A houseboat. Finegan Fine

has had several of its blades repaired with pieces of wood screwed onto

the broken blades.

Got that alternator?

Finegan indicates the Russian should hold the windmill in the air,

holding it from the hub at the backside, while Finegan holds onto two

wires coming out from the hub backside. Finegan looks up, noting there

is no breeze at the moment, then turns the blades by hand. The two

wires he has in his hand spark, causing Finegan to jump.

58

Hey! Success.

Finegan then bends over a metal box between the battery series and

windmill, connecting wires. He motions to one of the men, a Hispanic,

to turn the blades of the windmill while he, Finegan, bends over with a

flow meter to check on the batteries.

______________________________

The windmill is now standing up where it can catch the breeze, on a

narrow triangle of boards nailed with cross-struts, crude but sturdy.

The blades are lazily turning in the evening breeze coming off the

broad river. The series of batteries has been covered with a tarp roof,

to keep the rain off. At the far end of the battery block is a rack of

headlights, glowing. The migrants are all milling around, contemplating

this new setup. Finegan is off to one side, being handed an armful of

Bok Choy cabbage.

______________________________

Finegan and Joey emerge from the darkness, coming down from the hill

toward the houseboat, pulling the rusty wagon. Atop the hill is a blaze

of light from several headlights, pointing in various directions. Frogs

are thrumming along the shore. Finegan says,

Time for a good night’s sleep . . if the

neighbor’s lights don’t keep us up.

59

Shark in the Water

A tall building, the second story sticking out of the water and topped

by a lookout tower. The houseboat is peddling toward these buildings,

with Joey as usual pacing on the roof, looking for underwater objects.

Joey points to the right, directing Finegan to go right.

Some sort of roof tops to the left, in rows.

Finegan stops peddling to joins Joey to have a look.

Those are barracks.

They see the top of a barbed wire fence, where the outgoing tide is

ruffling over the barbed wire. Finegan has just noticed this ruffling

along the fence tops, showing the square outline of the compound.

Oh shit.

Finegan spins on his feet to look back where the houseboat entered the

compound, and sees this now exposed barbed wire too.

We’ll have to wait here until the tide rises

again. . . I might do some diving while we

wait, check out those barracks.

Finegan glances in the direction of the tower.

. . Or check out that tower.

A guard can be seen in the shadows, seemingly wrestling with himself.

Then it becomes apparent that he is taking off his clothes, and

suddenly dives, nude, into the water and swims in the direction of the

houseboat. Seeing that he is not a threat, being without a weapon,

Finegan and Joey hop down and prepare to help him onto the deck.

The guard is African American and very fit. He swims with a strong

stoke to the front of the houseboat and heaves himself up, twists

sideways to sit on the edge, and pulls his feet out of the water and to

one side, sitting alongside the edge. Joey and Finegan move to boxes in

front of the guard, to talk.

Don’t want toes in the water for too long . . I

saw a young shark in here once, the other day.

The guard notes the fishing net hung up to dry on the line just to the

side of where Joey and Finegan are seated and points to it.

Shark makes good eating. Maybe we could troll

for it! . . If he’s still in here I expect I

stirred him up. Got any bait aboard?

Finegan has gone into the house and returned with a pair of shorts, and

tosses them to the guard, who rises to step into them. Finegan is

grinning at the situation, their nude guest.

60

Only the three of us. But if we fish awhile we

might catch something and then we can put blood

in the water.

The guard says,

Fishing sounds good. I haven’t had anything to

eat since the last of the dried food ran out.

______________________________

Finegan is throwing the net out over the water, waiting until the open

mouth of the net sinks, and then pulling the net along with ropes

attached to the four corners. One side of the net has floatation corks

and is the side that traps fish. The other sides are being pulled up

and toward the houseboat. Finegan pulls hand over hand along the ropes

that close the mouth of the net, pulling the catch onto the front deck.