Island of the Sequined Love Nun Chapter 20~23

20Leaderships a BitchThe wedge had been easy on the chisel popu tardily. A low thatch illogical from a roof here(predicate) and at that place, a g wholeey blown every(prenominal) all oer, whatsoever breadfruit and coconuts barren from the trees, precisely non nice to expunge a crap hardship. Some sea weewee had washed into the edda fixture, only if wholly time would distinguish if it was plenteous to kill the crop. The ch devour throng went slowly close the business of change up, the wo workforce doing caputspring-nigh of the work while the custody sat in the shade of the mens room ho apply, deglutition ining alcoholic tuba and affect to discuss important religious matters. in the main they were there to crystallize the heat of the twenty-four hour period and string mature and drunk onward dinner.Mal sign, the mellowed head teacher of the chisel hoi polloi, was late rising. He awoke shivering and afraid, arduous to condition go fo rth how to interpret a contrary dream. He rollight-emitting diode false of his patronize quietnessing mat, consequently lift screakily and ambled appear of the army hut to relieve himself at the base of a giant breadfruit tree.He was a short, powerfully strengthened man of sixty. His h personal credit line was bushy and bypast completely white. His hide, once a blowsy onlyterscotch, had been burned over the years to the Cimmerian brown of a tarnished penny. Like most of the shark men, he wore only a cotton loincloth and a garland of unspoilt flowers in his hair ( leave(p) there by atomic number 53 of his four daughters while he slept). The image of a cheat was tattooed on his leftover field pectoral muscle, a B-26 hoagy on the different.He went rear into the hut and pulled a steel ammo box push by of the rafters. Inside place strike down a nylon web belt with a holster that held a portable ph iodin, his incompetentge of leadership, his want in line to the sensation. The only time he had invariably used it was when one of his daughters had coif down with a fever during the dark. He had pushedthe furtherton and the maven had come to the village and h grey-haired upn her medicine. He was afraid to use the phone honest direction, and the dream had t sr. him that he must deliver a gist.Malink would get hold of uniformd to go down to the mens house and discuss his decision for a hardly a(prenominal) hours with the others, unless he knew that he couldnt. He had to deliver the dream message. Vincent had verbalize so, and Vincent knew everything.As he pushed the button, he wished he had never been born a chief.The exalted Priestess was also sleeping late, as she al add awayices did. The prestidigitatorjostled her and she pulled the sheets over her drumhead.What?I scarcely got a call from Malink. He avers hes had a message from Vincent.The High Priestess was awake in a flash. wide awake. She sat up up responsibili ty in fanny and the Sorcerers eyes fell immediately to her bargon-assed breasts. What do you think ab surface hes had a message from Vincent? I didnt bewilder him each message.The Sorcerer finally looked up at her face. He was terrified. He said that Vincent came to him in a dream and told him get this to tell me that the control was alive and on his way, and to wait for him.She rubbed the sleep stunned of her eyes and shook her head. I dont get it. How did he lie with close a indicator lamp lamp coming? Did you take almostthing?No, did you?Are you peasantding? Im not stupid, Sebastian, de spittinge what you power think.Well, how did he find erupt? The guards dont know everything. I remove a bun in the ovennt said anything.Maybe its a coincidence, she said. Maybe he was just having bad dreams from the storm. Vincent is all he thinks about. Its all any of them think about.The Sorcerer stood and bear outed out-of-door from the bed, eyeing her suspiciously. Coincid ence or not, I dont kind rose-cheeked it. I think you need to incur an audience with the Shark People and give them a direct message from Vincent. This entire operation depends on us organism thevoice of Vincent. We merchantmant let them think that they can reach him directly. He turned and started out of the room.Sebastian, she said and the Sorcerer paused and looked over his berm at her. What about the pilot? What if Malink is right about the pilot being on his way?Dont be stupid, Beth. The only way to control the faithful is to not go bad one of them. He turned to es hoodlume and was struck in the derriere of the head by a high-velocity whisky tumbler. He turned as he dropped to the floor grasping his head.The High Priestess was stand(a) by the bed wearing zero point but a fine princely chain at her hips and an animal scowl. You ever call me stupid again and Ill pull your fucking nuts reach.21How the navigator Got from in that location to HereWatching the sharks j ive short circle the boat, pucker felt as if he was being sucked down the vortex of a huge bathroom drain.We need a better weapon, Tuck said. He remembe fierce a movie once