Refugee AU 2018

[imthepilot]

The galley wasn’t exactly a good place to be. It was hot as hell and stank of rotting food, the last of that they had left. It was narrow and dangerous – no more than a propane hotplate balanced on a plank of wood that could fall at any moment.

But it was a slightly quieter corner than the rest of the packed boat. And even the rotting food smell wasn’t as bad as the rotting flesh smell everywhere else.

Please, please, let the girls be safe.

Bodhi regretted that he’d never really had faith. If he’d believed in Allah or God or any deity at all, he’d at least have someone to mutter those prayers too. Rather than just losing them to the open air.

Nothing more than swearing. Just a release valve.

And even if his arms were pock-marked by oil burns and splashes, it was better than the other options.

Two more had died overnight, their bodies tossed into the sea. And at least one more wouldn’t make it to see another sunset. And a storm was coming.

“Hurry up with that food! You have other duties.” The captain shouted and Bodhi winced.

He knew the bastard wasn’t hungry, at least not for the pathetic meal of beans and rice Bodhi had managed to scratch together.

Bodhi kept reminding himself that it could be worse. There were kids on board, girls not much younger than Pema. While the captain’s hands were on Bodhi, they weren’t on the poor girls.

Please, please, let this not have happened to his sisters.

He had paid more for their passage, smuggled them out on what seemed to be a bigger, sturdier boat. It meant he had had to stay behind, pay the lesser bribe for a smaller boat. One that looked like it was barely floating. But what did that matter.

As long as the girls were safe.

Or so he told himself. Every night, squeezed into a corner, held in place by the crush of desperate humanity.

His own life didn’t matter, as long as the girls were save. And no-one was safe at home any more.

They were the lucky ones, if you could call it that. When the bombs had rained down from the sky, their house had been spared. Even if they had had to climb over the rubble of their neighbours to get out when the thunder stopped. Bodhi had done his best to shield his sisters’ eyes from the crumpled remains that may well have been the family next door.

Bodhi was educated, literate, thanks to his maternal grandmother who had raised them after his mother and brother had joined the insurgents. And that gave him and his sisters prospects the rest of the family didn’t have.

But bullets didn’t discriminate. And suicide bombers did.

The government depot when Bodhi worked had been bombed twice before Bodhi had managed to save the money to bribe people smugglers to get his sisters away to Europe.

The third time his truck was flipped by the blast, leaving him with burns to his back as he tried to crawl free.

It was time to get out of here. Nothing was left of the city of his birth. Nothing but blood and madness.

When he heard the shouts from on deck, he armed himself with the galley’s only sharp knife. He’d heard the crew joke about selling them to slavers, to pirates, to human traffickers. Even make bets about who would be worth the most.

And Bodhi wasn’t going down that way. If needed, he’d go down fighting.

Please, please, let my sisters have had a clean death. Anything but this.

But then a name was called across the boat. An aid agency he’d heard of in the news. It echoed across the deck like a wave of relief and Bodhi put down the knife.

Thank you. Whoever is listening, thank you. Just let them have my sisters.

Comments

[galen_erso]

Galen reached over the railing for the two-dozenth time today, and gripped yet another thin, sweaty hand when suddenly he looked into the most beautiful pair of eyes he had ever seen. Large and dark, sad and soft, long lashes and a fighting spirit that defied the desperate straits they were pulling these people out of, the fifth load this week. And yet, once more, there were some sorry shapes on the deck of the rickety fishing boat that didn't get up and maybe never would, visible now that the fitter survivors were all on board.

Galen pulled his latest rescue out of the way and shouted for the doctor.

"Let's get you some water," he said, ignoring the possibility the owner of those lovely eyes might not even speak English. "You're safe now."

"My sisters," the other said, standing straight and looking about warily. "My sisters, Pema and Malika, did you take them aboard? They were in that boat that left just before us."

The voice was light, and a bit hoarse; frantic and surprisingly British in intonation.

"I don't keep the registers," Galen says. "We've taken on almost 250 this week alone. Have some water, then we'll look."

"But I need -- this is all for them, and Pema is only fourteen, for goodness' sake!"

Galen turned to look at the young man as the medics rushed past and started abseiling into the leaky boat. "Have some water first " he said, "and then we'll see if we can find them. You're no use to them if you collapse from the heat "

The worry and panic in the lovely brown eyes were joined by determination. "Find me a bottle, and then I'll start looking. I won't keep you from your work."

"I'm an engineer," Galen says. "I jury-rig and improvise whatever is needed. I'll let the medics do their job and help you find your sisters until they need me again."

"You're the resident McGuyver?" the young man said with a sudden grin as Galen handed him a bottle. He cracked it open and poured it half into his mouth, half over his face, hair, and shoulders.

"Done. Let's go."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi is aware he must stink, that the water he splashed on his face had done very little to remove the layers of dirt and sweat. It stung the fresh burns of his arms but he ignored all of it.

He took two, slightly unsteady strides forward before realising he had no idea where he was going. "Which way?"

[galen_erso]

"Down there," Galen points as he reaches for Bodhi's elbow to steady him. "The register consists of Päivi and her laptop in the mess right next to the big coffee dispenser. She's Finnish."

That is apparently enough of an explanation for Galen.

"Here, have another bottle of water while we go down there. And once we know more, we'll get you a shower. It's seawater, but the soap is real."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi doesn't flinch away from the touch, but he does stiffen. "There are people who must need your help more than me. I'm fine. Really."

He doesn't mean to sound rude, and tries for reassuring but it all ends out as a garbled mess of tired and worn out. "I need to know my sisters are okay. That's all that matters."

