Two Caravans Part 8

"Usually two or three of us here," says the Bulgarian. "Next few metres is Baltics. Fish fryers. Up there"-he points for Andriy's benefit-"Ukrainians and Byelorussians. Beetroot-eaters. Over there"-he points for Emanuel's benefit-"we even have Africa. G.o.d knows what they eat. Down that end are Balkans-Serbs, Croats, Albanians. Best steer clear of those. Too much fighting."

"And Angliski fishermen?"

The Bulgarian lad points at the end of the pier.

"That's where all Angliskis go. Right up to end. Past Balkans. You can tell which is Angliski. Every one wears woollen hat. Even women. Pulled down over ears. Even in summer. Very good at fishing."

"You get good fishing?"

"Plenty. Plenty fish everywhere. Easy money."

Andriy glances down into the lad's bucket. There are a few tiddlers. Who does he think he's kidding?

"How long you been doing this fishy thing?"

The lad looked shifty. "Few days."

"Where you get this fish line and bucket?"

"Man by pier. Same like you. Easy money."

"Easy for him."

The Bulgarian lad looks away and fiddles with his fishing rod. Andriy feels like thumping him, but what's the point?

"He says plenty plenty mackerel coming this morning," the lad calls plaintively to Andriy's disappearing back. Poor mutt, doesn't even realise it's the afternoon.

"I go find Africa!" Emanuel heads off towards the two black figures hunched over their rod near the angle of the dog-leg.

Andriy picks up his bucket and rod and goes off to find the Ukrainians. They are two thin-faced youths, one with a shaven k.n.o.bbly head, one with a sticking-up Klitschko-style crew cut.

"Hi, lads."

"Hi, mate."

"Any luck?"

"Not much."

In fact, judging from the content of their buckets, none at all.

"Where you from?"

"Vinnitsa. You?"

"Donetsk."

Andriy positions himself in the small gap beside them and takes a look at his rod-he's paid for it, so he'd better try to get his money's worth. Then realises he didn't get any bait. He asks the lads if he can borrow some.

"No need for bait. Just stick feather. Mackerel go for feather. They think it's fish," says the k.n.o.bbly-headed one.

"Must be bit stupid."

"Yeah. Huh huh huh," the lad sn.i.g.g.e.rs.

"Does anyone ever catch anything?"

"Yeah. Course. They must do."

"I mean, enough to pay for rod and bucket?"

"Yeah, I reckon somebody must. Why d'you get blue bucket?"

He notices their bucket is yellow.

"Blue, yellow. What's the difference?"

"Blue is you rent. You give back at end of day. Yellow is you keep. Use every day."

"You mean I give back bucket at end of day? Even if I catch nothing?"

"Maybe you are his fish, and he has caught you." The k.n.o.bbly-headed lad grins. "Not even with any feather. Huh huh huh."

"Devil's b.u.m!"

Andriy looks up and down the pier. There are mostly yellow buckets, a few blue ones, and some buckets of other colours, red, green, black, grey. Really you've got no one but yourself to blame, Andriy Palenko, for listening to that moon-faced cretin. He counts the yellow and blue buckets and tries to calculate how much profit the Mr Tattoo has made in a day. Easy money.

Over in Africa, Emanuel seems to have been abandoned by the others and left in charge of their fishing gear. What's going on? There is something about Emanuel that brings out a protective impulse in Andriy: he too is an innocent soul lost in this rriobilfon world. Andriy gives him a thumbs-up sign, but Emanuel doesn't notice. He is staring intently at the sea.

Andriy also stares down at the waves, their dismal unpromising churning, their slap and gurgle against the concrete, the obscure and disgusting-looking bits of debris that come to the surface from time to time. The sea is very overrated, he thinks.

The next time he catches Emanuel's eye, Emanuel is looking agitated and beckons him over. He seems quite distressed.

"Africa Mozambique men say please look after our fishy things, we go for toilet. One hour. Two hour. Still not coming back."

What on earth is he talking about?

"No problem, friend." Andriy lays a soothing hand on his arm. "Everything normal."

This is strange, he thinks. Why is this bucket red?

After a couple of hours, the Mozambicans have still not come back and the two Ukrainian lads, having caught four fish between them, are celebrating with a roll-up cigarette and a bottle of beer and then a few more bottles. They offer him a bottle, but he shakes his head. He likes a beer as much as the next man, but there's something desperate about the way these lads are drinking. He's seen it on the Donets often enough-a lad has a beer, then a few more, then for a laugh he jumps into the river to cool off, and that's it: bye-bye, body never found, end of story.

