Net of Blood

by Selmoore Codfish

Chapter 4

  It rained in the night and it was cooler as I walked to New Truro the next morning. I had put on my bathing suit before I found that it was cool. Now I thought the chances of swimming were pretty low.

  I’d called Angela. I didn’t tell her about the shark. I knew as long as I followed the people of New Truro, they would keep me safe when swimming.

  I was still the only guest in the hotel besides the older man. He reminded me of James.

  Then it hit me that he could be Keoni. Why would he be in the hotel?

  The police station looked to be a single room. If it had a jail cell it literally must been very small. I imagined it to be in the shape of a bird cage. That wouldn’t be fitting for a non-violent community leader.

  The police probably had no way to lock him in, but a man of respect would surely agree to confine himself to avoid a jail cell. I was certain it must be Keoni. The hotel was a very nice prison for him. That gave me relief that the old man was not suffering beyond insolation from family.

  As I neared the top of the hill, I could see Roger coming up the crest on the other side.

  “Good morning,” I said when we got close; I stopped to talk. He slowed down.

  “I was curious what fish you process at your work,” I said.

  “Sardines,” he replied.

  “Do they ever bring in other fish?”

  “If they do, it goes to the local market. Mostly, though, the charter boats bring in the tuna and other big fish. I’m told the tourists take them to another shop to be packed for shipment home. Tourism will start to pick up in June.”

  “Does the factory work get harder any time of the year?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve only been there a month. They already work us hard constantly. The days are long, and they complain that I don’t put in enough effort. The boss is biased against me. He calls me lazy.

  It was ironic. He’d gone outside his community for work, but the place where he’d found it had treated him poorly. He didn’t get encouragement from the Sheng, and probably not the Kupe either.

  “What do the people in the village think of your work?” I asked.

  “I told them that I was going to do it and they couldn’t convince me not to,” he said. “They have an old way of thinking, but they didn’t stop me.”

  He started walking again so I did too. The sky was overcast, so the sun didn’t go into my eyes as I descended the East side of the hill. When I got to the point where the road turned towards town, Edgar was coming up the road carrying a bucket and a knife.

  “Good morning,” I said.

  “Good morning,” he said. He looked to be in a good mood even though he always had an expression of surprise.

  “Have you seen James?” I asked.

  “Yes, he just now pulled out his boat to fish.” It would be a long wait again.

  “Where are you headed?” I asked.

  “To the palm grove to harvest juice.”

  “The one that is way over in Fusang?”

  “No,” he said. He pointed at a path that diverged from the road and went along the shore. “Do you want to help?”

  “Okay,” I said. I wanted to be useful. Also, he couldn’t blame the poor fishing on me if I was nowhere near the water.

  I walked behind him on the narrow path. We didn’t talk. Most palm trees were naturally near the water, but these stretched inland from the beach in a relatively flat area. They were in rows.

  He looked up at the trees so I did too. Coconuts were at the top in thick bunches.

  “Here, hold this,” he said as he handed me the knife and bucket. Then he looked for long strips of brown leaves that had fallen to the ground. He gave me a few.

  “Tie yours onto the handle of the bucket,” he said. I did that. He tied his like a belt around his thighs, and then he slid the belt down to his ankles. Then he took the leaf strap from the bucket and tied it to his waist. Next he shimmied up the tree. The strap around his feet held them tightly to the trunk.

  At the top, he poured juice out of hollowed coconuts into the bucket. The juice dripped from cut stalks. He used his knife to cut one freshly back.

  My neck strained from looking up to him, so I stopped watching him and sat down. He really wasn’t collecting juice, but palm sap. It wasn’t the same as coconut milk which was from the nut.

  Edgar came down from the first tree. He had only one inch of liquid in the bucket. He headed up another tree. I had nothing more to do to help him.

  I enjoyed sitting and watching the waves, although I couldn’t see where they hit the beach because I sat too far back. Also, I listened to the gusts of wind as they blew through the trees. Then I saw a miniature crab walking on the ground. I moved along with it to follow it.

