Close to the Wind (6 page)

‘What do you mean?’ asked Hector.

Vex put his hands up as though he were surrendering. ‘It’s not for me to say.’

Papa stared up at him calmly. ‘I’d rather you said it.’

Vex nodded slowly. ‘I think you know what I have in mind.’

‘Say it anyway. It’s easier for you to say it.’

Malik had no idea what they were talking about.

Vex shrugged. ‘I think it’s possible for us to take the tooth out ourselves.’

Papa smiled ruefully. ‘It’s the obvious thing to do.’

Vex was reassured that Papa agreed. He came quickly across and slapped him on the shoulder,
smiling as though it had all been decided. ‘If we’re lucky, old man, it won’t be too hard.’

Hector looked at Vex. ‘You’re not serious? How will you do it?’

‘Hey. Not so fast, eh?’ Papa looked worried and he wouldn’t meet their eyes. ‘I have always had strong teeth. It might not be so easy. Let me think of a better way.’ Papa leaned forward in the chair, put his elbow on his knee and sat with his fingers across his mouth.

Malik held his breath.

Papa said, ‘Couldn’t we find a wealthy passenger to buy our tickets and accompany us onto the ship?’ Papa looked eagerly between the two men. ‘I could go straight to the dentist once we arrived, then I could pay them back in cash. Whoever did it would make a lot of money.’

Vex shook his head. ‘There’s too much risk. I wouldn’t do it. Not in these circumstances. If I could hold the diamond in my hand and say it’s mine, then that would be a different matter.’

Malik saw the resignation spread across Papa’s face. He went and took hold of Papa’s hand and squeezed his fingers, just like Mama might have done for him if she were here.

Papa smiled weakly then he took his hand from Malik’s. ‘I know you’re right.’ He nodded at Vex. ‘So we must do it ourselves.’ He flicked a finger at

Hector. ‘Bring me my rucksack, will you?’ Hector brought him the bag and they watched Papa unzip the large side pocket where he had stored his tools. He laid out the hammer, the pliers and the screwdriver on the wooden floorboards behind the candle. ‘Show me your hands.’

The three of them put out their hands. Malik could see that Vex’s fingers were rough, with a patch of dead skin up near the long black nail. Hector’s hands were gentler, although he had a callus on the edge of the finger where he must have held his pen. Papa looked at each of them and then turned to Hector. ‘You’ve never done a hard day’s work in your life, Hector, but your hands are smaller than Angelo’s … perhaps you will be more precise.’

‘Good God. Are you sure?’ Hector took a deep breath.

He bent down and chose the pliers. ‘I think these will be best, don’t you?’

He felt the weight of them, pulled the jaws open, then snapped them shut – Malik was reminded of
the crocodile in
Peter Pan
. He sat down beside Papa and held his fingers.

Hector took a deep breath and looked at Vex. ‘I’ll need you to hold the torch.’

Vex nodded and touched Malik’s head with a finger. ‘You should come away.’

Malik sat back on the edge of the mattress. He didn’t want them to do it and he tried to think of something to say that would change their minds. But if this meant they could get on the ship, well, maybe it was worth it. He had to trust Papa.

The two men stood over Papa’s chair and the candlelight threw their shadows up against the wall. Malik brought his knees right up into his chest and held them in his arms. ‘Will it hurt?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ said Vex. He walked around behind Papa. ‘But not for very long. If we’re quick, it’ll be over and done with before we know it, so let’s do it now, before we change our minds.’

The men all agreed.

Vex took hold of Papa’s forehead so that he held him in a headlock, and with his other hand he held the torch in front of Papa’s mouth. Hector tested the pliers one last time, then he leaned across, hooked a finger inside Papa’s cheek and stretched his mouth
out so he could see the tooth. Papa tensed and Vex tightened the grip on his head.

Malik didn’t want to watch, but he couldn’t look away as Hector guided the pliers into Papa’s mouth. He squeezed the handles and Malik heard them scrape against bone and come together with a click. Papa struggled. He brought up a hand and yanked the pliers away, then his fingers scratched at Vex’s arm and he choked on his own spit.

‘Let him go!’ Hector shouted. ‘Let him go, for God’s sake.’

