by Maya Wood
A young man sat next to her, enthusiastically combing a tin plate with the same unappealing cuisine. When he smiled at her she recognized him as the ship attendant who had collected her ticket. “Hello,” he said through his ample smile.
“Hello,” Alexis replied.
“You look a little frightened. Is it the food or the boat?” He let his mouth open around a hearty laugh and stabbed his fork into a fat green bean. Alexis giggled sheepishly. She saw the twinkle in his eyes and relaxed instantly. He reached his broad hand across to her. “My name is Inisi. And you?”
“I’m Alexis,” she said.
Alexis put her hand in his, and she felt the coa
rse skin of his fingers close over her. Inisi winked. “Nice to meet you.”
Alexis liked his eyes. They were dark and seemed to breathe warmth and ease. His body, long and muscular, arched over the table to lean on an elbow. The wide expanse of his torso was covered by a simple white shirt, open at the collar. His skin glowed black and soft underneath.
“And you’re all alone? I’ve never seen this before, Alexis. A white woman coming to New Guinea on this kind of boat alone.” Alexis might have felt nervous by the inquisition, but she could see only curiosity in his face. Inisi pointed at the other diners with his fork, a pea stuck to the end of a tine. “These people, they take this boat for two reasons. They leave New Guinea to find work, and they return to find their family. And the white people, well, they go to the island with their money and somehow they return with more money. What do you have in New Guinea, Alexis?”
Alexis stammered. She knew Inisi’s comments were mere observations of an unpleasant reality, but she suddenly felt the need to defend herself, to not be lumped with one group or another. She had always rebelled against the shameful colonial attitudes of the West, and lamented their tragic and crippling impacts upon the civilizations they oppressed. She saw her pale skin now as though it were a badge which flashed a membership she didn’t want.
Inisi watched her, the dark of his eyes unblinking as he waited for her to reply. “Uh, I suppose I’m also going to New Guinea for work. But not to make money,” she said with hasty punctuation.
Inisi chewed thoughtfully, a brow raised.
Alexis continued, “I’m going to the island to do some research.”
Inisi shook his head. “Research?”
“Back home I study civilizations that we don’t know much about. I want to learn more information about the culture of a New Guinean tribe.” Alexis suddenly felt silly and absurd, as though she herself didn’t understand her own motives in this new strange context. “Are you from New Guinea?” she asked him quickly.
Inisi cocked his head, his eyes swept upward as though he were deciding how to explain himself. “I’m a…what do you say…a mutt? I have family from New Guinea and Australia, but when I’m not on this boat,” he said mid-chew, “I spend most of my time on the island.”
Inisi ate his meal with gusto, savoring every last skin of the vegetables as they sat in silence amid the hubbub of lively conversation around them. Her eyes swept across the dining room, and she was struck by the number of passengers milling about the small craft, crowding the boat’s chef who stood attentively behind the vats of steaming supper. She looked at the table behind, the men squeezed shoulder to shoulder, the clear center of attention leaning forward for his audience to hear. Seconds later, the men pitched backward, slapping the tables in an uproar of laughter. Alexis smiled, wishing she knew what made them erupt so heartily. Further down the benches, illuminated now by the bald light of naked bulbs, women ate with babies slung over their shoulders, young children sitting between the slender bodies of their mothers and aunts. The women slapped each other’s hands as they laughed, bowled their bodies into friends despite the cramped space. Alexis had no appetite now, but she did not want to leave her new companion just yet.
“Inisi,” she said softly, and he leaned his head forward to hear her better. “Inisi, where does everybody sleep?”
Inisi set his fork over the edge of his plate and said casually, “Some will sleep in the bunk cabins, and some will sleep on the deck.” He watched her face and perceived the concern in her question. “They are used to those kinds of accommodations. We don’t do things so separately here.”