  “Neal!” yelled Edgar from the top of a tree.

  “Yes,” I yelled back.

  “See if a pot fell down.” I went back to the tree he was in and found a hallowed coconut with a string loop.

  “It’s here,” I yelled.

  “Throw it up,” he said.

  I threw and missed the tree. Then, I picked it up, ready to try again. I decided to step back. It seemed easier to throw it at an angle then straight up. I hit Edgar with it, but not hard.

  “Aim here,” he said. He pointed to the top of the palm where the coconuts nested.

  The pot bounced across the top and Edgar retrieved it.

  “Thanks,” he said. I went back to look for the crab but got distracted by the shadows.

  The sun was peeking out through the clouds. The regular pattern of tall thin palms made a pattern on the ground that reminded me of jail cell bars.

  Keoni was allowed to stay in the hotel because he was distinguished among his people and he wasn’t trying to break free. However, I wondered if President Xing caught me for treason if he would throw me in the real jail cell.

  They couldn’t keep prisoners for decades. A small cell would be only for overnight, or for at most a few days. If someone was a big threat to them, the only permanent solution open to them would be capital punishment. I wondered how often they’d had to do that. There was probably no trial, just Xing’s decision. He was the ultimate law. His words were the only articles of constitution.

  Edgar came down. He untied the belt. I held the bucket of juice. It was two thirds full.

  “Enough?” I asked. He laughed, but I didn’t know what joke I’d said.

  “It is all of the trees,” he said. Only a part of the grove was set up for juice.

  He let me carry the bucket. It sloshed if I didn’t hold it carefully as we walked. I didn’t want to spill his hard work.

  The weight strained on my arm so I switched the bucket back and forth. Maybe this was the part he really had wanted my help with. Eventually, when we made it back to the village, we went to his house.

  “Did you eat?” Edgar asked. I could smell the frying fish. I felt hungry as I sniffed the air.

  “I haven’t,” I said.

  “Lucy,” he called in to the house. “Neal’s here for lunch too.”

  She came to the door and smiled.

  “How nice,” she said. “James dropped off plenty of fish earlier.”

  Edgar set his bucket on the porch. Then we sat.

  Edgar and I didn’t talk much. I was glad that we were getting along, regardless.

  “It was cooler this morning,” I said.

  “Yes,” he said. “It is clearing in the East. It’ll warm a little today.”

  I nodded and looked out over the sea. I’d seen the clouds were always moving in from the East. At home I was used to looking to the west to see if any storms were approaching.

  “Does the wind always blow from the East?” I asked.

  “Most days,” he said. “If a storm is passing it might blow another way for a while.”

  Lucy brought out plates of fish and chopped green vegetables.

&
nbsp; “Thank you,” I said.

  When we finished, Edgar took the plates in then came back with a ladle. With it he took a drink of the juice we’d collected. He motioned for me to have a sip. I shook my head.

  Then, one by one, James, Elias, Winslow, Charles, and a few other men came over. Each took a sip of juice as they arrived. I didn’t introduce myself to the other men because they stood further away and talked among themselves.

  I changed my mind about the juice. If everyone else was doing it, I may have turned down an important ritual.

  I had some. It was alcohol. It was watery and sweet, but had a kick.

  The mood of the crowd became happy. Edgar was smiling, and it was hard for me not to smile too. They were talking about wives.

  “She always wants to know where I’ll be,” said Winslow. He had turned towards me so I could hear him better. “Well, it’s an island. How far away can I be? That got a couple of them to laugh.

  “Neal,” said Charles, “tell us about your wife. Does she want to know where you are?”

  “Yes,” I said, “but she works at a job too, so we are apart the whole day.”

  “Seriously?” asked Charles.

  “Actually, that doesn’t sound too bad,” said Winslow. “Maybe we should all get jobs.”

  “It is a very individualistic society,” I said. “She does whatever she wants and has her own life.”

