Flesh & Bones
written by: Jegadeesh Kumar
Sangameshwaran stood gazing at the dinner table, which mirrored the flames of the King Island torches that lighted the dining hut, and the soft light of the gibbous moon that had risen over the ocean. Grilled lobster, Garudiya and rice, fried tuna, roti and mas-huni, devilled chicken, rihaakuru, pappadam – the table was crammed with food. He was amazed at how effectively he could recognize beverages when he saw that the man seated in front was sipping Blackberry Sangria. It seemed to him that he had learned a lot about resort life within a week of his arrival here. He was wondering if a single man could eat all of this stuff when the man himself called out, bringing him back to his senses.
“Hey, Boy! Bring me a Heineken!” he said.
“Yes, sir!” he said and hurried back toward the bar. For mixing cocktails, he required manager Vijayasinghe’s assistance. But to pick up a certain brand of beer, you only need to know how to read labels. Inside the bar, while he was rummaging for a bottle of Heineken in the beverage refrigerator, he could feel someone watching him from the corridor. Reflexively turning to his right, he saw that the door to guest room number 3 was open and found Ayni inside, standing next to the bed, changing pillowcases. Without stopping her work, she smiled and waved at him, her black burkha moving to one side, exposing a white little triangle below her neck. His face brightened, and he waved back. She beckoned to him. He replied in gestures that he would be with her soon and took the beer to the guest.
Leaving the resort building, Sangameshwaran walked across the beach toward the dining hut when the cold sea breeze entered his clothes, making his whole body quiver. Up until last week, during his work on the island as a construction laborer, incessantly layering bricks and cementing them during daytime under the scorching sun of the tropical island, he had to share his nights with ten other workers in the sweltering cubbyhole of a room his owner provided. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to work at this resort permanently? Ayni was here. Working with her was like sleeping on clouds. He resolved to ask her about the procedure to land a resort job.
On his way, he noticed that the White woman who stayed in the second guest room sat alone, drinking Coke, inside a hut directly across from the newcomer. She smiled at him as he passed by her hut.
He entered the man’s hut and saw him fretfully stabbing fried tuna with a fork. The tattoo of a vulture on his right bicep wriggled and twisted with each of his stabs. The man was huge and tall. It seemed he might bump into the ceiling if he stood up. His grayish eyes twinkled as he looked up at Sangameshwaran. The darkness was falling rapidly, and, in the light of the torches, the shadows of the pitchers and glasses danced like zombies on the tabletop. The aroma of devilled chicken made the boy hungry. He could never stand tuna, the mere thought of which made him feel sick and nauseated. Tuna had become his regular meal during his stay at his owner’s house: Roti and Mas-huni for breakfast; boiled rice and tuna curry for lunch; leftovers for dinner – all going in a loop day after day.
“Here you go, sir,” he said, as he opened the bottle and poured the drink into the mug until a large head of beer formed.
“Thanks. Call me Nate. My name is Nathan Crosby. What’s yours?”
“I’m Sangameshwaran. You can call me Sangu.”
Looking for people named Sangameshwaran in the small town of Komaraplayam is like searching for tuna fish on a Maldivian Jetty. In schools, at least four to five boys would look up during a roll call when the teacher called this name. He would have to add an initial to each student while calling, to differentiate one from the other. Crossing the Cauvery River via the old bridge from Komarapalayam, one could visit the Kooduthurai Sangameshwara Temple, which gained its name due to its location near the confluence of the three rivers, the Cauvery, the Bhavani, and the Saraswathy (the long-standing belief is that this third river runs beneath the ground). A large number of male babies born in and around this area are named after the deity of the temple, Lord Sangameshwara.
“Sanga -mays-wa-raan.” Nate practiced his pronunciation. “I don’t think I can say it right. I’ll just call you Sangu,” he said.
“Sangu, can you do me a favor? Do you see the lady from the opposite hut? Could you tell her that her dinner is on me? Ask her what she wants and bring it to her. Would you do that for me, Sangu?” he asked. A smile spread across his face as he turned to look at the hut opposite.
“Certainly, Nate,” said Sangu, with a resolute smile.
