Ryan

Unlike the other stories, Ryan is in the near future

Rev 2

Is there an Escape

Tracking down cyber crime was relatively lucrative and an increasing knowledge of computer viruses, trojans and malware was useful in more than one line of business. He got paid, and often negotiated a percentage bonus. Often that was paid in crypto currency which he diverted to his private Swiss account. Before he got into the dark web, he’d done a lot of work for the military both sides of the Atlantic and they liked to pay in the more anonymous crypto currencies too.

Sometimes the criminals were exposed and an interminable trial ensued which Ryan made every effort to avoid. Names may not have been published, but just seeing who was going in and out of the courthouse was enough incrimination. Ultimately, this was high risk. 

Often he came across information and side hustles that were nothing to do with his mainstream investigation. He tended to keep quite about those, anticipating that it would cause more trouble than it was worth and he was unlikely to get paid for that information. No doubt some of it would come in handy – sometime.

Hiding and being anonymous online was straightforward if you were careful. But now he was coming to the conclusion that he’d ridden his luck far enough. Sooner or later he’d make a mistake and that would be very detrimental to his health. It was time to lie low for a while. He was splitting up with Tiffany anyway. They’d had a good run of five years, but they were, and always had been, progressing their lives in very different directions and a very civilised conversation resulted in them agreeing that it was in both their best interests to retrieve their independence. They hadn’t fallen out, they were still friends, but their interests, lifestyles and aspirations had diverged since they’d met and this was inevitable – sooner or later.

But that stash of crypto could also catch up with him if he tried to use it. He might be asked where he got it from and the various companies and government agencies that had paid him might not want to be named. It could also become taxable. What he needed to do was buy something. Something big. Anonymously. But not property as there were too many checks on those transactions. What about a yacht?

 He made a feeble attempt at hacking and found that the website for the prestigious Canada West brand was almost an open door. He found the random name of a successful property developer in California called Colin Stanton, and set the Canada West system to divert any emails to him to his own account. Stanton was unlikely to notice. He wasn’t a client of theirs – yet.

 The plan was to impersonate him – but only temporarily and only on-line. Stanton’s billing page showed that invoices should be paid to an account in Bank of America, so he opened an account in a very similar name at Capital One and transferred two hundred thousand dollars into it to pay the deposit. 

The discussion about the specification, options and extras was all online, the order placed and the correspondence all but dried up. 

The now less frequent emails became more familiar asking how business was, which Ryan found easily enough from Stanton’s website. This was good, and the deal was completed using anonymous crypto. He’d leave the redirection bug in their system for a while, but eventually he’d take it out, just in case it was discovered by accident and that could identify him. Instead, he changed the diversion to a random dummy account he’d opened so that, at least, Stanton didn’t get them himself. He wrote himself a letter of introduction from Stanton and showed up for the handover in a small harbour just south of Vancouver. 

Ryan was now in possession of a huge blue water sailing ketch, and light of most of his unaccountable crypto. All he had to do now was teach himself how to sail. And register it in England, once he managed to sail that far. Salamander was a suitable name as most salamanders were aquatic, some fully, and all had remarkable regenerative ability to recover from injury. Ryan liked to think he was good at recovery as happened so many times in his career, and also  recover from Tiffany. But there was no hurry – it could take a whole year. Or more! And he was no artist. It could take him that long to paint an acceptable lizard on the stern.

He limped down to Mexico and hung out for a while doing some remote work for various US agencies. It wasn’t hard, and it paid well. It was secret, and that commanded a premium as well. And being of no fixed address was useful too. Web trackers were finding it difficult to locate him – and he kept moving to impossible places – like 30 miles off-shore, although his satellite phone could be traced. Now it was time to motor through the Panama Canal and sail up to the Caribbean, maybe to reintroduce himself to the rest of humanity. Only then did someone tell him casually that you needed a minimum crew of four to sail one of these yachts. It had never occurred to him that he couldn’t do it all by himself – the winches were all electric with controllers in the cockpit - and now he wondered how he’d ever managed to sail the last 5000 miles. Hanging out with three other people for any contiguous length of time was simply not on his radar. And anyway, he’d always done things by himself. 

But time had moved on and he’d found nothing to suggest he was in any sort of trouble in any country he’d been in. It was safe to re-emerge. Maybe it always had been. 

Return to Europe

The village store was pretty much bereft of anything edible. The plan had been to buy enough supplies for the entire journey, but that would be four to five weeks. What he could get here would last two to three days, but ok, that would get him to Montego Bay. As a smaller port it could easily be in the same state and Jamaica wasn’t exactly the safest place on earth these days. But there were few other choices without risking Santiago in Cuba.

Ryan made sure that everything that could be stowed was locked below decks and left the Salamander with some trepidation. Maybe the plan should be to get enough to last as far as Santa Domingo at the expense of another couple of days? Maybe. Time wasn’t that critical – at least not yet.

Montego Bay, and the store was well stocked with plenty of international brands with familiar packaging – and happy to accept US dollars. He took a cab back to the marina and bribed the jockey to drive through to the jetty despite abuse from the harbour master.

This move was not unnoticed from the Water Babes either. Here was someone not short of money, someone stocking up for a longer passage, someone who looked like they might be heading for Martinique or the Virgin Islands. In other words, someone worth travelling with. 

Nicola had noticed as well, She didn’t count herself as a Water Baby. This wasn’t her full time occupation which in any case was only a short step away from the oldest profession. That wasn’t her game – or was it? That would inevitably be the price of a ride. And a repeat performance from whichever island he was heading for next - she’d be looking for something similar until she could find the big one – the yacht that was actually heading transatlantic and she could get home. In the meantime she resigned herself to being a … It made her cry, but alternatives were worse and would prolong her captivity. So sooner or later, she’d have to buy her way out with the only thing she had to sell.

She slipped her small rucksack over one shoulder and hurried as slowly as she dared to where he was loading.

“How many of you on board? Don’t suppose you’ve got room for a chief cook and bottle washer, have you”

Ryan turned, still holding two cases of cola

“Nope. And you don’t even know where I’m going””

“I don’t need to know where you’re going. I just need to get off this island”

He’d met his fair share of Water Babies before. They hung out at most ports around the Caribbean and provided often welcome entertainment for many of the American summertime cruisers. He, himself, usually avoided them finding them short of conversation and poor company both in the galley and the cabin.

He left her standing there without a definite resolution as he continued loading. It was too risky leaving stock like this on the jetty and the sooner it was on board the better. 

He heaved the last bag onto the aft deck with her still waiting. She’d said ‘please’ a couple of times and seemed to still have some hope of hitching her ride 

“Supposing I was heading for Santiago?” 

“You wouldn’t need that much food just to get to Cuba…” 

“Look, I’m not headed for Martinique, or the US Virgins” 

“Dominican Republic?” 

He shook his head. 

“Babe, you really don’t want to be sailing with me. Where are you trying to get to anyway, or just anywhere with someone who’s buying the beer?” 

“Please… Any of the outer islands would be good” 

“It’s not on my route. Sorry, but I’m direct transatlantic”

None of this had gone unheard by Senita. She was hardly attractive enough to be a Water Baby, but then, that wasn’t her main occupation either. But with this new information she was now on a tight schedule and slipped away unnoticed before the conversation finished. 

“Really, oh wow! But that’s why I want to get to the outer islands. There’s more chance of a European yacht there” 

This was different. Most Water Babies just wanted to cruise between the expensive islands at someone else’s expense. 

“Transatlantic?” he questioned, bewildered and now with some sympathy 

“Yes. Please. Oh please! All I want to do is go home, and that’s in England” 

“How about I just give you a hundred bucks. That’d get you a plane to Barbados?” 

“Except…… except I don’t have a passport” 

Ryan sighed 

“I wasn’t planning to go to England. How about Barcelona, or Sardinia” 

“Oh! Yes please! I’ll do anything just to get as far as Spain” 

“Let’s both forget you said that. But if you’re coming as well, we’ll need more food” 

Now two hours later than expected, he cast off the bow line and returned to the cockpit. A quick jab on the jib sheet saw the bow drift from the jetty. Nicola was stowing her rucksack in her allocated cabin, while he was making every effort to avoid all the other yachts around. It would all be easier out in the open ocean, and maybe an unplanned companion for the journey wouldn’t be all bad. And at least she spoke with an educated European accent. 

That evening he set a slow autopilot and cooked dinner. His plan was simply to get to know her. There’s a fair chance they’d like each other enough not to fall out completely in the next two thousand miles, and he reckoned that the close quarters would only encourage something to happen between them, but he was in no rush to make demands. 

Nicola, however, was expecting immediate action, she wasn’t looking forward to it even when she rationalised it. They’d met. They liked each other. She’d gone back to his place. Of course they’d end up in bed together. Except in these circumstances she felt it was payment offered rather than pleasure shared. Even if she had instigated it and in any case, had no option.

But dinner was finished, the boat was set for the night, it had been a big day and somehow they just managed to say good night before adjourning to separate cabins. 

He was up first the next day and looked genuinely pleased to see her as she climbed up to the cockpit. She wasn’t a seasoned sailor, if fact, something of a novice, but she was interested in learning and that took out most of the day. 

Senita, meanwhile, had returned to her colleagues. Yachts that size were expected to transmit ID signals. Generally, Ryans whole life philosophy was based on conforming to as few rules or regulations as was necessary to stay out of jail. But an id in and around these Caribbean islands was expected and that made the Salamander easy to track. 

It was late morning on day three. Ryan had picked up the north west eddy and that current was helping them make progress to the tune of eight knots. 

Nicola was in the saloon thinking whether to make lunch, ask him if she should make lunch, or simply leave him to make lunch. The last thing she expected was for him to enter into an argument with someone. What! We’re a fifty miles off the nearest island, and someone has come to see us? She tried to decide whether to go up to find out who it was or to hide in case it was trouble. 

But there were definitely people there. As far as she could tell from listening, there were two guys and a girl. Maybe their yacht had sunk and they were adrift in need of rescue! She crept along to the aft cabin to hear better. 

But the yacht was now heeling over at an angle. The newcomers were loading packs of something heavy from their speed boat and it was making the whole yacht unstable, especially with her as well as two newcomers and Ryan all on that side. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good, and if Ryan needed help he needed it now. She slipped as large a kitchen knife as she could hide under her sun-dress and poked her head over the cabin. 

She recognised Senita from the harbour. She was continuously prodding or poking Ryan with what looked like a short machete as he reluctantly helped stack the new cargo into a neat solid stack. Some of these prods were drawing blood, and Ryans shirt was beginning to turn a concerning shade of red. Her task seemed to be to operate the loading crane as one of the guys was loading it from their speedboat, the other was unloading it and Ryan was stacking it, in between being cut to ribbons.

Nicola had no idea what was going on, but didn’t have time to find out. The unloader looked round, perhaps sensing that someone was watching, but on seeing Nicola, he turned on Senita 

“You said he was travelling alone. We’re gonna have to deal with her as well now. If you were any more dumb…..” 

But Ryan had already taken advantage of the diversion. He’d loosened the mizzen boom and now jumped sideways to avoid Senita’s sword as the boom swung violently around. For once the sheet didn’t snag on anything and it caught the unloader mid chest. He lost balance and with another push, cleared the hand rail and splashed into the Atlantic. 

With surprising agility, Senita let go of the crane controls, ducked underneath the mizzen boom and lunged towards him. Nicola’s scream startled her, only for a second, but enough time for Ryan to assess his options. None. There was a girl with a lethal sword in front of him and an ocean behind him. The pack on the crane had plummeted back into the speedboat and it was still rocking in danger of turfing loader guy overboard, now helped as Ryan leapt from the deck landing in the speedboat, falling onto the floor. Loader guy was already in trouble, and now more so as the boat rocked precariously. Ryan attacked him tying the mooring line round his leg and immediately starting the outboards, setting full throttle and diving into the water. Still rocking, the boat took off at speed. Loader lost balance and fell over the stern as the boat gained speed, but was towed along behind like a water skier who’d lost his skis. 

Left unattended, the yacht had turned to head downwind. The under-current was still running at eight knots. But Catcher guy was no Olympic swimmer and was left bobbing in the swell to play with the fish as the yacht moved on with the wind.

Senita peered out in a panic. Was one of them still in the water? Or had he climbed aboard? It would be impossible to identify this strong current from on board as there was no frame of reference, but her other colleague was headed South leaving her behind. Why? What’s going on? Or was that Ryan driving the speedboat, deserting his girlfriend and leaving her behind too? 

But Ryan wasn’t being left behind. The sheet for the mizzen sail had dropped overboard when he’d swung the boom, and that was still trailing within catching distance even as everything was hurtling through the water together. 

It was quiet, near silent, with only a swish of breeze in the mainsail. But, thought Senita, only two of us aboard now, me and his girlfriend. Fifty miles from shore, would a distress flare be seen. No, dumb idea. The last thing I need is the coastguards with me and two hundred kilos of cocaine. They’d never believe I’d been kidnapped. Not with my track record, and was still confused, as Nicola found her voice 

“What are you doing?” she screamed at her “what have you done. Can you sail this thing?” 

“No. And don’t you try anything or I’ll slit your throat" 

“Is that worse than drifting till we fry to death, or drown, or get taken by sharks?” 

“But you can sail this barge….?” 

“Not me. I don’t even know which way to point it" 

They glared at each other in silence for several minutes, before Senita made a dive towards her with a demonic shriek. Nicola jumped onto the cabin roof and slithered down the other side. How long can a deadly game of chase last in a limited space of 20 metres? 

Ryan had hauled himself in on the trailing mizzen line and had made it as far as the diving deck. He hid behind the RIB trying to ignore his back which was on fire as the salt water penetrated the dozens of cuts and scratches that Senita had inflicted on him. He tried to think. What weapons did he have apart from what he was wearing? Whose side was Nicola on. Was she really just a Trojan Horse? Would she just side with whoever she thought would win? Where are they both now? What did he know to his advantage that they didn't?. 

The standoff seemed to be around the central cockpit, and while they concentrated on each other, he could slip unnoticed down into the saloon, forward to the bow and up through the bow hatch that they were unlikely to even know existed. Then he could hide behind the pallets. The pallets had been there for nearly three months now. Left over from some additional equipment, they were topped by a deflated rubber dingy with a small hole in it. He’d tried to get rid of this rubbish on a number of ports, but harbour masters seemed to have no use for such remnants. And now it had all found a purpose.

Hidden, he dropped the jib sail with a thunderous crash. The girls froze, but Nicola was first to investigate sliding to a stop just stern side of the sail. 

 Senita wasn’t far behind rushing up at the other side of the yacht. Rats! One girl to the left, one to the right. What I didn’t need - a pincer movement

"Freeze! Both of you” hissed Ryan appearing at the top of the pile “First to move goes over the side" 

Nicola gulped in air. Now it was her turn to question whose side everyone was on. She wasn’t the only one. Senita assumed that Nicola was on his side, and without her she had a fighting chance to take on Ryan – girl with machete versus unarmed male.

Senita broke the standoff “You!” she shouted at Nicola “Bring that rope over here real slow. If I have to come over there I’ll slit your throat”

“You carry on” risked Ryan trying to sound calm “I have no use for your Trojan Horse. However else would your know where I was going? And then I’ll only have one of you to sort out”

Nicola gasped in disbelief “that’s not true” she yelled, momentarily forgetting the mortal danger she was in. But that alone was enough to startle an already edgy Senita. Ryan ripped a broken timber from the pallet and took a step towards her. Now distracted, she didn’t notice the jib sheet that he’d swung at her. Ducking under it she dropped her sword. In panic she dived towards Nicola. She knew she couldn’t take on both of them. Instead, she turned quickly, tripped Nicola and hoisted her over the hand rail. 

“Yeah, well I don’t need her either!” 

Perhaps not believing that she’d actually done that, she glanced over the side of the yacht as Nicola hit the ocean. That was sufficient distraction. He snatched the lifebelt from its hook and swung it full force connecting directly with her neck and ear, before skimming it out in the direction he hoped Nicola was now heading.

Reeling from the blow Senita stumbled and Ryan lunged, latching a vice like grip on her right wrist, lashing it to the hand rail with the jib sheet, ignoring the punching she was landing on his shoulders. Then the left hand avoiding the kicking. That would keep her out of trouble for a few minutes. Now Nicola. Oh my! Dive over and swim after her to make sure she got the life belt. No. If Senita breaks loose she could start the engine and leave us both without a chance. 

Instead he slithered straight over the cabin roof, down to the diving deck and in less than 30 seconds had unclipped the rib, jumped in and started the outboard. At least we’d be able to chase the yacht if she steals it. He stood up with a long arm on the tiller, scanning the surface through a wide arc. But wait! Another card is falling my way! He slowed to stop and leant over the side to fish out the nylon life belt cord that was floating on the surface. It was a hundred metres long and supposed to be tied securely to the capstan on the fore deck. He gave it a pull and a surprised yelp told him he’d not only got the life belt, but a Nicola attached to it. Restart the engine, haul in some of the line, turn and head back

“Hold on!” he yelled “Don’t let go” while he continued to haul in the catch. 

He’d pulled her all the way in just as he got back to the diving deck and helped her onto it. She tangled her arms round him as he flinched noticeably – yet more salt in those wounds, but they both now knew whose side everyone was on.

“Stay here till you’ve recovered a bit”
 “Ok. But.. But.. where’s Senita?”
 “Hopefully just where I left her”

He knew he should rush back to make sure Senita hadn’t broken loose, but decided instead to risk another half minute on a reassuring hug for Nicola. Or was it for his own benefit?

Back at the fore deck, Senita had managed to squirm far enough along the hand rail to find a damaged bolt head that had some of the characteristics of a saw. He stopped a pace from her, relieved that she was still here and not waiting to ambush him 

“Don’t you come any closer”

“Shut up. What’ you gonna do about it?”

But now for the first time since the invasion began, there was no rush. Ryan wasn’t in a hurry to do much. He looped his leg around hers to prevent her kicking him and tied the trapped leg to the wooden pallet that he had found so useful to hide behind. The rope was quite long giving her quite some latitude, but that wasn’t going to last long. He heaved the stack closer to her and separated the rubber from the wood. “What are you doing?” she demanded thinking that there was a chance it might involve her.

Carefully he untied each limb and retied it to the pallet. 

Nicola had recovered enough to move and appeared silently as he tied the fourth knot. He smiled gently at her as she moved closer to take a better look. She never had looked much like she was in danger of siding with Senita

“What are you going to do with her now?” she asked in a fragmented voice 

“Not having a four poster handy, I thought I’d spread eagle her on a pallet instead. But I can’t see her running away anytime soon, so maybe it’s snack time. Can’t see any of us being interested in a full size dinner.” 

“No. At the risk of losing even more strength, maybe tomorrow”

“Maybe Nicola…” as he hauled two cans of cola from the fridge “…But I’m injured. Perhaps you’ve heard of ‘death by a thousand cuts’? Well, that was Senita’s plan. The body can handle a cut - it just heals up. Even two cuts. But there’s a limit. Over that limit it can’t handle all those minor injuries at the same time and it goes into shock. Usually, it doesn’t come out again. And because it cant cope with the quantity, some of those wounds get infected. Of course, this all takes time, and during that time the victim gets weaker. But it would be enough time to get close to the other side where she would hand over to the next crew, but this time with no resistance”

“So what are you going to do with me?” demanded Senita

“Hmmm. Maybe we’ll take you along as a hostage. Not sure. Getting those shorts down far enough to hump you will be a problem with your legs out like that. So I’ll just think about it for a while. Don’t go away now. Just hang out with a bit of sunbathing.” 

“But I’ll burn alive!” 

“Yeah, well you’re gonna roast in hell anyway, so it’s just a foretaste of what’s to come” 

Nicola ignored her. She’d tried to kill her. Was this becoming a common theme? But she was still more interested in helping Ryan, asking what, if anything, she could do 

“Try to stop shaking. It’s making me nervous, but the sea is becoming more choppy and the wave crests are dangerously close to the deck so the next job I was hoping to avoid but we need to heave those sacks across the deck to balance the boat, then we’ll get a drink, and maybe a cake and recover. But if you really wanted to help…” 

“…. I’ll do anything you want, Ryan, really” 

“In that case, you can wrap me up in clingfilm” 

She eased his t-shirt off, which in itself was quite seductive, sponged down the cuts with clean water and wound the thin plastic tightly round his body as he’d said. This act of nurse maid detracted from her own trauma and they both felt much better afterwards. It even felt like there was a possibility of survival. 

Ryan opened a cake, cutting three slices and handing Nicola two cans of Pepsi. He took the third slice and a large bottle of water out to Senita, untying her left hand, securing it instead at the upper arm and elbow so that she could eat and drink, albeit with some difficulty. 

“What’s that all for!” asked Nicola as he returned 

“Just to make her feel bad that we can still be kind and generous. And I want her to stay alive long enough to consider her past. And her future if she decides she wants one.”

She followed him back to the fore deck where the cake and most of the water had gone. A gentle breeze had picked up, but the bow was still high with this extra weight at the stern, but not for long. 

“So why have you got all those pallets” 

“They’re for building a raft, in the event that I need a raft. And I need a raft just about now” 

Ryan moved fairly slowly. His back hurt, it felt like it was on fire, but the effort of moving the packs of cocaine kept his mind off it.

“What you doin’ with them?” demanded Senita, still considering them hers even though none of them was invited.

“Thought I’d tie you to a couple of them and see long they float”

Packs now repositioned, Nicola helped him lash the pallets together and inflate the dingy. Then he held up one side of the pallet that Senita was on while Nicola pushed the rest of the raft underneath.

Now the plan started to dawn on Senita as they carefully craned it up and over the hand rail. Only now did she realise the seriousness of her situation. She started shouting for help, and mercy and sympathy, but finding none available reverted to hurling abuse. Ryan tied a cord round her head as a gag and mumbling prevailed as he lowered it to the ocean.

So far it was floating rather well. But now Ryan was adding the packs, placing them carefully to maintain balance. It was floating, but now it was low in the water. He pumped the rubber dingy back up and the levels improved. With all the packs in position he ventured round at sea level in the rib and untied the gag. That simply resulted in more abuse, he retied it so that he could speak. 

“Ok. This is goodbye. You’re still alive. That was in the balance an hour ago. You’ve got a loaf of bread and 10 litres of water. You’ve got two distress flares, but obviously if you use them and the coastguard finds you with half a ton of cocaine, then that’s your rap. Or you could ditch the coke, and explain that to whoever owns it. The choices are yours. What you’re not going to do is stay here. I live on a yacht specifically to avoid other people who insist that their rules, ethics and beliefs have a right to interfere with my existence. You have invaded my life uninvited, and that, in my book, is unforgivable. He returned to the yacht, started the engine and showed Nicola where the throttle was

“When I shout, push those throttle levers all the way forward” and returned to the raft. He placed her sword conveniently out of reach, untied the raft, untied her right hand and shouted to Nicola. 

The yacht lurched forward and accelerated. She’d never driven one of these before. How to do this? Was I meant to steer it with this big wheel here? But Ryan would keep pace in the rib until they were all far enough away from the raft. She watched as it became a smaller dot in the wake, and with much relief handed the controls back to Ryan. 

Dusk was falling. Four eyelids were falling and Ryan handed her a small glass of wine. He clinked it ‘here’s to tomorrow” as the breeze tugged gently at the mains’l and the autopilot headed east. 

Nicola seemed to be an exception. She certainly wasn’t a regular Water Babe. She wanted to help, to pull her weight. She wanted to learn about the yacht and sailing and navigation, and her assertion that all she wanted to do was go home, was backed by a complex tale of misfortune.

Falling out with parents and suffering a boring job, she’d decided with a friend of hers in a pub late one night to do something about it. They’d buy a cheap flight to the States, and an even cheaper flight with South West Airlines to Florida or one of the Caribbean islands and look for work on a super yacht.

Dramatic, adventurous, exciting, not forgetting terminally dangerous. 

But work was hard to find. There were dozens of local people all looking for work in addition to the migrant interlopers like herself. There were only a couple of super yachts, and she fairly quickly discovered what the only sort of work was that was available. That wasn’t in the plan.

 Their luck changed three weeks in. It wasn’t a super yacht, but it was pretty big. It was flying an Italian flag, and there was a party planned. All guests were by invitation and this had been set up for months. This was their reason for being here and now they needed some extra help with preparations and waitressing at the event.

She tried to be a good servant, doing everything as quickly as she could and going back to ask about the next task. This, however, seemed to get her into trouble as she kept reappearing in the middle of sensitive conversations, and through this she'd discovered that Loretta was no longer around. Somewhere, she'd disappeared and Felix, her husband, was very twitchy about it when anyone asked where she was. There were drug connections here, and some sort of extortion as well. It all looked to Nicola like it was a floating hotel for the mafia, but she made sure that she never mentioned any of these thoughts to anyone.

Despite this it was all going rather well. She got paid by the day, the guys were all relatively polite and there was no expectation that her work would extend into the bedroom. She'd been there a week before someone found out she spoke Italian. She'd picked up a few words from her holidays there with her parents when she was younger, but this revelation made the Italians suddenly very nervous. They knew she’d overheard some of their conversations, what they hadn’t appreciated was that she might actually have understood them. Now she found herself earwigging again and she was concerned that she might have interpreted it correctly. They thought that she might know too much. This could be a risk. She doesn’t normally do this kind of thing. She's new here. She's not a Water Babe. She's too intelligent. Maybe she's a spy. She's undercover. She's a threat. We cant take the chance.

Nervously she returned to her cabin, except there was someone in it, who violently pushed past her and disappeared. Nothing looked particularly disturbed - until she noticed her travel wallet. It was on the side table and she hadn't left it there. And her passport was missing. 

That evening, she packed everything into her little rucksack, and then carried on as normal the next day. She became aware of a few strange looks, was someone watching her? She also wanted to get her passport back and waited until she thought everyone was at lunch. She approached the cabin that they used as their office, listening carefully, but was not encouraged by what she heard. She was definitely on the suspects list and that was dangerous. The meeting was breaking up and they filed out into the corridor right next to her, looking suspiciously and asking what she was doing in this part of the boat. She had her answer ready, but was sure they didn’t believe her. Now she was definitely in trouble. She hurried down to her cabin, snatched her bag and headed for the dockside. Spotted! She ran to the gangway and jumped onto the jetty. There was a yacht just leaving – they had just cast off and she raced up the harbour breaking her record for the long jump off the end of the pier and onto the foredeck. She crashed into the far handrail and squirmed around the far side of the cabin to hide.

The two pursuit Italians now looked lost. Had she jumped into the harbour? Was she hiding, clinging to a sea ladder? 

The three guys in the cockpit clocked it. A crash sounding like someone landing and two guys stopping abruptly at the end of the pier. But the captain was concentrating on clearing the narrow entrance as three smaller craft were coming in.

The five guys on board were all American. They’d sailed down from Fort Lauderdale and were now heading for The Cayman islands where they were due to meet their wives and girlfriends. Nicola apologised for crashing in uninvited, but agreed to do the cooking if they let her stay. They were already behind schedule and planning on night sailing to make up time. They’d no intention of throwing her overboard, so, relatively unscathed, she arrived in Grand Cayman with no easy way of getting out. Until she got lucky and found Ryan.

Eight days out and they were getting on rather well together. They shared the cooking and cleaning, she took frequent breaks to simply lie on the deck and watch the ocean, reflecting on how she got here and what to watch out for to avoid all these mistakes in the future. Ryan was undemanding. He did almost all the sailing although she offered to help and had learned a lot. Occasionally she took over the helm if he wanted a break.

They got together rather by accident. Ryan had been in no rush, and she had been expecting something more dramatic earlier on, anticipating that payment for the crossing would be largely in the cabin. But that hadn’t happened, and now she had got to know him a bit, he seemed like such a nice guy. She’d go out with him – if there was anywhere to go. Now, with the ocean as calm as it was likely to get, they were finishing the last of the bottle of wine. Ryan had taken extra time to cook and it had all seemed strangely romantic. Now, she’d just slipped towards him on the bench to get a better view of the spectacular sunset. The cuddle turned into a kiss and that led to them migrating to the comfy bed in Ryans cabin.

But this didn’t give her a problem. There was no payment for debt implied. It was just two people having some fun together – even if the choice of partner was decidedly limited.

The voyage continued – sailing, fishing, eating, resting and sleeping both with and without each other. She opened up a bit now that she felt she could trust him and noticed the visible twitch when she related how she came to be stranded in the Cayman islands. She thought the twitch was simply in response to an unexplained disappearance, but Ryan was on a different page. He knew someone called Loretta, not that the name was that uncommon. He also knew someone called Felix. And surely there must be more than one married couple whose names are Loretta and Felix even if the people he was thinking of had significant experience of sailing. None of this proved that ‘her’ Felix was the same as ‘his’ Felix, even if they were all Italian.

The trip was getting into its closing stages. They hadn’t discussed exactly where they’d part company and she was looking forward to that less each day. Another week they’d be in Barcelona, but Ryan had an alternative plan. He’d picked up a message from Tiffany saying her father had died suddenly. There would be an inquest, and at the speed the Italians moved, the funeral wouldn’t be for about three weeks, but she would like him to be there if he could.

“We’re only a day’s sailing from Madeira” he announced over dinner “I think we should make land fall in Funchal. It’s a busy tourist area and the British Consul there must deal with a dozen lost passport cases every month. Probably be less suspicious than in Spain”

Oh wow! How thoughtful, but much more difficult to hitch a lift to England. Its still a foreign island and I’d need another yacht. And I cant think that the skipper and crew will treat me as gently and kindly as Ryan. But I don’t want to appear ungrateful …oooh! dilemmas, and interaction with other people again. They make life so complicated. Am I beginning to agree with Ryan on why he lives on a yacht? Maybe I could persuade him to just turn around and we’ll sail back to Bermuda… or Cuba, or even Florida. But maybe that wasn’t the whole plan. Maybe this was just to get a passport, then complete the trip to Barcelona.

But no. The plan was even simpler. They went ashore and wobbled all the way to the harbour master’s office. From there, they were directed to the British Consulate and with a temporary passport, back on board. This was their last night and they drank half the bottle of champagne that Ryan had opened before he took her out to dinner at a very nice restaurant. No fishing, no cooking, no clearing up. Only packing up her few things and taking a taxi to the airport the next day. 

She sat alone on the crowded flight, unused to having people around. She was looking forward to going home, but cried a little knowing she’d probably never see him again.

Ryan too was sad, but he had somewhere he needed to go and now he could wire up the hand rail to the batteries just in case Senita’s friends had not forgotten about him.

Italy

Two days should have been enough. Now Ryan wasn’t quite so sure.

He had never had the intention of going to Naples. His plan was to meet everyone in Follonica for the hearing and hopefully conclude the last details. The loan to Tiffany’s father was actually his money, but now that he’d passed away, Ryan was nervous that it might get lost in calculating the estate. Tiffany was supportive. She was a good, honest, hardworking girl. It's just that they were headed in very different directions and parting company was inevitable. It was only a few short months until the divorce would go through unopposed following the necessary time lapse. 

But she'd invited him to Naples. He’d even got there on time by sailing through the night using GPS, satellite navigation, radar and good old fashioned moonlight. 

The meeting with her went as well as could be expected - amiable and business-like. She suggested that for simplicity, the loan should be repaid to her, and she’d then simply give it back to him. Her suggestion to the lawyer was that the documented loans should be repaid first. Her logic was that that money should not be counted in the estate. It wasn’t like a bankruptcy, and in any case, even if it was unsecured, it was a personal loan from his family. That had been accepted by everyone except Felix who saw no reason not to grab as much as he possibly could before he was cast out like a leper as he inevitably would be.

All the other family members would be there too, and it would be the last chance to stay at the villa before it disappeared as part of the estate. 

Tiffany was friendly and talkative. She wasn't going out with anyone else yet - too busy at work for much socialising, but she invited him to the guided walk up Vesuvius in the afternoon.

