, and he didn’t want to do anything that would louse up the relationship with his grandson. She had her life and he had his; they’d moved closer together in the last couple years, but there was a limit in his own mind that it didn’t seem worth the risk or the trouble of crossing. So about the best he could do was to play the doting grandfather who showed up now and then.

They had their good times; he talked about the Moonshadow quite a bit, and picked up several good ideas from her about fitting it out. She said she was looking forward to seeing the boat and that it would be great if he could come sailing by next summer. They visited the store and the post office each day, and had some good conversations with people like Evan and Sinead.

A little to his surprise, as the time he’d fixed for his stay drew to a close he was a little glad of it. While he enjoyed Mary and enjoyed Blanche Tickle, he never forgot that he was an outsider, and in this place he would always be. This may have been Mary and Matty’s world, but it couldn’t be his.

Still, it was hard to go, and hard to get back on the road again. It had been a good visit, but he didn’t want to wear out his welcome, so he decided he wouldn’t be back for a while – and maybe the next time would be aboard his own boat. He might not stay long then, either; there was an awful lot of pretty and rugged countryside to investigate around Newfoundland, and it wasn’t exactly cottage country like the south part of Georgian Bay. It might be interesting to have a summer cottage there if his life had worked out a little differently, and that might be an option in a few years if cruising palled on him.

Five days later he was back at the apartment, realizing that the most important thing that had been accomplished with the trip to Newfoundland had been to kill over two weeks of a winter that already had gone on too long.

At least there was a little work to do around the company, although not much; the heavy lifting on the new Ford contract had already been done by Bob and Fred. About all he really had to do was to wear a suit, smile nicely at the Ford executives at the proper time, and sign in the appropriate places. At that, Bob could have signed off on everything needed, but he’d been available, so they figured he might as well do it.

On one occasion while he was at the office, he had a private conversation with Bob, again expressing his confidence in the way thing were being handled, and letting him know that he anticipated being gone for even greater periods in the future. While Adam assured Bob that he could fly in whenever he was needed, as time went on he’d probably only be around rarely, but he could be available for consultation by phone if needed.

All of that really didn’t take much of his time. By now it was early December, and he’d managed to work his way through most of what he wanted to do with his winter. Finally, out of boredom more than anything else, one day he called up to Winchester Harbor just to catch up on the gossip with Jake, and to see if perhaps there was something he could do on the Moonshadow for a few days to help pass the time.

“Yeah, sure,” Jake said. “Come on up. I’m working on your boat right now and I ought to be done with it in a week or two. I guess I’m going to have to go down to Gator Breath after the holidays and put in the rest of the winter on the Rag Doll.”

“What did she do, find some slip out in the middle of some swamp?”

“Pretty much. I have to say it’s cheap, but I’m sure as hell not going to do any work on the outside of the hull by jumping over the side to get at it. But that’s a long story, I’ll tell you when you come up. If you can’t find something to do on the Moonshadow I can probably keep you busy with something else.”

Adam didn’t need much more invitation than that. The first thing the next morning he was on the road for Winchester Harbor. It felt good to pull into the familiar parking lot and good to walk into the snack bar where Rachel was tending things. It turned out that Jake hadn’t eaten yet, so she called down to the boat shed to have him come up for lunch.

Jake arrived a few minutes later, smelling mildly of fiberglass resin. “I’ve got a little more work to do before I get rolling on the new motor,” he reported. “but I can tell you about that later. So how are you getting along?”

“Actually a little bored. There’s just not a lot going on right now. So what’s the story about Amanda and the Rag Doll?”

“Well, I don’t want to say she got took at that price,” he smiled. “But the boat needs a little more work than she let on, or maybe than Ron let on. It’s nothing that can’t be done and most of it she knows how to do, but there’s going to be a lot of it, and I don’t know if she can get it done this winter. One of Ron’s Coastie buddies knew about this place, Sims Boat Yard, and while it isn’t exactly crawling with alligators, there are some around. It’s cheap, though, and the old boy who runs the place acts like he knows what he’s doing. He does a lot of workboat work, so it’s not exactly a yachtie place, and it is a little junky.”