Sangu knew that the name of the woman from the other hut, who had come from Georgia ten days earlier, was Gloria. During daytime, Gloria either remained in her room or sat at a desk in the bar area, typing away on a laptop. When the sun went down, she went out for a swim in the sea. Sangu had not spoken to her much. It was Ayni who cleaned her room, brought her food, and accompanied her to the island where the locals lived. Gloria was taller than him, and had a dazzling, youthful body. She had blonde hair and a spotless, elliptical face with a pair of marble-like eyes on which indiscernible dreams floated, at least that was what Sangu thought when he first saw her. He had stared at her smooth, shiny, and unblemished thighs and ankles several times, while she was in her swimsuit at the beach or in the pool, unaware that she was always aware of his gaze. As she walked away, she would give him a considerate smile, as if his stare were a compliment. At these times, Sangu felt embarrassed and reminded himself not to look in her direction when she walked in a swimsuit, only to break his own abstinence when the next opportunity came along.
Upon entering her hut, he told her of Nate’s wish, in a hesitant tone because this was the first time he spoke with her. She listened to him intently, her face shining in the torchlight. She asked him his name and, looking through the menu, she expressed her meal preferences – Beef fried noodles, tandoori chicken, and Long Island iced tea. Then she looked up and waved at Nate.
Sangu went to the kitchen and submitted the orders to Chef Shaheed. Vijayasinghe sat at the reception desk, watching a cricket match. Sangu gave him the cocktail order. “Oh! The captain has got a girl now! Just wait and watch Thambi, they’ll end up eating in the same hut in just a few minutes. Luck favors the brave, right?” the manager said, with a meaningful smile.
It would be at least twenty minutes before the meals were ready. Sangu went looking for Ayni. She was in the bathroom of the third guestroom, replacing new towels for the used ones.
“Are you always at some task?” asked Sangu.
“If I sit for a moment, the manager will somehow find a reason to send me on an errand. It’s easier if I do something myself, so no one can bother me.” She placed the bundle of towels on the floor and sat on the bed. “Sit,” she said. Sangu sat on the chair next to the bed.
“Who’s this newcomer? Which room is he going to stay in?” he asked. Ayni knew everything.
“He is an American. He hasn’t come here to stay. He came for snorkeling. Came by his own yacht, anchored beyond the reef, in the sea. He came to the resort on our boat. He’ll return after dinner. The manager said the man had been traveling around, visiting Andaman, Sri Lanka, and then here.”
“Ayni, how did you land this job? What should I do if I want to get a job here?”
“Oh, that’s easy. As soon as I finished tenth grade, I applied for the job online, attended the interview, and was asked to join immediately. But my mom never agreed. To reach this resort from our island, you need to travel thirteen hours on a boat. I had to pull a lot of strings to convince my mom. You are an Indian, right? I don’t know the exact procedures for foreigners. Why don’t you ask the manager?”
“What if he tells my owner? I’m scared,” he said. Ayni was sitting very close to him. She wore a tight red T-shirt emblazoned with the resort’s name, and her burkha was draped over it. In the circular brim of the burkha, her flawless face adorned with beetle-like eyes and glistening, blood-red lips enticed Sangu to take her face in his hands. He was tempted to pinch the soft, slightly upturned nose. Her tight jeans suggested shapely legs. Ayni was exploring her fingernails. What if, at this moment, he got up and hugged her tightly and kissed her?
Ayni looked up and asked, with her raised eyebrows, what the matter was. It was possible that she might have been aware of him staring at her. Sangu simply shook his head.
“My mom cried miserably on the day I was to take the flight. I’m her only son. She’s never lived without me,” he said.
Sangameswaran completed his tenth grade solely with the support of his mother, who had to have battles with his father to provide for his education. His father was a power loom worker who squandered all of his weekly wages on alcohol. One could hardly feed a dog with the money he gave his wife for domestic expenses. Sangu’s mother worked in the embroidery section of the MNM factory during the day and toiled at home in the evenings, sewing handkerchiefs for a meager wage. His father had a brawl with her mother every day, asking her to make Sangu drop his studies and take up power loom work. Every evening, he would come home drunk, start a scuffle with his wife for any frivolous reason, and begin beating and kicking her while Sangu sat down against the wall, watching, his whole body shaking. Catching hold of her by the mane, his father would slap her left and right, cursing and swearing, and would kick in her ribs. She would not utter a word against the man’s abuse. She would simply lament, “Please, leave me alone! I can’t bear this! The boy is watching!” From time to time, Sangu would also receive his share of kicks from his father. He would watch her mother sleep on the straw mat, lips swollen, face bruised up, tears drying on her cheeks, like a dried-up tobacco leaf. He had asked her, mentally a thousand times and many times directly, why she had to put up with all this. Couldn’t they leave him and move somewhere else? But she would shut him up. He wouldn’t understand. The town would blame them if they lived without the man of the house. He should focus on his studies. All she prayed for was for him to settle down in life. That was all.
