Part 27 (2/2)

I smiled at the d.u.c.h.ess. She was a good egg, my wife! ”Here you go, sweetie.” I handed her a Lude.

I looked up and Ross, the brave outdoorsman, was crawling over. He looked terrified. ”Oh, Jesus,” he muttered, ”I've gotta get off this boat. I have a daughter. I...I...I can't stop vomiting! Please, get me off this boat.”

Rob said to me, ”Let's go up to the bridge and see what's going on.”

I looked at the d.u.c.h.ess. ”You wait here, honey. I'll be right back.”

”f.u.c.k that! I'm coming with you.”

I nodded. ”Okay, let's go.”

”I'll stay down here,” said the brave outdoorsman, and he started crawling back to the group with his tail between his legs. I looked at Rob, and we both started laughing. Then the three of us began crawling toward the bridge. On the way, we pa.s.sed a well-stocked bar. Rob stalled in mid-crawl and said, ”I think we should do some shots of tequila.”

I looked at the d.u.c.h.ess. She nodded yes. I said to Rob, ”Go get the bottle.” Thirty seconds later Rob came crawling back, holding a bottle of tequila. He unscrewed the top and handed it to the d.u.c.h.ess, who took a giant swig. What a woman! What a woman! I thought. Then Rob and I took swigs. I thought. Then Rob and I took swigs.

Rob screwed the top back on and threw the bottle against a wall. It smashed into a dozen pieces. He smiled. ”I always wanted to do something like that.”

The d.u.c.h.ess and I exchanged looks.

A short flight of stairs led from the main deck to the bridge. As we made our way up, two deckhands named Bill came barreling down, literally jumping over us. ”What's going on?” I yelled.

”The diving platform just ripped off,” screamed a Bill. ”The main salon is gonna flood if we don't secure the rear doors.” And they kept running.

The bridge was a beehive of activity. It was a small s.p.a.ce, perhaps eight by twelve feet, and it had a very low ceiling. Captain Marc was holding on to the s.h.i.+p's antique wooden steering wheel with both hands. Every few seconds he would take his right hand off the wheel and work the two throttles, trying to keep the bow pointed in the direction of the oncoming waves. John, the first mate, was standing next to him. He was grasping a metal pole with his left hand to maintain his balance. With his right he held a pair of binoculars to his eyes. Three stewardesses were sitting on a wooden bench, their arms interlocked and tears in their eyes. Through wild bursts of static I heard the radio blaring: Gale warning! This is a gale warning! Gale warning! This is a gale warning!

”What the f.u.c.k is going on?” I asked Captain Marc.

He shook his head gravely. ”We're f.u.c.ked now! This storm is only getting worse. The waves are twenty feet and building.”

”But the sky's still blue,” I said innocently. ”I don't get it.”

An angry d.u.c.h.ess said, ”Who gives a flying f.u.c.k about the color of the sky? Can't you turn us around, Marc?”

”No way,” he said. ”If we try to turn we're gonna get broadsided and tip over.”

”Can you keep us afloat?” I asked. ”Or should you call Mayday?”

”We'll make it,” he replied, ”but it's gonna get ugly. The blue skies are about to disappear. We're heading into the belly of a Force Eight gale.”

Twenty minutes later I felt the Ludes taking hold. I whispered to Rob, ”Give me some blow.” I looked at the d.u.c.h.ess to see if she'd busted me.

Apparently she had. She shook her head and said, ”You two are off your f.u.c.king rockers, I swear.”

But it was two hours later-when the waves were thirty feet or better-that the s.h.i.+t really hit the fan. Captain Marc said, in the tone of the doomed: ”Oh, s.h.i.+t, don't tell me...” Then an instant later he screamed, ”Rogue wave! Hold on!”

Rogue wave? What the f.u.c.k was that? I found out a second later when I looked out the window-and everyone on the bridge screamed at once: ”Holy s.h.i.+t! Rogue wave!”

It had to be sixty feet high, and it was closing fast.

”Hold on!” screamed Captain Marc. With my right hand, I grabbed the d.u.c.h.ess around her tiny waist and pulled her close to my body. She smelled good, the d.u.c.h.ess, even now.

