the same delicacy one might treat a porcelain doll. But seeing the unrelenting tenderness he showed me side by side with his clear lack of self-regard just made me cry harder.
“The crazier you act, the easier it is to get by in there. That’s all,” he tried to reassure me with a smile, but I wasn’t having it.
“No!” My voice was so firm it extinguished the smile from his face.
“I don’t care what the social etiquette is amongst criminals! I don’t want you to hurt yourself anymore, okay?” I was practically yelling, but it didn’t matter as long as I got my point across. “Promise me, okay? I know you don’t owe me anything, but I want you to promise me, Charlie, okay? Even if it’s a lie, promise you won’t do that ever again, or anything else like that!”
He silenced me by pulling me into his arms and letting me collapse there. Feeling my head against his chest and hearing his heart beating as fast as it was could have been enough to stop my tears, but his arms belted me in and offered a safety I had never experienced. It made me never want to leave. And honestly, if he offered me a lifetime pass to stay there I would have happily accepted right then and there.
“I promise, okay?” His voice cracked. Maybe he thought I was hysterical. “I promise. I promise. I promise. I promise…” He kept whispering the words in my ear until I settled down. “If it makes you happy, I’ll promise, okay?” He sounded completely desperate but managed to laugh a little of his Charlie laugh for me.
I breathed in the scent of him, feeling all at once ridiculous and relieved. He probably thought I was a nutcase who needed constant supervision or I might run wild on the ship. As long as I didn’t have to see him hurt himself intentionally ever again, that would have been fine with me.
“Did you know that almost all colors have some red, blue, and yellow in ‘em?” His voice was cracking so I just let him talk on—the sound of him was all that mattered in that moment.
“Midnight green doesn’t have any red. And the green and blue are as close as ‘bout two colors can be while still being separate…that’s what this color is,” he indicated to the serpent, “or was supposed to be.”
I could feel myself smiling. “You drew it yourself, didn’t you?”
“Of course.”
I pulled away and basked in his grin.
Chapter 9
Even before the door was closed, Charlie was hard at work in his sketchbook, feverishly laboring at something he bluntly refused to let me see.
“Don’t you have…I don’t know, sailor stuff to do?” I pulled out the laptop and began playing solitaire. While it wasn’t exciting, my artist skills hadn’t magically revealed themselves and I wasn’t going to get my hopes up about it.
He laughed and took out the switchblade. Seeing it reminded me he’d also put the Wi-Fi card in one of those pockets as well. While I doubted I could get an Internet connection this far out at sea, it made a sickness rise inside to think of home and all that I’d left behind.
Seeing me blanch, he asked, “You all right?”
“Yeah,” I lied. “Just tired, I guess. Anyway,” I hoped he wouldn’t see how pathetically I tried to change the subject, “you didn’t answer my question.”
“What, the sailor stuff?”
“Yes, I imagine there’s plenty of that to do around here.”
He ran his fingers through his hair to move it from his vision. Loose strands would float in front of his eye every so often and he would brush them away without thinking about it. But he never took his eyes from the paper.
“Yeah, there’s a lot to do. But since you’ve made it real clear you ain’t gonna be still for real long and cause all kind of mischief, I figure I should just keep an eye on you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Excuse me, but I’ve been very well-behaved.”
“You weren’t supposed to, but you managed to make your way down to the engine room.”
I almost fell off the bed. Though it made me nervous to mention it, I knew I couldn’t leave without knowing the answer. “Hey, Charlie, what does Polo make down there, anyway?”
Charlie smiled down at his paper. “Nothin’ but trouble,” he mumbled. He looked up at me again for a moment. I think maybe he was deciding something. I could only hope it was a decision in my