Cloud Atlas

never knowed many o’ the answers, an’ unlike those o’ most storymen, Zachry’s yarns ain’t made up. The tribe what lived on the Ship was called Prescients, an’ they came from an isle named Prescience I. Prescience was bigger ’n Maui, smaller ’n Big I, an’ far-far in the northly blue, more ’n that I ain’t knowin’ or ain’t sayin’.

So the Ship’d anchor ’bout ten throws off School’ry Head an’ a pair o’ littler hornety boats’d come out the Ship’s prow an’ fly over the surf to the beach. Each’d got six–eight men ’n’ women. Oh, ev’rythin’ ’bout ’em was wondersome. Shipwomen too was man-some, see, their hair was sheared, not braided like Valleyswomen, an’ they was wirier ’n’ strong. Their skins was healthy ’n’ smooth without a speck o’ the scabbin’, but brewy-brown ’n’ black they was all of ’em, an’ they looked more alike ’n other people what you see on Big I. An’ Prescients din’t speak much, nay. Two guards stayed by the shored boats an’ if we asked ’em, What’s your name, sir? or Where you headed, miss? they’d just shake their heads, like sayin’, I won’t answer nothin,’ nay, so don’t ask no more. A myst’rous Smart stopped us goin’ close up. The air got thicker till you cudn’t go no nearer. A dizzyin’ pain it gave you too so you din’t donkey ’bout with it, nay.

The barterin’ took place in the Commons. Prescients spoke in a strange way, not lazy ’n’ spotty like the Hilo but salted ’n’ coldsome. By the time they’d landed, the yibber’d been busy an’ most dwellin’s was ’ready rushin’ baskets o’ fruits ’n’ veggies ’n’ meats ’n’ all to the Commons. Also the Prescients filled spesh casks with fresh water from the stream. In return, Prescients bartered ironware what was better ’n any made on Big I. They bartered fair an’ never spoke knuckly like savages at Honokaa, but politesome speakin’ it draws a line b’tween you what says, I respect you well ’nuff but you an’ I ain’t kin, so don’t you step over this line, yay?

Yay, the Prescients’d whoah strict rules ’bout barterin’ with us. They’d not barter gear Smarter ’n anythin’ ’ready on Big I. For ’zample, after Pa was killed, a gath’rin’ agreed to build a garrison by Abel’s Dwellin’ to protect the Muliwai Trail what was our main track from Sloosha’s Crossin’ into our Nine Valleys. Abbess asked the Prescients for spesh weapons to defend us from Kona. The Prescients said nay. Abbess begged ’em, more-less. They still said nay an’ that was that.

’Nother rule was not to tell us nothin’ ’bout what lay b’yonder the ocean, not even Prescience Isle, ’cept for its name. Napes of Inouye Dwellin’ asked to earn passage on the Ship, an’ that was nearest I seen the Prescients all laugh. Their chief said nay an’ no un was s’prised. We never pushed these rules to bendin’ point, ’cos we reck’ned they did our Civ’lize an honor by barterin’ with us. Abbess’d always invite ’em to stay for a feastin’, but the chief’d always naysay politesome. Back to their boats they’d lug their bartered gear. An hour later the Ship’d be gone, eastly in spring, northly in fall.

So the visits was, ev’ry year, since anyun could mem’ry. Until my sixteenth year, when a Prescient woman called Meronym visited my dwellin’ for a spell, an’ nothin’d be the same, not in my life, not in the Valleys, nay, not never.

Way back up b’hind Vert’bry Pass was a ridge called Moon’s Nest what’d got the best view o’ Windward from the Kohala pastures. One glitt’ry spring aft’noon I was herdin’ up on Moon’s Nest when I spied the Ship ’proachin’ Flotilla Bay an’ a whoah beautsome sight she was too, blue same as the ocean an’ if you wasn’t lookin’ right at her you’d not see her, nay. Now I knowed I should o’ gone quicksharp to the barterin’ but, see, I’d the goats to minder ’n’ all an’ by the time I got to the Commons the Prescients’d prob’ly be leavin’ anyhow, so I stayed put an’ lolled, gazin’ on that wondersome Ship o’ Smart what came ’n’ went with the wild gooses an’ whales.

Well, that’s my reason for stayin’, what I telled myself, tho’ the true reason was a girl called Roses, who’d been gatherin’ palila leafs for her ma’s med’sun-makin’. We’d got a feverish hornyin’ for each other, see, an’ in that druggy skylarkin’ aft’noon I was slurpyin’ her lustsome mangoes an’ moistly fig an’ the true is I din’t want to go nowhere else, an’ Roses din’t gather many palila leafs that day neither, nay. Oh, you’re laughin’ you blushin’ young uns, but time was, yay, I was jus’ as you are now.

