“And the Sea King?”
“Even less. It’s just a fishing vessel. Fifteen guys?”
“So the coast guard is dealing with the ship with more souls on board.” It made sense. And the fact that the tanker’s hold was likely full of oil, worth an unimaginable amount of money and liable to cause a natural disaster if not contained, made it a no brainer. Still, it was criminal that the men off shore from the Causeway were being left to drown. “What are we going to do?”
“Nothing we can do from here. Jerry’s boat’s not built for weather like this. The only other boats on the island are even smaller than his. Tiny three-man fishing craft.”
Michael was clenching a bunch of keys in his right hand; it looked like the teeth of the metal was cutting into his fingers. “Fuck.” He turned around, eyes roving over the faces of the other worried people out on the dock. “This is crazy. We know those men out there. There has to be a way we can get out there to them.” No solution seemed to come to him, or to his friend, though.
“I have the kids in the car. Listen, can you let me know if there’s anything I can do to help?” I pointed back to the Land Rover, where I could see Connor’s pale, worried face over the dashboard.
Michael sighed, frustrated. “Sure, of course. I think we’re all gonna be stuck here like idiots, our hands tied behind our backs, but I’ll let you know.”
“Thank you.”
Back in the car, Amie was snoring and Connor was perched on the edge of his seat, knees up around his chin, sweater pulled down over his legs so they’d disappeared altogether. “What did they say? Is someone going to save them?” he asked.
“Yeah, bud. The coast guard’s on their way now. They won’t be long at all.” The lie was difficult to tell, since it was so big. No one was coming for the poor guys out on the water. No one would be coming until it was far too late. At that point, they’d be retrieving bodies, not survivors, and the inhabitants of the Causeway would have had to watch their friends and loved ones die.
******
Hours passed. Connor fell asleep against his will, binoculars still clasped loosely in his hand, and Amie continued to snore. I couldn’t have slept even if I’d wanted to. More men arrived carrying flashlights. Even more men arrived after that, carrying sea kayaks and what looked like wooden canoes. A couple of them tried to launch into the boiling ocean, but each time anyone tried they were cast back against the shore by the surging waves. At four, or maybe a little later than that, the sun began to rise, casting an eerie gray light across the beach. Even from the car, I could see how tired and hopeless everyone looked, faces pinched, foreheads creased into frowns so deep they looked now permanent.
Connor was covered in one of the blankets he’d brought from the cupboard in the hallway; Amie was tucked up snugly underneath my duvet. Strangely, I wasn’t cold, even though clouds of fog billowed out of my mouth every time I exhaled, and my hands had turned blue.
I was considering my options—to go home or to stay—when a rap on my window nearly startled the life out of me; Staring out of the window, straight ahead, out to sea, I hadn’t noticed Michael approaching the car, nor the large piping hot flask he was carry in his hands. I buzzed the window down, doing my best to find a smile for him.
“Coffee,” he said, as if it were some sort of secret password. “I figured you might need some.”
“Thank you.”
He handed the flask to me through the window, sighing. “The other ship, the tanker? It went down an hour ago. They only managed to pull two guys out of the water.”
“Oh god.”
“Yeah.” We both remained silent for a moment. And then he said, “It’s hard, y’know. It makes you angry. If they hadn’t gone to the tanker, if they’d come here instead…”
“No point in ifs, Michael.” He was right, though. Maybe if the contents of the tanker hadn’t been so valuable, the coast guard would have come to the Sea King first. Big oil companies held so much sway with the government. Owned half of the government. One word in the right person’s ear and all available resources could easily have been diverted to a lost cause, instead of a viable one.
“The sea’s calming a little. We’re hoping we might be able to get out there soon on some of the smaller boats. Until then, we’re just going to have to sit here and wait. Maybe it’d be better for you to get on home. Either way, whatever happens, people have died out there. With the current as strong as it is, the waves pounding the shore, bodies are gonna start washing up soon. The kids…” he said under his breath.
“You’re right. I should get them home. I just feel so…useless.”
Michael couldn’t quite look me in the eye. “You, me and everyone else standing on this dock, Ophelia. It means a lot that you came out, though. To the people of the island. Thank you.”