Things got back to normal after Amanda’s father went back home. There was still a lot of work to do, but to a great degree the plans for what she had to do had become organized and prioritized. The list had actually lengthened quite a bit, but things were getting scratched off it, too.

Amanda fell back to the routine she’d had before his visit. While a great deal of progress had been made on the soft deck problems it was far from being completed. The days were getting cooler now, occasionally damp and uncomfortable. The epoxy she was using required a minimum temperature, and a spell set in where it didn’t get warm enough very often, or sometimes for just two or three hours a day if it got there at all. That project soon became one of getting out and doing it when it was warm enough, and doing something else if it wasn’t.

Within a couple days after her father left, Amanda bought a small cat carrier. She decided the best thing would be for Beffy to get used to being in it, so she put the pile of rags that had become Beffy’s bed in it, and tried to pack away the soft and comfortable places around the cabin she’d also use to sleep. The little cat got the idea right away; the cat carrier soon became her little private hidey-hole. That meant Amanda could close the door and paint or varnish things, or use paint stripper, without any worry that the little cat would be poking her nose someplace where she shouldn’t.

The guys continued to come by when they had days off. Sometimes they couldn’t; there was a major oil spill down at Daytona Beach a week or so afterwards, and both Ron and Shades were on the quick-response team, which meant they were gone for a while. Zack still came by when he had a day off, once or twice a week. They usually managed to get quite a bit done, although Amanda had to teach him what she was doing and how she was doing it.

As Zack had told Amanda, he’d had no experience around boats before joining the Coast Guard. While he spent a lot of time riding around on one now and knew some of the basics of seamanship, he didn’t really know much about boat maintenance, which she had been doing for much of her life. Of course, some of the things that had to be done aboard the Rag Doll didn’t involve a lot of knowledge or experience, just a willingness to put up with tedium, so it worked out all right.

Of course, they spent a lot of time talking and playing with Beffy. Amanda told a lot of stories about growing up at home, working on the boats and at the Channel Stop, but she didn’t get many stories about his background – he just didn’t like to talk about it. There had to be something painful there, she thought, but she rarely got more than a hint about the details.

While she was curious about that facet of his background, she already knew that he was a fine friend otherwise. While he tended to be quiet around the other guys, even around Cordy when she happened to show up while he was there, when it was just the two of them he was a lot more open. Then, he was willing to talk about current experiences or what he’d done so far in the Coast Guard. They soon learned to joke around, tease each other, or just sit back quietly enjoying each other’s company as they sanded on something, or painted something, or worked on some of the other projects around the boat.

Amanda soon found herself looking forward to the days he’d be around, just because she was becoming so comfortable with him, despite the holes in his background she couldn’t get him to talk about. There was still nothing that could even be considered mildly serious going on between the two of them – they didn’t even kiss every time when they parted in the evenings – but when Cordy referred to Zack one day as Amanda’s boyfriend, Amanda didn’t exactly deny it. There was no telling where things were going with them, and whatever else happened they would probably be parting when Amanda headed back north in March, so she didn’t mind that things were not getting more serious.

Amanda still saw Cordy most days, sometimes at breakfast and sometimes out and around the boat yard. Every now and then Cordy would drop by the Rag Doll just to talk for a while, and maybe play with Beffy a little bit. They always could seem to find things to talk about too, even if they weren’t the same kinds of things she talked about with Zack.

One chilly and blustery day Amanda was sitting in the Rag Doll’s cabin with a cup of take-out coffee from Earlene’s Kitchen in her hand, contemplating the list and what she could do that day; it was clear the deck work was going to have to wait. She felt the boat tilt a little bit from someone stepping on deck, and heard Cordy’s voice: “Hey, Amanda! You there?”

Amanda stood up, slid back the top hatch, and poked her head out into the wind. “Hi, Cordy,” she said. “What’s up?”

“You doing anything useful today that can’t be put down?”

“Not really,” she admitted. “I was just thinking I wouldn’t mind getting out and doing something else for a change.”

“I got something else. I gotta go pick up a flat barge with the push boat, and I wouldn’t mind having an extra pair of hands in all this potlicking wind.”

“Sure,” Amanda replied, glad of the relief from having to be a slave to the work list for a while. “Let me get on a jacket and button the cabin up a bit.”

“Better grab some gloves, too. It’s chilly out there and sometimes barges can be pretty grubby.”

