Second Chances in New Port Stephen - Chapter 47

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Second Chances in New Port Stephen - Chapter 47

Nick was absurdly pleased with the idea.
“Look.” Zoe pointed out at the water.
As the instrumental version of “Jingle Bell Rock” continued to play, a sailboat came into view
from beneath the bridge. Christmas lights were strung along the rigging, and a giant inflatable
snowman swayed in place on the bow. The tiny figure at the tiller lifted a Santa hat from his
head and waved in greeting. Behind that boat came a string of others, all decorated with various
lights. One trawler had a huge blinking sign that had the words MERRY CHRISTMAS scrolling
over it again and again in red and green. People oohed and ahhed as each vessel made its
appearance.
Nick turned his head. In the dark, the lights from the boats and the town Christmas tree
illuminated Zoe’s and Eli’s faces in splashes of bright color. They were both smiling. Eli pointed
out an exceptional dinghy draped in rope lights captained by someone dressed like an elf, and
Zoe laughed herself silly. Then Eli looked over and caught Nick staring.
For once, Nick didn’t look away. He couldn’t if he’d tried. Maybe it was the holidays making him
maudlin, but this felt like one of those moments he didn’t
want to forget. And Eli seemed to understand. They held each other’s gazes over the top of
Zoe’s head for a long minute.
It took a while for the faint rumble of the crowd to penetrate Nick’s thoughts. The general buzz
of confusion culminated in Mrs. Ward saying, quite calmly, “Well, that doesn’t seem right.”
Nick looked back to the parade he’d been ignoring, irritated that the moment was interrupted.
That was when he realized one of the speedboats was veering out of the slow-moving lineup.
“Daddy?” Zoe released Eli’s hand to curl up against Nick’s side. “Why is that one going the
wrong way?”
“I don’t know, sweetie,” he said, although he had some ideas.
“The guy’s drunk!” someone in the crowd exclaimed.

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Yeah, that had been Nick’s leading theory too. If he squinted, he could see the person at the
wheel had a bottle of something in hand. He watched in horror as the boat wobbled, almost
clipping the stern of a slower sailboat, before turning sharply, chugging toward the pier where
transport barges still docked sometimes.
“Uh, should we… do… something?” Eli sounded like he was on the verge of panicking. “Or is this
pretty normal?”
“No, it’s not normal. It’s a parade. They’re all supposed to be in a straight line,” Nick snapped.
“Well, excuse me. I don’t know what new traditions have sprung up around here.”
Nick wasn’t a sailor by any means, but he estimated this wayward vessel was moving about
fifteen miles an hour, if that. Which is all to say, when it careened sideways into the pier, it did
so in slow motion, giving the crowd of onlookers plenty of time to start screaming. The hull hit
at precisely the wrong angle, scraping against the pilings before coming to rest with a thud.
“Oh, for god’s sake,” Mr. Ward said from somewhere behind Nick. He sounded annoyed, which
was kind of funny considering a boat had just crashed. “Can’t we have a nice, normal Christmas
for once?”
“Dad?” Zoe’s little voice was almost drowned out by the roar of the crowd, the eerie rendition
of the Christmas carol that was still playing, and the grinding sound of fiberglass against wood
that echoed across the water.
“It’s, um—it’s okay, sweetie. Look, he’s fine.” Nick pointed to where the captain was stumbling
onto the dock, still clutching his bottle, Santa hat askew.
It was at that point that the boat caught fire, which really put a damper on all the festivities.