  “Does she care for your children?” Winslow asked.

  “We both do when my daughter isn’t at preschool,” I said. “Angela cares for her, but also does lots more. She’s busy all the time.”

  “That reminds me,” said Charles. “I have a theory of why Edgar has a shaky hand while fishing.” Edgar rolled his eyes.

  “What?” Winslow asked.

  “He’s also had bad luck with his wife,” said Charles. “She says they have enough children for now, so she won’t let him touch her.”

  The men laughed. Edgar did too, but he looked back to make sure his wife wasn’t hovering behind him.

  I thought of telling them about birth control, but it would conflict with my role as a church representative. I was getting paid to get drunk with these men, so I kept quiet.

  “The women make all of the important decisions,” said James.

  “We just relay them,” said Charles. We laughed again.

  “Lucy decides to do the opposite of whatever I say,” said Edgar with a soft voice. The men leaned in to hear.

  “Here’s the cure,” said Charles. “Just tell her to do the opposite of what you really want, and then she’ll make you do what you really wanted.” Charles softened his voice to a whisper. “You say, ‘I’d never think of touching you again.’ That would get her to be friendly again.”

  Edgar didn’t laugh, but the others did. Maybe it wouldn’t really work, and he didn’t get that it was just a joke. Still, he smiled politely.

  “What is everyone’s wife saying now?” asked Winslow. “Mine is saying we have to make peace with Edgar about his luck.”

  “Yes,” agreed a couple men.

  “I wish Keoni were here,” said Edgar. Several men stated their agreement. The larger group of men came closer and listened in.

  “He’d know how to resolve this,” said Edgar. “He’s very wise.” The men agreed.

  “I wonder if I’ve seen him,” I said. “The police are keeping a man in the hotel. He looks just like James, but older.”

  “That’s him,” said Winslow.

  The men broke into small groups and talked. A couple minutes later, James turned to me.

  “Do you think we could talk to Keoni?” he asked.

  I thought that it would be physically possible to see the old man and meet with him a short time. However, if we were caught, I might be the one who was punished. I worried about the cramped jail cell that I imagined was in the police station. However, who was I to keep a son away from his father? I nodded.

  James went back to talking with others. Sometimes they spoke in their other language. Then he returned.

  “We want to see him today,” James said. James used ‘we’. I could sneak in one or two men.

  “How many?” I asked. James thought for a moment.

  “At least ten,” he replied. “A few men are out now. We’d have to ask them, too. They have a right to speak if we have a hap gaa.” Of the fifteen men standing around, ten wanted to go, so it might be a dozen total. I didn’t know how to conceal twelve men.

  “They will see us,” I said. The men talked among themselves for a few minutes.

  “It is dark in the city at night. There are no street lights except from the hotel to the palace,” said James.

  The men would be in the light only a short time. Unless they bumped into someone out in the night, they’d be undetected. Being large had one advantage—it was too many people to imprison if we were caught. They’d have to let us go—or shoot us.

  “I can bring you in the back door to the hotel,” I said. The alcohol gave me confidence in the plan. “You should break up in small groups in the city. If you run into someone, a large group would be suspicious.”

  “Good,” said James. “We can meet you at the palm grove near the city and you can lead us in.”

  That would be lots of back and forth by me. If anyone saw me ten times going back and forth, that would be suspicious, but was the best idea. I told them my plan for collecting them.

  After that, I went back to Fusang for the rest of the afternoon. I wanted to figure out if the pool door was locked at night, or if it was on a camera. If the plan was off, I was to walk back or meet them as they came.

  As I returned to the hotel, I went over the plan in my head. Also, I looked at the path and located places to hide along it if we were fleeing town. If we were found, but not apprehended, I thought it would be better run back to New Truro to hide near there. Then I’d need to escape off the island.

