“Pottuvil,” Sam called out to him, as if knowing what he was wondering. She’d been talking to the woman while sitting with her own plate of food. “My Tamil’s not great, but she says her husband and son brought us in yesterday. Her name is Devika and her husband is Chandin. Their son is Ajith.” The woman smiled and nodded at Tusker as she heard the names. “They’re still out fishing now.”

“Wow, we drifted a long way!” Tusker exclaimed. “Your father must be worried sick.”

“Yeah, I should call the Deep Blue and at least tell him we’re alive. They don’t have a phone, but apparently we’re not too far from a guest house and we can walk over and make a call there. I can ask Thathi to send someone to pick us up.”

“Good point,” Tusker said, “I hate to impose on these people any further. Any chance there’s a place we can have a bath before we set off?”

“She said they’ve got a small outdoor tap we can use and some soap,” Sam said. “It’s not much, but like I said, you could sure use it.” She winked at Tusker. He grinned back at her. Devika walked to a small dresser and opened the top drawer. She pulled out two cotton sarongs and handed one to Sam and one to Tusker.

“Make sure you tie it correctly,” Sam said to Tusker. “She’ll kick us out if you have a wardrobe malfunction.”

Tusker laughed as he walked to the side door. “No guarantees!”

The tap was at waist height, on a naked pipe coming out of the side of the house and perched above a slab of cracked concrete. It was dark besides the light from the window and Tusker cautiously looked around before slipping out of his swim trunks. The water was cold but felt good on his salt-dried skin. He lathered up with the tiny sliver of soap and then rinsed off and shut off the tap. He was dripping wet but with no towel to dry off, he reached for the sarong, which hung on a peg nearby. When he turned, Sam was there. In the shadows, he could see that she was also naked.

“My turn,” she said quietly with a smile. She walked past him to the tap, trailing her hand along his naked flank. “Go inside and wait for me,” she said firmly. “And be careful,” she said, eyeing him below the waist. That sarong doesn’t leave much to the imagination. We don’t want to scare our poor hostess.”

A Father’s Secret

Aberdeen, Scotland. Two years earlier.