It didn’t take long to get the Rag Doll buttoned up a bit and tell Beffy that she was going to be gone for a while. In a few minutes the two girls were out on the push boat, heading out of the bayou toward the river. It didn’t take long to realize that this day wasn’t going to be much fun – the north wind was chilly out on the open deck of the push boat, without any seats or any place to get out of the wind. Very soon Amanda had second thoughts about the whole thing, although she realized she was stuck with it now.

Cordy felt it too. “Days like this,” she said in a loud voice over the sound of the wind and the diesel, “working in a fast food joint somewhere doesn’t seem like such a bad goddamn idea.”

“Yeah,” Amanda replied, huddled next to Cordy to use her as a windbreak a little. “But then a nice day comes along and where would you be? ‘Would you like fries with that?’”

“There is that,” Cordy admitted. “Tell you the truth, I ain’t sure I want to do this all my life. I like the working around boats and being outside, at least most of the time, but I’ll be damned if I want to be dirty around work boats the rest of my life, either.”

“I can understand that. This is the first time I’ve been out on the water away from the dock since we picked up the Rag Doll, and as crappy as it is, I’m glad to be out for a bit. You know, in a way this whole thing is kind of disappointing. I mean, I had visions of spending some time in a bikini, getting out and going swimming or laying on the beach.”

“That’s tourist stuff,” Cordy snorted. “I mean, I get to do it once in a while, but I’m busy working too often.”

“Well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun. Besides, up where I come from, it’s just a huge dream to be able to walk down to the lake for a swim in November. I figured I’d be doing it here, but hell, no. If it weren’t for the fact I’m busy with the boat, it’s still too cold and any beach where I could do it is still too far away. I keep thinking that maybe this time next year, or the year after that, I’ll have the Rag Doll someplace where it’s warm and I can lay out in the sun in my bikini or go for a swim without having to wonder if there are alligators anywhere around.”

“Shit, take me with you,” Cordy laughed. “I can think of worse things than a warm sun, a cold beer, and a bikini, and this is one of them.”

“I might just have to take you up on that,” Amanda told her. “I know I’ve got a lot to do on the Rag Doll yet, but every now and then I get the idea that there might be an end sometime in the distant somewhere after all.”

“So how’s it going, anyway? I know you’ve been working right along on it.”

“About another ten hours of work and I ought to be done with filling the deck. That’s going to be a huge milestone, just to have that out of the way. Then I’m going to have to figure out what to do about the deck fittings. I’m thinking I may have to put up with some of the old ones for a while, even though they’re junk, just because new ones are going to cost so much. But then, there’s a lot of other stuff I’m going to have to spend money on. I probably won’t have it to spend until after I get back to work next summer.”

“Well, it ain’t like you thought you were going to get it done this winter anyway.”

“There’s that, but even if I get it done next winter I still need to have some money to go somewhere with it.”

“I thought you had a sailboat so you didn’t have to burn fuel to go somewhere.”

“Still have to have some, for maneuvering, or if I run the Intracoastal. Besides, there’s food, mooring expenses, slippage, and who knows what else.”

“Yeah, and in a sailboat I’ll bet they get you coming and going, too. You want to run this thing for a while so I can stand behind you and warm up a little?”

The two girls exchanged places so Amanda could get to the controls of the push boat. The controls were actually pretty minimal, but it was nice to be able to steer a boat out on the water again.

It was a couple hours to where they were going, where a small barge, perhaps twice as long and twice as wide as the push boat, was tied to a pier. “Basic chipping and painting job,” Cordy told her. “It really needs to be hauled out somewhere so the bottom can be done, but we can’t do that up at the boat yard since it’s way too heavy for that piece of shit crane we have. The owner wants to cheap it out, and we won the bid, or maybe lost it. Oh well, it’s that sort of shit that keeps us going.”

Amanda’s seamanship may have been pretty good, but she was at a total loss when it came to rigging a barge to be handled by a push boat. However, Cordy knew all she needed to know about that and then some, and she was quick to show Amanda the ropes. In a matter of minutes the tow knees of the push boat were nestled up against the barge and tied snugly into place. “As soon as we slack off the ropes on the barge this wind is gonna try to take it to Orlando,” Cordy told her. “I’m gonna try to take some slack off the lines with the push boat so you can get them off, but hop on the barge right quick once you get them off ’cause I’m gonna have trouble getting this thing swung around.”

