Free Fishboy by Mark Richard

angry ghosts argue and I was eager to put their stones over, but even as John told me to do it he never let go of my wrist. John himself pitched a ballast stone over the side. Oliver Griggs flickered for a moment and said
Wait
.
    This is all I know
, he said.
    Tell it
, said John.
    Tell it
, said Eiphey Deacon quietly, looking down at this campfire of the dead.
    What I heard
, said Oliver Griggs,
is that your wife or girl or whatever she was was found nearly drownt in a fisherman’s net
.
    Where?
said John.
    Be calm
, said Oliver Griggs.
I think it was on that island where those wide stone steps go down forty or fifty feet to the heap of broken wine jars. Remember that trip? Wasn’t that you? The sea was dark with wine for two tides. It was a long time ago but I thought it was you
.
    Show me where
, said John, and he uncovered a charted shoulder and leaned into the circle of misting stones.
    God, John, I don’t know, I can’t read your awful flesh
, said Oliver Griggs.
    Show me
, said John.
    Try and show him
, said Eiphey Deacon, and Oliver Griggs wafted around John in the blue light, prodding here and there with a finger that made John shiver.
    Your touch is cold
, said John.
    Yours will be soon enough
, said Oliver Griggs.
Maybe here
, he said, and he pointed to what looked like a pimple and John said not to toy with him, that there was no wrecked ship there.
    Then maybe here
, said Oliver Griggs, and he traceda small island north of John’s right kneecap.
I think this is where
, he said.
    John squatted and studied the atoll tattooed on his knee, rubbing away some grime with spittle.
I haven’t looked there in years
, he said.
    I think that’s where
, said Oliver Griggs.
All I heard is that she came up almost drownt in some fisherman’s net
.
    Did he release her?
John said.
    What I heard is that they had like a school, like a university in the city, and at the university they had an aquarium. That’s what I heard, I heard they put her in the aquarium
.
    John said we could make the island in a week.
    There’s more
, said Eiphey Deacon.
Tell him the rest
, he said to Oliver Griggs.
    Well, they had themselves a little civil war, the island was sieged and the town occupied. The animals in the zoo were butchered. They put embers in the eyes of people who could read. They were sacking the university when the government’s white fleet sailed into the harbor. The university was saved and the aquarium spared, but not your wife or whatever
.
    What do you mean?
said John.
    A white ship’s crew was garrisoned in the aquarium
.
In the celebration of liberation they shot up the tanks and flooded the place
.
    No!
said John.
    Yes
,
yes!
said Oliver Griggs, smiling.
Yes
,
you self-righteous son of a bitch. We took your flipping wife and gutted her and cooked her over little charcoal fires on the beach. It was a great party!
    NO!
said John.
    YES!
said Oliver Griggs.
With a little red wine marinade she was delicious
.
    John swung his fillet-sharpened fingernails through the blue vapor and Oliver Griggs diffused in two and laughed.
    Yes, we also made her perform for her life and then we had her, and then we made some beautiful fillets. She was really something to look at except for her teeth. She had these canine teeth
, said Oliver Griggs to Eiphey Deacon.
We made her bark like a seal while we threw her fish. It was just her teeth though. She had teeth like a common dog. A real bitch’s mouth, if you know what I mean
.
    John began to heave the ballast stones over the side in splashing volleys as Oliver Griggs laughed and Eiphey Deacon pleaded and then said farewell. In his frenzy to rid the ship of the stones John picked me up when I washolding one to help, and I was certain for a moment he would throw me over too, a worthless vandal who had heard what was breaking his heart, and I wished I had never heard it, and I thought that if he threw me over, I would cling to the stone and follow it to the bottom. I had been dead once