Rain Born

by Zoha Kazemi

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Tirad leaps towards Mart.

  “Get away!” Mart says, as he pushes Tirad away. Tirad slips between him and the cabin door.

  “What do you want with her?” Tirad says, trying to stop Mart from opening the door.

  “I thought you were just pretending to be a virgin… But you really are a little boy, aren’t you?” Mart replies, easily pushing Tirad away with the back of his arm.

  “Shut up!” Tirad shouts. Lealy’s worried voice comes out from behind the door. She desperately asks what is going on. Mart and Tirad fight over the door, Mart trying to open it and Tirad trying to prevent him. Mart kicks Tirad in his knees and Tirad falls on the floor. Mart turns the knob and Lealy comes to the doorway with a messy hair and a garbled look. Tirad tells her to go back into the cabin but Mart stops her.

  “Stand where you are… I need to teach you both a lesson,” Mart orders Lealy.

  “Do you think you can always stay untouched? We have raped all the maids on the Ship! We just left you alone since we thought Tirad was doing you,” he continues furiously. Lealy steps back to the darkness of her cabin. Tirad is on the floor, twisting around with pain and he keeps mumbling. He can’t control his nonstop talking as he is unable to end the pain in his knee. He keeps saying aloud that they both have been faithful followers of the Saviour and had never gave into faulty desires and he reads the Punishment Hymns of the Saviour for Mart.

  “Shut your mouth, kid! This is not the Saviour Ship and his Rules don’t hold here. We have come to enjoy having sex without needing to hide it,” Mart says, as he steps into the cabin. Lealy leans against the cabin wall, the furthest distance she can get from Mart.

  “Stop it, please! You’re talking nonsense… What have I ever done to you?” she begs. The young boatman comes out of his cabin annoyed, wiping his sleepy eyes. He goes towards Tirad and helps him stand up. Tirad gets up on his aching knee.

  “What’s going on here? I have never had passengers like you, quarrelling like this and making so much noise!” says the boatman. Mart goes towards him and sends him back to his cabin telling him that this is an internal matter of the Saviour Disciples and has nothing to do with him. The boatman peeks at the scene through the opening of his cabin door and is scared to come out again. Lealy takes the best out of the situation and hurries up closing her cabin door from inside, standing behind it so that no one could come in. Tirad is still mumbling the Punishment Hymns telling Mart that what he is doing is against the Saviour Rules… Mart turns to him and punches him under his chin and kicks open Lealy’s cabin door.

  “We’re just going to have a little fun… There are no punishments for that… You can do whatever you like here. If you want, you can go in and enjoy her, go on…there are plenty of women on the boat! We can all have our shares!” Mart says to Tirad, who is bleeding in his nose and lips and has forgotten the pain in his knees. Tirad attacks Mart, kicking him in his leg and throwing him down. He sits on Mart’s body and stretches his fist towards his face but Mart takes his wrist in the air, twisting it in the air and throwing him off. Tirad falls down and is unable to stop Mart from punching him continuously; Mart’s fist comes down all over his face: eyes, lips, nose and cheeks. The boatman has closed his cabin door, scared of even looking at the beating. Lealy has also closed her door, screaming and begging Mart to stop. Yuma comes to Mart trying to separate him from Tirad, but Mart has lost it; he kicks Yuma as well, throwing him down. Tirad closes his eyes. He doesn’t feel anything anymore; no pain or fear. He just wishes to go to sleep… This is all just a nightmare… There are no fists punching his face… He is not laying on a boat floor… The nightmare will end…and he shall go from this nightmare to a beautiful dream… He shall wake up soon… And he suddenly opens his eyes with a shiver that trembles his whole body.

  Dalia has emptied a bucket of cold water over Mart and Tirad, bringing them both to themselves. The taste of blood and the salty water fills Tirad’s mouth. Mart looks at his fisted hands in the air and at Tirad’s bloody face. Yuma pulls him up from Tirad’s body. Mart stands for a second, looks at Lealy’s closed door and at Tirad that lies on the floor hardly peeking at him. He turns to Dalia and curses her. Dalia steps back and as Mart starts rushing towards her, she runs to the deck. Mart’s heavy steps and Dalia’s light and nimble running resonate in the short corridor and end with a splashing sound. Mart is still cursing, indicating that Dalia has escaped him by jumping into the sea. Lealy opens the door, takes Tirad’s arms and drags him into her cabin. She leans him to the cabin door. Mart’s swearing continues and another splashing sound is heard. But Tirad is not worried. Even if Mart or Yuma have jumped in, to get Dalia, she can easily escape them. The sea is not Mart’s territory and it is not the Saviour Ship that would put Dalia in her weakest position. This is Dalia’s dominion, where Tirad is most vulnerable. Lealy wipes off the blood from his face and all Tirad wants is to go to sleep.

  Chapter 14

  Mart had attempted to leave the Savoir Ship twice when he was younger and he had never tried to leave again, instead he had done his best to remain and grow through the ways he had learnt later on. The first time he attempted to leave, he was only ten and he had tried to desert his home without any plans or real motives. That day, Khunas had embarrassed him in the class in front of his peers. Mart was not a brilliant student; he paid attention to anything except for his studies. He had learnt to read and write very easily, but he couldn’t memorise the Saviour Hymns word by word. He couldn’t save the Saviour Rules and Hymns in his memory like other students and he never learned them by heart. Anytime he would sit to read and memorise them, some interesting thing would carry him away. Anything from a little frog found on the ship to a fight between the students or a boat arriving at the Island harbour would distract him. Even if nothing happened, watching the old women push each other as they lined up for the Ship’s free food was more fun than reading the manuscripts. He could never engage with the texts, think about them or even ask questions, unlike Tirad who would go on inquiring about the Saviour’s life and the First Disciples, he had no longing to know about the past. That day, Khunas had given him another chance after three times of failure to read from heart the Hymns for the Spawn-Scorching ceremony, which were the easiest hymns. All the other students and even the pilgrims knew the hymns for they had heard them sing many times before. Khunas had asked him how stupid could he be not to have learnt the hymns that he had heard at least twice a week.

  Mart was an arrogant boy and didn’t like to be called ‘stupid’ in front of other students. He was always proud of his birthplace and bragged about it. He belittled the other children telling them their fathers, unlike his, were worthless boatmen or fishers. But his father was a wealthy tradesman that would buy electrical cables from the divers and sell them to ships that produced engines. He would say to them that his father was always travelling and that’s why he was sent to the Saviour Ship and claimed that his father was coming to get him any day. But the children knew none of that was true and they would start a fight about it every once in a while. It would suffice to ask Mart why his father hadn’t come for him yet, annoying him to starting a fight that would always end up in Mart’s favour, since he had precocious puberty and was bigger than the rest. After each fight, they wouldn’t dare to mention Mart’s vague childhood for some time, especially what he hid about his mother. If they mentioned that his mother worked in a brothel, Mart would start another fight and claim that his mother owned the house and didn’t work in there herself. And even though his answer was not convincible, he made them believe it with the punches he threw at them and the noses he broke.

  Mart hadn’t said anything to anyone. He had fled the class where he was called ‘stupid’ and spent all afternoon in the harbour to see which boats would go to Oxan. He had hid himself in the supply cabin of one of the boats that was headed to Oxan the next day. But it didn’t last long. After a few hours, Hurmaz and two guards had brought him o
ut and taken him back to the Saviour Ship. Mart blamed Tirad and believed he had given up his hiding place. Tirad had come to the harbour that afternoon to collect a bundle of paper from a boatman. He kept saying he hadn’t seen Mart, but Mart had seen him helping the boatman unloading his paper cargo. Hurmaz had looked out for Tirad. He knew that the furious Mart, who smelled like the dried fish of the boat’s supply cabin, would beat the poor defenceless Tirad to death and he hadn’t allowed it. Later on, when Mart found out that it was the boatman who had seen him hiding in his boat and called the guards, he didn’t apologise to Tirad for accusing him of being a snitch. As time passed, he changed the story telling his peers that he never wanted to leave, he had just rested for the day and enjoyed himself in the harbour.

