their
lines, stood there in the dark and chatted. I felt like going down and telling
them to hurry up. Finally they left and we could go down, crawl under the dock
and into the sub. We had a plate of beans, bread and sardines. We washed it down
with tea and went to bed.
In the middle of the night I woke Radji and told him to get up and take his
post at the periscope. I knew he was tired, and I knew that he was only ten, and
part of me wanted to let him sleep, but another part of me believed that since
he had stowed away on my sub, he had to earn his keep. It was not a free ride.
That was the part of me that was the captain. Besides, I figured it was good for
him.
I gave him a glass of juice first. Then we took our places, I started the
engine and we headed upstream with the portal just a foot above the surface and
the hatch wide open. Seaweed rode on top of it. As with the other river, the
banks were often bare, sometimes tree-lined, or industrial or strewn with
barges. There were very few houses close to the water. Perhaps upstream there
would be. All the same, I told Radji to keep a close lookout for people. If we
were spotted I wanted to know, although I didn’t know what sense anyone would
make of aseagull riding upstream on what probably looked
like the top of a metal barrel. In the dark they probably wouldn’t see anything
anyway.
The first twenty-five miles were easy. With the engine running we cut eighteen
knots through the water. The river was flowing against us at three knots, so our
true speed against the bank was fifteen knots, but with all the twisting and
turning it took about two hours to cover twenty-five miles. Then it became
trickier because it grew shallower. I had to watch the sonar screen closely and
zigzag in places, and that slowed us down quite a bit. The last five miles were
particularly difficult, and took us another two hours, so the sun was already
coming up when Radji spotted the red scarf. He called out excitedly when he saw
it. Looking out through the periscope was Radji’s favourite thing to do, next to
playing chess.
I came as close to the bank as I dared. To do that, I had to pump air into the
tanks and bring the hull above the surface. Now we were exposed. I saw the roof
of Melissa’s house and I saw the boathouse. It certainly needed work; it was
leaning to one side like a rotten pumpkin. But it was big enough, although we
would have to surface completely to get inside. I moored the sub to the
boathouse and dropped anchor too, just in case the river felt like pulling the
sub away and dragging the boathouse along with it. I had learned not to trust
rivers.
We inflated the kayak, climbed in—all four of us—and paddled a few feet to the
bank. We jumped out, I pulled thekayak up onto the grass and
we wandered over to Melissa’s house. It was a white, one-storey, mortared house,
yellowed with age, with a red, clay-tiled roof and tall windows that opened out
like French doors. It looked like a vanilla cake with pink frosting. There was
grass growing in the eavestroughs. There were flowers and weeds growing all
around the walls of the house, and they looked like good places for snakes to
hide. I wanted to remember to ask her about that. Something moved on the roof.
Looking up, I saw monkeys in the trees.
Chapter Fifteen
I SMELLED COFFEE . Melissa was awake. I looked down at Hollie and
he looked up at me. “There are snakes here, Hollie. Snakes. Watch out for
snakes, okay?”
There was a wooden veranda that wrapped around the house. The branches of trees
reached down and touched it as if the trees were trying to make the house part
of the forest. The monkeys had the run of the roof. I didn’t trust those
monkeys. I didn’t know why, but there was something about their movement that
just struck me as untrustworthy. They were small, brown, skinny monkeys with
long tails. They ran
lines, stood there in the dark and chatted. I felt like going down and telling
them to hurry up. Finally they left and we could go down, crawl under the dock
and into the sub. We had a plate of beans, bread and sardines. We washed it down
with tea and went to bed.
In the middle of the night I woke Radji and told him to get up and take his
post at the periscope. I knew he was tired, and I knew that he was only ten, and
part of me wanted to let him sleep, but another part of me believed that since
he had stowed away on my sub, he had to earn his keep. It was not a free ride.
That was the part of me that was the captain. Besides, I figured it was good for
him.
I gave him a glass of juice first. Then we took our places, I started the
engine and we headed upstream with the portal just a foot above the surface and
the hatch wide open. Seaweed rode on top of it. As with the other river, the
banks were often bare, sometimes tree-lined, or industrial or strewn with
barges. There were very few houses close to the water. Perhaps upstream there
would be. All the same, I told Radji to keep a close lookout for people. If we
were spotted I wanted to know, although I didn’t know what sense anyone would
make of aseagull riding upstream on what probably looked
like the top of a metal barrel. In the dark they probably wouldn’t see anything
anyway.
The first twenty-five miles were easy. With the engine running we cut eighteen
knots through the water. The river was flowing against us at three knots, so our
true speed against the bank was fifteen knots, but with all the twisting and
turning it took about two hours to cover twenty-five miles. Then it became
trickier because it grew shallower. I had to watch the sonar screen closely and
zigzag in places, and that slowed us down quite a bit. The last five miles were
particularly difficult, and took us another two hours, so the sun was already
coming up when Radji spotted the red scarf. He called out excitedly when he saw
it. Looking out through the periscope was Radji’s favourite thing to do, next to
playing chess.
I came as close to the bank as I dared. To do that, I had to pump air into the
tanks and bring the hull above the surface. Now we were exposed. I saw the roof
of Melissa’s house and I saw the boathouse. It certainly needed work; it was
leaning to one side like a rotten pumpkin. But it was big enough, although we
would have to surface completely to get inside. I moored the sub to the
boathouse and dropped anchor too, just in case the river felt like pulling the
sub away and dragging the boathouse along with it. I had learned not to trust
rivers.
We inflated the kayak, climbed in—all four of us—and paddled a few feet to the
bank. We jumped out, I pulled thekayak up onto the grass and
we wandered over to Melissa’s house. It was a white, one-storey, mortared house,
yellowed with age, with a red, clay-tiled roof and tall windows that opened out
like French doors. It looked like a vanilla cake with pink frosting. There was
grass growing in the eavestroughs. There were flowers and weeds growing all
around the walls of the house, and they looked like good places for snakes to
hide. I wanted to remember to ask her about that. Something moved on the roof.
Looking up, I saw monkeys in the trees.
Chapter Fifteen
I SMELLED COFFEE . Melissa was awake. I looked down at Hollie and
he looked up at me. “There are snakes here, Hollie. Snakes. Watch out for
snakes, okay?”
There was a wooden veranda that wrapped around the house. The branches of trees
reached down and touched it as if the trees were trying to make the house part
of the forest. The monkeys had the run of the roof. I didn’t trust those
monkeys. I didn’t know why, but there was something about their movement that
just struck me as untrustworthy. They were small, brown, skinny monkeys with
long tails. They ran
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