CHAPTER 11 – Midnight Plus 7 Hours

Kenny wrapped his arms around Butters from behind, resting his chin on Butter's head and looked around. There was a helicopter on the hull of the ship fifty feet away, its rotors spinning noisily. Three ships, a Coast Guard vessel and two smaller fishing boats, were moored nearby.

"We have to hurry," the Greek captain said. "This ship isn't going to be floating much longer. There's room for six of you on the helicopter; the rest will have to go by boat."

"The Rosens should go," Kenny said, looking at Wendy. "And probably you and Cartman should too. Who else?"

"Robin," Jane Shelby said. "He and I—"

"Mom, I'm going to stay here," Robin interrupted her. "Let some of these other people go instead."

James Martin stepped forward. "I'd like to take Nonnie out of here," The young woman who was clinging to him appeared nearly catatonic with fright. Robin's mother looked uncertainly at them and then her son again.

"His fingers will be fine, Mrs. Shelby," Wendy said. "Let's let these two go ahead of him."

She reluctantly nodded and put her arm around Robin's shoulder. While six of them made their way to the helicopter, the Captain began herding everyone else to two large inflatable rafts tied up next to the hull of the overturned ship. Two minutes later, both rafts were being paddled toward the Coast Guard ship, Stan and the Captain manning the oars of one raft, Kenny and the other rescuer in the other. They used a rope ladder to climb aboard the Coast Guard vessel and soon they all gathered together near the bow, watching as the two fishing boats drifted closer to the capsized Poseidon in what Mike Rogo announced was going to be "some sort of half-assed salvage operation."

"I hope they don't send anyone inside," Butters said tiredly. "I've seen enough people die to last me a lifetime."

Several crew members began passing out blankets and bottled water to the survivors. The Captain stepped forward carrying a very large portable phone.

"Your cell phones won't work this far offshore," he said, looking around at them. "But this is a satellite phone; it'll work anywhere. One of you can call your family back home and have them call the rest of your families. If you still have them, your phones should start working in a couple hours."

Stan reached for the proffered phone and looked around at their group. "Why don't I call my mom and have her call the rest of our families?" Just as he was about to begin entering his parents' number, there was a sudden outcry from several people around them.

"There she goes!" Robin shouted, pointing. There was a rush to the railing as the capsized Poseidon's bow abruptly dipped into the nearly calm sea. Her stern slowly rose high into the bright morning sky, her three propellers like enormous fans, as a loud groan issued from her as her superstructure was strained past its limits and everything loose inside fell toward the bow. The two fishing boats had reversed their engines and were backing away from the doomed ship. Stan wondered if anyone was still alive in there, dying before their eyes. The ship was nearly vertical when it began to slip beneath the surface with almost quiet dignity. The sea churned and roiled after the stern finally vanished beneath the water.

Mrs. Shelby detached herself from the railing a minute later and turned to speak to her son. "Robin, why don't you come inside with us now?" She looked at him expectantly.

Robin looked back at her for a moment and then shook his head. "No, Mom. I'm going to stay up here with my friends." He wasn't asking for her permission. "You guys go argue or something, okay? I don't want to hear that right now." He took two steps to stand at the railing alongside Stan, still speaking directly to her. "These guys helped me back there more than you and Dad ever did. I'm going to stay up here with them for a while." He turned his back on her and looked toward the debris-filled oil slick where the Poseidon had been just minutes ago.

Stan watched Robin's mother's eyes fill with tears. "All right, Robin," she said sadly. "Come inside when you want to."

"He'll be fine," Stan told her. "And he'll be right here with us, and when he wants to join you later, one of us will walk him there, okay?"

Once she'd left, Robin leaned his forearms against the railing between Stan and Tweek and stared out at the ocean. Stan cleared his throat and said cautiously, "Robin, I'm pretty sure your mom knows the friends you're hanging out with are a bunch of gay guys."

"I know she does," Robin replied. "I kind of had a talk with her when we were on that raft. She seems okay about it; and I told her I'll never forgive her if she messes up things with me and Pete."

Three hours later as the sun beat down nearly straight overhead, the coast of Greece began to emerge on the horizon in front of them. The captain approached them and said, "You should be able to use your cell phones now."

Tweek reached into the pocket of his ruined tux, surprised that his phone was even still there. He pulled it out and opened it, saw he was indeed getting a signal and was surprised to see that he had 37 texts and 1 voice message, all from C. Tucker. He wanted to hear the voice message first.

