Hunted out too. Some fish in the Mississippi
though. It’s big now, stretching west as far as
the eye can see.
Finegan says,
Everyone gardens, sheep and goats and the like.
You too?
After a pause, Memphis concurs.
Them that can, yeah. Lot of suicides here
lately. Peaceful. They go peaceful like.
Finegan signs off.
My Russian friend might connect now and then to
chat, but I gotta go now. Maybe I’ll make my
way up there. I run a trading houseboat. What
side of Memphis are you on?
Memphis laughs, and says,
The part above water. Ah, high, the hill tops.
Finegan signals his goodbye.
10-4.
Finegan turns off the radio, shaking his head in the negative, but the
Russian already has caught the drift.
57
No call home. Maybe you take me home in your
boat?
Finegan is startled at the request.
Oh, no, it’d never make the ocean. No can do.
No, no, you need a bigger boat, well, you need
a boat period. What I have is a raft! The waves
would go over it. We’d all die.
______________________________
Finegan and the Russian are returning to the camp, walking up a dirt
path toward the shanties that the camp has assembled from junk. These
are all people who were not welcomed at other communities, joining
forces and helping each other. There are more men than women present,
and every women is pregnant or with a baby in arms. Joey is playing
with a group of Mexican and Vietnamese boys, kicking a ball around.
The Russian points in the direction of the houseboat.
You no have light?
Finegan is reaching for the Russian’s radio and unscrews one side to
inspect how the crank device works. He looks up at the Russian.
No, but they can be rigged. You’ve got lots of
fresh vegetables, how about a trade?
Finegan is grinning at the Russian, as the crank motion has set him to
thinking.
______________________________
Several of the men are bringing forward car batteries and headlights
taken from hulks nearby. These cars had been driven to the migrant camp
when the migrants were ejected from other communities, and then parked.
They are old trucks and battered older cars, but ran as long as the
gasoline in their tanks lasted and where they were able to work their
way over fields to bypass breaks in the roads. The batteries are being
placed in a series, side by side and row after row, and wired together.
Finegan is working with the back of an old farmstead windmill, which
has had several of its blades repaired with pieces of wood screwed onto
the broken blades.
Got that alternator?
Finegan indicates the Russian should hold the windmill in the air,
holding it from the hub at the backside, while Finegan holds onto two
wires coming out from the hub backside. Finegan looks up, noting there
is no breeze at the moment, then turns the blades by hand. The two
wires he has in his hand spark, causing Finegan to jump.
58
Hey! Success.
Finegan then bends over a metal box between the battery series and
windmill, connecting wires. He motions to one of the men, a Hispanic,
to turn the blades of the windmill while he, Finegan, bends over with a
flow meter to check on the batteries.
______________________________
The windmill is now standing up where it can catch the breeze, on a
narrow triangle of boards nailed with cross-struts, crude but sturdy.
The blades are lazily turning in the evening breeze coming off the
broad river. The series of batteries has been covered with a tarp roof,
to keep the rain off. At the far end of the battery block is a rack of
headlights, glowing. The migrants are all milling around, contemplating
this new setup. Finegan is off to one side, being handed an armful of
Bok Choy cabbage.
______________________________
Finegan and Joey emerge from the darkness, coming down from the hill
toward the houseboat, pulling the rusty wagon. Atop the hill is a blaze
of light from several headlights, pointing in various directions. Frogs
are thrumming along the shore. Finegan says,
Time for a good night’s sleep . . if the
neighbor’s lights don’t keep us up.
59
Shark in the Water
A tall building, the second story sticking out of the water and topped
by a lookout tower. The houseboat is peddling toward these buildings,
with Joey as usual pacing on the roof, looking for underwater objects.
Joey points to the right, directing Finegan to go right.
Some sort of roof tops to the left, in rows.
Finegan stops peddling to joins Joey to have a look.
Those are barracks.
They see the top of a barbed wire fence, where the outgoing tide is
ruffling over the barbed wire. Finegan has just noticed this ruffling
along the fence tops, showing the square outline of the compound.
Oh shit.
Finegan spins on his feet to look back where the houseboat entered the
compound, and sees this now exposed barbed wire too.
We’ll have to wait here until the tide rises
again. . . I might do some diving while we
wait, check out those barracks.
Finegan glances in the direction of the tower.
. . Or check out that tower.
A guard can be seen in the shadows, seemingly wrestling with himself.
Then it becomes apparent that he is taking off his clothes, and
suddenly dives, nude, into the water and swims in the direction of the
houseboat. Seeing that he is not a threat, being without a weapon,
Finegan and Joey hop down and prepare to help him onto the deck.
The guard is African American and very fit. He swims with a strong
stoke to the front of the houseboat and heaves himself up, twists
sideways to sit on the edge, and pulls his feet out of the water and to
one side, sitting alongside the edge. Joey and Finegan move to boxes in
front of the guard, to talk.
Don’t want toes in the water for too long . . I
saw a young shark in here once, the other day.
The guard notes the fishing net hung up to dry on the line just to the
side of where Joey and Finegan are seated and points to it.
Shark makes good eating. Maybe we could troll
for it! . . If he’s still in here I expect I