“I know what you mean. Sort of like a Florida Blanche Tickle.”

“Well, not quite like that,” Jake smiled. “But moving in that direction. Blanche Tickle is a lot neater and cleaner, and while it may smell of dead fish now and then, it doesn’t smell of alligator shit. Which makes me think about something I wanted to ask you. The old boy who runs the place is pretty good with engines, and he thinks the Atomic 4 in the Rag Doll isn’t beyond hope, but he needs some parts that are going to be pretty expensive because they don’t make ’em anymore. If you don’t have any use for the one in the Moonshadow, I’d be tempted to haul it down there and let him try a little mix and match.”

“Sure, fine with me. I’ll do what I can to help out. I like Amanda and I know she’s doing this on a shoestring, so I respect her dream.”

“Good,” Jake said. “That’s something that still needs to be done to the Moonshadow, and I haven’t been looking forward to having to yank it out of there myself.”

“I’ll be happy to have something to do.”

“You may not be this time. This is going to be a dirty, nasty job in a tight space, and I’ll guarantee you’re going to learn some new swear words.”

It proved that Jake wasn’t kidding. Adam had known that the engine was buried in a tiny compartment under the cockpit, but in the time he’d owned the Moonshadow he’d barely looked in there. There really wasn’t enough room to work, and getting the engine out was a huge chore made worse by the fact that there wasn’t enough room for either Jake or Adam to get all the way into the engine compartment. In fact, Rachel had to be pressed into service to get to some of the more distant parts, and it was even a tight fit for her. Even with removing some accessories and taking them out separately, it took them two and a half days to get the engine loose and wiggle it out through the cabin with the help of the shop’s overhead crane.

“And now,” Jake said as they looked at it lying on the shop floor, “you know why I ain’t real thrilled with inboard engines in sailboats, and it ain’t gonna be any easier to get the new one in there.”

“I think I see what you mean,” Adam agreed. “It sure would be a lot easier to just yank an outboard motor and haul it over to the shop.”

Once they finished the engine change, Adam and Jake managed to find a week or so more work to do on the Moonshadow. Adam could help him with some of it, and sometimes the best help he could be was to stay out of the way and work on other things, which included cleaning up the mess that the engine change had made. Sometimes the work was little more than figuring out where things were to go when he moved into the boat, but at least progress was being made that wouldn’t have to be done in the spring.

It wasn’t all work. The propane stove in the Moonshadow’s galley was working, and every now and then Adam would make them a pot of coffee. They often took their breaks by sitting out in the cockpit with a coffee mug in their hands, which seemed a little incongruous to be doing in a cluttered boat shed. “The heck of it is that I can see we’re running out of work to do,” Adam said on one such occasion, “and you’re going to be heading south after the holidays anyway. I’m just not going to have a whole lot I can be doing between now and spring.”

“Well, if you’re really looking for something to do, I’ll bet Amanda can find something for you on the Rag Doll.”

“Don’t think I haven’t thought about it,” Adam admitted. “And I might do it. But I keep thinking how nice it would be to have this boat down there this winter. I don’t mind the idea of working on the Rag Doll but it would be nice to do some cruising, too.”

“There ain’t no way you could be doing it on the Rag Doll,” Jake shook his head. “Amanda is living aboard and working right where she’s living, and it’s pretty much like she’s living under a bridge somewhere. I honestly don’t think she’s going to get it done this winter. Close to done, maybe, enough that she won’t have to kill herself another winter. But there’s no reason you couldn’t go down to Florida and do some cruising yourself.”

“What? Get some boat hauler to take this thing down there on a semi?”

“Well, you could and I know you can afford it. But you still have the Knick-Knack, don’t you?”

“Yeah, it’s sitting down there at the marina in Frenchtown Harbor with tarps all over it. But that’s a little small to go cruising in for that length of time.”

