dress like a proper girl in the horrible things he had to sell.
As we went out, the storekeeper muttered something about “grabbie” that I didn’t catch. Ralph and Helga didn’t seem to notice, or pretended they didn’t, and said nothing.
We had just left the store and turned the corner, starting on a long downhill slope, when I stopped still and said, “What’s that?”
“What?”
I pointed at the dead gray mass tipped with white that stretched across the bottom of the street, blocks away downhill. “Is that water?”
They looked at each other, and then in an “any blockhead should know that much” tone of voice, Ralph said, “It’s the ocean.”
I’d always wanted to see an ocean, since they’re even rarer on the Ship than stores. “Could I take a look?”
“Sure,” Ralph said. “Why not?”
First there was a stone wharf and warehouses stretching away on either hand. The harbor stretched two great arms around to enclose a large expanse of water. At the sides were wooden docks on pilings running out like fingers into the harbor. Close at hand were boats of all sizes. Nearest were the great giants with several masts big enough to have smaller boats tied on board. There were medium and small boats tied up at all the docks.
Even in the harbor, the water ran in white-crested peaks and slapped noisily at the stone and wood. There were birds of white, and gray, and brown, and black, and mixtures of all these colors, all wheeling around and crying overhead, and some of them diving down at the water. The air down here smelled strongly—of fish, I think. Outside the harbor the water was running in mountains that made the peaks inside look small, and it stretched away farther than I could see clearly, to join somewhere in the distance with the gray sky overhead.
I might have made comments about all the things I saw, the odors, the men working, but I didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t strike Ralph and Helga as amusing, and by that time I was starting to be a little cautious about exposing myself. I was seeing them as something less than the allies they had been when we were running from George. We walked along the waterfront and off the quay and onto the wooden docks. Ralph led us out onto a little spur and we stopped there.
He pointed down at a little craft tied alongside. It was about twelve feet long, with a mast that stood up high enough to reach above the dock. It had a boom that was lashed in place. It was painted a serviceable white with black trim, and had the odd name Guacamole painted on it.
“What do you think of her?” he asked.
“It’s a very nice ship,” I said.
“It isn’t a ship. It’s a boat, a sailing dinghy, and it’s ours, Helga’s and mine. We go sailing all the time. Want to go for a sail?”
Helga looked at him, obviously pleased. “Oh, can we?”
“If she’ll go,” Ralph said. “It’s up to her. Otherwise we’ve got to do what Daddy said and stay with her.”
“Oh, do come on,” Helga said to me.
I looked at the water and tried to make up my mind. The water looked rough and the boat looked small. I really didn’t want to go at all.
Helga said, “We’ll just stay inside the harbor.”
“It isn’t dangerous,” Ralph added, looking at me.
I didn’t want him to think I was scared, so after a minute I shrugged and started down the wooden ladder that reached from the dock down to the rear of the boat. The ladder stood about two feet above the dock at its highest point, and I grabbed it and backed down. I seemed to be seeing more of ladders lately than I really cared to. Ralph and Helga started down after me.
The boat was rising and falling on the water as the swells came in to break on the docks and the quay. I waited until the boat was rising and then stepped in. I almost slipped, but I held my feet and then moved carefully to the front, grabbing on when I had to. When I got by the mast, I sat down on the seat that ran across the front. Helga dropped into the boat as I was sitting, and Ralph was right behind her.
I blinked a little as a trace of spray wet my cheek. “Aren’t we going to get wet?” I asked.