ONLINE ONLY: All the Opposite Here

September 2, 2011

Reading time min

It was a fine morning—cool, with a good breeze. A flock of terns appeared, swooping and diving. Land was near. On deck people pushed and shoved all around her for railing space, but Minke held on tightly. She'd had that spot for an hour, and she wasn't going to let it go.

Land appeared, so distant and vague it almost could have been a cloud before turning into an uneven rope-colored strip across the horizon.

She pulled her coat around her neck against the wind. Where was the town? Nothing stood out. Even as the water became shallower and turned a milky green, there seemed to be no life ahead.

The quiet onboard said that others were as perplexed as she. "There?" someone said tentatively. Yes, she detected movement along the waterfront and beyond that, a few buildings the color of the gray surrounds. Cassian pushed through for a space beside her.

Where were the beautiful houses made of stone, the waving grasses of the pampas? Where was the town center? Sander had called Enkhuizen just a fishing village, so anyone would expect something grander, but look at Comodoro! A bunch of hovels thrown onto miserable dry land. She made out teams of horses hitched to wagons at the shore, people in dark clothing moving about. Wind devils swirled.

"Where is everything?" she asked.

"Give it time, Minke," Cassian said.

"But where will we live?"

"For the time being, in a hotel called the Nuevo Hotel de la Explotación del Petróleo."

She was interested in the prospect of staying in a hotel, something she'd never done. "What does that mean?"

"It's the hotel for the drilling of oil."

A valley of disappointment followed every small rise in her spirits. She leaned over the rail to look into the water. "At least I can swim in the sea. It looks delicious. As soon as it's warm enough, I'm going right in."

"It's almost winter."

"Oh, Cassian," she said. "It's April."

"Oh, Minke," he said.

She turned to see that forever smile on his lips, as if the world were constantly amusing. "Now what?"

"It's all opposite here. Summer is winter, winter is summer. It's hot in the north and cold in the south." He made a little circling motion with his hand. "Water swirls counterclockwise in the basin."


From A Young Wife by Pam Lewis. Copyright © 2011 by Pamela Lewis. Reprinted by permission of Simon and Schuster, Inc.

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