Vex freed Papa’s head and Papa spilled forward over his own knees, gagging. He spat onto the floor and gasped for breath.

Malik edged closer, unsure what had happened. ‘Did you do it?’

‘I didn’t get the chance.’ Hector sounded angry. ‘Why did you bring your hand up?’

Papa had a finger inside his mouth, feeling his gums. ‘I couldn’t help it,’ he wheezed. ‘I was choking. My tongue went to the back of my throat.’

Vex was calm. He put an arm round both of their shoulders. ‘You must be quicker,’ he told Hector. He went and stood again at the back of Papa’s chair. ‘Again. We must try again.’

Malik moved to the far end of the mattress. He wouldn’t look this time. He put his hands over his ears and shut his eyes tight. He counted to ten, then thought it wouldn’t be long enough, so he counted again, this time out loud so he wouldn’t hear the muffled grunts and gasps that had begun.

When he took his hands away and opened his eyes, the men were arguing.

Hector blamed Vex. ‘You should have held his hands down.’

‘How can I hold his hands and his head at the same time?’

Papa looked as though he’d just run for a bus. His face was red and he was short of breath. He ran a finger across the front of his teeth and when he brought it away there was blood. He apologized. ‘I’m sorry.’ He wiped his finger on his trousers. ‘I have never been brave.’

Hector was exasperated. ‘But you must try, Salvatore.’ He looked across at Malik. ‘You have to do it for the boy. Think of Malik. It’s his only chance of getting on the ship. If we arrive tomorrow without money then there’s no hope for him.’

‘We’re all relying on you,’ said Vex. ‘But I disagree. I think you are a very brave man indeed.’

Papa looked grateful. Having Vex say such a thing seemed to give him more resolve and he pointed to the floor. ‘Bring me my sack again.’ He took the ball of thick yellow twine from the same pocket that he had the tools. He handed it over his head to Vex. ‘You must tie me to the chair – it’s the only way. Tie me tightly and let’s get this over with.’

Vex loosened the end of the twine and stepped back so he could weigh up both the man and the chair he sat in. He crouched down and took hold of Papa’s ankle and Papa let his shin be put against the wooden leg. Vex wound the twine around a good many times before he tied it off.

Malik held his own wrist in his fingers as he watched Papa become increasingly helpless. ‘I don’t like it,’ he said quietly, and he lay down on the mattress and curled his knees up into his chest.

Papa smiled weakly. ‘It’s not as bad as it looks.’ He held his hands calmly in his lap and Vex parted them and put one on either side of the chair and he tied them round the wrist and then again round the wood, at the joint where the seat met the legs.

When Vex had finished, Papa could move nothing but his head. Vex stood back and looked over his work.

‘You’ve used a lot of twine,’ Papa tutted. ‘That’ll take some time to roll up when we’re done, but we shouldn’t waste it.’ He put his head back. ‘Please be quick.’

Hector approached the chair with a new look of determination and Malik closed his eyes tight shut. He could hear Papa’s breath quicken. Then Papa began to choke. ‘Twist them, man!’ shouted Vex. ‘Pull the handles back!’

‘Aaargh.’ Papa began to make a strange strangled kind of noise as though someone had their hands around his throat.

Malik kept his eyes tight shut. A foot stamped hard on the floorboards.

‘Stop it!’ Malik shouted and he put his hands over his ears.

‘Aaargh!’ screamed Papa again and Hector let out a scream of his own. ‘Aaargh!’

There was a loud crash and someone cursed at the top of their voice: ‘Oh, for crying out loud!’

Malik took his hands from his head and opened his eyes.

Hector was on his backside, sprawled out across the floorboards. ‘He bit me.’ He lifted a bloody hand and shook it at Papa. ‘You bit my finger like an animal.’

Malik went to Papa, who sat in the chair with his head hanging to one side. He looked weak. He was breathing heavily and the front of his white shirt had a napkin of blood. Malik put a hand to his face.

Behind them, Vex was shouting at Hector. ‘You’re useless.’ He pulled the accountant to his feet and slapped his face. ‘Get up and hold his head. I can see I’ll have to do it myself.’

