Jake, Amanda, and Rachel were all on the dock as Adam backed the Moonshadow out into the waters of Winchester Harbor and turned her toward the lake. The Chinook was already set to go, loaded with the customers of the day, and only the good-bye was keeping Jake and Amanda from heading out with it. They were under way within minutes of the Moonshadow’s leaving, and wound up following Adam down the channel and out into the lake. Once beyond the jetties, Adam turned his boat to the east-southeast, and occasionally looked over his shoulder to see the fishing boat and its party getting smaller as they headed in a different direction.

A great deal had happened in his life at Winchester Harbor in the times he’d been there in the past two and a half years. In truth, it had become as much a home as he’d had anywhere except for the boat under his feet, and mostly because of his friends in the Lewis family. Now, Adam was setting out on a trip he could not have conceived when he’d visited them for Christmas a few years before. He was aware that he was following in Matt’s footsteps, at least to some degree; five years before, if not to the exact day, Matt had set out on the same trip in the Mary Sue.

The weather, as he had predicted, was semi-crappy, but it was mitigated to some extent by the fact he was heading downwind. The Moonshadow was comfortable in those conditions, and was well under control, even though it was a cold and wet enough ride that Adam had to wear foul-weather gear and also bundled himself in other clothing beneath it.

Given the press of the wind the Moonshadow moved right along, and conditions improved noticeably when Adam rounded Presque Isle and turned south a few miles out from the shore. The wave action decreased slightly, although the wind was just as strong, and the boat kept going well. Given that Adam wanted to get down to the Detroit area and get done with what he needed to do, he kept pushing till late in the day, then finally pulled into a transient slip at Harrisville for the night. The “Harbor of Refuge” was nearly deserted – it was still pretty early in the season for pleasure boaters to be out on Lake Huron – and Adam was alone as he had dinner out of a can and turned in early.

The next day didn’t appear a great deal more promising in the gray light of dawn. The weather report that Adam pulled in on both the marine radio and on the laptop computer mostly told him that while it wasn’t going to be any better than the day before, it wasn’t going to be much worse, either. So he didn’t waste any time getting going; it was going to be a long day, and somewhat more open as he would have to cross the wide mouth of Saginaw Bay. The wind had backed around to the north somewhat and was a bit stronger, but again, since he was more or less going downwind it wasn’t much of a problem. Mostly he kept going, letting the boat’s autopilot do the bulk of the steering while he tried to stay as comfortable as possible in his foul weather gear. It was getting on toward dark that evening when he pulled into Harbor Beach for the night.

The weather report the next morning wasn’t much better; the wind was supposed to back to the north a bit more, possibly get a little stronger, and there might be some rain with it. Reasoning that he’d had no problems the previous two days, Adam got going early again.

Things went well for a couple hours, but as the morning wore on the weather began to deteriorate; the wind was stronger than had been predicted, and with it coming straight down the lake there were bigger waves to deal with. Still, the Moonshadow was handling it comfortably, although Adam thought it best to reduce sail quite a bit. The boat was still moving right along, even though visibility was decreasing.

Adam couldn’t help but think of what he’d read about the big storm of 1911 in these waters, when several steamers had sunk; at least a couple of them had been running before a storm much bigger than this one. From the accounts people had put together afterward things had apparently gone well until the steamers had started to run out of lake, tried to turn around and got caught broadside to the storm in the process, which contributed to them going down with all hands. The weather was nowhere near as bad, but Adam realized he was quickly running out of lake in very poor visibility.

However, Adam had something going for him that hadn’t been available a century before; several somethings, in fact. One of the things the Moonshadow didn’t have was radar, but Adam had the GPS chartplotter that had served him so well in Florida. It was accurate within feet, so Adam knew exactly where he was as he charged southward in the wind and waves and rain, sometimes with the boat almost surfing in the strong conditions. As he neared Port Huron the rain increased, and all Adam could do was keep going under the direction of the chartplotter, keep an eye out for ship traffic and hope he’d see something before it got too close.

As he neared the St. Mary’s river he did pick a freighter out of the mist, a big lake freighter, fortunately upbound and enough to the side that he could miss it without having to alter his course. Once the freighter passed there was nothing but gray out there again. The next thing he could see was the Blue Water Bridge going overhead; the chartplotter took him right between the pilings like it had eyes, which in a sense it did.

