Were the waves beginning to calm? Over their crests I thought I saw Johnny’s head bobbing lifelessly not five yards from me. I tried to call to him, but when I opened my mouth I was dragged underwater. Somehow my body rose to the surface again, and that was when I saw Mamoru. He looked straight at my face and called out to me, I know he did. It was him, swimming powerfully towards me. In the distance, another swimmer: Peter? Johnny’s head was barely visible now, even though the waves had calmed further. My own body felt heavy and tired, and I realised that both my legs had seized up. Yet I was not scared. I knew that soon I would be saved. Mamoru was now only twenty yards away and still making progress. I could see the boat now too, far away in the water-washed distance. Someone was standing on the deck, looking out at us. I looked to see where Mamoru was. Why was he swimming away from me? Half-choked, I screamed his name, and he paused, looking in my direction. But then he put his head in the water again and continued on his course. A few seconds later I saw him pull Johnny to the surface. With his body under Johnny’s, he began to swim back to the boat. He cradled Johnny’s face between his hands, pointing it to the sky and the open air.
I stopped kicking. A crushing numbness gripped my legs, and my eyes began to sting. I let myself sink, feeling the sea pull me into its depths.
And then I felt hands; hands on my body, grabbing at my arms, breasts, hair, pulling me to the surface. I coughed, water burning my throat. “Snow! Snow!” I heard as I felt life return to my lungs. It was Peter.
“Don’t struggle, Snow, let yourself go limp,” he said as he pulled my arm over his shoulder. I felt his hard bony back beneath me all the way to the boat. His legs and arms pulled unevenly, jerking rather than propelling us along. His breaths rasped as he swam, and it was some time before I realised he was singing a song. I could scarcely believe it. Over the waves and the dying rain, he was still trying to sing his silly songs.
WE WATCHED THE STORM CLOUD as it swept away from us. Sunshine and flat green waters returned in an instant. The sodden deck began to dry, steam rising thickly in the heat. Our clothes, too, felt heavy and clammy.
Honey, it seems, had hidden below deck in the cabin. He said it had been a terrifying experience, being tossed about like a cricket ball in that tiny space.
Mamoru came to where I was sitting and asked if I was alright. I did not answer.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I did not know where you were. I thought I heard your voice but I saw only Johnny. I knew he couldn’t swim. If I did not save him he would have drowned. Peter was there too and I thought — I don’t know. I am sorry.” A pained expression settled on his face and I thought he might cry.
“I cannot swim either,” I said, closing my eyes tightly. I did not cry.
He bowed his head and touched my arm. “I did not know that.” He remained next to me for a while. I felt his slow, warm breath on my arm. When he had gone I saw that he had left something for me. It was the small soft bag that I had been carrying with me, the one in which I kept my diary. I had forgotten all about it during the storm. I undid the straps of the bag and searched its damp contents. It was still there, wrapped tightly in its wax cloth. Mamoru must have rescued it for me. He had saved it from the storm.
Peter approached me but I shut my eyes.
IT WAS CURIOUS, the way the Seventh Maiden finally revealed itself to us. Thinking about it now, less than two days later, I still cannot decide if the sudden sight of it was an unexpected shock or something entirely predictable and perfectly natural. We had not spoken much after the storm, and so I do not know what the others felt. I cannot determine the sensations I myself experienced on first seeing it.
We all saw it at the same time. Once the storm had passed, it took us a while to reorient ourselves. We headed back to the first island, all five of us searching the seas around us with added vigilance. We counted the islands and — we thought — anticipated finding six, as we had before. It was only when we passed the fifth, the one closest to our original island, that we saw it. It lay exactly where the first island had been. I could have sworn it did. But where that small island had been there now stood a new one, ten times the size of the previous one and larger by far than any we had seen. It too had a covering of scrubby forest on the edge of its rock-and-sand coast, but behind that rose a dense green jungle, quite unlike anything we had seen since coming to sea. Its rich colouring seemed at odds with the yellowish, sun-bleached foliage of earlier islands. The coconut trees were tall and stood firm and erect, unbowed by the sea breeze. How far it stretched I could not say.
We drifted slowly into its shallows, surrendering to it. The cries of strange animals punctured the air.
