The Far Reaches (37 page)

“No dice, Josh. You're stuck with me.”

Josh lowered his head into his hands. “I can't believe it.”

Burr grinned. “Believe it, old son.”

Wells finished his coffee and put down his cup. “Tell you what. After my patrol, I'll try to get back here, check on both of you, see if there's anything I can do. I'll also try to save a few torps to sink your barges.”

They stood and shook hands. “Good hunting, Captain,” Josh said. “Same to you, Captain. By the way, I talked to an intelligence officer when I received my orders to come here. He'd heard of Colonel Yoshu. Said he was a violent, nasty customer.”

“How long will your patrol last?” Josh asked.

“Hard to say. Matter of weeks, I would imagine. Say, Josh, would you like
some khakis? That lava-lava looks like the perfect thing for these islands, but maybe you might like to put on the uniform for special occasions.”

Josh nodded in gratitude. “I could also use some boots, large ones, if you have them. An officer's cap, too, if you don't mind. I don't imagine you've got one with the Coast Guard stiff eagle attached, but I'll be pleased to wear the navy bird, too.”

Wells grinned. “I'll have two sets of khakis, a pair of large boots, and one cap sent to you immediately.”

The khakis were sent along with the boots and the cap, and then Captain Wells waved from the conning tower of his sub as it curved out to sea. Josh stood with Rose and Colonel Burr and watched it go. “Well, Montague,” Josh said, “your fat's in the fire now, I reckon.”

Burr rubbed his hands. “Truth be known, Thurlow, I was ready for an adventure. Now, where's my marines? Discipline. That's the ticket for those leathernecks. I can't wait to get started!”

Josh chuckled. “I'm certain they feel the same, Montague. Yes, I'm certain they do.”

Two days after Christmas, she announced through Rose that she was ready to be visited. First was Nango and the other Ruka fella boys, then Chief Kalapa. Afterward came Mori, Mr. Bucknell, and Josh Thurlow. Each left the treehouse and, to the astonishment of the people of the village, refused to gossip about what was discussed. The last to visit her was Ready. His face was a grim mask, a lump in his throat as big as his fist, as he climbed the winding stairs. He found her dressed in the blue lava-lava gown. Nothing covered her hair. It was, Ready discovered, brown and cropped short, giving her a surprisingly boyish appearance.

“Please sit, Bosun,” she said, indicating a chair built of breadfruit wood that Ready had constructed for her, in which he'd used not a single nail but wooden pegs, and polished it lovingly until it glowed.

She sat opposite him in the other breadfruit chair he'd built, then leaned forward with her elbows on her knees. Her eyes were filled with meaning and brimming with tears. Before she could speak, Ready said, “You promised to call me Ready, Sister.”

She nodded. “So I shall, Ready, but you must never call me Sister, no, not ever again. This is why I have asked ye here. I am no longer a sister of me order. I am back in the world, as the sisterhood calls it. Kathleen, that is me name. That is what I ask ye call me henceforth.”

Ready nodded slowly, then asked, “Can you tell me why?”

She took a breath, then used a finger to wipe away a tear that trickled across her cheek. “I loved my vocation, Ready. I loved it more than life, though the other sisters often remarked that I was a worldly nun. They said I lacked humility It was true, though I longed to be as devoted to the Church as they were, and to attain their serenity, no matter what the challenge. When
I told them this was my greatest wish, they said such longing only reflected pride, that I had to let go of all desire, but even then, there was no such thing as a perfect nun.”

She smiled a sad smile. “But Ready, ye should have seen them when they faced death! They were perfect, indeed. They knelt with their eyes gleaming in trust that they would soon be in paradise. Ye see, I was there, in the same room. Father Ballester meant to save me, and so he hid me from the Japanese. But I was found and brought out into the chapel, there to observe Colonel Yoshu's vengeance against the priests and the sisters for their disobedience. That they tried to save me was their disobedience, Ready. Do ye understand?”

“Yes,” Ready answered quietly. “I understand you were forced to do everything that you did.”

