Текст книги "Рыжик-мореплаватель / Ginger, the sailor"

8. Anxious Night

From his shelter Ginger heard the scary people with loud voices leaving the deck. He twittered a little, sobbed with injury and fell asleep.

He dreamed that a huge dog roared somewhere below and her roaring became so long, steady and constant that Ginger even got used to it. But when he woke up someone was scratching outside the tarpaulin, whining and barking.

"Here it is – the dog from my dream!" thought Ginger and began dashing in the dark. Of course, a dog is not that scary as a cat, you can hide from any dog in the tree, but that day there was no tree near at hand and the poor sparrow couldn’t even fly away.

9. Deceptive Freedom

At that time a human voice said loudly:

"Well, Changa… catch your rat!"

At that very second the curtains soared up under Ginger’s head. Blinded with the daylight, the sparrow flew up, fell down, flew up again and sat on something like a traverse.

"Help! They are killing me! Why? Why?" twittered he all the ship round. "What have I done you wrong? What?"

Down on the deck the sailors were standing half-round a big black dog showing teeth. It means that there was a dog in the dream, there definitely was. Ginger had not made a mistake.

"What-t’s that?" asked one of the sailors – the one with an earring.

"A sparrow," said another, and all the sailors burst into loud laughter.

"Here is your rat!"

"It’s Changa’s fault. She was whining, scratching and decided that a rat had come in from the dock." the young sailor said.

Of course Ginger didn’t understand the human language as people don’t understand the bird’s one but with the help of intonation he guessed that nobody was going to hurt him. That’s why before he decided to tell them everything that had swelled in his soul. While flying around the market he had learnt the manner of speaking from market women.

"Well? Have you caught me? Bastards! Bastards!" cried Ginger at the top of his lungs. "And let your lop-eared dog roar and grin as she wishes. You won’t reach me, you won’t!"

The sailors looked at the red talkative sparrow with interest.

"What a talkative bird!"

"He must be swearing us in dirty," guessed the sailor with the earring. "It’s me who covered him with the tarpaulin yesterday, that’s why he is railing.

"He must be hungry."

"Of course! He has been in detention since yesterday."

"I have some sunflower seeds in my pocket… Will he eat them?"

"Let’s try…"

Ginger saw one of the sailors felt for something in his pocket and became alert and ready to fly away any second. "He’ll take out a slingshot," thought the sparrow. But the sailor took a handful of seeds and began pouring them on the tarpaulin saying:

"Chuck-chuck-chuck!"

"It’s a sparrow, not a chicken," laughed the sailors.

"Birds of a feather."

Ginger looked sideways on the sunflower seeds with surprise. They were big, oily and looked terrifically tempting.

"Do you want to allure me?" he twittered but nobody including a dog made any threatening gestures. Ginger examined the hands of the sailors with an vigilant eye and having satisfied that nobody had a slingshot, he flew down on the tarpaulin and began pecking.

Like all sparrows in the world he was looking around while eating. Chief Chiefich didn’t forget to remind his children: "When eating turn your head all around!" and this is the difference of human upbringing.

And now first of all Ginger was seeking the enemies on the shore looking hinter and thither but there were none there was no shore as well! At first Ginger thought he was sitting not correctly: if the sea was on his left, then the sea should be on his right… The sparrow changed his position… But the sea was on his right… and on his left too!

Ginger stopped pecking and flew up to the top of the mast. The sea was everywhere all around him!!!

"What’s that? What’s that?" Ginger twittered. "They’ve deceived me! They’ve stolen the city!"

It was incredible. The city was gone! The whole city! – with all the streets, houses, markets, ports, beaches, cats, dogs and neighbourly sparrows… Instead of the city there was a depressing sea and a gloomy autumn day with low torn clouds.

Poor Ginger understood nothing. He was free, but didn’t know where to look for his kin, where to fly.

The sailors exchanged words with each other:

"He seems to be going to fly home."

"He will not fly that far…"

"Do you think so?"

"Count the miles we’ve passed…"

"Really, the sparrows don’t fly that far."

"He’ll drown, poor dear."

"A pity! He is a funny sparrow."

"And red as the sun!"

Having cleaned his crushed feathers the sparrow twittered the farewell – and took wings! A cold autumn wind happened to be contrary and tossed him as a maple leaf stripped from the branch. Low grey clouds carried moisture and soon Ginger was soaked to the skin.

The further he flew the lower he was to the sea and the sea seemed to be waiting for its prey, threw cold splashes toward the sparrow, reached him with foam palms of the waves.