All at once the boat began dipping at an impossibly steep angle, until it was pointing almost straight down. Captain Marc jammed the throttles to full power, and the boat jerked forward and we started rising up the face of the rogue wave. Suddenly the boat seemed to stop on a dime. Then the wave began curling over the top of the bridge, and it came slamming down with the force of a thousand tons of dynamite...KABOOM!

Everything went black.

It felt like the boat was underwater for forever, but slowly, painfully, we popped back up again-listing heavily to port now at a sixty-degree angle.

”Is everyone okay?” asked Captain Marc.

I looked at the d.u.c.h.ess. She nodded. ”We're fine,” I said. ”How about you, Rob?”

”Never better,” he muttered, ”but I gotta pee like a f.u.c.king racehorse. I'm going downstairs to check on everyone.”

As Rob made his way down the stairs, one of the Bills came barreling up, screaming, ”The fore-hatch just blew open! We're going down by the bow!”

”Well, that that kinda sucks,” said the d.u.c.h.ess, shaking her head in resignation. ”Talk about your s.h.i.+tty vacations.” kinda sucks,” said the d.u.c.h.ess, shaking her head in resignation. ”Talk about your s.h.i.+tty vacations.”

Captain Marc grabbed the radio transmitter and pushed the b.u.t.ton. ”Mayday,” he said urgently. ”This is Captain Marc Elliot, aboard the yacht Nadine. Nadine. This is a Mayday: We are fifty miles off the coast of Rome and going down by the head. We require immediate a.s.sistance. We have nineteen souls on board.” Then he bent over and started reading off some orange-diode numbers from a computer monitor, giving the Italian Coast Guard our exact coordinates. This is a Mayday: We are fifty miles off the coast of Rome and going down by the head. We require immediate a.s.sistance. We have nineteen souls on board.” Then he bent over and started reading off some orange-diode numbers from a computer monitor, giving the Italian Coast Guard our exact coordinates.

”Go get the wish-box!” ordered the d.u.c.h.ess. ”It's downstairs, in our stateroom.”

I looked at her as if she were a crazy person. ”What are you-”

The d.u.c.h.ess cut me off. ”Get the wish-box,” she screamed, ”right f.u.c.king now!”

I took a deep breath. ”Okay, I will, I will. But I'm f.u.c.king starving to death.” I looked at Captain Marc. ”Can you have the chef whip me up a sandwich?”

Captain Marc started laughing. ”You know, you really are one sick b.a.s.t.a.r.d!” He shook his square head. ”I'll have the chef make us some sandwiches. It's gonna be a long night.”

”You're the best,” I said, heading for the stairs. ”Can I also get some fresh fruit?” Then I ran down the stairs.

I found my guests in the main salon, in a state of panic, tied together with a dock rope. But I wasn't the least bit worried. Soon enough, I knew, the Italian Coast Guard would be here to rescue us; in a few hours from now we'd be safe and sound, and this floating albatross would be off my neck. I asked my guests, ”You guys having a fun vacation?”

No one laughed. ”Are they coming to rescue us?” asked Ophelia.

I nodded. ”Captain Marc just called in a Mayday. Everything's gonna be fine, guys. I gotta go downstairs. I'll be right back.” I headed for the stairs-but I was immediately knocked over by another ma.s.sive wave and went cras.h.i.+ng into a wall. I rolled back onto all fours and began crawling to the stairs.

Just then one of the Bills pa.s.sed me, screaming, ”We lost the Chandler Chandler! It snapped off!” and he kept running.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs I pulled myself up by a banister. I stumbled into my stateroom through ankle-deep water and there it was: the f.u.c.king wish-box, sitting on the bed. I grabbed it, made my way back up to the bridge, and handed it to the d.u.c.h.ess. She closed her eyes and started shaking the pebbles.

I said to Captain Marc, ”Maybe I can fly the helicopter off the boat. I could take four people at a time.”

”Forget it,” he said. ”With the seas like this it'd be a miracle if you made it up without cras.h.i.+ng. And even if you did, it'd be impossible to land again.”

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