Ryan had deferred acceptance of her invitation to climb the volcano, but having restocked with supplies, he decided to join that party. It would do no harm being friendly even if their divorce was inevitable – and not such a bad thing as he had come to realise. The good thing was that this meeting confirmed the plan - Free each other to find someone new who would be more suitable. They still hadn’t fallen out, but they were now strangers that would make no plans to be in the same place as each other apart from reading the will and that was not due for another week. 

He hardly knew the others. Tiffany was there, but her sister Loretta was not, and he now overheard that she had inexplicably disappeared, and hadn’t been seen for possibly as much as four or five weeks while they were in the Caribbean. He recognised Felix, but assumed from the blank looks that he had not recognised him. Tiffany was being her usual sociable self, introducing herself to the rest of the group, presumably on the off chance that there would be someone there of business interest, or maybe only someone to have dinner with this evening that wasn’t him. But he still found her incredibly attractive in that floaty white dress.

Initially she’d walked beside him but now they were separated on the steep narrow path up to a false summit. He’d never been this close to an active volcano before, and wondered why he ever would. And now he discovered that this was an unofficial trip headed directly to a new vent that had opened. Ok, so he was never that concerned with rules and regulations but an unauthorised trek to an uncharted hole in the earth’s crust sounded distinctly risky. Especially as now he realised that this was Felix’ idea and Felix was the guide. But he listened attentively and managed to catch a few words of Italian that he knew.

Ryan had as much interest in peering over the edge of a live volcano as he had in flying to the moon but he needed to keep on side with Tiffany. There was nothing written down about this loan from him to her – but there was a formal document lending it from her to her father, and he was in no doubt that she’d give it back if it was returned to her. And in any case, he still had access to her bank account.

 The climb was steep and he exchanged a few words with some other members of the party not knowing if they were family or not, and not knowing enough Italian to find out. He was wary of Felix. Ok, so he was Tiffany’s brother in law although Ryan was not alone in not liking him. He was shifty and unreliable, and Ryan also knew he was one of the shady characters behind the darker side of British politics although he was also sure that he had some connection to the mafia in one way or another. He was also concerned about what Nicola had told him, which now seemed to be joining the circumstantial evidence against him. Ryan was also concerned that, in the circumstances, Tiffany might turn to Felix and that would be a shame. But she would be a free agent soon and what she did was up to her.

He leant nervously on the flimsy metal barrier on the active edge. Apparently it was there to discourage people from jumping into the bubbling rock which apparently was popular amongst certain types of individuals. The smoke had become thicker as they approached and the sulphurous stench was mind numbing, much more than he had expected. He was close to Tiffany, who was close to Felix but the increasing smoke made positive identification difficult and it was almost impossible to talk and keep the sulphur out of you lungs at the same time.

He tested the barrier gently thinking he could see nothing whatsoever other than smoke and he would have had a much better picture of that from a cafe in the village below. The barrier shifted alarmingly, and he wasn’t sure if it had moved on its own or if someone else had leant on it. 

No. it was independent! as the ground itself shook. 

He turned quickly expecting that Felix would declare the trip something of a failure, they should retreat immediately and all trek back to the bar. He couldn't see Felix any more and a new sound like rumbling thunder meant he couldn't hear anyone else either. And... the ground heaved. He steadied himself taking a step back. A fissure of lava opened up a few feet away. He spun round as screams were lost in the smoke. He peered into the swirling atmosphere just to see some shadows. Shadows that were screaming their slide into the void. Others beyond that were also scrabbling on the now broken surface. It was too dark to see, but the little he could hear sounded like terminally bad news. He made a grab for Tiffany who seemed to be teetering on the edge as the barrier sank and vanished. But Felix had reached for her too, and was now pulling stronger that him. Except Felix wasn't pulling Tiffany, he was pushing her! She fell with a shriek. Ryan had caught the strap of her handbag, but Felix's shove had her slipping away. He held the bag firmly in the hope that she'd hold on but the ground had now collapsed and there was no way it was strong enough. Especially with Felix's help. 

Cue The Harder that You Hurt by Mostly Autumn

He found himself holding the bag and nothing else – no weight on it - no-one else. He looked round in panic glancing at where Tiffany should have been to be met only by smoke and stench. Another minor earthquake. He spun round seeing no-one through the blackness - and legged it. There was no way he was going to wait in line on that narrow path and took off cross country through the undergrowth in any random direction so long as it was down. No telling where he’d get to but it hardly mattered. He was fit, he was agile and he was now running for his life. It was less than a couple of minutes since the ground had first shifted and this was pure survival. 

The only person he really knew there was already dead, and he skipped from one solid rock to the next in the crazy hope that if he did hit a hot one he'd bounce off onto the next before it fried him. Grass! That was a better sign, but no let up in the pace. Ocean sailing built strength and stamina. You often had no choice but to keep going, drawing on unknown reserves of energy just to stay alive during a storm or if there was a super tanker bearing down on you at fifteen knots. 

He made the outskirts of the village with heavy ash falling like snowflakes and took refuge in the first bar he found. 

The locals were unperturbed. Ash falls were common, and unless they were very heavy, life went on regardless. He blurted out to the barman that there had been an explosion and a number of tourists had been killed. That raised serious interest. Dead tourists were bad for business and the bush telegraph took over. Ryan sank into a chair and sank another beer. No, he hadn't wanted to come here. He hadn't wanted to meet up with the family. And now it was confirmed that his instinct had been right - again. 

He left the bar after the fourth beer and shuffled dejectedly along the street. They’d separated over two years ago. He wasn’t close to her any more and they’d been drifting apart for some time before that. They were just different people going to different places. He’d seen people die before, lots of them. He seen people being killed as well, but Felix killing Tiffany like that was still an unexpected shock to his system. Dusk was descending early, partly dulled by the smoke plume still rising, but, fortunately, no farther lava – at least not down here at the coast. There was still some ominous rumbling but he distinctly heard a sharp noise. A shot, maybe? Of course it could just be Felix taking out another family member in amongst the confusion on the mountain and maybe that was the plan all along. He knew about Tiffany but maybe there were others. Maybe he ought to watch his back. Maybe he ought to move and show up only for the will reading in Follonica. His eyes flicked right as he thought he saw something. He flattened himself against the building and crept up towards the corner, peeking round looking up and down the street as well as the alley. But yes, there was someone down there. Looking furtive. Hiding behind the chalets, wearing a white dress. White dress?  White flowing dress. Was it real? Or imagination. He started down the alley expecting that the ghost would not frighten him to death when it jumped out. But there she was again. The light was failing but there was compensation from the wooden chalets. Tiffany?  

“Tiffany!” 

Was this Tiff? Had she returned just to tell him something specific? He ran down looking for the figure calling her name. 

“Tiff! Tiffany! Stop! I tried. I tried to save you. I had hold of you. But I couldn’t. I failed. Tiffany!”

 Even if it was a ghost he wanted to talk to it. Tiffany and him had never actually fallen out and now maybe she wanted to say something she should have said before. “Tiffany!” Maybe it was something to do with the loan.

She’d darted towards the end of the ally. Ryan had no idea where this went. He’d never been here before. It could very well be some kind of trap. Like – Like looking down the barrel of a revolver.

“Stop right there or I'll shoot” 

He slid to a stop, confronted by a Smith and Wesson held firmly in two hands by a girl in a layered white dress. He raised his hands above his head in surrender

“Tiff? Don’t shoot!”

“What do you want? Stay back or I’ll shoot”

“I’m sorry. I thought you were my wife. Sad state when I guy can’t recognise his own wife. Hell, but at least you speak English. So what’s with the gun, huh?”

“Leave me alone”

“Ok. I’ll just back up the alley, and you just put that gun down before someone gets hurt”

She dropped the gun to the ground. The situation was getting the better of her as well

“Are you all right? Are you wounded? Can I help you?”

He took a short step towards her

“Why would you help me?”

He took another step “Because you need help”

And another.

She collapsed down onto the step of the chalet. He checked up the alley, but they very much seemed to be alone. He sat down on the step, but not close to her

She picked up the gun again. “I just killed a man. And you could be next”

“Why did you kill him?”

She stayed silent
 “Ok. I’ll just accept he needed killing. But hanging out here isn’t going to help you. Especially with a gun in your hand. It’s a bit of a giveaway”

“What’s it to you?”
 “I might be able to help you. And you might help me. But not if you and maybe me too get arrested”
 “There won’t be any arrests, only revenge”

“Depends who finds the body. So lets get out of here. Now. Come on”

 “What’s it to you?”

“I might tell you if you think you can help me”

“Me?”

“There's a bar just along the street. Let's pick up a drink and see if we can help each other. At least help each other recover” 

With the gun in Tiffany’s handbag and half a bottle of wine inside them she seemed to be recovering 

“How long do you get for murder on this country?” 

“Depends who you kill. Why?” 

“I was thinking of turning myself in” 

“But you mentioned revenge. Sounds like the guy involved was with the mob. Well, there's no shortage of them inside, so you'd be no safer. Worse off probably. But can they link you to this guy? Boyfriend? Who knew you were meeting him?” 

“Just him. I wasn't meant to be there. He was meant to meet someone else. It just got out of hand” 

“Ok so they won't be looking for you” 

“Maybe not. But they'll be looking, and clues will turn up. They'll put all the pieces together sooner of later” 

“But together we could create a cover for you. I could start by calling you Tiffany”

“Wife's name?” 

“Yes. Or was. And you could help me out, if you wanted to” 

“There might well be checkpoints on all roads out of here already. You could land up in the middle of it” 

“As if I wasn't already” 

“I've no idea how quickly they'll react. I've no idea where I'll be safe at all. maybe I'm already ......” 

“No. No you're not. Listen. First they've got to find him. And that means they have to have cause to start looking. And then when they find him they'll need some clue to your identity. Did anyone see you. Where was the last person you saw apart from him?”

“No-one. And there was never anyone near him. But he’d make sure of that to do the hand over”

“Ok. Think. What clues did you leave behind”

“Fingerprints. Maybe. On the box. but I threw it in the river” 

“If that's all, it'll take a while to link that to you”

“They're not on file. I've never been in trouble before” 

“And you're not in trouble now. Listen. Plan. you should check out of your hotel and...” 

“That might be suspicious. It's paid for tonight” 

“But that means no-one will check anything till tomorrow. So long as you don't leave a dog they won't care. So collect your case, come down to the harbour, find the Salamander and we'll get out of here” 

“By boat!” 

“Can't think they'll expect that. And I'm due to leave anyway. Moorings only paid till midnight so its not suspicious” 

Mandy hurried. She’d never met this guy before. She didn’t know him. He could be anyone. But he seemed to be intent on helping her and she was in trouble. Big, big trouble. 

She slipped out the back door of her hotel and found a taxi driver slumped over the wheel of his cab. Maybe this was another risk if he's that tired or drunk or drugged up. But walking with her case all the way to the marina was too conspicuous. 

Ryan only gave it 60-40 she'd turn up. But before she did, he wanted to check out the Giorgio-B. 

As expected, the main door was impenetrable. But the front hatch on these yachts was seldom locked. You had to know it was there and how to open it from the outside because there wasn't a handle. There was nothing to link him to this. Even if Felix came back later, he'd have no reason to check this stuff. But then how many guys carried a fully operational, mortar in a crate in their for'ard cabin? 

He'd copied the software he needed on his first visit. Back then had no use for military scale weapons but now, more of the plan was developing in his mind. 

Mandy was exhausted when she turned up. She knew nothing about sailing, was a little the worse for wine and had a long way to go before she recovered from her violent outburst earlier. It would still take some convincing that they might not be looking for her at all. And she may never agree to actually helping him. But none of that would be today. He showed her to the second cabin and left her to crash out. 

Night sailing was discouraged, ostensibly due to the sand banks at low tide. But it was another two hours till low tide, the channel was marked with lit buoys and they were headed straight out into the open sea. 

Next day there were just the two of them with the rest of the world a whole ocean away and Mandy started to calm down. She wanted to trust him but her natural scepticism maintained her suspiciousness. 

The day was spent without much contact. She was getting used to the motion of the sea, but it took her mind of everything else. He concentrated on sailing northwards up the coast, but offshore, out of sight of land. 

“You could tell me about it” Ryan said as she sat down with him to eat the dinner he'd cooked. 

“I could. but you might dob me in” 

“Sounds like a waste after all this effort” 

“Blackmail won't work. I'm skint. And I already owe you” 

Ryan gave a wry laugh “I wish” 

The moon was nearly full and he was setting the autohelm and checking the stars as she returned to the cockpit. 

He pulled a couple of cans from the locker and offered her one. She smiled quickly sitting down close to him 

“I was in a bar. I got talking to this girl. She seemed real nervous and I had this funny feeling that the two guys across from us were watching her a bit too carefully”

“Two guys, watching two girls?” 

“No, not like that. And they could have come over except they didn't. I let slip I was short of money. Very short. She asked if that's why I was alone in this bar, so I said. no, its not my normal line of work but given an offer I just might. She said she was a courier...” 

“...mule? ...” 

“… and that the guys watching us were enforcement. She didn’t think they had any evidence, but that wouldn’t stop them searching her when she left. She'd hidden the packet and said she'd give me five hundred bucks to deliver it for her. She said they'd need to find the stuff on her if a conviction was going to stick. We staged an argument. It was just a cover, but we started a fight. The management came over and bundled us outside, but in the confusion she gave me an envelope. five hundred, the location of the box and the delivery. I guess I could have just legged it, but I’d made an agreement and I still had some integrity. And she’d be in trouble if it wasn’t delivered, so I made the rendezvous. I thought I’d just give him the box and we’d never see each other ever again, but no. When I got there, we walked some way down the river towards the sea. I showed him that I had the box, but instead of thankyou he drew the gun. He said he didn’t know me and I'd be able to identify him, so ... so I'd have to die. I don't know how I stayed calm. maybe I just didn’t believe it was happening to me. I told him that was a bit unnecessary and we could work something out. I undid a couple of buttons just to distract him. I think he was taken aback, so I launched myself at him. He crashed over, the gun fell away, I rolled over to it and he started towards me. I ...” 

She didn’t finish, there was no need as he slipped his arms round her and hugged them towards each other 

“Ryan, I’m not a bad girl. I’m not a criminal. I just suddenly found myself penniless. I don’t know what I've turned into these last two weeks” 

“Its probably a clear case of self defence. But proving anything either way will be impossible. And the mob would set up all sorts of alibi’s and misinformation. That’s if it ever came to trial, which they’d make sure it didn’t” 

“I don’t know why you’re helping me?”

“Because I want you to help me. Its adventurous, but nowhere near as dangerous as shooting senior mob figures”

She nodded slowly considering the vague offer 

“Ok.. I can’t possibly be worse off”

“Ok” he smiled gently “What we're going to do ... “ he said definitively “… is redefine you as Tiffany. I'll fill you in on enough background. It'll be like you’re an actress and you need to be convincing. That gives you a whole different reason from Mandy for being in Campania and a cast iron alibi for when whoever it was got shot” 

Ryan explained the plan and finished saying that the only person who will be anything like confused is Felix. He knows he threw Tiffany into the volcano, so when you see him you need to thank him for trying to save you but because you were being pulled by me you had to shake him off”

That evening they sat out in the open cockpit. They were already half way through another bottle of wine 

“I thought that when you said you wanted me to do you a favour in exchange for rescuing me, it was all to do with your wife not being around and that activity would be confined to the bedroom” 

He laughed “Yeah, and that sounds like a great idea. But there's business here as well. The stakes are high. And I'll cut you in for 10 per cent if we pull it off” 

First Hearing

Mooring seemed easy. It was a big yacht, but he felt he’d got the measure of it. The small audience on the quayside looked interested, but its likely that yachts this size moored all the time in this more remote tourist resort. Folks who spend a lot of time afloat tend to prefer more remote harbours. 

Having dinner with Mandy was easy too. The quayside bistro was serving standard comfort holiday food. Tomorrow, she’d start to wend her way up to Follonica. She’d be on her own while he’d take the yacht on his own. She’d practice on her own and their next meeting would be to assess the likelihood of success – not that there was an option. She was still penniless, and short of a job. Ryans offer was serious money with an advance for expenses so that she could afford a hotel and Ryan was convinced she’d show up – even if she pulled out after that.

 And that all sounded easy as well. Except, he had a detour planned.

Offshore he hauled in the sheets and trimmed for speed. That evening he set the autohelm early and drew up Giorgio-B nameplates for each side of the bows and stern. He made up dummies resembling crew members from clothes stuffed with pillows and balloons for heads hidden by caps. He switched his id beacon and mounted the mortar amidships. 

In full sunshine he hove to and scanned the fortress. The main building complex would be as impenetrable as Felix’s main door, but the lookout post was perched 200 feet up on the side of the cliff. It was shielded from attack by a large rock overhang, and, while his mortar shell would do some initial damage, that overhang would be far more effective. The accuracy would be debatable – like hitting a moving target from a fixed location, except the other way round. He set the boathouse in the sights and waited for the swell to rise. Then dip, then rise. Fire. Wait. Control the euphoria. Now let the remaining three off in quick succession. First to the overhang above the lookout and then to the base itself. Bullseye! He took off under motor and sail across the horizon. Gently he faded the power to the id transmitter to fake increasing distance, but a continual watch through binoculars showed no signs of pursuit. Only the smokey remains of the rock fall avalanche ahead of an almighty explosion, presumably as the fire finally reached the arsenal. 

The winds were kind to him and a more familiar coast came into view under id silence and a returned appearance of the Salamander.

Follonica, and they were both far more tense. ‘Its just the occasion’ insisted Ryan. And if that fails, remember its your father that died recently. And then your sister has mysteriously disappeared, and all those memories are brough back by this occasion. But Mandy had been taking this seriously. She’d given a photograph of Tiffany to the stylists and asked if she could replicate the hairstyle. Nail colour and lipstick followed, with a lot more makeup than she would usually use. The result, she thought, was a distinct improvement – if looking like Tiffany was the objective.      

As rehearsed, she took the initiative with Felix as the group assembled. She’d watched him look and re-look at her across the room, and moved deliberately in his direction. A continental kiss was in order even if Tiffany had always hated both ends of him. 

“Felix. Oh Felix, I never managed to catch up with you after Naples. To thank you for trying to save me…” 

He looked around, perplexed

“….Oh my! I can’t recall. I’ve been trying to forget. But Ryan caught my arm although I hardly saw who it was through the smoke. That’s why I pulled away so hard. I think I was being stretched in two directions. Its such a shame Loretta can’t be here. But at least you survived as well. I did check with your hotel. They had seen you but you weren’t around when I called” 

The conversation was mercifully short as the proceedings began. 

The solicitor explained the family tree, complex as it was and asked people to identify themselves as they were mentioned so that everyone knew who was there. This did nothing for Ryans nervousness – so many more missing than he had expected! The lawyer got down to business, confirming that, as Tiffany had suggested two weeks before, the outstanding loans would be repaid to the individual who had made them before the calculation of the estate was made. The loan from Tiffany would be repaid to her; but other loans from family members that were without signed documentation would be absorbed into the estate. This is what Ryan was expecting, but clearly Felix was not and raised an argument. Under these conditions, Loretta’s loan would not be repaid to Felix. Ryan considered this perfectly reasonable, but as the solicitor pointed out, without previously signed documentation, all manner of fictitious claims could appear. And sitting demurely quiet on the side-lines, Mandy suddenly realised what her role here really was. 

The solicitor described the property sales that he had completed and made sure that there were no new issues with the other various deals that he had made on their behalf acting as executor, and finally made it to the bottom line. The will was written in percentages, and payable to a list of relatives, with an equation for the percentages payable depending on who was still surviving. However, as there had been a number of recent fatalities, it seemed that everyone’s share was more than expected. And the list of permanent absentees seemed to have grown. No-one there was seriously disappointed except Felix but there was unanimous relief when the proceedings were called to conclusion.

There was little chatter between family members, some had never met, some were from unconventional branches and it certainly seemed that Tiffany’s father had had quite an array of productive affairs. Everyone drifted out at different speeds into the late afternoon sunshine. Ryan and Mandy left together, even though it was common knowledge that he and Tiffany were due to get divorced sometime soon.

He tapped her arm as they turned onto the pavement at the foot of the wide steps.

“What’s up?”
 “Just nervous….” he said nodding at the blacked out Mercedes double parked right outside the offices and he hurried her along to the corner just as two shots rang out. He dived for the floor pulling her down with him. The sound of gunfire brought oh so many memories back for her and she lay quivering on the cold concrete sidewalk. 

“Stay down!” called Ryan to everyone around “there may be return fire”

But all there was, was the sharp squeak of a tyre momentarily losing traction as the dark Mercedes took off in a hurry.

Ryan lifted his head and peered back down the street, deciding it was now safe again. There was a hushed mumbling as the other shaken innocents got back up and continued on their way, most deciding that they didn’t want to go down there after all. 

Ryan walked a few steps back, just far enough to see whose blood was discolouring the gutter and hurried Mandy as far as a passing cab in the next side street, ahead of any enforcement turning up.

This had frightened her and she hung onto his arm as he bought two cans of coke and found a free bench in the flower garden to sit down, to think and hopefully recover. He knew she was thinking that the attack may have been meant for her, but convincing her otherwise would have to wait. To Ryan, this was predictable. Those guys knew who owned the Giorgio-B.

He dialled the solicitor to inform him of the developments and suggest that as the distribution had not yet taken place, it ought to be re- calculated in view of Felix now being unavailable to collect his share, and that Tiffany was unfortunately too upset to talk right now. This was another fatality, and after all, he was her brother-in-law. And conversely, if his share was redistributed, it could mean another two hundred thousand.

Mandy stayed quiet until she’d finished her drink

“I didn’t know what I was getting into when I agreed to be rescued”

“I don’t think you knew what you were getting into when you agreed to mule. What goes round comes round. You’re still better off here. And Felix? Just a shame it was after the hearing. It would have been simpler if it was before. But you’re still on a percentage, and that’s a shed load more than trucking cocaine for the Marrinasi.

The solicitor was as helpful as expected. He agreed to the re-calculation, but insisted on a delay to see what the results of the police investigation might be, and in the meantime he would arrange to work through a British colleague of his so that a return trip to Italy should be unnecessary. This was music to Mandy’s ears. They would be able to leave and hopefully leave all the unpleasant memories behind. She was even considering leaving Mandy behind with all those memories and simply becoming Tiffany.

Given the choice, she opted to sail back with Ryan. She weighed up what she might be getting into, but conceded that although she trusted that he would pay up, he was unlikely to have the cash until the settlement came through. The deal was ten per cent – if we pull this off. And until we do the job isn’t done.  For his part Ryan was fearful that Tiffany would have to make a re-appearance, although it would be better avoided.

Cue Western Skies by Mostly Autumn

England – Really? 

England. And Mandy had been back for three weeks. Long distance sailing was not her thing. It was ok if the weather was warm around the Med, but she was less looking forward to the variable and possibly blustery sea conditions farther north. It was boring and she’d jumped ship in Barcelona, flying back courtesy of another advance on salary from Ryan. At first she’d spent the time looking over her shoulder for blacked out Mercs or any other sort of undercover agent, but as the days progressed, she began to think that life might actually get back to normal. Yes, there would be a bit of Tiffany to play, but her friends recognised her and the changes in order to be Tiffany were just accepted as an evolution of Mandy. She also wanted the rest of her percentage. It was a lot of money. It would mean she didn’t need to get a job, any job, straight away, and she was looking forward to meeting Ryan again when he got back. They hadn’t really been an item. Ok, they had a deal to work together and on the cruise to Spain from Italy they’d slept together as well. But ultimately they were very different people and a long term relationship was unlikely. And that fitted in with her playing Tiffany as well.

Ryan had suggested somewhere near Morcombe Bay. That’s near where Mia lived and the Italian solicitors colleague was in Birmingham rather than London, so that was a long way from everywhere anyway.

“How many in your party?” the harbourmaster was asking without looking up

“One”

“One?”

“Yep. Just me”

The harbourmaster looked up. “You moored a 64 footer, under sail, all by yourself?”
 “yep”

“That’s impressive. Or foolhardy. How long you staying?”
 “Don’t know exactly. I’ve got some business to sort out. Maybe take a fortnight. The major meeting should be next week. If it all goes well I might move on then. If it all goes pear shaped, it’ll take a bit longer”

Or, said Ryan to himself, if it all goes very pear shaped I might just keg it.

Yacht Club

Ryan confirmed he’d have no problem moving berth if he was going to stay longer and was chatting about the local facilities and supermarkets when the club commodore rolled in. He looked ex-military, portly like a senior officer rather than a rating, with a handlebar moustache and a jovial style

“Impressive bit of mooring, that”
 “Yes colonel. And on his own”

“Single handed? By Jove!”

That earned him an invitation to temporary honorary membership of the sailing club, and that, thought Ryan, was a good hint that the deck might once again be falling his way.

The clubhouse was quiet and opulent. Prices were high, even for a private club, but the commodore confirmed that it was a deliberate policy to discourage the riff-raff.

The harbour discouraged people from actually living aboard while moored and the small faded ad on the notice board provided him with a very convenient studio apartment. It was low on creature comforts, but close to the harbour and near the edge of the park and available on a flexible contract. He had little intention of spending much time there, but it would be a good base as a break from his cabin on the Salamander.

Next evening, the Smugglers Inn was doing standard pub grub and it was going down well. Mandy had travelled up to meet him and to find out what the schedule was for the distribution of the estate. That, she had decided would be the end for her and Ryan, and the final end for Tiffany too. But meeting up again after all the events in Italy was more emotional that she had expected and she had to keep reminding herself that this was a business relationship – or nearly. She had already checked in to a hotel as part of the imminent separation, but was still looking forward to being his partner for the dinner invitation.

Mia was more his friend than Tristan was. They had moved in to Ryan’s house when they became unexpectedly homeless. Having a young family, they jumped at the chance as Ryan was likely to be away for some considerable time. But Tristan still considered the arrangement rather precarious. He was paying a low rent with the nominal balance being made up by acting on Ryan’s behalf when any correspondence landed that needed some attention.

Dinner with Mia

It was a novelty to be introduced as Mandy, but Mia and Tristan had never met Tiffany so it seemed to be the better option to avoid any complications later on. It was a delightful, relaxing indulgence and so different from the tense charade in Italy. It was interesting just listening to Ryan catching up with them again rather than continually calling on their assistance. And it was nice being around children as well, although they weren’t officially invited to dinner. Phil and Christine were the other couple making up the six. Mia and Christine had both worked for the same company for many years but had only recently crossed paths, even though they lived only ten miles apart. Mandy was revelling in being herself again and had finally convinced herself that there was no way that she could be tied back to her previous existence in Naples that now seemed so far away in the rear view mirror. Phil seemed to be taking an unusual interest in her considering that his wife was in the room, but to some extent that was up to them. Ryan looked like he would simply accept the situation like maybe she was his sister – keeping a watching brief, but not interfering.

So it wasn't particularly surprising when she announced later that they had an invitation to dinner with Phil and Christine the following Wednesday. 

“With Mia and Tristan?”
 “I don’t think so. Phil didn’t say that”

Mandy was now fully returned to herself. She was back to wearing her own clothes, choosing her own shade of nail gloss and lipstick, behaving like Mandy rather than Tiffany and looking forward to getting her life back with the added hindsight of how to get into and out of serious trouble. 

What she had not quite rediscovered was being detached from Ryan, but that all came tumbling in as they cleared the dessert dishes into the kitchen. It had been a family type dinner party with them all contributing to the effort rather than remaining aloof as two guests despite having only met the previous week, and Phil now invited her to see the garden. 

Ryan clocked that he, and indeed Christine, had not been invited. This was a specific invitation, not a general one and he sat down on the settee. Christine slumped in beside him with a look of terminal resignation. Was this the plan? She turned to look at him with a look of total loss 

“She's not safe, you know” 

“Not safe? Why not? We've not done anything wrong?” he asked, thinking violence and now concerned about her 

“No, no. But Phil will be making various suggestions” 

Suggestions....? 

“Oh! You mean, you have a sort of open type marriage with Phil?” 

“I suppose you could call it that. It was never planned that way, but he thinks it is. You can go and rescue your girlfriend, you know. Although, he’ll skin me alive if he thinks I told you” 

“But you seem to be quite calm about it” 

“I decided some time ago, there's nothing I can do about it. And there's not much I want to do about it” 

“So why do you stay with him? Why not just split up and be free to go your own way” 

“I'm seldom here. I work on assignment wherever the company sends me. But it's convenient to come back sometimes. It feels like it ought to be my home, even if it isn't” 

This was confusing. Was he supposed to make some sort of play for her? Would she feel left out, rejected? Surely if that was the plan, Phil would have hinted something. Or had he missed that? So maybe this was just him looking for some fun just to rub salt is some wound Christine had inflicted on him, that he was completely unaware of. They sat in silence for a few minutes. She hadn't made any move, she could hardly be described as flirty. And while Mandy was size ten going on 8, Christine was 12 going on 14. It was looking very much as though this was not some sort of swingers swap. 

“Actually, Christine, you look quite upset by this?” 

“Yes, I'm just too old fashioned for this type of behaviour. I'm not a girl for breaking up other couples, even if that’s Phil’s plan. But you don't seem too bothered?” 

“All I'm worried about is that you don’t feel left out. Which would be a tragedy because you're pretty, intelligent, witty. So many things a guy is looking for. ..” 

He slipped an arm around her, but there was barely a response. Fair enough, don't push it. It's not what you came here for. Its her move, if she wants to make one. 

“But Mandy can look after herself. I know her well enough to know that. You see, we're not really an item. We've been doing some business together. It's involved quite a lot of travelling and more recently we’ve been checking one hotel room instead of two. But there's no plan to stay together after the deal is finalised” 

“Oh, I see. So she’s something of a free agent?”
 “Yes, so long as the final details sort themselves out in the next few days”

Mandy was in the garden with Phil for quite some time while Ryan talked quietly with Christine. He asked her about her work and how long she’d been with Phil, and if this sort of behaviour was a regular event. They poured the last of the wine and Christine seemed to loosen up a bit. Ryan tried his best to be sympathetic. After all, it must really be quite distressing and even embarrassing. But it had been Phil that had been making the running and Mandy would make up her own mind. 

To be fair, she was probably under the impression that Christine and he would be getting up to something as a backlash, and Ryan even felt a bit left out that they weren’t.

“I guess we may just have to get used to these things” she was musing wistfully “Its becoming a lot more common. I think its unfortunate, I think romance will be next casualty, and Ryan, I’m too old fashioned for that”

“Romance? Why would that die?”

“How long have you been out of the country? Its discriminatory. Anything that discriminates against anyone is outlawed. It wont be long before we’re told at birth who our random partner for life will be because everyone has to be equal”

“I’ll be long gone before that happens. But then, I don’t quite see how non-discrimination can be applied across the board at all”

But the absentees returned looking buoyant, Mandy with a wide eyed smile and Phil with a droop faced smirk

“Did you two have fun?” she asked enthusiasticly

“Yes, we had a very old fashioned quiet chat. Got to know each other a little”

“Oh!” she gasped suddenly crestfallen and guilty.

But it was time to go before anything more public happened or recriminations set in. Ryan had no issue with Mandy’s behaviour. She was a free spirit and so long as she remained available to play Tiffany when needed, she could plough her own furrow.

The next day was a whole new ball game. Ryan ambled down to the harbour and checked out the boat. The colonel was just finishing some maintenance on his own yacht when Ryan re-appeared in his cockpit 

“Fancy a sail out, colonel? Attack a few waves?”
 “On the ketch? Don’t mind if I do, old boy”

He raised a minimal sail and cast off as the colonel studied the techniques. He would always use the engine to get out of the harbour, but Ryan made this sail only approach look so easy and unhurried as the gentle breeze tugged sporadically on the loose jib.

