6   VOYAGE

An early morning shower delayed their departure from the house and when it was over the air felt cold and fresh. With everything locked and secured they left and turned in at Ivan's place to hand him the keys to the house and to reiterate the plan they had made, said good-bye and continued to Gibson's Landing to drop off the pets. Ajax and the cats went to a friend of the family and also a friend of Ivan. Wilson, a veterinarian of enormous proportions would take care of them. He was happy to see them and promised to look after the animals as if they were royalty, but only if they would bring him a souvenir from Tahiti, something useful, he added. Helena promised, and Gábor, knowing the old man's humour and affection for Helena started to wonder what he could get him.

Gábor rented a car in Gibson's and loaded their luggage. Then taking the ferry from Langley to Horseshoe Bay, they intended to drive from there all the way to San Francisco. As they drove along Highway one-o-one south and past Astoria, they had just left Seaside, Helena on the wheel while Gábor rested, Leo spoke up suddenly: "Lena," and pointed to a road sign that said: "St. Helens". Helena nearly drove off the road and Gábor had to grab the wheel in a hurry. That was no accident. She wanted to find out from Leo if he saw that sign and was able to read and make the connection to her name, but Leo did not elaborate or say another word until they'd reached Reedsport. Instead he leafed through a book Ivan gave him and fiddled with a puzzle set of wires that consisted of a few pieces, which could be separated if one applied mental dexterity. Problems that presented themselves due to his physical construction, because he really did not have fingers as humans, he got around by persistence. Practicing writing seemed to be much easier. Copying letters was no problem at all, and his spatial understanding was superb.

Using the book, his mother pointed at letters and Leo identified them correctly, but had a hard time with the pronunciation. The letters ‘M', ‘P,’ and ‘B' sounded like anything but.

His vocabulary and pronunciations improved during the two weeks with Ivan and now Helena worked with him. Leo seemed to enjoy the attention and when he went to sleep, he curled up in Helena's arms. The Beauty and the Beast, a fictional character, came to Gábor's mind when he looked at them. Leo was as tall as Helena and still grew rapidly, and to Gábor it appeared his wife held a large lion in her arms.

There was a kind of tender emotion kindling in him, but with all of Leo's accomplishments, Gábor still could not see how Helena could see him more than an exceptionally intelligent and large cat but admitted that he was too sceptical. There were enough signs that Leo was far more than he appeared to be, but to him, he was still an alien being.

However, Helena was happy and her husband observed the two with growing interest and something germinated in him; a feeling of acceptance, maybe a sense of love, but undeniably an emotion he had reserved for intelligent human beings. It was one thing to love a pet and another to love a sentient being. Deep in Gábor's being Leo slowly changed into a "somebody", replacing that "something", and was becoming equal to a human, but he was not yet conscious of that transformation. He was too much of a pragmatic, the ingrained scientific education of what was possible, and what was not, had not lost its grip on him. He readily admitted that Leo was far more up the animal hierarchy than chimpanzees but wasn't ready to grant him sentient status, not yet. Nevertheless, the seed of understanding sprouted inexorably in him. What comes naturally with a mother's instinct, to accept any life that has grown in her womb and brought to terms, is accepted without much resistance against expectations what it should be, comes harder for a man. These kinds of emotions were new and confusing to Gábor.

They set up camp for the night near a creek, away from places popular with people, and next morning continued to Eureka, admired the giant redwood forest at the Humboldt National Park, and by nightfall reached San Francisco. It wasn’t easy to find a pension for just one night, so they got a Motel not far from the pier the ship would depart from.

At daybreak, Gábor dropped the car off at the rental agency and proceeded on foot to the docks. His family waited behind the Cruise Ship's office in the shade, away from scrutinizing eyes. Leo with his hood up and dark, large sunglasses to cover his eyes, looked like one of the Star Wars characters in his outfit, but it did the job. Gábor started to understand Leo's speech better, but Leo didn't talk much. Perhaps he felt how hard it was for Gábor to understand, and their conversation was in monosyllables. Nonetheless, it dawned on his father that Leo knew more than it appeared.

