Chapter 11 #2
Patrick took it seriously, and a few minutes later he spoke to Eugenia quietly and told her what the captain had said.
She was sorry too, but they didn’t want anyone getting trapped in floods, or hit by falling trees on land if it was as bad as they said on the weather reports.
“I think we have to send them home,” Patrick said regretfully.
It was eleven-thirty, and they were all having a good time, drinking a lot and singing on the dining deck, with the plastic sheets all around the area to protect them.
Most of them hadn’t even noticed how bad the storm had gotten, and didn’t care.
The boat was rolling but her stabilizers kept her fairly steady.
Even Geoff hadn’t complained of seasickness.
He had eaten heartily and was drinking heavily.
“If it stays like this, it’s going to be a mess tomorrow at the wedding,” Eugenia said, worried.
“It’s either going to get a lot worse or a lot better when it hits land,” Patrick said, concerned.
The captain joined them while Patrick and Eugenia were conferring. “I think we need to take them home now, sir,” he said in a firm tone. “The wind is picking up.” A few minutes later, Patrick stopped the band, and made a short announcement, and apologized for the sudden end to the evening.
“We want to get you all back to your houses and hotels safely before the storm gets any worse,” Patrick said.
“I’m so sorry, but if you gather up your things now, the vans are waiting for you on the dock.
” There were four vans waiting to drive them home.
And the crew was waiting to tie everything down and put things away.
It only took them a few minutes to get their wraps and party favors, and some of the gardenias from the table, and once they left the yacht and went ashore, the guests realized how bad the storm was.
The gusts nearly knocked them off their feet, as they fought the wind walking to the vans.
Crew members on the dock helped to steady them.
Most of them were very drunk, except for Patrick and Eugenia, who made sure that everyone got into the vans.
Geoff tried to climb into the one Gloria got into and she stopped him with a firm hand and a smile.
“You can’t go home with me, remember? It’s bad luck, you have to go to the house with your parents. You can’t see me again until the wedding.” She said it gently but loud enough for him to hear her in the strong wind.
“Bloody hell,” Geoff responded angrily, “who knows if there’ll be a fucking wedding with a hurricane about?
We might as well enjoy a good fuck tonight,” he said as he stomped off to the next van, already soaked to the skin.
She had heard what he said, but it didn’t change her mind.
She needed all the luck available if she was going to marry him.
Her brother heard what Geoff said too. Stef didn’t look pleased and didn’t comment, but he and Liz exchanged a glance.
Eloise had also heard. Brad and Sofia were in the van with them.
The crew member who was driving took off for their rented house then.
He wanted to get them home quickly and get back to the yacht to help.
Patrick was already working with the crew to tie things down as fast as they could, and the sails had been bound tightly to the masts.
But a gale like that could break one or several of the masts and kill people.
Phillip and Daphne had left a little earlier in their own car. She was exhausted and worried about Tucker being frightened in the storm. She wanted to get home to him quickly.
Eugenia was in a van with the Crawfords, Umberto, and his date, to drop them off at the Maidstone Inn for Umberto, and the Crawfords at their Airbnb. Geoff jumped in with them before they took off, still in a drunken rage that Gloria wouldn’t let him go home with her.
“My bitch of a future wife wouldn’t let me go home with her,” he said by way of explanation, forgetting that his future mother-in-law was in the van with them, but he didn’t care.
“Does anyone have a bottle of Scotch?” he asked loudly, and no one answered, while the deckhand driving was trying to avoid growing rivers of water covering the road.
The other two vans had taken some of the guests back to their hotels.
It was a challenging drive getting to the inn, trying to avoid small floods that were starting, and it took them half an hour to get there.
It was midnight by then, and the deckhand was anxious to get back to the boat.
Umberto and his date hurried into the inn and they proceeded to the Crawfords’ Airbnb.
Eugenia helped them get out, and Prudence was looking nervous and pale.
“I don’t like storms like this,” she said to Eugenia.
