Chapter Four

Day Two

Kate awoke, ready for the new day. She'd left her clothes from the day before on the nightstand by her bed before she'd gone to sleep. After removing her nightgown, she pulled on her swimsuit top followed by a shirt before tackling the bottom half of her suit and the shorts. What once took under a minute, was now a reminder of all she'd lost. Bending at the waist, she manually lifted her left leg with her hand and tugged the swimsuit bottoms over her foot and repeated it on the other leg. Next came the fun part where she wiggled about as she moved the material beneath her butt and could pull them up, basically a fish flopping on dry land. Once the swimsuit was on, she moved to the shorts and repeated the entire process.

Winded after the dressing aerobics, she moved to the wheelchair and rolled to the sink in the bathroom. Here, she thoroughly appreciated the ability to move her wheelchair beneath the counter to brush her teeth and run a comb through her hair. She added a large amount of sunblock to her pale skin and hoped the sun would be kind until her flesh darkened. Everything was located at the perfect height. The small things mattered since her accident and the yacht made her feel more self-sufficient.

At the short stairwell, Kate moved from her wheelchair to the lift and hit the button that took her to the upper deck where her topside wheelchair waited. She knew she was fortunate to have the financial means to accommodate her disability, but it didn't lower her resentment that she was living in a nightmare that wasn't her fault.

Positive thoughts, Kate reminded herself silently.

She had successfully prepared and served their first substantial meal on board the night before, and she pulled on that sense of accomplishment. She and Sam had shared a bottle of wine before retiring to their separate berths—not an ideal situation, but part of the challenges they faced since his infidelity.

Their attempts at intimacy since Kate's recovery had been unsuccessful. Despite being in good enough condition, she struggled to articulate her true feelings. Her psychologist had made her aware that the primary hurdle lay within herself. Kate had not forgiven Sam and she wasn't sure she could. She was also on uneven grounds in the marriage because she could no longer take care of herself. It all added up to the biggest question. Why had he cheated and destroyed what she thought of as a solid marriage? She still didn't have answers and she wasn't sure she could handle them now.

Sam had moved back home to care for Ryan immediately after the accident. He stayed when Kate returned from six months in rehab. A month after returning home, an impacted bowel led to an elevated temperature and an emergency room visit that extended into a three-day hospital stay. Sam handled the situation with composure, displaying no signs of disgust, but Kate couldn't shake her own sense of revulsion.

Monitoring her daily bathroom habits closely had proved futile, leading to the embarrassing hospital procedure that she barely remembered due to her high temperature. Sam had witnessed her at her most vulnerable.

Before the accident, they were an unhappy couple dealing with Sam's admission. Although deeply repentant, his infidelity had initially felt like an insurmountable betrayal. She thought their marriage was over. Then the situation changed for everyone. Forgiveness was still difficult to contemplate. Sam's unfaithfulness hit her on a level she was unsure she could climb down from. Her anger and grief over what he'd done hadn't settled and their new circumstances gave her too much to think about and some days she simply wanted to never see him again. She had to find a way to come to terms with his betrayal and make good decisions for her and Ryan.

Shaking off the irritation her thoughts caused, she finished stowing the breakfast dishes and wheeled herself onto the deck, where Sam and Ryan waited. Kate drank in the ocean air and the beautiful scenery that she hadn't realized she craved so much.

To most children her childhood would seem idyllic. While others sat in a classroom, Kate spent weeks at sea, documenting her father's findings as soon as she was old enough to write. He was her teacher in everything from reading to arithmetic and history. She aced the homeschool tests and thought her entire life would follow that of her fathers.

Her teenage years hit and for the first time Kate was lonely for friends her own age. She wanted to be a normal girl and do normal things. Though her father understood her heart's yearning, it was hard for him to change but he did. Greg enrolled her in public school and watched from the sidelines as her life course altered and the water no longer held such fascination. He'd never told her anything but how proud he was of her accomplishments.

She missed him but in a few weeks she would see him again. With that thought firmly in place, she turned to her husband and daughter.

Having anchored offshore overnight, Sam had navigated them into deeper waters when he first woke up. Land was barely visible, and they were anchored again to work off their breakfast. On the casting deck at the bow, Kate's exercise mat was rolled out and waiting. The casting deck's height allowed her to transition from the wheelchair to the mat easily, and Ryan, her workout coach, was ready for the morning routine.

"You need to work extra hard today," Ryan said excitedly.

"And why is that?" Kate asked with a grin.

"Grandpop said the routine set on the first day at sea preps you for the entire voyage," Ryan replied like she was teaching a great life lesson.

Kate knew the answer but wanted her daughter to feel important in aiding with her physical therapy. Ryan was the best cheerleader a paraplegic could ask for.

