Close to the Wind (19 page)

Malik’s heart skipped a beat. He tried to think straight, but he couldn’t while Sonny was there with his cat, so he looked away and his eye found an old sticker on a brown suitcase that lay on a nearby bed, half peeled and curling from the leather, showing fragments of a bright yellow sun and a deep blue sky.

The diamond for his cat.

Malik swallowed hard. He remembered what
Papa had said about the jewel and how it would make everything all right. That was what he’d said, that it would mean a new start for all of them, that it would make life easier. Perhaps it would mean he could afford a ticket for the boat once it was safe to come back.

Or perhaps Mama would come and find him before then. He imagined them meeting, maybe in front of a ship or at a new house. Malik would see his mother smile. He could see it very clearly, like she was real, right there in front of his eyes, his mother breaking into a big wide smile when he opened his fingers and she saw the diamond.

Malik thought he wanted to go to the toilet. His mouth was dry and he swallowed hard as he put the tooth back into the box and quickly shut the lid.

‘If I do this there’s no going back.’

Sonny didn’t even look up from Booty’s fur.

‘Hey! Are you listening to me?’

Sonny glanced up and nodded.

‘This would be for keeps.’ Malik met his eye and held it. ‘A deal’s a deal. Fair and square. Isn’t that right?’

Sonny said, ‘Fair’s fair,’ but he wasn’t really listening.

‘And you don’t tell your father. Do you understand? You don’t tell a soul about this or I’ll find you. I’ll find you and I’ll take the cat back.’

Sonny breathed in deeply. He nodded again, his eyes wide and eager. ‘So can I keep him? Is that what you mean? Is it a swap?’

Malik’s fingers curled around the top of the box so that it disappeared into the palm of his hand. He quickly put it in the pocket of his trousers. ‘Go on then,’ he said abruptly. ‘Go away and take the cat with you.’ He sat down on his bunk and closed his eyes, unable to look at Sonny and Booty any longer. ‘Just go! Go quickly or I’ll change my mind.’

Malik heard Sonny run four or five paces, then come to a stop. He opened his eyes and saw Sonny looking back to see if he really meant it, and when Malik said nothing Sonny laughed out loud and he squeezed Booty hard, a look of glee across his face as he turned and ran from the room, and the heels of his shoes tapped quickly on the wooden boards till he reached the staircase and was gone.

Malik’s hands were shaking. He couldn’t think, couldn’t believe what he had just done. He wanted to run and find Sonny, but he couldn’t move because in his head was the image of his mother’s face, smiling at him as she opened the lid of the box and saw the diamond.

Malik put a finger on the box in his pocket, then took it away again.

He felt guilty even thinking about it. He was going to scream. Any moment now he would have to scream. If he didn’t then his head might burst.

He ran fast up the wooden stairs and out across the open deck, unable to hold himself together any longer, running blindly across a shuffleboard court with tears on his face, kicking a disc with his foot so that a man shouted after him, but he was already gone, heading through the door that led to the wide wooden staircase and down to the ballroom. He slipped his screwdriver under the latch of the glass doors, flipped it up, then locked the door behind him.

He leaned against the frosted glass and his breath came in gulps and the tears wouldn’t stop. He let the waves roll through him, great shudders that shook his ribs and made the air quiver in his throat.

What had he just done? It felt so big he couldn’t fit it in his head. He had just made an orphan of his cat. He had given Booty away. And for what? For a diamond. Just a little sparkling stone that everyone believed would make them happy.

But the diamond didn’t make Malik happy. His cat had made him happy. Booty had been with him when he was alone and scared. They had looked after each other until now. He must be heartless to have done a thing like that.

Malik took the box from his trouser pocket and opened the lid. The diamond glistened on its satin bed. It seemed to wink at him. He threw the box onto the dance floor and the diamond came loose and rattled across the polished wood, and he saw it come to a stop under the chandelier.

He wiped his nose on the back of his forearm and tried to take a deep breath. He needed to think this through. What would Papa have done? In the same situation, Papa would have done the same thing, Malik was sure. He would have done it for the same reason he had tricked Malik onto the ship. But Malik didn’t want to be on the ship. So had Papa been wrong?

He stamped the sole of his Wellington boot on
the ballroom floor. This was too hard! And it wasn’t fair because none of this was his fault. It wasn’t. Not the war or the soldiers. Not the diamond or the tooth. Not Mama and Papa getting left behind.

And it was his diamond anyway! He should have just taken it from Sonny. No talk of a swap. He should have snatched it away. Stolen it back like Vex stole it in the first place. He could have done it easily.

Malik walked out across the ballroom till he stood under the chandelier. The tooth lay at his feet. He prodded it with his toe, and then he kicked it properly so that it skidded away across the ballroom floor.

He didn’t even want it.

But he watched where it stopped.

He walked over to the tooth and picked it up. The stone was hard and cold. Booty had been warm when he slept next to him at night. Booty had purred for him. Malik turned the treasure tooth around in his fingers. There was still a speck of Papa’s blood on the broken root that curved down from the gemstone.

Would Sonny look after Booty properly? Malik was certain he wouldn’t. Sonny had even insulted him by saying that his own cats were prettier. No. Sonny would get bored of Booty soon enough. He
would most likely get careless and lose him or let his father get rid of him.

The thought of Angelo Vex sent a shiver through Malik. He remembered him standing over Papa with the pliers in his hand.

Angelo Vex.

