The Sea Singer

by Shome Dasgupta

  ‘We will take her,’ Larry said.

  ‘To the observation room,’ Rezna said.

  ‘We will come for her,’ Jonas said.

  Rezna shrugged. ‘Try.’

  As the scientists walked out the door, Maria and Jonas started crying. March had stopped singing and she looked into Larry’s eyes.

  ‘Cute,’ Larry said.

  The Faccinises watched the scientists drive away in their carriage until it was not even a speck in the distance and then they closed the door. Maria sat on the couch, tears streaming down her face.

  ‘I am sorry,’ Jonas said.

  ‘It is no one’s fault,’ Maria said.

  ‘We’ll get her back,’ Jonas said.

  ‘We’ll talk to Nirana to find the whereabouts of the Organization of Scientists,’ Maria said. ‘We’ll get her back.’

  ‘It is so quiet,’ Jonas said.

  The Faccinises stayed up the rest of the night, waiting for morning to come so they could talk to Nirana.

  ‘This is what March must feel like,’ Jonas said.

  They held hands and sat in the living room, staring at the door.

  Meanwhile, the scientists were travelling back to the observation room. The streets were quiet, except for the sounds of the horse’s hooves beating against cobbled roads. The city was still sleeping. Larry held March while Rezna drove. March started to sing and the sound of the hooves was muted by her voice.

  ‘Let’s stop and rest and listen,’ Rezna said.

  Larry nodded.

  They sat in the carriage and listened to March sing. Their heads drooped. They yawned. The closed their eyes. Rezna snored. Larry was drooling. March sang. She sang until the morning came and the sun rose and her voice was joined by the surrounding robins. The city was awakening, the roads were gradually coming alive.

  Nirana too was out taking a walk when he heard March’s voice. He followed it until he saw the carriage.

  ‘Scientists,’ Nirana said.

  March recognized Nirana and smiled.

  ‘Keep singing,’ Nirana said.

  There were a few people down the road, making their way towards the carriage. Nirana took March from Larry’s arms and cradled her. He casually walked away, whistling and looking at the robins. By the time the people from down the road had arrived, Nirana was safely away and because March had stopped singing, he didn’t draw any attention. He went straight to his mansion. There, he told his carriage driver, Mr Thenly, to go to the Faccinises and give them the message that March was in Nirana’s care.

  Jonas and Maria were still on the couch in the living room. They hadn’t slept. They stared at the door fixedly until they heard the knock.

  ‘No more scientists,’ Maria said.

  Jonas opened the door and Mr Thenly gave them the message.

  ‘I will take you back to Nirana,’ Mr Thenly said.

  Jonas and Maria didn’t change their clothes – they left in their pyjamas, barely remembering to close the door behind them. At the mansion, Maria and Jonas smothered the Medallions with hugs. Maria held March in her arms. The baby wasn’t singing, but her wide, round eyes and occasional giggles all spoke of her happiness at being back with her parents.

  ‘She was just singing along with the birds,’ Nirana explained. ‘And the scientists were fast asleep.’

  ‘Her voice is a lullaby,’ Jonas said.

  ‘If she sang loud enough, the whole world would sleep without any trouble,’ Maria said.

  The Faccinises told the Medallions about their decision and they in turn agreed that it was the right thing to do.

  ‘She will be safe with my friends there,’ Nirana said. ‘Take the rest of the day and spend time with your daughter. I will travel to Koofay tomorrow to escort March to my friends.’

  ‘But be careful,’ Francesca said. ‘The scientists will be lurking. They will hunger for her.’

  Nirana wrote down the address of their friends’ home in Koofay, so the Faccinises could send letters to their daughter.

  ‘The Armers are wonderful people and she will be well looked after there.’

  ‘We will be back soon,’ Jonas said.

  March moved her arms up and down.

  ‘Cover her in this,’ Francesca said.

  She gave them a red shawl – it was ragged and full of holes, the threads unravelling.

  ‘No one will suspect anything,’ she said.

