Twist by McCann Colum

Author:McCann,Colum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2024-08-14T19:54:45+00:00

I still find it stunning that our first repair was completed at almost the exact same time as the attack on Zanele occurred, and yet—improbable as it may seem—it did. The sun descends as the curtain is opened. The suicide occurs before the love letter arrives. The guitar strikes precisely at midnight.

I saw Conway as the message came through on his phone. We were on deck, waiting for the final test on the repaired cable. The structure of his face changed, not in a calamitous way, but in a slow, descending manner, as if the tracks of his tomorrows were coming down the line and positioning themselves at his feet.

He walked between the bridge and the control room and then up to the top deck, pacing back and forth with the satellite phone. He still moved like a person who had no spill. All calm, all control. I should have recalled the notion of turbulence. He was at the core of it, the inner point around which everything else churned.

He was joined by Abdul. They stood at a short distance from one another. I couldn’t imagine what was being said between them.

I remained at the aft mooring station, with Ron and Samkelo.

“So, when does he leave?” I asked.

“He doesn’t.”

“What do you mean, he doesn’t?”

“Can’t get a helicopter. We’re too far out. No landing pad anyway. And it’s a two-day sail to the coast. It would take ages to get to London. The airports here are a nightmare.”

“Can’t you have another boat pick him up? A faster one?”

“Even then.”

“Besides,” said Ron, “there’s Brussels.”

“Brussels?”

“Policy.”

“Seriously?”

“You saw Petrus.”

There was nothing callous about it. It was simply matter of fact. We were out in the middle of the ocean. We had just completed our first repair. It would still take ten days for us to get to Brighton by ship. A message made it in a fraction of a second. This was the miracle, and it was also the curse.

“And if someone’s dying?”

“Of course, if there’s any imminent danger, we go in.”

Abdul returned to the bridge. The buttons were lit up on Conway’s satellite phone. He closed it, and came toward us, asked Ron for a cigarette. I’d never seen Conway smoke before. He cupped his hand around the flame, leaned his head back, blew a stream of smoke from his throat.

I was waiting for something profound to be said, but he simply glanced in my direction. “I’d prefer if you didn’t write about this, Fennell.”

I stammered something about how he could trust me, I wasn’t interested in anything sensational.

“She’s out of hospital,” Conway finally said, holding the cigarette in front of his face, a foot away, turning it around and around, watching its glow.

“And the kids?”

“They’re being looked after, yeah. It’s going to be fine. I got it covered.”

“You’re going to stay on the boat?”

“We’ll get the job finished.”

“I’m sure Brussels will be happy.”

He stared at me. “Fuck Brussels,” he said. “This has nothing to do with Brussels.”

I was out of line. And I knew it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.