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Mia’s heart sank. “Did you call him on the radio?”
The fat man nodded. He didn’t seem particularly concerned. “No answer. I was going to call again in thirty minutes.”
“Well?” Mia asked.
“Well what?”
“Has it been thirty minutes?” she wanted to grab the radio herself, but she wouldn’t have the first clue as to how to use it. She wasn’t even sure what it looked like.
He looked at his watch and shrugged. “Eh, you’re right. I’ll try again.” He pressed a few buttons on the blinking machine beside the desk.
“That’s the radio?” Mia asked. She’d pictured something smaller. More like the CB she’d seen in reruns of the Dukes of Hazzard. Ten-four, good buddy, she thought.
“Yeah.” The fat man looked at Mia as if she were two years old. “What did you think it was?”
“Just try him, please.”
“Wanderlust? Wanderlust, touch base. You read? This is Barlett’s. Looking out for you boys now. Wanderlust?”
The man tried a few more times before flipping some switches. “Nothing.”
“Oh, my gosh.” Mia said. Maybe her mother was right. Sharks and pirates and rogue waves ran through her mind. “What now?”
“Maybe he’s having engine trouble. If he’s that far out, he can get out of radio range.”
“How far is out of range?”
“Oh, seventy, eighty miles.”
“Eighty miles?”
“I don’t’ know that Blaine guy that well, but he seems to be a wizard with boats. I wouldn’t worry about it. Why don’t you head home? I’ll keep trying.”
Mia shook her head. “No. I’m staying here until you hear something.”
“Suit yourself,” said the fat man. He wandered back into his little office.
Mia played games on her phone and read the paper for the next four hours. Every so often, the fat man would come out and call the Wanderlust again. Her heart rose in her chest each time as she waited for Blaine’s English accent to come over the wire and tell them he was on his way. Each time, the fat man got dead silence.
Finally, around midnight, the fat man was ready to call it a night. “You going home?”
Mia shook her head again.
The fat man sighed. “Listen, I know you’re worried. Why don’t you stay here? There’s a little portable bed out back. I just live across the way, in the manager’s apartment. You get some rest, and I’ll come back around 5am to check on things, if he’s not back.”
Mia thanked the fat man. He showed her to the tiny bed, and pointed out the bathrooms and the water cooler. “Sorry,” he said. “I don’t have a toothbrush.”
“It’s okay,” said Mia. “I really appreciate you letting me stay. I don’t know how I’m going to sleep…”
The fat man left the room and came back with a bottle of pills. Mia raised her eyebrows.
The fat man laughed. “Nothing too harsh. Just Benadryl. It might make you sleepy.”
“Thanks. I’ll try it.” Mia took two of the pills and drank a glass of water. The fat man said goodnight and turned out the light.
Mia lay back on the thin pillow. She closed her eyes and tried to say the Hail Mary’s her mother had taught her. She got through five iterations before she fell asleep.
Mia awoke to the fat man shaking her foot. “Miss,” he said. “Wake up.”
