The Drift (A Hans Larsson Novel Book 1) Read Free Page A

haul him under the keel – that’s the bottom of the boat.”
    “Why, Papa?”
    “It was a type of punishment. The boats were big, so it was
a long time to be underwater and very frightening, and the keels were covered
in sharp barnacles, so if the sailor got pulled really fast he would get badly cut
and wouldn’t be naughty again. But don’t worry: we won’t use a rope, and Future hasn’t got any barnacles. We’ll just swim under her for a bit of fun, right?”
    “You go first, froggy !”
    “Ooh, you’re definitely gonna get a keelhaul!”
    With Future drifting under bare poles, Hans stripped to
his shorts, and Jessica put on her wetsuit.
    “Monster backflip?” he suggested.
    “ Heeeee !”
    Jessica was the master of the monster backflip – or any other
execution involving her father lobbing her into a body of water with flagrant
disregard for health and safety protocol.
    Standing on the upper deck, Hans cupped his hands around her
foot. “Okay . . . seven . . . three . . . eight . . . four . . . two . . . go !”
He launched her into the air, his protégée rotating one and a half times before
piercing the surface with hardly a splash.
    “Ha-ha! Nice dive, Jess!” Hans passed her a mask and snorkel
and a set of fins. “Best dive of the century from Daddy?”
    “No, you’re stupid !”
    “Oh, stupid, am I?” His mouth fell open as he looked to the
sky. “I suppose you think I’m not even the best diver in the whole wide world
and I look like a big hairy elephant.”
    “No, stupid froggy. Hee-hee!”
    “We’ll see about that then, won’t we? I’m gonna do a forward
somersault, then I’m gonna do a back somersault. Then I’m gonna fly around the
boat three times, and then I’m gonna hit the water perfect like . . .like an angel, and then I’m gonna eat you all up like a big ugly shark!”
    “Froggy shark!” Jessica giggled, having gotten used to her
papa’s idiocy.
    “Okay, coming in . . .” Hans concentrated intently, ready to
pull off the stunt of all stunts. “You better tell everyone we’re gonna make
history here!”
    “There’s no one else here, stupid froggy.”
    “Yeah, but there’s a whole lotta fish, and they probably
wanna know there’s an amazing thing about to happen.”
    “Little fish, Papa is a stupid froggy face, and he’s just
gonna fall in like he always does.”
    “Oh, that is so cruel! You don’t believe this is the
dive of the century?”
    “Ut- uhh .” She gave a definitive shake of her head.
    “Well, watch this . . . Yeeee-hah !”
    Hans leapt high in the air . . . to land with the worst
belly flop Plymouth had ever seen.
    “Did you see that!” he shrieked, his chest turning red.
    “Terrible! Daddy’s very terrible!”
    “I’ll give you terrible!”
    Hans sunk below the surface. Jessica screamed and tried to
make a break for it, but even wearing fins she was no match for her father’s
powerful strokes. Hans zeroed in from below like a great white shark targeting
a seal and lifted her clear out of the water.
    “ Arrrrrh ! Gonna eat you all up!”
    Jessica squealed in a mixture of torture and delight, Hans smothering
her with kisses. Since Mom’s and JJ’s death, the bond between them had reached
a new level, and now, holding her tight, Hans felt something special again,
something inexplicable. He started to cry silently, the water masking his tears.
    Jessica wasn’t blind to these episodes, though, her mind
ascribing them to the “thing” that happened to her mother and brother, too
young to understand her father’s outpouring of emotion was an expression of the
love he felt for her.
    “Right, time to swim under the boat.” Hans rallied himself. “Who’s
going first?”
    “You are.” Jessica prodded him in the chest.
    “No, I think you should.”
    “No, silly froggy goes first.”
    “How about handsome froggy and monkey butt go together?”
    “O- kay .”
    They duck-dove and swam down. With the late-spring sunshine
penetrating