Eva guides Emmanuella out of the ballroom. How much was the dress? More than her parents can afford. Mother must have saved her tips. Daddy probably picked up another job. All so she can look pretty. She couldn’t even save her own life.
Emmanuella rests in her bed undisturbed by her parents. At the end of the year, during the cocotte ceremony, many girls will have their hair wrapped in scarves for the rest of their lives and tongues cut out, some girls will become a married man’s mistress, Emmanuella will be tied to a rock heavier than her and pushed into the sea.
Emmanuella fidgets with the engine on the ship trying to find a way to keep the ship in the air for longer than a couple of hours. Tears leak out slowly, but she ignores them. Someone yanks the cart Emmanuella rests her back on as she works underneath the ship. Kwame pulls her from under. A tray of tea sits on the ground.
“I’m sorry for what happened.” Kwame opens and sits on the ground next to her, “But like I said. You decide what you want to be.” Emmanuella only nods her head sipping her warm tea bundled up in her knit sweater.
Kwame sighs, “I thought you should know that the expedition ventured to the New World and is leaving tonight. I negotiated with the king; he will make payments to your father to rent the ship.”
Kwame goes on about how men are signing up on the pier to be crewmen on the ship and how he is going to make sure nothing happens. He tells Emmanuella to stay safe and that she will be fine, but Emmanuella barely hears him. Once they close the lab for the night, Kwame walks Emmanuella home. When he leaves her, she finds herself at the pier staring at the table.
General Violet Monatare is a Monatare. Her biography claims that at the age of twenty-five, the general knew that she wasn’t going to get married. Ever since she was a child, she often dressed as a boy in order to practice fighting with the military.
When General Violet turned eighteen, she was allowed to join the military under her assumed name: Fernando Laurent. She rose in her military positions and was sometimes demoted especially when competing with Ferrari.
General Violet proved her usefulness in the war against the Northern Empires. The general’s team was thought dead in battle, but she led them to the nearest and most powerful Northern Empire and cut off the heads of their king, queen, war generals, and several soldiers.
After, she led many wars, but her 29th year had come, and she revealed herself as the most celebrated General Laurent. The king refused to send her to the bottom of the ocean.
Emmanuella’s reflection looks back at her hopelessly. Dark oil stains cover her face. Her hair is wild, and she wears trousers and a long dusty jacket that she borrowed from her father. She looks like a man.
One man rests his hat on a wooden pole. Instantly, Emmanuella slips the hat onto her head, stands in line tucking her head behind the jacket collar and hiding her breasts, then signs her name on the sign-up sheet as: Emmanuel Pierre.
Later that night, Emmanuella waits until she hears her father’s snores. She peeks into the room to find her mother asleep beside her father who’s mouth hangs open. Emmanuella always prayed to be as sweet and soft as her mother, but as free as her father. As a man, she can be free.
Emmanuella reaches to the back of her father’s closet finding old worn out clothes her father probably can’t fit anymore. She stuffs them in a leather suitcase with her beauty beads, hair brush, a few dresses, and a few other essentials. Emmanuella dresses like a boy again then puts on a hat covering her face. The heads out.
The ship rests on the sea at the end of the pier. Why a flying ship has to be in water, Emmanuella will never know. At the bottom of the ramp leading up to the ship, crew members sign in. Kwame helps to sign the men in and hands them their room keys. When it’s her turn to sign in and get her key, Emmanuella buries her face behind her braid and her hat.
“Emmanuel Pierre, sir.” Emmanuella fakes a deep voice avoiding Kwame’s eyes. Kwame is silent for a while, but the man beside Kwame nudges Kwame in the ribs.
“Sign the sheet Mr. Pierre.” Kwame states, and Emmanuella follows his instructions. The man beside Kwame hands Emmanuella her room key, but Kwame knocks the key out of her hand.
“Mr. Pierre, room 442.” Kwame says Emmanuella nods and thanks him. She fakes a calm walk away until she’s on deck, then she rushes below deck to her room at the bottom of the ship, 442.
Did Kwame recognize her? Why didn’t he out her? Forbid her from going? Maybe he didn’t recognize her. No, no man would prevent her from this trip. She will prove her worth without GreenBean with her beauty beads work, or she will enjoy the only journey she can have before she passes away. This is Emmanuella’s decision.
There are two beds, a desk is against the wall, and the bathroom is spacious. There are two closets, ottomans at the ends of both beds, and a lot of space to walk around. Emmanuella presses two buttons on the wall. The lights falter, and the wall behind the beds lifts like a window exposing the sea life surrounding them.
Fish poke their noses on the glass a few times then quickly swim away. Stingrays swim around the glass exposing their bottom sides. Perhaps Emmanuella should have built something to travel under the water. Sea life is beautiful, and she could’ve met the mermaids.
Though Emmanuella sits on her bed with a pen and paper, she can barely take her eyes off the fish. She does jot down two goals:
Become a Monatare with the ship’s success and the beauty beats
Find something to add to the serum to make the beauty bead changes to last.
She turns back to the fish wondering how free the fish are. Are they killed off simply because they’re girls without husbands? The fish rush away at the engine’s rumbling start.
The door gently closes. Emmanuella shivers of nerves; she didn’t calculate sharing the room with anybody even after seeing two beds in the room. She has to share a room with a man! She’ll be discovered! Condemned to death! She didn’t give herself a chance. To her surprise, Kwame stands at the door tossing his keys up and down. Emmanuella jumps off her bed smiling and runs to him hugging him.
“What were you thinking?” Kwame scolds, but Kwame hugs her back, “You put yourself in danger. What if you roomed with a guy? Or someone found out? The commander would kill you without question. You could’ve been raped.”
Though it is rare, Kwame starts rolling his r’s. His accent creeps back, and she still can’t place it.
“How did you know?” Emmanuella asks.
“How could I not know?”
The two watch as the ship lifts from the sea and water slides down the windows. Within minutes, the ship is near the clouds flying over the sea way from the city.