Gábor recalled what Ivan said about Leo understanding maps and charts, ability only humans had. No animal could interpret scribbles on paper and their meaning or make sense of them. That was clear evidence of intelligence, and that in a five-year-old to boot. It made him wonder whether his perception of Leo was wrong. There would be time on this cruise to find out.

The cruise would go to the Marquesas, Tahiti, and the Leeward Islands, the Cook Islands, Rarotonga, Fiji, and Hawaii, then return to San Francisco. It was a small private cruise liner, "Emerald Seas", with only one hundred twenty passengers and a crew of twenty, including the captain, but their cabin was clean and spacious. When all three of them boarded the ship and presented the boarding pass and passports, there was a curious inquiry from the ship’s steward about Leo's age and size. Why was he still on his mother's passport? A hundred dollar bill and an explanation about some weird skin disease and hormonal imbalance answered that question.

The hooded boy and his parents went aboard with the steward's eyes on their back, leaving him wondering if the boy perhaps was crippled. His gait was lumbering and awkward, but maybe he was just playing the role of a Star Wars character. He couldn’t recall whether Han Solo’s sidekick had a tail, but it was a great touch to the costume.

When dinnertime came, Helena took their meals to their cabin and the galley personnel thought they were the biggest meat eaters on the planet because they ordered the biggest portions and asked for seconds. At nightfall, they did venture on the promenade deck after the sun went down. Leo went with them and enjoyed the night breeze as the ship headed on a south-westerly course toward Tahiti. The wind was not creating any problems coming from the northwest, blowing fifteen knots, perfect for sailing, thought Gábor, and recalled some of their small trips to Desolation Sound and the Gulf Islands. His almond shaped eyes squinted a little and a furrow creased his forehead.

"I wonder what it would be like to sail to Tahiti," Gábor thought aloud, throwing a glance to Helena. "Not with me on it," she said. Leo looked at her.

"Are you afraid to get seasick?" inquired Gábor.

"I would look like a seal, laid on deck and barfing. The short trips we did were okay, but an extended one? I don't think so."

"I swear, I would not tell anyone if you'd barf, but you'd make a great imitation of a seal."

"Because of the blubber?" Helena asked, pinching her non-existing fat.

"Because of the sounds your barfing would make," he replied laughing. Helena looked at Leo. "What about you? How would you feel about it?"

Leo's pupils were large discs in his amber eyes, he shook his head, and a word broke from his lips that sounded like "Wadrrr." Helena laughed. "You're afraid your tail is gonna get wet?"

"Doo nuch, doo deed."

Before they could continue, Leo turned toward the cabin and moved toward it like a shadow, smooth and silent, and disappeared inside. Seconds later, the steward that had checked their boarding passes came up from the deck below.

"Good evening Ma'am, Sir. May I disturb you for a minute?" when both looked at him questioningly, he added, "It's about your son." He looked at Helena and quietly admired her beauty. This was one knockout woman; he thought. Classy, sexy and he wouldn't have said "no" to her if she would have wanted to share his bed.

"Something wrong with the banknote I gave you?" Gábor asked.

"No." The man smiled at that. "The Quartermaster shared that with me and he is discreet. No, I wanted to ask you if the quarters are okay. If you need something for yourself or your boy, I'm happy to help you. We have a very good medical facility aboard. If your son needs help…"

His sun-tanned face had an odd look with the deck lamp behind him; Gábor was not sure how to read the man and he interrupted him.

"Look, if this is about my son, I can assure you, there is nothing wrong with him besides his appearance. The money I gave you was a tip. He is very shy around people and is not happy about his skin condition. It's not contagious. We took this trip to take his mind off his problems and I would very much like it if we could handle this on our own. The boy has problems enough with his looks and needs nothing more to make it worse. But thank you for offering your help." The steward turned slightly toward the light and Gábor saw his face and the nametag. It said: Higgins.