To crown it all someone’s black shadow flashed between the clouds and Ginger remembered the story of a familiar swallow about awful stormy petrels which don’t spare birdies’ lives… What should he do? He turned a somersault in the air and saw the stern of a leaving ship.

Poor Ginger realized that he was dying. The stormy petrel will peck him or the sea wave will shoot him down or the ship, on which he’d just been sailing, will leave him for good and all. The black awful dog and severe pirates with earrings are better than cold water and predatory fish, which will swallow you.

Having smelt his oats Ginger flapped his wings very fast and followed the ship. The poor bird’s heart had escaped him, his little body become full of leaden tiredness, the light had faded away in his eyes, when the sparrow caught up with the ship and fell on the stern insensible.

The sailors surrounded the poor thing.

"He’s lost his strength, poor dear."

"But he’s alive, a little devil. He is breathing!"

"Sparrows are viable."

"We should take him to the sickbay."

They brought a shoe box, laid a clean rag and put Ginger there. The box was put to the privy place on the deck.

"May be we should take him to the cabin or else we’ll fly away again."

"Don’t do it, brers," said Serga. "The sparrow is a free bird. Let him live where he wants. If he doesn’t like it here – he is free to do as he likes."

10. Free Passenger

Ginger got accustomed and started looking for a shelter at first. There is always a quiet secluded nook on board a merchant ship. Our hero chose a place aft under the shed. A tight finger thick shutter release cable became a roost for him.

The sailors approved his choice and brought here under the shed a "table ware" – a box with a fodder and a bowl with fresh water.

But no comfort could change the cocky sparrow’s disposition. He hissed sternly and cussed at everyone approaching him, and mostly good-natured Changa suffered from him. Ginger sincerely thought that the dog wanted to eat him, and he didn’t forget to remind her about it.

"What? No deal? No deal?" twittered he from the mast. "Scarecrow! Scarecrow! Fleas eat you! Smudgy …»

Changa wagged her luxuriant tail as a sign of her friendly disposition, but Ginger had never been on friendly terms with dogs before and he didn’t understand he was invited to have fun.

The only thing he understood rather well was an invitation to dinner. Once he saw Changa eating and got interested in this process.

"What? What is it, scarecrow?" twittered the sparrow from … "Such a big bowl! Damn you! – You gorge so much!

A bowl was really huge and a chowder with bones seemed very tasty.

Changa moved away with tact, settled on the deck, and even closed her eyes.

Ginger looked around but saw no danger. He took wing, hovered above the bowl and like a small helicopter alighted to the edge of that huge bowl. While doing it he kept eyes on the dog, incessantly awaiting for some dirty tricks. But Changa was phlegmatic and patient like all newfoundlands; she even didn’t stir a finger.

The sparrow looked sideways having especially mentioned boiled soft beans and lumps of white bread in a greasy broth. Ready to take wing instantly, Ginger pecked both, pinched some meat from a poorly picked bone – and he grew bolder. In a minute he jumped on the edge, picking the most delicious things, he even twittered from time to time:

"That’s what dogs eat! That’s it! Such a wonderful life this black … has!"

The sailors, watching at him, burst out laughing.

Some time later Ginger was the first to fly to the bowl when it was brought from the caboose. Jumping to the edge, picking the most delicious things, he flew to the mast, and only after that Changa approached the bowl.

The sailors laughed:

"This red sparrow being on duty in the caboose: nobody will eat till he tested the food. In due course when the dog and the sparrow made friends, they started eating from one bowl simultaneously. The whole crew free of watch admired this performance. Enormous, shaggy Changa was lapping from her side and fidgety Ginger jumped from the other side, pecked out tasty things and constantly chattered:

"What’s going on! What’s going on! Ginger is being eaten round!"

11. Mirage

It was getting warmer, in the morning the sun lit marine mirror-like surface of the sea, and Ginger returned to life. At daybreak he flew to the mast and started singing odes to the warmth.

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" twittered the sparrow. "Wake up everybody! Be quick! Be quick, lazy bones!"

The sailors came to the deck, stretched themselves, yawned and only here noticed the sparrow:

"Look here! This red sparrow is already on the watch! The imp is twittering."

"He awakes us! And notice it happens only when the weather is fine. We need no barometers."

But once hardly had the ode begun it suddenly broke off. Singing the praise to the sunrise, Ginger suddenly saw the outlines of a remote city on the horizon and he choked over. His heart was throbbing happily.

"We are back! We are back! Soon I’ll see my garret" the sparrow twittered, jumping on the upper yard of the mast.

The closer the dry cargo ship came to the shore the more excited Ginger was and he even flew higher in the sky so that to see the outlines of this native city better.

