Close to the Wind

by Jon Walter

  Would Sonny look after Booty properly? Malik was certain he wouldn’t. Sonny had even insulted him by saying that his own cats were prettier. No. Sonny would get bored of Booty soon enough. He would most likely get careless and lose him or let his father get rid of him.

  The thought of Angelo Vex sent a shiver through Malik. He remembered him standing over Papa with the pliers in his hand.

  Angelo Vex.

  Vex was the rich man who always wins. Papa had said he was one of the most powerful men in town. How would Sonny explain the cat to him? He wouldn’t be able to. Sonny would end up telling his father about the swap, even though Malik had warned him not to. He wouldn’t have any choice. It didn’t matter that Malik had sworn him to secrecy – Sonny was so young there was no way he could hold out, and then Vex would know everything and Vex would come looking for Malik.

  Yes. He was sure of it.

  Vex always got his way and he would again. He would come after Malik and he would get the diamond back and then Malik wouldn’t even have that.

  He closed his fingers over the tooth, then went and fetched the box and put the tooth back onto the satin pillow and closed the lid. The ship would land tomorrow, so Malik had time to think. He put his hand across the box and did a French Drop, moved it from one palm to the other in a single seamless movement. He may as well practise his trick while he thought of how to keep the stone safe from Vex.

  Malik stayed in the ballroom till late afternoon. He would have stayed longer but he was worried about being missed and Oskar coming to look for him. When he left, he shut the frosted glass doors behind him and walked steadily up the red carpet of the staircase. He stepped out onto the deck and breathed the fresh air. A wind had got up and it sent salty sprays across the bows. He met the purser on the gangway and they nodded to one another. ‘We’ll be docking in the morning,’ said the purser. ‘We’re still on schedule. Might even get there early.’

  Malik had a sudden urge to tell him everything, but he didn’t; he just smiled and walked on. The sun was already getting low in the sky as he passed below the first-class decks where the passengers dropped the ash from their cigarettes. He half expected Vex to come running down after him and grab his collar, but no one came.

  The people up on deck had buttoned up their shirts and had jumpers or jackets to hand, in case they were needed. They had begun to look for land in sight. Families stood together at the railings and pointed toward the horizon, mistaking clouds for mountains and making plans for when the ship docked.

  Oskar was on the stern deck, refereeing the final of the shuffleboard competition. He stood opposite the players, shouting back their points and keeping score. Malik went and stood by him. ‘I decided you were right about my cat. They would have taken him away, and even if they didn’t I couldn’t have looked after him properly. So I gave him to Sonny. He’ll have a better home with them than I could ever give him.’

  Oskar was shocked. ‘You shouldn’t have done that. I was just angry. I don’t know if it was true.’ They watched a man slide a puck into the square in front of them and Oskar shouted, ‘Nine!’

  ‘Have you made much money on the betting?’

  ‘I’ve done all right.’ Oskar put his hands in his pockets. ‘Did Sonny give you anything for the cat?’

  Malik shook his head. He could feel the leather jewel box pressed against his leg. ‘I didn’t want anything. It didn’t seem right.’

  Oskar said, ‘There’s something wrong with you.’

  When the game was finished, Oskar announced the winner and held up the arm of the team captain in celebration and the crowd clapped them, then moved slowly away across the boat. Malik stayed out on the deck. He reckoned he was safer if he wasn’t alone. He could see the first-class cabins from where he stood and expected a hand on his shoulder at any moment but it never came.

  Malik went to supper with the rest of the boys. Miss Price said, ‘I’m glad you’re feeling better, Malik,’ but she didn’t notice the cat had gone. As they walked up the stairs in line, Alex tugged his sleeve and asked, ‘Where’s Booty?’

  ‘I had to give him away. It was for his own good. I couldn’t have kept him safe once we landed.’

  Alex looked at him like he was a murderer.