Kate stretched out on the mat and laid back. Ryan lifted her right leg with a small endearing grunt, and worked her hip joint with abduction, adduction, outward rotation and inward rotation movements.

"Discomfort?" Ryan asked in an adult tone before she moved on to Kate's knee.

She had attended most of the physical therapy sessions with Kate so she could learn how to help her mom. With all the attention on Kate after the accident, Ryan needed a sense of purpose in her mother's recovery and they found it in exercise.

"Nope, it feels good," Kate replied, though she felt little.

Ryan lifted Kate's leg so the knee bent and started working flexion and extensions. The entire routine took forty-five minutes per leg and Ryan was often too tired to do both sides. The exercises involved stretching, hip joint movements, and knee, ankle, and toe flexion and extensions of which Kate could not do on her own. With the help of Sam and Ryan, she had a little sensation in the big toe of her right foot. For her it was a miracle but the doctors had not been hopeful. On the other hand, her physical therapist, Roxy, gave her the pep talk she held onto.

"In the scheme of things, there's a lot unknown about spinal cord injuries. Miracles happen so don't give up." It was advice Kate held onto even though she knew her outcome was dismal.

Sam watched the physical therapy routine in the background, green eyes covered by dark aviators, holding his stainless steel water bottle. Dressed in tan board shorts and a white polo shirt, he couldn't hide how attractive he was. Resentment surfaced momentarily, but Kate pushed it away, reminding herself that the other woman in their marriage was long gone.

She took time to admire her husband's brown wavy hair that ruffled softly in the breeze. Ridiculous jealousy sparked again until he took over her left side therapy. She could never think badly of him when he was helping her stay healthy.

While he worked, Ryan sat beside them chatting excitedly about the day ahead.

"I'm recording water temperatures for Grandpop and I'm keeping a list of the ocean life we see," Ryan told them.

Kate remembered doing the exact same things for her father that Ryan was doing. Greg's expertise revolved around stingrays which were the love of his career. She would sit next to him at night while he transferred her findings into his main logbook. He would make her feel like she was an important part of his research. He was there for Ryan too and Kate was grateful.

After they completed the workout, Kate moved back into her wheelchair, and followed her family to the stern to use the platform for a dip in the ocean. Swimming had become Kate's sanctuary after realizing she might never walk again. Water provided weightlessness and allowed her to recall the time before the accident. She wheeled herself to the casting platform and shimmied out of her shorts and shirt. Sam helped her get situated so she could sit with her legs in the water.

Wearing a colorful two-piece bikini, Kate entered the ocean with Sam and Ryan jumping in behind her. They swam laps around Ryan's Gift while Kate enjoyed the feel of the cool water against her skin.

"Look, Mom," Ryan called out, waving her hand excitedly—dolphins, six in total, one a small juvenile.

Her grandpops told her that seeing wildlife in the ocean was a positive sign and Ryan held onto his every word. If he said it, whatever it was, was written in stone. Kate understood. She behaved exactly as her daughter when she was young.

Kate called her father weekly. His professed horrors about the dying oceans grew exponentially worse each time they spoke. It saddened her that his life work to understand stingrays, was now eaten away by his advocacy for the planet's oceans and seas.

"What kind are they?" Kate asked, deciding to give her daughter a check to see what her grandpops had taught her.

"Bottlenose," Ryan replied. "Look, there's a baby. It's so sweet. I want a stuffed dolphin to go with my stuffed shark."

"Name the types of dolphins in this area," Kate prompted. "If you get them correct, I'll buy you the stuffed dolphin."

"That's easy," Ryan said while treading water and holding up her fingers one at a time as she named them, "Bottlenose, Specific White-Sided"—the correct word was "Pacific," but Kate didn't correct her—"Common dolphin, and Risso's dolphin."

"Good job," Kate said as she too admired the baby.

The dolphins were mesmerizing with their grace and camaraderie. They moved with remarkable coordination, their sleek bodies slicing through the water with effortless agility. The sunlight caught on their wet skin, making it glisten and shimmer against the contrasting blue. Kate had always loved their synchronized movements and social interactions, from gentle nudging to spirited chases, their complex relationships within a pod had fascinated her for years. The sounds of their clicks and whistles add an auditory layer to the spectacle they were currently witnessing. They offered a harmonious blend of freedom, intelligence, and social connection, and were a testament to the wonders of marine life.

The playful dolphins approached, curious yet keeping a slight distance to protect the young one. It was a spectacular sighting for their first day.

When the dolphins swam away, Kate took another lap because she was growing cold. It didn't help as she needed so she left the water and went inside to take a warm shower.

It felt good to be alive.