He pressed the phone against his head, barely able to hear the voice on the other end over the bad connection and the wind. Craig's voice, sounding distant and broken: "Tweek…I swear to you, if you just come home I'll never drink again. I…"

The message ended. Tweek played it four more times, getting more excited each time, listening for some hidden meaning in those fifteen words and not finding one. He read through his text messages next, each one some variation of call me now, each looking more desperate than the last.

He nervously entered Craig's number into his phone; the international call took quite some time to complete, and when the phone finally began ringing, it was answered immediately.

"Tweek!"

He closed his eyes. "Craig."

"Oh man, are you okay? I mean…"

"Yeah, I'm fine. We all made it out, all seven of us, about a half hour before the ship went down."

"I heard on the news there were eighteen survivors. Jesus Tweek, I was hoping you were one of them." There was an awkward silence. Craig, whose voice almost never betrayed any kind of emotion, added sadly: "You hate me now, don't you?"

Tweek rubbed his eyes. "No, Craig. I don't hate you. But I can't go back to how things were before either."

"Oh Christ, I know it. Tweek, come home to me. I'll stop drinking; I'll…I swear I'm going to fix this, okay? I've been thinking for hours that you might have died believing I didn't care."

Tweek smiled happily, wiping a tear from his eye and suddenly missing his sunglasses.

Craig continued, "If you want me to, I'll check myself into rehab; or whatever I have to do, I'll do it, okay?"

"Okay…ah, I gather we're flying to New York tonight, and then flying back to Colorado tomorrow. We'll talk about it when you get back from your uncle's."

"I have a better idea: How about I meet you in New York and you come to New Hampshire with me for a few days, and we'll fly home together."

Tweek's eyes widened. "You really want us to do that?"

"Of course I do. I have a lot of shit I need to fix with you. Call me when you find out when you'll be getting to New York. Tweek…I can't wait to see you again."

Tweek smiled. "I love you too, Craig. I'll see you tomorrow." He closed his phone and walked back to the rest of the group in time to hear Stan saying into his phone: "It's all right, Mom. I'm fine. We're all okay. I'll call you again when we get to the airport. Yeah, okay…you too. Bye." Stan closed his phone, stared thoughtfully at it for a moment, then walked over to Robin.

"Hey." Robin looked up at him. "It's seven in the morning in New York. Why don't you call Pete and see if he's awake."

Robin's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Really?" He eagerly reached for Stan's phone.

"Sure, man." Stan held the phone out for him, seeing he'd had trouble using it with just one hand. "Here, just go ahead and put in the number." Robin punched ten numbers into the keypad with his left hand, and Stan handed him his phone and went to sit down next to Kyle and Kenny. Butters was sleeping with his head on Kenny's shoulder.

"That was really nice, Stan," Kyle said.

"I had to, dude. You know?"

"Pete!" Robin said happily into Stan's phone. "Yeah! I'm okay! Well…I have two broken fingers and I have to go to the hospital and get a cast—" His eyes locked with Stan's. "Yeah, it hurts! One of my new friends set it, she's a doctor. I… I'm on a Coast Guard boat. We'll be in Greece in like an hour, and I guess we're all flying home together tonight." Butters was awake now, yawning and rubbing his eyes. Kenny nudged him and caught his eye, gesturing with his chin towards Robin.

Robin suddenly looked embarrassed. "It's really good to hear your voice too, Pete!" He looked at Stan helplessly. Stan made a shooing motion with his hand, and Robin nodded gratefully and walked to the other side of the boat, his voice fading.

"Sweet," Kenny said, looking after him. He looked at Stan and Kyle, who were also watching Robin talking intently into the phone. "I still say it's hard to believe we were ever once that young."

"I sure hope those two are going to be okay," Butters sighed.

Robin came back ten minutes later, walking slowly and carrying Stan's phone. He sat down next to Stan, giving the phone back after a long moment. "When we were saying goodbye," Robin said in a low voice. "Neither of us wanted to hang up. We just kept saying, 'okay bye, see you soon', back and forth to each other. He finally said 'I love you man' and hung up." Robin stared off toward the horizon. "He's going to meet me at the airport! He said he didn't care if he has to skip school, or hitchhike…he said he'd be there. And he said he wants to be the first person to sign my cast." Robin smiled. "But I told him he'd have to be the eighth. I want you guys to sign it on the plane tonight."

Nine hours later when they were on board a commercial jetliner the cruise ship company had chartered for the flight to New York, Robin filled his cast with signatures from all the survivors, leaving a large area on the cast next to his wrist clear for Pete to sign.