Three Loves Seven, Chapter 28, Part 4 - "On how to make a withdrawal from a sperm bank that has no freezers ..."

Dear Most Gentle Readers,

Those who have patiently slogged through all of my kooky little plot twists and hung on, wondering along with Clete how the kooky Amazon community of Dog Island got to be like this in its odd, twisted way will finally start getting some exposition in this installment.

To explain an exposition scene is the height of meta-irony, so I'm just going to sit back and let it unfold without any more commentary.

Don't go away after this chapter, more things are going to happen I guarantee it. Meh, on second thought, go away if you want, nobody's forcing you to be here. God knows this will NEVER go viral like Twilight fan fiction does. And trust me, I've resisted the urge to make someone a vampire in order to boost my Google Analytics. BUT ... I DO have witches in my story, so there! Pay attention though. You will not want to miss something

... as the story continues ...

Andou insisted on towing us back to Dog Island. He was sorry that we had to expend the Island’s limited fuel on chasing down his ship and that it was the least he could do. He, Nu, and I were on the Island’s vessel—I was with him at the helm as he carefully monitored the tension of the towing lines. We could see the boys on the other ship working on tattooing their cheeks (as I had suggested) from where we stood. I wonder what it’s like to be from a place where this kind of thing happens. Nu was sitting far below us, quietly contemplating something, the day’s events perhaps?

     “Andou,” I said, “I want you to tell me everything about Nu’s and Mu’s relationship to your clan.”

     “Is that an order?” he said.

     “If that’s what it will take for you to speak about it, yes. Do I need to put that regal robe back on?”

     “No need,” he said. “The Second Dragon Guardian Princess is the child of my body.  It is that simple.”

     “Was Mu once your spouse? Are you guys divorced?”

     “No. I was never married to her.  I have been a faithful husband to my wife of over 30 years, with whom I have had four sons.”

     “So you and Mu were never lovers then?”

     “Oh NO. I am a loyal Islander and a loyal husband.”

     “I am curious as to how or why such a situation exists.”

     “Excuse me, I need to drift us just a bit to correct tension on the second cable . . .”

He adjusted his steering and then made a correction and put us back into relationship with his ship.

     “One day my wife and I, and our mothers were requested to return to the Island, we had relocated after the flood and had been away for years. The request came from the Royal Family and the Sea Witch. There had been correspondence between my wife and Princess Mu and her mother that I had not been aware of.

     “I was asked, by my wife, if I would favor the Royal Family by donating my seed so that the Princess Mu would conceive a child. I was opposed of course, but the advice and consent had been sought of my wife’s mother and my mother as well, who all would see it as an act of obedience, piety, and grace and NOT one of infidelity.

     “They had some very specific ideas on how this would be achieved but I think you can imagine the way such a thing might be supervised and handled to avoid emotional attachments, especially if it is arranged by your own wife and mother-in-law. There were also behaviors that were required of me should the effort result in a successful pregnancy, which it obviously did. It is basically taboo for my clan to be in contact with Nu in any way. You saw some of that play out just a few hours ago. So while it is biologically true that Hari is Nu’s half-brother it is not true in a real way.”

     “Is it possible,” I asked, “to not be involved in the life of the child of your body when you know she’s out there?”

     “Mu told me that you are a Christian. Is that correct?”

     “Yes.”

     “I understand it is one of your foundational stories that your god was born through a girl who was asked by the father of that deity to donate her body for that purpose?”

     “That’s true.”

     “This is very much like that to my people. The Daughters of the Empress are walking goddesses among us. Much like the girl in your story of godly reincarnation, I did not have a choice to refuse my god. In fact, I was told I was told I was chosen because I had exhibited the highest level of fidelity in my life. If you were to talk to all of the men who sired the Second Princesses, they all have the same story.”

I wanted to start pointing out to him all of the flaws in correlating that situation to the Christmas narrative and how he had gotten a lot of his ideas about Jesus and Mary wrong, but I kept my mouth shut since Christians who read the same Bible, and even the same version at that, can’t even agree on what it says. I decided his point had been made and left it at that.

     “We were all asked to maintain our apartness so that the Royal Family would NOT create rifts or difficulties in what they have held up as the highest examples of Dog Island virtue, and that would be faithfulness.”

     “That is quite a story,” I said.

     “You are not at all what I would have expected Wong. And may I ask what YOUR current relationship is to the Royal Family?”

     “I am a scientist who is conducting research there for a season.  They asked me to tutor their daughters to better their college entrance exam scores in my spare time.”

     “That is all you think? Nothing more?”

     “I have become friends with a few.”

     “Would you like to know what it means to wear the robe that Mu gave to you to wear? At least to a commoner like me.”

     “I think I know. I am some kind of ceremonial proxy standing in for this legendary Prince that they wait for.”

     “For her to give you that to wear, she must have either been in a desperate state or she believes something about you.”

     “She was desperate. I’ve never seen her in such agitation. She never loses her cool. She was adamant about one thing—that Nu could not leave the Island. It’s like she feared a disaster.”

     “The Island only exists for them. That is what our stories tell us. That it is a refuge for the oppressed is only secondary. The flood made that clear to all.”

     “Do you wish you could go back?”

     “With all of my heart. It is the best place to live. I wish my sons could raise their families there. But it is too small now. Tell me, Raja, what will you do with the information I have told you?”

     “Good question. I suppose the only thing I can do is just understand them better.”

     “And tell me why would you want to do that?”

