Read Online Far Tortuga by Peter Matthiessen - Free Book Online Page B

Beach and over dere at Northwest Point is drifted in off de Cayman Banks. Dat right, Copm Raib?
    So you say, den. But one time goin along dere I see pompano close inshore, so I toss dem a bait, pick up five, six. Dat were de worst job I ever done—near killed half of de whole family.
    Mon, you should had
tested
dem. Throw a piece on de ant hill, see if de ants grob it. If ants walks away from a piece of fish, den you best walk away yourself, cause de ants
know
.
    Another way, you boil de fish, den you put a piece of silver into de meat. If dat coin turn to black,
den
you know something wrong.
    Mon, you know something goddom wrong
already!
Dem dass rollin on de floor, dey don’t need no goddom old ants to tell dem dat dey eat poison fish!
    I sayin now, if you was
suspicious
of dat fish, den you …

    Brown squats on a blue fuel drum. His knees are level with his ears, and the tips of his rawhide chin strap dangle down over the drum rim. He is picking his gold teeth, eye rolling.
    Near the scuppers, Speedy guts the kingfish. He too is squatting on his heels; the black muscles of his calves and forearms bunch and ravel. With one quick slash he splits the fish from gills to vent, then hacks the head off, chattering rapidly to himself.
    Speedy can
cut
, mon! If he can’t do nothin else dis boy can
cut
!
    He holds up a fistful of bright guts and laughs.
    Oh, Speedy a
hard
nigger, mon.
    The silver fish have turned gray-white.
    Speedy lops the pectoral fins with quick deft flicks. Running the knife point along under the spine, he scrapes out the air sac, then sloshes a bucket of salt water into the cavity; the water floods across the deck, carrying the gurry toward the scuppers. He rests a moment, running his hand down the long gleaming flanks of mother-of-pearl, then skins the fish, paring scales and skin together in small silver sections.
    Yah, mon, Speedy-Boy can
cut
. Learned dat from school days.
    The barracuda is filleted and cut in strips, which are salted and spread on the galley roof to dry.
    Brown, motionless on the blue fuel drum, farts.
    Starboard!
    STARBOARD!
    Sou’west and steady!
    STEAD-DAY!

    Rice and johnnycake.
    I never been down Speedy way. Plenty from Caymans dere, dey say, went down in times gone back. All through de islands, down to Old Providence, and all along de Sponnish Coast. Corn Islands, Bluefields. Bragman’s, dat de Sponnish calls Puerto Cabeza. A lot dem Boddens, dey from Coxon’s Old Cay, in de Bay Islands.
    Copm Steadman Bodden, dat was coptin of de
Majestic
, I believe he born down dere. Copm Steadman were a colored mon. I mean to say, he were not real dark, but he had bad hair.
    Hear dat? Some Raib own chil’ren got bad hair—
    Well, I don’t know dat Copm Steadman you speakin about, but we gots black Boddens in Roatán, no doubt about dat—I one of dem. We dere in Roatán since 1836—learn dat from school days.
    Yah, mon. We gots black Boddens in Caymans, too, dat don’t admit it. Plenty dem Boddens got bad hair, ain’t dat right, Vemon? Vemon mother dere, she a Bodden. But he go by dename of Evers. Used to be Avers, but in times gone back de black side of de family took to spellin dereselves Evers, dat right, Vemon? (
grins
) Which color
you
is, Vemon?
    Goddom it, Copm Raib, you lookin at me, ain’t you?
    Very difficult to make you out—maybe dat just dirt I seein dere.
    Shit!
    You got a terrible bad mouth on you, Vemon. I very glad we not related.
    Speedy bangs the rice pot hard with his wood ladle.
    Well, dey ain’t no two ways about Speedy, mon—I nigger to de bone. Give you some rice dere, Buddy?
    No, thank you.
    Dat boy seasick again, goddom it.
    Well, dat wind
cuttin
, Copm Raib—it plenty rough. My first trip, I was so green—
    Dis ain’t his first!
    He be okay. Dat right, Buddy? How you doin, boy? Nothin to say?

    Westering.
    Byrum relieves Will.
    The
Eden
coasts the northern edge of Half Moon Reef, and the sea color changes from indigo to aquamarine to emerald.
    Raib