But the colonel was no mean sailor in his own right and soon they had set a serious excess of sail for the conditions with an exchange of mischievous boyish smirks as a prelude to the excitement. And that only increased as the wind turned and the tack back home was more of a battle with the elements with the hull heeled over and a howl wailing from the rigging. Ryan bounced the fenders gently on the quay under minimum sail and tidied the sails and sheets as the colonel went in to the clubhouse to set up a celebratory drink. He’d enjoyed this trip out with Ryan. He felt he’d got the measure of him through his attitude and competence, and it had been more exciting than he could remember for a very long time. But despite the excitement, he’d felt safe because Ryan had appeared to be so calm and competent even under these sea conditions.

Mission accomplished, Ryan said to himself and maybe the colonel will share some more secrets of what’s going on.

His phone interrupted them. This was novel. Most places he hung out were well outside mobile range and only Tiffany had his satellite number. Mandy was just making sure he was all right, and let slip she was meeting Phil again that evening. That was ok. His plan was to part company with her immediately after the pay-out, and this would make it all the more simple. He phoned Christine. The expression on her face when she answered said it all, with the words there simply to confirm the statement

“Hey Ryan, Hi…”

“Hi, Christine. Listen, I know you’re real busy, but two things. One, you’ll find out anyway so I’m just  pre-empting that. Phil’s seeing Mandy again tonight, and two, so I thought you might like to take in a drink or two so you don’t feel left out”

“That’s kind, Ryan. And yes please, although I don’t feel left out. I’m away on assignment most of the time. Its only just now that I’m at home that I notice”

But Christine did feel hurt. She felt insulted, abandoned, and yes Ryan would make her feel better. But if Mandy was the shape of things to come, maybe she should pack a small case and stay with her mother for a day or two till she went back on site.

The pub went remarkably well. Christine was in no way short of money, but she let Ryan pay for all her drinks in the old fashioned romantic way. He slipped his arm around her, but got only a delicate smile in return and a peck on the cheek back at her mothers gate. 

Taya

Her welcome was less than enthusiastic. Mother, known to all as Granny, was wide eyed with a demented grin and a demonic howl in everything she said. Half sister Saffron had her eyes rolled back and lay half conscious in an armchair in the front room, and her partner Olly looked equally spaced out. Eventually, Christine wandered upstairs wondering what had become of Saffron’s little girl. Maybe she had gone to a friends… But no, she was sitting cross legged in the middle of her bed talking to her doll. 

“Taya. Taya” she called from the doorway not wanting to intrude without an invitation. “Taya are you ok up here on your own? You could come downstairs”
 “Thankyou auntie Chrissie, but Granny would only hit me with her stick again”

This was disappointing. And what an environment to grow up in, but her offer to take her to school the next morning was met with a grateful grin. 

Dropping her off at school was very little like she’d ever remembered it. There was an air of impending doom as each of the children left their parent at the gate and bolted across the playground. 

The events of the last few days were spinning around in her head as she headed for work. She was formulating a plan. She’d created dozens of successful plans for her projects at work, but never before had she created a plan for herself, her life, her future. She simply took things as they came, one assignment after another and it certainly seemed to be the best plan as her marriage to Phil was proving to be an ultimate failure. If that had been a project at work she’d have got the sack – and that thought alone scared her. Whatever else, she had her assignment to finish, and it now took on a previously unnatural urgency. She arranged to go back to the Nottingham site with a set resolve to finish off and tie up all the loose ends in less than half the remaining allocated time.

Early afternoon she phoned Ryan again. They’d had a good evening. She’d liked being with him and was becoming convinced that he liked her too, rather than just feeling sorry for her. And he was patient with her too. But would he help her with this as well. She was concerned about Taya and this run she had to make across the playground. Why?  Maybe it was just to create a physical gap between being with parents and being with teachers. And as expected, Ryan agreed to meet her at the school gate that afternoon.

Taya made it safely across the playground, but not without both Ryan and Christine noticing that not all the children did. There seemed to be a number of occurrences of bullying – tripping, punching and pushing and all within full view of what they assumed were parents waiting at the gate, even if there were no supervisory staff.

Ryan suggested stopping off for ice-cream on the walk back to Granny’s house, and what better way to endear himself to both Taya and Christine. Which was a whole lot more than the family was likely to do.

Meet the Family

The conversation with Saffron went remarkably badly and now in the hallway it was only getting worse. 

Perhaps he'd been a little provocative with her but really he couldn't understand what would actually happen when she 'couldn't cope'. Would she just sit there shaking? which didn't sound too bad. Or maybe spontaneous combustion? which sounded a little more serious. Either way, he'd not managed to elicit a coherent answer as to why she had decided to prioritise crystal meth above looking after her daughter. 

And now, with Granny yelling abuse at the top of her voice at a disappeared Taya who was almost certainly quivering in her room waiting for this old witch to scale the north face of the staircase and beat her a half dozen blows with her walking stick. For what? Who knows, and the crime may well be fictitious but the penalty clearly was not. 

He'd already dismissed Saffron as an irrelevance. She was one of these loafers and spongers that was exactly the example that the colonel’s Backlash was citing to cut all benefits and support from because they contributed less than nothing to the rest of society. Not just that, but she classed herself as disadvantaged due to drug addiction which she’d clearly got herself into. And while making no effort to get herself out of this self inflicted state she expected to be subsidised by the government, quite in addition to every benefit available for little Taya. 

This introduction to Christine's family could probably not get worse, which meant it could only get better, and on that positive note, he slipped past the foghorn in the hall and skipped up to the landing two steps at a time. 

He tapped gently on Taya's door but it was unlikely that she'd heard with Granny still caterwauling like a dervish. 

He pushed it open just enough to poke his head around it 

“Taya. It's me, Ryan” 

She peeped out from under her duvet 

“Me. Ryan. Can I come in?” 

She nodded quickly, terrified, and kept herself remote as he sat down on the bed. 

“I don't want her to cane me with her stick. Ryan, I still hurt from where I got tripped up in the playground. She caned me yesterday. Look” 

Ryan reached in his pocket. Yes, he still had that tube of Arnica that he'd used on the bruise he’d picked up when the wind suddenly changed when he was with the colonel. That would help, 

The shouting had stopped now. Maybe she'd shrieked herself hoarse, maybe she'd just used all her energy or maybe someone had stuck a needle of some description into her to get some peace.

“Who's little girl is she?” he opened “she's not yours is she Chrissie?” 

“No she's Saffron's” 

“And Saffron is your sister, right?” 

“Nearly. Half sister” 

But it transpired that while Christine had known her father at an early age, Saffron had never known hers. Granny didn't even know who it was

“And if it wasn't for her, he'd never have found out” 

Well, yes. Pregnancy is a bit of a giveaway when your husbands in the navy. And that’s an interesting perspective – that someone is responsible for their own conception as if their entire existence was pre-ordained and that they had to be born in a specific location and circumstances in order to fulfil the plan! 

“I'm going to adjourn the pub” said Ryan having now decided that anything to eat – like dinner - was not included in this invitation “And. I'm tempted to take Taya with me, for her own safety” being also aware that she had not been offered anything to eat either

“Can I come as well?” 

The lounge bar was buzzing with a convivial warm atmosphere, and the kitchen was open too! 

Taya had limped all the way, and Ryan had resolved to take a closer look at that leg when they got back. He might even carry her if she looked like she was struggling. Clearly she’d had more trouble in the playground than she’d previously admitted, or maybe it was Granny’s stick.

The conversation wandered about. There was no particular subject on the agenda, although Christine inserted an apology for her family every second or third sentence. Oh Ryan! There are so many things I should tell you….. but Ryan had no idea what that imperative might be.

She was due to take Taya to school again and it was now clear that there were a number of issues, or obstacles as Taya had called them, in the shape of bullies in the playground. Saffron was less than useless, and Christine had felt a transfer of responsibility for the little girls safety now that she knew there was a problem. Except, all of that would detract from her new ambition to complete her assignment as soon as physically possible. And this was Christine’s chance to ask Ryan if he would help her. If Ryan would take Taya to school, she could leave that evening, and that would give her a head start on her revised plan. Of course he could. How hard can it be? 

He carried Taya most of the way back, and, tired or maybe just short of patience, he was in no mood for nonsense. 

Granny went off on a rant as soon as they opened the front door. The logic, such as it was, was that Saffron was incapable of looking after Taya, Granny herself was too old and so it was Christine's responsibility to look after all of them. 

Three port and brandy's at the White Horse had brought a little colour to Chrissie’s face, but that all but vanished at the prospect. 

“No way, mother! I'm away the next few days on an assignment and anyway, I have my own life to lead. And right now that's in its own mess” 

“But you're Taya grandmother?”  joined Ryan

“Yes, and not her mother...” 

“And Saffron is your daughter?.... And you don't want to look after Taya?” 

“No. It's not my job” 

“But you've comprehensively failed to bring up your own daughter to be capable either of contributing to society or looking after a child, so I think the responsibility falls back on you. Then again, your own track record is about 50-50 with Saffron and Christine so it's hard to say which way Taya might go. Although I've a 10-to-1-on safe bet idea” 

“Nag off! If you're so great, you do it” 

His encounters with the family had hardly gone well, and meeting Taya outside her gate was the preferred option. She didn't say much as they walked the mile to the far gate. 

“The others? They're all locked” 

“Why?” 

“So that the Specials don't escape” 

Ryan decided not to ask. She was getting nervous and he was intent on calming her down with lighter conversation. 

The row of what he assumed were parents blocking the entrance was there again and she looked up towards him with half a despairing smile 

“And now, I choose my moment. And run” 

He let go of her as she squirmed between the adults, looked furtively around and bolted for the red door forty yards away. It opened as she got there and closed just as quickly behind her. 

He hadn’t heard from Christine and assumed that she wasn’t coming back that day. Like her, he assumed Saffron was a dead loss and he decided he would go back to the school for closing time. If Saffron was there, he’d leave her to it and not interfere, if not, it might just give him a clue on what was going on. 

This was not something that he thought he'd really get into. Collecting small children from school, in his book, came with wife, in-laws, suburban house, regular job, social responsibility and every other little thing that he didn't have right now. But Christine sounded like it was important, at least to her and now here he was waiting with the other adults outside the school gate. He watched and waited. She wouldn't be expecting him, so he'd have to make sure she didn't slip past.

As expected the blockade was back again obstructing the gate and he took up position just behind them. Other parents arrived and he felt a bit like a second row forward about to set down for a scrum with the rest of the pack behind him. 

A group of about ten children appeared from the red door, but didn't seem in any hurry to get to the gate. Instead, they milled about as if confused or disorientated. 

A boy, smaller and younger than Taya was next. He looked round and started his run. But two of the first group had spotted and intercepted him. They tripped him and he sprawled on the ground. Scrabbling back to his feet he narrowly avoided a kick from one of them, but was felled again. Back up again he managed a nifty side hop and made the gate, free to limp home. 

Cue Hope Dies Last by Millenium

Ryan looked on. This was confusing? Maybe it was like a game of British Bulldogs, but rather out of hand. Children appeared, made the run, and dived for cover as they reached the gate. But there she was at the red door. She glanced around fearfully. It was her turn. She waited till they were all facing the other way and took off with the gate in her sights. But she'd been spotted. Pursued. Tripped. And another assailant had arrived to stick the boot in. What!

Ryan was dumbstruck. This can't be right. He'd heard the groans as the kicks connected. Was everyone just going to stand here and watch as a little girl get beaten up? 

“Hey, what's going on! You can't let that happen” 

“Not my head! Please, please, not my head” 

That was too much for Ryan. He burst through the cordon running full whack. He'd no intention of slowing as he got there. He'd just use one or other as a buffer to stop himself. He was oblivious to the calls from the cordon and punted both of the assailants onto the grass as he scooped her up. She was clearly hurt, but instead of turning to the gate, he marched back to the red door, pushing it open and finding the head masters study. 

He was annoyed. In fact he was furious. But losing the rag would hardly help his case. 

Instead he asked politely why this was allowed to happen - and even encouraged by the human barrier at the gate stopping parents coming in to prevent it.

“It is sad” replied the academic “but there is nothing I can do” 

Ryan's encouragement brought more explanation 

“You see, it is not permitted to discriminate. So the Specials have been brought here to my school and I cannot exclude them. They have their schedules for integration set by the Matrons of their Home and no one is permitted to interrupt them”
 “But it is only a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured” 

“And my only defence, weak as it is, is that I am not permitted to interfere” 

Ryan thanked him, apologised for barging in and expressed concern that serious injury might be sooner rather than later. At the red door, a number of children were still waiting to chance their luck. He was still carrying Taya who was holding on as tightly as ever and still looking distressed

“Mister. Are you going to the gate! Can I come with you?” 

That was brave just to speak up and ask. But these were desperate times for six year olds. Now with four others as well, he walked slowly across the grass towards the gate.

“You're not allowed on the grass” one of them said quietly 

“Sorry, I didn't know that. I do hope I don't get you into trouble” 

“Keep off the grass! It is not permitted!” came the almost frantic call from the cordon “Keep off the grass!”

But an assailant was headed his way, grunting like a pig, with a wide eyed vacant stare. The children huddled round the far side of him as he turned towards the new comer. He turned to face the threat, moving Taya to one arm and using the free one to point aggressively. He waved his finger menacingly at the moron 

“Don't even think about coming any closer. And you! Do not touch this little girl again. Never, ever come close to her, you hear me?” 

He continued to the cordon, to be met with almost apoplectic derision 

“What are you thinking of! You know such things are not permitted...” 

The cordon leader would have continued if she was not unnerved by Ryan's gaze, drilling into her like a laser interrogating her brain 

“Get out of my way. I'm mad. Mad at you and whatever game you're playing. So let me through before I floor someone”

She froze in front of him, defiant

“Lady, whatever brand of ethics you subscribe to is plain depraved” 

He waited momentarily then took hold of her arm and bent it up her back in a half nelson. Without a word he walked on, but resolved that if Christine wasn't here, he would definitely assume this responsibility himself. 

He carried Taya all the way back to Granny’s and while she didn't say much he felt his efforts were appreciated. He put her down to open the door, but once inside Granny appeared from the living room without warning and struck her a wild blow with her walking stick. She cried out in pain and surprise as Ryan now alerted, parried the next blow. 

“There's no need for that - she's only just got in” 

But Granny was unlikely to pay any attention to what he said. 

He made sure that she escaped upstairs without farther injury, but had no idea how to balance an attack, if only verbal, against any retribution that it would encourage on the little girl. 

“Tell you what, Granny, I'll do you a favour. I'll take her off your hands tomorrow, all day. Give you a break” 

“Be better if you didn't bring her back at all!” 

But Ryan took that as tacit consent.

Evening in the Yacht Club

That evening, he made it to the Yacht Club. He bought a round for the colonel and the two guys he was with. They were planning some sort of event discussing timings and locations and where people should meet, but seemed perfectly happy to let Ryan bend the conversation round to his altercation at the school 

“Ah, yes. The Specials” 

“Too true. They're special all right. They don’t have two brain cells between the lot of them. And that includes the staff” 

“Actually, you are probably more correct than you imagine. These young people are the result of one of the early experiments in non discrimination ...” 

Ryan listened in disbelief. Some years ago, it was declared that having babies in the traditional conventional way, could be deemed to be discriminatory to anyone who refuted their biological gender, and as such ought to be phased out. Instead, babies would be created in the labs. They’d use the traditional components, but would grow in artificial conditions. However, in the natural system if the two components were incompatible, or if something went wrong in the early stages, a natural miscarriage would occur and it would be necessary for the parents to start again. However, there were no such cross checks in the laboratory, and in any case, that would be discriminatory against certain individuals even though they were still in early development, and so every individual was brought to completion irrespective. 

“So” said Ryan strangely wide eyed at the prospect “these Specials are the product of what would in natural circumstances, fail to complete”

“Quite so. You see, prospective parents did not get to choose their offspring. Even if a woman donated her eggs to the system, she had no right to claim the result. To avoid discrimination the results were distributed randomly”

“But that’s appalling! You might land up with….”

“Quite so. However, the results were frequently leaked and prospective parents, quite understandably in my opinion, failed to show up at their allotted time to collect, and as a result these Specials, or Living Miscarriages as I would prefer to call them, are all cared for in Homes across the country. However, again to avoid discrimination, they are all let loose in normal educational establishments. And they each have a schedule of events which is supposed to integrate them back as main stream kids” 

“Which is impossible because they're brainless morons....” 

“But you can neither say that or think that because that would be discriminatory” 

The colonel put another round on the table and the conversation moved on 

“So, who pays for all that” asked Ryan in a lull 

“The unheard majority, of course. But the Backlash is coming, so it won't last much longer”

“The Backlash?”

“Yes. To some extent we’re interpreting what we think Felix intended, but we have to be extra careful because we still don’t know why the Mafia took him out in Fellonics. But Ryan, if you know about it, you’ll know to stay out of the way. If you don't, don't ask”.

That was as definitive as you could get and now some of those notes that he'd read in Felix's cabin started to make sense. 

That evening he called up pizza delivery and a large bottle of coke and sat down with his tablet to trawl through some IP addresses. He didn't know what he was looking for, but any knowledge would be better than his current ignorance. 

Two hours in and half the pizza had gone cold. He’d followed a trail of hotspots from one dark web address to another and now was eavesdropping real-time on a site that served as a communications hub. There was no mention of anyone he knew, but it did seem to indicate that serious violence would break out soon. He resolved to keep up to date with this if only to make sure he was somewhere else. 

Saturday morning, Granny answered the door looking decidedly worse for wear and possibly suffering from withdrawal. He reminded her of his offer but was met only with abuse 

“….and anyhow, I don't remember nothin' ”

He pushed her out of the way and, upstairs, he tapped on Taya’s door, poked his head round and was met with a limited smile peering out from behind a protective duvet. 

“Have you ever been sailing, Taya? Would you like to?” 

She perked up no end and finished getting dressed 

“I'd better bring my towel” she said rolling up her threadbare rag “so that I can get dry especially if I fall in or if the boat turns over” 

She seemed to get more excited as they walked through the park towards the harbour. And even more excited when they went in to the chandlery 

“You need some shoes that will grip better on the deck. Slipping and maybe falling overboard is not a good idea” 

“Wow... “ she drew out as he helped her on board. “I thought it was going to be one of those little ones” she breathed pointing to the decaying flying fifteens hauled up on the mud. 

“There's only one rule, Taya. If I shout to you to do something, just do it. Do it immediately without asking questions or anything, because it will be very important. I don't expect to do that, but remember, just in case, because it means we're about to crash into something or some other disaster” 

But there was no such emergency. Taya wanted to learn everything about it, and Ryan was only too pleased to help her. There were few preparations, but she went along with him to the harbour-master’s office to make their plan known so that they didn't send out a search and rescue lifeboat when they didn't return on time.

The wind was light and they raised a lot of sail to make progress. It was all new, awesome and magical to Taya, gazing up at the full set of sails although by mid morning they’d only made it as far as the next little harbour just a few miles away, 

“Is that it over now?” she asked with obvious sadness as Ryan headed for a vacant mooring.

“No, we've come ashore to buy some lunch” 

She chose her sandwich, crisps and cola for lunch and her eyes lit up as Ryan put a chocolate bar in a bucket and picked up a spade. At the next bay she helped launch the RIB so that they could get ashore with their picnic. She'd never built a sandcastle before and watched the tide fill the moat, then it was back on board where she sat with him in the cockpit trying to understand his commentary on how to read the waves ahead and how to keep the yacht sailing on the right course and get just the right amount of wind in the sails. And what happens when you get it wrong. 

The afternoon flew past, but Ryan had a couple of hooks over the side and soon had dinner dangling on his line. He showed her how to prepare the fish and they went ashore again in a secluded cove enclosed by high cliffs to barbecue their catch. 

She'd already showed enthusiasm for staying overnight and now she'd crept up into the cockpit again as they drifted offshore some way and Ryan set anchor.  He had started to explain about navigating by the stars, but while she was interested, it had been such a big day, and she fell asleep with a smile sitting on his lap with his arms around her keeping her safe. 

Next day it was a repeat performance. Out to the open sea trying to understand the waves and the sails. Excitement of seeing just what was round the next headland, especially if there was a small harbour there to stop and buy lunch. Then a picnic on the beach, another sandcastle and all the way back to moor up. 

They headed to the Mariners Arms for dinner and then home, up to bed, and he'd be back to take her to school the next day. She was so tired. It was a lot for a nine year old to take in. She hadn't been thumped by a walking stick for two days now and that also felt quite unnatural. 

Ryan was back at Granny’s just after 8 for the school trip as he’d arranged. As expected she was waiting by her door but didn't talk much as they walked. 

The gate was crowded with parents, all peering nervously into the playground trying to keep track of their little one until they got to the safety of the red door. Ryan joined the shared atmosphere of insult and venom. Who were these people that made the rules where they expected six and seven year olds to run the gauntlet of ten and eleven year old bullies who roamed without reason or sanction?

Taya tensed up as they approached. She was worried about her turn because she knew Toby would be gunning for her. Her best chance was to hope and pray that he didn't notice she was there, and then maybe try to out run him if she was anywhere near the other side. But Ryan had already decided not to play this game.

“Excuse me. Excuse me - can I get through please?” 

He was trying hard to be polite. After all, these others had their children at risk too. 

“Excuse me ..” he repeated as he got to the cordon “I need to get through here” 

“I'm sorry, but that's against the rules” 

“Why?” 

“Because it would interfere with the schedules that are set for the Specials” 

“I need to make sure that my little girl gets into school ok. So I'd like you to let me through please” 

“No! The rules are set and we can't risk upsetting the schedules” 

“What about the risk to the other children?” 

“They are not our responsibility” 

“So whose responsibility are they?” 

“Each parent or guardian is responsible for their own” 

“Yeah, I kinda assumed that. Last Thursday I had to break through your line to stop one of your animals....” 

“They are not animals! They are human beings...” 

“All human beings are animals. It's just that some are well behaved. Yours however are the opposite end of the scale. And as I was saying I had to rescue my girl from serious injury” 

“That is unfortunate. But if is not my problem” 

“And. And I remember that you made some efforts to prevent me. What brand of ethics do you subscribe to?” 

“It is not a matter of choice. The rules are set” 

“Ok. Guys..” he called to everyone around “please clear a corridor for me. Because I am going through this cordon. I will take a twenty metre run and shoulder charge whoever and whatever gets in the way. Please. I do not want to hurt anyone if it can be avoided” 

He took a few steps back as the crowd separated. There was a tangible air of expectancy now and a couple of heads turned from the cordon. He picked Taya up and laid her horizontally 

“First lesson of the day, babe. How to be a battering ram. A bit mediaeval but still useful. CHARGE!” 

He turned side on as he approached the cordon with barely enough time to notice the pure terror in their eyes as they dropped each other's shoulders leaving a gap for him to run straight through. He stopped and turned. 

“Thankyou....” 

“Hey, fella” he was interrupted “would you take my Alfie through as well. Please?” 

“Sure, babe” 

He held his hand out and Alfie grabbed it with a terrified stare like it was a life belt in the ocean. Ryan smiled down at him. I thought kids were taught not to trust strange men they don't know. Maybe this was the exception.

Mission accomplished and red door securely closed behind them he made his way back to the cordon 

“And, just to let you know. This afternoon I will be meeting her at the red door and taking her to the park to play on the swings” 

“But.. But you can't. It's...” 

“Don't tell me. It's against your rules” 

“Yes, and the Specials will be going to the park” 

“That's ok. It's open to everyone. That's the nature of a public park” 

“Well, yes. But there's a safety issue. As you already know” 

“Absolutely. Because if any of your animals touch my girl, you'll be collecting them from A and E” 

That afternoon, the cordon was holding fast as he approached it. He was recognised by a number of people although he'd never been introduced to any of them and they looked on expectantly as he smiled gently at Cecily's fury torn features 

“Would you let me through, please Cecily.....” he asked politely reading her name badge.

Several of the crowd readied themselves to follow him through the gap as Ryan paused 

“... Or do I have to punt someone out of the way. I was so much hoping no one would get hurt. This is all for the purpose of preventing injury” 

He took hold of Cecily’s wrist and forced it down to the her hip ignoring the gasp. It was unlikely that she'd have met such strength recently, but Ryan was keen not to have to shoulder charge anyone. He slipped through the gap, tailgated by a few before the cordon re-established itself. 

Alfie pushed his way to the front, recognising him as he stood by the red door, and two others he didn't know had the sense to join the party returning to the gate. A ripple ran through the crowd of parents but went silent as Ryan with his four children approached Toby who was blocking the path. Ryan diverted onto the grass with all four crowding round him. 

Toby stopped, wide eyed, before shrieking “you're not allowed on the grass” and reverting to a demonic howling. 

Back at the cordon, he was met with a steely fury rolling across the faces of the Matrons 

“I cannot even imagine how long it will take us to recover from that. His Schedule is completely ruined. You've wiped out all the progress we've made. And walking on the grass is against the rules” 

“No ma-am. I think you may be mistaken. You walking on the grass is against your rules. Me walking on the grass is not against my rules” 

But now with a break in the cordon to let him out, he positioned himself between the members 

“If anyone else would like to accompany their child, be my guest” 

“You can not do that! Its...” 

“Of course I can do it. I've already done it. Maybe we could agree that for ten minutes each day we play by my rules rather than yours?” as a steady stream, building to a flood of parents flocked in. And across the grass. 

The trip to the park went better than expected. Alfie came along with his mum, and several others joined the party. He felt a bit like the pied piper as they crowded down the street with a number of happy smiles breaking out. 

It wasn't long before the Specials arrived. Going to the park was in their Schedule and it had to happen. 

At first it all went smoothly. The Specials joined the queue for the slide, took their turn on the swings and complained that the roundabout was going too quickly Then everything started to fall apart. 

One of them decided that rather than slide down the slide he'd turn round at the top and come back down the steps. This would have been ok if there weren't three other children patiently waiting their turn at various points on that ladder. Special was confused. He stopped not knowing what to do or how to interact with the others. 

“Just go down the slide” said the girl he was now facing. But instead, he tried to push her out of the way. She was a lot younger and by no means a match. She slipped off her step but only as far as the older boy behind her. 

“Oi! Back off!” the boy said sharply while holding on to the handrail with one hand and the slipped girl with the other. 

The third child on the steps backed down. He had no interest in getting into an argument and made way for the others to come down. 

“Let's all just back down the steps” said Ryan hoping to defuse the issue before if escalated 

“O what! He's just spoiling the fun and wasting our time. What's with him. Stupid of something” 

Catcher boy was very unhappy about this, but complied at Ryan's second gentle request. 

Special finally managed to walk forward down the steps, but instead of moving away, he sat down on the last step blocking everyone. 

“Don't be silly. Get out the way” 

But Special just sat there. Catcher boy moved to climb past him but, without or maybe with intention, he stood on Special’s hand. Special squawked and grabbed his leg, pulling him down tumbling him onto the grass. 

Catcher got up, looked at him briefly, then punched him with a practised right jab firmly in the left eye, knocking hm off the steps. Catcher boy seemed happy to leave it at that as the slide was now clear, but instead Special thumped him in the back. 

Catcher jumped off the steps. He'd clearly seen his fair share of fights and looked perhaps as though he'd taken boxing lessons as he squared up to him. He was in no danger whatsoever of coming through this in second place as he laid into Special with a vengeance 

“Stop it! You can't do this. It's against the rules” wailed the Matron

Catcher boy stopped hitting him, but only because he was now writhing around on the floor and was disinclined to bend down that far to punch him again 

“Don't kick him when he's down. It's not fair” someone was coaching him 

“Why not?” Catcher boy asked “that's what they do to us” he returned, sinking the toe of his shoe into Specials rib cage. 

It was clear to Ryan that this was more than just for the interruption to the slide. This was retribution for all manner of previous crimes that had all been left un-avenged. 

But the members of the cordon were unrepentant. They fired accusations and were telling children off for every little thing and interfering in the queues to get the Specials preferential turns. It had been fun. It was something of a victory for it to happen at all, but the parents decided against confrontation and it was time to drift off home, leaving the park to the undeserving. So much for non-discrimination, whispered Ryan to Alfie’s mum.

Taya declared it fun and worthy of a big thankyou hug, and Ryan agreed that he'd try to take her back there soon. 

He stayed as long as he dared at Granny's house. He wanted to make sure she knew he'd take action if she fell out of line with Taya. And Saffron was there moaning and wailing that she couldn't cope.

“Cope with what?” he snapped “You do naff all! So what actually happens when you can't cope? Do you just sit still, doing nothing? Or just quiver? Or wail and moan! Or what? Listen, The sun will come up tomorrow without your invitation, so how can you possibly avoid it. Not cope with what?” 

“Nag off! I can't cope with all that as well” 

He cut back through the park thinking of whether to go out for a curry, or just drop by the chippie. Dusk was falling and a serene stillness had descended like a light mist around the trees. 

“Help!” 

It was faint, but loud enough to make him stop. Maybe it would call again. He stood stock still waiting for a second call so that he could try to discern the direction 

“I'm here” he called not wanting to walk on if someone really was in trouble “call again so I can get your direction” 

“By the fence..P..Please” 

He looked around. The fence was some distance away and shielded the park from the drainage channel. Of course it could be a trap. Call out, lure him to a darker part of the park, but the bleat of “help me. Please” sounded genuine, and with a definite bearing, she wasn't hard to find. 

“Hey! Fancy meeting you here!” 

It was one of the cordon women, but not the leader of the pack, and she was definitely in trouble. He checked round to see if there were any accomplices or even any of the Specials. 

“Oh my goodness! If I could have wished for anyone else to turn up!” 

“As you like. I'll leave you for the next passer-by and look for someone else to rescue” 

“No! Please. I..I’m sorry” 

“Ok. Calm down. Let's take a look” 

She'd caught her leg between two of the fence wires, presumably when trying to climb over it to escape a Special attack. Instead, she’d tripped over it and that had twisted the two wires together, trapping her almost upside down with her head in the ditch near the water level. He studied the mechanics for a minute, then tried to pull the wires apart. She yelled in pain as the barbs on one of them stabbed into her again. He took his jacket off and carefully edged it in between her and the wire until there was enough padding to prevent farther damage. Then he climbed over and inched her back upright, and finally with the wires untwisted, released her from the trap. 

He helped her back across the fence and was prepared to just leave her there to make her own way home. But she was still in trouble with a breathed or gasped 'ow' at every step. She seemed to be hopping forward on one leg and dragging the other one behind her in an attempt not to put any weight on it. They made it as far as the grass which was dryer and cleaner and she collapsed in a heap 

“You're in big trouble, aren't you?” he asked rhetorically 

“Bigger than you realise. Oh my life!” 

He plonked himself down beside her “Best take a look at the damage” 

Her trousers were already torn and she leaned over as far as she could to see as he ripped them a bit more. The reveal was not a pretty sight. Scratches everywhere, several deep and jagged, but all of them obscured by congealed blood and clots. 

“Maybe I need to get to A and E” 

He looked at her severely shaking his head “I would seriously recommend that you don't” 

Her eyes widened, now even more frightened 

“But I can't go to the Home. I can't. Really I can't” 

“You shouldn't go to the hospital. There'll be a 24 hour wait for triage then who knows how long before you get sorted out. That's long enough for gangrene or something else to set in. And. And you'll have to fill in the four page form of how you got your injuries. And that won't be easy for you either. There’s rules against climbing fences” 

“24 hours?” 

“Yes, that's the norm now. A lot of its down to the publicity about if you think you might have a new fatal virus, look out for early symptoms, and report to your GP. Except that GP response times are more than the advertisements say you've got, so everyone crowds down to A & E”

“But I can't go home. The Specials. They're seldom well behaved and that Toby is out for me anyway. And I won't even be able to run away or anything” 

Yes, he thought. And get a good kicking, like Taya. But he thought better of actually saying that. She let out a terminal sounding sigh, now with tears bubbling in her eyes. 

“Babe, that's where it's got to. There is no health service for people with real issues. It's all psychosomatic, life style choices and self-diagnosed imagined possibilities” 

“But. But. I might die!” 