But the outlines were different. No matter how hard Ginger tried to see well known since childhood roofs, streets, markets, port… There were roofs, and markets, but still they were strange…

"Look what the red sparrow is doing," the sailors said, nodding at their pet. "He wants home."

"Silly, he doesn’t understand we’re abroad."

"There are no foreign countries for birds."

"It can’t be explained to him. He’ll fly away and disappear."

"Strangers will beat him. Native sparrows are cruel!

And Ginger was striving to the bank. But at first it was far and when they came closer he finally realized that his native town was substituted. And when the dry cargo ship was mooring, the sparrow remained on the mast.

"Good of you, a red sparrow!" the sailors said, leaving the ship. "We’ll walk a little here… And you’ll be the chief while we are out, and you keep watch over our ship."

12. Air Aggressors

The local port had a remote resemblance with a native one well known since childhood… Both cranes and cars and even carriages were different here, and people spoke in such a strange way that Ginger could hardly understand any usual words. Only sea-gulls, crows and pigeons looked like «native».

And here are the sparrows! The pod of grey birdies occupied the mast not far from Ginger.

"Who are you? Who are you?" asked Ginger politely.

"And who are you? Stranger here? Stranger here?" twittered one of the strangers in a picky manner and jumped to Ginger from the left side.

"What for did you fly?" asked the second one and jumped from the right.

"See what feathers the stranger has! Bright like a fire!" egged on the third one.

"They are all mine, anyway!" proudly replied Ginger. "Look at yours, blackhead. Have you spent the night in the chimney?

"Are you still teasing us? Beat the stranger!" cried the third one, and the local sparrows attacked the poor traveler all over.

But Ginger was considered to be the best fighter in his city not for nothing. He managed to dodge the blows and attack himself, he shot upwards and then downwards like a stone. – In a word, he was fighting like a regular air ace. Only yellow and grey feathers were flying over the mast.

But the forces were not equal. One of the attackers pecked Ginger archly into the back of his head and the young traveler fell down the deck flickering by his wings.

With the triumphant twittering, the enemy flock went after him willing to do away with the stranger, but nothing of that sort. A big black dog rushed from round the corner and attacked the feathered bandits with a loud barking. They flew extensively in horror and since then they never dared to come close to the dry cargo ship.

Changa came to Ginger and started to lick him with her long soft tongue.

Ginger opened his eyes a little and saw a big dog’s mouth. He was unable either to get frightened or to fly away.

"Will you eat me?" he asked in a weak voice.

"You are a fool!" said Changa in her dog’s language. "Friends are never eaten."

13. Water of Life

The sailors came back to the ship full of joy and they brought some presents. They bought Changa a leather muzzle with a long lead.

"Now, we can take you for a walk a shore, you, stupid thing! The police don’t allow to walk the dog in any other way."

Ginger has got a wonderful blue bathtub as a present. It was put nearby the sparrow’s seed-can.

"We are sailing to the hot countries!" explained the chief sailor Serga, filling the bathtub with water. "You will bathe there, little brother!"

First Ginger treated the present with some distrust and behaved him as if he didn’t notice it. But one hot midday when everybody was hiding in a shade, Ginger’s exultant tweeting came out from the stern.

"Water of life! Water of life! Wonderful!" The sparrow was crying loudly.

He was splashing in his bathtub in such an ecstasy that the splashes were going all over.

Since that day, bathing became one of the Ginger’s favorite occupations. The sailors filled the tub with some water regularly, but in a minute it happened to be on deck. The puddles got dry very quick: the dry cargo ship was heading for the South, to the hot Africa.

14. The Trespasser

After the fight with the Turkish sparrows, Ginger finally made friends with Changa – a good-natured Newfoundland dog, in other words – a «diver», because such dogs are taught to save sinkers. The sparrow made sure that Changa wouldn’t eat him and that was enough to consider him «his own» dog. When there were no people nearby, whom Ginger was still afraid of, he positioned himself on the dog’s back and went riding as if an Indian rajah on the elephant. While doing that he was shouting at his animal as a real master.

"Hasten your steps, you, scarecrow! Otherwise, we never get to the galley! I could get there myself but I wouldn’t be given such a big bone as you!"

Ginger enjoyed pecking some meat from the bones, which the cook used to give to the dog. When it happened the sparrow got very excited.

"Stop, you, scarecrow, wait a little! Nothing will be left after you eat the bone!" chirruped he.

And there Ginger was right, because Changa as any other sailor liked cleanness. There was no need to clean her bowl: small bones were cracked by her strong teeth and then eaten, big bones got polished till glittering.