Alexis nodded. She understood that Americans especially were accustomed to privacy and individual spaces, and that most cultures tended to lean toward more collective living. Again she felt uncomfortable about her place in this new world, inadequate to operate in its reality despite her heavy academic understanding of these differences. Running her finger along the splintered wood of the bench table, Alexis wondered nervously just how inept she might feel in a matter of days when this exotic tale would reach full throttle.
In her miniscule cabin, Alexis sat on the thin mattress of the cot, a lone, uncovered bulb blinking with effort from the tea-colored ceiling. There weren’t any of the quaint, nautical-themed decorations reminiscent of the Oceanic. Instead, it was the rawest, truest version of a sea-faring vessel, its whitish walls colored only by a tapestry of leak stains. Her leather suitcases were piled high beside her, leaving just enough space to enter and exit the room. There were none of the pleasing polished wooden armoires, or vanity mirrors fastened to walls. And so her quarters remained spartan, as she was unable to leave the imprint of her life by unraveling her garments or spraying surfaces with toiletries. During her three days aboard the Allegiant, she had pecked at her bags like a bird, taking only what was necessary in the moment.
She struggled with how uprooted she felt. Wasn’t it the ultimate fantasy she had weaved her entire life? Basic, rustic living? She couldn’t believe what a psychological effect her possessions had on her. To see them, touch them, made her feel at home, secure. In their absence, she was without identity, an anonymous body bobbing at sea. Less than a single day separated Alexis from New Guinea, and each hour that drew the boat closer to Port Moresby rattled her bones.
She discovered the most soothing balm for her nerves was Inisi. She had spent the last days shadowing him when she felt he could spare the attention. She marveled at the ease in which he lived his life. She had never met anyone so at home in their own skin. And when they spoke, he made no effort to conceal that her ambitions to catalogue New Guinean civilizations were lost on him, nor did he criticize her.
“What will you do with all this information you’re collecting once you return to your homeland?” Inisi asked the first afternoon aboard The Allegiant, running a wide palm over his sweaty brow.
“Well, we’ll publish it in journals for a mass audience. And it will serve as the basis for further studies.”
“And more information collecting?” Inisi returned to his work repairing a frayed rope.
“Yes,” Alexis said, stroking her lips thoughtfully with a finger.
“And then they will publish that information for more people to read?”
“Yes,” Alexis replied.
Inisi paused and looked at her, his wide eyes blinking curiously at her. “Okay, okay, Alexis. I know,” he said, his tone totally devoid of judgment. “It’s important to tell stories. In New Guinea we pass on the stories of our ancestors. It’s just that most of the people I know are too poor to worry about other places, other people, reports and publishing,” he continued. “We cannot afford the time to do more than work and feed our families.”
Alexis squirmed. Without any intention whatsoever, he was managing to make her question beliefs she’d felt were perfectly natural, normal. When Inisi looked up from his work he saw that Alexis’ face was frozen. He laughed good-naturedly and shook his head. “We are from very different places, Alexis. That’s all.” He wound the coil of rope over his shoulder and leaned forward a moment. “And what about your family? What do they think about you doing this? Are you married?”
Alexis blushed. It was the first time Inisi had asked her such a personal question. “I’m not married. Yet. I got engaged just before comin
g on this trip.” Alexis lowered her eyes to her hand, her finger bare since she had entrusted the ring to her father on the pier.
Inisi threw back his head and howled. Alexis’ brow sank into a scowl. Inisi tapped his foot and clapped his hands in delight. “This is the first time I hear of a woman getting engaged to marry and then running away.”
Alexis put up a finger to protest, but her companion was doubled over in hysterics. When Inisi had recovered from the hilarity of her romantic life, he sucked in a deep restorative breath. “I’m sorry, Alexis,” he said with dramatic sobriety.
Alexis folded her arms, and for a moment she couldn’t decide whether or not to punish him with silence. But she saw the corner of his mouth twitch dangerously, and the two exploded into aching fits of laughter.