“No ‘might’ about it. Everyone does, sooner or later. Except, In the short term, I'm not going to let you” 

He pulled her up “I can carry you a bit. But I doubt if I'll make it all he way without quite a few breaks. But then, I doubt if you're running off to do much else this evening” 

“No, but I expect you had something planned” 

“Whatever” 

The ten minute walk to Ryan's apartment took them over half an hour. He'd tried to keep cheerful but the strain was telling. And in any case this was one of the people responsible for the issues at the school

“It's your choice. This is my flat. More of a studio really, but I don't tend to spend a lot of time in it. I'm not a qualified doctor, but I do know what I'm doing”

There were no protests as he heeled the door closed behind them and carried her up the stairs one carefully balanced step at a time to his first floor apartment. Her mind was racing but no two thoughts seemed to join up and none of it made any coherent sense. 

He peeled back the remaining material and cleaned up the damage using warm water with just a dash of whisky in it as an antiseptic.

“I haven't got any anaesthetics as such. A drop of Scotch and some paracetamol. But the names Ryan and you can dig you fingers into my arm or leg as hard as you like if the pain is too much 

“I'm Harper” she introduced, but just lay back hoping that this was a purely medical bed she was lying on and that treatment would be confined to the area immediately affected. But if it wasn't, she admitted to herself with some finality, there was nothing she could do about it. 

Treatment complete, sterri strips applied, bandages pinned, he poured her another Scotch 

“Thanks Ryan. I appreciate this. I don't normally drink whisky” 

“Nor me. That's why there's some left” 

The intermittent chat turned to food. She didn't feel hungry, but thought that eating would be good for her 

“I'd take you out for dinner. But carrying you into a restaurant with only one leg of your trousers might look a bit odd. I concede that the world progresses due to eccentrics, but that might be a step too far” 

Now with the third glass of whisky and half a pizza down her neck, the conversation was a bit more open, if a bit more slurred. But at least there was plenty of agreement. 

They agreed she couldn't go home to the Home. And that she wouldn't be able to manage on her own in a hotel even if she had any means of paying for it, and that she'd have to stay here and that there was only one bed and that there was no other viable place to sleep. 

They also agreed that she was in no fit state to do anything except sleep. 

“Look, there's a heap of spare pillows in that wardrobe. We'll put them down the middle like an old fashioned bolster. I'm certainly not a guy to take advantage of a girl when she most needs support, but you are a bit short on trust” 

Next morning, he left her a note and hurried across the park to take Taya to school. As expected, the usual cordon was in place preventing adult access. But the difference now was that there were no children trying to cross the playground either. The Specials wandered around aimlessly, presumably Ryan thought, they hadn't noticed that there was no one there to assault or molest. 

A man at the front was glancing repeatedly at his watch as Ryan made his way through the crowd. Maybe he was late for work, or an appointment and was running out of time while everyone else seemed quite happy to wait. 

“Head for the building, then along the front. Not up the main path...” 

And a small sized year two scurried across the grass. 

“Keep off the grass. It's against the rules” wailed someone from the cordon, but the call alerted the Specials and a posse of them scrambled like a pack of hunting jackals. They pounced on him as Ryan got to the cordon. A space had opened up behind him, perhaps for the anticipated assault charge. He fixed Cecily with a steely stare and without words took hold of her wrist like before and forced it off the shoulder next to her and down to her own hip. He edged through the gap and ran as fast as Taya could keep up over to the red door. With her safe inside he headed for the assault, quickly turning into a hurry and now something of a run. He didn't slow on approaching the group who now had the victim curled on the ground attempting to protect his head.

The group exploded in every direction as Ryan shoulder charged the nearest culprit, dispersing them as they fell over each other like he was the cue ball breaking the pack on a snooker table. He picked little Alan off the floor and headed for the safety of the red door. 

All the remaining parents had tailgated him in when he opened the gap and there was a steady stream of parents and kids swarming across the playground. 

With the cordon as a lost cause, Cecily headed for the last remaining Special who was still on the ground after Ryan's charge. She stooped to help him up but was distracted by a shriek from the direction of the red door. Ryan spun round just in time to see Alfie's mum about to scream again and Toby, the biggest of the Specials only five yards away from him but brandishing a 12 inch kitchen knife. 

Cecily also realised what was happening, but the sudden noise and the tension had unsettled the Special she was trying to help. He kicked her in the leg tripping her up and landed several more kicks into her. Now it was her turn to start screaming. 

Jeez! Ryan backed away, taking more steps backwards towards the new assault as Toby advanced on him. Ryan turned quickly dipping towards the ground. He grabbed the new assailant by a wrist and an ankle and held him out in front as a human shield. No longer under attack, Cecily wriggled away seeking safety back at the gate . 

Ryan backed towards it with his sub-human shield now taking over as chief noise maker. Alfie's mum was nearly there as well when Toby decided that she was an easier target than this confusing duo he was stalking. He lunged at her with the knife but was just too far away. She froze in terror as Ryan threw his shield to the ground, steadied himself for accuracy, and right on target landed his right foot directly on Toby's wrist. The knife flew into the air as he grabbed her arm and tugged her through the gate while Toby stood still gazing at the sky roughly in the direction of the flying weapon. 

For Ryan, that was enough drama for one day. But no doubt the world would have moved on by the afternoon, and picking up Taya would be another assault course. 

Back at his room, Harper was up and about. She was trying not to put any weight on her bad leg, but had decided to try to go back to the Home, if only to explain her absence. She wasn't really his responsibility. It's not as if he knew her very well. And it could easily be argued that she was the opposition. But she'd also need to report the incident and she didn't want to be around the Home for longer than necessary. 

There were a few sheets of paper in the bedside drawer and Ryan had a pen. So it was report writing this morning and Home this afternoon. 

“I'll leave you to get on with it. I need to go and hire a car. I’ve got some business in Birmingham to sort out” 

“Thankyou. And thanks for looking after me” 

But she was still there when he got back 

“Ryan, do you think it would be ok for me to stay here again tonight?” 

“Sure. But if you're coming back, make sure you bring your phone” 

She smiled a thankyou. Was that a hint that she'd be expected to pay for pizza this evening? 

But at Ryan's suggestion, she arranged to meet a colleague at a coffee shop in the town centre instead of attempting to run the gauntlet throughout the Home itself. 

She was pleased she'd managed to hobble to the taxi, and on to complete the mission. It did, however, show her just how badly she was injured. She was hoping to walk, or at least hobble back in an effort to maintain the blood circulation and rebuild strength. But the effort was draining her and her new strategy was to make it from one leaning post to the next. Lampposts, shop windows, garden walls, street signs were all fair game for this. 

What was not in the plan was the guy in a dark shirt and jeans who grabbed both her arms from behind and bundled her into a car.

“Please don't hurt my leg!” she gasped, suddenly surprised that she hadn't screamed as she landed with a bump on the front seat, only to be blindfolded and tied in with a nylon rope. 

“Keep quiet. Don't reach for you phone. Don't struggle and no one will get hurt” 

She was too shocked to resist. Kidnapped? Her? Why? She didn't have any money. Her parents weren't well off. She didn't have a boyfriend or even an uncle in some high office. 

Blindfolded, she sat in silence until the car finally stopped 

“Unfortunately you need to stay partially blindfold so that you can't identify us. I hope you understand that it's not just vindictive.” 

That at least was polite, and relatively gentle...... 

“We only need a few correct answers, Cecily. You co-operation will save us all a lot of grief....” 

“..But, but.... I'm not Cecily. I'm Harper. I know Cecily, I work with her. But I'm someone else” 

The conversation was surprisingly unflustered and she managed to retain her sense of calm as she really didn't feel particularly threatened. The voice was too polite. 

She finally suggested that he looked at her phone. She’d sign in on fingerprint id so that he could retain the blindfold, and talked him through the navigation to her driving licence with photo - Misty Harper Braithwaite

“So you're not Cecily” 

“No. You've got he wrong person” 

“Skunks!” 

He dropped her at the park. Not the best memories for her, but no longer a captive. He'd returned her phone, and she'd escaped without even a bruise. What a nice kidnapper. What! But what would they want with Cecily. She wasn't from a rich background either. And oh my, I’m so glad Ryan told me it was my turn to pay tonight. 

Normally it would only take ten minutes to walk to Ryan's studio, and forty minutes later she was ringing the intercom., with all the memories of the first time spinning in her head. 

“Ryan it's me” 

“Are you alone?” 

“Yes. Are you” 

“Yes. Come on up”

He broke out a wide smile as he watched her haul herself up the last few steps and went back to making tea. She said she'd met Carly in Castle Lane, and she’d remembered to bring her phone and then related her bizarre incident, although Ryan seemed strangely unsurprised.

The cup of tea and the biscuit were a welcome relief, but Ryan now had a much more serious face than she was expecting. He walked over to the window and looked out 

“I need to tell you something” he said without turning to face her. 

Need to tell me? We’re just acquaintances. We’re not even friends, not really. Why would there be any need? 

He turned and she got up, now anxious that this might be related to the previous events 

“Harper, this afternoon. Around three o’clock.....” 

“Ryan, I was struggling to see anything in the front of a car parked up in an what I think was an almost deserted HGV yard....” 

“Ok. Yes, just as well! You see, the Home. It caught fire. It completely burned down in about half an hour” 

“Oh my goodness! Did everyone get out? What happened to the Specials” 

“Harper. Harper. No one got out. The doors and gates had all been locked” 

“Locked! Yes, they would be. So, survivors?” 

Ryan was shaking his head 

“Ryan. My friends! The girls I work with! I need to go over there. I must see if there's anything can be done. Anything at all!” 

“Ok, but you can’t walk that far, and it’s a good job you weren’t there”

It was a short drive and smoke was still rising from numerous points in the rubble. But it was deserted. There were no firemen dousing down the site, no police barrier or incident tape, no crowd of onlookers. Not even any druggies who usually turned out to such events as looters. 

He examined the large electronic lock on the vehicle access gates and then drove her slowly around the perimeter fence. He largely avoided the track to be nearer the fence, and she was on that side, suddenly calling to stop.

Danni and Adrienne were lying near the fence at the farthermost point from the building. There was a slight dip down towards it at this point, and it provided something of a sheltered hiding place.

“We can't get out. And we don't know if any of the Specials are still loose” 

Harper explained that they couldn't get in as the locks were all set. 

“Let's go back and have another look at that gate” 

“But be careful. The fence is electric” 

“And I don't know of any of your Specials escaped the fire”

“They weren’t all inside. Some of them were at the park”
 

But while the gate was big, locked and impenetrable, it was held in place by two ring hinges set over two pivots and prevented from rising by two cotter pins. But by removing those pins the gate could be lifted off 

“You'll never lift it” said Harper “It must weigh a ton at least” 

“No, but the car jack will lift that much. We just need to be out of the way when it gets to the top of the pivots and falls off” 

It was a simple task. Maybe fifteen minutes end to end. It left the entrance open, but Ryan wasn't worried about releasing any Specials into the general community. All the more chance they'd cause more mayhem, and build up more resentment. But he was also concerned that some had survived.

Adrienne was grateful for the cup of coffee at the Castle Street cafe, but looked much more fragile than purely escaping the fire could account for. They’d finished the donuts and Ryan was seriously considering getting some more when she opened up 

“I didn't realise they could be so vicious. Two of them. Their sole intention was to kill me! I managed to kick one of them in the nuts, he limped back towards the window we got out through, but the other wrestled me to the ground. They’re seriously strong! I'm bruised everywhere. I managed to get up and he came for me again. I grabbed his arm as he lunged at me and … and I threw him round. Danni, he hit the fence. I can still see him now, squirming in every direction and that confused surprised smirk on his face as … as he died. What do you get for murder these days?” 

“There'll be nothing there to link you to him” cut in Ryan “Ok your fingerprints will be on his coat, but that would be normal. He just ran out, escaping like everyone else, tried to climb the fence and that's the result. In the big scheme of things no one will be in the slightest bothered. All the same. I wouldn’t go shouting about it”

They all stopped abruptly as Carly finally caught up with the fact that they were all in a café in Castle Street not Castle Lane as before.

Female Form

Ryan watched her as she approached. She was prettier than Harper, but disguised it by deliberately wearing a permanent scowl, now exacerbated by noticing Ryan’s silent interest 

“You’re objectifying us girls” she immediately complained before she’d even sat down, annoyed at the way he now seemed to be looking at Danni.

“Just a healthy interest in the female form as a means of passive entertainment, although it would be helpful if she said more and wore less which might free us from the burden of second hand depression” 

“That’s hardly a recipe for equality” she barked becoming even more annoyed

“No, I don’t believe in equality in any way, shape or form. I believe in diversity. Differences drive invention, diversity drives innovation. Equality drives subservience. That is, no one being allowed to be different because that would mean someone else was unequal”

“Equality ensures that no-one is left out”
 “Exactly. Which means that no-one will be different, so no progress will be made in any direction. That is a recipe for stagnation and depression. It will lead directly to a counter culture resulting in Armageddon”

They paused. Clearly their points of view were diametrically opposed, and he offered to get coffee for her to break the rift.

“Thanks, but you're not exactly a supporter of ours” 

“Me? ‘Me’ is a person that other people perceive having various characteristics, aspects, attributes and appearance. ‘I’ is something that I experience. You will find that I am not me”

But this encounter was hardly encouraging, and as a girl she was succeeding comprehensively in being neither attractive or alluring

“I untangled Harper from a fence that could have killed her and I rescued Danni and Adrienne didn't I?” 

“Ok, But if you got in that easily, how come the fire brigade couldn't?” 

“Its not so much they couldn’t, Carly. More, they just didn’t. Cast your mind back to the school yesterday. Remember the victim? A little year two called Alan? Well, there's a notice on your gate that says ‘No admittance under any circumstances’ ”

“And?” 

“I, as you know, don’t care much about rules, regulations and directives, but Alan's father is a fireman”

“Oh what! But he's trained to save people!” 

“And to follow instruction. On this occasion he followed the instructions”

“But why? Why! All these people inside and they did nothing!”

“The Backlash has started. And this is part of it”

“Backlash?”

“The inevitable culmination of democracy. The pinnacle. You see, our political system has evolved to a point where you have the guys in power and the opposition. Their primary objective in their life is to be re-elected because only then do they get paid. Now, most people support one or the other. So supposing 45 % support one side and 45% support the other, each party has to appeal to the remaining 10% . It's made up of every wierdo, loony and extremist in existence, and to gain their support some daft actions have to be taken. This then involves spending money to support these daft actions, like growing foetuses so small, deformed and brainless that they would be terminated through miscarriage if they were growing naturally in a womb. But instead some misguided dog-head grew them in a lab and made sure that they all survived to completion so that none is discriminated against. And the poor souls that result are those that should never have made it that far are placed in special homes and are given special privileges. That in itself is discriminatory against the rest of us. But the whole charade is immoral, its unethical and worst of all to the Backlash, its expensive”

“Its not a matter of money…”
 “It is when you live in a capitalist society. Its all paid for by honest, time-served taxpayers. The Backlash is when that normally silent majority, and majority by a vast margin decides to overturn this lunacy. It's violent, it's swift, it's effective and its terminal” 

“But that's appalling! Any changes like that should go through parliament following the political process” 

“But they can’t because while they would be supported by the vast majority of the population, both us and them in parliament have to oppose each other equally to retain their loyal supporters and retain their credibility and solidarity, and the necessary action would be contrary to that 10% minority that holds the balance of power” 

“But that's the best part of our democratic system. That the underdogs and minorities actually have a say!”

“Well not any more. There’s a difference between having your opinion taken into consideration and dictating the outcome. The majority has lost patience with their money being wasted on such ridiculous whimsical fantasy. Its just that some things aren’t commutative. Nothing will ever be better if its not different. But just because its different doesn’t make it better”

“So what’s happening?” she asked with rising panic 

“This afternoon, the Home was destroyed” 

“Yes” said Carly, now joining in “I was just walking back. After meeting Harpie I went to the park to update Cecily. She was there with Toby and some others and all of a sudden it just went up like a bomb site in an apocalypse movie. And... And all these innocent people inside - I can only pray they all got out”

Ryan was shaking his head “No - on both counts” 

“Both counts?”

“Only Danni and Adrienne got out, oh, and a Special that fried himself on the electric fence. And no-one in there was innocent. Look, its like if you have a viscous dog and it attacks someone and injures them. Like as not the dog would be put down. But under the Backlash the owner would be put down as well. Thats to make sure that he doesn’t just go straight out and get another dog that he looks after and trains in the same way and it too turns out as an animal that attacks people. These owners must be eliminated to prevent the same thing happening again” 

Ryan was hoping that the stunned silence was giving the girls time to think about their own situation, but was increasingly doubtful. 

“So what's next?” asked Harper fearfully 

“You say that as though this is deliberate - like co-ordinated - like a war or something” accused Adrienne 

“In a way it is - Of course it could be just a coincidence that London, Leicester and Newcastle Homes went up in smoke at exactly the same time. Maybe others as well”

“But that means that someone is out to attack us! But we don’t know who, so we wont know where to hide” 

“Its not you that’s being hunted. Its your crazy ideology. And you asked whose next. Next will be the drug hubs. Our local one is not too far from here. The other end of Castle Lane” 

“But these poor addicts need looked after - not bombarded”

“Drug addiction is a self inflicted condition. Most of it is paid for through crime. So the taxpaying majority pay thrice, once being robbed to pay for the drugs, again to sort out the after-effects, and a third time in subsidies and benefits to the recipients of those self inflicted wounds, none of which contributes to either national wealth of progression of society. The answer is to eliminate all these people - dealers, importers, operators and users” 

“That's why Harpie told me to take the back alley. To avoid Castle Lane! Harpie! You know about all this stuff!”

“No, Carly. No I don’t! All I know comes from .... Ryan” 

“So its you that’s part of all this… this violence! This… this… war!”

“No, I just happen to have come across a communication hub. And I reckon its better to know what’s planned and be somewhere else than take pot luck. That way I can make sure I’m ok. And maybe you as well.” 

Silence overtook them all. Who’s side was he on? Discussing this with them, buying them donuts, rescuing them. And then telling them they were likely candidates for elimination. Was that a threat? Or just a warning? Or merely information that they could possibly use to their own advantage?

“I was going to find a hotel. And hide in it. Its all too much for me” said Adrienne eventually “But if Cecily can’t take the Specials home, where is she going to take them?”

“I’d be real interested in that too – so that I can be somewhere else” said Ryan

“Oh no!” groaned Harper “I was in Toby’s sights to start with. Now no-one’s safe anywhere”

“We’ll all stick together. That way we can defend ourselves”

“Except that would be against the rules! So how does it feel to be on the receiving end of your madness?”

But there was no reply. Maybe they were getting the message.

“I’ll hang out here guys” said Harper “I’d only hold you up if anything happens. I still can hardly walk, never mind run. And I need to do some shopping if I can hop that far. These trousers are beyond repair. And…” she said after the others had left “I owe you for saving my life and for dinner yesterday” 

“So are you still staying at the studio tonight. You’re definitely getting a lot better. And…” suggested Ryan “I'm a guy and you're a girl!”

“Yes. Except, I don't want to be a girl. I want to be a man. I'm on the GX” 

“GX?” 

“The Gender Exchange Register. It's the waiting list for everyone who feels they were born in the wrong skin” 

“Yeah, I heard about it. But that’s another thing that's all going to change soon. That's another of these things that is hugely expensive and the 99.nn% of the tax paying population don't want to pay for. It’s a lifestyle choice for those that want to improve on God. Tax payers should not be paying for that. For sure it will disappear in the next round of the Backlash. But its all up to you. I need to check out some stuff at the harbour. Are you back here for dinner?”

Ryan was only away an hour before he returned to the café. He waited for an inside table at the end to become vacant. Not the ones right next to the window, but the next row in next to the pillar that would be safer. They’d be able to see the reflection of Castle Lane in the shop window opposite and that was the location of the narcotics hub. 

He ordered coffee and told the waitress that he was waiting for someone before ordering dinner. And what a someone! 

“You look fabulous” he spluttered as Harper sat down. She smiled weakly 

“I was thinking about what you said. And I've made a few decisions. Maybe I should really just play the cards I was dealt. What do you think will happen to people who are half way through GX?” 

“They're screwed. Unless they can complete privately. Probably cost around two hundred thousand pounds all in. But I think you’ve made the best choice. Which gender you are doesn’t really dictate much about what you do or how you do it. I really believe you’d be better just to make the most of being female. It is something I could help you with…”

“In that case, maybe you should start calling me Misty”

Dinner came up swiftly. It was half eaten and they’d got past the small-talk and into a proper conversation before the interruption. That street corner was quite busy, but through the gaps in the crowd he pointed out a slow moving Toyota pickup. Unusually there was someone in the back of it along with the cargo, and it looked very much to Ryan like a gun or two of some description loosely cloaked in a dark tarpaulin. 

She got up and stood leaning almost affectionately on his shoulder, resting her bad leg and craning her neck to peer through the window as far down the street as she could, then on Ryans hint, reverted to watching the reflection in the window opposite

“Why’s it stopping?”.

“Sshh! He’s taking up position. That's the hub - or at least the rumoured hub” he whispered just ahead of everything happening. The truck stopped, the weapons revealed. The Mortar fired - two quiet pips whispering out as the pickup continued on, but not far. An explosion cut everything short. Ryan tugged her back behind the pillar immediately ahead of an entire street cafe barrelling past the end of the road, a thunderous boom rumbled in every direction overtaken by another and another even louder. The flash took everyone’s breath away and blasted every outside dinner onto the floor. Windows across the street were crashing onto the parked cars and Ryan ventured a quick peek back into Castle Lane. It was trashed, completely demolished. The tables, chairs, drinks and people were spread in equal measures across the road as half of Afghanistan poured out of the hub, only to be met by the guys on the pickup opening up indiscriminately with what looked to Ryan suspiciously like a SIG Sauer machine gun just before the building exploded.

They fell in droves as anyone else left standing scurried for cover. Less than two minutes later the cacophony had been replaced with the crackling of a building fire and the Toyota had vanished with the traffic 

Ryan held her back 

“You don't want to know. You certainly don't want to see” 

And the colonel was right – you want to be somewhere else.

He hustled her out and along the street away from the scene and into a pub hidden up a narrow alley on the other side of the road. 

“So you were right - again. You know everything that's going on, don't you? That's two out of three, So what’s next? Is that tomorrow?” 

“Misty, I don't know. We'll see what the misinformation sites say about it” 

News feed notifications flashed up nearly immediately. 

“That just confirms, I need a new direction. I think I'll go back to Leicester tomorrow” 

“To the Specials Home?” 

“Yes. That's where I started. I came here to set it up, but then Cecily took control of it and new rules were published and it's spiralled downhill from there. Ryan, I can’t condone the cordon at the school gate, but its not up to me” 

“You go. See if there's as much left there as there is here. It's part one of the Backlash. The view is that its cruel to keep people like that alive and suffering. Quite apart from being expensive for no return to society. All of these Specials Homes were taken out at the same time” 

“I thought if was a fire?” 

“It was, but coincidentally? At exactly the same time in London and Leicester and as far as I can tell all the others as well” 

“Ryan, All I wanted to do is look after those who are worst off and can’t look after themselves. Is that such a bad ambition?”

“No. Until it starts adversely affecting other people going about their legitimate business – like violence against the other kids at school. And that its paid for by a charity, funded by people who choose to support it, not taxpayers who have other priorities. Misty, its the Backlash. It will only get worse, and you really don't want to be in the firing line when it does. Charities will survive. That's where all this idiocy should be confined. But if its costing taxpayers a shed load it will be wiped out. And that includes the perpetrators as well as the participants like I said to Carly about the mad dog. Then, when a sensible balance has been re-established, the government will claim victory in that it restored order in the face of anarchy and the cycle will start all over again.

Next will be the hospitals. Everyone in A & E will be turfed out and only those with obvious physical injuries would be allowed back in. All the others with imagined symptoms, or something a sticking plaster or cough mixture would cure will be shuttled into a separate area where chargeable services are available. And they'd see how many were left after that. And that goes for all those psychological issues too. All those who cant cope - of course they can – they don’t have a choice; and those who don’t know what’s going on – of course they don’t! How would the government ever get re-elected if the general public knew what was really happening”

“Ryan. Its like war just broke out just as surely as a Chinese invasion” 

“Misty, its really sweet wanting to look after the Specials. But it needs to be done like a zoo, not like an orphanage. Ok. you might not agree, but I’m trying to keep you alive. Now is not the time to stick you head above the parapet and start shouting”

But Misty was spending the evening with him, which was nice. And wanted to go back to his studio afterwards on the excuse that she had nowhere else to go, which was nice. And then wanted to stay with him that night, which was nice, and dispense with the pillow barrier, which was unexpected. Just touching her female body replenished his oxytocin and the next day he felt fully prepared to take on the rest of the world. Misty awoke contemplative. But without the torture of the fears that had haunted her for years. She was a girl, and had now started to make the most of it. 

He was out early. The revelation that the attack on the Home was not totally successful meant he should take Taya to school again. Maybe the head master would see sense and throw these hooligans out over the wall – preferably on the river side.

Now that the precedent had been set it was only a matter of time before Cecily sends her animals back to the school or some of the other boys take over where the Specials have left a gap.  Maybe she too had only been trying to help the seriously disabled but to the severe detriment of everyone else. It was a matter of priorities, and hers and Ryan’s were diametrically opposite.

He felt Taya gripping his hand more and more tightly as they approached the gate. The cordon was there, but somewhat depleted. Cecily had closed half the gate so that there was a smaller gap to obstruct, and none of the girls he’d met yesterday was there. But clearly the surviving Specials were there somewhere. So maybe the kids just needed some organisation.

He stopped just short of the assembling parents and knelt down to her level to speak gently but firmly

“Taya, its ok picking the right time and running really fast, but that’s just survival till next time, and we both know that next time you might not be so lucky. That will surely end in defeat. So, we need a plan of attack. Surviving one day to the next is good, but we need to fight back, and win”

She listened, wide-eyed, out of earshot of the matrons.

“This is the new tactics. We’re going to wait this side until some of your friends get here. Then you will go through the gate and wait just the other side for at least three or maybe four of you to go together. Walk, don’t run because someone will get left behind….”

Alfie arrived, and then a few others all looking individually nervous until he pulled Alfie’s mum to one side to explain the plan. 

“You do know its against the rules” she cautioned

“Ok. But I’m not a great fan of rules”

“….and…” he finished a bit more vocally “….if it all goes pear shaped, I’ll be through that cordon to punt the vermin into the flower beds”

“You certainly will not” fumed Cecily but without the arrogant confidence of previous days.

Taya was first through, But instead of bolting for the door she waited nervously 

“Off you go, then!” coaxed Cecily, but Taya stayed still, crouched nervously waiting. Two younger boys came through. And waited. Then Alfie. She took Alfie’s hand

“Right. Lets go. Slowly now”

“One at a time! One at a time. You know the rules” wailed Cecily as Toby approached the group

“Stop” commanded Taya as Alfie tried to hide behind her “Now turn and scream. As loud as you can”

Toby stopped his approach

“Step forward…” whispered Taya “...ready after three… scream... And again”

Toby’s face crumpled up as he backed away. Another Special approached, but seeing Toby backing away, became too nervous to attack. Suddenly, in a show of bravado, Alfie leapt forward with a shriek like a demonic lion pouncing on its prey. The two Specials started shaking, crumbling in sheer terror

“Lets go to school” said Taya quietly

“I’ll walk backwards if you hold my hand to stop me bumping into something”  said one of the boys she wasn’t sure the name of  “That way I’ll see if they’re following us”

But they weren’t, and the only person more upset than them was Cecily. She’d already shouted for them to stop. She’d already wailed that the Schedules were in tatters, she’d already pushed her blood pressure off the scale, and now she’d dropped her link in the cordon. Children were filtering through and waiting to build a group. They’d watched with interest. Some even seemed to be looking forward to getting revenge when it was their turn. The parents had watched with mounting relief as Cecily covered her eyes with her forearm and leant on the gate in tears.

Payday 

At last! Pay day – I hope. Phil answered the door to Ryan's knock. If they’d been friends he would have had his number to phone him but they'd only met twice and on that second occasion Phil had stolen Mandy from him. What Phil hadn't realised and didn't know even now is that he and Mandy were business partners and had very little of a relationship outside that. They had no plans at all for a future together. But today was pay day, then he'd make the opportunity to come to a final deal with Mandy, and that would be that. The lawyer’s office had phoned him to remind him that it was a condition of the will that payees must collect in person. That had not been made clear in Italy, but did explain why the Italian lawyer had insisted that everyone identify themselves. He had always assumed that this was the case which is why he reinvented Mandy as Tiffany. This also explained the sudden and serial disappearances of so many of the close family. And goodness knows how many more at Felix’ volcanic vent. It also made it so much more important that Mandy went with him, although she wouldn’t know that.

Phil wasn’t at all sure what to say but Ryan had no grief for him

“Mandy and I have a business meeting in Birmingham today. She did tell you didn’t she?”

But Mandy had already arrived

“Eleven thirty? Isn’t it?”
 “Yes. Hopefully we’ll conclude by one in time for some lunch”

“I’ll be back later. If it all goes well, we’ll go out for dinner” and she left him with a quick kiss

“Looks like a semi permanent thing with Phil?”
 “Ryan, we just click in. We’re just on the same wavelength”

Ryan shrugged. Saying goodbye was going to be easy.

The Italian lawyer had recalculated the percentages and rechecked the terms of the will. Now there were only six people in the room as the continental contingent had gone to Italy instead  He re-iterated that, because Felix was unable to collect, the share for everyone else had gone up, in some cases substantially. He also said that he was quite keen, bordering on impatient, to get the issue completed before more misfortune befell the remaining family. 

Not much chance of that, thought Ryan to himself. Not now that the cause has been eliminated. Some heads were bowed, but Ryan had no such sympathy. Tiffany had still been his wife in Naples and she didn’t deserve to die just to satisfy Felix’ greed. But then, why else did anyone kill someone?

Mandy wasn’t under pressure this time. The other two family members there had hardly known Tiffany and now she looked exactly as she did when they were briefly introduced in Follonica. No questions were asked and minimal explanation was given.

In turn, the lawyer asked for their bank details and her assistant immediate setup bank transfers. He hardly noticed that Mandy stuttered when asked for Tiffany’s, but Ryan had the details and put it down to her just being distracted by recent events. 

“Watch out for black mercs double parked outside” whispered Mandy and Ryan turned sharply to check out the side exit.

Next stop for Ryan was an up-market, quiet lunch with someone who was in effect, his ex girlfriend. 

She knew now just how important it all was. The numbers had been announced in the meeting and Ryan and Tiffany’s share had gone up substantially, but she was hoping he’d keep his word and still give her ten percent. Conversely, he was nervous that now that she knew what had been at stake, she’d demand more. But neither of them voiced their concerns and Mandy agreed quickly when Ryan asked if she was still happy at the original agreement. She was still surprised that he didn’t need to wait for the receipt confirmation of this recent payment to give her over quarter of a million pounds.

The recent Backlash events had unsettled him. Knowing it was going to happen was scary but watching it unfold was terrifying. The bizarre environment created by zero discrimination was impossibly toxic but the Backlash as a replacement was just plain dangerous. The Matrons dictating their specific rules and taking no action against the subsequent violence was a local issue and could be solved by ignoring them. However, the indiscriminate attack on whole sectors of the population with the sole intention of killing all of them was more difficult to avoid. Anyone knowing too much could be a target, while anyone not knowing enough could be caught in the crossfire. Sure it would be better if the essentials in society came under central control outside of a commercial organisation, and that charities supported by willing donors took over the lunatic fringe. But knowing that the strategy and control lay with background characters like Felix persuaded Ryan that it was safer just to leave it all to someone else. The plan, or at least the vestiges of a plan, was to restock the Salamander and head for an off-shore bank in Barbados.

Late afternoon, Christine phoned. She apologised for still not being back already, but wanted to stay to complete the job, at the risk of Taya having a problem getting into school.. 