  Malik sat on his own in the canteen. He ate tomato soup with a fresh bread roll and a thick slice of breaded ham that had a rim of bright white fat. When someone passed the windows of the canteen, Malik would glance up, expecting it to be Angelo Vex, but it never was. As a special treat on their last night, there was sponge pudding with custard. Malik made it last while he watched the window and tried to guess what might be going on inside the Vex family cabin.

  Sonny must have returned there by now and his parents would have seen Booty. Perhaps Sonny had actually thought up a story that didn’t arouse suspicion? His older brother Marcos could have helped him. But did that mean that Marcos knew about the diamond? Marcos was old enough to know that the swap wasn’t fair, and he would surely have told his father if he knew. Perhaps Sonny had hidden Booty? Perhaps Vex wouldn’t discover the diamond was gone till they were well away from the ship?

  Perhaps … perhaps he’d get away with it after all.

  Malik finished everything on his plate then stacked the dirty dishes at the table where they collected the washing up. No. It was still too early to believe he’d got away with it. He should assume that Vex already knew. But what would he do? How would Vex tackle it?

  He might go to the purser. If he did, they would come to find Malik and make him turn out his pockets in the purser’s office, just like they would have done at school. Or Vex might come and find him on his own, rushing straight down to the dormitory as soon as he discovered the diamond was gone and Malik was on board the ship.

  Yes. That’s how he’d do it. That would be Vex’s style.

  Malik went outside on deck. He should be safe while the first-class passengers ate their food. He hung about, watching people play quoits while the sun sank lower in the autumn sky. When the strings of white bulbs lit up along each tier of the ship, Malik went below deck. In the dormitory, the boys were getting ready for bed. Malik washed and cleaned his teeth at the makeshift trough and then lay in his bunk, with his trousers still on and the diamond in his pocket.

  Still no one came for him. He began to believe that Vex couldn’t know the diamond was missing. He only had to sleep and have breakfast and that would leave just enough time to pack his things before the ship docked. Malik felt warm inside. He thought how proud Papa would be that he had got the diamond back and how all of the pain at the docks might have been worthwhile after all.

  And then Malik realized that it wasn’t over, that he wasn’t safe until the morning, because Vex would try to steal the diamond back in the night. Just like he had before. Yes, of course, that’s what he would do. That must be what Vex was waiting for. Malik thought it through. Perhaps Vex wouldn’t do it himself. He might think it was too risky. But he could pay one of the boys to do it. There were orphans here who would do anything for money.

  Oskar moved in the bed above him. It seemed so obvious.

  The lights went out in the dormitory and the boys who owned torches turned them on so that they could read. Malik decided he would have to stay awake. If he could stay awake all night, then nobody could steal the diamond from his pocket. But could he do it? He had tried to stay up all night once, when his mother had a party at the house. He hadn’t managed it then and he might not manage it now.

  When the woman in the other dormitory began to sing her lullabies, Malik put his hands across his ears and waited for her singing to stop – he had no intention of letting her rock him to sleep. He sat up and lifted his rucksack from the floor at the bottom of his bed, found his torch and turned it on. He checked that Oskar wasn’t watching what he was doing, then he took Booty’s string, tied one end round the jewel box and the other around his finger. He put the box back in his pocket. Now, if he did fall asleep, no one could take the
box without waking him up.

  Malik settled back down on his bunk. All around him was the glow of torch bulbs, like fireflies in the darkness. One by one, he watched them disappear. He lay in the shadow of the bunk bed and made his eyes as big as possible.

  He missed his cat … This was the time when Booty would curl up on the bed and hold his head back to have his chin tickled. Malik didn’t want to think of him but he couldn’t help himself and anyway, the sadness made him angry and it was hard to sleep when you were angry.

  He pulled the blanket up around his legs and tried to think of something else. He remembered what Papa had told him about the country where they would dock tomorrow. He pictured the roads with wooden houses and the white picket fences. He imagined opening one of those post boxes on poles to discover the letter that told him Mama was coming for him. He would be so excited he wouldn’t go out until she came, just in case he missed her. He would watch the road till she arrived, waiting for days if that’s what it took, till one day he’d see a woman in a pretty blue dress, carrying a suitcase, and she would open the gate and start down the path and he would know her then, for sure. He’d know it was his mama.

