Chapter 2

Seattle

Sam Baldwin heaved the tool box out of his truck and hauled it down the pontoon which housed his motor boat and now his slightly bigger boat, one would call a mini yacht. Sam dumped the tools on the deck as he climbed down across the crevice between the dock and the Seattle water front. He gave a wry smile to himself as he felt the weight of the boat bob under his feet, he still held an inkling of guilt from winning this beauty in a game of rummy turned sevens with Jay one evening, but it was getting easier to shake off. The evening had started out with a minor bet over the super bowl…bets on the Dallas Cowboys to lose spectacularly to the Seattle Seahawks; well this is what Jay Predicted. Sam having a better grasp of football that his friend and being a Bears fan for so many years, knew the weaknesses behind the Seahawks and put his money on the Cowboys. From this the bets had escalated from minor ducats to the yacht that Jay owned which needed so many repairs. Sam often wondered how it accommodated Jays ballast as well as stay afloat, suffice to say the floating colander originally named the Destroyer now belonged to Sam.

Chuckling to himself once again at anyone naming this little lady the Destroyer, Sam tightened the nut on the starboard side of the boat with a flourish. There had been some debate between himself and his son Jonah Baldwin about what the two bachelors should call their new acquisition. Sam airing of the side of his once lovely wife's name of the Maggie two his previous boat being called the Maggie. Jonah saying they already had one mom boat, said this one should be called the Peter Parker, Spiderman being big in Jonah's life at the moment as an avid game playing ten year old. Therefore the boat had remained nameless and the word Destroyer firmly white washed until a suitable name could be settled upon.

Although most would laugh at Jay for owning a boat in a city where it rains nine months of the year, Sam was not one of them. He and Jonah would go out on their little boat as much as possible in the summer months, fishing off the side, jump into the water below…never forgetting to leave the ladder down… and sail to different areas of the city. Once the boy-some twosome had thought they had sailed so far they had ended up almost at the other side of the bay, only to find themselves at the next beach, they had been new to the city at this point. But now with the 'Non Destroyer' they could go out in the winter months and be undercover, cook what they fished and generally have a male bonding experience complete with Budweiser's for Sam, and a weak version for Jonah which was mostly lemonade.

Sam sat back on his heels and tipped himself into a sitting position on the deck. Today was another beautiful summer's day on the Seattle dock. Jonah was in school but Sam decided they could try out the boat again this evening, even if just to eat dinner out here. Reflecting on his life the last three years, the loss of his wife which had led him to believe he would never find 'another one' like her, to Victoria the woman with the Albatross laugh…Jonah had been right on that one, to Annie the woman that never was…to Diane the lady he was seeing on and off now.

As the sun burned on his tanned skin Sam pushed his dark curls away from his face as he felt his head begin to sweat, his thoughts turned back to Annie again. Sam had been so angry with fear that he would lose his son the night he had found out the eight year old had journeyed to New York using a ticket bought by his best friend Jessica. Sam knew exactly where Jonah had headed to because of the letter he had received from Annie Reed after his stint on the radio waves as Sleepless in Seattle. Annie Reed had asked him to meet her on the top of the Empire State Building on Valentine's day and Jonah, having a feeling about this woman, had gone alone to meet her. Sam had found his son after an anxious cab ride from JFK, propped up against a telescope his head down against the battering wind. Sam had almost screamed his son's name when he saw him, he could not lose the only other member of his small family the way he had lost Maggie.

Jonah had hugged his dad solidly relieved to see him, but had then expressed his disappointment that Annie had never come to meet them. Sam too had been intrigued into the kind of woman who wanted to meet a man from the radio, and who had broken her way into his son's heart and mind. Yet he was left with no resolution as he had never met Annie from Baltimore that night. In his mind on days like these when he was alone with his thoughts without the demands for more fries, or a new video game, he could almost imagine Annie and in his thoughts she would always look like the Airport Hello woman.

Later that day…

"Dad if we go to Walmart can I get a new movie?" Jonah asked staring out the window in Sam's Dodge as the two neared the turn off to the Walmart they often went to for their grocery shopping. Sam took the hint and with a wry smile turned into the parking lot of the shop, Jonah gave him the same wry smile back as he pulled into a space close to the front door, it was rather quiet for a Friday after school had let out. Jonah happily hopped out of the car and scuffing his Nikes slightly, he grabbed a cart.