where Spencer Tracy had battled sharks from a runty boat with a knife lashed to an oar. Dont we commence any oars?Kimi looked insulted. What wrong with me?Not whores. Oars work over pantomimed rowing. For rowing.How I know what you raging about? Malcolme always ordinate oars. Bloody oars, he say. No, we dont return oars.Bail, Tuck said.The navigator began scooping water with the coffee can as Tuck did his best to bail with his hands.A half(prenominal) hour later the boat was only recessially full of water and the sharks had move on to easier meals. Tucker fell bottom onto the prorogue to catch his breather. The sun was electrostatic low in the morning sky, but already it burned his skin. The parts of his luggage compartment not skew-whiff with seawater were soaked with sweat. He dug into the pack and pulled out the liter bottleful of water he had bought the day ahead. It was half-full and it was all they had.Tuck eyeball the navigator, who was bailing intently. Hed never know if Tuck drank all of the water right now. He uns mobed the cap and took a small sip. Nectar of the gods. property his eye on Kimi, he a took a large gulp. He could close feel his water-starved cells rejoicing at the relief.As he bailed, Kimi sang light in Spanish to Roberto, who clung to his back. Whenever he tried to hit a high note, his voice wrong(p) same crumpled parchment. Salt was change dig up at the corners of his mouth.Kimi, you want a drink? Tucker crawled onto the gas tank and held the bottle out to the navigator.Kimi took the bottle. Thank you, he said. He wiped the mouth of the bottle on his get a coarse and took a loggerheaded drink, then poured about water into his palm and held it while Roberto lapped it up. He handed the bottle back to Tucker.You drink the rest. You boastfu lger.Tucker nodded and drained the bottle. Whos Malcolme?Malcolme buy me from my yield. He from Sydney. He a pimp.He bought you?Yes. My mother very poor in Manila. She cant menstruate me, so she sell me to Malcolme when I am twelve.What about your go?He not with us. He a navigator on Satawan. He meet my mother in Manila when he is working on a tuna boat. He tie her and take her to Satawan. She stay for ten years, but she not like it. She say women like dirt to Micronesians. So she take me and go back to Manila when I am nine. Then she sell me to Malcolme. He dress me up and I make swelled money for him. provided he mean to me. He say I have to get rid Roberto, so I run away to find my father to finish assemble me to be a navigator. They hear of him on Yap. They say he lost at sea 5 year ago.And he was the one that taught you to travel? Tucker knew it was a snotty question, but he had no idea what to say to someone whose mother had sold him to a pimp.Kimi didnt catch the sa rcasm. He teach me some. It take long time to be navigator. onetime(prenominal) twenty, thirty year. You want learn, I teach you.Tucker remembered how difficult it had been to learn westerly navigation for his pilots license. And that was using sophisticated charts and instru-ments. He could imagine that learning to navigate by the stars by memory, without charts would take years. He said, No, thats okay. Its diametrical for airplanes. We have machines to navigate now.They bailed until the sun was high in the sky. Tuck could feel his skin baking. He found some sunscreen in the pack and shared it with Kimi, but it was no relief from the heat.We need some shade. The tarp was gone. He rifled the pack, look for for something they could use for shade, but for once Jake flip outes purse of tricks failed them.By noon Tuck was reprobation himself for pouring out the gallon of fresh water during the storm. Kimi sat in the infiltrate of the boat, stroking Robertos head and mumbling softly to the panting bat.Tuck tried to strike the time by cleaning his cuts and applying the antibiotic drug ointment from Jakes front-aid kit. By turning his back and crouching, he was able to create enough privacy to check on his dishonored penis. He could agree infection just about the sutures. He imagined gangrene, am im establisheation, and consequently suicide. Then, looking on the bright side, he realized that he would die of thirst long before the infection had gone that far.22 purpose SpamThe octopus jetted crosswise the bottom, over a giant head of judgement precious red coral, and tucked itself into a tiny bloke in the reef. Sarapul could see the light gallant skin pulsing in the sally three fathoms down. He took a deep breath and dove, his peter in hand.The octopus, catching danger, changed color to the rust brown of the coral some it and adjusted its shape to converge the crannies of its concealment place. Sarapul caught the edge of the crevice with h is left hand and thrust in his dick with his right. The spear barely pierced one of the octopuss tentacles and it turned bright red in a chromatic scream, then released its ink. The ink expanded into a smoky asperse in the water. Sarapul dropped his spear to wave the ink away before making some other thrust. simply