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31: For History

 
Sunreader dotscript
Portfolio 17
Page 9
Jersey Saple
 

Matters related to the arrival of Rutherford Cross Jr., a.k.a. Pec-Pec, on Thomas Island.

Might I break form long enough to pose a thought question? How can history be preserved with any credibility when its witnesses cannot agree even on the very day of its happening?

That complaint stated, I will recede again into my preferred journalistic anonymity to record as closely as can be determined by a gossipy blind man what has transpired this week on Thomas Island. It is an account pieced together from the varied testimony of docksmen, wood whits, a jailer, and one of Big Tom's wives (whose name will not be recorded here).

Not the least of the unusual events was the actual arrival of Pec-Pec, known variously as a Rafer god, a thief, a magic-man, a charlotte, a rogue, and a revolutionary. All agree that his skimmer arrived under no visible power or piloting. Big Tom has stated to many that he boarded the ship; that it left port; and that he consulted with the lone habitant of the skimmer, Pec-Pec, for half of an hour. Numerous observers on the dock swear that the captain had stepped out of sight onto the skimmer's deck for no more than ten seconds before he returned with vomit in his beard. (Cross reference to previous observations concerning Big Tom and a substance commonly known as "the powder," as well as a rogue trader known by the name Delano and a produce man called Steinbrenner. Portfolio 3, Pages 2 and 7.)

The arrival of Pec-Pec signals a long-rumored economic upheaval for Thomas Island and the Out Islands—specifically, the announcement that the Government no longer will be requiring the round-up of red-leggers. It is a proclamation hailed by some as a new era of freedom and by others as a return to the anarchy of the Big Bang days of centuries past. Opinions on this matter reliably correlate to each observer's dependence on the red-legger trade.

Accounts of two "healings" by Pec-Pec must also be considered somewhat dubious and hysterical. Little Tom has broken his fever and his delerium is receding, although he still seems haunted by the imagined smell of captive red-leggers. Odd what hallucinations the human mind chooses to torment its owner with.

Gregory, the half-wit house boy, is the other healing getting much talk. He does seem to have recovered his mental command and a sharpness of eye. But it is reasonable to suspect that both Little Tom and Gregory were healing quite naturally on their own before Pec-Pec arrived with his medicine show.

The ramifications of the cessation of the red-legger trade are intricate and not fully known. It has been talked about the island quite heavily—among those without any position to know—that Big Tom somehow lost a great deal of wealth in the sinking of the Lucia. Among those depending on his enterprises, the hope is that Big Tom will be in a position to secure a new Government contract.

And speaking of the Government, an odd crew of Government men arrived two days after Pec-Pec. They are a forthright but ornery lot who give Pec-Pec wide berth and explain themselves little. Except to say that they have been stationed in a temporary advisory capacity. Their only official act so far has been to search the timber supplies of the shipyard, apparently for evidence of hijacked materials.

They are grim, and it is said they are piloting Captain Bull's tug. Their leader is named Fel Guinness.

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