We continue with the episode where Clete literally falls into the clutches of the Sea Witches, but a recollection from his point of view. In case you hadn't noticed, the Sea Witches, the citizens of The Outside, or The Center, as they call themselves, are of a Japanese-derived culture, as opposed to the citizens of The Island, or as the Sea Witches call them, The Empire, who are of a Chinese-derived culture.
In the United States, uninformed people like to lump all East Asian ethnicities into one big ol' category that they call "Chinese," just like they like to refer to all Spanish-speakers as being "Spanish" or, if they are being a little condescending, they'll refer to them all as "Mexicans." It cuts the other way too though. Chinese will refer to all caucasians as "Americans."
People of Chinese and Japanese descent know that they are really very different from one another, and they have inklings of the animosities that trace back into the histories of these two nations and cultures, but we really don't fully understand the depth of it. You will remember that Clete when he was young, found Mariko to be at first quite alien compared to his ethnic frame of reference. He's gotten smarter in middle age, but it's still a predicament as he stumbles into Dog Island's remnant, second state. He thinks it's preposterous that so few people should be divided into two nations, but nothing surprises him on that island anymore...
This section is quite long, so I break in mid-paragraph and you will get the rest of the second conversation next week.
Thanks for reading.
Love,
Pops
* * *
Personal Journal Entry
U.S. Time: Monday, August 13, 2012
Island Time: Dragon, Month 6, Day 26, Xingqi 1
Project Time: Week 8, Day 2 (entered Day 4)
That day started out without indication as to adverse
events. When I have gone back to contemplate all the bad days of my life, I
remember that they all start out normal and bland. This is another reason I do
not believe in omens and portents, or other harbingers of bad luck.
In the morning I was at the lab gathering all the equipment
I would need later that day. I was going to set up equipment in a hazardous
spot, and work for a day off of a ledge. I would be securing all the eyelets in
a cliff necessary to scale upward and downward as necessary. There were several
things to carry so I had recruited my two “sons” as I began to call them, Eve
and Eight—they were so vigorous, strong,
and athletic—to assist me in transporting my gear used in scaling cliff faces.
Their cottages were not close by and it was early yet, but they tended to run
late anyway.
While I was waiting I received a surprise visit from Old
Rex. I had no idea he got up earlier than noon.
“Dr. Wong?”
“Rex. Up and at ’em early today eh?”
“Yep. How’s the project coming?”
“It’s on track. No real delays, that’s
real good. Any news on the wire?”
“Nothing to speak of. But that’s why I’m
here. I watch the weather. This season all big storms have been traveling north
of us, but the pattern seems to be shifting. I wanted to tell you to keep an
eye on it.”
“Storms have missed us? But we get rain
almost every day.”
“That’s not real rain. You’ll know it when
it’s a real storm. You may get some. I’m telling you because I’m shifting off
the Island. The ladies never seem to care. You seem like you might care, bein’
a scientist and all. You actually make use of modern technology. They just
watch the sky and react. Like they’re stuck in the 19th century.
They live by signs and portents.”
“I know exactly what you mean. Are you
giving me access into your office then?”
“No can do. Government regulation. No one
has the key and we leave the office empty for three months.”
“We’re entering the typhoon season and you
evacuate? That doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s the treaty arrangement with the
Royal Family. My government takes no responsibility for them since they choose
to remain in potential jeopardy. The protectorate thinks this place is really
uninhabitable. They do act to protect their employee, me.”
“What, so if they run into trouble here,
they’re on their own?”
“Pretty much.”
“They don’t get much for their taxes, do
they?”
“These Islanders have not paid taxes ever.
They have hardly anything to pay with. They don’t put in, they don’t get much. Their
treaty restricts us to recovery, not rescue.”
“I guess that means me too then?”
“Your contract is with the Royal Family,
not with the Protectorate. Anyway I thought you have your own backup rescue
provider, eh? There’s room on the boat if you want off.”
“Thanks but I’m taking my chances. What do
you think of the likelihood of a major typhoon this season?”
“ ’sbeen very quiet. If it’s like other
years you’ll get a couple really good two-to-three-day soakers. Those top off the drinking water reservoirs
through the dry season.”
“Well, I guess they’ve had good luck. I
guess we’re not in the regular traffic lane of big storms then.”