“No problem, its all under control” 

“Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow, even if it's a little late” 

“Christine, you don't need to. Taya is Saffron's little girl, not yours. And there's a few things happening here that I would prefer not to be part of, so I'm thinking about shipping out” 

“Sailing out! Ryan, oh no, just when I was thinking .... Oh my. Ryan, please don’t go before I get back….” 

Which was a distinct possibility. He wanted to do a complete checkout of the yacht. The chandlery here was well stocked and advice, if any was needed, would be available, honest and free of charge. 

She was back late afternoon, but not too late for a coffee date with him although that was not what she was expecting either. She was all geared up to defend her being two days late coming home, of being too involved with Taya, but not that Ryan knew more about the Backlash than anyone. 

“Why don't you post this stuff. Then everyone would know?” 

“That's why I won't post it. How are they going achieve a surprise attack on a gay pride rally if it's all published” 

“Well they shouldn't be attacking a pride rally” 

“Look, Chrissie, I'm a live and let live guy. Right up until what they do impacts on me. So the A to Z of perversion can stick their dicks and dildos anywhere they want in private. But they shouldn't and won't advertise their perversion publicly. If they were to mind their own business and quietly go about their way of life, they'd be left alone. But trying to infect everyone else in a public display is not acceptable. Not that I'm actually involved with that. Ok, so I agree with their end goal and the world will be a better place when the Backlash achieves its objectives, but I still cant condone their tactics. In fact, I’m not involved at all except to find out enough to be somewhere else when the action kicks in.

No, Chrissie, the main issue is with Granny. I feel so sorry for Taya. Ok, so she’s learning resilience and that’s no bad thing and she's so sweet despite the adversity. But Granny neglects her, forgets or omits to feed her, and beats her for no reason. What sort of environment is that for her to grow up in!” 

And they both agreed that the chances of Saffron or her half wit boyfriend reforming enough was negligible. 

They walked over to Granny's house to make sure that Taya was all right. She was fine when Ryan had taken her back there, but there was a niggling sense of foreboding that Ryan wanted to subvert. Christine slipped her arm around him and smiled forlornly. 

He glanced down at it “that's a bit affectionate for you, isn't it. I thought you were just frigid, quite apart from still being till-death-us-do-part with Phil” 

Her heart sank. She'd not exactly been encouraging and it was really the negative circumstances that had pushed them together in the first place. But she just needed time to revert.

Granny was as aggressive as ever, wielding her walking stick and shouting. 

“What do you two want, just walking in here like this?” 

“I came to see Saffron and Taya” replied Ryan quietly speaking only for himself 

He headed upstairs and found her idly playing with her doll on her bed. It was the only toy she had as far as he could see, and the short conversation informed him that she hadn't eaten since lunchtime. The chances of there being anything for her in the kitchen was low and he invited her to go to the pub with him to find some dinner. 

Downstairs he discovered that Saffron and Oliver hadn't been seen since yesterday afternoon. They'd gone out to collect another supply and hadn't returned 

“Not that I'm complaining.....” 

' ... For once ...' 

“.... Pair of spongers and skivers. It'll be too soon if they never come back at all” 

But Ryan was already thinking about that very real possibility.

Christine was only too pleased to be invited as well, but as Taya devoured her fish fingers, chips and beans, Ryan confided his fear to Chrissie. The pickup of a new supply coincided with the destruction of the hub. There were guys with automatic weapons taking out anyone who came out of that entrance and Ryan had convinced himself that Saffron and Oliver could be amongst the casualties. 

Christine gazed at him in torment 

“Oh, Ryan. I was going to ask you if I could come with you if you're sailing out. That’s the whole reason I went to finish my assignment early. But now! I don't know. Maybe I need to stay here and look after Taya” 

“There's no obligation on anyone. But I can't see Granny reforming” 

Ryan ignored the second part 

“You're through with Phil, then?” 

“He's moved Mandy in - technically she's a lodger in the spare room, but we all know...” 

“But you were staying at Granny’s before you went to Nottingham” 

“Can you blame me? In the circumstances?” 

“Are you feeling better now” he asked Taya “maybe you need an ice cream for pudding” 

“That would be yummy, yes please” 

“I like being with you” she'd said holding hands with both of them on the way back. But that simply reduced Christine to tears being between a rock and a hard place. One by one she’d got a grip on the issues, Phil, her assignment, her direction. And she was looking forward to getting back to being her old self and making some progress with Ryan, not least to turn herself back into a proper woman after her hiatus with Phil. She'd come to accept that that episode in her life was finished. And now? 

He checked with the morgue the next morning after taking Taya to school but the result was inconclusive. He came away 70% sure that Olly had been taken out, but without any definitive reference to Saffron. He relayed the result back to Christine, but that simply set her mind into turmoil all over again. She couldn’t sail out with Ryan. Not now that little Taya had no one. How could she leave a nine year old to fend for herself, or be dumped in the council children's home. The home would keep her alive, but it wouldn't be a life. And childhood would be unnaturally short.

The children were now using the new tactics to get safely between the red door to the gate. They waited patiently for her and as expected, the Specials looked from a distance, but didn’t attack. They headed to the park as she had asked but instead of going home, Ryan diverted them into a bistro. Not the less expensive cafe that a number of the parents went to, but the deli that was farther way from school and almost deserted. 

“I want you to eat that donut slowly, Taya, because while you’re eating it I want you to consider something very carefully. I know you're only little and this is a very grown up question, but it's about you and only you will know the answer” 

Christine held her breath. She wracked her brains to think what could be next and she was still between a rock and a hard place in her own life. Taya took another bite and looked up to concentrate on listening

“You remember we went out for a weekend on the yacht, and you liked that?” 

The munching slowed and she nodded slowly, waiting for the question 

“Would you like to stay on the yacht? I mean, to live on the yacht instead of living with Granny?” 

“You mean, with you”

“Yes”

“And with Auntie Chrissie?” she beamed with all the excitement Christine had been neglecting

“You’ll have to ask Auntie Chrissie about that”

“Oh wow!! Yeah. That would be epic. Oh Auntie Chrissie, are you coming too? I do hope so. Oh Wow! But, oh. Would we have to take mother? And Oliver? Would they come as well” 

“No, Taya. There's not enough room for everyone” 

“So just you and me and Auntie Chrissie. That’s so much better. And Granny wont hit me with her stick and you might take me out to dinner sometimes”

“Taya, slow down. Auntie Chrissie hasn’t said she wants to come yet, and she’ll need time to think about it. But what we’d do is sail out into the open sea and visit different places, some of them a long way away. And it might be anything up to a whole week before we would land anywhere at all” 

Taya was having difficulty containing her excitement and Ryan noticed that Christine had acquired the startled wide eyed expression of anticipation. She’d said she wanted to go with him if he was sailing out. She’d said she was torn between that and looking after Taya because no-one else either would or could, and this was such a wonderful solution. Until Taya broke the spell with practicalities

“If we're out in the middle of the ocean, how would I get to school?” 

“You wouldn't. You'd go to school on the yacht. I’d be the teacher, and Auntie Chrissie as well if she decides to come too. But it wouldn't take all day” 

Taya’s enthusiasm was infectious. Ryan watched as she appeared to silently add up the benefits, breaking into a wider smile each time she thought of a new one.

“What do you think Granny will say?” asked Christine eventually

“We might not even tell her. I'm certainly not asking her. I think that the last words I say to her is that she should do everyone a favour and stick her head in a gas oven 

“Ryan! That’s my mother!” 

“Yes. That is a major concern. If that's where you're headed, twenty years behind” 

“But Ryan. We can’t just steal Taya”
 “Why not? But we’re not stealing her, we’re rescuing her”

The rush to get aboard could wait till the next day. Ryan thought that a late morning departure would give Taya enough time aboard to get used to the motion before her first night. He called round and went up to Taya's room to help her pack. It didn't take long but he was surprised at the speed and enthusiasm she was showing for moving out. 

Downstairs, Granny was wielding her walking stick again and without obvious reason struck Taya across the arm 

“Where do you think you're going” she demanded 

Taya was caught off guard in the circumstances and crumpled in unexpected pain as Ryan answered for her 

“Morocco” 

“Murrayfield?” 

“Not Murrayfield, that's a rugby ground. Morocco. Its in Africa” 

The conversation deteriorated from there until Ryan terminated it 

“…Do everyone a favour and stick your head in a gas oven” 

Christine was hardly surprised. She was acutely aware that she and Ryan were still together - or should that be, still stood any chance of getting together - because of Taya, and her mother’s behaviour was pushing Ryan and Taya together, but apart from that, the old woman was a wholesale liability with addiction, alcoholism and a personality like a cornered leopard.

They detoured via the supermarket for some minimal supplies. The plan was to make it to Douglas and see if everyone was still as keen on the plan, then either back home or continue across to the Irish coast and down to Cork and beyond.

The Isle of Man was altogether more relaxed. Taya was showing every sign of loving the boat and Ryan invested in some heavy duty wet weather gear for her. Christine’s main concern was that Taya would get terminally bored after the first few days but the following week, Cork was even more chilled out and Taya had defiantly decided to stay. They hauled out in the direction of Santander on a light breeze and minimal sail and Taya seemed to be as keen as ever. The weather had improved and Christine took over the helm as Ryan took over schoolmaster duty. 

Taya liked her one to one lessons. She had developed the habit of asking what relevance everything had, but once its value had been explained and she saw a use for it, she listened attentively and was genuinely pleased that she knew more and more stuff. Not just that, but she was managing to connect things together like maths and geography to predict how long it would take to get somewhere, like Portugal. Ryan and Christine both helped with this and were patient with the her continuous deviations. After all, these subjects needed to be done sooner or later. And how everything fitted together ought to be part of the curriculum anyway.

Christine had also decided to stay, and the next landfall would be Spain despite Ryan’s rather harsh offer to fly her home from Cork on her own. She was hurt by this and she died a little inside at this barely disguised rejection. She knew what she used to be like and knew that her relationship, or lack of it, with Phil had changed her. But she had been making progress at recovering herself even though it had clearly been invisible to Ryan.  

Spain was a welcome break ashore. The crossing had been rough for two whole days, and Ryan was treating it as something of a test of the girls resilience and determination.

They'd moored just off an almost deserted beach and Taya was revelling in the opportunity to play in the sand. This was all new to her. She'd been to the pebble sea shore near the harbour, and bult two sandcastles after their beach barbeque on her weekend with Ryan, but endless warm soft sand, with no time pressures and no fear that Granny would be waiting with her stick and Toby would be hunting her to kick her head in….It was all a magically wonderfully peaceful new world.

They were shopping, and Ryan was rummaging through a rack of sun dresses that might just be Taya's size, but she was less enthusiastic. 

“I can't wear that! Every time I bent down you'd see my knickers” 

“Listen babe, if I wanted to see your knickers I'd check out the washing line” 

But it was good, Christine observed, that Taya was developing her own perceptions and was being encouraged to voice them, even if Ryan on occasion was somewhat dismissive. And maybe she could use a sundress as well, even if Ryan was terminally sceptical. She bought it anyway, maybe just to suggest to Ryan that there was hope for improvement.

The weather had been getting progressively warmer and , rising to a new level of chilled out relaxation, Taya was finally in her sun dress. Maybe it would even encourage Christine to show some signs of thawing out. 

Back at sea and heading down the Portuguese coast, Taya was losing her self consciousness. The sundress had been dropped in favour of a bikini, and that had then lost its top half despite her being shy about her bumps. She was loving this. School was interesting and fun as Christine and Ryan ran through each topic at her pace and with practical examples. Ryan introduced her to navigation and despite most of it being beyond a nearly ten year old, she understood why it was necessary. She was happy, she smiled a lot, she seldom complained. They both thought that she'd miss her friends, but a remarkably grown up conversation after dinner one night informed them that since the Specials had been allowed back into mainstream education, and then had dominated it, no one played outside anymore and the time was spent exclusively on being vigilant, defending yourself or being in lessons. It was the same outside school. The park was out of bounds until Ryan had busted that restriction, and living with granny meant she couldn't have friends round and she wasn't allowed out. Which, she said, was why it was so nice being on the boat. She had two friends here. She had regular meals of yummy food and she liked the way Ryan grilled the fish. School was interesting and she was doing all sorts of fun stuff like swimming and even steering the yacht sometimes. 

Drive the RIB 

Lunchtime came round again far too quickly and the sandwiches and drinks in the cockpit disappeared again. Sometimes at lunch she’d ask a question about the morning’s school work and they all liked the discussions which often wandered into very different subjects. Then it was her turn to sail. At first it was very much learning, but by the time they got to southern Spain it was much more just practicing. There was almost a dead calm with the temperature soaring up into the low 30s and she’d clearly been waiting for the right conditions to ask her question. 

“Ryan, can I drive the RIB today?”

“Maybe”

“Hmmm. And what do I need to do to turn that maybe into a yes?” 

Ryan looked at her considering this rather adult response. There was no complaint and that was a very grown up question asked very politely, and that, in itself was a measure of success for his time with Taya.

“You need to promise to learn properly and be responsible and not be silly. It really is quite dangerous”

But they were in no hurry to get anywhere now that the weather was agreeable and they hove to and dropped anchor.

It was different for Taya to have someone else in her class as well and teacher Ryan started the lesson by drawing a diagram of the Rigid Inflatable Boat on the whiteboard. Christine too wanted to know about this and it would be useful in emergencies for all of them to be able to operate it. He described all the parts and how it worked and Taya asked as many questions as Christine before they went to the stern where it hung when it wasn’t being used. Unclipping it was simple, but it was important to hold onto the rope so that it didn’t crash into the sea and make sure that it stayed firmly tied on so that it didn’t float away. 

Both the girls had been in the RIB many times, but this was different as they each took a turn at driving it, slowly at first then building up speed. Taya was  absolutely bubbling to take control. It all started well, and slowly. But then, only slightly over-confident, she turned the wrong way on approaching a bigger wave. She turned to Ryan for what to do in such an emergency only to see him disappear over the side. The engine cut out as he was still wearing the dead-mans bracelet. Christine slipped her key into it instead and figured out how to restart it just as Ryan poked his head back over the side. Taya was in tears but instead of helping him back in she just knelt down and hugged his neck as he clung onto the boat. 

“Ok. So now you know what happens when you get it wrong”

“I think I’ve failed this test” she cried apologetically 

But no one was cross, there were no recriminations, the lesson had already been learned and Taya now understood how critical it was to get it right, and that was scary But the important lesson Christine learned is just how much she didn’t want to lose Ryan. And that scared her.

Back at the yacht, he showed them how to shut off the fuel and winch it aboard and store it against the stern, and put the dead-man key back where it was supposed to be to find it next time. 

“This needs to be done properly every time. If there’s an emergency, we don’t want to have to untangle it before we can launch it, or not start the outboard because the key is missing”

Generally, Ryan caught fish for dinner and Taya joined him taking an interest in how to prepare it and then grill it on the gimbled stove. She looked forward to her dinner and was always hungry by the time it was ready. She usually finished first with a huge grin showing just how much she enjoyed it.

Then she’d climb up onto Ryan's lap at bed time as he sat in the cockpit setting the autohelm to run overnight. She'd done this the very first night she’d been with him. She’d just sit there while Ryan cuddled her getting sleepier and then completely dripping off, only to find herself waking up by magic in her own bunk the next morning. 

Christine for her part cleared up after dinner. And then after that she'd sometimes pick Taya up and carry her down to her cabin without waking her. Then she'd return to the cockpit and talk quietly with Ryan in the late evening air.

Finally Ryan 

South of Morocco the temperature increased significantly. Out at sea, Taya wore next to nothing from one day to the next. Christine had finally taken to wearing her sun dress and that, in Ryan’s book, was progress even if it still felt like she was his sister or even a maiden aunt. But, he argued with himself hoping he wouldn’t lose, she’d suggested this, she knew that it was the size of a large caravan and that there'd be two of them in that space, and alone together. Surely she knew what expectation that would set. And then when they decided there'd be three of them sharing the space, they'd be even more pushed together, and in a de facto mummy and daddy situation. 

But on the plus side, she'd been more affectionate as the days went on, so maybe it's just matter of time. She'd said she was a bit old fashioned, hopefully that meant going back to late 20th century rather than the late nineteenth. And she had sat down with him for a cuddle rather than just a drink.

Possibility continued to increase as they drifted slowly down the coast of Africa. It was hot during the night and hotter during the day.

But spirits were still high. She responded more positively with more contact, holding his hand, giving him the odd hug and not reacting so badly when she realised she'd revealed more of something than she'd intended. Maybe she really did want to make this change but for some reason found it impossibly difficult.

He'd just finished setting the auto helm. The wind was almost non-existent and some progress overnight would be a welcome bonus. She'd taken Taya down to her cabin and was now returning up the steps carrying the half empty bottle of wine and two glasses. He watched in surprise as she steadied it against the minimal roll of the waves as she passed him a glass. It soon became clear, however, that contrary to previous evenings, the wine was just a distraction. She wiggled in next to him on the wide captains chair and sipped her drink, slowly lowering her head to lean on his shoulder. 

“I was talking to Taya earlier” she said quietly “she really doesn't want to go home” 

No, Ryan thought, she wouldn't. Granny beating her with her stick for no reason. Almost nothing to eat, untidy addicts lying around the house, no opportunity to play with friends. No! Taya would rather jump overboard that go back to England. 

“It's understandable. I'm not keen on going back to England either. The Backlash is in full swing and it seems to be affecting a lot more people than first thought. Quite apart from anyone caught in the crossfire” 

“Maybe the three of us should just stay here. One little happy isolated family” 

That was a strange comment. It sounded almost romantic. But she'd never been this friendly before. She'd hinted so often that she wanted to get back to being her old pre-Philip self, but so far, change had been invisible, and he had no real idea of what a pre-Philip Christine actually looked like, although she seemed to suggest it would be an improvement.

Fish

It was Taya’s tenth birthday and Ryan was intent on doing something special. He’d planned to make port and take her and Christine to a restaurant, but the wind was negligible and he decided that he’d just let her play in the RIB while he tried to catch something unusual for dinner. He was aiming for a small tuna and had already thrown a number of small fish back. He heard her come back on deck and asked if she’d stowed the rib.

“No. You said we might go ashore to barbeque the fish on the beach tonight so its just tied on tightly”
 

And that was right, that was the revised plan. Christine had baked a cake and they had a special bottle of wine and some of the Spanish cola that Taya particularly liked.

But just as she got back to the cockpit she could hear Ryan calling her. She ran back to see his fishing rod bent over and Ryan trying hard to bring it under control. Christine had heard too and had slowed the boat to make it more stable.

Taya helped him wrestle with the line

“Ryan, what are you catching? A whale!”

By the time they’d got the catch under control they’d drifted round the headland into the next bay. Christine stayed with Ryan as Taya untied the rib and brought it round. It would be easier tipping this catch into the low rib than hoisting it all the way up onto the foredeck. And they didn’t want to lose it after all this effort.

It was huge. They all looked at it taking up the whole floor of the rib

“Wow! I’m not sure we’ll be able to eat it all”

“I agree. I think it might take us till next birthday”

“Yes, its bigger than we need…” agreed Ryan “…It’ll take a bit longer, but cooked over driftwood it should be a real treat”

They went ashore in the RIB leaving Christine to drop anchor and prepare the rest of the dinner. They moved a bit farther along the shore to beach on a sandier part and set off to find driftwood for the fire. 

But returning to set the fire, they were not alone. A lone fisherman was hauling his canoe up onto the sand only thirty yards away, preoccupied with skewering his catch onto his carrying stake. He held his two small fish up and surveyed them with obvious disappointment, only now noticing these two foreign interlopers. Obviously they weren’t from his village and he jumped a step back in fright. Ryan waved slowly at him, and then beckoned him to come towards them

“Ryan, if that’s all he’s got for dinner, maybe he could share some of ours? but he might not speak English”

Ryan beckoned him again, then pointed down at the rib, pointed to himself and the villager and his mouth and made an eating movement. The villager moved slightly towards them, clearly interested, but puzzled. Ryan tried the act again

“Don’t move towards him, I don’t know how unpredictable he’ll be if we cant make him understand”

But Taya decided it was her turn. Maybe as a little girl, he’d be less nervous. Ryan look a few steps back and Taya went through the actions, including rubbing her tummy which she thought meant yummy in any language.

“Keep smiling and don’t show fear” Ryan coaxed softly as she finally had the success of him moving towards them. 

The fisherman gasped as he finally got to the rib and looked inside. Taya made the actions again and a smile broke out across his face. He looked past her towards Ryan, and with yet another repeat plus some new ones that Ryan thought could be only be interpreted as laying a fire and smoke rising from it . The villager nodded, very slowly. Then he pointed inland into the forest and waved his arm in a wide sweeping movement.

“Taya, I think he’s asking to invite the rest of the village”

She managed to retain her fixed smile while nodding vigorously. The fisherman now put the whole thing together. The point towards the forest, the wide arm inviting everyone, the point to himself and Ryan and Taya and the eating and it was bigger smiles all round.

The fisherman raised another sign. They weren’t sure what it meant but he ran off almost immediately

“I hope he doesn’t bring that spear when he comes back. Its quite scary”
 “I think he only uses it to carry the fish back to the village”

He didn’t bring it back, but he did bring three other villagers. The two younger boys had brought some wood and now started laying out a fire. The older man looked into the rib and exchanged some conversation with the fisherman that presumably explained everything to this elder leader, and again it was smiles all round. Nervously Taya went with the two boys to collect more wood. They pointed to some of the pieces she was picking up and shook their heads. She dropped those bits and got happy nods in return. It all looked the same to her, but maybe there were subtle differences in driftwood known only to the experts.

The fish was now skewered, the fire blazing and more villagers had turned up. The fisherman had explained it to each new group that had arrived. But now with all these other people here, there was one person missing

“Taya, do you want to take the rib back to the yacht and get Christine”

By the time they got back, the village drummer had set up a trance inducing rhythm and some of the women had started to sway with the beat. 

Taya had explained to Christine what was happening but that didn’t fully prepare her for her reception. No sooner was she ashore than two teenaged girls took hold of her hands and gently persuaded her to go with them to where a large square of sand had been flattened out. This apparently was the dance floor and they showed her the moves. Christine was captivated. This was amazing. How had Ryan set all this up for Taya’s birthday? Christine was really getting the hang of it and none of them really noticed how long the trance beat had continued until the fish was ready. They all sat down cross legged to feast. Reed baskets full of various fruits that they didn’t recognise were passed round, the tuna was wonderful and the happiness of the village was contagious. Even Taya had been given some of the local fermented drinks, although she told them later that it made her head feel funny.

Dancing resumed straight after the meal with Christine being pushed to centre stage. A choir of men had added a chant to the drum beat and Taya needed little persuasion to take to the floor. An older girl, maybe 12 or thirteen, stood with her holding her hands and showing her the steps. Then as the beat got louder and faster and everyone was joining in and it all carried on till way past midnight and hours after Taya’s bedtime, even on her birthday. She was falling asleep standing up now assisted by both the incessant beat and the alcohol.

Ryan picked her up and she lay her head on his shoulder as he cradled her. Christine joined him and they walked over to where the fisherman was sitting with his family. Ryan smiled and pointed at the now sleeping child. Then he pointed to the still substantial remains of the tuna and waved his arm in an arc at the villagers. The fisherman understood. He rose to his feet and called something in his language to everyone. The beat stopped, the dancers moved to purely swaying side to side and Christine pushed the rib out into the sea. They all waved and so soon were lost in the darkness, broken by spears of firelight shining randomly on dancing villagers as the beat picked up and the party continued into the night without them.

The Thaw

No-one was up early the next day and breakfast was a leisurely affair. School was cancelled and Taya retained a disbelieving fixed grin right through till lunchtime. Finally coming down from her euphoric cloud she found the words to thank Ryan and Christine for such a wonderful evening. And for bringing her on this trip, and for teaching her to drive the rib which was really useful and for everything else. Early afternoon, they set the sails and left that magical bay

“Ryan, why cant everyone stay in a happy village like that?”

Good question Taya. Maybe its too precarious. Maybe people want more than just existing day to day

“Taya, I don’t think its like that every day. There must be some problem with it because hundreds of people from this country walk for weeks through jungles and across desserts to try to get to countries like Spain and England. But we live a bit like those villagers, just catching fish each day, except we move on as well”

The wind was still gentle and the sea calm, and now that she was 10, it was the perfect day for Taya to take the helm on her own. 

She concentrated, she watched. She took all the hints from Ryan pointing out various conditions she may not have noticed and she hauled in the sails for more speed as she felt just a little bit more confident.

Dinner was back to normal and there was no dancing afterwards and Taya was happy to keep that one day as especially special.

After yesterdays excitement, todays exertion had tired her out more than usual and it was an early climb up onto Ryan's lap for a sleepy little girl. Christine had finished clearing up and looked down at this sleeping beauty, totally dependant on her, and cradled so delicately in Ryans arms. She picked her up to take her to her bunk turning a dreamy kind of smile at Ryan

“I’ll be back in a minute”

Now with Taya out for the night the excitement transferred to Christine as she climbed back up the steps with two glasses and a bottle of wine. 

“Special occasion?” 

But of course it was. Apart from anything else, clearly she now felt sufficiently confident to open a bottle without discussion. She sat down close beside him handing him a glass. 

“That was such an amazing evening. Taya’s still up there on cloud nine”

“Yes. It just goes to show what might happen if you just let it”

“I agree” she said trailing off wistfully “Ryan…”

She put her glass down in the hanging tray and fell in towards him.  “if there are days like that to look forward to, I never want this to end”

Never end? Oh Chrissie! You are going to be so very disappointed if you don’t thaw out soon. Like, before we get to Lagos. He knew that he couldn’t write off the rest of his life as a celibate. Christine, I have tried to tell you…

This was very different. He slipped his arm around her expecting yet another doomed attempt at encouragement. Except this time, she reached towards the tray, poured more wine and looked up towards him. This lined them up for a kiss. That would be a first as well! But not just any kiss. She pulled herself in closer. This has got to be a sign. She wouldn't actually say anything, she's far too shy for that. But this was new. 

He turned towards her and she met him with another kiss that just went on and on and on. The autohelm was set, there was nothing else that demanded attention and one thing was about to lead to another. Deliberately and individually he undid each of the buttons on the back of her dress as she hugged him tighter. Yesterday may well have been epic for all of them, but it was this evening that was convincing Ryan that he wanted to stay with Christine, maybe forever. He’d said to himself before that if only she’d make love to him, she’d be perfect, and now he was tempted to agree with her ‘never end’ if she continued like this. Maybe it was all sorting itself out. Christine was buzzing and loving every second of it and Ryan was only too pleased to respond as she demanded more. But the captains chair was not designed for this type of activity, and neither of them were contortionists.

They finished the wine and debated whether to go to their bunks, or stay where they were with the possibility of another round, or just to go to sleep cuddled together on the soft fabric of the cockpit armchair.

Ok, so it hadn’t gone as far as it might have, but that was partly because they’d run out of wine. Note – get a bigger bottle next time. Maybe, he mused wryly, she might try again in another eight weeks. 

But it wasn't eight weeks later, nor even eight days later. It was just after they’d retired to their separate cabins and he was quietly reading up about smaller harbours near Cape Town when his cabin door opened a crack. Christine was wearing that same sun dress as she smiled gently 

“Shhh.. “ she whispered “We don't want to wake Taya” 

Well, if the objective is to not wake Taya, why come in in the first place? 

“Ryan, I think we both deserve a second chance, if only for trying” 

He slipped his hands inside her dress to discover that she wasn't wearing anything else. 

“Yes” she breathed “ it might not be perfect. But that's only so that we can justify more practice tomorrow”  although Ryan had no idea why this type of practice would ever need justification. But whether it was necessary or even justified, she encouraged more practice the next day. And the next.

She knew that this is what she wanted to return to. This was her old self. Her self before Philip. But Phil was such a mistake. She knew she could easily get carried away unless she kept an eagle eye on herself and the issue with Phil is that she wanted more than anything else not to have his baby. And with Ryan, she did not have that issue. It had just taken a little while to change back, and she thanked her lucky stars that she’d managed that before his patience finally expired.

Ryan headed farther out to sea as they approached the Angolan coast. There were still threats of war in that country and that meant that assorted lawless factions were left unfettered. That wasn’t on his agenda, while getting to Cape Town in one piece was. 

The difference now was there was no hurry whatsoever. Christine had said she wanted to stay, and had proved it. Ryan wanted her to stay and had told her that. And Taya….

So long as she continued to have fun at their improvised school and keep learning at her current pace, there was no need for her to get to any particular country in any particular timeframe. School was good for everyone. There were ways to include humour into most of it, sometimes making up ridiculous examples and sometimes moving from one subject to another completely unintentionally. 

In the afternoons she loved to play in the RIB. She could launch it on her own and start the outboard, and sometimes the first Ryan would know of it was when she'd scream across the bows creating a stern wave that rocked the whole yacht. 

There was no hurry. There were no school terms, so, sadly, no holidays. They took time ashore when they needed supplies or just to look round and take in the atmosphere and the sights, tastes and aromas of the remote local harbours. These West African nations were often featured as volatile, but the friction seldom ventured out as far as the remote fishing villages and all this was part of Taya’s education. What was the point in sailing round the world without taking in the local geography and culture. 

Taya was fascinated by the tales of the diamond rush in Luderitz, while Ryan was more interested in the varieties of local fish at the quayside market.

South Africa came up on the horizon and Ryan suggested that they take a bit more time absorbing themselves in this very different environment. Taya teetered and swayed on dry land, walking, standing and even when they sat down in the wonderful cafes and restaurants. Christine too was suffering and only Ryan was making the transition without a serious issue. There was a limit of fourteen days mooring in the marina before a permanent berth had to be purchased, and Ryan had no intention of staying anywhere permanently and that meant it was time for another discussion. 

Discussion! Taya was looking forward to this. The issue would be explained and Ryan would suggest some options. Then Christine would add her point of view, and then…. and then it would be her turn to say what she thought. Ryan and Auntie Chrissie would listen patiently and help her explain if she started to get muddled so that everyone understood and it made her feel so wonderfully grown up – which is the way it should be now that she was ten.

The preferred option was to put the yacht into a secure pound some way down the coast and take three or four weeks break so see the countryside and the animals. 

They headed in land towards the savannah and the National Parks in search of lions and elephants and hippopotamuses. So many different animals that Taya had only ever seen on screens and books. And here they were all grazing and running around and sometimes eating each other. The safari was fascinating. Taya had wanted to see the wild animals, although the point of it was becoming lost on her. Ok, so this was the wild and these were wild animals. But it was all just a big wildlife reserve. It wasn’t traditionally natural – there simply wasn’t enough space left with the decreasing landscape and the increasing human population. But some of what she’d learned sailing was now transferred to be applied to the risks and dangers in each situation they found themselves It was the same as when each rogue wave approached them - each wild animal could be assessed for its likelihood of attacking them – which was of more relevance than how close this species was to extinction.

Then the city! Miles of shanty towns and then so many buildings so tall and far too close to each other. So many people, which was more frightening than the animals eating each other. Then the Wine Region to the east although Taya suggested that she’d rather stick to cola, especially if it was going to make her head feel funny. And eventually the endless beaches that she’d seen so often but had bypassed for something that Ryan and Christine wanted her to see or do. But now, sandcastles and moats filled by the tide and lying in the sun which felt very strange without the rise and fall of the waves.

But as usual there as no rush. There was plenty of time to go back and see anything all over again and all she had to do was ask. Again, Taya was wide eyed with something new every day. The significance of this world cruise was beginning to dawn on her and she had so many memories of the last two  months that she wanted to remember - unlike memories of her time before that. But there were so, so many and she was sure that she’d forget so easily as everything new jostled for space in her head. She’d keep a diary. She’d write it each morning as school started and maybe there’d be some discussion about it too.

Finally it was time to re-stock the supply cupboards. Taya was expecting an immediate return to the yacht but instead they were in a dimly lit first floor restaurant overlooking the marina.

