Dak didn’t see it coming. It was dark out and harder to see than usual, but he was distracted, too. A tow line snapped and swept across the deck like a snake striking out at its prey. It knocked Dak’s feet out from under his body and propelled him forward toward the deck rail. Chet saw what was happening and lunged forward. He barely reached the fabric of Dak’s pant leg. Grabbing it caused them to both tumble onto the deck, but the effort stopped Dak from going over the rail into the inky, dark river water.

Struggling to his feet, Dak thanked Chet. He responded, “Hey, I’m just doing my job. You would have done the same for me. It doesn’t help any of us to lose a man overboard. You’d survive it, but dragging you out slows everything down. Time is money, Dak. I’m sure you’ll get a chance to pay me back sometime. Those broken lines can be killers.”

Dak thanked Chet again. He appreciated everyone treating his close call as an accident, but he knew that the incident was avoidable. Dak was swabbing and cleaning part of the deck while thinking about Brody back home. Every time he was doing a job on the boat that didn’t require a lot of mental concentration, Brody popped up to fill up the extra space in his brain. Dak wondered what Brody was doing. He was curious whether Brody was curled up on his sofa watching TV by himself or hanging out at the Corner Hitch downtown.

The shift supervisor said, “Dak, go to your quarters and take the rest of this shift off. I’ll send one of the guys to pull Leo out here. He got to skip a shift earlier today. Make sure you didn’t injure anything and get a few extra hours of sleep. Maybe that will help with your concentration.”

As he slipped between the sheets, Dak heard a fist pounding on his door. He called out, “Hang on. I’m in bed. Don’t tear down the door!”

He was surprised to see the boat’s engineer standing at the door. He asked, “Can I come in?”

“Of course. You’re welcome anytime.”

The engineer was ten years older than Dak. He kept to himself most of the time, but he didn’t have any enemies on the boat. He was just quiet and reserved. The engineer grabbed the chair from the room’s tiny desk while Dak sat on his bottom bunk. He said, “The captain sent me down here. He said he’s worried there could be problems on the way, and he wants to head them off right now. He’s heard concerns that your head isn’t in your work. Is there anything we should know?”

Dak shook his head. He itched at being singled out, but he understood the reasons why. “No, I guess I’m missing home. Everything was in a good place when I left, so it was hard to pull myself away.”

The engineer nodded and said, “I hope that’s all it is because you’re one of the most experienced members of the crew, Dak. We’ve got all these new men streaming in looking for jobs, and we need to show them how Eagle Point operates. So far, sadly, you’re not the best example.”

Dak winced when he heard the comments. Doing his best work was important. He always wanted to be seen as one of the hardest working crew members on the boat. He was stronger than most of the men, and he often got called on to deal with the heaviest equipment.

He also knew that the engineer was sent to make the warning calls. It was like sending the pitching coach out to the mound in a baseball game to check on the pitcher. If the manager came instead, you were out of the game. Dak said, “I’ll shape up.”

The engineer slapped his knee and said, “When you say that, I trust that it’s going to happen. You’ve given us great years so far, and I’m hoping for at least another decade to come.”

“Maybe two,” said Dak.

The engineer grinned. “Yeah, you might have that in you.” He stood, and before he left the room, he turned back once more. “Are you sure there’s nothing I can help with? All conversations are confidential. Sometimes the only way you can deal with something is to face it head on and talk about it.”

Dak shook his head and said, “Thank for the concern, but I’m fine. I’ll get a few extra hours of sleep, and then my focus will be back. I’m sure of it.”

As the engineer left, Dak wasn’t quite as confident as he’d sounded in the conversation. He knew that he had to make some changes. Getting kicked off the boat would screw up too many things in life. He wasn’t sure Brody would treat the news kindly either.

Settling back into the narrow bunk, Dak pulled the sheets up to his neck and let the rocking of the tow send him off to sleep. He slept so soundly that he didn’t hear a thunderstorm in the middle of the night. He woke up at the crack of dawn feeling refreshed.

The next day of work was better. Dak made a minor save when it looked like one of the new crew members came close to being knocked down. It was a rerun of the day before, except the new guy was paying attention. He was just frightened by the sudden movement when the line snapped. The shift supervisor yelled, “You gotta be checking those lines. Too many snaps. Don’t assume! Always check!”

Dak turned to look at the supervisor, and there was something about him that brought Brody to mind. Dak didn’t know whether it was the slim build or it was the dark wavy hair on the top of his head. Maybe it was something about the way his barking of orders sounded harsh and caring at the same time. Dak thought about lying in Brody’s arms, and the sensations threatened to pull him away from the job once again.

Dak shook his head. He only had an hour left. Then he would be off the deck for another twelve hours. He would even have a couple of hours to hang out and do something. He could watch a movie with the other guys, or he could hang out in his bunk with the laptop if his phone could successfully connect to a satellite to create an Internet connection. Then he remembered the engineer’s words.

He wasn’t going to deal with the distraction of thinking about Brody unless he confronted it head-on. He was off at 8:00 p.m. It was a Wednesday night. Brody was likely at home trying to figure out what to do, too. Dak decided to give him a call. He hoped it would be a pleasant surprise on the other end of the phone.

With only about 45 minutes left in the shift, Dak felt energy coursing through his veins. He stepped up the speed of his work and encouraged the other crewmen to do the same.

John, one of the new men, asked, “What’s gotten into you?”

“Pride in the boat,” said Dak. “We’re a quality company, and we do the job right. If you don’t believe that, then you have no business working on an Eagle Point tow.”

The shift supervisor heard Dak’s words, and he smiled in a fashion that was half-smirk. He said, “Happy to hear the new tone, Dak, and you’re right. We’re the best crew on the river. We’re a step up for all of these new men, and they better be learning that fact fast.”

---

Brody answered the phone after only two rings. Dak asked, “Were you staring at the phone and willing it to ring?”

Brody laughed. “No, I was lounging on the couch watching TV, and the phone was lying here on my chest. I just dealt with a call from the store. They were closing up, and somehow an opossum wandered into the back part of the store by all the gardening stuff. They were all panicking while trying to figure out what to do with it. I had a hard time talking about it without laughing.”

“Fuck, that’s bizarre,” said Dak. He didn’t really care about the particular problem. He was just happy to hear Brody’s voice. “Did you have a solution for them?”

“I tried to keep them on the phone while I sorted through who they might call. I figured animal control was long shut down for the evening, but there’s an emergency veterinarian line to call. I thought maybe they could help.”

“Is that what they’re doing?” asked Dak.

Brody laughed again, and Dak smiled on the other end of the phone. “No, by the time I came up with an idea, the opossum wandered out of the store on its own. One of our evening guys who lives out in the country put down a trail of dog food out the door, and it worked. Is everything okay out on the river? I assume you are out on the river? This call is such a great surprise.”

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” said Dak.