Chapter Eighteen

Holly

The drink in my hand was nearly empty and I was making my way across the deck toward the bar when I heard something that I didn't think could possibly be coming at me in the middle of the ocean. It was a voice. A voice so distinctive there was no way that there was more than one person in the world that could sound like it. I knew that I had to be imagining it. There was absolutely no way that he was out here on a cruise ship. The sadness that had settled over me and been my constant companion throughout the cruise must have gotten to me so much that I was now hallucinating. Of all things for me to hallucinate, though, this didn't seem like what my mind would have come up with. I heard the voice again, though, and noticed that a few of the people around me were staring in the direction from which it came. I looked around, peering through the crowds milling around on the deck, and finally my eyes landed on the source of the voice.

Holy hell. I was right. It's Cletus. Cletus and a giant man wearing a Hawaiian shirt, a clashing bathing suit, and a trucker hat. That was a vacation visual if there ever was one.

I crept a little closer, not wanting to alert them to my presence yet. I didn't know why they were there or even if they knew that I was on the same cruise, so I didn't want to shock them into an incredibly awkward reunion made all the more uncomfortable by the fact that we were surrounded by nothing but the big open water. When I got close enough to understand what they were saying, I noticed that the bigger man was staring down at Cletus' feet, which looked quite fetching in a pair of black flip flops embellished with glittering clear stones.

“What in the blue hell are you wearing, Cletus?” he asked.

“They’re fancy, aren't they? Real fancy.”

“We were supposed to get some cruise clothes. Not shiny diamond sandals with a thong up between your toes.”

“BillyBob, you know I barely ever wear any shoes at all, but this here's special circumstances. As soon as I stepped up on this here boat, mission or no mission, it was as close to a vacation cruise as I have ever been. So, if a nice rich man gives me a hand full of cash and says go buy some clothes so I can fit in with all the rest of the cruise-goers, by golly, I am gonna get clothes that make me feel like I am on vacation! Besides, these are rhinestone. They sparkle like Ol’ Lady Jessup’s teeth. Make me feel like a real tourist, they do. I just blend right on in with everyone else. Even in the fancy buffets.”

BillyBob? As in the storied missing big brother of Boom Boom Badge, BillyBob? He did look absolutely nothing like Boom Boom, so based on that, the chances were good that it was him.

“Cletus, those flip flops are women’s. Only ladies wear the sparkly ones.”

“Lookit here," Cletus said, pointing down to his feet. "These fit me. They are either made for men or real big women, and either way, I ain’t never had no shiny shoes, so I don’t care. Let somebody say something to me about them. I'll be like ...do you have sparkly shoes? And they'll be like… no. And I'll be like...so which one of us is winning?" He looked completely convinced of the validity of his argument and gave a sharp nod before looking around. "Now let’s get to finding Holly so we can spend the rest of this little trip here relaxing. Maybe we'll get to go back to the hollow looking all crispy like the Christmas turkey.”

Cletus huffed in a manner that explicitly stated the conversation of his shiny flip flops was over and I had to muffle a laugh. He had mentioned my name, so I knew that they actually were here looking for me, but I still didn't know why. I wanted to watch them for a few more minutes and see what they did. BillyBob looked around for a moment before stopping dead in his tracks, his eyes wide as saucers and his mouth hung open. I thought that he might have seen me, but then I realized he was looking past me toward the massive slide that stuck out over the side of the ship and swirled around in circles toward a pool set in the center of the deck.

“Got-dang that looks fun.”

“What does?” Cletus asked, following his gaze.

I stepped back a little further to prevent them from catching sight of me and watched as both men took a few steps toward the slide.

“That slide there. That thing must be a thousand-foot high. Jeeeeeesus! That just about looks like the biggest slide I ever saw, Cletus. It’s bigger than the mudslide we made off the mountain that year it rained so hard.”

“You mean when it flooded the whole dang town and we called it Whisky Pool instead of Hollow?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t nothin’ but a kid back then, but that mudslide was the best thing I ever rode, and that slide over there looks even better. And I'm pretty sure that there aren't any rocks or animal bones in it.”