As any other dog, even a trained one, Changa didn’t like any encroachments upon her food.

Usually she used to let others pull her about the withers, pat her on her back and scratch her ears. But while eating she could snarl at anybody touching her bowl.

There were only three exceptions: the chief sailor Serga, who took her when she was a puppy in the Malaysian port and was considered the master, the cook, the owner of the most important place on the ship – the galley, and Ginger. It concerned Ginger most: neither Serga nor the cook encroached upon dog’s food, only Ginger did that. He used to sit on the bone and hiss:

"You’ll have a lot of time for it! Let poor Ginger have his bit!"

And Changa was obediently waiting till her little friend was over with the bone, pecking here and there.

"Just look: he is a sparrow but he gobbles the meat!" The sailors said in surprise.

"What odd fellows are you!" said Serga. "What does any birdie eat when free? A mosquito, a larva or a worm…Birds can’t live without meat: how will they flap all day long? Is it possible to find a worm on deck? That’s why he’s got settled near the bowl."

"See, she is sitting without batting an eyelid!"

"Do you think he will eat much of her bone?"

"Anyway, another dog won’t let it be!"

Serga scratched his head.

"I am very much surprised too, chaps! It seems to be her motherly instinct. The sparrow is like a future puppy for her."

That sophisticated conversation was interrupted by the stentorian voice of the boatswain.

"Stop jabbering, devils! The Athens is near at hand and we need to put everything in order superbly! The Hellas is in any way the ancient world!"

In the Hellas Ginger went a shore for the first time. He saw his friends, sailors, going down the gang-plank and Changa with a lead and muzzle going along them proudly. But he didn’t dare to go a shore for a long time: he remembered the Istanbul sparrows. The only thing he let himself do was to fly from the dry cargo ship mast to the high wall. The sailors approved of that idea.

"What Ginger! He has managed to be in Greece!"

"The most important thing is that he has been there illegally!"

"No visas or passports for him to cross the boarder!"

The trespasser flew back and was very glad to do that, because that day he managed to do without any acquaintance with the feathered society.

15. Down Africa

The dry cargo ship arrived to the hottest continent at dawn. First, as usual, the crew took part in the loading and the unloading. Some sailors were operating the hoisting crane, others received the cargo in the deep holds. After that, those who wished went ashore.

"You can do what you like! As for me I am going to watch the crocodiles," said Serga.

And three more people volunteered to join him.

"Will we take Ginger with us?"

"No, this won’t do. He won’t go."

"Do you mean he won’t fly?"

"It doesn’t matter go or fly! The matter is that he wouldn’t like to join us."

"It’s up to him," said Serga. "Let’s block the way, people! Let’s see, what will happen."

They stopped near the ship ladder and pretended to be waiting for somebody. Ginger was fluttering from one mast to another twittering lively.

"What’s up? What’s up? Are you leaving? Leaving me? It’s unfair! It’s unfair!"

Changa looked up and wagged her tail as if she invited him to travel.

"Why? What for?" wondered Ginger. "Strange lands, foreign countries… Don’t you feel comfortable on board?" But the sailors pretended to be leaving.

"What awful ingratitude?" cried Ginger. "You’ve left me! Abandoned me!"

He looked around. There were no sparrow-strangers. At least, he made up his mind. He flew down from the mast and began to circle over the sailors.

"Hey, you! Callous ingratitude creatures. And you, lop-eared scarecrow. All right, I’m flying with you."

Fluttering from one post to another, from one post to another, he followed the crew into the depths of Africa.

Everything was unusual here – even trees along the road. Their thick shaggy stems seemed to be covered with long hair, enormous leaves were trailing from the tops to the ground. And what magnificent birds were fluttering in the branches! What animals they met on the way!

On seeing a huge two-humped horse frightened Ginger took wing to the top of the palm. Before he had time to twitter he noticed a huge bird of prey in the sky. The bird noticed him too, folded its wings and started falling like a stone. Ginger squeaked like a mouse, and rushed after the crew. Fortunately, the crew hadn’t gone too far. The sparrow fell in front of Changa and hid himself under her. The dog looked up. The bird of prey suddenly turned round and shooted upwards.

"You should have let me know" she sounded hurt.

The sailors turned their eyes to the bird of prey.

"It looks like a falcon."

"Or a golden eagle."

"It doesn’t matter. What’s more important – it’s a strong bird. But for Changa it would have eaten Ginger."

"Don’t fly too far."

"Keep close to the crew, you are in Africa!"

"It was the camel, Ginger was scared of, my friends."

But camels appeared to be the most peaceful creatures as compared to those animals he saw later.