A cool breeze has sprung up, and those that have brought jackets zip them up; those that haven't, including Andriy and Emanuel, start to shiver. The slap and gurgle of the sea gets stronger, and sometimes a spray of water splashes over them. The tide has come up. At one point there is a ripple of excitement along the pier. A shoal of mackerel has been spotted, and is definitely on its way. But it never seems to arrive.

As evening approaches, most of the fishermen are ready to call it a day. There have been a few bigger fish caught up at the Angliski end; the Balkans, too, have had a run of luck, and a fight has broken out over who gets what. Andriy still hasn't caught anything.

"Hey, pal," says the Klitschko-crew-cut Ukrainian, "you should keep on to that rod and bucket. Why give it back to Mr Tattoo? Then at least you get something for your money. Five quids is robbery. Better get yellow like us next time. Investing for future."

Hm. There seems to be some logic in what the Ukrainian is saying.

"But Tattoo man waiting for us at end of pier?"

"You can get past him easy. Look, Ukrainian boy, we help you a bit. We put your blue bucket inside our yellow one." He takes the bucket and with a quick slop transfers the four little fishes. "See? We take one rod each. We meet you at pub-over there." He points. "You buy us pint of beer, and rod and bucket will be for you to keep." He gives a big toothy grin. "OK?"

"OK."

Andriy wonders if there's a catch, but if you can't trust a fellow Ukrainian, who can you trust?

Suddenly he hears a shout from the Africa sector of the pier.

"Reel it in! Turn the reel!" A big man in a woolly hat is instructing Emanuel, who is wrestling with a rod that is bent right over into an arc. He tries to turn the reel, but it seems stuck and he starts to tug and jerk.

"Steady, steady," says the woolly-hat. "Wind her in gently."

Emanuel starts to wind again; then something great and silver breaks the surface of the water, thrashing and splashing against the waves. There is a stir of excitement from the other fishermen, and suddenly everyone has gathered round to watch. The creature is ma.s.sive, wild, and fighting for its life. Carefully, Emanuel reels it in, then with an incredible flip lands it on the pier, where it bucks and slaps against the concrete.

"Get it in the bucket!" someone shouts, but it is too big for the bucket.

"Haven't you got a net?" someone else shouts.

"Or a knife? Get a knife to it!"

"No!" cries Emanuel.

He puts the still-trembling fish into the Mozambicans' red bucket, nose down in a few inches of water, its huge tail bent sideways and quivering above the rim. Andriy pushes through the crowd to pat him on the back.

"Good job, my friend. We sell this fish make good money." Several woolly-hats have arrived on the scene, and everyone is talking excitedly about how much the fish will weigh, with the highest bid corning in at twelve kilos.

Mr Tattoo is waiting at the exit, stopping people with blue buckets as they come out. His sidekick has a spring scale and they are weighing the puny catches and doling out puny amounts of money. His eyes light up when they see the giant fish in Emanuel's bucket.

"Nice bit of cod you got there, mate. Big as a n.i.g.g.e.r's d.i.c.k," says Mr Tattoo. "Unusual for this time of year. Want to stick it on the scale?"

"This fish is not for selling. Is for me," says Emanuel with emphasis. "I catch. I keep."

Mr Tattoo's eyes narrow. The mermaid on his bicep seems to frown.

"Fair enough, mate. Catchers keepers. It's a free country. But you got to give your rod and bucket back now."

He reaches for the rod. Emanuel grips it tighter.

"No! This is rod and bucket of Mozambique Africa men."

A small crowd has gathered. Andriy loiters on the edge of the crowd, trying to make himself invisible.

"What about the gear we hired you?" Mr Tattoo can't take his eyes off the fish. "You got to give it back now, chum. Givee hackee bucketee. Or givee fishee. Comprenday?" He has raised his voice.

"No!" Emanuel is getting fl.u.s.tered. "This bucketee is of my Mozambique friends go toilet."

Mr Tattoo grimaces. "Yuk! That's disgusting. Don't you black-boys get potty-trained? There's toilets at the end of the pier."

Pleased with himself, he looks around the crowd for approval. Andriy is keeping his head down. He is waiting for the moment to melt away and get out of the quay unnoticed, but the sidekick spots him and makes to grab him.

"There he is. That's him what got the gear off of us."

"That was not me. That must be other Ukrainian." Andriy sidesteps quickly. "The one that was with dog." He wants to make a run for it, but he can't abandon Emanuel.

From the corner of his eye he can see that the other Ukrainians have cleared the quayside and are making their way over the roundabout, his blue bucket cunningly concealed inside their yellow one.