  Mart’s second escape was after his full puberty. He was fourteen and all he wanted was to go to Oxan and give himself into the arms of the whores. At the time, he saw all the women and the maids of the Ship as being desirable and beautiful. It was the rain season, and the sweet scent of the women’s bodies roamed around the corridors as they passed along in the humid weather. He could smell them everywhere as if their scent had sunk through all the wooden walls and floors of the Ship. He couldn’t help himself and had caught a teenage maid at the end of a corridor. Mart had peeked at her all morning, watching her bend down, walk and sit; he had stared at how she ate, taking the food into her lush lips. He had seen how her long, black hair covered her bare, tan shoulders, swinging around the nipples of her newly blossomed breasts – visible from under her thin ragged loincloth. He had not thought it through. He just desired her with all his heart and body. He didn’t know where and how to get her and had gone on with the moment. All he wanted was to hold her close and take in the scent of her newly flourished womanhood. But the moment had passed so quickly. He had covered her mouth with one hand to stop her from screaming and had touched her body with his other hand. He had bended his knees so his erect member would touch her inner thighs, but before he had a chance to open his waistcloth, he had ejaculated, sighing deeply.

  His second attempt was planned. He didn’t want to hide in a boat’s supply cabin. He wanted to pay the boatman for the trip and also to keep him silent. But getting coins was not easy. The students and the disciples of the Ship were not allowed to work and get money. The students who sometimes wanted to work in their free time and save up some coins were told not to; they were too respected to work for money since they were the future disciples of the Saviour. Working in food stalls, running errands in the harbour or cleaning the guesthouses of pilgrims for a little coin was considered disrespectful and thus forbidden. Even the healer-maids were not allowed to get anything in return for their medical services; their wages were to be paid straight to the Saviour Ship treasury. The treasury was always full. The Saviour Ship received taxes from Oxan Island and other ships and always received payments from the pilgrims. All Mart needed was to get to the treasury and take enough coins to pay for his trip to Oxan and live the rest of his life in peace. Akhgar was in charge of the treasury and his cabin where the coin safes were kept in, was impregnable. His cabin was at the end of the lowest floor next to the libraries and Hurmaz’s cabin and was always guarded by two armed men, who stayed inside protecting the safe. Mart had never stepped foot on that floor and had never seen the inside of the library and his presence there was suspicious. His plan was not too simple and he needed help to carry it out. He had to go down to the lowest floor and send Akhgar and the guards out, break into the safes and take the coins, all without being spotted by anyone.

  He had to tell Yuma and get help from him. He was the only one he trusted and he had promised him that they would escape together. Yuma had accepted his proposal excitedly since what Mart portrayed of the carefree and luxurious life in Oxan was not something that anyone would say no to. The plan was for Yuma to light up a small fire in the lowest floor around midnight. When the floor became evacuated, Mart having hid himself from before would go to the safes. If anyone saw him down there, he would say he had come to help put the fire out. Fire was the greatest threat of the Ship since their ship was not built with steel walls, it was built from wood and polymer timbers that had no resistance to flames and any fire lit was considered dangerous; except for the Spawn-Scorching fire lit in a special place on the deck and the fires used in the kitchen. The same threat had forbidden the use of electrical generators and even cellular panels since any small spark in the wiring or the coils could torch the Ship down. Yuma was not going to make a big fire. He was to lit up a book and put the flame down quickly, just in time for Mart to get to Akhgar’s cabin.

  It had all gone according to the plan. The small fire was lit and the lowest floor was evacuated and Mart had reached Akhgar’s cabin while others brought buckles of water to put out the flame. Mart had filled his bag with coins and had hid himself there until the situation was handled. He had escaped to the harbour a few hours after midnight waiting for Yuma to join him. He had told the boatman that he would pay him twice the money if he would urgently take him and his friend to Oxan. The boatman had accepted, but Yuma never showed up. Mart was worried. He didn’t know whether Yuma was in trouble or he had given up the dream. He had waited for another hour before he finally set off without him. The boatman had been watching Mart the whole time; he hadn’t asked any questions like how Mart had gotten hold of all that coin, even though it was very suspicious for a young student to have all that money. It was raining hard but Mart had ordered the boatman to start his engine. The boatman wanted his share first and Mart had given him half the money without any thinking. They had sailed in the rain, a boat with three boatmen and only one passenger! Mart was mad at Yuma for having abandoned him but as long as he didn’t give him up, he was thankful, for if he had, they would have caught him before he had the chance to escape.