She shook her head. “No. Not everything. I did not protest when Colonel Yoshu did not kill me. This was me first sin, though far from me greatest. I was led to me prison, a small concrete cell that had been used as a storage room in the chapel. There I was kept for months with little to eat but bread and water. My habit was taken away. I was kept naked and not allowed to wash. I lost track of time. Gradually, Ready, I fell into filth and self-loathing. I would have done anything for freedom. Finally, I even begged the guards to kill me, or take me and use me for their pleasure. Anything, to get out of that cage. They laughed, of course, and left me where I was. I was too grotesque even for them, y'see. It was a shameful thing and me next sin. But it was still not my greatest.”

Ready pressed his lips together hard, then said, “Anyone would have done the same.”

“Anyone but a nun! We have special duties!” she snapped. “Please just listen and try to understand. Then the guards came and dragged me from me cell. They held their noses, I stunk so awful, but I was allowed to bathe and given a clean robe to wear. Then I was moved to Colonel Yoshu's quarters, which had been Mr. Bucknell's house. Colonel Yoshu was not there, and for some days I was allowed to move about freely as long as I didn't try to leave. I met Nango there, and the other fella boys. They were kept as servants, and the soldiers, the most sinful, used them in terrible ways. We talked—it wasn't forbidden—and he told me he and the others had decided on suicide.

“I thought of escape, but there were so many guards, it was impossible. Then the colonel returned, though he made no attempt to speak to me or acknowledge my presence, even when I was ushered in to sit quietly in his office. He sat at his desk and issued orders to his officers as they came to see
him. Or he met with native delegations, to whom he also issued orders. Then, one day, he called me again to his office and, through a translator, asked me for me advice. On the floor of his office was a native man, horribly beaten. Because his children were hungry, this man had refused to give food to a Japanese soldier when it was demanded. What, Colonel Yoshu asked, should he do with this man? I replied that a father's first responsibility was to his children and that he should be released. Colonel Yoshu clapped his hands and it was done. Then he complimented me and said I had been a great help to him. He inquired if I might be willing to help him again. And so I did. I ate well the nights I gave him advice.” She shook her head. “More sin, but still far from me greatest.”

“But you were trying to help the natives!” Ready protested. “There is no sin in that!”

She continued, her steady eyes silencing him. “No. To me shame, I helped this monster so that I could eat and so that I wouldn't be thrown back into that horrible cell. I began to learn Japanese, and I sat beside him each day, like some terrible white queen, and gave him advice. Some he took, some he didn't, but I hoped I was softening his rule. At night, when I whispered me prayers, it came to me how wrong I was. When I suggested to Colonel Yoshu it was no longer proper for me to assist him, he said he would simply go back to his old ways of cutting off heads whenever it suited him. Then he raped me.”

Ready sucked in a breath and knotted his fists. Yet he said nothing. He waited because he knew there was more to come.

“He raped me over a period of three weeks. Day and night.”

Ready released his breath. Still he waited, though it felt as if she had reached inside him and torn out his guts.

“I fought back, but he beat me until I was covered with bruises. He broke both me wrists and cracked me ribs. He bit me on my shoulders until they bled. Afterwards, while I lay weeping on the bloody sheets, he would speak softly to me. He told me he had received a dream that he would return to Japan and I would go with him, that together we would build a dynasty that would control the country. He said that I would therefore learn Japanese even better. I agreed, sin on top of sin, and a young soldier was provided as a tutor. When I didn't learn fast enough, Yoshu cut off one of the young man's fingers. The rapes stopped soon afterwards. I was pregnant, y'see.”

Ready's face had turned into a mask of repressed pain and rage. Still he held his words back.

“My daughter is eight months old. She was born in April. I named her Monessa.”

She allowed herself a quiet smile and went on.

“I was allowed to stay with her for a little while. Then she was taken away from me and a wet nurse supplied. It was only when I begged Yoshu that I was allowed to see her, and then for only a few minutes at a time.”

Now, finally, the tears came, streaming across her round, flushed cheeks. She waited until they subsided, then wiped them away with the back
of
her hand, then continued as if they'd never occurred.