***
A crack of electric thunder split low across the Coral Sea and the boat trembled underneath its imperious roar. Alexis’ mind wrenched free of Inisi and their conversations, and she clutched the brittle frame of her cot, her eyes wide with agitation. She had retreated, almost gratefully, to her room earlier when she saw the sky gather menacingly into a smoky slate. The clouds had charged like cavalry, and the women knotted their hair in quick braids, clutching inconsolable children, clucking gently in their ears. She had seen Inisi studying the sky, his face fixed with the impassive recognition of what was coming. He had called to the passengers camped out along the deck, and they moved purposefully, collecting their few possessions as they sought cover.
Another jolt passed through the body of the Allegiant as thunder exploded around them like cannons. The smallest suitcase toppled onto Alexis, smashing against the bed frame, spilling like guts onto the tattered white sheet. She could hear the wind now, howling violently, pulling the sea into a series of steep hills and valleys. The tower of her belongings now visibly shook and teetered with each climb and descent over the mounting crests of ocean. From above, she could hear voices frantically calling through pelts of rain, heavy footsteps clobbering against the deck floorboards.
A sharp slap of guilt stung Alexis. She thought of the mothers and their children, sitting wet and afraid under the tarps they’d constructed in mere minutes as the storm burst above them. She wrestled a suitcase from the stack and rifled through its contents, searching futilely for a rubber slicker. The bulb blinked and sputtered into blackness. Her face was wet with perspiration, and once more she fought the urge to sink low into the corner of her black cave until the storm had passed. Steadying her breath, she braced her quivering frame against the wall, her fingers splayed as she felt for the door knob.
In the corridor, the white lights fluttered over squatting men, women and children huddled elbow to elbow. Wailing babies sung their sorrow, and mothers hummed despite the vicious fits of the boat defending its place at sea. Alexis saw a young man descend the iron stairway. He moved through the thick of refugees, his voice bellowing instructions Alexis could not understand. As he neared she saw it was Inisi. His face glistened with rain, his eyes wide.
“Alexis, stay in your room. This is a very bad storm. It’s not safe now,” he commanded, his voice solid and protective.
He pushed her door open and began to usher her back. She resisted. “Inisi, can’t you bring some people down here? In my room?”
Inisi peered into the pit of her cabin. “Yes, that helps.”
“Are there more people upstairs?”
Inisi nodded. “There are many people still in the cafeteria, but two of the windows have blown out.” Inisi called out to the passengers, beckoning the children with their faces buried into the stomachs of their mothers. They looked from Inisi to Alexis, and then back to Inisi. “Come!” Inisi yelled as the boat slammed against a wave. A line of young children filed into the black cell of her room, and thanking her quickly, Inisi shot down the hall and barreled up the stairs. She hesitated for a moment, her temples pounding furiously against her brain. And without a second thought, she found herself charging after him.
On the deck, lights buzzed and popped between shelves of waves that crashed over the surface of the boat. She saw Inisi disappear into the cafeteria, and she gripped a metal pole to steady herself. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed a figure flailing, and a scream drew her attention to the bow. Alexis opened her mouth to let out a shredded cry. It was a little boy clinging desperately to the wire cable. He was alone.
Alexis let go, unthinking, and bolted for the boy as a monster wave tackled the Allegiant. When she recovered her senses, Alexis was flat against the deck, gagging up mouthfuls of seawater. Oh my God. This is it, she thought. The violence of the wave had almost knocked out her insides. Her clothing now clung limply in ribbons around her body. A shriek peeled from her throat as she snapped her head back to locate the boy. She could no longer see his little body, and she dove to the corner where the cable had come loose.
And then she saw it. The ocean’s belly contracted as though it were sucking in the soul of all life. She could perceive a horrific black mouth swelling up just beyond. Alexis scurried to the rail. A jagged rod of lightning seared the sky, and for one moment, Alexis saw everything. Just a few feet away, the boy half-dangled from under the rail. Alexis let out a roar and plunged her body toward him as the wave gored the vessel from the opposite side. The boat pitched, and in a split second, she felt her hand lock over the arm of the boy. Their bodies swept through the cables of the rail like specks of dust on a wave.