“Well, yeah,” he said. “But it’s not that small, and I guarantee you that you’d be living better than Amanda is doing, living in the middle of that mess in the Rag Doll. If it got too damn tight, you can always rent a motel room for a day or two. At least you can get a shower that way, and a comfortable bed once in a while. It’s not like Amanda, taking a shower with a hose out on the deck in her bikini.”

“At least she can do that since it’s warm,” Adam snorted, the idea starting to form in his mind. Maybe Jake had something there . . . “Not like around here.”

“There is that,” Jake grinned. “Even if you just stayed around the Jacksonville area, you could live on the boat and help out with the Rag Doll if you felt like it, or go somewhere else if you didn’t. Jacksonville isn’t all that damn warm in January. Better than here, for sure, but it’s not exactly Hawaii, either. But if it gets too cold for you, it’d be no trick to put the Knick-Knack on the trailer and head south a few hundred miles. But it’s not like you don’t have the time or the money, and from what I know there’s nothing to keep you here all winter.”

Adam thought about it for a moment before he said anything. It would be a long haul down there, probably three or four days with the load on the pickup – but it was not as far as he’d driven to Blanche Tickle a few weeks before. Yes, the Knick-Knack was small, but he’d lived in it comfortably for nearly two weeks with Carolyn, up in Georgian Bay, so there would be more room if he was by himself. He could probably hack it for a month or two by himself; in fact, it would be something of an adventure that would probably make him appreciate the Moonshadow’s creature comforts more when he did move aboard.

It would take a couple days of work to pull together the boat gear and other items he’d need on the boat, but some of what he’d want was right here on the Moonshadow, and the rest was either in his apartment or in the Knick-Knack anyway. The big item was the Honda outboard, which was sitting on the shop floor, but it would fit in the trunk of the car.

From the far cockpit seat Jake could just about see the gears grinding in Adam’s head. “You know,” he said, “one of the things you might want to take with you would be a ‘For Sale’ sign.”

“Yeah, I’ve been wondering about that. Jake, I think you might have an idea about taking the Knick-Knack south for the winter. I wonder why I hadn’t thought about it already.”

“Probably ’cause you had your mind on this thing. Let’s knock off for today and head up to the snack bar. I’ve got some old charts from Florida we can go over, and maybe I can give you some good ideas.”

“You’ve already given me one hell of a good idea.”

Adam hung around Winchester Harbor for another couple days, helping Jake finish up the work on the Moonshadow. There were still a few things that would need to be done to it in the spring, but they could be done after the boat was back in the water; heading south on Lake Huron in April was a chancy and uncomfortable proposition at best. But while they worked, he and Jake threw around more ideas of what could be done cruising in Florida this winter; if nothing else, it would give Adam an overview of the place that would be useful in future years.

By the end of the week Adam was headed south in his car, his trunk full of Honda outboard and accessories. The back seat was stacked high with luggage and boat gear, some of which he borrowed from the Moonshadow, like a GPS chart plotter that kept his place on an electronic nautical chart. It was a little tempting to hang around Winchester Harbor for Christmas, like he’d done the past two years, but the grip of the idea was on him, and Jake had said it was likely to be a pretty quiet holiday around there anyway.

Adam didn’t waste any time. He drove straight to the marina at Frenchtown Harbor, and found to his relief that the manager was hanging around with little to do. The manager was a little surprised that Adam was taking the tarps off the Knick-Knack and hanging the outboard back on it, but after he found out what was happening he thought that Adam had a great idea. “That’s really what a trailer boat is supposed to be for, anyway,” he said as he pitched in with the chore, glad to have something useful to do. “Sure wish I was going with you.”

It took a few hours that evening at the apartment to pull together the clothes and other items he wanted to take south with him. The next morning, Adam called Chuck to do the car-truck exchange again; he went by the apartment, loaded the things he’d packed the night before, and went back to Frenchtown Harbor to load them on the Knick-Knack. That didn’t take long; soon Adam had the trailer hooked up behind the pickup and was heading south, running away from the Michigan winter, the Knick-Knack trailing along behind on what would most likely be the final adventure he’d have with the boat.

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