“I was desperate. I went to Yoshu, begging him to let me see Monessa. He agreed, but the price was total obedience to him. And so I entered his household and went to his bed. It was some time later that a revelation came to me, and I'm certain it was a provision of the Holy Mother. My humiliation was complete, y'see. I could go no lower. I had finally reached the goal that had been mine since I'd become a nun. I was victorious because of me degradation! One night, while Yoshu was atop me—I beg yer forgiveness for such rawness, but I wish ye to understand—I began to laugh. I could not stop. It frightened Yoshu, and he ran from his chambers. I sought out Monessa, took her into me arms, and cradled her and sang to her until Yoshu set his soldiers on me. I was dragged away, thrown back into the cell where I'd spent those first awful months. And there I was until Nango and his fella boys came to me rescue, killing the guards. Before we went to the outriggers, I insisted on going to the chapel to retrieve a habit. I was still a nun, no matter me sins, and I felt the need to look like one, may God have mercy on me. So we put to sea, though we didn't know where to go. Then we happened upon a fishing canoe from the Gilberts. The men in it said they thought the Americans were coming to those islands, so we headed there. You know what happened after that.”

Ready waited, and when she said nothing else, he said, very simply, “I love you.”

She studied him, and he could feel her in his eyes and in his mind. When she seemed satisfied with her inspection, however it was meant, she said, “I know. That is why I am asking ye to do something for me, something that will be terrible hard for ye. Me fella boys won't do it, nor will Chief Kalapa, or Mr. Bucknell, or even Captain Thurlow. They do not love me enough, y'see.”

“I love you enough, whatever it may be,” Ready replied staunchly.

“I do not love ye, Ready O'Neal,” she said. “This ye must know.”

“Love can grow.”

“Yes, when there is room enough in one's heart, it may. But this has nothing to do with love, but with what is practical, and best for everyone. I am asking ye with all me heart to do this thing for me. Take me to Ruka, slip in at night, and I will go ashore, there to give meself up to Colonel Yoshu.”

“No!” Ready cried. It was a howl of released pain.

She knelt before him and took his hands. “I should have never left him. That he would try to find me, and murder innocents to do it, was certain. I was blind not to see it.”

Ready steadied himself. He had to be strong with her. He knew she was under a terrible strain. He had to lend her his strength. “I will not do it,” he said and took his hands away.

“Ye must,” she replied softly. “If ye love me, this ye must do. And it must be done in secret, lest others try to stop us. Therefore, I have decided we should be married.”

Ready blinked. “Married?”

“Aye, so that our being together and our leaving together will not raise suspicion.”

“You ask too much!”

“I ask only what should be done. Nothing more. Do ye not wish to marry me?”

“Of course! I want nothing more.”

“Then cast aside yer doubts. Marry me and make me yer wife.”

“And then hand you over to a monster?”

“Yes. So that I may protect Monessa.”

“But he will… ”

“Kill me? Rape me again? I don't think so. I can control him long enough.”

“Long enough for what?”

“Until I can kill him. Then I will escape with Monessa.”

Ready was incredulous. “I do not believe you could kill anyone.”

“A mother will do anything for her child.”

“No, Kathleen. Maybe I don't love you enough, either. Not enough to let you commit certain suicide. But maybe…” He trailed off, frowning, thinking.

“Maybe what?”

He took a deep breath, let it out. “Maybe if I went with you, we could steal Monessa away and bring her back. I don't know how, not yet, but maybe there's a way to do that. At night, perhaps…”

She moved into his arms. Then she kissed him full on the mouth. He tasted her and nothing mattered, nothing save her taste, her touch. Forever and ever. He knew then he would do anything for this woman… nearly anything.

“Marry me, Ready O'Neal. Marry me, and together, we will rescue Monessa.”

He took her hands, and his face was wreathed with joy. “Yes! We will!” Then he took her again into his arms, and Kathleen placed her head against his strong shoulder and knew she would get her wish. She would marry, and her husband, besotted with love, would carry her to Ruka. The hand of Colonel Yoshu was extended, and she knew now God wanted her to take it, evil to evil, sin to sin, and damnation to them both.