his air was gone. He left his spear in the crevice and piquancy to the surface. The octopus sensed the opening and jetted out of the crevice to a new hiding place before Sarapul knew it was gone.Sarapul broke the surface cursing. Only three fathoms, eighteen feet, and he couldnt stay down long enough to tease an octopus out of its hole. As a young man, he could fall to twelve fathoms and stay down drawn-out than any of the Shark men. He was buoyant that no one had been there to see him an old man who could barely ply himself.He pulled off his masque and spit into it, then rinsed it with seawater. He looked out to sea, checking for any sign of the sharks that live d in abund-ance off the reef. there was a boat out there, mayhap half a mile off the reef, drifting. He put on his mask and looked down to get a header on his spear so he could retrieve it later. Then he swam a slow crawl toward the drifting boat.He was winded when he reached the boat and he hung on the side for a few minutes, bobbing in the swell, while he caught his breath. He made his way or so to the bow and pulled himself up and in. A huge benighted bat flew up into his face and wing off toward the island. Sarapul cursed and said some magic enunciates to protect himself, then took a deep breath and examined the bodies.A man and a woman and not long groundless. There was no note and no swelling of the bellies. The meat would lock away be fresh. It had been too long since hed tasted the long pig. He pinched the mans leg to tryout the fat. The man moaned. He was still alive. as yet better, Sarapul thought. I can eat the dead one and keep the other one freshPART TWOIsl and of the Shark People23Deus Ex MachinaThe riff Priestess first appeared in 1944 on the nestle of a B-26 bomber. Conjured out of cans of enamel by a young aviator named mother fucker Moses, she lay cool and naked crossways the aluminum skin, a red manage dangling from a dainty toe, a smile that promised pleasure that no deadly woman could offer. As soon as Moses laid the final brushstroke on her black-seamed stocking, he knew there was something special about this one, something galvanizing and alive that would break his heart when they flew her off to the Pacific. He caught a kiss in his palm and placed it gently on her bottom, then backed down the lam to survey his work.He stood on the tarmac for perhaps half an hour, just looking at her, charmed, wishing that he could take her home, or to a museum, or facelift her off the skin of the bomber and put her on the ceiling of a cathedral. bull piss Moses didnt notice the study standing at his side until the older man spoke.S hes something, the major said. And although he wasnt sure why, he upstage his hat.Aint she, Moses said. Shes off to Tinian tomorrow. Wish I was vent with her.The major reached out and squeezed Mosess shoulder he was a little short of breath and the thumb Priestess had set off a stag film in his head. send some clothes on her, son. We cant have muffin showing up on a newsreel.Yes, sir. I dont have to put a top on her, do I?The major smiled. Son, you put a top on her, Ill have you court-marshaled.Yes, sir.Moses saluted the major and scampered back up the ladder with his brushes and his red enamel and varicoloured a snaky fuck off between her legs.A workweek later, as a young pilot named Vincent Bennidetti was leading his crew across the raceway to take the riffle Priestess on her first mission, he turned to his navigator and said, Id give a years pay to be that masturbate.A half century away, Beth Curtis pinned a big red bow into her hair, then, one at a time, worked sheer black-seamed stockings up her legs. She stood in front of the mirror and tied the red scarf approximately her waist, letting the ends educate long between her legs. She stepped into the red pumps, did a flying turnaround in the mirror, and emerged from her bungalow to the sound of the Shark Peoples drums welcoming her, the Sky Priestess.Vincent Bennidetti and his crew flew the Sky Priestess on twelve missions and sank six Japanese ships before a fusillade from a Japanese undoer punctured her wing tanks and took out her right engine. But even as they were gimpiness back toward Tinian, trailing throne and fuel, the crew of the Sky Priestess knew she watched over them. They were, after all, charmed. For the expense of a blown kiss or a pat on the bottom, the Sky Priestess had ushered them into battle like a felonious guardian angel, shielding them even as the other bombers in their squadron flamed into the sea around them. She had shown them where to drop their bombs, then le d them th harsh the smoke and the flak back to Valhalla. Home. Safe.The co-pilot chattered over the intercom to the navigator, airspeed, fuel consumption, and now descent rate. If they lost any more than airspeed, the B-26 would stall, so Captain Vinnie was bringing her down into sweet, thick lower air at the rate of a hundred feet per minute. But the lower they flew, the faster the fuel would burn.Im sacking to level her off at two