Another woolly-hat fisherman steps forward from the crowd and challenges Mr Tattoo.

"Let him have the fish, Bert. A fisherman's got to keep his catch."

"You keep out of it, Derek," says Mr Bert Tattoo. "The b.u.g.g.e.r's trying to nick off with me tackle. And he's been using the bucket for a toilet."

He looms over Emanuel menacingly and grabs the handle of the bucket.

"Give me the tackle or give me the fish. Tidge, sort him out."

Tidge steps forward menacingly.

"Hang on a minute, Bert. That ent your bucket. It's a red one. It must be one of Charlie's."

The Bulgarian lad, who has been waiting for his catch to be weighed, is getting impatient, and now he pushes forward and tries to slip his three measly tiddlers on the scale. But Mr Tattoo is having none of it.

"Dogfish. No use to me. I told you yesterday. Are yer thick, or what? Eat 'em yerself. Or give 'em to the dog."

As if summoned, suddenly Dog appears across the road, wagging his tail.

Andriy sees Dog. He also sees that the two Ukrainians have walked right past the pub, and are heading off up the road. They have broken into a trot. Devil's b.u.m! The thieving rat-faced scoundrels!

He breaks out of the crowd, grabs Emanuel's fish out of the bucket, and starts to run after them.

"Here, give me that fish!" yells Mr Tattoo, dropping the bucket and lunging forward. He grabs hold of its tail. It slithers out of Andriy's hand, and then, as if alive, it skips out of Mr Tattoo's hand too and slides across the ground flapping its tail. A dozen hands reach for it at once.

"Let the fisherman keep his catch! It's a lawful size!" shouts Derek.

"That red bucket must be one of Charlie's. Before 'e kicked it. G.o.d rest his soul!" cries another woolly-hat.

Bending and shoving like a rugby scrum, they try to grasp the fish, which is still thrashing about between their feet. Dog watches with interest from the sidelines. It seems as though Mr Tattoo has it at last, but he can't get a grip on it. Then suddenly, like the cavalry charging in, Dog launches himself from the edge of the action, makes a low tackle between the legs, grabs the fish in his jaws, and he's off.

I AM DOG I RUN I RUN WITH FISH FOR MY MAN BIG LIVE FISH FLAP FLAP I HOLD IT TISHT IN MOUTH TAKE CARE NO BITINS GOOD DOG MY MAN LIKES FISH I WILL BRIN6 THIS FISH TO MY MAN I RUN MEN RUN AFTER ME BIG p.i.s.s-ON-TROUSER MAN RUNS AFTER ME HE SHOUTS I RUN FASTER I RUN ON ROAD I RUN ON SMALL STONES BESIDE BIS-WATER RUNNINS MEN ARE FAR BEHIND HERE IS ONLY BIS-WATER I SLOW I TURN I WALK I WILL BRINS THIS FISH LIVE TO MY MAN I WALK BESIDE BIS-WATER THIS WATER IS BAD IT JUMPS ATME WITH SNAKE NOISE SSSS FEET WET I BARK WOOF OFF I BARK MOUTH OPEN FISH JUMPS OUT OF MOUTH INTO BIS-WATER FLAP FLAP SSSS WOOF FLAP SSSS BIS-WATER SWALLOWS FISH ALL SONE I HAVE NO FISH FOR MY MAN I AM SAD DOG I RUN HOME I RUN I AM DOG I AM DOG I RUN I RUN WITH FISH FOR MY MAN BIG LIVE FISH FLAP FLAP I HOLD IT TISHT IN MOUTH TAKE CARE NO BITINS GOOD DOG MY MAN LIKES FISH I WILL BRIN6 THIS FISH TO MY MAN I RUN MEN RUN AFTER ME BIG p.i.s.s-ON-TROUSER MAN RUNS AFTER ME HE SHOUTS I RUN FASTER I RUN ON ROAD I RUN ON SMALL STONES BESIDE BIS-WATER RUNNINS MEN ARE FAR BEHIND HERE IS ONLY BIS-WATER I SLOW I TURN I WALK I WILL BRINS THIS FISH LIVE TO MY MAN I WALK BESIDE BIS-WATER THIS WATER IS BAD IT JUMPS ATME WITH SNAKE NOISE SSSS FEET WET I BARK WOOF OFF I BARK MOUTH OPEN FISH JUMPS OUT OF MOUTH INTO BIS-WATER FLAP FLAP SSSS WOOF FLAP SSSS BIS-WATER SWALLOWS FISH ALL SONE I HAVE NO FISH FOR MY MAN I AM SAD DOG I RUN HOME I RUN I AM DOG.

