Читать книгу The Reject - Edyth Bulbring - Страница 8

SEA MONSTER

Reader joins me at the railing. He blinks his gooey eyes at me and gives a shy baby-pink smile.

“I am baffled, my lovely. I have kept faith with my books, and by all my calculations we should have reached home weeks ago. Even the storms could not have thrown us so far off course. And I do not doubt that our friend has carried out my instructions and steered the seacraft by the stars.”

Our friend! My collar bone is healed but I still hobble about, shoulder hunched, my face a mask of pain. I play weak, waiting for an opportunity to shove Gollum overboard or feed him a banquet laced with poison, fit for a hungry rat.

Gollum watches me, eyes peeled like boiled eggs. He wears a waist harness even on the calmest days, and a life jacket for just-in-case. When he eats, he insists that Reader takes the first mouthful.

“Taste this, Master Reader,” Gollum says. “Has Drudge overcooked our meal? Again?”

I wait, and watch him too.

One day he will slip up. And good riddance to him.

Reader continues, ignoring my snort. “I do not doubt my books or our young captain. But I wonder sometimes whether the world has changed. Whether the waters that rose after the conflagration swallowed up the lands that used to exist.” He scratches his forehead. “Or perhaps when the earth flipped on its axis and carved the moon in half, it rearranged the stars in the heavens. Or maybe, just maybe, Juliet, we are looking at the sky from a different hemisphere. Could it be that our world has actually turned upside-down?” Reader sighs. “It is a conundrum, my Juliet, and I have no answers.”

Fear rises in my throat. I am trapped on this sloop with my burden, sailing into a void with a blind old man and a filthy Reject. I should never have trusted Reader. I should have chucked him overboard months ago. He is a useless sack of old dots.

“Could it be, old man, that you have got us hopelessly lost? You, and our fine captain. Could the conundrum be that both of you don’t have a clue what you’re doing, and that we’re going to sail around on this terrible ocean until our teeth fall out or we die of thirst and starvation?”

I sink onto the deck. We will never get back home. Nicolas will believe that I abandoned him forever. And unless we find new land, we will die. Maybe there is only a sea of nothingness, and we are chasing the ghosts of lands that died hundreds of years ago.

The setting sun paints the sea flaming orange and bright pink, harsh brushstrokes against the black canvas. A flash of silver breaks though the surface. Then the ripples on the water settle back into their fiery tapestry.

“Tonight I will have to tell our captain that I fear my books have failed him. That we are lost.” Reader presses his hand over mine. “We will make a new plan, Juliet. We will not give up.”

I pull my hand away from Reader’s and screen my eyes against the glare of the setting sun. There it is again. A flash of silver breaking the water. Now a spear of grey carving a path towards the seacraft.

Stories of terrible sea monsters are told by the Mangerians to keep the residents of Slum City from venturing across the ocean. I never believed their lies, but my eyes do not deceive me. Something is moving in the water below.

Gollum joins us, picking the crust of sleep from his eyes. “Did I hear the beautiful words ‘stewed’ and ‘mango’? Or was it a dream?” His eyes brighten when he sees the bowl on the crate. He stands at the railing next to me and hawks a throat full of phlegm into the sea. “Before I went to sleep this morning I found a book in your library, Master Reader. It has pictures and words, not just dots. Maybe we could read it together tonight? I think I’m up for it.”

Reader claps his hands. “I brought a couple of Juliet’s favourites. The one with the pictures? Yes, that must be Peter Pan. It is about a boy who flies. And a pirate captain who sails a seacraft much like ours called the Jolly Roger. I think you will like it a great deal. We can read it together, my fine captain.”

Master Reader and my fine captain. Reading my book. Mine!

“The Jolly Roger. It’s a good name for a seacraft. From now on my sloop is the Jolly Roger.”

His sloop. How dare he!

The Reject wipes his mouth and rubs his hands down his trousers. Nicolas’s trousers.

I strike his face, knocking the captain’s cap off his head. “I forbid you to read my book. You are nothing. You have no right!”

Gollum grabs my hand. He leans into me, his other hand a fist. I pull back, shielding my face with my arm. Waves thrash. A face appears from the sea, a pink and grey maw edged with rows of dagger teeth. I scream. Gollum hauls me back as the monster throws itself against the seacraft.

