Two Peasants and a President (2 page)

Holly struggled at first with her chop sticks, but the steward showed her how to hold them, and soon she was successfully though clumsily lifting food to her mouth.  Jimmy and Grace ate quickly and efficiently, raising their bowls to their lips and shoveling the food with their chop sticks.  Finally, Jimmy set his chopsticks down and after wiping his mouth looked over at the Americans. 

“Nearly eight hundred years ago, Kublai Khan, the fifth great Khan of the Mongol empire and a grandson of Genghis Khan, sent his ambassadors in a craft much like this to Japan in a bid to open trade.  For centuries, Japan had chosen to remain closed to outsiders, and the Kamakura
Shogunate
beheaded the Khan’s ambassadors to send a message that they intended to continue to
remain closed.” 

“The Khan was deeply offended at the impudence of the Japanese.  Along with his father and grand-father, he had conquered countless nations and city-states, sending tens of thousands of mounted warriors thundering out of the steppes to slaughter all who resisted.  But he was far more than an insensate killer.  His armies would first surround a city, dispatching a party under a flag of peace to speak to the leaders.  They would be given a choice, submit to Mongol rule and be allowed to live their lives much as before or, if a single arrow was loosed against a Mongol soldier, every living thing in the city would be slaughtered.”

“Most surrendered.  In return, they were allowed a degree of self-governance and the pursuit of many customs and religious practices as before.  The Khan encouraged art and culture and assimilated what he found appealing into his own.  But the Mongols did not tolerate rebellion, r
e
warding it with utter devastation.  Word of their conquests and military prowess reached all the way to what is now Europe and for a time, its i
n
habitants lived in fear as the Mongol hordes drew near
er
.”    

“In the spring of 1281, the great Khan sent two separate forces, totaling more than 140,000 warriors and 4,400 ships to the Japanese coast at Tsushima and Kyushu.  But the enormous effort entailed in building such a fleet had resulted in some smaller coastal vessels being pressed into service.  These were unsuited either for the heavy seas or the legendary storm that ultimately resulted in the defeat of the Mongol invasion and the continued isolation of Japan for centuries.  To this day, that storm is reverently referred to in Japan as ‘divine wind’ or ‘kamikaze’.”

“Those ships were not too different from the one we are on,” he co
n
tinued, “though many were larger, some as long as four hundred feet, and could carry hundreds of horses into battle.  And this was by no means the only sea battle in which junks participated, which accounts for many defo
r
ested areas in China.  But in later centuries, the emperors lost interest in naval ships, thinking the Forbidden City too isolated and well-protected to require a navy, which left them defenseless when the Europeans arrived.”

Holly felt Ray’s elbow gently nudge her ribs.

“Wow, that’s really interesting,” she said,  “I bet this junk could tell some fascinating tales.”

“Indeed it could,” replied Jimmy with an enigmatic smile, “indeed it could.”

“Are we the only guests aboard?”

“Apparently so,” answered Jimmy.

“I wonder how they make any money with so few passengers,” Holly mused.

“I’m sure they have ways,” he replied.  “Wh
en you’ve finished eating, you
should go out on deck and enjoy the South China Sea.  Few of your countrymen have had the opportunity to sail in waters with so much history.”

Holly coaxed the last morsel into her mouth and looked guiltily over at her husband, remembering the lecture she’d given him not long ago about overstuffing himself.  The glazed look in his eyes reminded her of an afte
r
noon of football and beer.

“Wake up,” she said. 

“Hi,” he said, leaning over to touch her cheek with a kiss.  “I was just thinking about all this.  An hour ago we were looking at a Hong Kong skyline that’s like something out of Star Wars, and now we’re on the South China Sea in a vessel that could have sailed out of the thirteenth century.   Not many people get to experience anything like this.  Can’t believe our folks actually gave us such a wonderful wedding gift.” 

“I know,” she said.  “They’re really special.  You want to go out on the deck and count stars?”

“Sure,” he replied, rising unsteadily from his chair.  Turning to the steward, he said: “That was wonderful.  Thank you.”  The soft-
spoken steward simply nodded, smiling
strangely.  The Chinese couple had finished eating and gone below.  Through the wide portal aft, the garish lights of Hong Kong had faded into the dark coast of the South China Sea and overhead millions of glittering stars left no doubt as to who could create the most amazing light show. 

The breeze stiffened, the rigging crackling and stuttering as the junk rode the swells.  The newlyweds relished the excitement of being at sea for the first time in their lives.  That they were aboard one of the most romantic sailing ships in history heightened what was certainly the greatest thrill of their young lives.  Leaning against the rail, their gaze drifted from the dark waters upward to where all that remained of H
ong Kong was a faint glow in
the distant sky. 

“Are you all right?” Holly asked, noticing that her husband was swaying unsteadily. 

“I’m all right,” he replied feebly.  “I think I just drank a little too much wine.”

The navigation lights of another craft she had noticed earlier were ge
t
ting closer.  It seemed to be headed toward the junk rather than on a course that would take it toward some distant harbor. 

“I wonder how far away from Hong Kong we are,” she said.  Ra
y
mond’s response was garbled and incoherent.  His glazed eyes stared into space and his legs seemed rubbery.

“Are you sure you’re OK?” she asked.  “You’re worrying me, babe.  Do you need a doctor?” It was as if he hadn‘t heard her.  Alarmed, she turned around to look for a crew member who could help her get her husband off his feet.  Jimmy stood in the shadow of the mast, having apparently been watching for some time.  Abruptly, he barked something in Chinese and two crewmen appeared, each grabbing one of her husband’s arms and easing him down onto the deck.

