Gardens in the Dunes by Leslie Marmon Silko

Author:Leslie Marmon Silko
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Part Seven

THE STEAMSHIP departed in the early evening with the tide; despite the rain, the sea was calm. A day away from the Canary Islands they woke to a bright sunlight and blue sky. The warm temperatures reminded Indigo of the desert; the peaks and troughs of the ocean waves made her think of odd barren mountains and hills of salt water. As they neared land the seagulls floated on the ocean’s surface and caused Indigo to mistake them for big sea flowers. Rainbow squawked and made no mistake of their identity—they’d kill him and eat him if they could, Hattie explained.

The voyage past Gibraltar was calm and quite lovely. Edward remained in the cabin with his hand in a basin of hot salts the cabin boy changed once an hour on doctor’s orders. Hattie and Indigo with her parrot enjoyed the fresh air and sun on walks on the deck. Edward joined them for the evening walk. He continuously squeezed a small latex rubber ball in the injured hand to limber the tendons as Hattie described the schools of flying fish they counted; Indigo had a good head for numbers.

The tedious daily regimen of the hand soaked in steaming water subdued the infection, and the wound was nearly healed. When they were not counting seabirds, Hattie and Indigo practiced spelling the words from the story of the Chinese monkey. Hattie felt relieved to be fulfilling at least a part of the agreement Edward made with the boarding school superintendent—to continue teaching her to read and write.

For geography they accepted the ship captain’s invitation to visit the bridge, where he showed them the maps and charts that guided them toward Gibraltar. On the wall chart of the Mediterranean, Hattie pointed out Italy and the town of Lucca, where they’d visit Aunt Bronwyn’s friend; here was the island of Corsica they were bound for. The captain expressed surprise Americans would risk a visit to such a lawless place (the mountains were full of bandits and revolutionists!), a place with so little to offer the traveler. Hattie stepped back from the chart at once; she regretted the mention of their final destination, but thanked the captain for his concern about their safety. She signaled Indigo to follow her, though they’d only just got there.

Was it her exhaustion that left her so enervated and short-tempered? She fully intended to discuss dangers in the hills of Corsica with Edward after they reached Lucca and she had time to rest.

Indigo’s spelling list for the week included words like “wicked,” “hundred,” “scriptures,” and “scoundrel” because the Chinese monkey was in a lot of trouble. She enjoyed the assignment to use each of the spelling words at lease once in a sentence she made up herself. Hattie was surprised at the sentence in which a policeman was called a “scoundrel” by the Messiah.

Edward locked the cabin doors at night because he feared Hattie might sleepwalk, but she slept soundly every night except the last night before they reached Genoa.

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