Conditions improved significantly once Adam was in the St. Mary’s River; the big waves were gone, but the north wind and the current still shoved the Moonshadow right along in somewhat better visibility. He went across the shallow Lake St. Claire on a broad reach, still moving right along, but darkness was starting to come by the time he reached the south end. He found a reasonably decent place to anchor out overnight, feeling pretty good about the way he’d handled himself all alone during the strong conditions. He might not have Jake’s experience, or even Amanda’s, but the day had taught him that he was up to handling more challenging weather than he had been used to in the past.

He was moving again the next morning in significantly better conditions. By early afternoon, he was pulling into the familiar channel leading to Frenchtown Harbor, and then the familiar slip he’d had the Knick-Knack in for much of last summer.

There were still several days’ worth of work to do, and he had no choice but to do them as soon as possible. A quick call to Chuck gave him a ride from the marina to where his car was stored, and from there he went to his apartment to get started on his chores.

The next morning he got started early, skipping his regular breakfast for a sandwich out of a drive-through, and there he had an interesting surprise. The woman working the drive-through window seemed familiar, but it wasn’t until he pulled away that he realized who she was – Diane Balch, the woman who had caused him so much trouble when she’d been at Children’s Protective Services.

As soon as he reached the office he called Deke to announce his discovery. “I’m surprised,” Deke said. “I mean, I’m really surprised. I figured that when they were talking about discipline she’d get a letter of reprimand saying, ‘This should be officially considered a slap on the wrist.’ I guess she cost them enough money with the settlement that they decided they had to go a little further.”

“I’m surprised, too,” Adam smiled. “I mean, you know the old saw about civil servants, ‘They won’t work and you can’t fire them.’”'

“Looks like they did,” Deke agreed. “Beyond that, I don’t have anything for you, for once, and there hasn’t been since your father’s house sold last winter. I haven’t heard a thing on the Brittany situation in months, and was wondering if you had any better information.”

“I’ve heard nothing for months myself, but that’s something I should check into before I get going.” Adam explained what his plans were for the next few months, and that he’d check in occasionally in case something came up that he had to do.

By the time he was done with the call Bob was waiting to see him. It turned out there was little new that would demand his attention; things were, as always, going smoothly. But Bob had a surprise for him. “I know you’re not terribly interested in the company anymore,” he said. “Have you been giving any thought to selling it entirely?”

“I’ve kicked around the idea, but I decided I’d wait till the market improved a little,” Adam admitted.

“Well, I have to tell you that a number of us have been kicking it around,” he said. “This is very premature, but we’ve been considering offering you an employee buyout. It’d take a while to get it organized, but there are low-interest funds available to us that would facilitate an offer like that.”

“I’m certainly interested,” Adam told him. “My main concern is that this is a good, working company, and I want to keep it independent since merging it with another company might cost our employees a lot, and would lose a lot of what keeps us strong. However, we’ll need to pull the details together and I don’t think either of us is ready for it now. We’ll both have to get independent estimates of the fair market value of the company, and that’ll involve audits and the time to do them. Besides, I need to look at what it would do to my tax situation, so I suppose there’s no reason we might not be able to talk in terms of a gradual buyout. As I see it, there’s no rush on either of our parts. Pull a formal proposal together, and I’ll get back with you in a few weeks.”

“I’ll certainly do that. I take it you’re not going to be around for the next few months.”

“No,” Adam told him, and gave him a thumbnail account of his plans for the summer. “I’ll continue to check in, just in case something comes up that needs my attention, and like last winter there’s nothing to prevent me from flying in to deal with anything that crops up.”

Since Adam was in the office he decided he might as well use the phone to get a few other things taken care of. He’d already made the decision to use the shed he used for storing the truck to hold the furniture and some of the other items he had in his apartment. However, he didn’t have any idea of how to move them, especially since the truck was still up at Winchester Harbor. A few minutes worth of thought led him to call Beverly, who occasionally had to have things moved.

She turned out to not be particularly busy at the moment, and was able to steer him toward a friend of hers, who had a box truck and access to a couple of men who could pack and move things. He was glad to take the number, and they fell to talking a little bit, which led to luncheon plans a couple hours later.

The next problem was the Brittany situation, or at least trying to get some fresh information on what was happening with her. The last time Adam had talked with her he’d been of the impression that she was improving to the point where a meeting with Mary and Matty in some location other than Blanche Tickle and not in the US was not out of the question. Other than talking to Brittany herself, the only one he could call at the moment was Lisa; Carolyn would be in school.

Lisa proved to be at home. Of course, they had to talk about the Moonshadow and the plans he had for the summer, but Lisa said that while she hadn’t had much contact with Brittany, she had the general impression that things were improving for her. It wasn’t very reliable information, but at least he was hopeful.