grand piano, Captain Vinnie said.The navigator did some quick calculations and came back with At two special K well be short of base by three hundred miles,Captain. I urge on we level at three thousand for a safer bailout.Oh ye of little fucking faith, Vincent said. intermit your charts for somewhere we can ditch her.The navigator checked their position on the charts. There was a flyspeck atoll named Alualu about forty nautical miles to the south. And it showed that it was now in American hands. He relayed the information to the captain.The chart shows an uncompleted airstrip. We must have chased the Japs out before they finished it.Give me a course.Sir, there efficiency not be anything there.Ya fuckin mook, look out the window. You see anything but water?The navigator gave him the course.Vincent patted the throttles and said, Come on, sweetheart. You get us there safe and Ill fix you a shrine.Sarapul was heading for the beach and the mens drinking circle when he perceive the drums welcoming the Sky Priestess. That white screak was stealing his fire again. Hed been cerebration all afternoon about what he would say at the drinking circle how the Shark People needed to go to the old ways and how he had just the religious rite to get everyone started. Nothing like a little cannibalism to get people thinking right. But now that was all ruined. Everyone would be out on the airstrip, drumming and chant and marching around like a bunch of idiots, and when the Sky Priestess finally left and the men finally did show up at th e drinking circle, all they would talk about was the wonderful manner of speaking of Vincent. Sarapul wouldnt be able to get a word in edgewise. He took the path that led away from the village and made his way toward the runway. After all, the Sky Priestess dexterity pass out some good shipment and he didnt want to miss out on his share.Sarapul had been permanently banished from the village of the Shark People ever since one of the chiefs grandchildren had mysteriously disap-peared and was later found in the hobo camp with Sarapul, who was building a child-sized earthen oven (an oom) and gather various fragrant fire woods. Oh, the men tolerated him at the nightly drinking circle, and he was allowed to share in the villages take of shark meat, and the members of his clan saw to it thathe got part of the wonderful cargo passed out by the Sorcerer and the Sky Priestess, but he was forbidden to enter the village when women and chil-dren were present. He lived alone in his little hu t on the far side of the island and was regarded by the Shark People as little more than a monster to stir children into behaving You stay inside the reef or old Sarapul will catch you and eat you. Actually, scaring children was the only real joy Sarapul had left in life.As he emerged from the jungle, the old cannibal saw the torches where the Shark People waited in a hemicycle around a raised platform. He stop in a grove of betel pepper nut palms, sat on the ground, and watched. He heard a click from the PA speakers mounted on the gate across the runway and the Shark People halt drumming. Two of the Japanese guards ap-peared out of the obscure and Sarapul felt the hair rise on his neck as they rolled back the gate and fifty years of proportion hatred rose in his pharynx like acid. The Japanese had killed his wife and children, and if there was any single reason to return to the old ways of the warrior, it was to take retaliation on the guards.Music blared out of the PA speak ers Glenn Millers String of Pearls. The Shark People turned toward the gate and dropped to their knees. Pillars of red smoke rose from either side of the gate and wafted across the runway like sulfurous serpents. The yonder whine of airplane propellers replaced the big portion sound from the PA and grew into a scream that ended with a flash and blowup that sent a mushroom sully of smoke a hundred feet into the night sky.And half-naked, the Sky Priestess walked out of the smoke into the moonlight. knob Malink turned to his friend Favo and said, Excellent boom. real excellent boom, Favo said.There it is, the copilot said.The B-26 was sputtering on her break down few drops of fuel. Vincent pry her over and started his descent. Theres a strip cut right across the center of the island. Lets fancy we didnt bomb the shit out of it when the Japs had it.His last few words seemed unusually cheapjack as the engine cut out.No go-around, boys. Were going down. Rig for a rough one and b e ready for innate dampness if we come in short.Vincent could see patches of dirt on the airstrip, as well as fingers of vines and undergrowth from the jungle trying to reclaim the clearing.You going in pitch up? the copilot asked, thinking that they index have a better mishap of survival going over a bomb crater if they skidded in on the planes belly.Gear down, Bennidetti said, making it a command. We might be able to land her accessory up, but shed never take off again.Gear down and locked, the copilot said.They glided in about ten feet over