I stand on the deck shaking like a past trader as Gollum picks up his captain’s cap and pulls it onto his head, cocking the angle.

“This is the second time I’ve saved your skin, Drudge. First from the storm.” He holds a finger in the air. “And now from a monster.” He waggles two fingers at me. “Next time, I own you.” He stabs three fingers inches from my face.

I smack away his hand. There will not be a third time. No one owns me. My heart reeling, I lean over the railing and scan the sea. A silver blade cuts through the waves, circling the boat. A grey-and-white snout, two dead-black eyes looking back at me. It sinks below the water and is gone. Tiny waves knit together, repairing the rip in the sea.

“What is it, Juliet? What has occurred?” Reader scrabbles in vain on the deck for the bowl, which was tossed off the crate. “A freak wave? My captain, what was that?”

“It was a monster.” My voice is a whisper. “I saw it, old man. It’s true what they told us: monsters still live in the sea. It came out of the water and tried to attack the boat.”

Reader claps his hands and his face cracks in a foolish smile. “There was something alive in the water? Describe it to me. Please, Juliet. Paint it with words so that I will also know what it looks like.”

I tell Reader of the grey knife that sliced through the waves. The rows of jagged teeth in a cavernous mouth turned down in a sad grimace. The shiny grey-white body and tiny dead eyes.

“It is a shark fish! One of the oldest sea scavengers. Tell me, Juliet, how big was it?”

I stretch my arms as wide as they can go. Of course Reader cannot see me. “Two metres at least.”

“Rubbish! Another three metres.” Gollum strides across the deck. “At least twice the width of my Jolly Roger. And I nearly touched the beast. I was so close, I could have punched it.”

The old man gasps. “It must be the Great White. The prince of shark fishes. A great killer. They were hunted for generations before the conflagration. It was assumed they had died out along with the whales and the seals, long before the old world came to an end.”

Gollum’s eyes search the ocean as it sucks the growing darkness from the sky.

“My captain, Juliet, this means everything. Our seas are not barren as we thought. The Great White eats other fish. It would not survive if it was alone. There must be more creatures, other fish that this beauty feeds on.” Tears trickle down Reader’s cheeks. “The sea is alive. Perhaps it also hosts dolphins, or mermaids. Tonight we will celebrate.”

We linger for a while and watch for more signs of life, but the sea remains dark and silent as the sun disappears below the horizon.

Reader is like a small boy who’s found a nest of chicks. He cannot stop chattering. “I knew it, Juliet. Did I not tell you there was life away from home?” His words swim in spit, drown in his mouth. “Who knows, perhaps we will discover a lion, the king of the jungle. Or maybe a rhinoceros, with its magical horn. I have read about these animals, seen pictures in books, many years ago, before my eyes darkened.” He wipes the specks of saliva off his chin and giggles.

Gollum’s brow furrows. “You must teach me about these beasts, Master Reader. I’ve never heard about them. Are they good to eat?”

“Oh, my captain. In the old days people used to hunt them to fill their pots, or for trade. Often they slaughtered them for sport. When their numbers grew fewer, people paid thousands of credits to simply gaze at these creatures. Then they were not for eating.” Reader links his arm through Gollum’s. “I think tonight we can skip our reading-and-writing lesson. Instead, I will tell you a story about a great fish called Moby Dick. We can roast some corn and make a party to celebrate our new discovery.” He pauses. “Juliet, of course, tonight you must join us. You will like the story about Captain Ahab and his whale, I assure you.”

Gollum’s smile is stretched as wide as a Market Nag’s bum at the thought of one of Reader’s stories. He picks the bowl off the deck. “Yes, we will fill our bowls and celebrate. I’ll cook a special feast for the two of us. I’m tired of Drudge’s burnt food.”

I am shut out. The odd one out in this happy friendship.

“Enough with your stories, old man. I’m sick of your fairy tales about stars that will take us home. Tell your fine captain the truth. Tell him we’ll be bobbing about on this monstrous sea until our hair turns grey. Or we’re eaten by killer fish. Tell him we’re lost!”

Reader looks shamefaced at Gollum and clears his throat. “It is true. I am sorry, my captain. I have let you down.”

My anger boils over as I grab the bowl from Gollum’s hand and hurl it into the sea. “And why don’t you tell Reader how you worked for the Locusts and traded information about the rebels during the war? Don’t try and deny it, I know your kind. Tell him how you intend to sell me to the Locusts for credits when we get home.” I push Gollum. “Tell him, you two-faced Reject.”

