OFFSHORE: Until the horizon

First priority

Vest off, shorts on: That was how I carried the fish sack when transferring it to the bay for the pick-up truck to carry. But this time, the faster I jog, the heavier the sack became, weighing heavily on my shoulders and making my neck bend. I had a glimpse of what the slave trade was like to a teenager like me centuries ago. The only difference was, those slaves were forced to work whereas I, was a choice (I did it to support my family), and was desperate to buy painkillers for my mother. Still, the heavy sack got even heavier as I tramped up the steep path to the bay, and five more fellows passed me than a few days earlier.

I pinned my poor performance on my sympathy for the strange girl, I believed that sympathy was disturbing me and had occupied my mind without letting go or giving me a break. So when I reached the bay, I quickly offloaded the sack and raced back to the beach to have another view of the girl, actually to see if she was fine after the slap.

I still had four fish sacks to carry for Mr. Tsukuba, but that became my second priority. My eyes were off his sacks and locked on the edges of the cliff, where my first priority currently resided, however, the edges of the cliff now looked ugly without the girl; she was no longer there as my shoulder invited someone to slap me from behind.

"Andre! Why are you acting strange today?" the man behind my back shouted; "you don't seem interested in the job!"

I turned around to him with my palm soothing the spot on which his slap had landed on. He was Mr. Tsukuba again, glaring at me as if he had paid me in advance to do the job.

I didn't respond right away, rather looked at the remaining four fish sacks in his boat, weighing my options, subsequently released my temper through a sigh, and said: "Give me money for the one sack I carried. I just wanted to buy panado for my mother, she's not feeling well."

He didn’t hesitate to hand me K100, and he seemed concerned as he faced to his boat. "Since when is Gertrude sick?" he asked quietly.

Not a weird question, he knew my mother very well; he had tried to make her his fourth wife a few days after my father's burial three months ago. He got given the cold shoulder in return, and neither did I blame my mother that we were now deep into poverty because she turned down a fish seller, nor did I blame Mr. Tsukuba for trying his luck on my mother.

"Today," was my late reply as I jammed the red K100 note in my pocket, but I quickly remembered both of my pockets were torn, so I clenched the note in my right hand instead. "So, see you later," I concluded, heading towards the cliff.

Mr. Tsukuba sighed behind me. I was as sure as death and taxes that he was staring at me with a surprise. "Grocery stores are this other way," he reminded me, and was reasonable; grocery stores were far west opposite that cliff, and far from the beach. I was indeed acting strange.

"I have to pee," I lied (my bladder was void). I looked around and gave him a cheerful smile for no reason.

He shrugged his shoulders and turned to his boat. For that reason, I proceeded to the woodlot at feet of the cliff. Both of us knew if I said "pee" while going to that direction I was always going do it in that woodlot where most beach goers, fishermen and their customers did.

I ducked into the woodlot with my bare feet, hid behind a good oak tree, and peeped back at Mr. Tsukuba: He was already busy talking to my fellow teenage boy, perhaps to replace me for the day. As they conversed I went to the rocky side of the cliff and climbed up as fast as I could to rescue the strange girl from the man I deemed abusive, the mission to rescue my mother from her headache slipped my mind. Once I reached the top with my head first, I stalled and saw the girl now on the timber floor crying:

"Please, I don't know how I lost the skiff, it was too foggy in the morning."