Maggie
Noyr stood with Rafael and his pretty-faced friend, at the docks down at the south end of Division Road. The sun was at
10 AM position
and
the day was becoming steamy, even with the breeze. The docks were
filled with sailboats. The sea was filled with sailboats. Luis had
one dolphinfish at his feet, and he had a line in the water.
“So
you’re finally here again,” said Rafael. “After being gone so
long. Have any of your memories returned yet?”
“Scraps
of them,” said Maggie. “And they all feel like literal
illustrations. I feel as though I was never here to begin with,
except as a memory, constructed backward like the priest tells us God
did with the dinosaurs. ”
“I
don’t understand how that is possible,” said the pretty-faced
man. “You make yourself sound like a fiction.”
“Perhaps
I am,” said Maggie. She gazed out to sea where the gulls dived upon
the tourists
of the tour boats. “Perhaps it is all fiction. Perhaps that water,
those gulls, those tourists, are nothing but background,
illustrations to make things feel more colorful.”
“That
doesn’t bode well for me,” said Rafael, “nor for Luis here.
Why, it even sounds a little insulting. Are we also but fictions,
then? Secondary characters to you?”
“Maybe
so,” said Maggie. “Yet maybe I’m only the primary character
here because my name was mentioned first. Or maybe I’m actually a
secondary character after all and the primary character has not even
appeared yet. Things shake out oddly in stories sometimes. Sometimes
the viewpoint character isn’t the crucial one. Take that as a
comforting possibility.”
“I
do not like to be called a fiction,” said Luis. “It makes me
wonder what the point of it all is. I have come up with my own point
and I do not like to have it interfered with.” Something tugged
upon his line. He yanked backward and a dophinfish flew into his
arms. “I fish and I make good money off this,” he said, as he
unhooked the line from the fish’s mouth. “And I make enough to
find a good place where Rafael and I can live together. I find
purpose in that. Why, if I were a fiction, I would have to find some
other purpose, some Greater Purpose, only to be an illustration of a
point for someone else! What a rotten life that would be, serving the
entertainment of other people without even my say-so. It’s bad
enough that we can’t even drink in public around here.”
Maggie
glanced at the fish in Luis’ arms. “If that fish were
non-fictional,” she said, “it would behave realistically. But it
isn’t even flopping around in your arms.”
“Shut
up,” said Luis. He picked up his other dolphinfish, threw both over
his shoulder, and marched off to the fish market.
“He
carries that much fish,” said Maggie. “And you live with him. I
am envious.”
“And
well you should be,” said Rafael.
“Do
you remember to sleep with the windows closed?”
“I
would have vanished a long time ago, if not for that. Ah, but we
ought to be finding shade at the market. I have a day off, and I
don’t have to deal with letting those tourists stay out until near
mid-day. Come on.” He led Maggie towards the structure in the
distance along the shore, where many booths stood in the open air
beneath a wide awning.
It
was about a mile along the shore, past the point where touristy
sailboats gave way to serious electric watercraft, and beach-bathers
gave way to the sort of folks who are told to work hard until 11 AM
by a man who works for a man who gladly sits in a cool office
complaining about the work ethic of his laborers.
“So
your name is Rafael,” said Maggie as they strode. “And you
remember me. Yet I still do not remember you. Where on earth did I
go?”
“Nobody
knows where anything goes when it’s hit by el Viento de las Cincos Ojos,” said Rafael. “You must have gone where anything goes.
Where did
you
go? How did you come back?”
Maggie
stared at Rafael with the sort of look that comes after being told to
believe an outlandish tale after having told someone else to believe
an outlandish tale for the last few hours. “There’s nothing in my
head to indicate where I went,” said Maggie. “That memory was not
constructed for me. But, we speak of the past. Let us speak of the
present.” Maggie turned towards the boats. “You tell me you are
employed in the tourism industry?”
“Maggie
– ”
“Please,”
said Maggie. “Let us talk of the present and the future, and leave
speculation of the past to the side for the moment. You tell me you
are glad to see me once more. What have you been up to? How is the
work treating you?”
“It
depends on the tour group,” said Rafael, “and whether their kids
are dumb enough to touch the ropes. Kind of a bi – a stitch and a
half to sail all alone out there while keeping an eye on
disrespectful tourists, but hey, the company can hardly afford to pay
two sailors per boat, or that’s what they tell me. So I bring Luis
and he fishes with me while we sail the tourists around. Makes us
some dinner and some extra money, and it’s enough to keep us
together in a better apartment than we’d get by following the
rules.”
Maggie
frowned. “You mean you catch enough fish every time you go out? How
is that possible? I thought these waters were fairly well depleted of
fish.”
The
waves that had been gently rolling suddenly stilled.
Rafael
looked confused for a second, as if his thoughts were re-ordering
themselves within his head. Then he scowled and said, “No, these
waters are not depleted.”
A
fish leapt out of the water, and the waves rolled once more.
“Hang
on,” said Maggie, “did we just –”
“You
need to be more careful about that,” said Rafael. “That’s what
got you erased the third time.”
“Third?”
“You
can’t just mess around with reality like that. Los Ojos
don’t
like the competition.”
Maggie’s
eyes grew wide. “You mean, when I was telling Alejandra what I was
allowed to do – ”
“You
were really ordering her around.”