  I asked myself why I was helping with the plans. We weren’t going to free Keoni. Our main goal was to figure out what to do with Edgar. He wasn’t confident fishing and blamed me. It was hardly worth risking our lives over. However, I thought we’d been hung up on the issues for a day and we’d never get past them if nothing pushed us on. If I’d seriously thought the risk was too high, I wouldn’t have gone along. I deceived myself to think that all I was doing was bringing visitors to my hotel room.

  At the hotel, I found no camera at the pool. Also, there was no lock on its door. In such a small town there were likely few crimes. The locks on the hotel room doors were probably more to make the guests comfortable. They were used to having locks, but the islanders had only wood plank doors with no locks.

  At suppertime, I ate in the café. I told the Kupe men to begin walking after they’d finished their supper. I’d meet them at the bottom of the hill. They were not to come down if they didn’t see me there in the twilight.

  I waited half an hour after I ate then went to the grove. I walked through it twice to make sure no workers were there. Then I stood on the road.

  After a while they started coming down in small groups. When they got down, they hid in the grove.

  “Is this all?” I asked. It was a dozen men.

  “Yes, some older ones didn’t think that they could walk the roundtrip,” said James.

  I didn’t mind that they couldn’t get every man to come. We waited tensely while it got dark. Some men killed time by commenting on the Sheng’s skills at tending the grove.

  I took the opportunity to meet the other men from the village and ask them about their families. I met Henry, Ephraim, and Theodore. Everyone’s story was pretty simple. They all fished and their wives gardened. The only difference was the ages of their children and their own personalities. Fishing was their way of life. A disruption to that did make a risky trip worth it to them.

  Elias was there. I’d never heard him speak, so I didn’t introduce m
yself. James and Elias were standing far apart, so I asked James about him.

  “Does he ever talk?” I asked.

  “Occasionally.”

  “Does he know English?”

  “We think so,” replied James.

  In a society that wasn’t complex, there wouldn’t be as much need to talk. Communicating was for entertainment. However, I was beginning to appreciate that they talked to reach a consensus.

  Soon it was dark. The plan was that I would meet them two by two at the pool door and take them to the room. I was to walk there alone to check out that no one was in the hallway like a cleaning lady or janitor.

  “Wait five minutes,” I reminded them I left them and went to the hotel.

  I walked quickly in the dark. My eyes were adjusted to it. The town was quiet. I was most concerned that the police would be sitting in their SUV somewhere on Flamingo Road, but they weren’t in sight.

  I stopped briefly at each corner to listen. Then, I saw a shadow moving ahead. I froze. It looked small. Was it a person hiding and crawling?

  I didn’t want to let them know I’d seen them. However, my eyes followed it. If they saw me, they’d know I was staring.

  I couldn’t act normal by walking forward without running in to it.

  Then, it looked like it was getting closer. Would they jump on me? Would I need to fight?

  It was smaller than I thought. Maybe it was a wild animal instead.

  “Meow.”

  I let out a sigh of relief. Impulsively, I started to reach down to pet it, but then I decided not to encourage it to hang around.

  “Psst,” I said. That’s ‘let’s fight’ in cat. It jumped and then scampered away.

  Finally, I reached the hotel. I went in the back door and found everything okay, so I went back to the pool to wait.

  After a few minutes, the first two men arrived. I opened the door quietly. If someone heard it slamming again and again they might come look.

  I led them to my room and left them there. I grabbed a pamphlet to prop the door. It’d be quieter to leave it ajar. Then I went to the road and stood where I could see.

  The next pair must be coming soon. It took me at least two minutes to go to the room and back.

  In the dim street light I checked my watch and counted off three minutes. I still didn’t see anyone coming.

  After five more minutes I was in a panic. I was sure that someone living along the street must have counted too many Kupe and yelled for the police.

  Maybe the men had scattered and none had been caught yet. Maybe the police would find me waiting. The jail cell that I imagined was big enough to hold me if I was the only one that they caught.

  I stepped back from the corner. Just as I did, the corner of my eye caught the image of something. If it was the police, I might still be able to run.

