Better on our own - English

The Call

It was really fun yesterday after I released our lunch over the railing into the sea and fed the fishes - what contributed greatly to the general laughter of my friends, who had already been amused by my pale complexion since we cast off.

But I could really see myself helping out the younger Mr. Jones more often, and the more I would do that, the more my stomach would get used to the rocking for sure, wouldn't it?

When I got home that evening, I met Mr. Jones at the door as he brought Cody home and I didn't miss his grumpy face that I couldn't explain at first.

While Cody and I were playing a game later, even the boy looked skeptical when his mother started humming dreamily to herself in the kitchen while cooking. She otherwise behaved mostly normally, but it was undeniable that she was happy and you could see that quite clearly because her eyes seemed to shine and she displayed an even more calm and balanced demeanor than she always had showed at all.

Did Mr. Jones register that too?

Penny had gotten a call at lunchtime this morning and signed off to drive to Newtown, but asked me to set up the new rack in the hallway outside her office when we were done checking the equipment.

I had started it twenty minutes ago and was making pretty good progress, had all the boards prepared and just had to screw them together. I was just thinking about our trip on Mr. Jones', no, Charlie's, paddle steamer - I had to get used to calling him by his first name after he offered me to do so, because otherwise he would feel old and I was now friend with his children.

But it wasn't what my mind kept returning to. It were the two moments that should have made me scream with laughter, but instead made me more thoughtful and a little wistful.

The first time, I slipped into a puddle of water on deck with a piece of cake for one of the passengers and slammed into Sarah, who was cleaning a spot where a child had spilled his soda. I was just able to grab her and catch us on the railing before she could fall overboard. Even though the cake I had just carried on a plate landed on my head just a few seconds later, there was that moment in between when our faces were only inches apart and I registered for the first time how blue her eyes really were. My dark green ones, on the other hand, were certainly terribly boring, even if her look had seemed to belied my thoughts before the cake brought us back to reality and made Sarah laugh.

A little later, after I had washed the cake out of my hair under deck, I was on my way back up the stairs when the boat began to rock. Sarah obviously wasn't expecting it either, because she staggered backwards toward the stairs while I held on to the banister. A moment later she slammed into me and we fell down the stairs. I landed on my butt and I needed a moment to realize where I was. The first thing I noticed was a smell of vanilla and coconut before I realized it was coming from Sarah, who was sitting in front of me - close in front of me and with my arms wrapped around her as I instinctively grabbed her as I had fallen.

Penny suddenly stormed past me and I jumped. I would bet that she didn't even notice me when she slammed the door to her office so hard that it jumped right back open. It took me a moment to hear the phone buzzing and I realized she was calling someone and had turned on speaker.

"Hello." I listened because I knew that voice.

"Sam? It's me."

This was going to be interesting, considering how upset Penny seemed. I quickly dug my cell phone out of my pocket.

"Is something wrong with Cody?"

I found the app with a recording function and started it.

"No," she answered simply and paused. "What are you planning to do?"