Thursday, May 14, 2009
pigs vs pirates
Most of the crew had stopped carrying firearms. Even Nadif, who once wouldn't leave his hut without a rocket launcher, went empty handed. The pigs were more than enough. Ghedi remembered when they would play long cat and mouse games with the ships, circling around, fighting their hoses and bottles, more circling. Now they have pigs. Just the sight of them sent most crews running deep into their ships, locked away. Sometimes Ghedi never saw them, even after they had their ransom and had gone away.
The sickness washed across Ghedi's village some months ago. Those with television ran through the village in terror, screaming about death from Mexico, death from pigs. But when Ghedi fell ill, he did not die. He coughed and wheezed and ached, but after some days felt better. No one in his village died, except one with the television, who threw herself from a cliff in panic. They still said she died of the flu.
Korfa, the leader of their crew, first had the idea. If the west was so afraid of this sickness, perhaps they could use it against them. Ghedi looked up to Korfa, and tried to learn everything about pirating from him. At the first ship of the day, it was Ghedi who stood. He raised his sister's piglet high into the air, yelled "Flu!" and then rubbed the pig over his face and chest. The ship burst into panic, the westerners crying and running and hiding. Korfa laughed his deep laugh, slapped Ghedi hard on the back, and told his crew to follow, they had work to do.
Ghedi scratched his sister's piglet under the chin, and smiled.
larger one here.