Somehow she had sensed that this was the setting for another of these serious, grown up discussions. And while dinner was wonderful in this particularly up-market restaurant Taya was nervous of what the subject might be. Probably another simple question that could have a complex answer. But maybe this was the exception

“Taya, Christine. We’ve got this far. We’re at the southern tip of Africa and we got here because I just continually headed south and followed the coast. But now we need to agree what we do next. So. Do you want to stay on the yacht, or maybe you might prefer to return to England?”

That was off the wall! What was the right answer to that? Was Ryan wanting to ---- get rid of her! She glanced around. Her face fell as she looked over at them both with increasing trepidation.

“Ryan! Auntie Chrissie?” her lower lip started to tremble “go back to England! Whyever would I want to do that! Ryan, you can't be serious?” 

An immediate cuddle and a hug were needed

“I’ll take that as a no, Taya. What about you Christine?”

Her answer was predictable, if Ryan had thought about it, which he had, but wanted to give her the chance to consider it too 

“I thought you'd know the answer to that” she whispered sliding her arm round him and kissing his ear.

“Can I stay too?” whispered Taya, holding her breath 

“Of course you can. We just need to make these decisions consciously, not just assume that everything will carry on as it was. The world changes. People change. Sometimes you change your mind about something. So every so often you have to stop, take a step back and see where you’ve got to. Then you can consider if its somewhere you want to be and decide what, if anything, needs to change. There are some things you’re missing out on Taya, like how to interact with other children and we’re going to have to sort that out before you get too much older”
 “But I like being with you and Auntie Chrissie”

“Ok” he said hoping that he would now be able to recover from this low point. He hadn’t meant to scare anyone, or seed doubts in their mind. It was just important to get them to think about it and make an active decision, not just follow like sheep

“So now we need to decide where to go. Think about your map Taya. We can carry on round the coast and up to Madagascar. We might make it as far as Mombasa. Beyond that its too dangerous as you get towards Somalia. If you thought the Specials were animals, you don’t want to know about the Somalian pirates. But then, not all of Kenya is good news anyway”

 “We could go to India” she suggested “That’s kind of next if we keep going East, I think”

“Yes, Taya, we could go to India, but it’s a long way without much option of landing anywhere. There are other options. We could turn round and head out across the Atlantic to South America, or we could go back up the west coast. We’re not going any farther south. Its too rough, too windy and far too cold”

East coast was the decision, up to Mombasa then to Madagascar, so that Taya could find some of the funny animals there, then over to the Seychelles en-route for India. 

This would be out of touch with England for yet more months, but no, he didn’t need to know what was happening. There was nothing he could do about any of it and simply accepting whatever it turned out to be when he eventually got back was the only option. Except for not going back at all.

He reckoned they had nearly a year. Taya should go to a proper school for her secondary education and while that would be hard for her, he too would miss her terribly. And Christine? Who knows. Even now he didn’t know her well enough to make any predictions.

But that would be then, and this was now. No, it was no surprise that neither of the girls was keen on returning to England, and he too had no reason to go there.

He left them with an ample supply of donuts and cola in a street cafe and phoned Mia. He confirmed that he’d be away for at least another six months, probably longer, and that gave her a level of certainty about the house. He also suggested that he’d be interested in selling it to them because he really didn’t see himself living in England and that would give Tristan and her the security they’d wanted.

She talked about the Backlash which had spread throughout the country and thousands of people had been killed. It was more widespread than the media had forecast which was surprising as they usually thrived on hyping doom and gloom. Instead the BBC in particular had been calling for drastic action and the use of the military against the perpetrators of these crimes, until their headquarters burned down one night and instead they majored on how many deaths were among criminals, drug addicts, loafers, scrounges and social misfits of every creed and colour. Ryan reassured her that tax paying, honest denizens such as herself had absolutely nothing to worry about. He’d asked her to check up on Granny under the pretext that she was Christine’s mother and the news now was varied and minimal.

Olly had been killed in the attack on the hub. Sister Saffron had survived, but had then had a complete nervous breakdown brought on by Ollie’s death and a large helping of cold turkey. So she was right, she couldn’t cope, which simply proved to Ryan that she was as useless to society as he had originally told her. Granny meanwhile, had been asked about the little girl they were claiming benefits for. Unable to produce any evidence of any child at her house, in her care, or even at the school she claimed she went to, she had been ordered to repay the last seven years of benefits which were clearly a blatant fraud. So, that sealed it. There was no way Taya could go back there.

But even without knowing all that, Taya was glad to get back on board. It meant that any question of going back to England any time soon was finished and now she could relax. The next day Ryan reinforced it by buying her an electric outboard for the rib so that she could play in it as often as she wanted without the concerns about fuel. It wasn’t the cost he was worried about, only the availability so that they knew that there would be some left in case of emergency. 

Christine too was more settled. Life on board was so much simpler without the hassle of modern living and interminable interference from other people. She was sure that the real world would catch up with her sometime, but her aim now was to delay that for as long as possible. She knew Ryan was giving it another year and she resolved to make the very most of it. Taya was the perfect age for this type of travelling. She’d learn so much more and remember so much about all these different places. But she’d need to lead her own life eventually and that meant she ought to get some school qualifications. Ok so she could take up sailing professionally, but she should also have something to fall back on. And, Christine reflected, she was very similar. She’d learned so much on this trip already, and a lot of it about herself. Next was to learn a lot more about Ryan.

The dream recovered as they left the Seychelles behind. But it hadn’t been the idyllic island they’d expected. These islanders would be extinct in the very near future as the sea level would rise the last few centimetres. They’d been assured that it would take fifty years and the causes could probably be reversed in that time, but now it was apparent that it would be within the next year. Instead of being treated with the respect they expected as visitors, Ryan, Christine and Taya were treated more as representatives of unsympathetic countries which had misled them with false hope. 

The expected relief in India also failed to materialise. They’d already decided to spend more time ashore in the different places they visited. Taya looked around, taking everything in and noticing even minor detail. It was all part of her education, and they made sure they discussed any points Taya picked up on. In Madagascar it was the animals, which led to a discussion on genetics and evolution. In the Seychelles it was why everyone was living so close to the sea, which led to their discussion on the rising sea levels, global warming and its impact on coastal communities everywhere. In India it was why there was such a difference between the poverty of the shanty towns while other people were driving big modern cars.

“Some people, Taya, look to the future and do what they can to change and progress. Some, however, prefer to stick to traditions, ancient beliefs, religion, and doing things the way they’ve always been done. These people will always be poor and its encouraged by the guys in the big cars because that way there will always be an unquestioning pool of cheap labour to make even more money for the them”

“But we don’t have a big house behind a gate. And we don’t have a big car, and we all live in a small space. But we’re all happy. Aren’t we? The three of us. So maybe they’re happy living their way too”

Ryan was disinclined to argue. There was no right and wrong. This was all so simple to the ten year old. And he, himself, had no inclination to promote equality. They may well feel as hopeless as Saffron, but if they had a mind to, they’d change it. And like Saffron, it wasn’t his problem. He would just set sail and move on.

Taya was growing up fast. She was living in the company of two adults and no other children and so had no reference point for comparison. The Far East was a very different place. Sounds, smells, food, and enough time to let it all sink in before setting sail again. There was more interest in them as well. Few yachts flying the Union Jack ever visited these remote harbours and islands, but she found it more intimidating. She hadn’t been worried about the West African fisherman even with his long spear, but here everything felt different, and she gripped Ryans hand tightly wherever she went.

The time lapse between new places increased and although progress to a new culture was faster, progress around the world was slower.

 It was six months later that they moored in Melbourne. Christine had been thinking about Taya’s schooling and now that they were in Australia would Ryan suggest that they stayed here, perhaps long enough for Taya to go to a proper school? She felt that she and Ryan were keeping the pace, but would a more structured secondary education be more beneficial in the long term? Her initial conversation with Taya went less than perfectly. Taya seldom got upset. There was nothing in her world to get upset about, except sometimes when she’d got something serious wrong that she should have got right, like turning the yacht at a desperate angle by mis-judging a rogue wave. But this was the exception. She burst into tears and fled to find Ryan in the cockpit. He dropped the sails to concentrate on this more important interruption but the riddle was solved as an apologetic Christine arrived to add to the consolation.

As was expected, Ryan raised the subject after dinner as one of their ‘serious discussions’ and, even though she choked a few times, Taya managed to make her case without getting upset again.

By way of compromise, he suggested that he’d like her to take an entrance exam. That would show all of them how much she’d learned of the subjects that other children were learning, and that would give them a comparison. If she was way behind, they’d have to think about a school. Way ahead, there was no need at least for the time being, and Ryan convinced her that they would only do something that was in her best interests. 

By the time they’d found a suitable school to take the tests, she’d started to warm to the idea of staying in one place and making some friends. She’d never had friends before, except for Ryan and Auntie Chrissie, and she understood why it was being suggested and it wasn’t just to get rid of her.

She sat nervously in the hall. Thirty other kids about her age, some of them in school uniform. She’d never sat an exam before, but it sounded straightforward. Read the question, read it again and write down the answer. How hard can it be?

The invigilator called for silence and issued a stern warning that anyone talking would be eliminated and failed. 

“You may now start”

Taya tore into page 1 reading as fast as she could and writing as fast as would remain legible. She checked the clock and decided more haste was needed. She charged into page fifteen thinking only that she’d never finish in time, only to find that all the subsequent pages were notes on what to do if you feel ill or need the toilet. She dropped her pen on the desk in wholesale relief and silently read her answers. At least that proved they were readable! She looked round the room, focussing on some individuals who seemed to have been frozen in panic. She tried to think, but with an answer already written for each question, it seemed like a pointless exercise and she was glad when the buzzer went

“Pens down. Stop!” 

The results would be available in two days time, and in the meantime, they looked round the academic facilities, the town and the countryside. Taya stayed quiet and reflective. It would be strange taking lessons with so many other people. The most she’d had recently was one! Light relief arrived early. The school itself was a non-starter because the students could only board for a limited period. They were expected to go home at all the holidays, and while that was possible, it was hardly ideal especially if the Salamander was mid Pacific at the time. Ok, so they’d have to schedule it to be somewhere more accessible, but that tie alone reintroduced the possibility of living ashore instead.

What the results did tell them was that Taya was miles ahead of any contemporaries and on that basis she told Ryan and Chrissie that she had opted to stay on the yacht. They hadn’t actually been all the way round the world yet. And that, Taya had said. Was the end of that!

And while neither Ryan or Christine wanted to be dictated to by Taya, neither complained because, actually, she was right. 

North East Asia was a whole raft of new and exciting environments and they stayed longer in each of the harbours when they went ashore. They continued up the coast of Asia with the sea becoming rougher, the wind strengthening and the temperature dropping. Time, Ryan said, to head East across the shorter distance of the  Pacific and head south down he Canadian coast before winter set in. 

It took them another year to sail all the way down the west coast of the Americas and up the Atlantic side as far as the Caribbean. The Caribbean! Ryan found memories of Senita and Nicola flooding his brain. He steered clear of the drug hubs and instead pulled into Santo Domingo to recharge, re-stock and prepare for an assault on the Atlantic. 

“Europe...” Ryan smiled at breakfast “…Could be only a month away” but the  old stares of trepidation persuaded him to clarify that statement

“I only said it ‘could’ be!”

Words, however, were unnecessary and Chrissie and Taya conjured up an almost immediate alternative plan – return via the Panama canal to revisit San Francisco and Vancouver and then maybe some Malaysian islands that they’d missed. After all there were over 800 that they’d never been to. The list grew, but realism had to prevail sooner or later, and now it was already later.

They moored with some sadness in Livorno. It was so much more civilised than West Africa, but none of them was convinced that that meant it was better. An interesting day’s drive saw them on the banks of the Sarnersee. This was different. Taya was not used to road travel. The first time she’d been in a vehicle at all was on the Safari in SA. Then quite a few slow speed trips to see the countryside in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand and loads of other places. Frisco had some gridlocked traffic jams, and the LA freeways were something else, but she’d never travelled this fast overland before 

Taya at School

Taya was fourteen. There had just been too many places that they wanted to go back to. The various assessments they’d sent Taya to seemed to indicate that her knowledge across most subjects was up to or in excess of the other students, and with those benchmarks, they’d decided that keeping her out of mainstream education could continue a little longer – and then a little more. But their greater success was that Taya was able to approach the discussion objectively. She accepted the logic. She accepted the advantages, and voiced the negatives. She finally agreed that this was the best solution for her, but failed to conceal her disappointment that her fairy tale childhood was about to end. This would be very different. She’d need self resilience and should be prepared to behave like an adult. She’d been happy on the yacht being part of the team, being helpful and polite. Maybe that would be enough? But she also remembered Grannie’s cruelty and the evil Specials and the Matrons that she didn’t understand back then, and didn’t understand even now. She’d been self reliant when she was screaming across the water in the rib or her Pilgrim 13 sailing boat, and now she’d be self reliant at her new school, and the first week had gone remarkably quickly and without serious mishap. She missed Ryan and Auntie Chrissie but there was so much new here that she had to learn for herself that she had little time for disenchantment.

She stood stock still staring at the notice board. The latest note pinned over the top of all the rest stated that the final practice for the yacht race would be that afternoon and crews could use the result of this to set their position on the start line for the race on Saturday. She knew sailing was on the curriculum, but so far no-one had explained just how it all worked.

She didn’t know the girl who stopped to look with her although the newcomer seemed upset by something and Taya was hoping it wasn’t her.

Just then her fierce Pastoral Care Mistress appeared in the corridor

“Ah, Miss Harrington. Have you sorted out a new crew yet? I understand there have been some changes”
 “No, Madam Marlis, and yes there have been some changes. Kerr Kessler would prefer more focus on inter-school competitions rather than encouraging more students here to participate”

“You don’t sound too pleased about that?”
 “I’m sorry, Madam Marlis. I didn’t mean to complain”

The teacher moved on and Catriona noticed Taya’s quizzical look

“No, I’m not at all pleased about it”

“You could tell me about it. If you like? And I wouldn’t share it with anyone if its, like, secret or anything”

Catriona flashed the vestiges of a smile

“You’re new here, aren’t you?”
 “Yes. That’s why I don’t know about these things”

“Ok, well.... There are three of us who are usually at the top. Rosanne, Olivia and me. We agreed last year that we’d split up into three separate crews to help some of the others get better and make the races more open. I’ve been taking some of the least able to try to encourage them, but those other two have been sailing with the likes of Janine who can actually match Olivia when she can be bothered. So their times are much better than mine. If it was just two of us in a crew together, we’d win everything but everyone else would get discouraged”
 “Well, helping everyone is very noble, but now at least you’ll win everything”

“No I wont! Because Olivia and Rosanne have teamed up together and I’m left out. Herr Kessler has decided that they’re the top two based on their times and that’s the school’s best chance”

“But you’re better than Olivia, right?”

“Yes, but I’ve been sailing with the tail-enders to help them, so my times are low”

“So, who are you with now?”
 But the answer was interrupted by Madam Marlis returning down the corridor

“You could always just team up with Taya here. She’s only joined us last week”

Catriona bit her tongue. There was no sympathy coming her way from that direction.

“I may not have much choice, Madam Marlis. I think all the others are already in teams”

“Well, there you are then!” and she waltzed off

“Its nice to be wanted – sometimes” said Taya, deflated.

Catriona drooped “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m wound up. I didn’t mean to be rude”
 “I’m sure you didn’t. You’re just so disappointed”

Catriona lifted her head “Do you sail at all?”

Taya nodded, but still with minimal enthusiasm

“You any good?”

“Its all relative. Depends on how good everyone else is. I know I’m pretty lousy compared to Ryan”
 “Ryan?”
 “He’s my best friend. Maybe he’s an Uncle cos he’s my Austie Chrissie’s boyfriend”

Catriona sighed deeply “Ok, would you like to team with me?”

“I’d love to!”

Catriona brightened visibly from the enthusiasm now back in Taya’s acceptance

“You can always get some satisfaction from helping the lesser sailors, even if you don’t win” continued Taya

That afternoon, they met at the quayside. The layout of the dingy looked fairly standard, but Catriona ran through all the parts anyway and the operation of the mainsail and the jib. She showed her where the life jackets were kept and the trapeze fell out uninvited.

“Do you use the trapeze much?” asked Taya

“No, I’ve used it twice with Olivia, but it wasn’t very effective. She wasn’t hauled in enough to make it worth while. I think it was more her showing off to the judges on the quay”

“What’s this timing all about?”
 “To complete a circuit you need to go round all six buoys. They’re electronic, so you just need to be close enough for the sensor to register. But the fastest time sets you in pole position which is near the jetty. There’s an advantage there because its not a flying start, so being last, right over there at the far end is a definite disadvantage being in the lee of everyone else – assuming a prevailing wind”

They were ready to move and signalled the safety boat

“We both need to skipper during the race, so it would be good if you got some practice – especially if you’ve not sailed one of these before. I’ll start and tell you what I’m doing as we go, then you can take over after buoy three for the return, ok?”

Catriona had told her nothing new about the boat. Taya’s view was that even the same boat as you sail every day would be different in different sea and wind conditions, so being a different class was hardly an issue. It was a matter of feel and precise reaction rather than remembering what you did last time. But what was new, was pointing out landmarks, like certain mountains and buildings on the lakeside. This was new to Taya, there were no landmarks in the middle of the Atlantic, and when they had been near a coastline they wouldn’t recognise any of the landmarks anyway.

“They help you sometimes if you’re in the middle of the pack and you can’t see anything except everyone else’s sails”

Catriona had calmed down a bit now, and Taya was doing her best to respond to her skipper’s requests and they were bearing down on buoy two at some speed. Catriona was preparing to slow down just as little as possible and Taya was looking around to try to relate some terrestrial landmarks to it. 

Sail number 23 had just approached buoy four at a very fine angle. They had remembered that Catriona was able to make a much sharper turn than them and they had planned to round the buoy really close as a practice. And from this angle, they’d need a sharper turn than ever just to connect with the sensor. One moment they were there – the next, they’d vanished. Catriona glanced over as Taya exclaimed “They’re over! They’ve capsized”
 “No more than they deserve” replied Catriona continuing to concentrate on her own progress

“We should go and help them”

“That’s 23 isn’t it”
 “Yes”

“So that’s Rosanne and Olivia – they can sort themselves out. The safety boat should be around somewhere anyway”

“Catriona! The safety boat is miles away. Its way over there. Its miles beyond even buoy 3. Its way outside the circuit helping someone else. And there’s no-one bobbing on the surface”

“They’ll be fine. We’re on for getting a mid range position if you can get us back from 4 in a sensible time”
 “But Catriona. They’re not making any attempt to recover. And they’re not in the water. So they must be underneath it, so they may have hit their heads or something”

Catriona looked round, now taking Taya more seriously. She checked the location of the safety boat admitting that it was way out of range to even notice and reluctantly changed course

“I guess I wrote off any chance of a decent place anyway. But this is only what they deserve”

“Ok, I do understand that, but Catriona, we cant just let them drown!”

At the stricken yacht, Taya reached over thinking she might just be able to lift it enough out of the water to let more air in, but almost immediately realised the impossibility

“What do we do? If we cant lift it?” 

Catriona was now in more of a panic. No, she’d decided they shouldn’t let them drown but now had no idea of what to do to prevent it. She waved franticly in the direction of the safety boat at least a mile away, hoping in vain for a response. The upturned boat however invoked many memories for Taya. She’d capsized her Pilgrim 13 so many times and that had introduced her to quite a number of different ways of dealing with it. It wasn’t easy, it was frightening that Rosanne and Olivia were still both trapped underneath and Taya had no idea how much air they had. 

Taya had some experience of this and Ryan had taught her well. Even so, it took several attempts using different techniques and much longer than Taya had considered safe.

Finally, Rosanne was in Catriona’s boat while Olivia, still in the water, clung fearfully to the transom. Without two girls hanging on to the inside, it was fairly straightforward turning it back by using the centreboard as a lever. And Taya was thinking that she was more relieved than any of them when and the emergency subsided despite still dripping with freezing cold water. No-one had told her that this lake was pure glacier.

But these dinghies were designed for a crew of two. With Olivia hanging grimly on the side of it, and Rosanne and Catriona on board, it was very low in the water. It wouldn't be safe with three of them, never mind four. All of them stared briefly at Rosanne’s boat. The mast was bent and the sails were flapping wildly and dangerously in the increasing breeze. Taya dropped the mainsail, but the jib was enough for her to bring the damaged craft round

“You take Olivia …” she said to Catriona “cos she’s frozen. I'll limp back with Rosanne just using this jib” 

There was little conversation between any of them on the way back, but Catriona tied up at the jetty and was met with a large towel for Olivia 

“Taya's been in the water as well, Madam Marlis. She had to, to rescue Miss van Arlindt” 

Swimming in the lake was actively discouraged because the temperature was often below freezing, and race points would be deducted if it was during a competition.

But more towels met them as Taya tapped the jetty 15 minutes later. She'd tried to keep the boat flat and tried to keep an arm round Rosanne while keeping control of their only sail and steer with the tiller, all at the same time. 

Back at school, Taya took a shower to warm up, then headed for dinner. Who knows what would happen now, but one thing was for sure, neither she nor Catriona had recorded a practice time, so they would be starting the race from the worst possible position. None of the others was in the dining hall and Taya ate on her own wondering if Catriona would really just have sailed on. 

That evening she lay back on her bed listening to Lebensraum by Liszt and wondering if she was already too old to learn to play the piano. Living at Granny's, the mere thought was confined to fiction, and after that, how would you ever hit the right keys while on an ocean going ketch in a South Atlantic swell? That too was also beyond her imagination. But here, at the school, on dry land, maybe it was a possibility. 

The tap on her door surprised her. She hardly knew anyone. Ryan had said she'd be able to make some friends, but five years at sea and she’d forgotten how to. Or even what she’d do with a friend if she had one. 

But now the tap on the door turned into someone turning the handle and a tentative face appeared round the crack in the doorway 

“Hi Catriona. Come on in” 

“Hey wow! Taya. What a fabulous room you've got! Do you share it? I have to share with Helena” 

“Hey, thanks, and no, it's all mine. But did you need something, or just dropped in to be friendly?” 

“I came to apologise” 

“You apologise? It should be me. I insisted we went to their rescue, not you. And now neither of us has a position in the starting line. If you’d just continued, they'd be out of the race and we'd have a decent time” 

“Yes I agree, but that's so horrible and Taya I'm not a horrible person really. You shouldn't have had to tell me four times to go to their rescue. I should have altered course before the first one” 

“Maybe Catriona, but they stitched you up. Maybe we should have taken twice as long” 

“No, Taya, you were right. Right on everything. And Olivia is still shaking with fear. I hope she had a good meal at the hospital. She’ll be annoyed at missing dinner - she’s never done that before. And the only thing she's said since getting back was 'who was that hero that saved me' and Taya, she's talking about you” 

They talked till late and Catriona was in real danger of missing the curfew. But she wasn’t horrible, She wasn’t a bad person, just very disappointed and powerless to do anything about it.

Next day it was class, and lunch and more classes and prep and free study and dinner and not till after that did Madam Marlis catch up with Taya. 

“I’d like to talk to you Taya. In my study please”

“Taya, I’d like you to explain the events leading up to you colliding with Miss Kurtzmann and Miss van Arlindt on the lake yesterday”

“Collision, Madam Marlis? There was no collision”

“Taya! The event where you rescued Miss van Arlindt. I’d like an explanation”

Taya took a deep breath

“Catriona and me had just rounded buoy 2 and were setting …”
 “Taya. I do not need any excuses or justification ahead of the event. Just the event itself”

“Oh, Ok. We saw Sail 23 capsize. So we altered course and sailed straight to buoy 4. Neither Miss van Arlindt or Miss Kurtzmann was anywhere to be seen, and there was no noise, no shouting for help or anything. So we assumed they were trapped underneath”

“Assumed? Surely you saw where they were as the boat went over?”

“No, not at all. We were too far away over at buoy 2”

Madam Marlis studied her for several moments before continuing

“Taya, I was alerted to the incident by Miss Karlow who was waving wildly towards the clubhouse and pointing in your direction. I trained my binoculars on buoy 4 and clearly saw you retrieving your bows from under Miss Kurtzmann’s yacht and untangling some lines or sheets. Now, do you wish to revise your description of the event?”

“Not at all, Madam Marlis”

“In that case, I shall summon her, and see what she has to say”

“Yes indeed! Perhaps we could ask Miss Harrington as well!”

A few phone calls and ten tense minutes later, Catriona tapped on the door. She sat down as invited, but was immediately struck by Taya’s confused, disappointed face and Madam Marlis looking even more like thunder than usual.

“Miss Harrington, I was asking Taya for an explanation of yesterdays incident on the lake….” 

But the inquisition was interrupted by Rosanne tapping at the door. Madam Marlis repeated herself as Rosanne sat down.

“Perhaps, Taya, we should hear Miss Kurtzmann’s version. I expect that it will be somewhat different from yours”

Rosanne was about to start when the door opened again. 

“I was just asking Miss van Arlindt if she knew if you were going to do a debrief on Wednesday’s lake incident and she said that that was where she thought Miss Kurtzmann had gone already”

“Yes, Herr Kessler. That is our purpose here, and you are of course welcome to join us. Miss Kurtzmann, now that we are all here, perhaps you could start?”

Rosanne glanced around the room. This was unlikely to be painless.

“We were headed for buoy 4. Miss van Arlindt was at the helm. We know that Miss Harrington is better at sharp turns than us so the intention was to practice that. Unfortunately, she didn’t tell me exactly when she was about to turn. The yacht turned sharply, I was on the wrong side and hadn’t crossed over yet, and a gust caught us because she hadn’t dropped any sail….”

“Rosanne! Like it was all my fault!”

“Of course it was ! You were at the helm. It was your mistake that ended up nearly killing you. Anyway, we just went straight over before we could react and the yacht landed on top of us. We resurfaced with our heads in an air pocket. I said we should duck under and surface, but Miss van Arlindt’s wrist was tangled up in a line from something”…”

“…I was told later that it was the jib sheet…” 

“But, it meant she was trapped. She didn’t want to duck under in case she couldn’t surface because her hand was trapped and her arm might not be long enough. I said I’d go and make sure help was on the way, but she’d got into even more of a panic and screamed at me not to leave her. So I stayed. I thought it would only be a few minutes before help arrived and the air pocket was quite big.

Except, help didn’t come. We waited and waited and I was beginning to get concerned. I told her I was going. It was the only way to summon some help. I was just going when we heard someone on the hull. I guess they were trying to turn us over again…”

Madam Marlis was looking increasingly uncomfortable. This was nowhere near what she was expecting. And Herr Kessler took over the lead

“Miss Harrington, I was led to believe that you were there as well?”

“Not really, Herr Kessler. We were at buoy 2 when we saw that they’d capsized. Taya noticed it first because she was looking around a lot trying to remember landmarks to use as bearings. We skipped out buoy three and went straight over there. Taya, I’m not sure exactly what happened next”

“We got there as quickly as we could. I’d checked out the position of the safety boat, but it was way down the lake sorting out something else. I don’t know what. I slipped over onto the upturned hull and tried to use the centre board as a lever, but with no success. But sometimes you can raise the side of a capsize by using your own boat as a lever if you can lower the bows enough to get under and then move to the stern to use your weight, and that’s what I tried next”

“Taya was right out on the bows and she asked me to come as far forward as I dared to try to dip them far enough. We nearly made it but we started taking on water so I jumped back to rebalance”

“Of course, the bows then lifted and we gave that up as a failure as well. It didn’t work because both of them were holding on to the inside and I couldn’t move the extra weight. So I had to try something else. I clipped our mainsail sheet onto them and used our mast as a crane” 

“I hadn’t seen this before and it was putting a huge pressure on that side of our yacht, so I moved as far as I could to rebalance and that opened up just enough leeway to let a little light in and refresh the air supply”

“That’s when I finally ducked under and Miss Harrington helped me onto her boat”

“Miss Kurtzmann appeared, shaking and shivering, but with no sign of Miss van Arlindt, I slipped into the water. Miss Kurtzmann said that Miss van Arlindt’s hand was trapped, so I dived under the boat to find her. She was hard to see. Not much light was making it in that far, but I wedged myself as best I could so that I had a free hand and untangled her as quickly as I could. But she was in such a panic and clinging on for her life that she couldn’t let go. And I didn’t know how long Miss Harrington would be able to keep the two yachts close enough together to maintain the air gap”

“Well! We were dumbfounded when Taya appeared without Miss van Arlindt. We'd assumed that they’d return together, but instead, Taya was reaching up, getting onto our boat. Miss Kurtzmann and me tried to retain the balance, but what Taya was doing was pushing the winch round a few more turns. With two of us now acting as counterbalance, it could be raised a bit more without the risk of capsizing us as well”

“So, now there was enough gap for me to see out, and see the other boat and with someone in the water beside me, unfolding my fingers I finally let go. I desperately wanted to get on board Miss Harrington’s yacht but she said that the extra weight on that side was in danger of submerging everybody. But she held onto me”

“I tried to help Miss Harrington keep some breeze in the sails to hold us against our boat as Taya went back to it and turned it the right way up. Then she brought it round. It was only as we started to roll Miss van Arlindt onboard that we realised how cold she was. I think we all stopped and stared at the same time – she was blue from the waist down”

“Taya said that the priority was to get her back as quickly as we could, so Miss Kurtzmann wriggled back to her boat and we rolled Miss van Arlindt onto mine and I set off as fast as I could leaving Taya to get back with Miss Kurtzmann. Taya said there was no need for us to wait”
 “I was freezing as well, but nowhere near as bad as Miss van Arlindt. I told Taya I wouldn’t be much help because I couldn’t move quickly, but she said that I should catch as much sun as possible to try to warm up and she’d be fine just keeping it flat and going as fast as she could using just the jib”

“Back at the Jetty, Celine, you know, the club-house manageress, was waiting with a large towel, not knowing what had happened. But seeing the state of Miss van Arlindt, she ran back and called the ambulance”

Herr Kessler thanked the girls for their co-operation with the de-brief, but Madam Marlis was looking increasingly despondent. She had authorised the safety boat to respond to a call for help from a cruiser much farther down the lake, and now she’d falsely accused Taya of causing the issue. And Miss van Arlindt was still quivering.

The girls returned to the common room for a drink and a biscuit. Catriona finally introduced Taya to Olivia. She sat quietly, shivering occasionally even though it was warm in the room and stayed with Taya when the other two decided it was bed time well before curfew.

Taya didn’t want to leave her alone. Clearly, there was something else disturbing her.

“Olivia, its over now. We’re all safe again”
 Olivia smiled weakly “Maybe. I thought I was going to die. I kept thinking if it would be better to suffocate or to drown. And then I thought, no, because I’m going to freeze! But it wouldn’t be all bad anyway because I’ll be in so much trouble for the damage to the yacht. I decided that drowning was more definite, and that would save me from the wrath of Madam Marlis. But Taya, I didn’t drown and I didn’t freeze and I must thank you for that. Except now I’ve got Madam Marlis to look forward to, on top of everything else”.

Taya lay awake. What sort of a school was this where the girl is seriously considering death as a preferable option to being in trouble? For what? Bending a mast – grief! Its not as if she’d burned down the science block. 

