Enoyoshi was not sure how to assist someone who had nearly drowned. All he could do was ask over and over again if Ushijima was okay. Slinging the towel that Minako had given him over his shoulder, he began to rub Ushijimas back. His head thrust over the side, Ushijima kept retching though nothing was coming out of him except tears and saliva. Still, he would not stop. Urged by violent convulsions, he continued to turn his stomach inside out.
Enoyoshi decided that Ushijima would be better off lying down on the bed in the cabin. Offering Ushijima the support of his shoulder, he started to walk him to the cabin. It became clear after only one or two steps that Ushijima was completely powerless from the knees down. It was not so much that the strength had left his legs, it was as though hed actually lost his legs from the knees down. After finally managing to get Ushijima on the cabin bed, Enoyoshi covered him with the bath towel, a track-suit jacket, and anything warm he could find. Ushijimas shaking showed no signs of abating; if anything, it was getting worse by the minute. From time to time, his pale lips uttered a dreadful moan that resembled the howling of a wild beast. The change in Ushijimas appearance was so dramatic that all Enoyoshi and Minako could do was stand in stupefied silence by the bedside.
At first, Enoyoshi had imagined that Ushijima might have suffered something like the following. In need of fresh air, he tries to make his way straight up to the surface. But, running out of air halfway up, he swallows seawater and panics. Perhaps his lifeline has caught on the keel. At any rate he panics and starts to drown. The terror of groping around in the dark sea was indescribable and the slightest mishap could bring on panic.
But the total look of horror on Ushijimas face simply defied the imagination. His eyes stared blankly into space, his gaze probably registering nothing at all, and his auditory and olfactory senses didnt appear to be working either. All his organs of perception were still under the spell of whatever trauma hed experienced.
Enoyoshi asked Minako whether they had anything stronger than beer. She retrieved half a bottle of red wine and an alumite drinking mug from under the galley.
This might not be strong enough to bring him around, said Enoyoshi, sitting Ushijima up and trying to pour some wine into his mouth. At first Ushijima seemed able to swallow only a few drops, but gradually his throat began to move more briskly, and in no time hed drunk two cups of wine. His eyes began to show some semblance of life. The tremors that had shaken his body were subsiding and his breathing was growing calm.
Enoyoshi decided to start by asking Ushijima whether hed accomplished what hed set out to do, that is, remove the rope wrapped around the keel.
Mr Ushijima, did you get it done?
Ushijima shook his head vigorously.
So the ropes still tangled on the keel.
This time, Ushijima shook his head even more violently than before. He reacted in exactly the same way when Enoyoshi repeated himself. Ushijima shook his head when he was asked if the job was done. He likewise shook his head to deny that any rope remained caught on the keel. If he wasnt simply delirious, then there was only one rational conclusion. What had brought the yacht to a halt had yet to be removed from the keel and it wasnt rope. Something other than rope had caused the yacht to stop. As Enoyoshi thought this through, the boat lurched suddenly, twice. It didnt feel like a wave, but rather, some force that was working on one point of the boat to attempt to pull it down.
Enoyoshis anxiety instantly turned into fear. This may have been his first time on a yacht, but as a boy hed enjoyed many a thrilling tale about the mysteries of the sea. Even the most orthodox of tales about phantom ships had sent a good chill down his spine. The entire crew of an enormous sailing ship would disappear without a trace, everything just as they had left it. What happened aboard the ship? The stories simply posed the question and never told you why the entire crew simply vanished off the ship. They impressed strongly upon readers that the sea itself was a mystery, that it was a space where the world of the living and the world of the dead were commingled.
Enoyoshi looked around fretfully. Where was the lifeline to land the radio? Search as he may, he couldnt spot anything of the sort.
Enoyoshi looked around fretfully. Where was the lifeline to land the radio? Search as he may, he couldnt spot anything of the sort.
Wheres the yachts radio? Enoyoshi asked Minako. She in turn looked at Ushijima and listlessly rubbed her prostrate husbands shoulders. She was trying to get her husband to answer.
Enoyoshi repeated the question, and Ushijimas dull gaze glided sideways.
There is no radio? rephrased Enoyoshi.
This time Ushijima nodded. So there was no radio set aboard. As near as they were to land, they couldnt call for help. With a radio, they could contact Dream Island Marine Services and get them to send a tug. A tow from a tugboat with a high-power diesel engine would surely unmoor them. But there was no radio.