  7

  THE FACCINISES WENT FOR A WALK IN the park. Maria spent the whole day crying and March sang along, covered in the red shawl. Despite the looks from other people, Jonas and Maria let March sing as they looked around the gardens. People couldn’t really tell where the voice was coming from, nor did they know that March was just a baby. Jonas and Maria sang along and every now and then, a small crowd would form around them and watch them sing. They too clapped and sang along – the song of the sea was well known throughout Kolkaper. March stopped singing and Maria and Jonas stopped as well. The crowds thanked them for the entertainment and left. Maria picked a rose and showed it to March.

  March looked at the red petals. She stuck her arm out and her fingertips grazed each petal. Maria placed the rose under March’s nose for her to smell. From the park, they went to the market, so she could see the jewellery and fruits. Jonas bought March a silver necklace and a bronze bangle, which she would have to grow into. As evening came, they went back home to pack March’s things. The baby remained quiet as she watched her parents shuffle about the room.

  ‘How are you so strong when you know we will be bidding our baby goodbye?’ Maria asked.

  ‘Your tears are not a sign of weakness, but firmly rooted in strength,’ Jonas replied.

  They stayed awake through the night and watched March as she lay in her crib. This was the second night the Faccinises went without sleep, but it didn’t bother them one bit. The desire to spend every moment with their baby before she left kept them going. March looked into her parents’ eyes, pointed at them and reached for them.

  ‘She wants to see what we see,’ Maria said.

  ‘She can see more than we can see,’ Jonas said.

  ‘She knows that she is leaving,’ Maria said.

  Morning came and sunlight streamed in through the kitchen window – an additional source of heat to cook the eggs on the stove.

  ‘Let us take her to the Medallions,’ Jonas said.

  ‘Say goodbye to your first home,’ Maria said.

  March waved her arms around in a circular motion.

  The Medallions had just finished breakfast as the Faccinises walked into their house. The smell of syrup and pancakes wafted through the house. Nirana was dressed in a coat and tie. Two small suitcases were in the living room.

  ‘Would you like some pancakes?’ Francesca asked.

  ‘Thanks, but we have eggs at home,’ Jonas said.

  ‘It is time for us to go now,’ Nirana said. ‘I would like to reach the harbour before noon.’

  Nirana picked up his luggage and opened the door.

  The carriage and driver were waiting outside. Francesca was staying behind, so she and Nirana kissed and said their goodbyes. She kissed March on the cheek and whispered into her ears.

  ‘You will swim like no other,’ Francesca said.

  They left for the ocean. By the time they arrived at the harbour, the carriage floor was slippery with Maria’s tears.

  ‘Be careful as you step off,’ Jonas said.

  The sun was approaching its highest point, but the cool ocean winds protected the backs of their necks from its heat. There weren’t too many passengers at the harbour for they mostly travelled early in the morning. At that hour, there were mainly fishing boats and seabirds about. There was a wooden shack that served coffee, muffins and liquorice. The homeless were also there, looking out over the ocean. They didn’t beg for anything, but sometimes they could be seen bargaining with the seabirds for fish and tyres.

  ‘I have your address and I will write to you as soon as
we arrive,’ Nirana said.

  Maria picked up March, kissed her on the forehead and on each cheek and whispered into her ear.

  ‘Get some sleep,’ she said.

  Jonas took her from Maria’s arms and kissed her on her eyes.

  ‘We will see you again soon,’ he said.

  He turned to Nirana.

  ‘Please ask the Armers to teach her how to write as soon as possible, so she can write to us,’ Jonas said. ‘Even if it’s only one word.’

  Nirana nodded and shook Jonas’s hand. He hugged Maria. March and he then boarded the ship; the carriage driver followed them with the luggage.

  Maria and Jonas stood there and watched Nirana walk away, but the sun shone right into their faces and, two blinks later, they could no longer see their daughter’s eyes. They stood there until the ship left. The carriage driver waited for them, feeding his horses carrots and celery.

  ‘Time to go home,’ Jonas said.

  ‘A strange home without our baby,’ Maria said.

