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the ship.” Charlotte lets go of the railing and follows Auntie Ilse.
    Down on the quay, Mathilda is crying.
    ~~~
    IT’S DARK OUTSIDE . Charlotte opens the door and looks into the corridor. There’s no one there. Quickly she slips out of the cabin. She’s holding a bundle in her hand. She runs up the stairs and pushes open the heavy door. It’s quiet on the promenade deck. Everyone’s in the huge auditorium, where they’re showing a movie that Auntie Ilse doesn’t want her to see. She walks along the railing in the direction of the stern, where she sees the English flag waving. Today is her birthday. At breakfast the people at her table sang “Happy Birthday.” The chef brought out a cake with six candles on it, and she had to blow them out all at once, which she did, and then Auntie Ilse gave her a scarf she had in her suitcase and after dinner she was allowed to see the wheelhouse but she didn’t enjoy that because the captain was there too and she was afraid he’d lock her up in the bottom of the ship if she did anything wrong. She walks toward the stern, clutching the bundle to her chest. Two sailors are standing at the bottom of a flight of stairs, smoking a cigarette, but they don’t notice her. There’s no one on the afterdeck. She walks over to the railing and looks down. Far beneath her, the sea is foaming. The water is white, and by the light of the moon she can make out the trail they leave behind.
    â€œShouldn’t you be in bed?”
    She gives a start and turns around. There’s a man standing behind her, his black hair waving in the wind.
    â€œOr did you think the film was scary, too?”
    Charlotte shakes her head.
    â€œWhat’s your name? I’m Ganesh, named after the god with the head of an elephant. I’m lucky I didn’t get such a long nose.” He laughs.
    â€œMy name is Charlotte Elizabeth, just like my grandmother who’s dead.”
    â€œOh, that’s too bad! Do you miss her?”
    â€œNo. I never met her.”
    Ganesh squats down and looks out to sea with her. A gull dives into the water and comes up with something in its beak.
    â€œShe walked over a mountain with my grandfather and our big clock, then she got an infection on her foot because it was so cold that they couldn’t stop to rest. They had to keep walking and her whole foot went black and had to be cut off, otherwise she’d die. But then she died anyway, but my father didn’t cry.”
    â€œYou come from an adventurous family. Too bad I can’t say the same about mine. For centuries they’ve lived in the same little town at the foot of the Himalayas. I’m the first person in my family to travel.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œI got a scholarship to study in England, so I can become an engineer.”
    â€œI have to go to school, too. A boarding school, because I’m six.”
    â€œAre you really that old?”
    Charlotte nods her head fiercely. “I’m travelling alone,” she says firmly. “And I didn’t cry.”
    â€œThat’s brave of you. I did.”
    â€œDid your father let you cry?”
    â€œNo, but I did it in secret.”
    â€œAll alone?”
    Ganesh nods.
    â€œI sometimes cry when I’m alone, but nobody knows,” Charlotte says softly.
    â€œI won’t tell anybody,” Ganesh whispers and locks his lips with an imaginary key.
    Charlotte smiles.
    â€œWhy are you up this late?”
    The smile disappears from her face. Again she presses the bundle to her body and looks out to sea.
    Ganesh waits.
    â€œI have to bury her.”
    â€œWho?”
    Charlotte opens up the cloth that holds the doll with the broken neck.
    â€œAre you going to throw her into the ocean?”
    Charlotte nods. “Auntie Ilse says that if I die at sea, they’ll put me on a plank and throw me into the sea, because otherwise I’ll start to smell and the other people