One day, his father went to the Anthiyur Horse Market near Gurunathaswamy Temple but never returned. The townspeople searched for him in all directions, lodged a complaint with the police, and had been searching for him for two years. Sangu felt greatly relieved at his father’s disappearance. His mother no longer had to endure her husband’s torture. He could see a glimpse of hope for the first time in his life. However, his mother became more distraught than ever. It was as though something had been ripped out of her soul. In a single week, she lost twenty pounds.
From the time he was five, Sangu held the hem of her mother’s saree and followed her everywhere. She would stand talking to the neighbors while he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head against her soft, pillow-like thigh. She would put her arm around him and hug him tightly. He would fancy that that state was a refuge from the cruelty of this world and that he was safe in the arms of his mother. He had sobbed and soaked her mother’s saree with tears several times, agonizing over her utter helplessness. Her thighs, which were once warm and cozy like a mama hen’s abdomen, had since lost their flesh, and her legs had become like split kindling. She moved around like a glass vessel that could shatter at the slightest of touches.
His mother was eager to send him abroad when her coworker Shanmugam offered him the opportunity for a job in the Maldives. She told him he must go and work there for at least two years. Then he could return to continue his studies. Or he could start a small business. She complained that her income was not sufficient to support his studies. But Sangu had no intention of leaving his mother. He was relieved when her mother agreed to stay at her aunt’s. Only then did he board the flight.
“My mother was reluctant to send me here because she was scared Muslim girls working in resorts would be corrupt. A solitary island in the middle of the sea, with only a handful of people on it. Anything can happen, right?” Ayni winked at Sangu and laughed.
Sangu heard Shaheed ring the bell to signal that the food was ready. As Sangu approached the huts with the platters in hand, he found, just as the manager had said, that Gloria had moved to Nate’s hut. Both were laughing and conversing as if they were childhood friends. ‘How can these whites befriend each other in an instant? The white men can do that even with beautiful women!’ In Komarapalayam, it would be considered a crime to even look at a girl in passing. One would have to encounter the girl’s look of fury.
Sangameshwaran laid the food trays on the table, concealing his emotions in a rocky face. Nate looked extremely excited. The food, of which he had only eaten a fifth, had been abandoned. The entire table top looked cluttered and messy. Nate placed a hand on Sangu’s shoulder.
“Sangu, you’re coming with us tonight to my yacht, to serve us. I’ve informed the manager already. Grab whatever is required. I need half a dozen Heinekens and four or five packets of Marlboro. What’ll you have, Gloria?”
“I’ll have some of your beer and cigarettes,” she said. She turned to Sangu with a delightful smile and said, “Bring me a full bottle of Old Forester Bourbon. You can have some from it, Nate.” She laughed. “What if we get hungry in the middle of the night? Order some food to your liking.”
“I don’t know if the boy can remember the items. Let me write them down,” Nate said.
Gloria’s cheeks glowed in the firelight. Her bosom was heaving softly up and down.
On a paper napkin, Nate was writing what they needed for their overnight stay.
“Sangu! Sangu! Here, look at me. Just take this to Vijayasinghe, and he’ll make everything ready. Come tell us when everything is ready. We’d be here, waiting. Did you tell the manager that the girl’s coming too, Gloria?”
“Yes, I did. I told him when he brought the liquor.”
“Sangu, ask the girl to bring some fresh bed sheets, pillows, and towels for the two extra rooms. You’re staying the night in my yacht.”
The list in hand, Sangu walked toward the reception, but unable to walk any further, he sat on a stool in front of the bar. He could not believe what was happening. These two have just met each other. And just like that, they’ve become friends. They’re staying overnight on the yacht, in the same room! Then what? Will this man take her with him? Is there such a thing as marriage, or can they live together until they want to? Questions frothed in his turbulent mind, causing debris of confusion to erupt and fill his teenage heart to the point of suffocation.