“Lee’s got a shortwave if you get security
trouble. But you got your satellite phone and digital contact right? Check the
weather regularly. Might save your life. Storms show up without warning. This
Island has a history. A surge came once and took away a lot of people. Almost
40 years ago. And 100 years before that. Doesn’t happen often, but when it does
it’s mammoth. Has something to do with the sea floor around us in one
particular direction. Don’t remember which, but yer the geologist. You probably
know.”
“Wasn’t in the dossier I got. I’ll do a
little historical searching on surges. Thanks for the warnings.”
“No problem Doc. Just doing my job. Nice
meetin’ ya. I’ll be getting on a boat this afternoon and you’ll be gone when
they redeploy me, so it’s been a pleasure.”
“Rex, before you go, mind if I ask a few
questions?”
“Shoot.”
“Can you explain the presence of these nine
women and their daughters? Why are they here?”
“The chain of possession of the Dog Island
Territories for their family goes back centuries so they are considered
indigenous people with the right of occupancy that cannot be disturbed. As I
said, they have a kind of special treaty status with my country. Don’t really
know much more than that. I’m not from this Island and they’re all tight-lipped
about their customs and history.”
“I know. I keep asking them and they all
shut up.”
“One old-timer I knew said they were like
a good luck charm for the area. Leave ’em alone and nothing bad will happen to
you. They’re all related too. The remnants of a monarchy. The older ones. Some
of their mothers are sisters or something like that. So I guess they’re all
cousins.”
“I deduced that much already. What about
the girls’ fathers? Why aren’t they in the picture? Do you know any of them?”
“Not all, I know a lot of ’em. Some are
fisherman, some are sailors, some are farmers. When the big typhoon hit that I
talked about, all the families moved off. Totaled the place, like it was nuked.
They’re spread all over the South Pacific, Malaysia, Australia, Micronesia, and
Indonesia.”
“Do they keep any contact at all with
their daughters?”
“When I run into them they never say a
word. And they don’t inquire. Tight-lipped as the women. You’ll never learn a
thing. Trust me on that.”
“This is not right. It’s all fucked up.”
“Doc, my advice is just get your data and
get out. They’re just plain weird. Like some cult. If you do get in with them
you probably will get sucked into something you wish you never bargained for. I
used to feel sorry for the little girls. Saw them grow up. But they’re all
young ladies now, good looking, but their all just as bat-shit crazy as their
moms. I understand you have people like them in your country too. Oddball
communities who like to live in the past?”
“I guess you’re thinking of the Amish
people. I don’t think they’re quite like that. They would use modern appliances
if they could afford them. They’re poor as church mice, but they just don’t
know it.”
“That so? I notice Doc, that you seem to
be able to get them to talk to you. You’re gifted or cursed, hard to tell
which. The ones I especially steer clear of are the Sea Witches.”
“Why is that?”
“It’s said they have powers to cause
shipwrecks, and summon the dead. You don’t want them on your bad side.”
“Shipwrecks are not pleasant, but why is
summoning the dead a bad thing?”
“If a dead man is ordered to attack you,
how do you defend yourself? You can offer no threat.”
“Never thought of it that way, but that’s
so much superstition. I’m surprised you swallow that stuff Rex.”
“All I can tell you is weird shit happens
to boats and planes in these waters. Some things have happened to me. Engine
cuts mysteriously. You float in mist for hours or days. Seals come and cut your
fishing lines or bite holes in your nets so you pull up nothing. It’s why no
major power ever stays around in a serious way very long. There’s a partner
island they’ve rented for bombing practice? They run a raid. Next day a plane
goes into the water. Happens every time. Something that was kept out of the
newspapers—a goddamned Italian oil tanker disappeared here. It just vanished. Four
countries have tried to take this place over in my lifetime and given up. I
call it Payback Island. This place sucks up time, money, resources, and men.
Sure the fishing is good, but if you are always losing a crew member or a boat,
the cost is too high. Isn’t the real reason you’re here to figure out if
there’s anything valuable here to exploit? Nobody’s ever succeeded in doing
that. Be careful. Gotta go Doc. I need to pack.”
“Safe journey to you Rex.”
I learned hardly anything new, but I was at least relieved
to know that it wasn’t just me not being able to gather any data about the Dog
Islanders.