“I
have the power, eh? I wonder if I could order the whole world
around.” She pointed to a rock on the ground. “That rock is now a
fish.”
And
behold, the rock became a fish.
Maggie
stood there, her eyes wide, her finger still pointing at the
rock-now-fish. “Did I do that?” she said. “I did that.”
“Yeah,”
said Rafael, “You did that a bunch of times. Before.” He picked
up the fish and tossed it into the water. “First time was the best,
I’d say, but it also got you erased.”
Maggie
still stood there, her finger pointing at the place where the fish
had been.
“Speak,”
said Rafael.
Maggie
placed her hand over her mouth.
“I
wouldn’t let you change too much,” said Rafael.
Maggie
blinked, and took her hand from her mouth as she turned to Rafael.
“Excuse me?”
“I
just said – ”
“I
know perfectly well what you said.” Maggie placed her hands on his
shoulders. “What the hell did you mean? Not let me change too much?
Who the hell are you? Are you actually Rafael who I’m supposed to
remember? Are you just posing as him? What are you?”
Rafael
chuckled. “The important question, Maggie, is what are YOU. Because
I know what I am, or what I was supposed to be. I knew what Los Cincos Ojos wanted me to be. They wanted me to be one of them.”
“But
you’re a – ”
“I
am now. Ah, but was I not, when we were both young? There was a girl,
and there was a boy, but who knew which was which? Only the two
themselves – not even Las Tías, it seems.” He chuckled. “I’ll
leave you with that thought.”
And
then he vanished.
Maggie
stumbled forward, and kept going, deciding that there was nothing for
it but to run, and to run, and to run, though the mid-morning sun
promised heat and more heat. There was nothing for it to run along the boardwalk to the
fish market, to the one pretty young man who might have answers.
…
The
smell of the fish market hit her long before she hit the market. A
hearty smell, a sea smell, but strong, with just a hint of rot. The
day was heating up fast and all the fish had to be sold soon.
Everyone was rushing around, yelling prices, bumping into each other,
tossing fish into ice coolers and scurrying away.
Amidst
this chaos there was but one point of order, for around a young
pretty-faced man there was a ring of people, gazing in awe. In each
hand Luis held a dolphinfish by the tail. People around him were
calling out prices.
Maggie
considered Luis. The arms that held his big dolphinfish were wiry,
presumably from fishing, and not a hair on his chin. He had the sort
of upper-body build you would expect of someone who has devoted their
life to fishing, something a bit less generalized than that of a
sailor who has to run all over a ship and haul lines in bad weather.
And a blithe smile, such as Maggie herself had worn just this
morning, before the weight of her memories began to fall upon her
once more.
One
might call Luis a perfect match for Rafael’s tastes, though Maggie
herself had once been. There was another memory.
In
the meantime, here was the fish market, with Luis commanding the
attention of all. Prices went high and higher, until one fish was
sold, then another. Large stacks of cash changed hands.
And
suddenly all went quiet, for standing just within the ring, behind
Luis, was a largish blonde-bearded man. He had a cigar in one hand
and the other held a gold-headed cane. He wore a white suit and an
expression of cool disdain.
“That’s
him,” said a young green-eyed woman. “That’s Diego San Obispo
of San Obispo Tour Boats. What’s he doing here in mid-day? What’s
he doing here at all?”
Diego
San Obispo waited, stony-faced.
“What’s
he doing?” said Maggie.
“Waiting
for Luis to approach him freely,” said the woman. “If he has to
ask you to come to him he doesn’t like it at all. This is the usual
routine. Watch.”
Luis
was wearing an expression of immense satisfaction, yet oh, when he
heard the sound of a foot tapping impatiently behind him, his face
fell, and he turned slowly.
The
blonde-bearded figure kept tapping his foot as Luis slowly
approached.
The
young man still had his cash in hand, and he counted it out, slowly,
as if to hold onto it for just a little longer. But, there was only
so much he could so to prolong the counting, and at last he had to
place the majority of his earnings within the hands of the
harbormaster.
“That
is not enough,” said Diego San Obispo. “I am afraid the price has
gone up, my young friend.”
“Why?”
“Do
you really have space to ask that question?” said Diego San Obispo.
Two large men pushed their way through the crowd to stand beside the
harbormaster. “I could tell you that I’m being squeezed for
repair costs, or that my latest girlfriend wants diamond jewelry, or
some such excuse. But I don’t even need to make an excuse, do I?
There’s no need to win your favor.” He chuckled.
“Maybe
you need to win mine,” said Maggie. She grabbed one of the
dolphinfish from the man who had been holding it. “Or maybe you
want a face-full of fish for lunch.”
“Can
you even swing that thing?” said Diego San Obispo.
Maggie
was borne down substantially by the weight of the fish. She attempted
to swing it, but could hardly even build momentum.
Diego
San Obispo laughed. “There it is. You can hardly stop me, and your
friend won’t stand a chance against the police, and none of us
stands a chance against Las Tías de Ojos.”
“Not
unless we try,” said Luis. He grabbed the fish out of Maggie’s
hands.
“I
can certainly handle this thing,” said Maggie, as she grabbed the
other dolphinfish from where three men were holding it. As one, she
and Luis swung their fish at Diego San Obispo.