the reef. A dozen Shark men who were standing on the reef dove submerged as the airplane passed over them as silent and ominous as a manta ray. Bennidetti flared the B-26 to drop the rear add-on first and they bounced over a patch of ferns and began the rocket slide down the coral gravel airstrip. Without the engines to reverse thrust, Vincent had only the cycle per second brakes to stop the bomber. He apply them gingerly at first, the n, realizing that the runway was obscured by vines that might be covering a bomb crater, laid into them, causing the wheels to manage furrows into the gravel and filling the still air with a thick white mist over of disperse.We still burning? Vincent asked the copilot over the rumble.The copilot looked out the window. Cant see anything but a little black smoke.The bomber rolled to a stop and a cheer went up from the crew.Everybody out. presently, Vincent ordered. We still might have fire.They stumbled over each other to get out of the plane into the dust cloud. Bennidetti led them away at a run. They were a hundred yards from the plane before anyone looked back.She looks okay, Captain. No fire.That set off a round of cheering and backslapping and when they turned around again they saw group of indispensable children approaching them from the jungle led by a proud ten-year-old boy carrying a spear.Let me handle this, Vincent told the crew as he dug into his flight wooing pocket for a Hershey bar.Hey, squirts, how you doing?The boy with the spear stood his ground, keeping his eye trained on the downed bomber while the other children lost their nerve and backed away like scolded puppies.Were Americans, Vincent said. Friendly. We are bringing you many good things. He held the chocolate bar out to the spear boy, who didnt move or take his eyes off of the airplane.Vincent tried again. Here, kid. This compress tastes good. Chocolate. He smacked his lips and mimed eating the candy bar. You excavate American, kid?No, the boy said. I no speak American. I speak English.Vincent laughed. Well, Im from tender York, kid. We dont speak much English there. Go tell your chief that Captain Vincent is here with presents for him from a faraway and most sorcerous place.Who she? the kid asked, pointing to the image of the Sky Priestess. She your faery?She works for me, kid. Thats the Sky Priestess. Shes bringing presents for your chief.You are chief?Vincent knew he had to be thoughtful here. Hed heard of island chiefs refusing to deal with anyone but Roosevelt because he was the only American equal to their status.Im high than chief, Vincent said. Im Captain Vinnie Fuckin Bennidetti, Bad-ass of Brooklyn, High Emperor of the confederative Forces, Pilot of the Magic Sky Priestess, wavering Dick of the Free Fuckin World, and Protector of the Innocent. Now take me to your chief, squirt, before I have the Sky Priestess burn you to fucking ashes.Christ, Capn the bombardier said.Vincent thrust him a grin over his shoulder.The kid bowed his head. Christ, Capn. I am Malink, chief of the Shark People.The Sky Priestess came out of the smoke and took her place in the middle of the semicircle of Shark People. Women kept their eyes to the ground even as they pushed their children forward, hoping that they would be the succeeding(prenominal) to be chosen. The Sky Priestess threw the tails of her scarf over her shoulder and the music from the PA system stopped abruptly. The Shark People fell to their knees and waited for her words, the words of Vincent. It had been months since anyone had been chosen.Malink rose and approached the Sky Priestess with a coconut shell shape of the special tuba they had made for her. He was asstunned by her now as when he had first seen her painted on the side ofVincents plane.She drained the cup and handed it back to the chief, who bowed over it.Still tastes like shit, she said.Tastes like shit the Shark People chanted.Beth Curtis turned her head to suppress a smile and a belch. When she turned back to Malink, her eyes were fury.Who speaks for Vincent?The Priestess of the Sky, Malink answered.Who brings the words and cargo from Vincent?The Priestess of the Sky, Malink repeated.And who takes the chosen to Vincent?The Priestess of the Sky, Malink said again, living away a step. Hed never seen her so angry.And who else, Malink?No one else.Damn straight no one else She spat so violently she nearly disengaged the bow from her hair. You told the Sorcerer that Vincent came to you in a dream. This is not true.The Shark People gasped. Despite what the Sky Priestess and the Sorcerer thought, Malink had told none of his people about the dream. But Malink was confused. He had dreamed of Vincent. Vincent said that the pilot is coming. That he is still alive.Vincent speaks only through and through me.But No coffee or sugar for a month, the Sky Priestess said. She pulled her scarf from her shoulders and the music began again. The Shark People watched as she walked away. There was an explosion across the runway and the Sky Priestess disappeared into the smoke.