***
There was this exposed cliff face that caught my attention
that had some exposed ore deposits that I wanted to sample. The only way to get
to them was to access a ledge, secure some eyelets into the face, and then
pulley myself down to the areas in question.
I had done this kind of operation quite often at even greater heights so
this situation was not a particular challenge.
Eight and Eve finally arrived and we moved my equipment to
the ledge. There were several wide “platforms” or other ledges above the target
ledge. We worked out a tandem system where we would move about a dozen bundles
by just throwing them and catching them. The risk of loss was minimal. It was
like playing a game of easy catch. I gave the girls a break at 10 a.m., when
they had to leave to go perform a duty for Da Mei. It was after they had left
that misjudged my footing and then slid down the cliff face and tumbled into
the brush below.
The girls returned later but did not find me. They assumed I
had moved on to work at another location and they continued to set the eyelets
in the cliff themselves. They weight-tested them tying both of themselves
together to approximate my weight. It was only when they returned home later
that afternoon that they learned I had fallen off the cliff. They were
reprimanded by the Security Council and their mothers for deserting me and not
investigating my absence, but I later absolved them saying I had not given them
proper contingency instructions.
Luckily the younger Sea Witch had been working nearby and had
heard me yell as I came down and retrieved me. I lost consciousness and later
revived in the Sea Witch compound in the area known as The Outside. I sustained
several bruises and scrapes and they held me overnight for observation, but I
was given release the next morning.
I was hoping to have a conversation with the Sea Witch, the
elder one, but that did not happen. It turns out they are yet another
mother-daughter pair on this island (big surprise). They had me on bed rest, I
was laying on a futon on a straw-matted floor there in the compound most of the
time. In the evening the younger attendant, her name is Natsuki, rolled me into
what functioned as their dining room and brought a dinner of soup, rice,
grilled fish, and vegetable, and oddly, a dessert I had not had in years—a
vanilla pudding. It was a rice pudding, no surprise there, but I had had
nothing of the sort since I went lactose intolerant 10 years ago. It made me
strangely homesick where nothing else had. I used to live on this stuff.
Natsuki left me to eat alone. We had a brief conversation after I first awoke,
but I can hardly remember anything of that first conversation. After a while
she came back to collect the dishes.
“Can I give you a hand with those?”
“You are the patient. You should stay as
you are.”
“I’d like to talk to the Sea Witch.”
“Let me check. I’ll be back in a bit.” She
disappeared for about an hour but Natsuki did return. “I’m sorry, but my mother
is unable to see you at this time. Is there anything I can help you with?”
“This might take a while. Do you have some
time?”
“I suppose I could stay a bit.”
“How well do you know your neighbors?”
“It is a small island. I would say I know
them quite well.”
“I am trying to understand why they are
here. Or you, for that matter.”
“Well, that’s pretty easy. Why are you in
Los Angeles? That is where you live, right?”
“That’s where my family is from and where
I’ve lived almost all my life.”
“Same answer here.”
“Fair enough. But in Los Angeles there are
all kinds of families, singles, and whatever. Here there are nine women, all
about the same age, and their only children, daughters all, who are all about
high school or college age, and they’re all first or second cousins. This is
odd by any standard of reference.”
“There were more people at one time, but
they all moved away and two families stayed. Theirs and mine.”
“Why did everybody else move?”
“There was a storm that destroyed almost
all the residences on the Island and it was too expensive to rebuild. That
typhoon, and others, took away a lot of livable land. What remained could no
longer sustain everyone. A small group decided to stay, because there is a
treaty arrangement with our protectorate partners that they will assume sovereignty
if all natives abandon the Island. The nine cousins and my mother decided they
would remain and sustain Dog Island culture.”
“OK, that makes a certain kind of sense.
“Let me ask you a question, Dr. Wong.”
“Go ahead, but please call me Clete.”
“That is much too informal for us. How
about Wong-hakase?”
“I think you’re going way in the wrong
direction of formality for my sake. I’m just a regular guy.”
“You hold four academic degrees, two
doctorates. We here in The Center hold learning in high regard. But related to
that, you’ve been here awhile. I’d like to know what recommendations will you
make concerning all of us based on your research?”
“I am just a surveyor. I am only here to
record what I observe. The human settlement, you, your mother, and the
‘Cousins,’ as I call them, and the “Daughters,” are not part of my report
except as you relate to the physical geography.”
