Islands in the Sky

3.2

“Good day,” the man with the rope said to Sema. He talked a little oddly, with something of a slurry drawly accent, but she understood his words and meaning well enough.

She looked at him and thought about what to say.

“A quiet one, hey?” he said, before she could decide, so Sema didn’t answer, since apparently it was true, and she assumed that not answering would make this obvious.

“Very good then,” the man said agreeably. Perhaps he was accustomed to people who had been on their own on boats for days at a time, Sema thought, and who had forgotten how to talk.

Sema was trying to decide if she had forgotten.

“Hello,” she said, after a moment.

“Hello back,” the man said.

They looked at each other.

“Have you come far?” the man said, as if he was trying to be polite.

Sema wasn’t sure how far was far to him. “I sailed for a week,” she said.

He nodded, and seemed to think that neither surprisingly far nor surprisingly not.

“Well,” he said. “And now you are here.”

Sema didn’t answer that either, because it seemed obvious and correct and true.

“This is a common dock,” the man said. “I am in charge, and you may tie up here.”

“Thank you,” Sema said.

“There’s a docking fee, though,” the man said. “You must trade or pay if you wish to tie up.”

“Oh,” Sema said, and hesitated. She wanted to stay, but wasn’t sure she had anything of value.

The man seemed to assume her hesitation was about the fee itself, though, rather than her ability to pay. “I guard this wharf,” he said. “If you dock here, nothing will be stolen.”

“That’s good,” Sema said.

“Nothing stolen,” the man said. “You have my word.”

Sema looked around her wardrobes. She didn’t have much to trade, although the plastic containers she had gathered to store water, now empty, might do. They were durable, and always useful, and at home had been common for low-level trades. For a handful of eggs or an armload of cut wood, things of that sort.

She showed him the plastic containers. “I could trade these?” she said. “Or some spare clothes.”

He looked at the containers, and then looked at Sema. “Two buckets per a day,” he said.

Sema nodded. She had feeling she was overpaying, but she agreed all the same. It wasn’t worth haggling and earning his ill-will. Not when she had her doubts any of her things would be here when she returned.

“You’ll guard my things?” she said. “Nothing will be stolen?”

“I swear,” he said.

“And I am safe if I sleep here? You will guard me as well?”

“I swear that too.”

Sema looked at him, and tried to decide.

“I am honest,” the man said, and waved his arm around. “Any here can vouch for me.”

Which they would if it was a trick, Sema thought, but she didn’t have much choice.

“I’ll stay for five days,” she said. “For now.” She hoped the hint of more business later might keep him honest now.

She began passing him ten plastic containers. He took them one at a time, and peered into each. Making sure they were undamaged, Sema assumed, and trusted him a little more because he bothered. If he planned to rob her, the quality of these old plastic buckets would be his last concern.

“They are whole,” she said. “I used each not long ago.”

“I see that,” he said, as he peered.

She handed him the last few containers, and he took all but one. One he gave back, a smaller clear bottle.

“No,” he said, and pointed to a red bucket. “That one instead, rather than this.”

Sema poured out that bucket’s water into another, and gave it to him. She assumed the red colour was worth more, but she didn’t care enough to argue.

“Thank you,” the man said, and began stacking his plastic containers inside each other. “Is there anything else you need? Directions, or a place to go to trade?”

Sema shook her head.

“Not now?” the man said, hopefully.

“Not now,” Sema agreed, and turned her back, hoping he’d take the hint and leave. She pretended to make sure his rope was secure to her mast, then she tied her own rope to a ring on the side of the dock, too.

When she next looked up, he had gone.