Adam gave some thought to calling Dr. Preble for his input, knowing he wasn’t likely to get a straight answer, but decided to put it off until after he’d talked to Carolyn.

Feeling like he could get nowhere along that line right now and knowing he still had a while before he had to leave to meet Beverly, Adam decided to give Audrey a call. He’d talked to her a couple times since they’d last seen each other at the end of February, but only to update each other; he’d decided not to pressure her about going with him at least to Newfoundland. The last time he’d talked with her, things had been going all right, and Christine had been in favor of her going with him on the trip – but she hadn’t even dared to raise the issue with Bertie and Josette.

It appeared that Audrey was glad to hear from him. “I’m in Detroit right now,” he told her, “and the Moonshadow is down at Frenchtown Harbor. If I can get everything done, I hope to get moving Saturday morning.”

“Oh, I wish I could go with you,” she said. “I’ve been feeling very lonely and at loose ends here, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t dare. Apparently Christine let slip some of the things I told her about the time we spent together in Florida, although I didn’t tell her all the lurid details. In any case I’m afraid I’m rather in the doghouse with Bertie and Josette at the moment. They have been very abrasive about how irresponsible and improper I’ve been.”

“That’s a shame,” he said. “It sounds like they don’t think you’re an adult.”

“Not a proper one, at least in their view,” she sighed. “I hate to say it, but they’re very narrow-minded about such things. I think Bertie gets a lot of that from Josette, who, while I hate to use the vernacular but I shall, seems to have been born with a corn cob up her butt.”

“You know,” he said. “That sounds like a good description of what Brittany used to be like. I had to walk away from her just to get free of it.”

“It is a very tempting thought, but for the moment I think I’ll have to be a good little girl and stay home to mend fences. I should like to go with you on the Moonshadow, Adam. In fact, I should like nothing better. But at the moment I think it would be imprudent of me. Perhaps later, or another time, but I’m afraid I shouldn’t do it now. But keep in touch, as there always is the chance that things could change. Have fun on your trip, and say hello to Mary and Matty and Andrew for me when you get there.”

Adam was not surprised at her reaction when he hung up the phone. It had been there all along, and it was clear that she was trying to let him down gently. They’d had several very good weeks on the Knick-Knack down in Florida, and in many ways she would have been the perfect companion for him on the Moonshadow, but it wasn’t going to happen and that was that. He figured he’d better just get used to the fact that their fling in Florida was all that was going to happen between them.

His conversation with Audrey overshadowed his lunch with Beverly. He hadn’t seen her in some time, and she was still in many ways the bright, personable woman he’d come to respect during the estate sale. He spent some time talking about the Moonshadow and his plans for the summer with her. “Oh, that sounds like fun,” she said. “And your new boat sure sounds like a big step up from that little one you had last summer, even if it’s not a power boat. I’d love to make a big trip like that on a boat some time.”

“Well, you could come along if you wanted to,” he said facetiously, not believing for a moment she’d take him up on it.

“It sounds good,” she smiled. “But I’ve got several projects in the fire that I just can’t put down to go on a trip like that. Really, Adam, there’s no way I could possibly get away for a trip like that without planning it for months, and my business would suffer from my being gone. It’s a nice thought, but it’s not going to happen.”

Adam was actually a little relieved to hear that. He wasn’t sure why he’d even made the offer in the first place. He was dead sure Beverly would have been a far less ideal companion than Audrey, or even Carolyn, if for no more reason than she wouldn’t have been a fellow sailor but a passenger – and one who would probably want to spend a fair amount of time in noisy bars, anyway. On reflection, he decided that if given the choice of going with her or going alone, he’d just as soon go alone.

After lunch, Adam went back to the apartment and started packing things up. As little as he had actually lived there, it was surprising how much pure junk he’d accumulated; it was no surprise now how his father had been able to fill a large house with a huge collection of stuff that had taken months to sort through and dispose of.

Even with having tried to keep things down, Adam had things he had no idea why he had bought them. He was able to put together a small pile of things to go straight to the apartment dumpster, and a larger stack of things that might be useful when and if he moved back onshore, whenever that might prove to be. There were even a few things that would go to the Moonshadow, but not very many.

That evening he called Carolyn, primarily to see if he could get any useful information about Brittany. He hadn’t talked to Carolyn in a while, since back before he went south for the winter, so they had much to talk about over and above the fact that Carolyn had seen Brittany several times, although hadn’t had any really deep discussions with her. She seemed to be coming along reasonably well, as far as Carolyn could tell, but that didn’t exactly settle the question Adam had on his mind.

