“What about contraceptives?” Kane said.

“Essential service.”

“The pill?”

The doctor studied his face, nodded.

“You’re very curious.”

“I’m trying to imagine life here,” Kane said. “The doctor must know all the secrets.”

Nulty smiled. “A few.”

“What’s the craziest thing you’ve dealt with while on here?”

He considered this, downed his rum.

“A case of telepathy.”

“Telepathy?”

“Man said he could read people’s minds. He’d been stung by a jellyfish and the poison got to his brain. But he voiced people’s thoughts with some degree of accuracy for twenty-four hours or so. Had to be airlifted off when he started speaking prophecies that upset the ladies. Filth, but also what we eventually determined was an African dialect. That was the strangest thing about it. The man had never set foot in Africa. Claimed to be possessed by the slaves who’d worked here. Possessed by their voices.”

The doctor shrugged. A silence fell. Each man seemed to feel the darkness lapping at the bar, a darkness filled with the ghosts of men far from home, severed from their lives.

“My round,” the electrician said eventually.

The clock behind the bar ticked toward ten thirty p.m. No sign that closing time was approaching. Kane wondered if this was enough progress for one night. He’d made his first foray into companionship. It hadn’t been an entirely unproductive day. They drank a final round, then the doctor checked his watch. Frankie checked the clock. They looked at each other.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Frankie said.

“Shall we?”

“Fuck it. Let’s do it.”

Both turned to Kane.

“How do you feel?” Nulty asked.

“Okay,” Kane said.

“Think you can drive?”

Kane thought of Sergeant Morrogh’s warnings about drunk driving, then of the winding roads thick with crustacean life. But he wasn’t here to keep his nose clean.

“Sure.”

“We need a lift,” the doctor said. “We shall introduce you to the fairest sights on this isle, but we need wheels.”

The electrician grinned.

“Fairest sights man ever did see.”

“A place you’d never find.”

“If you can drive us there.”

“Fancy going to a party?”

“I’d love to go to a party,” Kane said.

17

The men directed him north, away from Georgetown into darkness. The doctor sat beside him, the electrician in the back. The road was full of potholes and little pinpricks of light where the land crabs were still flowing. Kane concentrated on keeping to the road. The white-painted stones along the edge were a life-saving device, he realized. Then they stopped and there was no way of telling where the road gave way to the rocks.

Nulty lit a small cigar and held it out the window.

“Listen to that,” he said. “The waves.”

“Rollers,” Kane said.

“So you’ve heard about the rollers?”

“A bit.”

Both men peered out toward the sea.

“Kill your headlights,” Nulty said.

“Are you sure?”