  I looked again. It was two people, not the police, but the next Kupe.

  I looked at my watch and guessed that twelve minutes total had passed. The Kupe weren’t good at counting off time.

  When the men got close I led them to my room. Then I returned for the next. Each set came a little quicker. It took a long time standing out on the corner to catch all the groups. I hadn’t added up that I’d have to stand there for half an hour total. It exposed me more than I had thought.

  Next, I needed to make contact with Keoni across the hall. I’d listened in the evenings and never heard the police come and check on him then. They had come in the mornings.

  I stood alone in the hall and quietly put my ear to his door. There were no sounds.

  I knocked on the door. If a policeman answered my story was that I was confused about my room number.

  Nobody came to the door, so I knocked again. If he was asleep and was a sound sleeper, our plan was shot. How hard should I bang on the door before others heard?

  Then I heard someone coming to the door. It opened and the man was there. He held the Holy Book in his hands.

  “Yes,” he said seeing that I wasn’t Sheng.

  “Keoni?” I asked. He nodded, but was confused.

  James was behind his door looking through the peep hole. He opened the door.

  “It is a hap gaa,” he said.

  Keoni nodded again. I motioned that I wanted to go into his room. It would be better for him in case the police ever called him.

  “Come,” he said.

  All of the men crossed the hall to his room.

  “Father,” said James as he hugged him. Then we sat. I sat on the bed, but then when most everyone else was on the floor, and it didn’t seem equal, so I moved down. There was no space for a circle at the foot of the bed. We made a flattened oval.

  “This is Neal,” said Charles. Keoni and I nodded to each other again.

  “I am from the church. I want to help you,” I said.

  “You want to help me or the Kupe?” asked Keoni. “In my tongue there are two words for ‘you’. One is for the person, one is for the group.”

  “I want to help the Kupe, and hopefully their Old Father too,” I said. He smiled. Using his title showed I knew something of his people.

  “We are sorry that you have had to risk yourself for our benefit,” said Keoni. “If we had submitted to Xing’s wishes we would not be troubling you.”

  I didn’t recall if any of my clients have ever thanked me before I’d actually done anything. I nodded, and smiled.

  “It is important for me, and the church, that the Kupe be able to practice your faith,” I said. After I said that, I recalled that they thought they were already doing it well enough.

  “We have all felt the consequences of your absence,” said Charles. “We are not complete without you.” I began to see how isolation was the most severe punishment.

  “Every society has rules. We do not fit what the Sheng require so we must bear consequences,” said Keoni.

  “It is not the Sheng,” said Winslow, “but Xing. He makes up titles for himself that make him look superior.”

  “Yes,” said Keoni. “He makes decisions without counsel of his people. Being just one man, how can he know what is best for all?”

  “His charter boats hunt for the rarer sharks,” said Winslow. “What good is that for Truro Shoal?” Some of the other men agreed.

  “We have no manna fish,” said Edgar. “Xing must be taking them.”

  The men thought.

  “There were lots of them years ago,” said Ephraim. Everyone agreed, and then they thought more.

  “We don’t see the charter boats much on our side,” said Henry. “Then they only come in summer.”

  “...and when we do see them they hunt sharks,” said Winslow.

  “I am wondering if the charters aren’t the problem with the manna,” said Keoni. He said it with a suggestive tone. It caused the others to pause and consider it. A few men nodded.

  “We have another problem,” said Edgar. “Maganta came to New Truro.” That got the men more excited. Edgar had his eyes wide open again like he was in surprise.

  “That’s odd,” said Keoni.

  “He taunts us because we are not good fishermen,” said Edgar.

  “Why would he think that?” asked Keoni.

  “A man with bad luck fishing has joined us,” said Edgar. The men glanced back and forth to me. Keoni noticed that they referred to me.

  It made me embarrassed. I felt my face go flush. I put my hand to my cheek to cover it. My hand was sweaty.