Friday evening, and the four of them were in the common room again. Olivia had stopped shivering except when she thought about what retribution Madam Marlis would want to extract from her for bending that mast. They all knew that each of them was speculating about that exact same thing, but they'd hardly said a word to each other when Herr Kessler approached them 

“Good evening, girls. Miss van Arlindt, how are you?”
 “I’m ok thankyou. I live to fight another day” Olivia replied sadly

“That’s good. Miss Harrington, in view of you giving up your only chance at a timed circuit, I think that you and Taya should be awarded a mid way position in the start line-up in the race” 

Taya glanced over at Catriona 

“That's very kind, Herr Kessler, but there’s a danger that that would set a precedent and open the door for all manner of exceptions and even if they were all refused it would take time to consider each of them, it would set false expectations and create levels of dissent and disappointment for those that raised them. And I wouldn’t want all the other girls to think there’s any favouritism because I’m the new girl. Personally, I think we should retain the rules as they are”

“As you wish”

Rosanne was relieved that she’d turned down that offer, but decided to keep quiet as Catriona took up the point after Herr Kessler had left

“We wouldn’t win, but could have made loads of progress through the field if we’d taken up that mid range position. It would make me feel a lot better if I could see us passing all these slower boats. There’s a certain satisfaction in overtaking, even if you’re not in the lead”

“Catriona…If you’re in the lead, there’s no one left to overtake. Or maybe its been so long since you won anything that you’ve forgotten that”

That was something of a barbed remark from Rosanne, but probably better left alone.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to be given any arbitrary advantage. But I guess I didn’t consider you before I opened my big mouth. But surely there’s more people to overtake if we start at the back”

“Oh Taya! No matter. We’ll do the best we can where-ever we start”

“Well, yes. Because you’ve got me helming as well. But I promise I’ll do the very best I can”

Rosanne smirked across to Olivia as though success was already in the bag

The Race

Down at the jetty, there was some serious anticipation. Olivia and Rosanne were registering their position based on a practice they did the previous weekend when there was less wind. It placed them fifth in the starting line-up. Janine was starting first. And Catriona was starting last.

But Taya had a different plan. It wasn’t complicated, and Catriona understood it immediately

“Except, I’m not sure we’re allowed to do that”
 “Ok. It was only an idea. But I read all the rules again last night and all it says is that you need to check in at each marker and sailing against the flotilla is discouraged and requires an explanation – but it is sometimes necessary. But we wouldn’t be anyway”
 “Yesss. I agree…”
 Catriona bit her bottom lip in consideration and checked her watch. Have I got time? “I’m going to run back to the club house and ask Herr Kessler. Right now. Just to make sure?”

But while she was away, Taya had raised the jib and was letting it flap in the breeze, slowly drifting her farther away from the rest of the pack, and increasing the distance Catriona had to run back 

“Its not that you cant raise sail. Its that if you do you’re very likely to cross the start line early and need to be seen to be going back to start again”

“Well, we’ll know because its electronic. It’s a laser and a red light will come up on our mast if we’ve defaulted”

 They took up their position at the end of the line as Catriona explained the start procedure. 

“One blip on the horn is like ‘get ready’. A two second blast means go. I usually expect to have sail up enough to cross the start line by the time the horn stops”

She knew Taya was right and checked the alignment of the start markers every two seconds as they continued to drift seemingly aimlessly farther away .

“Taya! Taya, you devious monkey! You already planned this when you turned down Kessler’s offer..!” but there was no time for farther discussion.

The horn blasted and Taya gave a mighty heave on the jib sheet. The wind caught it and lurched them forward while Catriona hauled up the main sail. The leaders shot across the start line aiming to get far enough ahead in the early seconds to catch the best breeze.

However, while everyone else in the field was fighting each other for wind, Catriona had grabbed the helm and was disappearing quickly in the opposite direction. There was no lack of air over here. Number 17 lit up on Buoy 4 and she turned sharply towards Buoy 5. Taya was a good crew member, doing what she was told and not questioning the skipper. But Catriona soon realised that Taya would recognise what was needed and was fit enough and agile enough to bounce from side to side under the boom as they went-about on each new tack and she quickly changed tactics to short sharp tacks rather than longer less vigorous ones, making significantly better progress.

Buoy 6 came up on the starboard side faster than Catriona could ever have expected. Taya, she realised, was exactly positioned for optimum balance and the yacht was surging ahead. Oh! If only I could helm all the way. With crew like this, we might even make a place! But whatever, we certainly shouldn't be last – even if there’s no-one to overtake.

She carried on till Buoy 1 was in the bag and handed the helm to Taya as was required by the rules, suddenly finding more unexpected good news that had been hiding. She tried to position herself the same way Taya had and had nearly perfected the technique as Buoy 2 lit up with their number. 

“Ever used the trapeze?” shouted Taya 

“Occasionally” 

“Because we'll be on a broad reach on the home run from Buoy 3 and if we raise a spinnaker I'll have trouble seeing where we're going. But if you're out on a trapeze, you can guide as well as balance” 

This was not just adventurous, this was crazy. And no telling what Herr Kessler would make of it. Their strategy of doing the buoys out of sequence was already way out on the limits. But whatever – in for a penny…. She slipped on the harness and set the quick release clips as Taya gave Buoy 3 a very narrow berth. 50 meters in, the logic behind that risk came into view. Being that narrow could just possibly give them enough angle to make the finish line without any tacks at all - so long as she was far enough out on the trapeze to maintain that balance ! But… but.. what’s the chances that Taya would be able to maintain this ridiculous angle. Oh wow! This was so far heeled over, and so fast and so far above the water. So crazy! And if Taya makes even a one degree error, they'll crash onto the water at a devil of a force and from this high up, and... Don't even think about it. 

Janine was just rounding Buoy 6 still fighting off an attack by Rosanne when they noticed yacht 17. It too was heading for the finish line, but from the opposite side. And they had the advantage. The wind was right behind them and they were barrelling in. Wow! Look at that angle! Their centreboard was clearly visible. By rights, they should be turning turtle any second now. Unless they could hold the whole craft like a skater on an outside edge on that approach, all the way to the line.

Starboard! More starboard bellowed Catriona hoping Taya would hear 

“More balance. Farther out!” returned Taya, as the added sign language seemed to be working. It was a delicate job. It was exact. It needed huge concentration. But they were ahead. Catriona projected that they’d make the line first if they could only keep this angle… and this balance… and this direction… and the wind didn’t change. The slightest alteration and they’d be doomed.

The very possibility of actually beating Rosanne! The pure thought of coming in first spurred Catriona to an even more dangerous position. Adrenaline. Concentration – and strangest of all, Taya had this desperate angle under control. Who could ever have predicted...?

“Drop the sail” yelled Catriona and Taya did just that without asking why. They'd crossed the line. They'd won the race and they were still headed for the jetty at 10 knots or more as Catriona scrambled down. Taya hauled wildly on the tiller to try to avoid the jetty, the boat swung violently, Catriona lost balance and splashed into the shallows. You could get disqualified for losing a crew member overboard during the race. But they'd already finished and Catriona resurfaced with the biggest grin anyone had ever seen. 

Seconds later, Janine arrived followed almost immediately by Rosanne. 

“What d’you think you’re playing at!?” demanded Rosanne “What kind of game is this!” she hissed

“We checked in with all the buoys, Rosanne. Look. All the numbers are up on our mast”

“Yes, but are you allowed to do that?” asked Janine a little more quietly

“Yes. You have to check all 6 buoys, and you can’t sail against the flow so you have to go round the right way. But you can start at 4 and finish from 3”

Herr Kessler had hurried down from his vantage point on the clubhouse veranda. He had a rare smile on his face, but still wagged an accusing finger at them 

“I’m surprised I'm still alive. I've had 10 heart attacks in the last five minutes. Miss Harrington! What were you thinking?” but Catriona only beamed up at him. She’d asked if the route was acceptable, but had no idea at that point about Taya’s home run plan

“Masterful, I admit” continued Herr Kessler “and never before seen on these waters. I cannot imagine what possessed you to even attempt a stunt like that. But Miss Harrington, you would very likely have killed poor Taya out on that trapeze if you'd made even the slightest mistake. I'm not surprised she's still flat out on the jetty” 

Catriona caught her breathe, just enough to speak through the euphoria and still dripping wet 

“Thankyou, Herr Kessler, and I agree with most of what you say” 

“Only most?” 

“Yes. You see it was me out on that trapeze. Taya was at the helm” 

Most of the flotilla had witnessed this epic home run as they bobbed and tacked their way against the wind from Buoys 5 and 6, and little else was talked of over dinner. But Herr Kessler now knew where Miss Harrington was getting her crazy ideas from.

Sunday was a frantic day of recovery for all the competitors. Catriona in particular was under fire from question after question. time and time again from different groups of her friends. Was it inside the regulations? Whose idea was it? Surely Herr Kessler will reconsider the school team in light of this? and it was late when Catriona sought refuge in the quiet ambience of Taya's room where the soothing tones of a classical cello was playing from a small soundbar. She sank uninvited into the soft armchair and they just smiled at each other in mutual admiration for several minutes. Taya pulled a couple of cans of Coke from her fridge and Catriona eventually raised the point that concerned her most 

“Taya, before the race I was trying to think of what I could do to get back into the first crew after Rosanne's wipeout. Olivia is still shaken up and that's why they trailed Janine in the race. I was thinking that Rosanne would invite me to replace her, and I was also thinking what I might reply. But now with you bursting onto the scene, I think I've lost all my chances. It's only a matter of time before Rosanne squirms you in as her crew” 

“Sorry, Catriona. If you're waiting for that, then you're too late. She already asked me” 

Catriona's face fell in dejected resignation but Taya continued “She was with Herr Kessler at the time so she must have asked him first” 

“I guess Olivia wasn't there” 

“No, she wasn't. But Catriona, what I said to them was that the best crew is not necessarily the two best individuals put together. To be the best team they need to be on the same wavelength. They need to connect. I said, Olivia's still screwed up and my priority is to spend time with her getting her confidence back and getting her back on the water. I suggested that instead they might like to consider teaming you with Rosanne because I didn't see myself ever getting onto Rosanne's wavelength. The alternative is that they choose you and me, but I didn’t suggest that” 

“So you turned it down?” 

“I guess so. I really cant see me crewing for Rosanne, even if she is the best individual” 

“Except, Rosanne isn’t the best. You are. There’s no way Rosanne could have held that knife edge for five hundred meters. And, incidentally, I would never trust her enough to climb out onto an extended trapeze ten meters above the water”

Taya shrugged and smiled again at Catriona. It wasn’t difficult being on her wavelength 

“But you trusted me! Even if we’ve only known each other a few days!...”

Catriona smiled, shrugged and nodded. Words were unnecessary

“…Anyway, I said to Herr Kessler that he should consider you and Rosanne as first crew. He suggested that surely I wanted this too, but I said ‘No. Actually, I’m re-considering my position at the school. He looked puzzled so I explained it to him. The academic reputation is admirable and I think I could do well here, and the emphasis on sailing is everything I hoped it would be. But I doubt if I could be happy here. Olivia was trying a new move. One she’d need to perfect if she wanted to make the first crew. She made only a minor mistake and it was her that landed up in hospital. But when a student considers drowning as a preferable option to being in trouble with the very person who is supposed to lead their well-fare, I really do need to consider if this is a place I want to be. I expect that Herr Kessler will want more of an explanation, but I’ve done enough already for him to take me seriously, which is more than Madam Marlis does. She accused me of causing the issue in the first place. That was so unfair. Why couldn’t she just hold her inquisition before jumping to conclusions? Anyway, I’m talking to Ryan about it at the weekend, which is why you shouldn’t count me in”

Catriona swallowed hard “Taya, please don’t leave – I only just got to know you and you’re such a lovely person”

“Thanks. But no-one has said anything to Olivia yet about the damage and the suspense is the next thing that’s killing her”

Taya was looking round for a spare table at lunch when she overheard a familiar voice

“Thanks Rosanne. But I think I’ll just stick with Taya and we’ll beat you fair and square in every race and be crowned first crew without your help”

But then her attention was claimed by Herr Kessler who guided her to a reserved table in the corner

“Taya, I know you expected confidentiality in our conversation, and I know this indiscretion won’t help my case, but I had to raise the issue with Madam Marlis.

You see, she authorised the deployment of the safety boat to help some tourists who’d run out of fuel and were drifting in the middle of the lake. Then your comments, both the general perception of her approach, and Miss van Arlindt’s perception of her situation. Taya, ultimately I’m responsible and I’m accountable and on balance, it wouldn’t be professional to let all that pass”

She nodded in acceptance of the situation “Yes, I understand. I just hope Miss van Arlindt’s not too mad with me”

“There’s still  no reason for her to find out”
 “There aren’t many other explanations of how you’d know, and how Madam Marlis would find out too”
 “I suppose that’s true. Taya, you also told me that you were reconsidering your own position, but I am very pleased to find that you’re still here. Can you tell me what Ryan said?”

“Ryan said that he was happy to look at other options. There’s a possibility in Wellington, New Zealand. They too have their own yacht club. But the reason I’m still here is that Miss van Arlindt needs someone to help her recover and I don’t see anyone else who either could or would want to do that. I’ve suggested that Miss Harrington team with Miss Kurtzmann, and I’ll team with Miss van Arlindt, but…. We’ll see”

But Rosanne’s perspective was somewhat different.

“No way! Sorry, Herr Kessler. But being beaten fair and square by Miss Harrington and Taya is one thing. Losing to Miss van Arlindt is quite something else”
 “Is that a possibility?”

“No. Its almost a certainty”

“You sound rather confident”

“Absolutely. Who else could hold that balance on a five hundred meter home run. Taya would win no matter who she crewed with and she intends to concentrate on getting Miss van Arlindt  back on the water”

But truce prevailed. Catriona still refused to team with Rosanne and instead she teamed with Lucy while Lucy’s previous skipper, Janine. Teamed up with Rosanne. This was not ideal for the inter school competitions and Herr Kessler had another issue bubbling under. He hadn’t had a go at Madam Marlis about it, but he had mentioned it. The conversation had been quite tense to start with. She was in derogation of her duty as commandant of the safety boat and of her duty to the pastoral care of the students. But she had accepted the criticism and the penalty of being put on short term probation, pending improvement in all quarters.

She managed to leave the meeting before burying her face in her hands and crying all the way to her room. But not without passing Taya in the corridor. Ten seconds later, Taya passed Herr Kessler’s study just as he was coming out and put two and two together. But despite these developments, she’d left it far too long before asking about the retribution that was still preying on Olivia’s mind.

She waited till lunch break before tapping on Madam Marlis’ study. She smiled weakly as Taya appeared round the door

“I’m sorry to disturb you, but I would like to ask a question?”
 “Of course, Taya. What can I do for you? No! Before that, Taya, I owe you an apology. There was no collision and I’m sorry I accused you. And it was your efforts that surely saved Miss van Arlindt’s life….” 

But her voice had trailed off. The meaning of the statement was clear, but what was even clearer was the sentiment behind it. It wasn’t just Olivia that was broken, it was Madam Marlis as well

“Madam Marlis! Are you all right? Maybe I should come back later? Or no! Is there anything I can do for you?”

She poured a glass of water from the tap on the fridge and handed it to her
 “Thank you. But what was it you wanted to ask?” 

“I understand that damage caused by students should be paid for. But Miss van Arlindt still doesn’t know how much she should be saving out of her allowance to pay for the broken mast. It’s preying on her mind and she’s worried sick that she might have to ask her parents to bail her out. Then she’d be in trouble with them as well. She’s already distracted in class” 

“Oh dear. We can’t have that. She’s fragile enough as it is” 

“Yes. But it’s affecting all of us” 

“Yes, and Miss Kurtzmann has now teamed with Miss Karlow. That’s strange” 

“Not really. Miss van Arlindt is in no fit state and Miss Harrington turned it down” 

“Turned it down? I thought she wanted to be in Crew One”

“She did, at one time. She and Miss Kurtzmann are together in class and sometimes sit together in the common room after dinner, but they don’t really get on. They’re friends but they look at situations differently and are not on the same wavelength”

“I see. And what about you? I mean, I heard you might not be staying, but you are still here?” 

“I don’t want to team with Miss Kurtzmann. Miss Harrington has been the only person who has taken any interest in me since I arrived. She’s friendly, and me joining Miss Kurtzmann would be a betrayal. And still here? Yes. Finding a new school takes time, although I think there may be an opportunity to fly out to New Zealand at half term. In the meantime, Miss van Arlindt needs a lot of encouragement to help her recover. Miss Kurtzmann might immediately come to mind, but instead, and on top of everything else, she’s just dropped her like a hot rock in favour of Miss Karlow, so I’ve assigned that task to me” 

“But Taya, that’s part of my job” 

Taya fixed her with a steely gaze. This was one of the scariest, fiercest teachers, and she’d only been at the school less than a month 

“That is as maybe, Madam Marlis. But I can only go on the visible evidence” 

She turned away to avoid Taya seeing the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Perhaps before, maybe as long ago as last week, she’d have told this student not to be so insolent to a senior member of staff, and perhaps issued a detention, but now….?

“Sorry” she apologised. It was a long time since she’d been on this much of the defensive, especially with a student! But managed to return to the previous conversation 

“In answer to your question, I haven’t actually assessed the damage yet” 

“Oh dear. I really would have liked to put her out of her misery” 

But the phrase had other connotations that rekindled a different scenario that was so narrowly avoided and Madam Marlis was again in danger of dissolving into embarrassment. Now all she wanted was to finish this meeting before she broke down again - this time in front of one of her students in the same way as she nearly had in front of her boss 

“I shall walk down to the boathouse after classes this afternoon, and take a look. Are you likely to be in the common room this evening?” 

“Yes. But, Madam Marlis, would you like me to come with you? It seems to me that every aspect of this is fraught with even more grief” 

She considered this for a few moments. Taya was so generous and so forgiving. Maybe this is the chance she needed

“Yes, please” 

Taya was nervous about meeting Madam Marlis like this. But she’d been invited even if she’d suggested the invitation, so as always, she’d make the most of it. But was there more to it than that?

Madam Marlis didn’t seem quite as jumpy as she was in her study earlier and asked Taya how she was settling in to the academic side of school life

“I think I’m doing all right. But I’m not used to having so many people in the room. And the teachers don’t explain the relevance”

“Relevance, Taya?”

“Yes. What actual use is it in real life?”

Madam Marlis looked perplexed enough for Taya to continue

“You know, the practicality or what, hypothetically, you would use this stuff for. I can see that trigonometry is used in navigation and levers in Physics is used in all sorts of situations where you’re not actually strong enough to lift something. But some other stuff, like knowing who the king of Austria was five hundred years ago is really quite beyond me”

She explained that a lot of the curriculum was there just to pass the exam and was of minimal use unless you went into that particular aspect as a specialisation, perhaps at university for a specialised career. 

“Hmm…” Taya dismissed “So not a lot then”.

The boathouse was interesting. It was huge. All the yachts they’d been sailing were in here, under cover and Taya wandered around between them.

Towards the back, hidden behind all the others, she found something strange. 

“What are all these, Madam Marlis? They look like they’ve been here for years”

“None of these work any more. Something’s wrong with the electronics, and they’ve been left here. Its more expensive to get it all checked out and repaired than to buy a new one”

“We ought to look at the mast on number 17 as well. Talking to Ryan at the weekend, he says using the mainsail winch as a crane can put an unnatural strain on the mast and I ought to check it out. We don’t want it dropping in half. It could injure someone if we were mid pack at the time”

They checked the masts they’d come to look at, looking down the length for any kinks or bends, and anything else that looked out of place, and seeing quite plainly that while 17 was straight as an arrow, 23 was more like a boomerang. Examinations complete, they retired to the club house. Madam Marlis bought her a coke and they took up residence by the window

“So…” Taya began slowly “…if it’s the electronics that’s gone on those yachts at the back, the central core of the mast will still be ok. So we could just transfer the electrical components from Miss Kurtzmann’s mast onto one of those and refit it as 23”

The discussion was interesting, although neither of them had done this before, but saw no reason to think it was impossible. And if it was, they’d be no worse off – apart from a few hours work. 

But Madam Marlis seemed frequently suddenly distant. Something was wrong, and it eventually dawned on Taya that looking at masts could just be a distraction while there may be a more covert reason for her invitation

“How do you think this could be organised, Taya, If we’ve never done it before. Do we need to get someone in to show us how to do it? And does it fit in to any of the subjects we should be studying?”
 “I don’t think we need an expert. Ok, we haven’t done this before, but it can be a lesson in resourcefulness and logic. Its unlikely anyone will do this exact exercise again, but it’s a lesson on how to approach it, even if no-one remembers the details”

“I see, so you envisage the students doing this?”

“Absolutely. I think Catriona and Janine might be interested in this  - as well as me of course”

The blank look made Taya review what she’d just said. It was a simple statement, wasn’t it. Ah! No!

“Oh! Of course. I mean Miss Harrington and Miss Karlow”

“Maybe I could come along as well?”

Taya’s look persuaded her to continue “I know I’m not very popular, but this could help me start to address that. Its outside of the main school – that should help by making the ground more neutral”

Taya looked horrified and Madam Marlis’ face fell as she noticed it

“Madam Marlis, I think the girls would be fine on their own. Its outside school and we’d be able to unwind a bit while doing something useful and learning something practical as we figure it out by ourselves”

“But Taya, I need to do something. I must admit I got quite upset when Herr Kessler told me what you’d said about Miss van Arlindt. Part of my job is supposed to be the students’ well being. But even you said you’d be leaving because you would never be happy here. But Taya, schools are for learning. That’s their purpose” 

“Ok, and maybe the only purpose of a comprehensive school in a city suburb is teaching kids, but a boarding school has got to be different. It needs to be the students home life as well” 

“But it’s all the same place” 

“Yes, but kids are masters of adaptation. They’re perfectly happy adopting different rules and regimes in different circumstances. Like, they behave very differently in school when any staff are around. And everyone’s name changes too! Its all so formal with you teachers, so there’s no reason for it to be the same in class and after class” 

“We do that by giving the students their own common room” 

“Is that really enough? Without the common room the girls would all stay in their own rooms and become hermits! One reason I was sent here was so that I would socialise with other kids. The previous five years I’ve been in isolation with two adults. Could the informality not be extended to all areas that aren’t actually class rooms?” 

“I did try something like that. But the familiarity became pervasive and consequently discipline broke down” 

“ok, but discipline can be maintained through respect and respect has to be earned. So this time you need to watch for the signs, and revert to your old fierce self if you need to. But there’s a difference between maintaining discipline and instilling fear. Madam Marlis… I think you’ve got to become more adaptable. The students have got to be on your side for you to be on the student’s side”

“Oh, Taya, I don’t know. But I need to do something”

Taya went back to the counter and bought another two cokes and two cookies. This, she felt, put them on a more even keel. 

“Ok, what about this. I’ll tell the rest of the girls that I’m intending to try to mend Miss Kurtzmann’s mast to save Miss van Arlindt the cost of a new one, but also to demonstrate how to address a problem like this. The practical application is that if you’re in the middle of the Atlantic and your equipment fails, how do you sort it. How do you even start to think about it! You can’t just phone for an engineer. You join us down here to keep a check on safety and make sure we’re not doing more harm than good. But.. because it’s all outside class, and because everyone is here because they want to be here, we all work together as one team and we all use first names. Then back in school next day, we revert to formality. That could give you the opportunity for a new start”

“First names? But that’s one of the things that maintains the differential between staff and students, and that’s what retains the discipline”

“But its unnecessary down here in the boathouse. It’s a different environment and the girls would be here through choice. Its not mandatory”

“I agree. But its a reminder that there is a formal structure”

“But surely there’s more to it than just the names we use. I mean, I’m not out of control. Is that why you and me can talk like this? Because I’ve only got one name?”

“But this is a problem that you don’t have. To everyone you’re just Taya” 

“That’s because that’s my only name. I only have one name. I’m just Taya. That’s all I’ve ever been. Not like Miss Karlow who has four middle names as well as one at each end”

“I’m not sure how long it would take me to get used to the girls calling me Margot”

Taya agreed to talk to Rosanne and Olivia and Janine and Lucy and Catriona at lunchtime and explained the plan. They would build a new mast out of old components. It would be fun. It would be educational, in a life skills kind of way, and it would save Olivia being charged for the damage. 

Rebuild the Mast

There was more interest than Taya had expected. Janine wanted to help because if they could do this, it would mean that Olivia wouldn’t need help from her parents. Catriona wanted to help because Taya had explained the more general aspects. Lucy just thought it was different. Olivia wanted to help for the same reason as Janine. Helena was more interested in electronics than sailing and this was a rare opportunity, and Rosanne didn’t want to be left out. 

They all met at the boathouse and Taya explained it was like a jigsaw puzzle. We know what it’s supposed to look like, we’ve got all the bits, we just need to put it all together. We’ve also got a number of samples of how it all works in case we need a reference point.

“But before we start, I need to introduce you to another member of our team. This is Margot. She’s been kind enough to volunteer to join us, which will save us all a lot of explanation to Herr Kessler. But she’s only Margot here outside school. As soon as we’re back inside the school building, it’s Madam Marlis as it was before. We don’t want Herr Kessler getting bent out of shape, do we” 

The girls all exchanged glances, but, strangely, Madam Marlis didn’t seem to be on anyone’s case.

They started by rounding up all the tools they thought they’d need - spanner’s, pliers, screwdrivers. There were lots of questions and just as much scepticism 

“How do we know what we’re doing if no-ones done this before?” 

“That’s all part of what we’re doing. Its to work it out and have confidence that what we’re doing is sensible and will work”

It was no where near as complicated as Margot had anticipated. Taya hadn’t done this before either, but had done similar repairs and the technique was the same. Remove a component from the broken mast, and install it in the similar position on the target mast. There was some discussion on exactly how it should be connected together, but a check on one of the other yachts solved the puzzle. Tomorrow’s task would be to refit the mast into yacht 23, and then adjourn to the clubhouse. 

Now, thought Taya, Margot only has to prove to everyone that she is actually approachable and that little solution would fall into place as well. Maybe that progress can be made in the clubhouse.

There was no doubt that Taya had led the rebuild, but everyone was interested and grateful for the opportunity to do something uniquely practical like this

“So how did you know how to do this. I mean, like, how to approach the problem?” asked Janine

“Ryan”
 

Pilgrim 13

“Ryan?”

“Ryan is the guy that taught me everything I know” 

“Everything? “ 

“Yes, everything”

“Don’t be silly, surely you must’ve learned some stuff in school” 

“I didn’t go to school”

“No?” asked Margot quizzically 

“No. I left my school when I was nine and haven’t been back until I came here”

“And you don’t seem to have a home address either?” 

“No. Ryan has a mailing dress in a place called Morcombe Bay in England” 

“But the address on file is something like ‘The Salamander,’ in some coastal town? Is that a house name?” 

Taya chuckled “No, Aberystwyth Harbour is where the yacht’s registered” 

“Yacht?” 

Taya took a deep breath. An explanation was needed 

“Yes. The yacht. The yacht is a Canada West 64. ….” 

“Wow! A Canada West! They’re not cheap. Is it fully loaded. Like electric winches everywhere?….” 

Taya was nodding as Catriona continued “…. A64! That’s got to cost at least three and a half million pounds. Wow. A Canada West!. Have you been on it?” 

“Been on it? Well, yes. That’s where I lived for the last five years. We went all the way round the world including both Capes. I started when I was nine. School work was between breakfast and lunch every day seven days a week. After lunch was sailing. We visited 73 different countries and crossed the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian ocean and touched into the Southern Ocean as well”

“Did you get to actually sail it? I mean, like, take the helm?”

“Yes. Most days. I often took the helm while Ryan checked the fishing lines for that night’s dinner” 

“What about all the other people?” 

“There were only three of us. Me, Ryan, and my auntie Chrissie. She was in love with Ryan. She got to sail it as well sometimes. But I must tell you about one of the best times. We were mid Atlantic. We’d just spent seven weeks in the Caribbean. About four weeks into the trip to Europe, Ryan said to me ‘Madeira is about 200 miles away. Your task is to get us there’. He sat me on the Captain’s chair in the cockpit and sauntered off to check the fishing lines. I had to do the navigation, set the course for the day and tell Chrissie or Ryan what it was. I got it wrong, but Ryan steered the course I’d told him all day while I went to class with auntie Chrissie. Late that afternoon I told him I didn’t think we were anywhere near where we should be and asked him what he’d been doing all day. But he took me back to the navigation table to recheck my figures and look at the chart. ‘That’s why we’re fifty miles off course’ he laughed. He’d known all along, but he just went on my direction because he’d told me that I was in charge. I recalculated and this time I got it right after that and when Madeira finally came into view it was straight ahead” 

“But you know about dinghy sailing too?” 

“Yes, I had my own Pilgrim 13” 

“13? You mean a Pilgrim 16” 

“Nearly. Ryan bought me a pilgrim 16, but it was too long to stow on the transom. So, being wooden, he placed it on the aft cabin roof and sawed three feet off the end. Then he rebuilt the stern section, and there it was - a Pilgrim 13”

“But that would mess up the original design, being so much shorter behind the mast?”
 “Yes. It was quite hard to sail, but I learned a lot about balance”

Summer Holidays

She’d stayed. Herr Kessler had respect for her, not only because of her strategy and then execution in the sailing race, but also she wasn’t afraid to put her point of view without being aggressive and it was always very valid. Madam Marlis was leaning on her to help with her relationship with the students and so she wasn’t the fearsome threat to Taya that she was to the others. It would just be too much upheaval moving schools - and the new one might turn out to be worse. 

Madam Marlis - Margot outside school - was almost a friend of hers but Catriona had become her best friend. They did so much together both in class and outside school. Olivia was getting her confidence back, Rosanne and Janine were still the crew that represented the school at competitions, but Catriona and Taya both took some satisfaction in beating them at every school race. And winning the local open regatta on the lake. 

Summer had approached and all the other girls were talking about going home for the holidays. Except the School was now firmly Taya’s home. That school had been selected because the students could stay all year, all 52 weeks, although she was looking forward to a few weeks sailing with Ryan and auntie Chrissie. 

Catriona was going to her parents beach house in Bermuda and Taya had suggested that maybe she’d like to spend a few days with her on the Salamander, probably in the Mediterranean. They’d fly to Marseilles and maybe sail as far as Sardinia, but with loads of other ideas moving in and out of possibility each time they discussed it. 

Although a recurring possibility was that Taya would fly out to Bermuda as well.

A week from the end of term, and changes and issues rolled in from every corner. Catriona was soaking up the quiet ambience of Taya's room when the call found her. She wasn’t concerned that Taya would overhear it, but Taya began to get increasingly nervous as the call went on for much much longer than expected.

Next evening and the roles were reversed as Taya answered Ryan’s call. 

The third evening they took dinner early and Taya reserved biscuits and coffee. This could be a long evening, it was almost a council of war directed firmly at the new circumstances. 

This was as serious a chat as the girls had ever had. Both sets of ‘parents’ were experiencing some difficulties. Some new equipment for the yacht had been delivered to the marina in Toulon, near Marseilles, but Ryan and Christine were too busy to sail the boat over from Italy. Meanwhile, Catriona’s parents’ company had run into some difficulties and Sylvia and Tom were unable to take time out, rushing instead between their four main offices. The suggestion was that the start of their summer break should be delayed by two or even three weeks. 

The girls were not over-enamoured with the idea. Ok, so there’d be no formal lessons, and sailing on the lake would be one of their higher priorities, but it hardly compared to showing Taya her Bermuda beach, or introducing Catriona to the Canada West she was so looking forward to. 

It also meant that the new equipment would sit on a French dockside, which was by no means the safest place while they all flew to Florence to start their Mediterranean ‘cruise’. 

Taya had an alternative approach, and Catriona listened, wide eyed, as Taya explained 

“But will Ryan let you do that?”

“Quite possibly”

“And I doubt if my parents would agree. It just sounds seriously risky”. 

“In that case we don’t tell them. We just say that in the circumstances, you’ve been invited to spend time on the yacht while they sort out the company without having to entertain you” 

Christine was nervous but Ryan’s only issue was their safety if they were known to be travelling alone 

“Chrissie, Catriona’s an experienced sailor, there’s no real time constraint so they don’t need to take risks, and it gets the Salamander to Toulon so that we can install the new gear. How old does she need to be to do this on her own?”

This was the biggest adventure that Catriona had ever been on. She’d taken a flight on her own the previous year and the thought of getting lost had frightened the life out of her. Now, this whole plan was surely impossible. But Taya just encouraged her, saying they’d take each bit separately and the issues would solve themselves one at a time. 