“That’s not what I understood about your
being here.”
“The NGO that let me be here on their
permit, the Earth Dragon Institute? I’m not part of them. They have an agenda
that they think this survey will serve. They want to say that global warming is
threatening the way of life of island people like yourselves. That you’ll be
inundated by the sea and have to give up your simple but ‘noble way’ of
subsisting off the land and the waves. Like the Kiribati Islands.”
“You sound like you don’t believe that.”
“That NGO and I only agree upon my being
here. That’s it. I’m only taking a snapshot of what is, today. There’s no data
for years past, is there? I mean, Mu has told me what she remembers and what
her parents and grandparents told her, but it’s all anecdotal. As for global
warming, I can’t rightly say, but most geologists agree sea level is rising and
global climate is getting warmer. But it’ll probably take close to a century
for it to get higher than one width of your hand. And then again the sunspot
cycle might change and maybe it’ll get colder. I wouldn’t pack your bags just
yet, Natsuki-san.”
“Make that Tamura-sensei for both of us if
you would like to properly address your medical professionals. Well that’s mildly
comforting.”
“This is unofficial, but I don’t think
you’re sinking.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Just my gut right now. But your
groundwater has very little saline incursion, not like I’d expect.”
“So we could continue to live here?”
“Yeah, but at a pretty high cost, yeah.
The cost right now is already very high. Every person already works hard for
sustenance. A LOT. Just watching you guys makes me tired. Take into account
half of your population is middle aged and their health is going to go soon. I
should know. I’m their age. Lum and Lian appear to have back problems. Feng and
Mu seem like future candidates for cataract surgery. Lum, Ting Ting, and Qi all
have irregular dark spots on their skin. Other than you and the older Sea
Witch, have any of them seen a medical doctor recently?”
“The last time a doctor came was maybe 10
years ago.”
“As their primary care provider, don’t
these things concern you?”
“You cannot help people who will not be
helped.”
“Fair enough. Time is not on your side for
all of you. In the abstract, this many people could live here probably for
another 80-100 years, but would you want to?
You’ll eventually have a set of buildings where people live but who have
to ship everything in. It’s not going to continue to be a self-sustaining
community. It’ll be more like a resort than a village. I don’t know who the
powers that be are that determine what you all do, but the time is coming when
you will have to change your way of life. It may not be in your mother’s
lifetime, but probably in yours. You’ll probably just have to sell the place to
some rich guy who wants to have an island.”
“I sense mild alarm in your voice. You
seem almost concerned . . . for us.”
“Maybe . . . I am.”
“Why is that? You’re just a temporary
worker passing through. Why do you care?”
“I’ve been asking myself ever since I got
here. I don’t know.”
“Well, if you find out, let me know. Our
ex-pats no longer care. They don’t send remittances to support their
Princesses. They all changed citizenship. Not that I blame them. The 20 of us
here are all on our own. I call us the “village of the faithful.” If we leave,
the story of Dog Island will end and nobody will remember it.”
“Is there a story?”
“There is, but I don’t know the whole of
it.”
“Who does?”
“Nobody does anymore. That’s the sad part.
We are all faithful to an idea that we cannot fully remember. The Princesses gave one
of the girls the responsibility of trying to find out.”
“Qin Qin?”
“Right. She has been working on it for a
long time. But . . .”
“But?”
“Ling tells me that her resolve has been
undermined. That she no longer is content to stay here and fulfill her duty.
That someone is putting an idea in her head that she has a place in the larger
world.”
“Are you saying I shouldn’t?”
“Did I say that was you?”
“No, not exactly. But I can add two and
two. I went to college. I’m a teacher. I’m in the business of creating larger
worlds for people.”
“And what business is it of yours to do
that here? You’re just supposed to be a visiting geologist.”
“A light, no matter where it is put, can
only shine.”
“As a shark no matter where it swims must
feed upon and destroy whatever is small and weak and ill?”
I had apparently found Natsuki’s sore spot with me. The conversational
tone was getting heavy and the momentum was getting away from us so I had to do something to stop the clock.
© Copyright 2012 by Vincent Way, all rights reserved.
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Be truthful and frank, but be polite. If you use excessive profanity, I'll assume you have some kind of character flaw like Dr. Wong. Tks!