It would be unfair to say that it was pretty slick, but at least it worked more or less as planned. Using the power of the push boat Cordy was able to get some slack in the mooring lines, and Amanda cast them off, the closer one last, and waved her arms to Cordy as a sign to “take her away.”

The engine of the push boat bellowed as Cordy backed the barge out of the tight spot by the dock, canting the whole tow to offset the crosswind. It would have been simpler if she could have gotten behind the barge in the first place but there wasn’t room to do it. Cordy had to back the tow a hundred yards or so, fighting the wind, before she was finally able to throw the push boat’s helm over and swing the tow around.

With things back under control, Amanda jumped down from the barge and onto the deck of the push boat, where she discovered that Cordy at the helm could just barely see anything ahead of her. “Well done,” Amanda told her. “You sure snaked that thing out of there nicely.”

“Well, so far, so good,” Cordy told her. “We may have some tight spots where you’ll have to get back up on the barge to point where I’m going, but odds are we ought to be all right now. At least we’ll have the barge blocking the wind for us a little. Afraid it’s going to be a long trip back though.”

“Yeah, headed into the wind is going to be even colder. I’m gonna be glad to get this thing home, and go someplace for a burger and some coffee. If it was a little later I’d say you and me ought to take off and go have a couple beers.”

“Sounds good,” Amanda told her. “But I’ve got a few weeks to go before I turn twenty-one.”

“Well, shit,” Cordy snorted. “I guess maybe I’ll have to take you out and get you drunk when the time comes.”

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to stand in line on that one,” Amanda laughed. “Ron and his Coastie buddies have already made plans to do it.”

“Maybe I’ll have to invite myself along,” Cordy grinned back. “I mean, I can think of worse things than going out drinking with a bunch of good-looking guys.”

“I don’t know when Ron is going to be back from this oil spill business,” Amanda told her friend. “The last time I saw Zack he thinks it’s going to be in the next few days. Maybe I’ll have to run it by them. I doubt we’re going to get drunk on our asses, though.”

“Yeah, me too. They don’t seem like they’re those kinds of guys. I mean, I’ve hung around with guys who really like to drink, and when they go out to drink they go out to get shit-faced. That kind of shit gets old after a while.”

“I don’t think I’d care to get drunk on my ass myself. I mean, a little buzzed, that’s fine. I’m just looking forward to being able to have a beer or two after work sometime, and not have anyone get on my ass about it.”

“It is nice to be able to do that,” Cordy sighed. “Of course, it’d be nicer to have a good guy to do it with, but maybe someone will come along sometime. Too damn bad we didn’t think to bring lunch, or even a thermos of coffee, ’cause I’m afraid it’s gonna get awful damn cold before we get back.”

“I’m thinking if one of us were to go up and sit down by the towing knees we might be able to be out of the wind for a little. Of course, that assumes you’ll trust me with this tow in this wind.”

Cordy thought about it for a moment. “I suppose it won’t hurt in a few minutes when we get around this bend. That way we’ll have the wind right on the nose and it ought to be a bit easier. I’ll just have to keep an eye on you, but if you think you’re getting into any trouble, just sing out. It shouldn’t be too bad after that, though.”

Amanda took the opportunity to get out of the wind a little like she’d suggested. It wasn’t perfect, but was better, and gave her the chance to get off her feet for a couple minutes, no matter that she was messing up her jeans on the grubby, muddy deck. She could change when she got back, after all. Mostly she was watching Cordy competently handle the tow while thinking that sometime in the next couple days she was going to have to make a laundry run – it had to be done every week or ten days or so.

After a while Cordy waved at her to come up and take over the wheel for a few minutes so she could get her turn at a break from the wind. She’d already found out that the going was slow and the tow was unwieldy in the wind; if it got out of the dead eye of the wind it took quite a bit of wheel to catch it and get it back on course. This was worse than handling the Chinook, or the Pixie, the family sailboat up north, for that matter. She could see that when they got a little more crosswind, it could take quite a bit of wheel to keep the tow on course.

It was unfair to say the tow was crawling along, as the big diesel under the deck was doing a good job of pushing things along. On a little nicer day this could be enjoyable, she thought, but today it was mostly a pain in the neck. At least it got her away from the Rag Doll for a little, giving her something else to do.

