Chapter 26: The Drowned Child

There was a little girl sitting in the bow when Mei woke on the twenty-sixth. She was about seven. She had two plaits tied with red string and a blue cotton jacket too big for her, the sleeves rolled up four times, and she was sitting on the bow bench with her bare feet swinging, dripping, looking at Fish. Fish was sitting on the stove lid with his bound hands on his knees, looking back at her. Neither of them seemed to have said anything for some time. "Are you a fish?" said the little girl. "No," said Fish. "The lady calls you Fish. I heard her. Last night. She said, Fish, hand me the rope." "That's a name. It's not what I am." "What are you?" Fish considered this. "A dragon," he said. The little girl looked at him with deep suspicion. "You don't look like a dragon. Dragons…