Until five years ago, the mental image of a beautiful woman had not caused him this bizarre pain. His mother, aunt, the women next door, or the little girls who played with him in the alley all had their own identities in his mind. He had competed and fought with girls his age; stayed away from them with a vengeance when they showed their ugly sides. But for the last five years, the image of the beautiful body of a young woman had grown in his mind to enormous proportions. He could not think of anything but the image. The slender girls who studied with him until sixth grade, dressed in white shirts, blue skirts, and red ribbons, had begun to walk like angels among boys, in their colorful half-saris, looking bright and shiny, blushing for any silly thing. His friends, too, seemed to have the same pulsating feeling when they set eyes on those girls.
“Dei! What made these girls change like this? My hands are itching! But they don’t even look in our direction,” said Mani.
Sangu did not say anything. He could never express the things that ran through his mind. Even if, alone in a room, he was asked to recite what was on his mind, he would have a tough time saying them out loud.
“It’s easy for the one who can make out the signals these girls send our way. They approach you with some excuse, asking for help with a lesson or to borrow your record book. Once, I grabbed Krishnaveni in the tea stall alley and kissed her. No one ever knew about it. Maple! This is what the girls are longing for,” said Muniraj.
“No one has your courage, maple! And you’re a lucky bastard!” Mani tapped on Muniraj’s shoulder.
“Courage, yes. But never luck. A girl alone with you is like a boon in this wretched town. You just have to make use of the opportunity.”
Sangu had never had that courage. But his desire tormented him all the time. His fear had devoured all the opportunities that came along.
Ayni’s coming too! Ayni! Could tonight be my chance? Will she stay on the boat tonight? How many bedrooms does the yacht have? Would he be given a separate room to sleep in, or would Nate ask him to sleep outside on the deck? His mind was racing with questions.
Ayni looked excited. “Wouldn’t it be splendid to sit on a yacht in the middle of the night and watch the ocean? My brother used to brag about it all the time. At two or three in the morning, he would go out to sea for fishing. He says spending time with the sea at that time is an enthralling experience. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do the same tonight,” she said. She was hastily stuffing towels and bedsheets into large cloth bags. “Gloria asked me to bring the toiletries from her room.” Ayni had showered and changed into a long black dress. She looked like a paintbrush.
Sangu went to the public bathroom and hurriedly showered. In the small room allotted to him at the back of the kitchen, he changed into a pair of jeans and a light blue shirt. He slicked his wet hair back. As he looked in the mirror, he widened his eyes, brought out a broad smile to his face, and brightened himself.
He collected the food and the wine in boxes from Shaheed and went toward the bar, but could not find Ayni there. He had expected her to wait for him at the bar. Rolling his eyes around, he realized there was no one nearby. The hut was empty. They must have gone to the boat that would take them to the yacht. He trotted toward the resort jetty, where he found Nate, Gloria, and Ayni, already boarded the boat, as he presumed. Nate, hands around Gloria’s waist, was talking in hushed tones, pointing to something in the darkness. In the aft, Ayni stood with her eyes closed, her arms resting on the pushpit. The helmsman had started the engine, which was rattling with a loud noise that tore the quietness of the sea. As he helped Sangu aboard, he took the boxes and bags from him and placed them on the side deck. The boat began to move.
Sangu went and stood next to Ayni. She did not turn to look at him, though it appeared she was well aware of his presence. The moon had risen above their heads, and as the boat moved slightly inward, the moon’s soft, white light showered on it, making it shine like an elephant tusk. Moonlight reigned over the entire vessel after the boat’s lights were turned off. The ocean quietly carried the moon as the moon’s white shadow fell on its infinite expanse. Except for the whirr of the boat engine, there was complete silence. It seemed to Sangu that Ayni simply stood there, drinking in that silence. Holding on to the rail, he kept staring at her. As the boat climbed up and down the waves, he leaned over, and his body touched hers gently. She was soft. She was delicate. She was cozy. Ayni did not seem to care about anything.
Sangu’s wishful mind did not expect the journey to end in just ten minutes. Viewed from the boat, Nate’s yacht was taller than the Sharafuddin School building he had seen on the island. In the moonlight, the yacht’s pure whiteness illuminated the sea around it. Inscribed on its belly were the words Red Eagle, and a huge embossed red eagle lifted the letters in its talons. As the boat sailed around the yacht to locate its steps, Sangu noticed that the yacht was as long as five such boats put together. Sangu wondered why Nate, the owner of such a huge yacht, had to visit the resort at all. Then he thought of Gloria and the varieties of food he consumed at the resort.
