Exiles by Philip Caputo

Author:Philip Caputo [Caputo, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-55602-8
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2013-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

WELL, HE REFLECTED with some self-congratulation, at least he’d been abstinent since then—six whole months; and he’d had only five beers tonight. He finished the last carton, switched off the generator, and went home. All he could see in the bedroom was the faint glint of the huge lacquered hawksbill turtle shell hanging on the wall, yet he knew Dale was awake. With the generator off, there was no sound now save that constant sawing of palm fronds in the wind, the wind he would pray for in the stifling interludes between blows during the Wet, as he now wished it would stop for just a few minutes and silence the scraping trees. Her breathing, that’s how he knew she wasn’t asleep; he would have heard her deep, slow breathing if she were.

He undressed and lay beside her, she on her back, looking up at the motionless paddle fan.

“You might as well know I ’ad one more when I was finishin’ up.”

She turned over, her back to him.

“Thought I’d tell you that, so you don’t think I’m sneakin’. No secrets between us, eh, luv?”

“I don’t want to hear about it. You’ve been good since New Year’s, and I don’t want to hear about it, David.”

David. There was the tip-off that she was stewing. Not Dave, but David.

“Got ’em off a prawner the other day.”

“I really don’t want to hear about it. How is our visitor?”

“Snoozin’ like a baby, I expect. A copper’s flyin’ in from T.I. tomorrow. Wants to have a chat with him. Seems there’s no record of a Mayday from any vessel called the Winston James. I’ll bet she was a drug-runner. Some blue on the high seas, and this bloke survived.” His eyes had adjusted now, and he traced the curve of her buttocks, that broad British bum of hers, under the sheets. “Ask you somethin’?”

“What?”

“What did you mean, ’e was good-lookin’? Bloke looked pretty rough to me.”

She rolled over to face him.

“Please don’t try to tell me that caused you to …”

“It ain’t that. I’m not jealous of some scruffy—whatever he is.” He let out a breath, flapping his lips. “Got it all packed up. We’ll be shippin’ a thousand Ks. Wish Tunstall and Morrison would stick around ta see it, but they’re just here for the meeting and then the tombstone unveiling. It’s Amos Nettles’. Whole year the family saved up to buy the thing. So our two bureaucrats will get to watch a little native dancing, and that’ll be that. See the colorful savages. But I want them to see them blokes shippin’ stuff out, see that we’re accomplishing something here.”

“Is that what’s got to you? The meeting?” she asked, and signaled her forgiveness of his fall from grace by running her hands through his hair.

“Yair. Think I’m goin’ to get the facts of life told to me. Think they’re wonderin’ about me what I been wonderin’ about myself—if I oughta be a public official. Maybe I reached my limit as a fish inspector.”

“Well, I hope you give them some what for.

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.