“Okay, I love you Luna.”
“I love you too.”
The radio went silent.
Beckett stared at it, still, quiet, dead.
It was great to be able to talk to Luna, to know she was okay. It also sucked, to talk to Luna from this far away.
_________________
The next night at 7:15, Beckett entered the galley, assembled the charts and the radio, and took a deep breath. Before he could begin though, Dan, followed by Sarah, Rebecca, and Jeffrey, clamored down the steps. Dan and Sarah slid into the seat opposite him, Rebecca shoved him with her hip to give her a place to sit beside him. Jeffrey leaned over the back of the adjoining booth.
Beckett said, and hoped it didn’t sound as surly as he thought it did, “I might want to do this alone.”
Rebecca said, “Sure, but this is Luna, paddling on her own, and we’re all going to wait here with you until we know. Then we’ll go.”
Beckett took another big breath and turned the radio on.
He adjusted the dial for their most recent channel and asked, “Luna? Luna Saturniddae?”
Static greeted him. He twisted the dial and repeated, “Luna?”
Emerging from the static, faintly, “Beckett?”
Everyone in the galley cheered and then quieted.
Beckett adjusted the volume, such relief in his heart. “Luna, I’m here, Luna are you good?”
Her faint, barely heard response, “Yeah. I’m good . . . paddled all day with a bright sun overhead . . . . . . have excellent weather until midweek—”
Beckett couldn’t hear the end of the sentence over the cheering and clapping of Dan, Sarah, and Jeffrey. Rebecca hugged him around the shoulders.
Beckett said, “That’s great Luna, really great, I was so — that’s great. The crew here wants to say hello!”
Luna’s voice called, “Hi Beckett’s friends!”
They all joyously yelled hello and goodbye and raucously clambered to the deck leaving Beckett alone.
He said, “First give me your coordinates.”
He marked them on the charts but before he could finish she said, “There’s a good wind behind me. I plan to get to the Central Bank Outpost tomorrow. I have to sleep in the open tonight, but the wind will be calm.”
“Can we talk in the morning? I — today wasn’t easy.”
“Yeah, nine o’clock sharp, we’ll talk, tomorrow.”
“Okay, thanks. Was it hard saying goodbye to Sky?”
“Very hard. They didn’t understand why I was leaving. They tried to talk me out of it, but . . . her family paddled with me for a bit singing a song of goodbye . . .” Luna continued to talk but Beckett could barely hear over the flood of relief. She was alive, in motion, meeting him.
He said, “When we get to shore we’ll get you signed in at the camps and I’ll get you signed out and . . .” His voice trailed off remembering all the things he needed to handle when he returned to shore. There was a lot. He didn’t want to tell Luna about all the things he had left undone.
She said, “I’m thinking about resting at the outer Shield Island for a day or two, if the weather is good. It has amenities and is within a day’s paddle of the port. That way we can arrive at the same time.”
“I’d like that. I’ll go with you to register. That would be good.”
“Here’s what you have to understand, I’ve got this. This isn’t anything to fear, it’s simply something to get through.”
