Chapter Nineteen
Nineteen
Bump
If I thought the smell of the dock was bad, the smell of Billy Bound’s fishing boat is infinitely worse. It’s somewhere between rotting haddock and a blocked toilet. I’ve never been the type to get seasick, but with this stench in my nostrils, it’s unavoidable.
I lean over the side of the boat, waiting for the rush of vomit to come, but it doesn’t, and somehow that’s worse. If I could just get it out of me, I know I’d feel better, but it just sits there threatening to appear with every bump of a wave that we hit.
I am in hell.
The only good thing is that with the loud noise of the waves and the boat engine, I can’t hear the miaows coming from Nemo’s carrier. He’s protested so much about this trip that his voice has gone croaky. Am I doing the right thing for him? Should I have let him get admitted to Battersea and get adopted by a quality shelter-approved person? Someone with a big garden and a cat parkour course set up on the wall of their lounge?
‘You’re okay,’ I’ve been telling him in my best soothing voice, but he’s not okay, clearly, and neither am I.
This was a mistake. It is so obviously a mistake that I want to crawl into a padded basket just like Nemo’s and zip up the door behind me.
I wouldn’t ever come out; I’d just stay there until dehydration took me.
I see Billy glance over at me, clearly noting my green complexion.
A smile quirks the corner of his mouth and I know what he’s thinking. Stupid out-of-towner can’t even read a ferry timetable, but deluded herself into believing she’s going to make a life for herself on Loor Island. Won’t last a fortnight. Probably not a week.