Journey of Rick Heiden Ch. 21-22

On the Arabian Sea, we had water to the horizons and fathoms below us. It created a sense of isolation and insignificancy.

Up until then, as the weather held out, neither David nor I required the pills we brought. I asked Julien if anyone had needed them yet, he told me he had used them since we boarded the ship. The rest of us hadn't needed them, but the ocean could change rapidly, and it did. About the midpoint of the Arabian Sea, Captain Okamoto called us into the lower lounge with some news.

"I've seen the radar of our path to Japan," said the captain, "and we have a problem. An atmospheric depression is building over the Indian Ocean. The weather service has alerted us that they expect it to become a typhoon."

"Do you have a plan?" Julien asked.

I looked at the faces around me. We all knew what it meant. We would experience a delay and needed to reach land soon.

"When I agreed to make the journey," said the captain, "I knew time was an essential component, but we cannot take the ship anywhere near a typhoon. We have a scheduled stop in Mumbai. We will wait for the storm to die down before we proceed. I know you're disappointed and impatient; I am too, but we have no choice."

"On the contrary, Captain," said Cadmar, "given the circumstances, you will find that we have patience. We should avoid harm."

"Well spoken," said Aiden.

The captain seemed pleased that we did not view it as the problem he expected and left to prepare for an extended stay in Mumbai.

"How many days might this take?" asked Maggie.

"No one can fully predict a typhoon," said David, "so anywhere from a few days to more than a week."

"That may give us time to see Mumbai," said Rocke.

"Perhaps," I said, "but from everything I've read, I wouldn't exactly call it a tourist city."

"What languages do they speak in Mumbai?" Maggie asked me. "Is it just Hindi and English?"

"They speak Hindi and Marathi," I said. "English too, but I shouldn't think everyone will speak it. Then you'll hear combinations like Hinglish."

"Like Spanglish, I suppose," said Aiden. "Do you speak Hindi or Marathi?"

"Unfortunately, no --not even a hint," I said.

"Well, that's inconvenient."

"I'm sorry that I won't know every language for us; I'm not a protocol droid."

At dinner that evening, the captain informed us that the number of vessels traveling east requesting assistance would overrun the Mumbai docks. We understood and could cope with sojourning moored in the harbor among the masses, but that night, while David and I chatted after our amorous activities, the topic came up.

"So, what's wrong with that?" David asked.

"We will swelter from the wind that may come from the moistened, heated depths of central India where the temperature could reach well above 90° Fahrenheit or 32° Celsius."

"It sounds like One City in mid-summer," said David. "If that's the case, some of us should probably go into Mumbai to acquire something cooler for everyone to wear. I'm sick of those pants."

"I'm sorry," I said, "I couldn't guess we would need hot weather gear in November, and even the stores in Venice seemed to have nothing but winter wear."

"Yes, I noticed that, too," he said. "It's not your fault, my dear: 'Circumstance, circumstance, for all is circumstance.'"

"Is that a quote from someone?" I asked.

"It's a quote by a character in a book I had read who quoted an even older work from Michiko, one of Jiyū's most-read writers.

"Do you know the whole quotation?" I asked him.

"Hmm, let me see if I can remember it," he said. "Sometimes, I wish I had enhanced memory. 'They believe their gods and fates abate, to await their timely ambitions bechance, but I see the world prevailed upon by a singular entrance; circumstance, circumstance, for all is circumstance.'"

"Okay," I said. "What does it mean?"

"The universe has no plan," he said, "no external input. Things function here from causation, one thing leading to the next in an intricate tapestry of causal chains, and at any one moment in time, we have only the current circumstance. And while we might make an educated guess, we cannot always know what the future will hold. I think you would enjoy the book, but I'm sorry, we were talking about our circumstance of the heat. You know, I'm sure Cadmar is pleased he got his hair and beard cut. Can you imagine how hot that would've felt?"

"Like a sheep in the Congo in dire need of shearing," I said.

I heard David giggle in the darkness. "We have no idea of the time," he said. "We probably should sleep. For all we know, the morning may come in an hour."

He kissed me goodnight. I laid my head on his shoulder, and he ran his strong hands along my back. Before long, I fell asleep, and then suddenly, the sun blazing through the windows awakened me.

After a quick cleanup at the sink, other morning preparations, and breakfast, we all stood upon the deck. I noted that, as usual, Cadmar carried the drone case, and Aiden held the bag which contained our pistols.

Once the ship had reached the harbor, we maneuvered to dock where a refueling ship would pull alongside us. Due to our size, the harbormaster subjected our vessel to a downgrade on our position at the docks. Usually, we would have docked at the section reserved for yachts, but the incoming typhoon had filled it with boats and ships waiting to sail east. When we had a look at the industrial side, they appeared as most of them do; they were dirty, but to their credit, the workers kept them tidy and organized despite the dirt, as well as more efficient with refueling --according to Captain Okamoto at breakfast that morning. He said getting fuel wouldn't take long. The real problem came from the time it took to acquire provisions. Chef Shima and a few crewmen would go to the market to collect what we needed. Upon hearing this, I mentioned our clothing predicament with a hearty "Hear! Hear!" from our group at the table. The crew invited us to go with them.