"Ah, yes. I did not mean to upset you, Sir. I just want to make sure all is well. Good night Sir, Ma'am," tipping his fingers to his head, he turned and left. Helena turned to her husband and a worried look was on her face.

"Do you think he will create problems?" Gábor pulled her closer and laid an arm around her shoulder.

"I don't know, but I will keep my eyes open. He took the money and that makes him not very trustworthy. He can be bribed." Helena put her arm around him and kissed him lightly. They returned to the cabin where Leo sat with his hood up and his mother went to him, pulled his hood off, and stroked his head. He did not look up and she lifted his head and noticed his liquid eyes. In a strange voice, he asked. "Why diffrrrent?" It was a question she couldn’t answer.

"Who knows why? We love you Leo, no matter what. Nothing else matters."

Gábor felt hot tears in his eyes and went to join them. He put one arm around Helena the other around Leo. It was not often Leo and Gábor connected physically, but now he felt much closer to him than before and it surprised him how easy it was. Leo also put his arms first hesitantly, then with more force around his parents. Helena looked over Leo's head at Gábor. His eyes were closed and in the corner of his eyes two teardrops spilled out from under the eyelids. When he felt her eyes on his face, he opened them. There were wet and Helena gently wiped them dry.

Leo curled up in his berth while Gábor and Helena talked quietly about the plan; how they would come as often as possible to see him and take him back home as soon as they had cleared up things in Canada, find a private tutor who wouldn't mind teaching a lion secretly and see how things went. It would create big problems, but they would face them. Of course, it would also depend on how much Leo changed, but the fact remained, he had the good looks of a cat and the ugly looks of a human but, he still grew rapidly. He would be a familiar animal but a hideous human once he turned into an adult. His intelligence would have to remain a secret around others for a while and, of course, he would not wear clothing; no large animal does, and Leo would have to appear as an animal. How would he feel about that? They decided to wait and cross bridges when they got to them. They went to bed, made love to each other quietly, and slept until noon.

In the next few days, they changed their waking hours, and true to a cat's nature, Leo slept a lot during the day. Because they could be with Leo in the night when most of the passengers were asleep, with the exception of a few crew and some party animals, they found that to be the best solution to be together. It was easy to get out of the way of the night crawlers. They had talked to Leo about their plans a few days later again, not sure if he understood it all, but when they looked at him closer, they saw the sadness in his eyes and they choked on their breath. It broke their heart and they tried to comfort Leo, although they needed comfort themselves. They thought about their friend waiting for them in Tahiti in a few days and meeting up with him before their plan would become active. Ivan was going to be in Papeete and they would get a commercial inflatable to ‘rescue' Leo and take him to Mehetia, an island about eighty-five nautical miles from Papeete in roughly northeasterly direction. He intended to use it for traveling to and fro between Papeete and Mehetia and use it for fishing as well as to ferry provisions when they needed it. Leo seemed to understand everything they talked about and his eyes seemed to turn alert when Gábor began to talk about stealth and dodging other people if they would appear on the island.

Not aware that being Hungarian citizens and belonging to the European Union, they could stay as long as they desired, he stressed they must stay invisible as much as possible since the French did not allow a stay of more than three months at a stretch. He reminded them to stay out of sight of other vessels, especially Military. Ivan would do all of the trips alone to Tahiti, and if he left in the morning, he would be back in the afternoon. He had the training to remain invisible he said, and did not stick out when he didn't want to. They talked about the problems they all would have if he remained without any preparation among humans and other students at the school, about their intolerance and ignorance, their prejudice, why he had to disappear for a while, and when things cooled down, they would come and join him. Nevertheless, they had to make the people believe he was lost at sea in an accident, at least for a little while. That night, he cuddled with them on their bed flanked by Helena and Gábor and that was the only thing he was happy about.