Andriy is sitting on the step of the caravan by the beach waiting for Emanuel and Dog. His forehead is covered in sweat. He is drinking water out of a bottle and brooding darkly on the events of the afternoon. He caught those lads; he ran all the way up the hill after them, and he caught them and asked for his gear back. And they just laughed at him. Rat-faced thieving Ukrainian sc.u.m. And when he made a grab for the bucket, the lad with the Klitschko crew cut drew a knife on him. Well, he backed off, of course. He wasn't going to risk his life for a stolen blue bucket. But the incident left him feeling depressed. What's happening to his country? What's happening everywhere? His dad is dead and all his dreams and ideals are dead with him: solidarity, humanity, self-respect. All the things he believed in have turned to dust, and the new world is run by mobilfonmen.

Later, when Emanuel comes back with the Mozambicans' rod and bucket, he brightens up a bit.

Dear sister, Dear sister, I am now in Dover. All the mzungus expecting Andree have departed and in place of picking strawberries I am now a fisherman. This stirs me up with memories of our happy childhood days beside the Shire River and I wonder what has become of you my sister and whether we will ever meet again. If my letters receive you please come to Dover where you will find me always on the pier for I have become like one of the Disciples of Our Lord at Galilee but our fishing here is not with netting but with rods. I am now in Dover. All the mzungus expecting Andree have departed and in place of picking strawberries I am now a fisherman. This stirs me up with memories of our happy childhood days beside the Shire River and I wonder what has become of you my sister and whether we will ever meet again. If my letters receive you please come to Dover where you will find me always on the pier for I have become like one of the Disciples of Our Lord at Galilee but our fishing here is not with netting but with rods. When we came upon the pier we met a mzungu who had an outstanding tattoo on his arm it was a picture of a woman who was half a fish combing her hair and looking in a mirror shaped like a heart. The fulsome wavings of the woman's hair obscured her nakedness and down below were modest fish scales which glimmered as the mzungu moved his arm. And a story fizzed into my memory told by some fishermen who adventure on the Mozambican sh.o.r.e of our lake of a beauteous woman whose bottom half is fish who sits on a rock and lures sailors to their deaths. Could this be the same one!!! When we came upon the pier we met a mzungu who had an outstanding tattoo on his arm it was a picture of a woman who was half a fish combing her hair and looking in a mirror shaped like a heart. The fulsome wavings of the woman's hair obscured her nakedness and down below were modest fish scales which glimmered as the mzungu moved his arm. And a story fizzed into my memory told by some fishermen who adventure on the Mozambican sh.o.r.e of our lake of a beauteous woman whose bottom half is fish who sits on a rock and lures sailors to their deaths. Could this be the same one!!! And on this pier I fell into the company of some Mozambican fishermen who were friends of our cousin Simeon's brother-in-law in Cobue. And after some chatter they confided their rod and bucket to me and went away. When they did not return I was confounded for I could not leave their things having in memory the Chichewa saying And on this pier I fell into the company of some Mozambican fishermen who were friends of our cousin Simeon's brother-in-law in Cobue. And after some chatter they confided their rod and bucket to me and went away. When they did not return I was confounded for I could not leave their things having in memory the Chichewa saying a man's rod is his dearest treasure a man's rod is his dearest treasure and I prayed for their return. After some whilings a great fish came upon my rod which made me tremble for this fish resembled the beauteous woman of the story and it was an outstanding big job to lift her from the sea with all the mzungus crowding round and shouting in their languages. As her flappings became weaker I put her in a bucket of water for she was tormented in breathing and I wondered again about the Mozambicans was she my fish or theirs??? For she was the most resplendent fish I have ever met and reminded me of the woman in the story. and I prayed for their return. After some whilings a great fish came upon my rod which made me tremble for this fish resembled the beauteous woman of the story and it was an outstanding big job to lift her from the sea with all the mzungus crowding round and shouting in their languages. As her flappings became weaker I put her in a bucket of water for she was tormented in breathing and I wondered again about the Mozambicans was she my fish or theirs??? For she was the most resplendent fish I have ever met and reminded me of the woman in the story. And this question was subdy resolved by the dog who grabbed the fish in his jaws and put her back in the sea. And every day since then I have come to the pier with the bucket and rod of the Mozambicans but neither they nor the fish have ever returned. And this question was subdy resolved by the dog who grabbed the fish in his jaws and put her back in the sea. And every day since then I have come to the pier with the bucket and rod of the Mozambicans but neither they nor the fish have ever returned.