The water was black and warm around them. She kicked her feet to find air, but the current pummeled her. She couldn’t discern which way was up or down. The ocean began to fill her lungs. The face of death fixed her with its callous gaze. She blinked it away, and crossed the ocean, picturing her father and Marion at home. Philip sitting cross-legged, smoking a cigarette. Tabitha against the rail. The men in the museum. How they could never begin to imagine her now, in the heart of the sea, sinking, breathless. Alexis pulled the boy to her, hugging him tightly under one arm. Sorry little man, she told him. We die together.
Inisi heard a scream tear from his body. He was watching Alexis scramble for the bow, though he couldn’t perceive why. What he had seen was the black face of a gargantuan wave barrel toward the boat with soulless indifference. He sprinted for her. Like the shock of an exploding cannon, the vessel shook and pitched, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that Alexis was gone.
Inisi searched frantically for the coil of rope he kept tucked at the bow’s point. He tied a knot around his waist. He looked at the choppy hell below him and dove head first. Kicking in every direction, Inisi cast out his long arms like fishing nets. When he felt a body, he prayed it was Alexis. Only there was another body. He gathered them in his arms and pulled ferociously at the rope. When they surfaced, the pair sagged like ragdolls in his grasp.
With the very last ounce of strength he possessed, he heaved them onto the deck and pulled himself above them. He had to get them below before the boat collided with another wave. Towering above them on the deck, he saw no life in their faces. His vision flashed white under their weight as he dragged them to the stairwell. The corridor was packed, and every face turned in horror to behold the casualties.
A mother shrieked from the end of the hallway, and she scrambled to Inisi, clutching her son. She knocked at his back, begging in sobs for the water to leave his lungs. Alexis slumped in Inisi’s arms. He whipped her back with the flat of his palm as though he were exorcising an evil spirit. He felt his body tremor when she didn’t respond. “No,” he choked. He cupped her face and looked at her bloodless lips.
And then her eyes, which had closed with death, rolled in their sockets and her body jerked with violence. A stream of water shot from her mouth, and she wretched, desperate to catch the air.
The corridor let out a collective sigh of relief. The boy and the white woman were okay.
When Alexis awoke, she was lying in the flooded corridor along a chain of weary bodies. She lifted her head from the supple surface of a man’s chest, ris
ing and dipping in slumber. It was Inisi. I’m alive, she thought with such surprise that she gasped. Inisi stirred, his eyes peeling open in the ship’s belly, which was gray and thick. Alexis sat up uneasily, and her body convulsed with panic.
“Sssh, sssh,” Inisi said, steadying her as he caressed her back. “Let’s get outside. You need some air.”
They moved down the corridor, clumsily maneuvering over men and women now succumbed to sleep after a terrifying night. She climbed the stairs with effort, and when she pushed through the iron door to the deck, the light sliced at her eyes. The ship’s crew scurried to sweep the deck of the lingering pools which glinted with shards of broken glass. She staggered across the deck and watched the sea churn its last response to the storm’s provocation. On the horizon, she no longer saw the seamless union of sea and sky, but a long stretch of green.
“Are you okay, Alexis?” Inisi touched her shoulder, and she saw that dark crescents underlined his eyes, now lit up gold in the sunlight.
Alexis choked. “I thought I died.” Her body heaved, and she raced to the rail, vomiting into the sea. Her eyes were bloodshot and hot with tears. “And the little boy?” she dared to ask.
“He’s fine.” Inisi pulled her against him, his arms encircling her in a breathless embrace. “You are both fine.”
When they finally released each other, Inisi ran his palm over his scalp, staring at his rubber boots as though he were surprised to see them still planted on a solid surface. “There she is.” He nodded his head toward the growing ribbon of green. He turned and leaned against the rail, fishing into the pocket of his oversized pants until he retrieved a strip of wood. “We’ll be there in a couple of hours.”