"Are we getting lots of new movies Jonah?" he asked with a laugh as he scrubbed the boys head with his knuckle.

"Being prepared dad," Jonah quipped jumping to attention and pulling a salute.

"Of course, of course," Sam drawled and pushed the cart up the curb towards the flowers and newspaper stand. In doing so he scanned his eyes over the usual Seattle magazine to see what the latest headline is 'Woman gives birth to quadruplets at the age of 55', Sam raised his eyebrows at this and gave the woman a silent hail of good luck.

"Hey Jonah," he shouted to the boy who had run on ahead desperate to get to the video game and movie section.

"Yeh Dad?" he shouted back his eyes desperately pleading for his dad to be quick in whatever headline he wanted to 'inform' him about today.

"There's a boat race and show at the forum to race from the Elliot Bay in a month… it says all boats." Sam was getting into his stride with an idea forming, Jonah sighed knowing this would not be resolved quickly his dad was full of 'great ideas' being an architect.

"There's prize money of $1000 dollars if you win the race, and you get to show your boat at the arena the week before. Hey, sounds like there's lots of boat enthusiasts and stalls there…Jonah I think we could do this!"

"With the Holey Dick?" Jonah asked plainly.

Same gave him an appalled look "The Holey what?"

"Like the Moby Dick dad except ours is full of holes without the help of a whale," Jonah said seriously "We're studying it in school, hey," he mused "was I named after a whale?"

"Oh...Erm no ," Sam said his heart calming down slightly, thanking God silently his son hadn't been looking at some stuff in his video collection that were mostly certainly not Spiderman videos.

Sam made his way around the store pondering on his idea. He could get the boat ready, it would be a push no doubt about it, but with Jonah's school ending in a week and him taking some vacation time from designing Mrs Freer's granny apartment he might be able to do this…and win. Was that too much to hope he wondered. Tossing shrimp and lobster into his cart with ears of corn and large potatoes, thinking he may do a barbeque to eat on the boat tonight to celebrate, he ran into Jonah hanging around the romantic cinema section.

"What you got there Mr?" Sam asked taking the Video box from Jonah's hand…"Ghostbusters…alright!" Sam said sounding like a school boy and throwing the movie into the cart. As he stood up slightly his eyes fell on a cassette box with a picture of couple embracing. Cary Grant with his oil slicked hair, his arms around the red headed Deborah Kerr; the loopy title of An Affair to remember held him transfixed. Jonah already losing interest had gone over to look at the new Tomb Raider game, but Sam remained looking at the couple. Before he could stop himself that cassette was also tossed into the cart and buried under the corn out of sight of Jonah, he didn't want his son to bring up the Annie thing again with him.

As the man and boy left the store, An affair to remember surreptitiously buried under the frozen shrimp in the brown paper bag, a rain storm hit and began to drown Sam and Jonah forcing them to make the final dash to the Dodge a run.

"Ruin's my grilling plans," Sam grumbled as he slammed the door shut and shook the rain off his hair.

"0.7 inches this month dad," Jonah reminded him. Jonah was obsessed with the rain fall level in Seattle ever since his best friend Jessica had challenged him to a science experiment measuring rain fall, the prize being a dollar. Sam often thought the dollar was really not worth the reminders he got on a frequent basis about rainfall level.

"No Kidding," Sam said spinning the car and heading towards the homestead knowing full well he was going home to an evening of Ghost Busters, when all his brain wanted was for him to watch the hidden movie in the bag so he could allow himself those few moments of being Annie centric.

"You ok dad?" Jonah asked also ruffling his curtain like hair out of his face and wiping his hands on his blue jeans, he snuggled down further in his Seahawks jacket.

"Yes Jonah, yes I'm fine," Sam replied and turned the car into the home driveway.

As they struggled with the paper bags in the rain Sam looked again at his boat bobbing on the water, he was going to enter this race and show and if he didn't win well he would give it a God damn good try. As he closed the front door he couldn't help but wonder if the desperation to win this race wasn't something to do with keeping his mind distracted from a woman he had never and would probably never meet again.