“BillyBob, you know we ain’t got time to fool with no rides. We only got a day or two to find Holly or else we won’t make it back for Christmas and everybody would be real upset with us.”

“Well, Santa brought me a big ass water slide and I’m going to ride it. You coming?”

“But… I’d have to take off my sandals…”

“Oh, alright. Look. I have an idea. I go get in line, and as I get up to the top there, I can look around,” he cocked his arm and put the side of his hand against his forehead over his eyes like a little boy playing pioneer, “and then I can peer around the boat for her." BillyBob gave an exaggerated bend and appeared to strain to see in the distance. “And from all the hell the way up there, I’d bet my left foot I’d see her. And I'd just keep looking like that until they told me that I had to go. So, then I'd slide down and just keep on looking around.”

“So, what am I supposed to be doing while you're up there looking around and then sliding down?”

“You'd be down here, scouring the deck. Getting the ground view. You see, if I couldn't find her, I'd just run back up and do it again. We'd get both perspectives. I'd be up there getting the sky view, like an eagle. And you'd be down here getting the ground view like a turtle.”

Cletus narrowed his eyes and screwed up his mouth all to one side.

“I don’t quite think I’m as slow as a turtle, Billy Bob.”

“Oh, hell, you ain’t no turtle, okay, alright, you’re a bunny rabbit! Naw. Naw, that's not a whole lot better. A fox? NO! A wolf! You’re a big old lone wolf. Out for prey. And I’m a flyin’ eagle!”

At this, BillyBob spread his arms to the fullest of his wingspan, nearly smacking Cletus in the nose in the process. I laughed, but still not understanding what was going on kept me from fully appreciating the little slice of the hollow that I was getting in front of me. They said that everybody would be upset if they didn't find me and bring me back to the hollow for Christmas. Could it be that those people really had formed enough of an attachment to me that they still wanted me to celebrate the holidays with them? Or was I about to go face a hollow posse sent to string me up for stealing the snowmobile?

Did they do the same thing to snowmobile thieves that they did to horse thieves?

“See, so I am doing us a favor AND working on the mission AND I’m having the fun God obviously intended me to have since he let me put my peepers on that there slide, which clearly wouldn't have happened if he didn't want me to ride on it, thank you Jesus, amen. It’s a win for everybody. So, you go on and hunt for Holly, I’ll go get in line and we will meet back right here by the fancy flip flop store when we have her.”

"You want a pair, don't you?"

"They're growing on me."

“But what if you don’t see her from all the way up there? Isn't everybody just gonna look like ants?”

“Maybe, but maybe I’ll see her on the way down. It’s a long ride, Cletus. If I see her, I’ll just shout ‘Hey! She’s right there!’ and I’ll do my bird call, so you’ll know it was me. Just follow the sound of the bird and we will meet up and grab her!”

“You mean the bird call for the ducks or the geese?”

“I don't know if that really matters.”

“You never know. Might be some geese out this way. What if they call, and then I think it's you and I run for the flip flop store, and you don't ever come?”

“Geese? In the middle of the water?”

“Maybe.”

There was a pause and then BillyBob shook his head, starting to stomp toward the slide.

“Just listen for the damn call, Cletus. I’m going off to get in the line."

When BillyBob walked away, I slipped past Cletus and came up to his side. He didn't notice me, and we stared together in the direction of the slide for a few seconds, watching as BillyBob made his way up into the line. It was surprisingly short for that time of day, likely because everyone had seen the enormous man making a beeline for the slide and decided now would be a better time to do some sunbathing, and he got most of the way up the steps quickly.

"Do you think that he's going to take his hat off before he goes down the slide, or is he just going to wear it and the Hawaiian shirt the whole way down?"

Cletus didn't look at me, but shook his head.

"I'm not sure. I don't know about that boy. Maybe his time away really did get into his head this time."