Vex was the rich man who always wins. Papa had said he was one of the most powerful men in town. How would Sonny explain the cat to him? He wouldn’t be able to. Sonny would end up telling his father about the swap, even though Malik had warned him not to. He wouldn’t have any choice. It didn’t matter that Malik had sworn him to secrecy – Sonny was so young there was no way he could hold out, and then Vex would know everything and Vex would come looking for Malik.

Yes. He was sure of it.

Vex always got his way and he would again. He would come after Malik and he would get the diamond back and then Malik wouldn’t even have that.

He closed his fingers over the tooth, then went and fetched the box and put the tooth back onto the satin pillow and closed the lid. The ship would land tomorrow, so Malik had time to think. He put his
hand across the box and did a French Drop, moved it from one palm to the other in a single seamless movement. He may as well practise his trick while he thought of how to keep the stone safe from Vex.

Malik stayed in the ballroom till late afternoon. He would have stayed longer but he was worried about being missed and Oskar coming to look for him. When he left, he shut the frosted glass doors behind him and walked steadily up the red carpet of the staircase. He stepped out onto the deck and breathed the fresh air. A wind had got up and it sent salty sprays across the bows. He met the purser on the gangway and they nodded to one another. ‘We’ll be docking in the morning,’ said the purser. ‘We’re still on schedule. Might even get there early.’

Malik had a sudden urge to tell him everything, but he didn’t; he just smiled and walked on. The sun was already getting low in the sky as he passed below the first-class decks where the passengers dropped the ash from their cigarettes. He half expected Vex to come running down after him and grab his collar, but no one came.

The people up on deck had buttoned up their shirts and had jumpers or jackets to hand, in case they were needed. They had begun to look for land in sight. Families stood together at the railings and pointed toward the horizon, mistaking clouds for mountains and making plans for when the ship docked.

Oskar was on the stern deck, refereeing the final of the shuffleboard competition. He stood opposite the players, shouting back their points and keeping score. Malik went and stood by him. ‘I decided you were right about my cat. They would have taken him away, and even if they didn’t I couldn’t have looked after him properly. So I gave him to Sonny. He’ll have a better home with them than I could ever give him.’

Oskar was shocked. ‘You shouldn’t have done that. I was just angry. I don’t know if it was true.’ They watched a man slide a puck into the square in front of them and Oskar shouted, ‘Nine!’

‘Have you made much money on the betting?’

‘I’ve done all right.’ Oskar put his hands in his pockets. ‘Did Sonny give you anything for the cat?’

Malik shook his head. He could feel the leather
jewel box pressed against his leg. ‘I didn’t want anything. It didn’t seem right.’

Oskar said, ‘There’s something wrong with you.’

When the game was finished, Oskar announced the winner and held up the arm of the team captain in celebration and the crowd clapped them, then moved slowly away across the boat. Malik stayed out on the deck. He reckoned he was safer if he wasn’t alone. He could see the first-class cabins from where he stood and expected a hand on his shoulder at any moment but it never came.

Malik went to supper with the rest of the boys. Miss Price said, ‘I’m glad you’re feeling better, Malik,’ but she didn’t notice the cat had gone. As they walked up the stairs in line, Alex tugged his sleeve and asked, ‘Where’s Booty?’

‘I had to give him away. It was for his own good. I couldn’t have kept him safe once we landed.’

Alex looked at him like he was a murderer.

Malik sat on his own in the canteen. He ate tomato soup with a fresh bread roll and a thick slice of breaded ham that had a rim of bright white fat. When someone passed the windows of the canteen, Malik would glance up, expecting it to be Angelo Vex, but it never was. As a special treat on their
last night, there was sponge pudding with custard. Malik made it last while he watched the window and tried to guess what might be going on inside the Vex family cabin.

Sonny must have returned there by now and his parents would have seen Booty. Perhaps Sonny had actually thought up a story that didn’t arouse suspicion? His older brother Marcos could have helped him. But did that mean that Marcos knew about the diamond? Marcos was old enough to know that the swap wasn’t fair, and he would surely have told his father if he knew. Perhaps Sonny had hidden Booty? Perhaps Vex wouldn’t discover the diamond was gone till they were well away from the ship?

Perhaps … perhaps he’d get away with it after all.

Malik finished everything on his plate then stacked the dirty dishes at the table where they collected the washing up. No. It was still too early to believe he’d got away with it. He should assume that Vex already knew. But what would he do? How would Vex tackle it?

He might go to the purser. If he did, they would come to find Malik and make him turn out his pockets in the purser’s office, just like they would have done
at school. Or Vex might come and find him on his own, rushing straight down to the dormitory as soon as he discovered the diamond was gone and Malik was on board the ship.

Yes. That’s how he’d do it. That would be Vex’s style.

Malik went outside on deck. He should be safe while the first-class passengers ate their food. He hung about, watching people play quoits while the sun sank lower in the autumn sky. When the strings of white bulbs lit up along each tier of the ship, Malik went below deck. In the dormitory, the boys were getting ready for bed. Malik washed and cleaned his teeth at the makeshift trough and then lay in his bunk, with his trousers still on and the diamond in his pocket.

Still no one came for him. He began to believe that Vex couldn’t know the diamond was missing. He only had to sleep and have breakfast and that would leave just enough time to pack his things before the ship docked. Malik felt warm inside. He thought how proud Papa would be that he had got the diamond back and how all of the pain at the docks might have been worthwhile after all.