Page 13 of No One Aboard
Tia Cameron
Call sign: Thimble
The Day Before Departure
Once Tia and Rylan finished settling MJ Tuckett into the crew cabin, the two of them curled up in the salon to watch reruns ofCriminal Minds. MJ, who had arrived toting a marine-grade duffel bag and her large one-eyed Maine coon, went straight to bed, leaving the twins on the couch with the cat curled in Rylan’s lap. It had been a couple years since they last saw MJ, but the cat seemed to remember them.
And it’s not like the twins could ever forget MJ.
They had first met her a decade ago when Francis bought the boat. MJ had been hired as a private diving instructor for the twins and as a first mate for Francis.
They had gotten along more back then, MJ and Francis. MJ used to tell the twins she admired the motto of their father’s yachting company:Safe to sail in any gale!MJ had seen more than her share of easily avoided maritime accidents. Later, this became a point of contention between them. MJ was the better sailor, butThe Old Eileenwas Francis’s boat.
MJ Tuckett, Tia thought affectionately as she petted the cat in her brother’s lap.
Called Mary Jane only under themost direof circumstances. The self-proclaimed “last old salt” left on the “Lord’s seven seas.”
Call sign: Sherlock.
Meaning: Brilliant. Admirable. Takes no shit.
The Maine coon—whom MJ had christened Sir Franklin after the doomed explorer, but the twins had only ever called Pirate—arched his back and stalked to the couch’s arm rest, his single black eye fixed on the porthole.
Tia couldn’t wait until morning whenThe Old Eileenwould set off and she could start learning more from MJ. The sailor was the kind of person Tia saw herself becoming (if she managed to get far enough away from her family to become anything). She wanted to be tough and quick-witted, the kind of woman who could find a ship’s dead reckoning, adopt a stray cat, and quote the Bible and Beyoncé in the same breath.
Tia’s eyes glazed from the television screen. She had already guessed the murderer, and from the cabin next door she could hear her parents’ raised voices over the hum of the TV. The whole scene was familiar—her parents arguing (or maybe flirting, who was to say), the TV playing, her brother detached from the world, focused on his sketchbook. It was like Tia had never left. Only she felt outside of it all now, like a family she was watching through a window without being invited to come inside.
She turned down the volume on the TV, and her parents’ conversation became clearer.
“—hasn’t even shown up yet, Francis,” her mother was saying. “Are we going to leave tomorrow morning anyway?”
“At oh eight hundred sharp, whether he gets here or not. This ship can be manned by one good sailor alone, Lil. And we’ve got two and a half.”
Tia picked at the embroidery of the couch cushions. “Looks like the new crew member isn’t gonna come.”
“Hm?” Rylan didn’t look up.
“Nothing.” Tia ruffled his hair. “Whatcha drawing?”
Rylan sat back to reveal his work. She snuggled under his arm as she examined the drawing. Was it a giant squid, or maybe the creepy kraken Alejandro had tattooed on his arm?
“Sea monster?” Tia guessed.
“Yeah. The one from20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” Rylan pointed at the oblong head and long, winding tentacles. He really was an incredible artist.
“But there isn’t a monster in that book,” Tia said. “They onlythinkthere is. The whole thing turns out to be man-made.”
“And it’s even scarier than what they’d thought.” Rylan pushed back his hair. “Do you like it?”
“It’s terrifying.” Tia elbowed him in the ribs and laid her head on his shoulder while he put the finishing touches on the monster’s eyes.
“I’m sorry I missed your graduation,” she said into the quiet room.
Rylan’s pencil paused. “It’s okay. I missed yours too.”
He had, of course, but it wasn’t his fault. She was the reason they had been separated in the first place, but she didn’t want to say that. It felt like bad luck to bring up last summer when they were here again, on the boat. She wished more than anything that she and Rylan could have faced their senior year together. Boarding school wouldn’t have been so bad if Rylan had been with her. She would have coaxed him to sneak out and wander the rose garden or skinny-dip in the pond. He could have helped her with homework and soothed her temper when the nuns got under her skin.
Without him, she’d done it all alone. Tia’s classmates had been nice enough, but they existed in a world Tia had never felt home in. They were agonizing over which Ivy League toattend, debating if a career in politics or in business would be more worthwhile. Tia could smoke with them, study with them, and admire Timothée Chalamet’s latest magazine cover in the dorms with them at night, but that was where their point of connection ended.