In the Red Eagle, all rooms were white in color. The yacht itself looked like the sliced albumen of an egg. It had a total of three bedrooms, and Sangu guessed that Nate and Gloria would spend the night in the largest, which had a bathroom and a toilet attached. The yacht also had a dining hall and a recreational room with a billiards table at its center. The white expanse of the rear deck faced the sky. The sailor’s cockpit looked luxurious with its couches, mahogany table, oil paintings, and a three-tier chandelier. The entire yacht was perfumed with the immense smell of the ocean. In the hallway was a huge freezer, and Sangu opened it to find large barracudas, a few of them still alive.
Soon, Nate and Gloria went into the large bedroom. Nate had let Sangu and Ayni stay in the two adjoining rooms. Sangu sat on a single bed in the cramped little room next to the large bedroom. Ayni was in the room on the other side of the wall against which his bed was placed. Sangu sat looking at the night lamp on the table opposite, and the boxes of food and bottles next to it. Sitting on the bed, waiting for orders from the next room, he wondered if this was how this night was to be spent. There were faint noises coming from the next room, and he couldn’t help but imagine what might be going on there. But there wasn’t any noise from Ayni’s room. Has she gone to sleep already? She did not have any particular work during the night other than making beds and setting up the bathrooms with toiletries. At least he could have been talking to her right now.
There was a knock on the door. He stood up hurriedly and opened the door. Ayni! She stood with a smile that killed him instantly. “How’s your new room?” she asked.
“Mm, it’s comfortable. There’s a bed to sleep on. Isn’t that enough?”
Craning her neck to get a better view, she entered the room. Sangu had to move aside to let her pass. Crossing the single bed in a few steps, she picked up the model ship placed above the dresser and examined it, while Sangu struggled to keep his gaze away from her profile.
“Sit,” he said. Ayni sat on the chair opposite the bed. Sangu sat on the edge of the bed, hoping that their knees would come perilously close to each other, but realizing there was still an abundant gap between them to comfortably lie a mature marlin. The cabin door was ajar, swinging back and forth against the sea breeze coming in through the deck.
“Let’s go out onto the deck and watch the ocean,” she said.
“What if they need me?… You can go alone if you like.”
“It’d be nice if you join me.”
The wind blew harder now, slamming the cabin door shut. Sangu felt something thump his ribcage from the inside.
“They went inside the room the moment they came on to the yacht,” said Sangu.
“This is quite normal in a resort.”
“Is everyone like this?”
“Like what?”
“I mean, why do they have so much freedom?”
“It’s their culture. Then there is the freedom offered by loneliness.”
Sangu said, “Ayni!” Then, when her eyes settled on him, he said, “Nothing.”
She smiled at him and slightly swayed in her seat. She was held in the chair like a basket full of fragrant flowers. In one step, Sangu rose from the bed and reached her. He leaned down and kissed her, resting his hands on the seat’s arms.
“Ayni Ahmed, I love you!”
He slowly backed away and stood upright, waiting for her reaction.
She had fixed her gaze upon him, her bosom heaving, fingers nervously kneading air. She opened her mouth slightly to speak when the intercom, which hung on the wall just behind her head, buzzed. Sangu walked closer hesitantly, his gaze fixed on her, and picked up the receiver as she stepped aside to allow him space.
“Can you get me some whiskey and cigarettes, Sangu?” It was Gloria’s voice. She sounded extremely tired.
Sangu turned and stole a glance at Ayni. She had sat on the bed and was looking at him.
“Stay right here. I’ll be back in no time,” he said, arranging the whiskey bottle, glasses, ice cubes, and cigarettes on a tray. Sangu couldn’t figure out what her gawk meant, other than that it was merely a beam from a set of dreamy eyes. Certainly, she must have liked it too! And right now she is here, in my room. She has not left. While still feeling her gaze on him, he went out carrying the tray, signaling that he would be back soon.