  After an hour, the three boatmen had attacked Mart. They took all his money and threw him into the sea. Mart had seen the dim light of the island and had started swimming towards it. He had reached the shore before sunrise, tired of three hours of swimming. He had gone to his cabin. No one had figured out who had started the fire and stole from the treasury. Until three days later when the three boatmen had arrived in Oxan with a bag full of Saviour coins. They were caught immediately and sentenced to death. All of them were thrown into the sea. They did try to blame Mart but couldn’t prove it since they had no other witnesses. The only person who could give up Mart was Yuma, but he was involved in the incident as much as Mart and it was better for him to remain silent and not to get into trouble. But Akhgar, who was responsible for the ruling of the boatmen, didn’t easily pass by Mart’s name. He hadn’t said anything to the boatmen but had gone to Mart first thing after their execution.

  He had told Mart that he knew what his plan was and he even knew that Yuma was involved. It wasn’t too difficult to find out since anyone paid attention to the affairs of the students could easily find out who had helped Mart. But he hadn’t said those to punish him even though Mart had kept denying the fault. He wanted something else, a cooperation that both of them could benefit from. All Akhgar needed to do to bring Mart to his side was to blackmail him. He had to cooperate with Akhgar or else he would be blamed for the fire and stealing of the coins and executed the same way as the boatmen. At first, he hadn’t asked much. He wanted him to pay attention to all the comings and goings and report to Akhgar about what everyone was doing. The outcome of the spying was also interesting to Mart: the suspicious visits of the maids to the Disciples’ cabins, secret meetings of the Disciples with the tradesmen who came to the Ship as pilgrims and hidden locked safes in the Disciples’ cabins. Mart couldn’t lookout for everything single-handedly. He had brought Yuma in the game using the same tactic that Akhgar had used upon him; he had threatened Yuma of getting exposed for starting the fire. What Mart saw and heard while peaking and ears dropping had cleared away a thick fog that once befell his eyes. He heard about deals made by the Saviour Ship’s purchasers wit
h the fishers and divers and saw inappropriate relationships between the maids and women pilgrims and the seemingly pious disciples of the Ship. He was at last hopeful about his future on the Ship and had found himself a new path that was paved just for him towards what he had always wanted: power! He had learnt how to make a fortune through unlawful ways, bribing, dealing and secretly investing in profitable businesses. He had also found a way to satisfy his lust behind the closed cabin doors.

  Most of the offerings received by the Ship were not cash but the Saviour Ship had to pay cash to buy the residents’ essentials. Figuring these things out was not too difficult especially for an ambitious, young man like Mart who needed coins to pay off the maids who secretly slept with him. All he had to do was a slight shift in the declared figures: the sold goods were declared lower than their paid price and the purchases slightly higher. What left from the margin would go to Akhgar and his accomplices, those who had helped and those who had turned a blind eye. And if anyone else outside the Akhgar’s circle made a similar mistake by changing the numbers or declaring false figures, they would be punished, since stealing from the Saviour Ship meant disobeying the Rules followed by a death sentence. It was the same for having sex with the maids, for the maids themselves and for those who secretly slept with them. None of the relationships were allowed to go on unless Akhgar’s secret circle was paid not to act on them. Akhgar’s team often would not expose anyone to Hurmaz or the rest of the Circle members. These disobediences and faults were a good source of income and a winning hand for those who used them to pressure and blackmail the faulty to their advantage, asking them to pay their debts when their services were needed. Those who truly believed in the Saviour, his Narratives and Rules were numerated. The best Mart could do to expose Tirad was to send his fiction books to the forbidden library. He would only go to Lealy’s room and ears dropping by her room had proved that Tirad had stayed a virgin and so did Lealy.