Chapter 4

Tirad was only five years old when his father entrusted him to the permanent care of the Saviour Ship. His mother had died at childbirth and his fisherman father was not able to take good care of his son. Especially that Tirad couldn’t swim. Whenever he fell into the water, he became breathless and turned blue and they had to pull him out. He couldn’t even move too much, jump, run or climb. He was weak and short-winded. Everyone knew from his childhood that he could never become a fisherman, boatman or a diver. His father had taught him how to swim but since he would suddenly lose his breath, swimming would put him in danger, hence every job that required swimming was dangerous both for him and his fellow workers. He wasn’t even able to look after the children; if any of them fell into the water, Tirad could not be trusted to get them out in time. He had to sit with the old men and women of the ship and help them with cooking and janitorial work. Tirad’s father wanted to migrate to one of the farming ships but those ships were located in Harlan province, and to enter this region, he had to remove his Saviour sea tattoo and denounce the Saviour. He was ready to do that for his son’s future and welfare. But the farming ships wouldn’t accept him for work that had more applicants than any other profession. He was only a fisherman that didn’t know their language and had no experience in farming. He had thought that he could wait until Tirad became older and send him off to a farming ship, but the thought of separating from his son even in the future saddened him.

Tirad was the only thing his wife had left behind for him. His wife was a brave woman, although very slick; she would work side by side with him and other fishermen on the sea. Sometimes, he thought to himself how was it that Tirad had not inherited much from him or his mother. He had even questioned his wife’s chastity in his mind but had never allowed these kinds of thoughts to distance him from his son. Their ship didn’t have too many occupants and such betrayals would never go unnoticed by the sharp eyes of the prying, old women and jealous girls of the ship. He knew Tirad’s mother since they were children. She loved the sea and the boats and if they would let her, she preferred to spend the nights on the boats rather than on the ship. They had fallen in love on their first fishing trip together. They were among five other fishermen on a trip that lasted a few weeks on the water. They had announced their engagement right after the fishing group disembarked their fish cargo on the ship. A year later, right about the time Tirad was conceived, a Saviour Missioner had come to their ship and officially wed them by Saviour Rituals. The missioner had warned Tirad’s mother not to go to the sea to fish before her child was born. The missioner could not prevent her by referring to the Saviour Rules. He had just told her that the waves and the heavy lifting work could harm the foetus. But Tirad’s mother, like many other girls of the sea, would not listen to such warnings.