The Sea of Aaron by Kymberly Hunt Page A

invited me onboard to look around.” Danny smiled reflectively. “Talk about an awesome experience for a poor kid living in the ghetto section of Belize City. I also got to meet the captain.”
    â€œCaptain?” Valerie said.
    Danny grinned. “Drew used to call his dad Captain ’cause the dude always has this cool, kind of commanding look.”
    Valerie laughed in spite of herself. “Tell me about it.”
    â€œTurns out he wasn’t the kind of father who tells his kid not to hang out with certain types, so Drew and me got to be really good friends—so good that when they were going to sail out to Costa Rica, the Captain went to my place and asked my mom if I could go with them.”
    â€œDid she let you?”
    â€œYeah. No one cared what I did. My folks were poor, and I was just another mouth to feed. Anyway, I had the time of my life on that cruise. Even got to be second mate, working on the ship right along with Drew and his father like I was part of their family.”
    Valerie’s eyes narrowed. “Was Drew’s mother ever around?”
    â€œNo. Drew had a stepfather. He told me that his mother and the Captain were never married.”
    Valerie breathed an inaudible sigh of relief. Danny had confirmed the truthfulness of Aaron’s statement regarding his past. Even better was the revelation that Drew’s mother was married to someone else.
    â€œWe went to Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica,” Danny continued. “I learned a lot about sailing, and so much stuff it would take all night to tell the stories.” He glanced upward. “Drew and me did get into trouble sometimes, too.”
    â€œWhat kind of trouble?” she asked.
    â€œOne night the Captain had some business in Costa Rica and Drew and me knew he wouldn’t be back for a while, so we decided to take the ship out to a nearby port so we could meet with a bunch of girls.” He chuckled. “Real stupid on my part ’cause the girls always wanted Drew, not me. Anyway, we had these fake IDs and we went to this bar pretending we were eighteen and we got totally smashed. Worst part came when we tried to sail back drunk. Saniyah ran aground on some rocks and was damaged.”
    Valerie shook her head in dismay. “That was a terrible thing to do. You both could have been killed.”
    â€œYeah, it was bad. The Captain, man, he was pissed and blamed it all on Drew, even though I said it was my fault, too. They got into this really big row about drinking and being irresponsible. Drew was kinda angry anyway on account of some family stuff that made no sense to me. But you know, you get stupid sometimes when you’re fourteen.
    Anyway, he started cursing and throwing things and calling his father an evil bastard. Got all crazy like, and the Captain hit him, knocked him clean across the deck like he weighed two pounds.” Danny laughed. “You know Captain’s a big dude, but Drew wasn’t no little kid, either. He was at least six feet at fourteen.”
    Valerie flinched, not liking the sound of what she’d heard. “Aaron hit his son?”
    â€œYeah, but not with his fist. More like open-handed, and Drew asked for it. I mean, I would’ve never talked to my father like that, and my old man wasn’t worth crap.” Danny laughed again. “Turns out it wasn’t no big deal, though, ’cause next morning they both acted like it never happened and Drew and me did all the repairs on the ship ourselves.”
    Men, Valerie thought. The mental picture of Aaron really incensed and smacking his son wasn’t something she’d care to witness for real, though. Of course, Danny could have exaggerated.
    â€œI was disappointed they didn’t come back the next summer,” Danny said. “Didn’t see them again for two years, and by then my whole life had gone down the tubes and my old man got killed in a car