But it was always good to talk to Carolyn, and he had to bring her up to date on the Moonshadow and his plans for the summer and beyond. Of course, he also about had to ask her if she would like to go with him, possibly joining him after school got out for the summer, and got the response he expected to hear. “I’d like to go with you for a week or two, Adam, but I can’t make a life out of it. You know why. Although I could retire in a month, I don’t want to, since I don’t want to give up the life I have now. I can possibly sneak off for a week or two, but I did get asked a number of awkward questions about our trip last year. It didn’t tell my folks much but they read far too much into it.”

“Well, if you could see your way to coming I’d be glad to have you,” he told her. “But if you can’t, you can’t.”

“I’m afraid that’s the way things are going to have to be. I’m sorry, Adam, but things aren’t broke for me so there’s no point in fixing them.”

Adam knew when he was licked on that one. He didn’t necessarily agree with her, but it was her decision, and there wasn’t much he could say. His personal opinion was that she had a fear of being committed to someone, and probably had always had it, which would account for her never having been able to make a relationship work in the long run.

The other troubling thing about his discussion with Carolyn was that he still didn’t have a clear idea about where Brittany was in terms of her recovery. If he was going to set up a meeting between Brittany, Mary and Matt, it was going to have to be soon, since he didn’t anticipate being back in the area for more than a year, unless it was some hurried trip in to deal with Caldwell-Deerfield business.

He piddled away the rest of the evening on packing up things in the apartment; except for a few last minute items, he was pretty close to being done. The guys Beverly worked with were going to be there in two days to move everything to the storage shed; after that he’d have to live on the Moonshadow. If he was going to do something, he was going to have to make a decision pretty soon.

The next morning he called Dr. Preble. As always the man wasn’t very helpful with what Adam needed to know, but at least this time he hinted that a meeting might well work out for the best, which was a more optimistic report than he’d had the last two times the question had come up.

What it came down to was that Adam was going to have to be the one to make the decision. He didn’t have a great deal to do that day since he was ready for the movers, so after he got done with the phone call, he decided the only thing to do was to go talk to Brittany himself. This time he decided not to call ahead, so she would not have the chance to prepare herself, and took off for Wychbold.

It turned out that Brittany was home and working in her garden. That seemed a little strange to him – Brittany had never been a gardener in all the years he’d known her. She was surprised to see him, of course, and even more surprised to see him wearing jeans and a flannel shirt. “Something tells me you’re not on your way to the plant in Meridian,” she said.

“No, not this time,” he admitted. “Brittany, I might as well tell you now. While I haven’t cut my ties entirely to Caldwell-Deerfield, I’ve cut them way back, and I’m exploring an employee buyout offer, although it’s still in the early stages.”

“It’s a little early for you to be retiring, isn’t it?”

“Perhaps, but there’s also no point in my continuing to work,” he told her. “There’s nothing to gain over what I already have. I’m moving on board my new boat tomorrow, and am planning on doing some cruising. I’m planning on being out of the area for a while, and I may never move back in this general vicinity to live. I just don’t have any firm plans further than a few months ahead.”

“That’s . . . well, not what I expected of you,” she shook her head. “But if that’s what you really want to do, I suppose you ought to go ahead and do it. This boat, is it something like Matthew’s?”

“It’s a sailboat, but quite a bit bigger and more comfortable,” he said. “And I’m not planning on crossing any oceans with it, at least not anytime soon. I can’t predict what will happen in the future.”

“I suppose that means there’s not much chance I’m going to be seeing Mary and Matty very soon,” she said in a disappointed tone. “I really would like to, but I’ve about given up hope that it’ll ever happen.”

“The last time I talked to Mary I made some progress in getting her to be willing to meet with you,” he said. “Obviously I didn’t talk her into it, but I think I did make some progress. Look, Brittany. I don’t want to get into it, but the two times you met Mary in the past you were very rude and condescending to her at best, and considerably worse than that at worst. My concern now is that Matty is getting old enough to remember if there’s a bad scene if and when you meet him again. What I’m saying is that even if Mary is willing, you could ruin a relationship with your grandson before it gets started.”

“If I have to run that risk, I have to,” she said slowly. “I realize now I was not very nice to Mary in the past, and now I’m sorry about it. But I at least want to see my grandson once, just to, well, just to make sure he’s real. I realize you have to do what you want to do, but I’m afraid you’ll be sailing off with any of my hopes for seeing him.”

“I’ll ask Mary again,” he told her. “I have an emergency contact for her I’ve never used. I ought to hear back from her fairly soon. I can’t predict what she’s going to say, but I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”

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