  As the ship went off in one direction, the carriage went off in the other. On their way back, the Faccinises asked the driver to stop at the market, so that they could buy basmati rice and yellow curry. Since it was just after noon, the market was crowded. School was done for the summer and children were running around while their parents were looking for vegetables and lamps. The children used fruits as footballs and baseballs – splotches of yellows and oranges and greens and reds were flying through the air. The market workers yelled at them, but the children continued to have fun. Maria and Jonas bought their rice and curry and walked back to their carriage. On the way, Jonas bumped into a younger man with no hair and a gold tooth.

  ‘Pardon,’ Jonas said, moving aside.

  ‘I am going to kill you,’ the bald-headed man said.

  Jonas and Maria didn’t reply. Maria looked back and saw that the man was following them. The carriage was still at a distance.

  ‘Stop,’ the gold-tooth man shouted. ‘You are the parents of the odd baby. I heard about you two.’

  Jonas turned around and faced the man. He told Maria to keep walking towards the carriage, but she stayed with Jonas. She had to constantly move her body to release the tension within – she could feel the pressure of her blood beating against the inside of her skin.

  Jonas stood still. His eyebrows were tense and his mouth slightly open, showing his teeth grinding against each other.

  ‘Stop following us,’ Jonas said.

  The bald-headed man held an avocado in one hand and a knife in the other.

  ‘You cannot live here and bring such witchery to our town,’ he said. ‘I have heard of your baby. All three of you must go.’

  The sweat on his bald head dripped down his face and neck. His red eyes matched the burnt skin on his head and cheeks.

  ‘We have done nothing to harm you or this town,’ Jonas said. ‘And she is gone.’

  ‘My daughter had just died of pneumonia,’ he shouted.

  ‘Our condolences,’ Maria said.

  ‘She died the same day your daughter was born,’ the man continued. ‘I know, because my daughter was in the next room.’

  He started to pace back and forth and in circles.

  ‘I heard what the doctor said about the singing newborn,’ he said. ‘My daughter is dead because of the birth of your daughter.’

  ‘That isn’t possible,’ Jonas replied. ‘I am sorry to hear of your daughter’s death, but neither we, nor our baby, had anything to do with it.’

  Jonas’s voice was calm and firm. He held his hands close to his sides to block the man in case he attacked them. Maria was standing not too far behind. The carriage driver saw that the Faccinises were in trouble and headed towards them. Just as the carriage pulled up, the man with the gold tooth lunged forward with his knife. Jonas moved out of the way, but not quickly enough, and the knife sliced the side of his body. He fell to his knees, grabbing his side. Maria ran towards her husband, but the man stood in her way.

  ‘This is vengeance for my daughter,’ he said.

  He stepped towards her and stabbed her just above the stomach. With a gasp, she looked into her assailant’s eyes and fell to the ground. Maria whispered to her husband that she was going to sleep. Jonas looked at Maria and then at the man with the gold tooth. The man’s knife was already in motion to stab him, but a bullet stopped him, causing him to fall backwards. As the man died, he murmured his last word, ‘Flora.’ Jonas looked behind him and saw the driver with a gun pointed toward the bald man. The smell of gunpowder and blood mixed together as Jonas lifted Maria’s head. The driver helped Jonas to his feet.

  ‘Help me pick her up,’ the driver said. ‘We must go to the hospital right away.’

  Jonas couldn’t speak. He helped the driver lift Maria into the carriage.

  The driver helped Jonas into the carriage and told him to lie on his unwounded side. Then he ripped off the sleeve of his own shirt and wrapped it tight around Jonas’s body.

  ‘The blood must stop,’ he said.

  The driver went back to the bald man who lay dead on the ground. He dragged the man to the carriage and placed him in the back compartment.

  ‘Enemy or no enemy, he should be treated as any other human.’

  The driver then drove to the hospital. Jonas lay on his side and Maria lay before him on the opposite side. He looked at her and sang in gasps, sounding like a broken flute. He looked to his left and saw the dead man with the knife still firmly held in his hand. Two avocadoes fell out of his pocket, rolling around on the carriage seat. The knife was the last thing Jonas saw before he lost consciousness. The driver reached the hospital and sought help from nurses and doctors who were just finishing their lunch. Dr Slide went to the carriage with a napkin stained with mustard tucked into his shirt. One of the nurses was still chewing her broccoli as she reached the carriage to help the wounded into the hospital. Once they were in the hospital, the driver left for the Medallion mansion to inform Francesca of the situation.

