Read Online How I Became the Mr. Big of People Smuggling by Martin Chambers - Free Book Online Page A

We...’ but she stopped, didn’t finish. She had an accent but I couldn’t place where from. Not American or British, an accent from speaking a language that is not your main language.
    We lay there side by side and I was wishing I knew what to say to her, was wishing I knew more about the stars and constellations so I could tell her something, impress her that I knew something. All of the years of school and exams and certificates and learning and I could think of nothing at all useful or interesting. Nothing.
    â€˜Do you think there are worlds out there too?’ she asked. She took a swig of my beer and handed it back to me. I put my lips to it, the place where her lips had been, but didn’t drink. I didn’t want any more beer.
    â€˜Sure,’ I said. ‘That one,’ and I pointed at one of the brighter ones. ‘I can see some people looking down at us. One of them is pointing. Shh. Shh, oh, no, be quiet everyone, I can’t hear what he’s saying.’
    She laughed and shuffled closer, put her head right next to mine. I could smell her hair.
    â€˜Which one?’
    â€˜That one. The one next to that bright one. You can see the people over on the left side. It’s too hot if they go too close to the bright star so they have to go on the far side.’
    I could feel the heat of her body, her breath as she turned her head slightly to mine.
    â€˜How many are there?’
    â€˜Just two. A boy and a girl.’
    We lay for a while longer, I remember that, my arm was touching hers and it was soft, electric, but then somehow suddenly we were kissing and it was not at all like touching my lips to the can where her lips had been. Her lips were wet and cool and soft and the taste of it I can remember but can’t describe. Her breath was hot, and I was forgetting to breathe then wondering how to breathe and where to put my nose but our lips stayed together and our mouths opened and we were one person, one mouth, just a mouth and lips together and my body had evaporated except that suddenly I was aware how hard I was. I wanted to roll our bodiestogether but didn’t know if I should, then Lucy’s hands found me, rubbed me through my jeans. Do you know how difficult it is to make love on the bonnet of a giant grader? It was lucky because the difficulty of that hid my inexperience. But she did everything, she lifted her dress and slid me inside her, and I came just about right away and it was the most fantastic thing. We lay together on the tractor looking up at the sky and she finished my beer. I felt soft like I had melted into the hard metal of the tractor, how I had been hard, harder and more urgent than that yellow metal, and then soft, fantastic, spaced out, a little drunk, in love, in touch, a part of the sky and stars and universe and content and I began to cry again because I also felt somehow even more alone and insignificant and also that I had done something I shouldn’t have done. Not because of Palmenter, no, because of Lucy. I wanted to be with her forever and yet I knew nothing about her. Only her name. Lucy.
    I must have fallen asleep. I woke and she was gone, everyone was gone, the place was quiet; everything was just as it had been except that the stars had moved around the sky a bit and I felt a little better. It was so quiet I could almost hear the stars twinkling, the little crackling noise of their fires across light-years and I knew that not only was I insignificant, but so are we all. I lay for a while, then drifted across to my room, to bed. It hadn’t been a dream. I could still taste her and feel her lips on mine. Lucy.
    The next few days got back to the routine of station life but for me it felt more like the pointless and futile shuffling of deckchairs. The muster crew left, the canteen was quiet at mealtimes and things were more relaxed. Palmenter drove off before dawn one morning as he usually did and the only difference was his white