Not Quite What She Planned
©2004, by patty

“Almost clean this morning,” Gabby muttered absently to herself. The tattered burlap sack that skimmed the sand behind her could easily be lifted on this trip. The first few times she’d scavenged the beach, the weight of the booty cut a deep trench behind her.

She’d been stranded alone on one of the islands in the Queen Charlotte Archipelago off the Northern BC coast for four days, and the beach combing gave her something to do out where she could watch the channel and hope to be seen.

While it was likely her family and friends knew she was missing by now, there was slim to no chance that anyone was going to realize where she was and come right out to rescue her. If she was lucky, Rick might discover the boat missing, and guess where she was, before too many days passed, if not, well she might find herself stuck here for over a month, maybe longer.

“Hell! If the man had half the brains God gave a slug he’d have figured it out by now anyway!” she kicked a piece of drift wood.

“No he wouldn’t you idiot!” she argued with herself. “You didn’t leave a note, you didn’t give him any clue you were upset with him! How the hell is he supposed to know you got a stubborn idea to come out here and let him stew and miss you for a while?”

“Yeah well, where else would I go?”

“Down to Prince Rupert, or Victoria, or Vancouver, there are a hundred places you could be. What about kidnapped and murdered for a lark?”

“Ahhh! He knows I wouldn’t take off to the city, just shut up!”

“Noooo of course you wouldn’t take off to the city where there’s phones and running water and electricity, you’re not smart enough for that. You’d rather haul ass down to the marina, get in a boat that hasn’t been serviced all winter, and chug on out to an island no with any brains at all would dare think of visiting before June.”

“There’s enough canned goods and kerosene out here to last a whole winter, so it’s not that bad! And I told you to just shut up!”

Arguing and talking to herself was beginning to become annoying. At first she’d just wondered how long she was going to be stuck there, and complained a little about her rotten luck having the battery die out shortly after she reached the island, but in the last day, she’d actually begun to have fights with herself.

“I’m worse than Rick!”

“Well, maybe not. At least I only scold,” That though sent a lurch through her stomach and nervous system.

“Oh hell! Why’d you have to go there now?” Gabby felt the skin over her backside prickle. “Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I have to be here for weeks after all. At least then maybe he’ll be so relieved I’m not hurt, he’ll be too happy for any of that!”

Worry set in any way. She hadn’t really given as much thought to what her disappearance might mean to those in her life beyond Rick, until she found herself stranded. Disappearing overnight without any note or notice was one thing, but four days was another altogether.

“Gawd!I hope he hasn’t called the police!”

“Geez woman! Of course he’s called the police; probably your parents and sister, all your friends and cousins too. If you were really missing you’d want him to wouldn’t you?”

“Oh damn! Yes! But I’m not really missing am I?”

“No! You’re not missing you’re just up shit creek without a paddle! Thing is you idiot! Everyone else who matters thinks you’re missing.”

“Man o man! I’m gonna be sick!”

“Yup, that’s it! Puke your guts out. Fat lot of good that’ll do, you stupid wench, damn you’re an idiot.”

Half way back to the rustic cabin that was her family’s summer cottage, Gabby settled on a granite boulder in the middle of the now nearly pristine dark sand beach. She’d collected all of the debris deposited by the winter storms and tides.

“Less for the kids to do when they all get out here, any way,” she nodded with satisfaction.

While she rested and scanned the channel watching gulls and seals float with the kelp debris, a sea plane flew over the island from the west, and then banked and followed the channel north. Gabby stood and tried to get the pilot’s attention, but by the way the craft kept to its course, she realized she’d gotten up a hair too late, and the pilot’s attention was out on the water. She slumped back down on the boulder lost in thought for another half hour or so, and then, bored, and restless, she left the sack full of the last of it by the boulder, and stood to trudge over to the dock. Hoping against hope, she decided to try the engine and the radio again.

There were no surprises. Not even a whine came with the turn of the key in the ignition.

“You know, machine shop should be mandatory in high school. Even for girls. Then at least I’d know how to check and see if it was something simple.

“Check any way stupid! What difference will it make? You’re not going anywhere as it is?”

“If I damage something Rick will skin me alive that’s why!”

“Yeah right, like he isn’t going to do that as it as now any way.”

Gabby shook her head. She didn’t have a clue what to look for, or whether or not what she saw was the way it should look or not.

“You really are useless you know that! I hope he spanks your ass black and blue!’

“Argggh! It’s your ass too you nasty little shit. Leave me alone!”

With that Gabby started to laugh. “This must be what happens to prisoners in solitary! When they find me I’ll be a raving lunatic.”