  I had been very forward. I’d never asked if they wanted my help. I’d shown up and assumed that they’d appreciate what I wanted to do. I needed to be quiet and listen to what was important to them.

  “We must apologize that we are talking openly,” said Charles. “When we do so, it shows our weakness.”

  I nodded.

  “We act as one cohesive community, so any problem is our own doing,” he continued. The others agreed with him. That helped
me face them again.

  “I think that the bad luck has impacted Edgar the most,” said James. Keoni looked up as if he’d had an insight.

  “It is important that Edgar’s spear strikes true,” said Keoni. The other men agreed. To Keoni this would be worth calling a council meeting in this risky situation.

  “What do we do?” asked Keoni.

  The men thought.

  “Would sending our visitor away bring the good luck back?” asked Ephraim. I hoped that they didn’t do that, but I’d follow their decision.

  “Let’s think about what the forefathers would do,” asked Keoni.

  “Kupe welcomed his brother Sheng to the island,” said Henry, “even though they have brought bad luck to us.”

  “…and we welcomed the colonists to our homes,” said James.

  “It doesn’t sound like the ancestor would send anyone away,” said Keoni. The men agreed.

  “The bad luck may hang around,” said Edgar.

  “What else is there to do?” asked Keoni.

  “We have welcomed Neal, but not to live in our homes,” said Theodore.

  “Would that help our luck?” asked Keoni. He wanted the men to think about it.

  “Now, being his own man, Neal is expected to support himself and his village,” said Ephraim. “While he is with us, we are his village. However, if he were a junior member of a household he has no expectations. The children are not expected to be good fishers, but to learn.”

  “Therefore, if Neal joins a house,” said Keoni, “his bad luck vanishes.”

  Keoni looked at Edgar. He was the one who needed to consent because he was the one who perceived the problem. Edgar thought a moment, and then nodded his head.

  “I was the one who welcomed Neal,” said James. “I can be the one to show him how to fish. He can live with my family.”

  Keoni looked to me to see if I agreed. I lowered my head in humility.

  “You must forgive us for asking you to live with us,” said Keoni. I knew if I learned more about them, I might have more ideas for a solution to their problems with Xing. I nodded.

  “It is settled,” said Keoni. The men were happy.

  “Are you well?” James asked Keoni. “Do you need anything?”

  “I am surviving with help,” he replied. Keoni held his book of verses. “The older sections are about a tribe that was repressed by conquering peoples.”

  The men looked to the door. It was obvious that it was time to leave.

  James and Keoni stood, and then the rest of us. I went to the door.

  “I’ll check first,” I said. “Then we’ll do it backwards of last time.”

  No one was in the hall. The men all went to my room and James hugged his father.

  “Should I come in the morning?” I asked James.

  “Yes,” he said.

  I went out to the street to make sure there was no activity. Then I led them down by twos. This time I did it as quickly as I could go to my room and back. Soon it was over and I was back in my room.

  It was too late to call Angela on a work day. She’d be at her job and Melanie would be at her grandmother’s house.

  I was too wound up to sleep. I thought that it was odd the Kupe apologized for the risks I had taken. It wasn’t their fault, but Xing’s. The Kupe easily admitted their failings.

  I thought back to how they talked of my bad luck. They really weren’t blaming me for visiting them and bringing poor luck, but I had interpreted their words that way. They’d said their ancestors had caused their bad luck, not me.

  In fact, I thought the problem was more in their minds. Nothing that I’d done had caused it. Therefore, the problem really was their doing. I wasn’t used to a whole community apologizing, but in this case it made sense.

  The Kupe talked as if they had one conscience. We each made our own independent decisions. In New Truro, those decisions were swayed by the community, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t think for themselves.

  If people had no independent thoughts then it would be as if they shared the same mind. Their fate wouldn’t be set by their own actions. Roger had demonstrated that he could be different than the others by getting a job. Likewise, I had no concern that just because I was going to New Truro to learn to fish that I would lose my individuality.

  * * * *