Page 3 of Dominion
“What they want with me and all us?” the man asked him.
Mateo looked at him. “I don’t know.”
“Too bad, for me want to know, me do,” the man said, pouting.
“Me too,” Mateo said, then he winced a little as he rubbed a sore spot on the back of his head.
“Me… me helped you, me did,” the man said, pointing to Mateo’s head.
Mateo continued to rub the sore spot, noting that the crusted blood was gone. He looked at his fingers, only seeing sweat and a few dried flakes of blood and what looked like old pus. He remembered then. He’d been so sick on the ship, passing in and out of consciousness and nauseated beyond all reason. His body had been feverish and he had hoped he would die without knowing he was dying. But of course, that hadn’t happened as he was wide awake now and his sickness was fading.
“Yes… you almost goner, you. They let me save you, they did,” the man said.
Mateo looked at him. “Why? Why you?”
The man shrugged. “Says you too pretty, they say.” He grinned again. “Other say you killed bandit… you should suffer, they say.” The man lifted his finger, digging it into his nose, and pulled a booger free from his nostril. Mateo resisted the urge to frown as the man ate the tiny, yellowish ball of dried snot. “Me good at fixing wounds, me am. You almost die, you did. Me told them me could save you, me did. They wanted to toss you over ship, they did.”
The news that he had been spared a freeing death only to be saved for a worse fate didn’t settle too well with Mateo as he thought about what it all meant. On the ship, he had been ready to die, but now… with new life flowing into him, he wasn’t so sure. He still felt feverish, but not nearly as sick as he’d been before.
“Do you know how long we were at sea?” Mateo asked the man.
“Fifteen days, fourteen nights, me counted, me did,” he replied.
Mateo looked at the man, his lip turned down in a frown. “I do not know if I should have gratitude for you saving my life or not.”
“Ahhh, be nice, you. Me was happy to save you, me was” the man implored.
“Save me for what?” Mateo whispered softly to himself as he looked back up at the sky. Whatever was coming, he promised that he would live, if only to maybe one day see his family again.