  Malik’s eyelids were heavy. He wished he hadn’t eaten so much at supper. The sponge pudding was weighing him down, making everything heavy and tugging at his eyelids. He struggled up onto an elbow and forced his eyebrows back up his forehead. The breath of all the sleeping boys became hypnotic and he listened out for Oskar – Malik was sure that he could hear his heavy breath. Perhaps he had been wrong about him. Perhaps it wouldn’t be Oskar who tried to steal the diamond, after all.

  Malik didn’t know what time it was but it was late. He turned over and the box in his pocket pushed into his hip and hurt, so he turned back again. This was no good. He kicked the blanket off his legs and put his feet to the floor, then stood up and stretched his arms above his head, only for the jewel box to pop out of his pocket and hang down his arm, right below Oskar’s sleeping face. Malik untied the string from his finger and put the box back into his pocket. The whole dormitory was asleep apart from him.

  He decided to go for a walk on deck. That would keep him awake. He slipped his feet into his Wellington boots and pulled the brown jumper over his head, then made his way along the row of beds till he reached the dormitory door. He slipped out into the corridor, passed the bathroom, came to the stairs and climbed up into the fresh air.

  The night was cooler out on deck. The sea was calm, and moved in gentle ridges that reflected the lights from the passenger decks. Malik rested against a capstan and looked out into the darkness as the ship ploughed onward. The sky above was clear and full of stars with a crescent moon above the captain’s bridge, and beside the moon were two green lights that shone at the top of the flagpole which flew the ensign.

  Malik leaned over the railings and saw a line of white wash that led back into the darkness. He sat down with his back to the capstan and looked out into the night. Eventually the sky began to turn pale and the stars became less bright.

  He had seen the sun rise once before from a window at home. He had been ill and unable to sleep and had lain in his mother’s arms while she said, ‘Wait for it, here it comes, here it comes.’ And then, there it was. A great ball of fire that rose into the sky.

  Malik hugged himself to keep warm. The ship moved easily through the water toward a thin line of red on the horizon that spread itself outward and upwards till the sun rose out of the sea as a perfect golden globe.

  Malik smiled at the new day. He had stayed awake and the diamond was safe in his pocket. In only a few hours, they would reach the port and then he would have done it. The diamond would be his and he could begin to make everything in his life all right again.

  A seagull cried out as it flew alongside the ship and Malik turned to see the bird but instead saw the figure on the upper deck who watched him with a look of interest.

  Angelo Vex had a cigarette in his hand and a puzzled expression that suddenly changed to one of recognition. Malik’s heart stopped beating. He put his head down and walked quickly toward the staircase that led to the dormitories, all the time expecting Vex to break into a run, to shout out and come after him. When he reached the stairs, Malik turned and looked back. Vex stood in the same spot, calmly observing him, still smoking his cigarette.

  Malik hid in the toilets. He sat on the stinking metal bowl in the last of the four cubicles and his mind was racing. He told himself he must stay calm and try to keep his head. He must think it through.

  It was bad that Vex had seen him.

  It had been a mistake to go out on deck. A stupid mistake. But never mind, he couldn’t help that now. He ran the encounter over in his mind, remembering the look of surprise when Vex had recognized him. So he obviously hadn’t known that Malik was on board. Did that mean he also didn’t know the diamond was missing? Malik couldn’t be sure either way.

  He tried to calm himself down. It was no good second-guessing.

  He listened at the door but could hear no one in the bathroom. He should go back to the dormitory. He would be safer there. He slid back the lock on the door and walked carefully across the empty bathroom into the wooden corridor, then slipped back into the dorm.

  He should behave as he would on any other day. He got back into bed and waited for the first signs of life and then, when the other boys were stretching in their bunks or hunched over putting on socks, he went back to the bathroom to wash.

  Miss Price arrived. She told them breakfast would be early and they were free to take themselves to the canteen when they were ready.

  Oskar and Steffan were discussing what a family would look for in an orphan. Malik followed them out of the dormitory and up on deck.