     “I want them to have a good life.”

     “Why? You are a stranger. I understand you will leave soon.”

     “It’s because I started to like them.”

     “Do you think they do not have a good life now?”

     “They could be fine as is, but that superstitious belief in a myth of a messiah or champion coming to them makes them frustrated, disappointed, and unhappy. If they could just lose it.”

     “But what if it is that thing is the thing that makes them continue to be anything at all?”

     “They’re smart. They will find something better—a better paradigm. I know it. Maybe I believe that somebody, somewhere in this world needs to have a good life. If I can be a part of making that happen, fine. And maybe I’m just a goddamned meddler. And maybe I feel that way because I have a shitty life.”

     “You have a shitty life? I was told you are a respected teacher in the richest country of the world. That seems worthy to me.”

     “The only thing I have to show for having lived is a big number in a bank account. But these girls? They’ve created a fully functioning micro-civic-infrastructure. They’ve developed robust varieties of domestic fowl and miniature swine and a kind of tropical broccoli. AND … they each at least have a descendant. You’ve got four sons yourself. Who’s the winner here? Even if your fourth kid is misguided, he’s still young, impressionable, and correctable. Cut him some slack, Skipper. In my shitty life, I have observed that life is only a tragic series of getting to know people who might be nice, but they all wind up leaving you, leaving you all by yourself.”

     “Too bad you feel that way. You probably will not feel that way tomorrow. You will have a new set of problems. That will occupy your mind.”

     “You’re probably right.”

     “Do not become a sailor.”

     “Why the hell not?”

     “Too much time to think. We have only been idle a few hours and you are depressed.”

     “You’re a smart man, Andou.”

     “We DO have something in common. You and me.”

     “You have a shitty life?”

     “Oh no. I want Nu to have a happy life too. But I am not the one to give it to her. I hope we will meet again Dr. Wong. Maybe you will succeed where I am forbidden. That would please me.”

     “Stay tuned. You’ve got my mark on you. I might need you someday. Another question.”

     “Yes?”

     “Are you a pirate?”

     “Ah. The family business. Cargo shipping. My father insisted I follow into it,” I nodded. “We do not like that word.”

     “Why’s that?”

     “People hate you if you have that title.”

     “As long as you’re colorful characters in the movies, you’re golden and have bank. But that’s something else in common. You and me.”

     “Oh?”

     “I’m an oil and gas man. In fact,” I said thinking out loud. “If you’re considering of a second-career change that just shifts the focus of your lifelong expertise just a tiny bit, I might use a consult on some issues I’m having in the Indian Ocean, with people in your industry.”

     “Like old times.”

     “Old times? Come again?”

     “In the old stories, Yue Raja and Pirate Raja were allies.”

     “Yeah? Whatever. A lot of people think oil men are pirates and plunderers. They’re all pretty happy to use what we produce though.”

     “Pirates are mere pipes. Conduits.”

     “How do you figure?”

     “We never get rich from what we do. It is very sad. From our point of view, we move cargo from one rich man to another, and when we deliver, sometimes they pay us. But many times they cheat us. If they have a pre-existing contract it is legal and we are freighters. If there is no contract, we are pirates. But we do exactly the same thing in both cases. What little we keep we spend on our wives or mistresses or we turn it into liquor, which also just runs through our bodies like the very pipes we are. And yet we keep on doing it because it is what we have to do.”

     “That’s one hell of an observation. Are all pirates philosophers?”

     “As I told you, sailors have too much time to think. Take the helm. Keep the angle constant as you saw me do. I need to take a smoke. And then I will do something that I said earlier and give you a better gift than that shark tooth.”

Skipper went aside for a time. He went through two cigarettes and I assumed he was using the light from his lighter to read or write something.

     “I need to you to continue to hold the wheel firm whatever happens,” he said. “Can you do that?”

     “Piece of cake. What’s up?”

     “I have something for you, but there will be just be a little pain.”

Then I felt like he bit my left ear off.

     “WHAT THE FUCK!”

     “HOLD THE WHEEL!”

     “ARE YOU FUCKIN’ NUTS. THE HELL!”

     “It’s in. That will be fine. Don’t touch it.”

     “What did you do?”

     “I made you a safer sailor. My Raja needed a gold earring. Wards off bad luck and shipwrecks. That is a Ming Dynasty gold coin. The spike is 24K so it is fine. I’ll take the wheel now.”

     “What is WRONG with you Dog people! Shit! I oughta punch you in the face!”

     “You did that already Raja. And if you try, you will miss because I will dodge. You need to think of something else. Uh uh. Don’t touch it until it heals. I will consider it a grave insult if you remove it.”

     “How about a swift kick in the nuts! How’s that for an insult?”

     “I will teach you how to fight if that’s what you want. At our age, there is not much point to learning. I am sure you are pitiful at that too. But fear not, the men of the 13 clans are now your protectors as well as soon as I spread the word. Your problems in the Indian Ocean may disappear once word is out.”

     “Yeah, right. If this is a Ming gold coin, isn’t it expensive?”

     “It’s not like I own it. I did not pay for it. It has been passed down for generations in my family. Even then it was most likely ‘moved’ from a client. Like I said we move things from one rich man to another. That is my destiny.”

     “So is there anything ELSE that’s going bleed me out if I continue to be your ‘Raja?’”

     “It will be very entertaining to find out, Your Majesty.”

© Copyright 2012 by Vincent Way, all rights reserved.