His throat dry from the tension, Enoyoshi poured some wine into the mug that Ushijima had used, and downed the whole thing in a gulp. Ushijima was the only man on board with any sailing experience, but the trauma had rendered him useless. Minako just clung to her husband and made no attempt to take the initiative. Enoyoshi, whod blithely assumed that he was only a guest, felt a terrible weight on his shoulders now.
He kept glancing at his watch, swallowing nervously again and again. It was already eight oclock. He shuddered to think that they might have to spend the night out at sea. The next day, Monday, he had an important deal to make. Hed had enough. He just wanted to go home to his apartment and lie down on the familiar bed. If only he could
No sooner had the thought occurred to him than he made his way up to the cockpit and scanned the area to the west. A concrete embankment ran north to south along the perimeter of Wakasu Marine Park, and lined up parallel to the embankment on his side were numerous tetrapods whose boot shaped ends protruded out of the sea.
If he clambered up over the tetrapod blocks, it would be easy to jump onto the embankment. Enoyoshi estimated that it was no more than a hundred yards from the yacht to the tetrapods. Even allowing for error in his reckoning due to darkness, it was a short distance that Enoyoshi could swim comfortably. His heart began to beat fast. Sink or swim. It was worth a try. It was still quite an adventure to swim in Tokyo Bay at night. He felt his short-lived resolve wither as he gazed down at the waters of the nighttime sea.
The cabin hatch opened and Ushijima came crawling up. He was more intent on moving his lips than his body, as if impatient to tell Enoyoshi something. Enoyoshi extended his hand to help him sit on the bench, but Ushijima just lay on the cockpit floor.
How do you feel?
Moving about by himself was certainly a sign that Ushijima was recovering, physically at least. But what he did next was to shudder and croak, This boat isnt going anywhere. His tone made him sound like a stubborn old man.
Why not?
I touched, with this hand. He held up a palm.
Touched what?
The hands.
Ushijimas hand had touched hands?
Enoyoshi began wishing that hed never asked. There were millions of scary tales about dead spirits pulling at the legs of swimmers, but if Ushijima was trying to tell him some yarn about a hand emerging from the seabed to take hold of their keel, that was too far-fetched even to be a joke.
After a moment of silence, Ushijima opened his mouth again. A child is stronger than youd think, he said.
Enoyoshi couldnt reply. What was he to say to that? Perhaps the shock had been too great and Ushijima had gone mad. Child? There was nothing but to repeat the word.
Theres a child clinging to the keel.
At this, Enoyoshi held his breath. The picture of a childs drowned body clinging to the keel formed in his mind.
You know those hugging dolls they had years ago that you could put on your arm? Reminded me of them, except the face was all bloated like a balloon, you see, Ushijima said with some feeling.
Calm down, Enoyoshi reprimanded himself. No good would come of letting into his mind a monster born of anothers imagination. Enoyoshi had to go over the facts carefully. What had caused the creature to form in Ushijimas mind?
Was the child you saw a boy?
Mm-hmm, Ushijima replied and nodded. Enoyoshi was on the right track.
Six years old or thereabouts?
Ushijima thought for a while and then nodded. Enoyoshi was convinced now that hed guessed right. Images dont usually spring up from nowhere. In this case, without a doubt, the boys shoe that had got caught in the propeller provided the grounds, as it were, of Ushijimas imagination.
Enoyoshi tried to trace the steps in Ushijimas psychological process in the sequence in which they had occurred. The catalyst to the chain of associations had been the Mickey Mouse shoe, which must have been lingering somewhere in the back of Ushijimas mind when he attempted the dive. Where had the boy dropped his left shoe? The bridge? The embankment? Or perhaps the boy had drowned and just one of his shoes had come off in the water? If so, the boys body would indeed be floating around in the sea somewhere.
Ushijima, whod dived and started groping around on the bottom of the yacht with both his eyes tightly shut, must have touched something slimy clinging to the keel, maybe seaweed, that conjured up the feel of the skin of a drowned boy. Instantly, an image had flashed in Ushijimas mind. In the first place, he could never have seen anything in that sludge at night. Ushijima hadnt seen whatever hed seen with his eyes. He had seen with his minds eye an illusion formed by his famous imagination. A drowned little boy clinging to the keel, his face bloated like a balloon, eyes sunken deep into mushy flesh, the tip of a pale tongue sticking out from his mouth A drowned boys body clinging tightly to the keel like a hugging doll and immobilizing the yacht
At this point, Enoyoshi felt sure he knew what Ushijimas answer to his next question would be.