it any of her business I looked across the dark blue of the bay and the darker blue of the sound toward the mainland a thin green line like a thread on the horizon Trying to focus again on bailing I started scooping and pouring faster and faster scooping and pouring scooping and pouring In my boat there are always things like this that I can do things I can fix things I can take care of unlike some of the other things that I couldn’t do anything about Like she had nothing better to do the old lady just sat there and watched me bail Along with the scooping and pouring there was the rocking of the low waves the squinch of the rubber fenders against the dock the screams of the gulls the sticky salty smell of the breeze and the late-afternoon sun baking my back Ten minutes later she still hadn’t moved and it was getting more and more creepy her sitting there just watching me like that You know I said looking up my name isn’t Kid She leaned forward in her wheelchair What is it Her shoulders were sloped but she held her chin high Her eyes were gray but gleaming No really I want to know You remind me of someone Her eyes stayed glued on me and for a second I had the sense 5
that if she was closer she might have reached out and touched my arm Rusty I answered My name’s Rusty She nodded Okay Then Rusty will you take me sailing Please I’m done with work for the day I’d love to go I haven’t been in years By the way my name is Hazel Like the color Without waiting for an answer she went right on See those boards over there She glanced toward the end of the dock and a small stack of 2 6 inch boards each about four feet long that Jack the maintenance man at the marina was using for repairs If we bring some of them over here she said we can make a ramp for my wheelchair We’ll put the boards side by side We’ll set the ends of each on the edge of the dock and the other ends in the middle of your boat Then I’ll do the rest She had this way of using the word we as if she and I were on some team together her team and I had the feeling that she’d thought all this out before she’d even asked me But it was totally crazy No way was she getting into my boat That’s not going to work I said Plus I have to get home for supper 6
It could be a short sail Just a half hour Why don’t we sail out to Half-tide Rock and back The weather’s perfect It’d be grand Why was she being like this If I wasn’t standing in my boat I’d have just walked away from her I shook my head No She gave me a long hurt disappointed look as if to say I expected so much more of you Where is your sense of adventure At last she seemed to give in Oh well She let out a sigh her shoulders lifting and falling I tried Then she brightened a bit But at least you said you’d take me sometime So I suppose that could be tomorrow or the day after or even next week But sometime we’ll go sailing Right kid So much for giving in She turned and rolled herself back down the dock her elbows sticking out like chicken wings her narrow tires thunk-thunking over the planks Twenty feet away she stopped and seesawed her wheels so that before she’d go on her way she could peer at me over her shoulder Her eyes twinkled in a way that held your own eyes on hers Sometime Rusty I’ll remember that 7