The revised plan reduced the additional time at school to an extra week. Taya went for a number of long walks in the mountains, sometimes with Catriona, but usually by herself. She was only now getting used to the company of other people. She found most of them sadly childish and this was her opportunity to be back by herself and reflect on what she was doing and where she was going which was as she had done with Ryan that Wednesday evening in Cape Town when she feared she might be sent home to England but instead they set off in search of India. She liked being with Catriona, but was content to be by herself while Catriona met up with any of her other friends.

To Livorno

Getting to Italy was as simple as anything ever was. They took a taxi to Berne airport, a Swiss Air flight to Florence, and an hour’s drive later they were checking in to their hotel 

“But Taya, if we’re staying on the yacht, why do we need a hotel as well” 

“Because a random taxi might not be safe. Staying here for the night means we can use the hotel transport, not just from the airport but to the marina as well” 

“And…” Catriona added as they sat down in the restaurant “… we get a proper meal. I guess we’re fending for ourselves for the next few days” 

“Absolutely, Catriona. But we should still be able to rustle up something yummy. Cooking can be good fun. You need to know the basics of food safety, but after that you can do a huge amount of experimenting” 

“Well, Taya, I’ll give it a go. But I’ve never cooked anything before in my whole life. I’ve been at the school since I was seven”

Shopping complete, the harbourmaster gave them something of a sideways look as they paid the dues and prepared to leave, but he fell short of asking them if they were on their own or how old they were. He did, however, offer some advice on staying out of the main ferry routes once they were off shore.

Taya set a course for Corsica and Catriona watched in some amazement as she adjusted the calculations for known currents and sea conditions. Navigation wasn’t quite so important when there’s only six buoys to get round, or a visible village at the other end of the lake. 

The trip started as exhilarating and educational. Taya was a good tutor on the differences from dinghy sailing, especially with an extra mast to look after as well. And also, Catriona discovered, no mean cook! 

“But we do need to be careful. We’d be better not to let slip that we’re on our own. We don’t want to attract the wrong sort of boys” 

No, reflected Catriona, I don’t want to attract any sort of boy at all. In fact, I’m beginning to feel a little sick, and I’m becoming more concerned that it’s not sea sick.

Corsica

Taya was confused and concerned. The motion on the calm Mediterranean was less than it sometimes was on the lake at school with the wind gusting in between the mountains and Catriona was ok there. Rather than blue water sailing directly to Toulon she altered course to sail round the bay closer to land with the possibility of going ashore if Catriona felt worse, but that simply slowed them down, and they still had to get to Toulon. 

But Catriona got worse and Taya started to think that maybe it wasn’t just the motion of the yacht. Maybe it was the fear of something going wrong while they were on their own. Anxiety was understandable, and Taya agreed - they were defenceless. Their survival depended on staying out of sight and under the radar, both of which they were already adept at doing. 

Four days out, and they picked up a message from Ryan 

“Glad you remembered how to use the VHF! …. Chrissie and I will get to the Marina tomorrow…… Look forward to seeing you soon” 

The message also came through on Catriona’s phone. Tom and Sylvia had tracked down the source of the problems to a senior employee in Athens, and had put together a recovery plan. Perhaps someone else would take over where he had left off, but for now the issues were under control and they were determined to spend a few days with their daughter - even if it was interrupted every now and then.

The solution seemed obvious. Invite Tom and Sylvia to join them for a few days. Maybe a week. They’d stay reasonably close to shore within mobile signal for those additional emergencies that would always crop up in the aftermath of a corporate recovery.

There was hardly any hesitation, after all, that’s where Catriona was already and the rendezvous was set.

 Neither of them had much experience of sailing, and neither had they spent time on a luxury ocean going yacht. Their first impression when they saw it was one of disbelief - wow, are we really going there? Catriona was trying hard to stay upbeat as she greeted them but was by now feeling darkly miserable. Being on dry land was not the solution.

The plan, as much as there was one, was to cross to Corsica. This would be blue water sailing and that’s what Taya had originally invited Catriona to experience. Now that her parents were here as well, the plan would remain as intended. Chrissie had already restocked with supplies and cast-off followed swiftly. What Tom and Sylvia were not expecting was for Ryan to hand the captain’s chair over to Taya while he and Christine sat down with a nice bottle of French Viognier for the four of them to get to know each other. 

“So, eh, who’s sailing the boat?” asked Tom half a glass in 

“Taya. Although I expect Catriona will be up there distracting her” 

“No, I think Catriona is still in her cabin” 

“In which case she’ll be fine without the distractions” 

Tom’s quizzical look persuaded Ryan to continue 

“She’s ok on her own, Tom. Although she’s more used to the Atlantic and this is a lot less choppy. How d’you think the yacht got here from Livorno?” 

“What! On their own?” 

“Well yes. We explained we were short of time. Would I let her loose on a five million dollar yacht if I wasn’t confident?” 

Tom was stunned to silence. He would definitely have said no, if he’d known, but it seemed that they had been perfectly capable… and the conversation moved on as Christine poured the next glass.

Catriona’s self diagnosis

Up in the cockpit, as expected, Taya was concentrating on sailing. Catriona, however, was not all right. She’d made it up to the cockpit feeling physically ill and terminally nervous. She’d learned enough on their solo trip to take control if the conditions were favourable and that meant Taya could risk taking a short break to ask Ryan a question. She disguised it by asking something technical first which gave them the excuse to leave the others behind for a moment. But Ryan felt troubled by this. They returned to the helm and Taya took over as Ryan moved Catriona a few paces away. He slipped his arm round her shoulders and gave her a little squeeze 

“What makes you think you’re pregnant?” 

“She told you! She promised she wouldn’t tell anyone!” 

“No, Catriona, she didn’t tell me. I guessed. The question was so out of character being vague about morning sickness. Taya would have made it personal. What she would have said is ‘I think I might be pregnant because I feel real ill every morning’. So I guessed it’s not her so it must be you. You’ll not keep this a secret from your parents for very long, so I suggest you tell them now”

“You mean. Before you do” 

“No, I won’t tell them. Why would I? If I did, they might think it’s something to do with me, when all I try to do is help everyone”

Ryan returned to the adult group and re-joined the wine. 

“You were right Tom. She’s not feeling well” 

But it was only a few minutes later that she reappeared breathing heavily and shaking visibly. She stopped with eight eyes focussed on her 

“Mummy, Dad, I need to tell you something..-” but she was gasping for breath now as she determined to continue “In that extra week at school I was invited to a party. When I got there with two other girls there were only six of us altogether. We talked a bit and someone got me a drink. I don’t know what it was and I don’t remember much after that. Everything went a bit fuzzy. I’ve got big gaps in the memory of what happened and I don’t even remember getting back to school. But now…now.. I feel very strange and I feel very sickly, especially mid morning, and ……”

She didn’t finish the sentence as Tom interrupted “Jesus wept Trini. You’re only fifteen!” 

“I know. And daddy. It wasn’t my fault, I don’t really know what happened”

The tense silence lasted only a few moments as Catriona gasped for more air, steeling her determination

“But what I do know is I can’t do it. I can’t have a baby at sixteen. I just won’t. I’m not going to suffer my whole life. I can’t live with this every day of my life and look back at this for the next sixty years. I’d rather not live at all!” 

Her voice had risen an octave and she stood still shaking. 

She looked round quickly at six accusing eyes, perhaps expecting sympathy which didn’t materialise. Instead she bolted out onto the deck and over to the hand rail on the starboard bow. She paused momentarily with her foot on the lower wire, and tumbled over the edge with an involuntary shriek.

“Man overboard!” yelled Ryan as he followed her without hesitation. He reached the wire, checking her position and dived in after her. 

Christine scurried up to the captains chair, Taya had already vanished over the aft cabin roof and Sylvia and Tom stared at this well rehearsed action before peering over the side looking in every direction trying to catch a glimpse of any of the others. 

Ryan surfaced, turning to face the yacht 

“I can’t see her. Which way?” 

Sylvia pointed and Ryan swam, turned, she pointed again and Ryan swam faster. 

Christine had brought the yacht to a stop and Taya reappeared screaming the rib round in a wide arc. Tom had thrown the life belt as hard as he could, but it was well short and he was heaving it back in, not knowing what next to do to help. Instead, he watched with renewed surprise. Not only expert Ocean sailor, but  speed-boat driver as well!

Ryan had reached her now and was keeping her afloat, quietly telling her that this procedure had been practiced many times and the rib would be here any second to take them back to the diving deck. She was all too scared to talk or even cry. He helped her scramble into the rib, but he just held on to the side rope as Taya sped back. 

The short silence on the aft deck was broken by Taya as she rejoined the group after stowing the rib 

“I’m taking Trini to have a shower to wash out all the salt, then get some dry clothes on” 

And Sylvia put the kettle on. What else would you expect an English mother to do in times of dire emergency? 

There were only five of them for dinner. Catriona wasn’t excluded, she just didn’t feel sociable and the consensus was to let her be. Tom checked up on her around bed time, raising a smile, giving her a hug and a good-night wave, just to prove they were still talking to each other even though they hadn’t actually said anything. 

Next morning was a different matter. Catriona appeared sheepishly while the others were having breakfast, shuffling up to make room for her at the table. 

She said she was feeling a little better although she’d felt very ill through the night and had spent a lot of time in the loo.

“Could be just taking on a lot of salt water” suggested Christine. 

Everyone seemed to be quieter, perhaps just more thoughtful, but sailing took priority all morning and the afternoon disappeared as Ryan showed Tom how the fishing lines were set to catch dinner. Sylvia and Christine worked on an alternative in case the catch was unsuccessful and Taya sailed the yacht. They all avoided the subject of Catriona’s condition, deciding it was better not to speculate which would mean everyone would get wound up about it.

They were all back together again for and a pre-dinner drink to prevent a reflective silence overtaking them and to keep everyone talking. Tom had asked for a Scotch and Ryan was surprised to find that the bottle that he knew was there yesterday, was no longer a resident of the cupboard 

“Chrissie! You haven’t finished the whisky, have you, babe?” 

“No” 

“Thought not..” he turned back to Tom “Chrissie only drinks scotch when there’s nothing else left” 

“A bit like Sylvia” 

“I’ve never known Taya to drink whisky. Taya! Have you taken up drinking whisky?” 

“Not me Ryan, although I’m tempted to follow auntie Chrissie’s example now that Sylvia has shown me how popular it is” 

“No, I know you prefer rum” 

But Taya’s face suddenly fell and she rushed from the saloon 

“Trini?” suggested Ryan and Sylvia together, before chasing Taya towards Catriona’s cabin.

They got there just as Taya was snatching the bottle from Trini’s table, scattering the half dozen packets of paracetamol. She passed it to Ryan and instead folded her up in a kind of bear hug 

“Trini, there’s other ways of solving this” 

“But Taya, I just can’t do it. I can’t go on with things the way they are. I just won’t do it”

Ryan ushered the adults out, confident that Taya had the situation under control. Sylvia took over as chaperone and instead persuaded Trini that a little food would be good for her. 

Everyone was upset, but some more than others. Taya was least worried and most relieved. Trini had invited her to go to that party too, and now she was glad she’d found an excuse not to. 

More bad news poured in as they approached the Corsican coast. Now in signal, more loose ends on recovering Sylvia and Toms company flooded the airwaves. The main issue had been resolved, but the repercussions were now becoming all too obvious. 

Emotionally, Catriona was feeling like a wreck but put most of that down to her physical condition. She stayed with Taya almost constantly and slowly began to realise that her parents weren’t terminally furious with her. They seemed to be more annoyed that it had happened just when their company issues had surfaced. 

They both spent the next morning on their phones and the lunch time discussion turned serious. Tom was in favour of landing as soon as possible and getting a taxi to the airport to get himself back into the office. 

“Which one” asked Christine 

“Emm” he frowned

“From what I gathered, you’ve got issues in four countries. If you go to one of them, you’ll get sucked into the minutia in that office instead of giving due attention to the others” 

Tom looked over quizzically. Was that a criticism?

“Christie worked as a consultant for PWC before we took to the high sees” rescued Ryan and Tom agreed that she was unfortunately right. 

“I’d be very willing to help you, if you’d want me to. I won’t know all the answers, but I’d be an extra pair of hands that you can trust. Did I overhear that the cause of the problem is no longer with the company?” 

“Yes. And yes please. But we also need to make time to concentrate on Trini” 

Catriona didn’t look best pleased at that suggestion. What did that really mean? 

Ryan put it in perspective 

“What I suggest is that we make landfall at the next port. Tom. You and Sylvia and Christine take a cab to Ajaccio and check into a hotel where you’ll be more comfortable without rolling and pitching around so you’ll be better able to concentrate. Communications will be better too with more reliable connections. You three work on the company problems. That, you see…” he said turning to Catriona “…will stabilise the longer term issues. Sometimes you need to make the call between the immediate and the important. What we three will do is sail on to Ajaccio and I’ll make sure that you see the right kind of doctor. Trini, with that as a plan, you’ll be better able to sleep at night instead of waking up in a nervous cold sweat. Babe, your mum and dad would be there too, but what would that achieve when there’s the other aspects of your future that also need attention? Me and Taya can look after you, we cant solve the commercial problems” 

Two days later, Taya concentrated on checking them into the hotel Christine had found, Ryan concentrated on finding a specialist clinic and Catriona concentrated on being scared. 

But the scare didn’t last long. This type of clinic worked on an immediate basis. There was no market for nine month waiting lists in this business and the appointment was at six o’clock that evening. Ryan calmed her down with extra coffee and patisserie in a street cafe and Taya confirmed what the outcome ought to be. 

It had taken a long time and she hadn’t understood why so many tests had been needed after the anticipated examination

“It’s over now” comforted Taya as they waited for their taxi to take them back to the hotel. But she shook her head. 

“Only as far as the next hurdle. Mum and dad are Catholic. They’ll have some difficulty with this as well” 

Dinner was late that evening, but the table refused to rise and fall with the waves. Progress had been made in all directions and made way for an up-beat catch up. The news from the company was better, and Tom explained it all from the beginning. Christine had been able to convey an external objectivity that put everything in perspective and he now felt that with that level of support, he could trust them with the details, and talking it through out loud clarified so much in his own mind. Sylvia too was so much more confident when he’d finished.

“So, after all, we don’t need to pull you from school and sell the beach house. And can we assume that you’ll be in a fit state to go back to school in September?” and now it was Catriona’s turn

“Yes” she confirmed “Ryan got me an appointment with a doctor somewhere. Taya came in with me and… well, I think its all sorted now. I don’t really know much more than that…” she tailed off becoming emotional again, but successfully passed the baton “Ryan talked to the doctor for some time. I guess you know the details? ….Ryan?”
 

“Really – that’s good news” but there was a level of disapproval, or maybe just disappointment or maybe just relief evident in that reply as Ryan picked up the explanation

“Yes. Excellent specialist clinic. Those guys really know their onions. They know fruit as well!”

“Fruit? Ryan?”

“Taya, were you eating plenty of fruit on the crossing from Livorno?”
 “Fruit? Ryan, Yes! You told me so often to always take plenty of fruit and make it last as long as you can because it is so good at keeping you healthy”

“We had half a trolley load of it from the supermarket…”  Catriona added in support as if she was under criticism “And Taya hasn’t rationed it either. We had it for breakfast every day”.

“That’s good, Trini. And Taya’s right on almost all aspects”

“Ryan…” interrupted Tom “…has this got anything to do with the visit to the clinic?”

“Oh yes! Its fundamental. You see, Tom. Trini has already explained that she doesn’t know what happened at that party although those soluble drugs are unfortunately all too common. The rest of us have even less idea. So we can speculate that someone may well have got pregnant there, and the best we can assume is that if they did, it was one of the girls. That all gets us nowhere. However, there are three facts that we are now certain of following the visit to the clinic. One is that, Trini, you’re not pregnant and never have been….”

“Never? Never ? But I feel so ill!”

“Two, Catriona, is that you’ve been eating plenty of grapefruit, and three, you’re acutely allergic to it”

Sylvia closed her eyes, silently offering a prayer. Trini was in tears as Tom folded her into his arms. But Taya was mortified

“Trini! I’m so sorry. I didn’t know! I was trying my best – and I got it all wrong. Please…” she pleaded holding out her arms.

Ryan threw his head back. Sometimes you get a result, but Tom broke the silence.

“No-one would have known that, Ryan. But maybe its not a complete surprise. My mother was allergic to all citrus, so we never had any in the house when Trini was at home”

“And at school we have oranges and nectarines and clementines, but I’ve never seen a grapefruit there” 

Ryan found time with Catriona as she headed for her bed 

“You can drink as much Scotch as you like. But please leave the empty bottle in the galley to remind us to add it to the shopping list’ 

But she only hugged him with a tearful smile 

“Looks like you got me out of that one as well” 

“Ok. But now it’s your turn. It’s all so that you can have a long happy life. Don’t go wasting all our efforts with any more silly stunts” 

But she only hugged him harder, shook her head and slipped down under her cover. 

Over the next week, Ryan, Trini and Taya sailed during the morning, loafed about sunbathing, water skiing and simply charging about in the rib in the afternoon, and having dinner and the evening with Christine, Sylvia and Tom.

Trini was happy now. She felt she’d found not just her best friend in Taya but two other close friends too in Chrissie and Ryan. Tom and Sylvia flew back to Athens after another week, but Trini was due to stay on the yacht until term was due to start again. Bermuda might be on the agenda next year but for now they were looking forward to the school term. New lessons that they wouldn’t understand and worthless irrelevant facts that they’d have to learn for no better purpose than to prove they could learn irrelevant worthless facts.

But the plan changed – the only constant quipped Taya, is that everything changes, and Trini flew back to Berne on her own. Quiet, confident and looking forward to beating Rosanne by an even bigger margin now she had all the techniques she’d learned from Ryan and Taya on that somewhat larger yacht. Taya had a different trip to make.

Passed Away

“Taya, we’ve been away from England for over five years now. Do you remember much about your life before that?”

Taya looked woebegone. Why would Ryan want to remind her!

“Yes, but I try not to”

“So you’ll remember Granny”

“Yes. The walking stick she used to beat me with. And her devilish cackling”

“Yes” joined Christine “she was my mother, but I too try not to remember those days”

“Good, so you may be interested to know that she passed away”

“You mean she died?”

“Yes, Taya, that is the usual meaning of that euphemism”

That was a shock to Christine. She’d felt increasingly estranged from her mother and hadn’t been in contact since they set sail. It all seemed so alien. But it was her mother and she felt she ought to be upset. Maybe she would be, but her own life would go on irrespective.

“Hmmm. So I wonder what will happen to that house. Maybe there’s a will? I think I ought to go back there and see what the situation is” suggested Christine

Ryan glanced over at Taya. She was sitting bolt upright, quivering slightly and looking terrified

“Auntie Chrissie, I don’t want to go. Saffron might want to take me back, and keep me there”

That was interesting too. Not mum, mummy or even mother. Just her given name, Saffron. 

“Yes, Taya, but if Chrissie goes. I should go with her and that means you need to come too. Where else would you go?”

“I could just go back to Switzerland, back to school. Trini will be there already!”

“Yes, with another party for you to go to”

“No, I cant see that happening again. I think we’ll both be unbelievably careful – and take our own drinks”

“Ok, I suppose you could. But I want you to come with us. We’re a tight little team, just the three of us and I think we ought to stick together. But Taya, I promise that you’ll be coming with me when we leave”

Granny’s House Again

Christine tapped on the door. It was a long time since she’d been here. It held few good memories. Perhaps some from days when she was a little girl, before her mother started ‘going out’ in the evenings and leaving her on her own. Before Saffron was born. But mostly her memory was clouded by the more recent events five years ago just before they emigrated with Taya, and she didn’t know what sort of reception she’d get. 

There was still no reply. Maybe Saffron was still on the crystals?

She pushed at the door and it slid open. Saffron had now made it as far as the living room door as Christine peeked in

“Oh, It’s you. Might have known to expect you to come hovering back here like a vulture”

Not exactly the welcome she would have wanted

“Yes. Well I wanted to make sure that all the necessary arrangements were in place”

“Well they are. The funeral is tomorrow - not that it will be busy”

Christine felt obliged to go. If she’d known she’d have turned up two days later, but it led on quite naturally to the question of a will, or indeed if Granny left any estate at all. 

There were only three mourners at the funeral - Christine, an older gentleman and Saffron. As organiser of the event, Saffron invited them both to join her in the Duke of Devonshire for a small remembrance drink hoping that one of the others would offer to pay, but conversation was sparse.

“I guess you knew Granny?” Saffron asked the gentleman eventually. But there was only a brief reply sadly spoken

“Yes. I knew her” but with no elucidation, and he seemed to be content just sitting quietly, listening to the girls swap rather clinical updates. This was not looking like a mournful family event and Christine invited Ryan and Taya to join them. It was, after all, a public house.

Saffron had not replaced Olly after he was taken out by the Backlash and she eventually asked about Taya saying only that her daughter had disappeared soon after that and that had led to her allowances being withdrawn. That meant a reduction in the supply of crystal and her nearly dying from cold turkey. They’d just started talking about the house when Ryan arrived offering to get a fresh round in. Taya stood still. She didn’t want to sit anywhere near Saffron but then didn’t know this older man and was nervous about appearing too familiar.

Christine reintroduced Ryan as her established boyfriend and Saffron immediately jumped to the conclusion that the teenager with him was Taya. 

She invited her to return, but Taya politely declined with a very noncommittal “No thankyou”

“But you’d be with your mummy again after all these years”

”No. No way. That place is like a dungeon to me where I used to be incarcerated. And there was never anything to eat”

“No, I remember the first time I asked you out…. “

“What! You mean, like a date! But she was only nine!”

“,… yes, it was like a date. I asked her if she’d like to have dinner with me and she said yes, so we went down the pub. Yes. Just like a date. Of course, Christine came too to play gooseberry”

“But you have to come and stay with me, Taya. There would just be you and me in that little house together” 

Yes! Ryan realised.  If Christine and Saffron have to split the assets, they’ll have to sell the house and Saffron will be homeless. However, if Taya is there as well, you’re not supposed to make a minor homeless through direct action. So that way Saffron would be able to stay and defraud Christine out of her half

“Look, I’ve already said no. I’m hoping I can continue to be polite. Ryan, please. I want to leave now. Can I go? I’ll meet you back at the car”

“Ok, Taya, we’re going”

“Oh no you’re not. You’re my daughter and you’re staying with me!”

She hid behind Ryan as Saffron’s face showed increasing determination. The tense silence was broken by the older man

“But if there was never any food, Taya, how did you stay alive?”

Ok, so this was three questions behind the curve, but it changed the subject and defused the confrontation.

“I got school dinners. They weren’t very nice but you weren’t allowed to leave the table to play till you’d finished your plate. I didn’t have any choice so I got used to it and started to like it so I invited all the other kids to empty what they didn’t want onto my plate so that they could go and play - and I could stay and eat”

“At least that showed a level of initiative”

“Thankyou. But the world has moved on and I have no desire to turn the clock back”

“I understand. But it is likely that I will also solve the underlying issue. The question of the house. Please let me introduce myself to everyone except Christine”

“Why except Christine”

“Because I do not know the other people here. Christine, however, may remember. Although it is thirty years now. My name is Otto Merther…”

“Daddy!”

Christine’s gasped revelation left everyone speechless 

“And you were married to Granny?”

“Yes. Right up until her death. We hadn’t met since Saffron was born and, Christine, she always hid you away when I got shore leave from the Navy. Eventually I gave up trying and stayed longer at sea, but we never divorced”

“That puts a rather different completion on it” said Ryan. “I guess you’re not so insistent that Taya stays with you now?”

Ryan got another round in as Taya played waitress just to show how useful and polite she was. Then she borrowed a chair from the next table and sat nervously next to Ryan quite as far from Saffron as possible. However, it was also clear that no one was spending much time grieving the departed and were only gathered together to discuss the estate. 

Otto had asked how everyone knew Granny and spelled out the situation as the relationships were identified. 

“So, my only family relationship is with my daughter Christine. Ryan, you are not related as you and Christine are not married. And Saffron and Taya are unrelated to me although they are related to my late wife”

“It’s unlikely that she made a will…” said Saffron “…I don’t think she owned much.  Don’t think she had any savings accounts and there’s no shoebox full of cash under the bed”

Not that you’d tell us if there was….

“…. Everything she got in benefits went on drink, food or drugs”

Yes, just like her daughter - I mean, other daughter 

“I expect you are right”

“So that leaves the house”

“Which is also very simple. Because she did not own that either. I own the house. I always have. I have an alert set at the Land Registry to inform me if any inquiries are made there and that is how I knew of the recent activity.

However, my company has suffered some misfortune recently. Nothing that won’t recover but enough to make me think that I should sell my larger property and move into this one now that it has become available. 

“But. ..but that means I get …. nothing!”

“But do you deserve anything? Did you assist my wife, your mother when she hit financial difficulties? Did you offer assistance when she started taking amphetamines? Did you try to rescue her from alcoholism?”

“But you can’t evict me. That would be evicting my daughter who is under 16”

“No it won’t! I don’t live there. I’m not going to live there”

“And why would that be, young Taya?”

She related a very short version of the story, although just talking about it made her shiver as she re-lived the beating she used to get every day when she got home, ending with 

 “…and Ryan has already promised to take me back to my school”

“But I could take you to school”
 “I doubt it. You have trouble walking to the end of the street, never mind flying to Berne. And thirty eight thousand pounds will be due on arrival for next term’s fees”

“Thirty thou…!! A term?”

“A sorry tale indeed!...” interrupted Otto “.. But the situation is simple. Saffron, you have no claim to the house as you and I are unrelated. It is a similar situation with yourself, Ryan. Taya, you are under 18 and so cannot own property anyway and are also unrelated to me. And Christine, the property would pass to you as my only relative. I however, have not yet passed away”

Ryan returned to the bar and ordered another round. Taya played waitress again after he had poured part of Christine’s large Bacardi into her coke, but the conversation was decidedly muted. 

“You don’t appear to be too disappointed?” Otto asked Ryan

“No, I wasn’t expecting anything. We’re unrelated. I’m just here to buy the beer and keep the peace” and Otto moved on to asking Taya about her school. 

“I like it a lot. I know its expensive and I’m very grateful to Ryan. Life was so sad before he took me away. I was supposed to be going to my best friends over the summer. Her parents have a beach house in Bermuda….”

Across the table, Saffron was working herself up to being distraught. While Ryan talked about his ocean going yacht and Christine enthused about the countries they’d visited and Taya mentioned a Bermuda beach house, she had almost nothing to her name, no savings, few possessions. She’d had to find a job after her benefits were cut, but it was only a few hours a week, and that only paid for food. Rent was out of the question.

“I’ve lost everything “ she wailed “lost my mother, lost my daughter and now I’ve lost my home”

Otto tilted his head over to one side to listen and to decide if he ought to feel sorry for her 

“Maybe now is a good time...” Ryan replied even though her wailing was not directed at him “…to consider working for a living and contributing to society instead of being a parasitic freeloader”

It hardly sounded sympathetic but it confirmed Ottos view. Christine displayed marginally more empathy suggesting that Otto might be in need of a housekeeper but that she, herself, was not in a position to be of any financial assistance having not drawn a salary for more than five years.

Saffron was resolute. Previously she’d simply slouch in her armchair and moan that she couldn’t cope until a government sponsored carer showed up to look after her. Now, however, following the Backlash, that door was closed. She could go home – while she still had one – to wallow in self pity but it was evident that no one here cared if she coped or not. Neither did they care if she was homeless, or even whether she lived or died. No, it was all up to her - her life, her tomorrow, her decision. Funerals are often sad events but Saffron had not considered Granny’s death as sad - not until now. 

‘When do you intend to move in?” she asked eventually.

“Next week. But it will be a gradual change. I live in a rather large house and it must be full of things I don’t need. I want to work out which ones they are by living without all of them, then reintroducing only the essentials. I think Wednesday is a probability. I expect you can find somewhere else by then”

Ryan got up to leave. He invited Chrissie, but also suggested that if she wanted to spend more time with her half sister, then they’d catch up at the hotel.

“And what about Taya?” demanded Saffron 

Taya moved quickly to hide behind Ryan, but on the door side checking out the emergency exit option as Ryan deliberately considered his answer

“About five years ago, I was introduced, almost by accident, to a young girl. It would be misleading to say she was neglected, because she was the recipient of daily beatings for no discernible reasons. She was wholly dependant on a wildly violent alcoholic and two terminal drug addicts, all masquerading as adults. If this was your daughter, then you clearly completely, totally, and inexplicably abandoned her in favour of crystal meth and wallowing in delusions of psychological impairment. It is possible that, biologically, you had a child, but you took no practical responsibility for their survival, never mind their wellbeing. There are no records of children at your address and no record of her at the school you claimed she went to, which is why you had to repay the benefits you were defrauding the taxpayer out of.

The alternative scenario is that the Taya you imagine is a delusion of your toxin twisted mind based loosely on a little girl you once knew. This emerging teenager may, or may not, be the Taya you refer to. But she has her own life to lead, to work out who and what she wants to be, where she wants to go and who with. I will help her identify the implications and the consequences, but she alone will make the decisions because it is only her that has to implement them. So let me be clear. Even if this is your biological daughter, you forfeited any emotional relationship with her long before I met her. Let me tell you something, Saffron. I have witnessed murders, I have watched people die by the dozen, I have suffered disappointment, rejection and pain, and the only thing that ever reduced me to tears was your treatment of that innocent, defenceless little girl. For that reason, this young lady will have nothing ever to do with you”.

Taya breathed a long sigh of relief and grasped Ryan’s arm as they cleared the door.

But Christine did not want to spend time with her half sister. She did however want to spend time with her father. It was a desolate, solitary figure that remained in the Devonshire Arms as the other four moved on leaving her to contemplate who and what she was. Or perhaps, as Ryan speculated, she’d only be considering where her next supply was coming from. They found another pub for the rest of the afternoon and discussed the yacht with Otto. Taya bubbled with enthusiasm as she described some of their more exciting episodes, the challenging events and the places they’d been, and more recently her wonderful boarding school.

Otto looked pensive “Tell me, Ryan. Why are you doing all this for Taya when you could spend your money helping many, perhaps hundreds, of people like Saffron?”

“Because Otto, I want to make a specific difference that has a permanent impact. Even when I first met her, Taya was delightful. She hardly complained accepting her life the way it was  while embracing improvements when she recognised them. She’s polite, considerate, intelligent and thoughtful. Given encouragement and a suitable environment, she is exactly the kind of person that will make a positive contribution to society’s progression. Rescuing Taya from a life of misery spells hope for the world because she will take the opportunity that is offered and make the most of it. Saffron, and her one hundred variations chose to inflict their situation on themselves. Returning them to a position where they can make that same choice again achieves precisely nothing”

Ryan had only seen her cry twice before. The first time was when she accidentally landed him in the Atlantic when she was learning to drive the rib, and the second was when she thought she’d poisoned her best friend with a grapefruit. Now she’d welled up in a completely unprecedented display of emotion and hid her face, burying it in Ryan's shoulder.

“I didn’t know all that….” she whispered, and then thought back to her own situation with Margot Marlis. Was that not making tangible progress to school life for all the girls? – And to Margot herself? Is that the sort of thing that Ryan already knew she could do? 

But now she understood why Ryan had brought her here when she could so easily have gone back to school with Catriona

 Christine said that she and Ryan would be returning to the ocean, but Ryan wanted to discuss the practicality of moving ashore before rejecting the idea completely. Had they travelled far enough? Where would they go back to? and would it be better to stay in one place for a while and give Taya somewhere to come home to. 

“No Ryan, please! My only real home is on the Salamander. It’s the place I was happy. It was so magical when I moved there”

Maybe they could stop just off the coast of Grand Cayman and think about their own little family – after all Christine was still only 37. 

 They found a restaurant and ordered dinner but the conversation diverged. 

Christine and Otto had so much catching up to do, with so many questions and how much she had tried in the early days, only to abandon hope as Saffron’s influence took over and she was away on assignment trying to make something of her life and earn a crust. So much history. So many unshared memories.

While Ryan and Taya talked only of the future.

End of Ryan