[galen_erso]

"You just happen to be the one I am helping at the moment," Galen says, leading the way down a steep, narrow metal staircase. "And I can get a coffee and a refill of my own water bottle if I'm down there already."

He opens the door on a tiny room that exudes the smell of coffee and a gaggle of upset voices.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi lingers at the doorway. He wants to push through and add to the voices but he forces himself to stop. He tracks Galen as the older man goes for coffee, waiting till he has a better sense of what's going on.

After a moment, he heads over to the Finnish girl, following the accent. "You're Päivi? Can you help me check for my sisters? They might have been on an earlier ship."

[galen_erso]

Galen goes for the coffee urn and pumps our two mugs, casually offering one to Bodhi.

"What ship was that, and what are their names?" Päivi asks, looking up from her computer.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi's hands aren't shaking as he takes the coffee with an nod. Which is a minor miracle.

He rattles off the name of the ship, the captain and the girls. The port and time they left.

Päivi shakes her head. "We haven't picked them up but we have three ships out today. I'll radio for the manifests from our sister ships." She takes down his name and his ship, in case his sisters are asking the same.

"How-how soon will you know?" his hands might be steady but his voice is shaking now.

"Give me an hour to get everyone registered and I'll let you know." she looks up at him, not unsympathic. "I'll send someone to find you as soon as I hear. Get cleaned out and eat something. You need it."

Päivi

[galen_erso]

"You heard her," Galen adds. "I'll smuggle you into the staff showers so you can make it within the hour. You'll want certainty. Oh, and a reusable water bottle with your name on."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi thanks her and steps away, sipping the scalding coffee.

The offer makes him look up sharply at the man, sizing him up. "What will that cost me?"

[galen_erso]

"Er, nothing?" Galen says, bewildered. "We're an NGO; we are here to help. We don't take money from our passengers."

Pause, while something dreadful dawn's in Galen's eyes.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing! Good grief, really, they must have been the worst kind of -- you'll really need a shower. I've got that seriously minty stuff you can use to scrub yourself."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi hugs himself protectively, pacing back a step. "Why do you think I need to know my sisters are safe."

He takes a couple of slow breathes and nods. "Okay. Thanks. Minty stuff... might be nice."

[galen_erso]

"Because you love them," Galen says, turning to a cupboard and doing something inside. "Just as I love my daughter, and wish I knew what she's doing."

He sighs, then turns around and hands Bodhi a sturdy blue plastic bottle with BODHI scrawled on in black marker.

"Ta-da! Every passenger gets one so they can drink as much water as they want. I built this thing -- well, sorry, you probably don't need to know the details, but there is always enough cool water to drink. Right. Shower."

[imthepilot]

Despite himself, Bodhi couldn't help but smile. Whoever this guy was, he was a dork. A sweet one but a dork all the same.

And the bit about his daughter. Bodhi files that away for later.

"So what do I call you?"

[galen_erso]

"I knew I had forgotten something!" Galen says. "I'm Galen."

He produces his own water bottle, which declares GALEN ERSO in dark blue marker.

"That's me."

[imthepilot]

Dork indeed. Endearingly so. "Which way to the shower, Galen Eros?" He's less worried now that this cute dork is going to try to take advantage but part of him won't relax till the girls are safe.

[galen_erso]

"This way," Galen says, veering off into a small corridor lined with all sorts of improvised storage. Here and there, one has to squeeze through sideways. A jungle of pipes runs overhead the entire way.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi counts turns and corridors, clearly mapping the way in his head as he goes. "Your handiwork?" he ask, following Galen through a door he hopes leads to the shower. He's becoming uncomfortably aware of his own sweat.

The shirt he's been wearing for days now, having given up the others to kids on the boat, sticks to him like a filthy second skin, making him all too aware of the only partly healed burns on his back.

[galen_erso]

"Yes," Galen says. "I had no time to make them look nicer, but it all works. Here's the shower."

He pushes open the door and unlocks a locker.

"Towel. Tee-shirt and sweatpants. And the minty stuff."

He hands Bodhi a stack of fabric and a rather large bottle of a teal, viscous liquid that declares FREEZE!

"I'll be outside and tinker with the pipes."

[imthepilot]

He looks at the bottle with an incredulous look. "Sure this isn't for the ship's engine, MacGyver?"

But he takes the clean clothes with a grateful nod.

He's in and out of the shower in under five minutes, use to not wasting water. Already skinny, the weeks at sea have left him with nothing left to spare. The sweatpants hang low on his hips and the tee-shirt might as well be on a coat hanger. But he looks better, clean at least.

His eyes are red but that could just be from the scrubbing. "Finished with your pipes?" he asks, teasing a bit as he returns the Freeze bottle.

[galen_erso]

Galen puts it back into the locker. "You wouldn't guess how popular the stuff is after a hot day at sea," he says, tapping a pipe with a spanner before putting it aside. "You're fast -- Martin didn't even have time to turn up, let alone start his rant about rules existing for a reason."

He looks at Bodhi.

"Okay. Food."

[imthepilot]

"Hey, if it keeps us both out of trouble." Bodhi shrugs, his hair damp and floppy.

He pauses at the offer, head cocked. "What are you doing this for me?"

[galen_erso]

"Because we both here, and we're both people," Galen says. "No reason. The randomness of the universe threw you at me, and I don't have it in me to ignore you as you're right here."

[imthepilot]

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world." Bodhi drawls in a convincing Bogart impersonation. "You pulled a lot of people out of that boat." Why me?

[galen_erso]

"I don't know," Galen says. "It just seemed right at the time, and even more right now. But how about food first, philosophy later?"

He gestures in the direction they'd come from.