Wrecker. Noel O’Reilly

      Tegen gave me a look to make me keep my mouth shut.

      ‘Never mind, I don’t want him now,’ said Loveday. ‘Spoilt goods.’ She gathered her shawl round her with a peevish shrug.

      Betsy wasn’t ready to let it rest. ‘Her sort only ever look out for themselves.’

      I wasn’t going to let that pass. ‘It be One and All in this village, don’t it, ladies?’ I said, digging the pole into the seaweed and twisting it fiercely. ‘But some get a better share than others, I seem. There’s a reason why some in this village has whacks of money and others be scat.’

      ‘There’s none that’s poor that don’t deserve to be,’ said Loveday.

      I shook the weed off the pole so that it landed right at their feet. ‘If you could see yourself, Loveday,’ I said. ‘Puffed up like a bladder of lard.’ Tegen took my arm and tried to pull me away from them.

      ‘That carrot-topped varmint have shown her colours again today,’ said Betsy.

      ‘No father to take her in hand, that’s why,’ said Loveday, as they wandered towards the eastern end of the beach.

      ‘Keep your pert sayings to yourselves,’ I muttered to myself when they were gone.

      ‘You shouldn’t rise to it,’ said Tegen. ‘Hold your temper. Of late, you be like a river fit to burst its banks. I swear you enjoy vexing people.’ She stooped to gather driftwood.

      ‘So you want to keep me in my place, as well?’

      ‘You know I always take your side, Mary,’ she said. A strand of frizzy, red hair fell across her face.

      ‘I do know it,’ I answered. And to show I meant well, I went over and looped the loose lock of hair behind her ear, and hugged her.

      Someone signalled to touch pipe. I didn’t want to sit with the other women and feel their silence so full of meaning, so I went down to the crab pools, and ate my crust and cheese alone. The sea stretched to the ends of the earth and I foresaw an empty future ahead of me, an endless round of packing pilchards, of laundry and baking days. When I’d finished eating, I slipped behind a big boulder where I couldn’t be spied upon and hoisted up my skirts. I pressed my bare ass against the cold stone and let the earth’s slow heartbeat throb through my flesh for a long moment. It would bring me luck. Seeing a sharp stone by my feet, I took it up and gouged a limpet from the rock and split it open. What a pang it always gave me when the sea juices spilled over my tongue.

      I walked across the shingle to where the wash rolled forward in rapid shelves. The water was icy around my ankles and the foam rushed past me up the beach, sucking sand from under my toes. It was as though the land was moving towards the sea and not the other way round. I remembered the feeling from my childhood, but instead of the old giddy enchantment, I feared the outhaul would pull me into the ocean’s depths.

      From out in the water there was a groan, a seal perhaps. I opened my eyes and could make out a shape bobbing on the waves no more than thirty feet away. But it was only a barrel, perhaps one from the ship that had struck the rocks so recently. Something made me keep an eye on the barrel, though. A new current got under it and set it turning slowly, until I saw a dark shape show against the side. Something was strapped to the tub – no, someone, a man, his head lying on top. Maybe he saw me, for at that moment he looked up wearily and turned his face in my direction. His face was drawn and harrowed, and the sight of this soul in torment put me in mind of the Jesu and how he might have looked if he had turned towards you on the climb up to Calvary.

      The swell was pushing the barrel towards the Zarn, the great black cave where smugglers unloaded their goods. If nobody helped the man he would be broken up on the rocks, and the barrel with him. I tried to call for Tegen but my words got stuck in my throat. I ran towards where the women were sat, a hundred yards off to the east, huddled together behind a great boulder for shelter. I cried out again, more lustily, cupping my hands to my mouth, ‘Over here!’ But there was no sign that they heard me. I called again, so loud I tore my throat and then I saw Tegen’s dumpy form as she got to her feet and peered over at me.

      ‘Quick, Teg, there be someone in the water! A man near drowned. He be heading for they rocks. In God’s name help me,’ I shouted. She lifted her skirts and began running across the strand. I was already wading out towards the barrel, the freezing water rising under my skirts and taking my breath away. Tegen wasn’t far behind. The barrel pitched in the swell, showing itself one minute and vanishing the next. The water rose above my waist and each new surge covered my shoulders and slapped my face. My skirts were soaked through and the cloth weighed me down. Being only a woman, I’d never learnt to swim, and I was fearful of being pulled out of my depth. As I got nearer to the man I saw there was an oar under each of his armpits and the oars were tied to the barrel. I had to stay clear of those oars or they would dash out my brains, so I waited for a safe moment, dived in between them, and threw my arms around the barrel on the other side to where the man was tied. The side of my head hit the barrel as I did so. Then I pushed the barrel towards the beach with all my might, but the best I could do was slow its advance towards the Zarn.

      Tegen’s body slammed into my back. A powerful swell climbed over us, covering our heads and lifting my feet off the sand. My sister had a powerful pair of arms and between the two of us we inched the barrel towards the beach, straining with all our might. The incoming tide was behind us but a wayward current wanted to drive us into the Zarn. We were soon almost done for, but Nancy Spargo arrived and put her broad back into it as well. In time we reached the shallows and the barrel scudded onto wet sand. Women appeared and helped us untie the foreigner from the barrel and haul him up the beach.

      I lay flat out on my back trying to catch my breath. The world seemed to throb around me, the sounds now loud, now soft. When I lifted my head I saw stark shapes against the sky, and at first took them for angels in Heaven, but it was only a crowd down from the village. White clouds floated by above me while the strand rolled underneath me. The pounding in my forehead where the barrel had struck me was like a hole made of light, and the brightness hurt me the way it does if you stare too long at the sun. I turned my head and saw a world strangely aslant, a dream that might melt away at any moment, and it was then I had my first proper look at the man. He lay with his head in Nancy Spargo’s lap, and what I would have given to take her place! Such a long straight nose he had, and dark eyelashes trembling on his cheeks. His wet locks were black as tar, clinging to his neck and collar. He was a big fellow, broad-shouldered and tall with it, going by how his limbs stretched out on the sand. Dazed as I was, I believed my own fancy had charmed him out of the sea.

      ‘Should we fetch a priest to give him his rites?’ said Nancy. Her voice was from another world.

      ‘A doctor more like,’ said another woman.

      I sat up, not able yet to get to my feet. Of a sudden, there was two of everybody and I didn’t know which one to look at. Jake Spargo, Nancy’s husband, was down on his knees trying to make the foreigner drink from a cup of liquor. ‘This be the best medicine for him,’ Jake said. The foreigner’s head lolled this way and that, as if the smell of the drink upset him. ‘Take a drop of that to warm ’ee,’ said Jake, tipping the rum between his lips. The man choked and groaned, his features twisting in pain, as if poison were being forced down his throat instead of prime Jamaican rum. His hand flapped about feebly, trying to swat the cup away, and the liquor rolled over his chin.

      ‘Poor fellow, who have done such a thing to he?’ said Nancy, her shoulders damp from her dripping hair.

      ‘Whoever lashed this fellow to the barrel meant to save his life and not to hurt him,’ said Jake. ‘I seen the like afore now.’

      ‘Someone should take the foreigner indoors to thaw out,’ said another woman.

      ‘We’ll give the man house room,’ I said quickly, standing up, and reeling. ‘He can rest up there till the doctor be fetched from Newlyn.’

      Tegen whispered in my ear. ‘Whatever do you be saying of?’ She took a firm grip of my arm. ‘It don’t belong to