Enoyoshi was not sure how to assist someone who had nearly drowned. All he could do was ask over and over again if Ushijima was 'okay'. Slinging the towel that Minako had given him over his shoulder, he began to rub Ushijima's back. His head thrust over the side, Ushijima kept retching though nothing was coming out of him except tears and saliva. Still, he would not stop. Urged by violent convulsions, he continued to turn his stomach inside out.
Enoyoshi decided that Ushijima would be better off lying down on the bed in the cabin. Offering Ushijima the support of his shoulder, he started to walk him to the cabin. It became clear after only one or two steps that Ushijima was completely powerless from the knees down. It was not so much that the strength had left his legs, it was as though he'd actually lost his legs from the knees down. After finally managing to get Ushijima on the cabin bed, Enoyoshi covered him with the bath towel, a track-suit jacket, and anything warm he could find. Ushijima's shaking showed no signs of abating; if anything, it was getting worse by the minute. From time to time, his pale lips uttered a dreadful moan that resembled the howling of a wild beast. The change in Ushijima's appearance was so dramatic that all Enoyoshi and Minako could do was stand in stupefied silence by the bedside.
At first, Enoyoshi had imagined that Ushijima might have suffered something like the following. In need of fresh air, he tries to make his way straight up to the surface. But, running out of air halfway up, he swallows seawater and panics. Perhaps his lifeline has caught on the keel. At any rate he panics and starts to drown. The terror of groping around in the dark sea was indescribable and the slightest mishap could bring on panic.
But the total look of horror on Ushijima's face simply defied the imagination. His eyes stared blankly into space, his gaze probably registering nothing at all, and his auditory and olfactory senses didn't appear to be working either. All his organs of perception were still under the spell of whatever trauma he'd experienced.
Enoyoshi asked Minako whether they had anything stronger than beer. She retrieved half a bottle of red wine and an alumite drinking mug from under the galley.
This might not be strong enough to bring him around,' said Enoyoshi, sitting Ushijima up and trying to pour some wine into his mouth. At first Ushijima seemed able to swallow only a few drops, but gradually his throat began to move more briskly, and in no time he'd drunk two cups of wine. His eyes began to show some semblance of life. The tremors that had shaken his body were subsiding and his breathing was growing calm.
Enoyoshi decided to start by asking Ushijima whether he'd accomplished what he'd set out to do, that is, remove the rope wrapped around the keel.
'Mr Ushijima, did you get it done?'
Ushijima shook his head vigorously.
'So the rope's still tangled on the keel.'
This time, Ushijima shook his head even more violently than before. He reacted in exactly the same way when Enoyoshi repeated himself. Ushijima shook his head when he was asked if the job was done. He likewise shook his head to deny that any rope remained caught on the keel. If he wasn't simply delirious, then there was only one rational conclusion. What had brought the yacht to a halt had yet to be removed from the keel - and it wasn't rope. Something other than rope had caused the yacht to stop. As Enoyoshi thought this through, the boat lurched suddenly, twice. It didn't feel like a wave, but rather, some force that was working on one point of the boat to attempt to pull it down.
Enoyoshi's anxiety instantly turned into fear. This may have been his first time on a yacht, but as a boy he'd enjoyed many a thrilling tale about the mysteries of the sea. Even the most orthodox of tales about phantom ships had sent a good chill down his spine. The entire crew of an enormous sailing ship would disappear without a trace, everything just as they had left it. What happened aboard the ship? The stories simply posed the question and never told you why the entire crew simply vanished off the ship. They impressed strongly upon readers that the sea itself was a mystery, that it was a space where the world of the living and the world of the dead were commingled.
Enoyoshi looked around fretfully. Where was the lifeline to land - the radio? Search as he may, he couldn't spot anything of the sort.
'Where's the yacht's radio?' Enoyoshi asked Minako. She in turn looked at Ushijima and listlessly rubbed her prostrate husband's shoulders. She was trying to get her husband to answer.
Enoyoshi repeated the question, and Ushijima's dull gaze glided sideways.
There is no radio?' rephrased Enoyoshi.
This time Ushijima nodded. So there was no radio set aboard. As near as they were to land, they couldn't call for help. With a radio, they could contact Dream Island Marine Services and get them to send a tug. A tow from a tugboat with a high-power diesel engine would surely unmoor them. But there was no radio.
His throat dry from the tension, Enoyoshi poured some wine into the mug that Ushijima had used, and downed the whole thing in a gulp. Ushijima was the only man on board with any sailing experience, but the trauma had rendered him useless. Minako just clung to her husband and made no attempt to take the initiative. Enoyoshi, who'd blithely assumed that he was only a guest, felt a terrible weight on his shoulders now.
He kept glancing at his watch, swallowing nervously again and again. It was already eight o'clock. He shuddered to think that they might have to spend the night out at sea. The next day, Monday, he had an important deal to make. He'd had enough. He just wanted to go home to his apartment and lie down on the familiar bed. If only he could…