Malik stood in the way. ‘Stop it,’ he said.

‘Almost there, Malik,’ Papa said weakly. ‘Let them be.’

Malik ran across the room and out of the door. He was halfway down the stairs before he stopped in the darkness, realizing he had nowhere to go and no one to ask for help. At the top of the stairs, the candlelight flickered in the bedroom doorway.

‘Tighter,’ ordered Vex. There was a scrape as the pliers were picked up from the floor.

Malik crept back up the stairs and stood at the open door. Hector had a hold of Papa’s head and in his other hand he held the torch high over Papa’s face. Vex had two fingers inside Papa’s cheek to stretch it out wide. He put the pliers in Papa’s mouth. ‘Let go of the torch,’ he ordered, and Hector dropped the torch to the floor and held onto Papa’s head with
both hands, spreading his feet wider on the floor to steady himself.

Vex tightened his grip on the pliers, moving carefully and slowly. Then suddenly he twisted.

‘Aaaargh …!’ Papa came to life and his eyes went wide. He screamed loudly, and Vex’s arm shook with the effort. ‘Aaaargh …!’

Vex put a foot up on the chair and his body arched over Papa.

‘Aaaargh …!’

Malik stared at Papa’s hands, watched them curl and clench the leg of the chair as his fingers became hard white claws.

The two men screamed together, so close now they could have been one person, with Hector behind them holding Papa’s head, his eyes tight shut, his own teeth clenched.

‘Aaaaargh!’

Then suddenly Vex separated. He pulled the pliers from Papa’s mouth and stepped away so that Papa fell forward, the chair tipping with him until Hector caught hold of his collar and pulled the chair back onto four feet.

‘It’s over,’ said Vex. He bent down and picked the torch up from the floor, then straightened himself
and lifted the pliers into the beam of light. There was the diamond, glistening in the torchlight, and hanging from it was the root of Papa’s tooth, like a prize taken from an animal, with the blood still smeared across it.

Malik stepped inside the room again.

Vex took hold of the diamond between his thumb and forefinger and Hector was suddenly there at his side, the two of them standing toe to toe, staring at the stone that Vex held up between them, only centimetres from their eyes.

‘Untie me.’ Papa’s voice was weak and tired. ‘Please, untie me.’

Malik ran across to the chair and took the penknife from his pocket. He opened the longest blade and began to cut at the twine round Papa’s wrists, sawing as fast as he could, loosing first one hand and then the second, one ankle and then the next.

Papa was pale, his head still bowed. He shook as though he were cold, with tiny tremors that shivered across his shoulders and around his open mouth. He wasn’t strong enough to lift his chin from his chest.

Malik was aware that Hector and Vex were still staring at the jewel.

‘Shall we chisel the tooth away?’ asked Hector.

‘I can’t decide.’ Vex closed his fingers around the tooth. ‘We might damage the stone. Better to sell it as it is. Let them do it.’

‘How will they weigh it like this?’

‘They won’t need to weigh it.’ Vex felt the weight of the stone in his palm. ‘I can see the value of it. I’ll know the price.’

‘Let me see it.’ Papa’s voice was weak but determined. He lifted his chin and his eyes turned toward them. Malik cut quickly at the twine, then Papa reached out a hand and tugged at Hector’s sleeve and the men turned round, surprised.

Papa’s face was white but his eyes were clear. His beard glistened bright red in the candlelight. A single strand of twine still held Papa to the chair and Malik sliced through it. Papa lurched forward but then regained his balance and stretched out a hand, half rising to his feet, too weak to properly stand.

He flexed his fingers at the men. ‘Let me have it.’

Vex hesitated, seeming to weigh it one last time before he put the tooth into Papa’s hand.

Papa closed his fingers round the diamond. ‘There,’ he said, and he held it up to his eye to see it glisten. ‘There,’ he said again. ‘Now we have done it.’

The morning sun rose quickly, dispatching the long night that hung across the bows of the ship down at the dock. The sunlight lifted the gloom from the cracks between the cobbles of the street. It brightened the colour of the doors and windows in the cottages and crept around the half-shut curtain of the upstairs room and across the wooden floor.