Cordy just let her steer the tow until the time came they had to change course. She got up and stood by Amanda to let her get the feel of it. There was still a long way to go, but they were making progress.

Once they got settled down on the new course Cordy said, “Hey, while I was down there out of the wind, I got to thinking about you and them deck fittings you’re worried about. Is there anything on the Sea Bright that you could use?”

“What’s the Sea Bright?”

“That’s a sailboat Pa picked up for scrap last summer, probably a little bigger than yours. The boat got smashed up against a dock by another boat and sunk. There was a Perkins diesel in it, and Pa bought it for a song to get the motor, and we found a guy who wanted the mast. We cut the keel off it, sold it for scrap, and then hauled it out to the edge of the swamp and dumped what’s left, since we don’t often have any use for any of that sailboat shit. I don’t have no idea of what’s on it, but I recall there’s some deck blocks and shit. Maybe you could use some of it.”

“If it’s there, I never noticed it among all the other junk boats and stuff,” Amanda told her. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it. Are you sure your dad would be all right with my salvaging stuff off of it?”

“Pretty sure,” Cordy replied. “If it’s been hauled out there for junk, it’s junk to us. Pa was talking the other day that he needs to get someone in here sometime to flatten some of that stuff out so it can get hauled to a landfill or something. Like I said, we don’t often have any use for that sailboat shit, but if you like I’ll ask him to be sure.”

“Why don’t you?” Amanda said, figuring that there probably wouldn’t be much there of use. Well, possibly a deck fitting or two, maybe more, but at fifty bucks or more per fitting, well, fifty bucks was fifty bucks. “I’ll try to take a slide over there when we get in to see what there is.”

“You might want to look around while you’re there, since there might be something else you could find a use for.”

“Yeah, could be,” she conceded. It wouldn’t cost anything to look. “We’ll have to do it.”

“Good enough. Now, go get out of the wind for a bit while I wrestle this thing some more.”

It took a couple more hours to get the tow back to the boat yard. By the time they did both girls were cold and ready for some coffee and something to eat. They didn’t have the tow tied up and the push boat put away for long before they were in Amanda’s car, looking for something to eat. It was late enough that Earlene’s Kitchen was closed for the day, but the Denny’s was only a couple miles farther on and worth the stop. At least it was warm in the restaurant and the seats comfortably soft; besides the coffee was good and neither of them had to cook the food.

After an hour or so they headed back to the boat yard. Amanda went right to the Rag Doll, mostly to change her rather dirty clothes and to assure Beffy that she hadn’t been forgotten. Of course, that turned into a little pet-and-purr session while Amanda thought about what she could do on the boat for the rest of the day.

She’d just about made up her mind when Cordy knocked on the companionway hatch again. “I talked to Pa,” she said. “He says that you can have any of that sailboat shit you find over there, whether it’s the Sea Bright or anything else. You want me to go along and show you where it is?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Amanda pulled her jacket back on – it was still breezy in the boat yard, although nothing as bad as it had been out on the water on the push boat – and buttoned up the Rag Doll’s cabin.

The junk heap was on the far side of the boat yard in a place where Amanda hadn’t been before. There were several hulls sitting out there, mostly power boats but a few sailboats, too. Cordy led her to a battered-looking yellow hull sitting mostly on its side; one look was all it took to tell that a chain saw had been used to get the engine out of the hull. The mast and keel were gone, and the boat pretty much looked like crap.

But she was more interested in the deck right then, and they had to walk around to the far side to look at it, squishing through soft ground; Amanda hoped there were no gators around, but at least she didn’t see any.

The deck of the Sea Bright looked pretty sad, too, but Amanda’s eye was caught with the bright shine of stainless steel – a deck block. She took a closer look; it was bright and mostly untarnished, if dirty – but just about the best brand on the market. Yes, she could use this; there was a hundred bucks sitting there!

She looked around. There was more than one deck fitting, there were a lot of them. She didn’t have her list of what she needed with her, but just looking by eye, there was most of what she was going to need there, plus some stanchions and life lines that looked to be in better shape than what was on the Rag Doll. What’s more, on what looked to be the cabin top there were several solar panels! There was no telling if they would work, but they could be checked out!

“Cordy,” she said, trying to be honest, “there’s stuff here that’s worth quite a bit of money.”

“Maybe to the right person,” Cordy shrugged. “But if you don’t take it, it’s going to go to the landfill. Pa said it was all right for you to take what you need.”

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