“Not on the deck!” she said.  “You need to lay him on a bed, then get him to a doctor.”  There was no response as the crewmen turned their atte
n
tion toward the other craft, which was now quite near.  Its spotlight suddenly illuminated the side of the junk.  To her relief, she saw that it looked like a police boat.  The crew must have already alerted the authorities.

The other craft maneuvered sideways and two figures near its rail heaved lines toward the junk which were quickly retrieved and secured.   A moment later it was alongside and in the stern a man who appeared to be an officer shouted something.  Jimmy replied, then barked another order to the two seamen on the junk.  Each took one of Holly’s arms. 

“No, you need to help my husband first!” she said urgently.  Their only response was to tighten their grip.  Then she saw Grace step out of the shadows and walk toward her.  Holly started to ask her if she could explain to the crew that she needed them to help her husband first.  That was when she noticed that Grace’s right hand held a syringe.

“Oh, my God,” she said to herself as the sickening realization that her honeymoon had ended crept like an early frost into her bones.  Her last thought before she slipped into unconsciousness was that they were a long way from home. 

A pair of stretchers were handed over to the junk from the other craft.  The now unconscious Raymond was placed on the first.  Carefully judging when the rails of the two bobbing craft would be close to even, the seamen from the junk passed his stretcher to waiting arms on the other craft. 

Grace, kneeling over the supine Holly and holding her wrist, looked up.

“Her pulse is strong; she will travel well,” she said to her husband, whose friendly smile was
now a grim mask
.  He spoke again to the seamen and they lifted Holly onto another stretcher and passed it carefully to the other craft. 

The spotlight blinked out and t
he lines that held the two craft
together were loosed.  Within minutes only the distant throb of the
police boat
’s e
n
gin
es could be heard from the junk
whose helmsman once more swung the
giant oaken rudder and began the turn back to Hong Kong.

2

Holly pulled the blanket up around her neck. 
It’s cold,
she thought.  In her semi-sleep state, her brain processed the information slowly, not wishing to awaken itself entirely, not yet ready to abandon the comfort of sleep.  She drifted back into her dream for a few moments, then decided that her pillow needed to be
snugged
around the back of her neck.  Again her brain started to let itself slip back into the dream, but part of it was processing what it sensed outside her body and that jolted her into consciousness.

A
bruptly, she sat up and blinked.  Blinked again, as if opening and closing her eyes would dispel the mystery and the darkness.  Her brain and skin confirmed the reason she had pulled the blanket around her: it was cold and damp.
 
Now unsettlingly awake, she sensed
that it was not the darkness of her room, darkness that could be banished simply by reaching for the light switch. 

A thin, barely discernible, horizontal band of illumination emanated from somewhere in front of her.  She focused on it for several minutes, hoping to ascertain its source.  Like light that finds its way under a door but at the same level as her eyes, it continued to puzzle her until she leaned back, placing her hands behind her.  It was then she realized she was on a floor, lying on a mattress, with a pillow and blanket.  She knew this because she could feel them, but the rest of her surroundings existed only as dark shadows in the place that she had begun to suspect was her prison. 

Like an unexpected wave washing over her, the honeymoon suddenly flooded back into her mind.  She reached out as if to pull it closer, to cling to some shred of reality. 

“Ray?  Ray?  Babe, are you there?” she said tentatively, not really expecting to hear his comforting voice.  The terrifying darkness did not answer.  She pulled the blanket up around her neck, now seeking not only warmth but safety.  She could feel a tear gliding down her cheek.  It seemed to mock her, scorning the helplessness that was starting to envelope her.  She fought the sudden up welling of emotion inside her, like flood waters e
n
gulfing her, drowning her control.  

Light.  Light.  I  just need light
, she thought desperately, now feeling short of breath, the darkness a hood, covering her, smothering her.  She threw her head back, as if to shake off the panic, striking her head against something hard.  She started to cry, but that angered her.  Anger, something familiar,
something she knew.  The anger made her stronger; she could feel it.  It reminded her that she was not a weak woman.  Her family had raised her strong.  She began trying to think clearly, to make sense. 

Her purse had not been snatched, there had been no fender bender, no minor daily trauma that could be dealt with after a moment’s reflection, fo
l
lowed by some appropriate action.  She wasn’t overreacting to some insi
g
nificant event.  That thought tripped a spring and everything came flying up at her.  She had been kidnapped on the South China Sea.  She had been taken prisoner and thrown in some dark cell.  Her soul mate, husband of but days was nowhere she could reach out to, and her family was thousands of miles away, blissfully unaware that she was desperately in need.

That thought unlocked more tears as a new possibility thrust its inel
e
gant hand deep inside her.  What had they done with Ray?  Was he even alive?  She could no longer hold back the images that thought evoked and she began to sob. 

Moments later, she felt movement.  The mattress had moved, she was certain.  Her sobbing ceased abruptly.  Turning her senses outward, she searched for a clue, some bit of information.  But if what she discov
ered terrified her, she wouldn’
t be able to go back. 
That was silly
, she thought,
no one ever goes back anyway
, never
did; everything always moves forward
.
  But from this point on
, nothing would be what she expected, nothing would be what she hoped for, everything would be forced upon her by someone whose motives were unfathomable, someone whose evil she could scarcely co
n
ceive. 

She felt more movement
again;
now the whole room was mov
ing.  A deep rumbling sound
provided her with information.  The room
had
moved and was continuing to move.  The rumbling sound could only be an engine, which meant that she was on board a ship of some sort.  She thought back to the boat that had intercepted the junk, the one which had appeared to her to be
a police boat.   Was she
aboard that boat?  Had it stopped briefly and then recommenced its voyage to a destination unknown?  Or had she been tran
s
ferred to another?