“My sister was killed in a typhoon when we were children.” Geoff made no effort to help his parents and staggered into the house.
Eugenia and the deckhand watched them fight the wind to get inside and once they were in, they took off to navigate the rivers flowing around them to get Eugenia home.
She wasn’t afraid, but she was worried about Daphne and the others.
And if Daphne went into labor, she might not be able to get to the hospital, and certainly not to the city.
Eugenia was glad that Geoff wasn’t staying with them in the condition he was in.
His parents could deal with him tonight.
The crew member got Eugenia home as quickly as he could, with the water swirling around them on the road.
She ran into the house in the white satin evening pajamas she had worn, and they were soaked through by the time she got into the house and found the others in the kitchen, talking and lighting candles.
The compound had just lost power and they were all in the main house looking for candles and flashlights.
“This was a little more excitement than we were expecting,” Brad said, handing out flashlights to all of them. “We have tornados in Tennessee.” Stefano opened a bottle of wine, and handed a glass to those who wanted it.
“Well, it was a fun party,” Stef said, and everyone laughed.
They walked into the spacious living room, and sat watching the storm through the picture window.
It looked like a hurricane now. Brad reminded them to stand well away from the picture windows in case one broke, so they wouldn’t get hurt by flying glass.
Gloria left the living room to call Geoff on her cell phone, to apologize for not letting him come home with her.
He answered quickly and shouted at her, “If you don’t want to get laid tonight, I do, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do, and there are plenty of women at the bar at the inn who would be happy to fuck me, so fuck you, Gloria,” and hung up on her.
She was sheet white when she walked into the living room and even in the light from the flashlights, her mother could see it.
“Everything okay?” she asked gently.
“Actually, no,” Gloria said with an intent expression and left the room again.
She had seen slickers and boots in the storeroom behind the kitchen, and went and put them on with the lace pants and top she had worn to the rehearsal dinner.
The slicker had a hood and she put it over her head and, picking up a set of the keys to one of the rented SUVs they had, slipped out the back door with her cell phone in her pocket.
And a minute later the others heard the wheels of the car spin on the gravel and then take off, and they looked out the window to see who was arriving, and all they could see were the red taillights of the SUV disappearing down the drive.
Someone was leaving and it took them a minute to figure out who.
“Where’s Gloria?” Eloise was the first to ask. She had seen the look on her face and could guess where she went and why. She had gone to comfort Geoff and calm him down. She headed to the Maidstone Inn, where he said he was going to pick up women.
“I’ll go after her,” Brad volunteered and got up to go, and Eugenia stopped him.
“You can’t go. If anything happens, we might need a doctor, and if you leave in the only other car, we’ll all be trapped here if we have to evacuate or need help.
” She was thinking of Daphne a few miles away, if she went into labor and couldn’t get to the hospital.
This was becoming serious and they all knew it, and Brad stopped.
“Gloria’s a good driver and the car is solid. She knows where she’s going and she’ll be okay,” Eloise said, and could guess easily that she was going to see Geoff. She was sure they had had some kind of an argument after the way he left her.
Stef lit a fire in the fireplace, and they all sat around talking quietly.
Eloise got the latest news reports on her phone.
The hurricane had unleashed its full fury on Long Island, and had made landfall only a few miles away, and there were floods building all around them.
Eugenia didn’t like the idea that Gloria was driving.
But their Airbnb wasn’t far away and she didn’t have far to go.
The Maidstone Inn was close too, but no one knew she had gone there to intercept Geoff and calm him down before he hurt himself, injured someone else, got arrested for being drunk and disorderly, or started a bar fight. He could be an aggressive drunk.
—
It was scary driving in the storm, and Gloria was as careful as she could be.
She had been to the Hamptons often and knew the roads well, and the roads in town were full of water, but it wasn’t as deep as it had been getting there, and the SUV was high and avoided some of it.
It had four-wheel drive, and she pulled up in front of the inn fifteen minutes after she had left the house. She was sure he would be there.