Free Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

said. ‘Why?’ he asked. ‘Why in the livin hell is it so important to you?’
    â€˜Malum must be propa pukka sahib,’ said the serang. ‘All lascar wanchi Malum be captin-bugger by’m’by.’
    â€˜Eh?’
    Now, in a sudden, bright flash of illumination, Zachary understood why his transformation meant so much to the serang: he was to become what no lascar could be – a ‘Free Mariner’, the kind of sahib officer they called a malum. For Serang Ali and his men Zachary was almost one of themselves, while yet beingendowed with the power to undertake an impersonation that was unthinkable for any of them; it was as much for their own sakes as for his that they wanted to see him succeed.
    As the weight of this responsibility sank in, Zachary sat on the bunk and covered his face. ‘You don know the livin deal of what you askin,’ he said. ‘Six months back I was nothin but the ship’s carpenter. Lucked out getting to second mate. Forget Captain: that’s way above my bend. Ain gon happen; not bimeby, not ever.’
    â€˜Can do,’ said Serang Ali, handing him the Dosootie shirt. ‘By’m’by can do. Malum Zikri plenty smart bugger inside. Can do ’come genl’man.’
    â€˜What makes you think I can do it anyways?’
    â€˜Zikri Malum sabbi tok pukka-talk no?’ said Serang Ali. ‘Hab heard Zikri Malum tok Mistoh Doughty sahib-fashion.’
    â€˜What?’ Zachary shot him a startled glance: that Serang Ali should have noticed his talent for changing voices struck a chord of alarm. It was true that when called upon, his tongue could be as clipped as that of any college-taught lawyer: not for nothing had his mother made him wait at table when the master of the house, his natural father, was entertaining guests. But nor had she spared him her hand when he’d shown signs of getting all seddity and airish; to watch her son playing the spook would set her turning in her grave.
    â€˜Michman wanchi, he can ’come pukka genl’man by’m’by.’
    â€˜No.’ Having long been compliant, Zachary was now all defiance. ‘No,’ he said, thrusting the serang out of his cuddy. ‘This flumadiddle’s got’a stop: ain havin it no more.’ Throwing himself on his bunk, Zachary closed his eyes, and for the first time in many months, his vision turned inwards, travelling back across the oceans to his last day at Gardiner’s shipyard in Baltimore. He saw again a face with a burst eyeball, the scalp torn open where a handspike had landed, the dark skin slick with blood. He remembered, as if it were happening again, the encirclement of Freddy Douglass, set upon by four white carpenters; he remembered the howls, ‘Kill him, kill the damned nigger, knock his brains out’; he remembered how he and the other men of colour, all free, unlike Freddy, had held back, their hands stayed by fear. And he remembered, too, Freddy’s voice afterwards, not reproaching them for their failure to come to his defence,but urging them to leave, scatter: ‘It’s about jobs; the whites won’t work with you, freeman or slave: keeping you out is their way of saving their bread.’ That was when Zachary had decided to quit the shipyard and seek a berth on a ship’s crew.
    Zachary got out of his bunk and opened the door, to find the serang still waiting outside. ‘Okay,’ he said wearily. ‘I’ll let you get back in here. But you bes do what you gon do blame quick, ’fore I change my mind.’
    Just as Zachary had finished dressing, a series of shouts went echoing back and forth between ship and shore. A couple of minutes later Mr Doughty knocked on the door of his cabin. ‘Oh I say, my boy!’ he boomed. ‘You’ll never credit it, but the Burra Sahib has arrived in person: none other than Mr Burnham himself! Ridden chawbuckswar from Calcutta: