Washika Read Online Free PDF

shade of the cabin, the colour seemed to be even worse—a deep scarlet covered with goose bumps. Perhaps that was because of the shivering, he did not know. All he did know for sure was that the pain was much worse, like the colour, and that he was chilled throughout and he could not stop shivering. He had been so stupid. He had put his shirt on all right. He had put his shirt on as soon as Alphonse had spoken to him about it. He put on his shirt but he did not fasten the buttons. Instead, he had tied the ends like he had seen the girls in town do. Three times that day he had had to re-tie the shirt ends. Even with the ends tied, his shirt opened whenever the wind blew or he pushed the logs with his pike pole.
    As Alphonse entered the cabin, Henri looked over the anchor and corrected to starboard.
    â€œAnd, how’s she going?”
    â€œPretty good.”
    â€œAnd the burn?”
    â€œNot so bad. A little worse maybe.”
    â€œI’ll take her now. Stay inside, Henri. Here, have some more tea.”
    â€œMaybe I’ll see the nurse.”
    â€œOh yes, as soon as we get in. That’s a bad one you have. She’ll fix you up, don’t worry.”
    Henri hung his life jacket from the railing behind him. He sat on the box with his back against the life jacket. He poured tea from the thermos and rolled a cigarette. He tried to keep his shirt from scraping against his chest. He tried not looking at it. Finally he decided not to even think about it until he could see the nurse at Washika. He listened to the roar of the Madeleine ’s diesel engine and the rhythm of her six pistons. He looked at the dark, almost black tea in the cup on the floor and tried matching the ripples in the teacup with the beat of the engine. He looked down at his scarlet chest and then he tried blowing smoke across it hoping that maybe it might do something.

Chapter 5
    A lphonse eased up on the throttle and veered to port making a wide circle away from the point. Mouette or Sea Gull Point, which seemed to Henri to be nothing more than a long, narrow finger stretching out across the water, was an outcrop of grey weather-beaten rock, three feet above the surface of the water, that stretched out a hundred yards from the shoreline. There was not a tree to be seen, or flowers or grasses of any kind. There was nothing but a bed of solid rock, pockmarked with cavities and jagged edges and the whitish droppings of the gulls. There were sea gulls everywhere. As the Madeleine circled around the point, the gulls grew more excited. Some of the gulls sat on their nests barking loudly while others stood up on their nests and waddled awkwardly on their large webbed feet, stretching their wings and crying out to the sky above them. Seven gulls leaped from the rocks, flying low over the water to starboard and then astern, making a graceful sweep upwards and circling the Madeleine . They hovered above her with their beaks open and pointed downwards. All of them were screaming as if to chase the tugboat away.
    For twenty years Alphonse had navigated the Madeleine around this point in exactly the same manner. His reason for doing so was simple and personal and had nothing to do with the safety of the tugboat or the solitude of the gulls. When the Madeleine and her two drive boats had reached midway between the point and the furthest northerly shore, Alphonse veered hard to starboard and headed east for Washika Bay.
    Washika Bay was a mile wide at its mouth and the tugboat was well inside the bay and a half-mile from camp. Alphonse checked his watch. It was a quarter to five. He eased back on the throttle and sat up on the tall wooden stool behind him. He would maintain that speed until the last quarter mile and then, at full throttle, pull in to the dock at exactly five o’clock.
    Alphonse enjoyed this time of day. He sat on the stool with one foot resting on its highest rung and his back against the wall. He rolled a cigarette, working