"Where was he, anyway? I thought that he was missing."

"He was missing," Cletus said. "Not that it's the first time. He was just gone extra-long this time. See he had gone off skinnyfishing, but then he up and lost his clothes and ended up chasing a deer butt-ass naked through the woods trying to throw an arrow at it, but that only got him thrown in the --"

At this point Cletus had turned toward me and his eyes widened.

"Holly!" he gasped.

"Hi, Cletus."

"Holly! I found you! We have to get to the fancy flip flop store. Wait, I have to tell BillyBob. Hey, BillyBob! I found her. Look! I found Holly!" He let out a sound that I could only guess was supposed to be the call of some kind of bird, and continued frantically gesturing toward me. "Billy!"

By this point BillyBob had gotten all the way to the top of the slide platform and had his hand pressed to his forehead again as he looked around the deck, just as he had promised. He caught sight of us and looked surprised, rushing to the side of the platform and leaning towards us to see better. He gave a much more convincing bird cry and flailed in the direction of the flip flop store. The lifeguard behind him grabbed him, trying to guide him away from the side, but BillyBob fought him off, rushing toward the entrance to the slide and throwing himself down. I could still hear him screaming when Cletus turned back to me. He grabbed me by my arm and started pulling me across the deck.

"You're hurting me," I said, shaking him off.

"I'm sorry. I was just supposed to get you as soon as I saw you."

"You didn't have to actually grab me."

"I'm sorry."

We walked toward the store and stopped in front of it. Cletus was eyeing another pair of flip flops, this one a vibrant blue color, but I was too focused on my confusion about what was happening to think about accessorizing my vacation wardrobe any further.

"What are you doing here, Cletus?"

"Do you think that I should get these? I think that they would look right good with my other bathing suit. Play off my eyes a little bit. The wife's always telling me that she likes my eyes."

"Cletus…"

"But maybe these are the ones that BillyBob's going to pick. That would be embarrassing, wouldn't it? Both of us wearing the same sparkly sandals. I should probably wait until he gets down here and see which ones he wants and then I can go from there."

"Cletus!"

He jumped slightly at the more insistent tone of my voice and turned to look at me.

"What?" he asked.

"What are you doing here?"

"BillyBob and I agreed that whenever we found you, we'd grab you and then meet up at the fancy flip flop store."

"No, I know that. I mean on the cruise. What are you doing here on the ship?"

"Oh. We're here to find you."

He said it completely casually, but I felt like I was going to explode.

"Why? Why are you here to find me?"

I had the feeling I was going to need to very carefully walk Cletus through this conversation. There were far too many shiny sandals around and his mind was seeming to wander. He turned to look at me and I tried to glean the purpose of this mission from his expression, but there was no reading the look in his eyes.

"To bring you back to the hollow for Christmas."

The fact that he had specified that it was for Christmas was reassuring. As much as I thought that I was going to love the cruise and enjoy disappearing from the holiday season for a year, the reality was that I was feeling far too sad and lonely to really have any fun. I felt myself longing for the warmth of the hollow and the amazing people in it, even if going back was just going to expose the hurt in my heart for Graham even more. Even if it made me miss him more, maybe being there would help me to get past it.

"How are we supposed to get there? The cruise is for another couple of days, and by the time that we get to the port it will be after Christmas and we'll be nowhere near the hollow."

"Never fear," Cletus said dramatically, seeming to briefly acquire a super hero persona. "We have that all worked out. We're going to get off of here at the next port and Boom Boom will be waiting for us to fly us to the hollow."

Before I could say anything, BillyBob came rushing up to us, a grin on his face and his wet hat sideways on his head.

"That was a hell of a ride!" he exclaimed. "Since I saw that you had been victorious and found her, I went on ahead and did another slide out of celebration. You really should try it. I'll hold your sparkly sandals for you." He turned and looked at me. "Hi, there, Holly. I'm BillyBob Badge."

I looked between him and Cletus a few times.

"Alright, I'm going to need some more information."