Reader steadies himself on Gollum’s shoulder. “My captain, is this true? Surely you would do no such thing to our Juliet?”

Gollum’s face goes dark. “Talking of secrets, maybe Drudge should tell us hers.” He grips my arms and hisses. “Tell us why you can’t eat and why you sleep all day when you’re supposed to be steering. And why you sick up in the sea every morning. Go on, Drudge, let us in on your dirty secret.”

Dirty? I am carrying Nicolas’s child. I do not feel dirty.

“See, Master Reader, she won’t tell you that she’s gone down the river. Soon we’ll have another mouth to feed. For as long as the food lasts.” Gollum glowers at me. “There’s only three sacks of corn left in the galley. The last thing we need is some drudge brat to feed.”

“Juliet?” Reader’s mouth trembles in a gummy smile. “My Juliet, you are burdened?”

In Slum City, my growing belly would be a burden. I would be sent to Savage City for daring to breed without permission. But Nicolas and I planned to leave that nightmare. To play a new game. Our rules.

I stalk away, passing a mirror attached to the side of the cabin. Gollum likes to peer at himself when he wakes in the afternoons. He flicks bits out of his teeth with a piece of string, prods his gums, cleans his nostrils with his grimy fingers. He salutes the mirror. “And a very good evening to you, Captain Gollum. You handsome bastard,” he always says.

I pause in front of the piece of glass and stare at myself. My face is fuller, the angles softened. My skin glows and is tanned dark – I ran out of sunblocker weeks ago. My hair is even more Savage. My cow-eyes are dark chocolate. I touch my chest and run my hands down the sides of my body. I am no longer skinny. I am as plump as a pleasure worker. My ankles are pulpy slabs of bruised banana.

Sitting on the bow of the sloop, I place my hand on my stomach. It flutters. I smooth my fingers across my belly.

Wisha-wisha-wisha.

My child will be a boy. A part of Nicolas. We will find our way home and my son will know his father.

The half-moon and the stars play catch-me on the water. I see it, then, the silver spear, darting in the light-flecked waves. The smooth grey bulk noses its way towards the Jolly Roger. The prince of sharks. Proof of life beyond Mangeria.

The fish swims towards the seacraft and turns. It does this several times, keeping faith with an invisible straight line. The bowl I tossed into the sea is still bobbing in the water. The great beast takes it in its terrible mouth and flips it onto the deck.

I grab the plastic cushion Reader sits on when he teaches Gollum his lessons at night and chuck it into the sea. The monster leaps for it and the cushion lands back on the deck.

A game! The creature thinks I’m playing with it.

“Look, look, the monster is back!” I yell.

Gollum runs towards me. I grab the captain’s cap from his head and fling it into the ocean.

“What in The Machine’s name do you think you’re doing?”

My lips curl. Only the rubbish from Slum City worship at the shrine of The Machine. Ignorant trash, grovelling before a cruel god who decides whose lives have worth.

The Great White dives for the cap and crunches it in its jaws. I laugh at the fury on Gollum’s face. “It doesn’t like you. It knew it was yours. But see now.” I toss the bowl back into the sea.

The beast’s fin whacks it at Gollum, who ducks. I taste delicious glee.

Reader joins us. “Such turbulence. There is water all over the deck. Is a storm coming?”

“Drudge has made a new friend. She and the big fish are playing catch with our things.” Gollum places a hand on Reader’s arm. “Stand back, Master Reader. She’s going to throw us into the sea and let this killer play ball with us.”

The Great White slices a path through the dark water. Back and forward. It reaches the seacraft and nudges it, moves off again in the same direction.

“It means us to follow. It’s showing us the way,” I say.

“The way where? It’s going to lead us off the edge of the world and we’ll become supper for a bunch of monsters. Don’t listen to her nonsense, Master Reader.”

Reader shakes his head. “I have never read about these great beasts being playful or guiding lost sailors. Dolphins, yes. They were known to be fun-loving and helpful.” His eyes brighten. “But then again, the birds in the old world were not tellers, and flies back in the day were tiny insects, not as large as our fists. I expect things have changed over time.”

The old man sighs. “Hoist the mainsail, my captain. Let us follow the fish. We have little choice.”