The wheelbarrow was loaded with the human food from the mainland and pushed to the vessel. We unloaded it on deck, before Maria returned for a second load.
Vanessa and I shifted the food from the deck to the various refrigerated storage cabinets on the vessel, to give Maria space to unload the next wheelbarrow-load.
I noticed the smell as I stepped into the cabin, a smell I had not known since I did my duty for Zerafina. My shock was complete. She hadn’t just touched the young human, she had joined with him. From the strength of the smell, she had done this many times. I was as speechless as the young human fisherman, before I stiffly spat out the words. “So you had fun with the young human fisherman.”
Her response was calm. “I certainly enjoyed my time with him.” She looked at the food she was packing into the deep freeze unit and not at me.
I took my small bag of clothing down into the bunkroom. The smell was stronger here. I started to put my clean clothes away and collect the soiled clothes in the laundry hamper. In the hamper already were some of her and my clothing, all of it rich with the smell of sex. I lifted up my human swim clothing from the hamper, to find it discoloured with blood. I swayed, disoriented. She had enjoyed this human as much as I had enjoyed the man with whom I did my duty.
I marched up the steps to the main cabin, bringing the ruined swim clothing with me. “Is there anywhere on this vessel that you did not enjoy him? His smell is all over the kitchen and the bunkroom. I will be unable to rest with his smell permeating the whole vessel,” I hissed.
Vanessa sounded disinterested. “You can clean the vessel if his smell offends you.”
I held up the bloody human swim clothing. “What of this? It will resist cleaning.”
She glanced up, before her attention returned to the deep freeze unit. “Oh, a shark tried to attack him. I was wearing your swim clothing at the time and I did not have time to remove it. The human was unharmed. The shark fillets are in the deep freeze, here, if you would like some.”
I dismissed the offer. “Shift them to the house refrigeration units. Our fish quota is caught and both Maria and I wish to return home. We will not crew the vessel past this week. We have made arrangements for its storage.”
She turned to face me. “And if I am not ready to leave?”
“You can stay and dally with the human fisherman for as long as it pleases you. But we shall not. I wish to return to my daughter and Maria is impatient to return to the deep.” In my anger, my voice was bitter.
Vanessa’s voice held a warning. “We must depart together, and I lead this group, not you.”
I ignored the warning and said words I would later regret. “We have a duty to return to our people with the information we have obtained. Mating with human males is not part of our duty for this trip, or has your memory become clouded with time? If so, it is time to step down as elder and appoint your successor. Either Maria or I will take pleasure in fulfilling your role as elder, but in that case we must return to the deep immediately for the appointment to be agreed upon by the other elders.”
I felt angry that her actions had surprised me, so I made a threat I knew was empty. She could not step down as elder until her work was complete. It seemed so incongruous, then, that she should indulge the urges of this human when she had far more pressing matters to attend to.
“No, my memory has no clouds. Only bright sunlight, mystery under the stars and the currents deep beneath the surface. I shall sate myself and return with you to the deep, soon. Do you not remember when you enjoyed the time you spent with a human man?”
Her calm, assured response only served to anger me further.
“Not at present. It appears I have a vessel to clean and sanitise, and a large quantity of clothing and linen to wash, before Maria is also sickened by the nauseating smell pervading it all. If you choose to offer your body to the human fisherman again, please confine your activities to the house and your own human clothing.” I stalked to the sleeping cabin, where I quickly stripped all the linen from the beds and placed it in the hamper. I heaved the full hamper up the stairs and across the deck to the jetty.
As my furious footsteps sounded on the jetty, made heavier by the load I carried, I reflected briefly on her words. “No, I do not wish to remember the time I spent with a human man when the time spent in remembrance is time I do not share with Zerafina. My fiery daughter, from those warm nights in the arms of a human. Time spent with her is far more precious than any brief dalliance with a human man, however warm and pleasurable his embrace. Even a human who washes frequently.”
I did not know if she heard my words, but I also did not care.