The head-guard is sitting on a stool monitoring all the activities. Tirad introduces himself and the head-guard gets up from his stool with respect. Tirad asks him about the boat schedules. The head-guard tells him that the person in charge will come in an hour after the morning arrivals, when the lines shorten a bit. Tirad asks him again about any boat that might leave for the Saviour Island that morning. The head-guard peeks into a little notebook that lies on a desk in the booth corner. He doesn’t find anything and shows the ledger to Tirad. It’s today’s schedule with the name of every boat, their destination and time of departure. None of them goes to the Saviour Island. He checks the schedule for tomorrow and the day after and he still doesn’t find any boats leaving for his home. But there is a boat sailing to the Avij Ship tomorrow at noon. He gets anxious all of a sudden. What if a boat arrives tomorrow from the Saviour Island with a bad news? He has to wait for the port officer, pay for Asin and Dalia’s trip to Avij and find an emergency boat for himself. Sending off the two women means he has at least carried out one of his tasks.

Tirad asks the head-guard about how he can find an emergency boat. But he doesn’t know. He has to wait until the port officer comes. A fisher’s sack has torn apart in the booth and lots of dead slippery bodies flow on the booth floor. The head-guard pulls up his legs in disgust so that his feet won’t touch the cold, slithery skin of the dead fish. The unlucky fisherman ties the bottom of his sack and start gathering the fish that lie all over the booth floor. The guards are just looking at him and people in the lined up crowd shout, swearing at the clumsy fisherman who has taken more time than he should. Tirad bends down and helps the poor man gather his fish. The head-guard exits the booth to audit the harbour. Tirad didn’t get a chance to talk to the head-guard about the dead pregnant women case. He needs to wait for the lines to end and then ask the guards one by one. They are too busy right now and won’t answer him properly.

Tirad goes out of the booth, stepping on the harbour. He takes a deep breath, taking in the cool, fresh breeze. He stretches his arms again and yawns. There are so many children playing in the water, laughing and screaming with joy. The Oxan harbour divides into many branches and there are boats docked on both side of every branch. Tirad walks along the main, longest branch. Some boats are embarking their supplies and boarding their passenger and some are disembarking the goods and sending off their tired travellers. He counts the boats. There are at least fifty boats docked by each branch, smaller boats closer to the main land and larger ones at the ends. He tries to guess which boats have been laying there for a few days and see which ones are idle. But how can he know for sure? The port officer must have arrived by now. He turns around, heading back to the booth.