Sangu approached the master bedroom and was about to knock on the door when he heard Nate and Gloria’s muffled and unintelligible voices. Yet he wasn’t sure if they were just talking or shouting at each other, or whether he should knock. Now, he heard a few words of profanity being exchanged. Gloria’s voice sounded like she was in a rage, like she was crying. Sangu decided to wait until the turmoil inside settled down. He turned and looked at his room. The door had still been closed. The girl was still waiting, waiting just for him. As he moved to sit on the stool in front, the door to the room was flung open.
At the entrance stood a stark-naked Gloria, her back to Sangu, yelling profanities in Nate’s direction. She screamed, “Get lost!” as she moved backward and slammed the door shut. As Sangu stood up on shaky legs, she sensed his presence and hurriedly opened the outside toilet next to the master bedroom and hid behind its door. In the few moments before she hid herself in the toilet, Sangameswaran had had a glimpse of her bare rear, with bloody scratches starting from her buttocks and running along her hamstrings.
Gloria stuck her head out and looked at him. “Pour me a whiskey!” she said, holding out a hand. Sangu calmly poured whiskey into a glass, put an ice cube, and handed it to her outstretched hand. She took a sip, cocked her head, and looked at him again.
“Sangu, can you get me a towel?”
Leaving the tray on the stool, Sangu ran to Ayni’s room and returned with a turkey towel. By then, she had finished her whiskey. Sangu wondered what Nate was doing inside his room. Why didn’t he come out?
Gloria wrapped a towel around her body before coming out and sat down in front of the table set up outside the cafeteria in the middle of the sidewalk. Her blonde hair disheveled, and her eyes bloodshot, she looked like peeled cassava. She asked for another whiskey, took a cigarette from him, and lit it.
“That man is a beast,” she said, teary-eyed. She drank the whiskey in one gulp.
“I’ve asked the resort to send me a boat. I’m leaving. Ask Ayni if she’d like to come with me. It’d be good if she did. If she can’t, that’s okay. The man might yell if he doesn’t find her in the morning to make his bed. I don’t want her to be in trouble because of me. Yeah, let her stay over here.”
Sangu thought she was talking incoherently.
“Sangu, do you have a girlfriend?”
He shook his head.
“Someday, a girl may come into your life. Treat her well, will you?”
He nodded.
“Which country are you from? Why did you come here?”
He told her.
“Lovely!” Her eyes widened. “The son who crossed the ocean upon his mother’s word!”
She let him leave the full bottle of whiskey and cigarettes. It looked like she was going to wait there until the boat arrived. Is she going to leave with just a towel wrapped around her body? She seemed unwilling to enter Nate’s room again to collect her clothes. For some reason, she did not ask Sangu to do the job for her either.
Sangu opened his room but did not find Ayni inside. She was not in her room either. He finally found her on the deck. She had climbed onto the boat’s prow, leaning on the pulpit, looking out into the sea, her long robe and burkha gently swaying in the breeze. As if sensing his presence, she suddenly turned to look at him.
“Why so long?”
“I think Nate and Gloria had a fight. She wants to go back to the resort and right now waits outside. She wants you to join her, if possible.”
Without a response, Ayni continued to stare at him for a few moments.
“You got scared? These people are like that. They do everything so suddenly,” she said. “Come join me. See how the ocean looks from here.” She held out her hand for him to come up. Sangu took her hand.
Viewed from that vantage point, there was ocean everywhere. The ocean breeze caressed his face. The moon was shining overhead. When he closed his eyes for a moment, he thought he was alone with the ocean. The anchored yacht was slowly swaying. It was as if he had become one with Ayni, as if there were only a single entity standing in front of the great expanse of the sea. This great ocean makes us all feel so small, doesn’t it?
Ayni put an arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder. “I like being with you, Sangu,” she said. “I won’t go, I’ll stay here for the night,” she said.
Sangu alias Sangameswaran held her chin in his hand and looked into her eyes for a few moments. Then he closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and exhaled. Ayni was leaning on his shoulder, unwilling to say a word, as though afraid she might spoil that moment by her speech. Sangu put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer, tighter. Opening his eyes, he thought he saw stars he had never seen before. The ocean was dutifully wobbling the Red Eagle. He turned around at the sound of an engine roaring on his right and saw, bobbling in the waves, carrying a single lamp that gave off a faint glow, a tiny boat approaching the Red Eagle.
The End
- Flesh & Bones - March 28, 2026
- The Golden Cave Secret - May 13, 2024
- Born Equal - June 21, 2023