***********

When Rick left for work that Monday, he knew something was up. All the signs were there that Gabby was working herself into a snit, complete with sullen silence. The night before when he told her he would have to delay their planned weekend away, and that he’d be late home from work for at least the next two weeks until the new division project got off the ground, all she’d done was nod. No complaint, no argument, not even a question about when they’d have their weekend back. So when he arrived home after 9PM to a silent empty house, he wasn’t completely surprised.

Her car was not in the driveway, and a quick search verified she’d taken a change of clothes and her boon-docker boots.

He really didn’t expect to find a note, given what he’d guessed about her state of mind.

Tuesday night when there was still no sign of her, and a message from both her mother and her sister on the answering machine, he began to become concerned. Surely she’d have told her sister where she was, and what she was up to. The two were thick as thieves when it came to one or the other feeling hard done by with the world.

A quick phone call confirmed Gabby’s sister Linda, did not know where she was, and wasn’t even aware that Gabby was put out by developments with Rick’s job. This put a new complexion on things, and Rick began to worry. He enlisted Linda to help him call around to her friends and their parents.

By midnight Tuesday when there was no sign of her, and they were sure no one she knew or might reasonably contact had any idea where Gabby was, Rick placed a call to the RCMP office. A constable was dispatched, and so began seventy-two hours without sleep for Rick and his family.

Late Wednesday night, Gabby’s car was found at the marina. The security guard confirmed it had been there since Monday. He worked the night shift, so he didn’t know exactly when it got there, but he did know it hadn’t moved since. Rick began to put two and two together.

“She took the boat out to Tall Pines!” He had to give her credit. If she’d wanted to disappear at this time of year the island was certainly a good choice. It was remote, private, and reasonably safe. It also provided her with enough comforts that she wouldn’t lack for much while she remained holed up in her snit. Rick had to kick himself for not even considering it.

“That rotten little brat!” A day or so to show him how she felt was one thing, but all this time? She had to know he’d have all of creation out looking for her when he realized she wasn’t with her sister. Anger boiled up, but was quickly replaced by fear. “What if she never made it to the island?”

Panic set in.

Attempts to reach the boat by radio were unsuccessful, but there was no ping from the distress beacon either. Either the boat was intact and docked somewhere, or she’d taken the boat too far up or down the coast for the signal to be picked up before getting into trouble.

Rick set up a mantra within his mind, and repeated it to himself all through that night. “Please let her be safe and on the island.”

The coast guard sent up a plane shortly after nine Thursday morning, and by ten, Rick saw for himself that Gabby was fine. The boat was docked on the island, and his wife was there on the beach sitting on a boulder looking out over the water. She’d tried to flag the plane down.

Rick gave the pilot instructions not to let her know she’d been spotted. The pilot kept to that agreement, even though he didn’t understand the reason why. His thought was if the woman tried to wave him down, she must have wanted to be found. Rick preferred that he be the one to let her know she was found, and as soon as the plane was on the ground, he made plans to do just that.

Packing his duffel with enough clothes to last both of them until Sunday, some extra batteries and lanterns, along with the old razor strop and bath brush he’d picked up shortly after they married, Rick enlisted his father to taxi him out to Tall Pines.

They made the four-hour cruise easily getting out there just as dusk settled over the beach. Offloading of the supplies took only a minute, but before casting off to leave his son to his reunion with Gabby, His father recommended that Rick check the boat and make sure everything was in order for them to get back.

Rick couldn’t help but smile when that check found a cold dead engine with no juice. “Of all the dumb luck Gabrielle! Could have happened with you out in the channel,” he muttered to himself, shaking his head and chuckling. “Well, it explains why we haven’t heard from her at least Dad.”

“Doesn’t excuse it though boy,” the older man shook his head. He knew his daughter in law’s moods and temper, and had no patience whatsoever for the kind of stunt she’d pulled. Happy though he was that she was safe and sound, he was more than a little angry with what she’d gotten up to. “You know what I would do in your place son.”

Rick grimaced and nodded. He wasn’t about to tell his father that he fully intended to spank the living daylights out of the little brat he’d married, even though he knew with certainty that that was exactly what his father alluded to.

“Here, I’ll leave you with the two-way. I have the ship to shore. We’ll be back Sunday afternoon to tow you in. If you need anything before that, call it in on that.” His father nodded to the radio that he hefted out of the compartment indicating that Rick should take it.

Before Rick was off the dock headed up to the cabin, his father had rounded the sound and was out of sight. Gabby was in for a surprise.

“Looks like you wrangled your weekend after all doesn’t it young lady. Well you just might not like some of the activities in store, but you’ll get a good work out. That much I promise you.”