Come evenin’ when I herded my goats home, Ma was flappin’ n’anxin’ like a one-wing gander an’ cussin’ me so crazy it was Sussy what I got the hole yibber off. After barterin’ at the Commons, the Prescient chief asked to speak to Abbess in private. After a long beat, Abbess’d come out o’ the meet an’ called a gath’rin’. Valleysmen from the nearby dwellin’s was there, ’cept Bailey’s, our dwellin’. See Ma’d not gone to the Commons neither. So the gath’rin’ kicked off there ’n’ then. The Prescient chief wants to make a spesh bart’rin’ this year, said Abbess. One Shipwoman wishes to live ’n’ work in a dwellin’ for half a year, to learn our ways an’ und’stand us Valleysmen. In return, the chief’ll pay us double ev’rythin’ we bartered today. Nets, pots, pans, ironware, ev’rythin’ double. Now think what an honor this is, an’ think o’ what we can get for all the gear at the next Honokaa Barter. Well, it din’t take long for one great Yay! to gather speed round the gath’rin’, an’ Abbess had to shout her next question over the rowdy. Who’s to host our Prescient guest? Oh, that Yay! stopped cold. Folks sudd’nwise had hole bags o’ ’scuses. We ain’t got nuff space. We got two babbits comin,’ our guest cudn’t sleep well. The mozzies round our dwellin’d bite her to shreds. Rusty Volvo that greasy buggah it was who first speaked it. What ’bout Bailey’s Dwellin’? See, Ma nor me wasn’t there to coldwater the plan, an’ it fired hot pretty quick. Yay, they got empty rooms since Pa Bailey was killed! Baileys taked more out o’ Commons ’n they put in last harvest, yay, it’s their duty! Yay, they got need o’ workin’ hands at Bailey’s, Ma Bailey’ll be glad o’ the help! An’ so the gath’rin’s say-so was settled.

Well, the one-wing gander now it was me, yay. What do Prescients eat ’n’ drink? Do they sleep in straw? Do they sleep? Six moons! Ma was cussin’ me for not goin’ to the Ship Barter, an’ even tho’, yay, Ma was the real chief o’ Bailey’s, I was the oldest man o’ the dwellin’ so I should o’ gone fair cop. I said, Look I’ll go to Abbess an’ tell her we can’t host no Prescient here .?.?. when knock, knock, knock, said our door.

Yay, it was Abbess bringin’ the Prescient to move in, with Mylo the school’ry ’sistant. We all knowed we was lumbered with the Valleys’ guest then, like it or not like it, we cudn’t say Get lost now, yay? It’d bring shame to our roof an’ shame to our icons. The Shipwoman she’d got that vin’gary stink o’ Smart an’ she spoke first, ’cos me ’n’ Ma was both tongue-knotted so. Good evenin’, she said, I’m Meronym, an’ I’m thankin’ you kindly for hostin’ my stay in the Valleys. Mylo was grinnin’ mocksome ’n’ toady at my anxin’, I could o’ killed him.

Sussy mem’ried her hostin’ manners first, an’ she settled our guests an’ sent Jonas to fetch brew ’n’ grinds ’n’ all. Meronym speaked, My people got a custom to give small presents to their hosts at the beginnin’ of a visit, so I hope you won’t mind?.?.?. She reached into a bag what she’d bringed an’ gived us presents. Ma got a fine pot what’d cost five–six bales o’ wool at Honokaa, an’ she was left breathy sayin’ she cudn’t accept such a presh gift ’cos welcomin’ strangers was Sonmi’s way, yay, welcomin’ should be free or not at all, but the Prescient woman answered these gifts wasn’t payments, nay, they was jus’ thanks b’fore kindnesses, an’ Ma din’t refuse the pot a second time, nay. Sussy ’n’ Catkin got necklesses what twinked starry, bug-eyed ’n’ joysome they was, an’ Jonas got a hole square mirror what fass’nated him, brighter ’n any busted shard what you still see now ’n’ again.

Mylo wasn’t grinnin’ so toadsome now, but I din’t like this giftin’ not a bit, nay, see this offlander was buyin’ my kin sure ’nuff an’ I wasn’t havin’ it. So I jus’ said the Shipwoman could stay in our dwellin’ but I din’t want her gift an’ that was that.

I said it ruder ’n I meant, an’ Ma looked spikers at me, but Meronym jus’ said, Sure I und’stand, like I’d speaked ord’nary ’n’ norm’ly.

Now a herd o’ visitors bleated to our dwellin’ that night an’ some nights after, from up ’n’ down the Nine Valleys, kin ’n’ bros ’n’ lastlife fam’ly ’n’ half-strangers what we only met at bart’rin’s, yay, ev’ryun from Mauka to Mormon came knockin’ to see if Old Ma Yibber spoke it true, that a real ’n’ livin’ Prescient was stayin’ at Bailey’s. We’d got to invite ev’ry last visitor inside o’ course an’ they gaped in wonderment like Sonmi herself was sittin’ in our kitchen, tho’ their ’mazement weren’t so great they cudn’t chomp our grinds an’ down our brew no worries, an’ as they drank years o’ questions ’bout Prescience an’ their whoahsome Ship came pourin’ thick ’n’ fast.

But the wyrd thing was this. Meronym seemed to answer the questions, but her answers didn’t quench your curio none, nay, not a flea. So my cuz Spensa o’ Cluny Dwellin’ asked, What makes your Ship move? The Prescient answered, Fusion engines. Ev’ryun nodded wise as Sonmi, Oh, fusion engines it is, yay, no un asked what “fusion engine” was ’cos they din’t want to