  Maria was kept in the same room where her stabber’s daughter had passed away and Jonas was in the room in which March had been born. The doctor had declared that the bald man was dead.

  ‘His vitals are all unimportant,’ Dr Slide said.

  Maria was barely breathing. Dr Slide and his partner, Dr Hingen, tended to her wound. Blood dripped to the floor as the doctors tried to feel for any wounded organs. The stab was too deep to tell. They assumed that her lungs were pierced, maybe even her heart. Down the hall, two nurses were taking care of Jonas. They were stitching his wound with threads that had been imported from overseas. The two doctors knew that the only thing they could do was to clean and sew Maria’s stab wound.

  ‘We need to invest in some technology,’ Dr Slide said. ‘I have heard of robots and machines.’

  ‘Our future is their past,’ Dr Hingen said.

  Maria convulsed in spasms. As soon as her wound was shut, the doctors gave her a shot that would calm the nerves in her spine. Her heart started to pulsate in a regular pattern.

  ‘She is between life and death,’ Dr Slide said. ‘We have no control over which way she goes.’

  Jonas regained consciousness. The nurses had just finished stitching his side. Remembering what had happened, he asked about his wife. The nurses told him of her critical condition, and that he must rest and drink water.

  ‘I have just finished resting,’ Jonas said. ‘Let me see my wife.’

  He got up, limped down the hallway and looked though every door for Maria. He saw the killer lying dead in one room, and in the next room he saw Maria.

  ‘Wake up Maria,’ he told her.

  She opened her eyes and looked at Jonas’s chin. He held her hand.

  ‘You have blood on your chin,’ she whispered.

  ‘Can you breathe?’ he asked.

  ‘I am living off someone else’s breath,’ Maria said. ‘It cannot be mine, my lungs are dead. I can feel them limp inside my body.’

&n
bsp; ‘Rest,’ Jonas said. ‘No more talking.’

  ‘There is couscous in the kitchen,’ Maria said.

  Francesca walked into the room with the driver. She knelt down next to Maria’s bed and bowed her head. She looked at Maria, whose eyes were closed. Francesca took her hand and looked at her body, now held together with stitches.

  ‘She is breathing someone else’s air,’ she said.

  Jonas nodded. Francesca kept a plate of rose petals on the bedside table. Jonas breathed in its scent.

  ‘A rose for a rose,’ he said.

  Maria didn’t open her eyes for the rest of the night, but continued to breathe using someone else’s lungs. Jonas stayed in her room all night. Francesca went home to bring back food for Jonas. Before she left, Jonas thanked the driver.

  ‘I never got a chance to thank you,’ Jonas said. ‘If it weren’t for you, we would have been dead.’

  ‘I acted on instinct,’ he said. ‘I’m not a fighter. The Medallions show great care for you two, and I was just doing what they would have wanted me to do.’ He sighed and shook his head. ‘If only I had come earlier, none of this would have happened. I apologize.’

  ‘None of us were expecting such an event,’ Jonas said. ‘I apologize for involving you in this horrible event. I do not even know the name of the man who saved my life.’

  ‘Mr Thenly,’ the driver replied.

  ‘Thank you, Mr Thenly.’

  The driver nodded and walked out of the room. Francesca told Jonas that she would be back with food and followed Mr Thenly out of the room. Jonas sat by Maria’s bedside and stayed up through the night. He thought about March and how she had the energy to stay awake every night. He looked at the ceiling light.

  ‘You are remarkable,’ Jonas said. ‘I hope one day your mother will be able to wake up and see your eyes again. I will try my best to be like you.’

  The next morning, Francesca brought vegetables and rice and then went back home. She had to take care of her husband’s errands while he was away.

  ‘My thoughts are crumbs,’ Francesca said. ‘But I will be back to share them with you and Maria.’