  ‘They like them to be young.’ Steffan sounded like he knew what he was talking about. He put a finger to one of his nostrils and snorted. ‘The older you are the worse chance you have. That’s how it was with the people that came to the orphanage.’

  ‘We need shorts,’ said Oskar. ‘We’ll get the little kids to give us their shorts.’

  Malik saw a group of excited passengers gathered on the starboard bow, pointing to a strip of land that had been lit by the morning sun. Malik paused and looked across. He could see factories with smoke coming from big chimneys, and there was a busy road with sunshine glinting on the windscreens of the tiny moving cars. He was excited to get a glimpse of the new country and he looked back for Oskar and Steffan but they had already gone to the canteen.

  He went across to the railings and stood on a bench so he could look over the heads of other passengers at the blue-grey outline. They had almost arrived. He jumped down and went to the opposite bow, intending to pass along the empty gangway and see whether any land could be seen from this other side of the ship.

  A hand pinched his ear so that it hurt. Malik twisted round and there was Angelo Vex, standing close behind him.

  Vex let go of Malik’s ear and took hold of his shoulder instead, his long dark nail scratching Malik’s skin beneath his shirt. He guided Malik over to the railings so that the two of them were alone. ‘Why don’t we move out of the way? I have something of yours to return.’

  Malik saw that Vex carried a pink hat box under his arm. It had a large red bow on the lid. Vex took his hand from Malik’s shoulder and removed the top – and Booty lifted his head above the rim and sniffed the air.

  Vex smiled wide enough to show the gap in his front teeth. ‘My son has a weakness for fur.’ He offered the hat box to Malik, pushing it against his chest, but Malik refused to take hold of it, taking a step away instead. Vex raised his eyebrows and Malik knew he shouldn’t try to run. Vex brought the box back underneath his arm. ‘Never mind. But I believe you have something of mine?’

  Malik was frightened. Up close, Vex was so much bigger than him. But Malik was also angry and he couldn’t help shouting out, ‘It isn’t yours! It never was!’ He pointed a finger. ‘You stole it from Papa!’

  Vex blew
through his nose like a bull and his eyes flicked from left to right. ‘How old are you, Malik?’ he said quietly. ‘It is Malik, isn’t it?’

  Malik stuck out his chin, the way Oskar did when he was annoyed. He wasn’t going to answer.

  Vex’s eyes hardened. He shifted the weight on his feet. ‘Well, it’s of no matter. You’re young enough for me to forgive your rudeness just this once.’ A woman walked past with her daughter and Vex smiled and paused to let them pass. ‘You should know that I didn’t steal that diamond,’ he said quietly.

  Malik’s jaw dropped open but Vex held a single finger in the air to indicate that he shouldn’t interrupt.

  ‘It’s true.’ Vex was calm and confident. ‘I imagine you don’t think very highly of me, but nevertheless I want you to know that I’m not a bad man. Really, Malik, I’m not. These are desperate times and I hear so many stories. It seems that everyone has lost something. Some people have lost everything. But I didn’t steal your papa’s tooth. He gave it to me in exchange for securing you a place on this ship.’ He lifted his eyebrows, daring Malik not to believe him. ‘Why else do you think you are here? You couldn’t afford a ticket otherwise. I’m surprised he didn’t tell you, but perhaps he was embarrassed.’ He tilted his head towards Malik as though they were conspirators and lowered his voice. ‘Diamonds can be troublesome things. They’re never easy to deal in – everyone knows they’re valuable but they don’t know how to trade them. Do you understand me? One can’t simply go into a shop and give a diamond to the boy behind the counter. You need to know the right people. You need to have contacts.’

  Booty mewled at Malik. He tried to climb from the open box and Vex brushed him back inside with his free hand so that the cat cowered with only his eyes above the rim.

  ‘Your grandfather was out of his depth, Malik. He realized that in his own hands the jewel was as good as worthless. So I offered to help him. For a price.’

  Malik shook his head. ‘You stole it from his jacket in the middle of the night,’ he said quietly.