The hired vehicle had limited room for people. After the chef, and his two crewmen helpers, climbed aboard, we had only four seats left. David, Aiden, and Cadmar had no interest in shopping, but of course, they wanted something else to wear. That simplified who would go, Maggie, Julien, Rocke, and me. We paused at a bank to exchange a few euros for rupees, and since we received a decent exchange rate, we hadn't had to trade much.

Many parts of the world had open-air markets. They often moved from one town to the next on a set rotation, and everyone in the villages knew when to expect it. However, Mumbai's size made it capable of supporting a permanent market that opened daily. All markets have food sections, where Chef Shima wanted to make a beeline, but Mumbai had a highly productive textile industry. That made clothing a snap to get and not too expensive, provided you knew how to haggle and could recognize a name-brand knock-off when you saw one. They dropped us off at the unimaginatively named Fashion Street and would collect us in two hours.

I suggested we stick together. In the past, I had read conflicting reports about the safety of Mumbai and thought we shouldn't take chances. Even though Julien already had warm weather clothing, he came along as police protection. I felt sure that David only agreed to stay behind because Julien would accompany us. That may sound overprotective, but I would have felt the same if the positions had reversed that day. Julien seemed content to keep an eye on things as he walked behind us a few paces.

"So, do we know what we're looking for?" asked Maggie. "And can we trust these sizes?" She held up a shirt bedecked with cartoon characters.

"I know what I'm looking for," I said, "and yes, I should think they would have correct sizing. However, a shirt that fits big on me will fit David and Aiden, but Cadmar will take one size larger. Shorts will prove a different matter entirely."

"Oui (Yes)," said Rocke, "David's legs, and your special problem. You will have a challenge unless you intend to buy something baggy."

I smiled at Rocke. "Baggy would never cross my mind. And I've discovered my special problem, as you call it, isn't a problem at all."

Maggie giggled.

"So, Rocke," Maggie said as we strolled along the vendor-lined sidewalk, perusing their quality knockoffs, "when will you reveal more about yourself? Your reserved nature has us quite curious. Is there more to you than the captain of a ship?"

He shrugged. "What would you like to know?"

"Stop beating around the bushes, Maggie," I said. "Rocke, she wants to know if you're gay."

Maggie gave a feigned gasp of shock and playfully backhanded me on the arm. "Rick!" She exclaimed, "Dois-tu être Monsieur Blunt? (Do you need to be Mr. Blunt?)

"Tu as pris trop de temps (You took too long)," I said. "Want to know something? Come out and ask."

Rocke laughed. "Je suis désolé, Je pensais que la réponse était évidente. (I'm sorry, I thought the answer was obvious)," he said, staring at me with a knowing smile.

"You shouldn't blurt things out, Rick," Maggie said. "Rocke might have taken offense, some people do."

"I appreciate your thoughtfulness," said Rocke to Maggie, "and at one time, I might have felt offended when I had not accepted the reality of it. I consider myself a recovering Catholic, and my point of view has changed a great deal over the years."

"I'm pleased you're doing better now," I said to him.

"Just so you know, Rocke," Maggie said, "never get into a religious conversation with Rick. It's not worth it."

Rocke picked up a snowy white long sleeve linen shirt with a Mandarin collar. "I get the impression that his ideas about it mirror my own, so there's no need," he said and turned to me. "What do you think of this?"

"Nice, but it looks big for you. You look like you wear my size," I said.

"I was thinking of Monsieur Cadmar," he said.

He made me smile, knowing why he thought of him. Taking the shirt, I whispered, "He will look great in it."

When the van returned, we had everything we needed. I couldn't wait to see David in the shorts I had found, and I bought several. I intended to take one to our tailor to copy them and make them available for David whenever he wore his out. I even made sure Aiden and Cadmar had a few pairs as well.

The next morning, as expected, we sat in the harbor, along with many eastbound cargo ships delayed by the typhoon. It had grown into a category one by then.

In the silence of our vessel, just before sunrise in the dark stillness, a horn from a nearby ship blared out, startling David and me.

"That's a terrible way to awaken someone," David said, holding me.

"Still beats the alarm clock from hell."

I heard David make a sleepy laugh in my ear. "It feels a little warm in here," he said. "Have you slept?

"I slept well enough, and it does feel a little warm," I replied, rubbing my cheek on his shoulder.

"You know," said David, "sleeping like this is making it hotter than if we slept apart."

"Did you want to sleep apart?" I asked while yawning.

"I wouldn't care if I never slept again," he said, squeezing me. "I want to be right here. I'm just thinking of you."

"I wouldn't want to sleep apart," I said. "We could always try sleeping on the deck, though."

"Hmm," he said, trying to stifle a yawn, "I fail to see how that's an improvement."

We had a knock upon our cabin door, an unusual occurrence at such an hour. David leapt from the bed and opened the door to find Captain Okamoto.

"There has been an incident," he said.

Fully awake, I jumped from the bed. The shadow on the captain's face didn't conceal his somber expression.

"What incident? Where?" asked David.

"At the dock," he said. "It's Julien Le Gal. He is dead."