Free 09-Twelve Mile Limit by Randy Wayne White Page A

the next four hours, Gardner told us, she and her three companions floated on their backs alongside the boat, staying close to one another to keep warm. They tied an orange life jacket and a white bumper to the end of the rope, and Walker looped the rope into her flotation vest. The sun set at 5:38 P.M., and the crescent moon set an hour later. It was a black night, with stars hazed by tumbling clouds.
    “By the time it got dark, the wind was blowing pretty hard. I was scared like I’ve never been scared in my life. I was shaking, my whole body was shaking down to the bones. I didn’t understand then if it was because of the cold or because I was just so absolutely terrified. I know the others were scared, too. But we kept the conversation light and tried to keep a cool head about everything. It’s weird, but when you know everyone’s fighting to stay calm, it sort of validates what you’re pretending to do. We talked about how this would be a story to tell our grandchildren. Someone said that we’d be best friends all our lives after this.”
    Claudia hadn’t spoken a word, but now she did, and everyone leaned a little to hear her, because she talked in a small, small voice.
    “How was my sister? How did Janet react? Did she maybe talk about something that I ought to know about?”
    Emotion has a contagious component, and I watched Amelia wrestle to control herself, then gulp back Claudia’s tears. I watched her sit there, eyes shining, taking slow, deep breaths before she answered, “She was unbelievable, Claudia. I’m not saying that to make you feel good. I knew her for, what, two days, and I consider her one of the finest people I’ve ever met, just because of the way she handled herself that night. Janet, Grace, and Michael, they were all good people. I know that especially because … well, I’m going to admit something to you. It’s something I haven’t told the other families. I hired a private investigator to do background checks on them. That’s how paranoid I got when I started hearing all the nasty little stories about why we were out there. I wondered if the three strangers I’d met had somehow involved me in something I knew nothing about.
    “I’m glad I did, too, because I got confirmation of what I learned about them that night at sea. They were very caring, productive people. They gave a lot and they had a lot more to give. Michael was a high school English teacher. He coached football and did a little modeling on the side. Grace was a Sarasota realtor who was very involved in community projects. Voluntary stuff, like charities. She was a black woman, very proud of her heritage, and she took her commitments seriously. Janet worked here, on Sanibel, for Doc Ford, who, I guess, almost everyone here knows and likes.”
    Gardner paused to give me a brief, meaningful look when she said that, before continuing, “The point being, just through blind luck, I couldn’t have chosen three better people to be adrift with. That night, the way Janet behaved—” Gardner placed her hand on Claudia’s arm once again. “She was calm and brave as hell. There was something about your sister, Claudia, a real inner strength that seemed to make us all a little stronger, a little braver.
    “When we were floating there, hanging on for our lives, Janet talked a lot about this crazy little marina of yours.” Gardner had matched faces with names, and now she looked from person to person to person as she said, “She talked about you, Doc. You were a common topic of conversation. And about Rhonda and Mack, and about you, Jeth. About how you two had your problems but that she loved you and couldn’t wait to get back to you, and about how pissed off you were going to be because she’d gone so far offshore in a small boat without you driving. She told us you’re a professional captain, right?”
    I couldn’t bring myself to look at Jeth. He sat off by himself, a silhouetted figure beyond the dock lights. Everyone around me, I noticed, had turned