The following morning, Rock awoke to find Revy had already gotten up. Her cutlasses and holsters were still resting on the floor of their bunk, so he knew she hadn't gone far; she rarely even left that room without her guns. He checked his pager, the time: 9:45am. Within a few seconds, Revy appeared at the door and Rock promptly greeted her with a yawn, "Morning, Revy."
As he blinked the sleep from his eyes, he noticed the sad look she wore. Immediately, he started backing through his brain, to think of what he could have done to upset her. She slowly approached him and took a seat on the bed, her back to him.
"Revy?" Rock asked.
She remained silent for a few moments. Rock could see, she was struggling with something and avoided prying further. He didn't want to push her, or upset her further; he did want her to talk to him.
She let out a deep sigh and finally, she spoke, "On my 12th birthday; my step-father raped me."
Rock's eyes widened and his skin tightened at her words. Yesterday, he had asked her to tell him about her childhood; asked her for anything. Now apparently, she would give him everything.
"He laughed the whole time. He didn't care that I was screaming and begging him to stop hurting me. He just laughed, and laughed. He laughed right up until the part where I blew the top of his fucking head off."
Nearly frozen in horror, Rock managed to break her name free from his lips, "Revy--"
She turned her head to face him, her patience on a razors edge, she spoke with broken words, "This is the last chance you're gonna get at this, now do you want to hear this, or not, Rock?"
Rock was terrified. While he thoroughly regretted the pain he was undoubtedly putting her through, he felt a slight relief. He had asked, and the fact that she was now spilling her heart to him; she had thought about their conversation.
She turned back to face the door; she would never be able to look him in the eye and tell him these things.
"My mother and father died when I was 8; I can't even remember their faces anymore. All I remember was what they used to say to me, when they put me to bed every night; that I was going to do great things."
Rock swallowed the lump in his throat; while Revy leaned down to retrieve a pack of cigarettes from her shorts that rested on the floor. She lit herself a smoke and took a deep drag before continuing, "They owned a market on Mott Street; everyday from 6 in the morning to 6 at night. One night during the winter, some punk mugged them on their way home." She exhaled a mouthful of smoke, and finished her thought, "I never got his name."
She passed the cigarette to Rock, and again, Revy continued her story, "It wasn't enough that he took their money, he took their keys, and lastly, their lives. When I heard the door open that night, I can still remember jumping from the floor of our apartment, and running to see them. The next thing I remember was waking up in the infirmary of some fucking foster home on the lower east side."
Revy motioned for Rock to pass the cigarette back, and she proceeded to take another long drag, "I got picked up a day or two later by this shady Italian family. Before my parents were even in the ground, these two fucks had put me to work. They didn't want a kid; they wanted a slave and a punching bag. They beat the shit out of me from that first night, up until that night I shot the old man and his bitch of a wife."
Again Rock cringed at her tale. He'd heard enough, and as much as he wanted to know more about her, he wanted nothing more, than for her to stop talking.
"When I was 11, I saw my first dead body," Christ, it just kept coming."Leslie Nichols. I found her with a needle in her arm, a hole in her head and a gun in her hand. No one would notice or miss some drugged up whore; probably had a bad fuckin' trip and decided to kill herself. By that time, I was already a gutter rat; I took her gun, her wallet and was on my way. A few days later, my birthday came up."
He knew he might never get this chance again, and after enduring just a few minutes of her childhood; he didn't care in the least, "Please…"
Revy turned to face Rock who wore a sheet of tears in his eyes, "…stop talking."
"You asked, Rock," Revy denounced.
"And I'm sorry I did. If I had known--"
"You'd what?" Revy interrupted. "You know how the fuckin' story ends; did you really think it was gonna be some fuckin' fairy tale?"
"I'm sorry, Revy," Rock replied as he turned his head down in shame.
"Don't you dare try and fuckin' pity me, Rock," Revy scolded as she stood from the bed, turning to face him.
Rock knew she would never let him in, in this moment. He tried to diffuse the situation altogether, "I'm sorry."
Revy leaned down to retrieve her holsters and guns from the floor, pulled her shorts around her waist, and walked to the door. She reached the door and paused for a moment. Rock felt her presence but avoided looking to her. He was sure he had irreparably screwed this up. That any second now, she would tell him they were over.
"Are we good here?" Revy asked harshly.
"What?" Rock asked.
Revy looked over her shoulder to face him, her tone still laced with aggression, "Do you still want in, after hearing that shit?"
Rock once again felt light in the moment. While she might never tell him she loved him, she couldn't hide a simple fact of her being; she didn't want to lose him.
"I'll always be here for you, Revy," Rock replied with a smile.
-
"How're we doing, Dutch?" Benny asked over his earpiece.
"We're getting there. I hate even bein' in these waters. Kim Jong-Il is a fuckin' madman, who the fuck knows what he might deploy after an unannounced torpedo boat," Dutch replied. The comm. on the Lagoon's control panel beeped and Dutch quickly picked it up, "Black Lagoon, go ahead."
"Approaching Korean waters, are we, Dutch?"
While Balalaika's tone was somewhat unnerving, Dutch knew his place in the scheme of things. He replied nonchalantly to the Kapitan, "Yes ma'am. I don't suppose you put in a call to the North Korean government?"
"As a matter of fact that's precisely why I'm calling. It's a beautiful day, Dutch. I'd expect smooth sailing," Balalaika replied.
Dutch smiled slightly, his stress relieved instantly, "Thank you kindly, ma'am."
"My pleasure, Dutch. Just for your information, the headcount is now 24. One of the brats apparently succumbed to illness last night. Hopefully she's the last," Balalaika replied.
"Thanks for the heads up. We'll be seeing you; Friday the latest," Dutch replied and hung up the comm. "Scratch that Benny boy; Kapitan cleared the road for us."
"Nice," Benny replied. "Namp'o port should be coming up soon. We just might get home earlier than expected."
"Contact the Harbormaster; let'em know we're on our way in. Shit always runs smoother when there's no surprises," Dutch replied.
Revy came onto the bridge, propped herself up on Dutch's chair, and asked as she looked out to the looming harbor, "So that's North Korea, huh?"
"Never been here?" Dutch asked.
"Nope," Revy replied.
"You're lucky. This place makes Roanapur look like fuckin' Disneyland. If we're all lucky, we'll get in, pick up our cargo, and get the hell out. Just bein' this close makes my fuckin' skin crawl," Dutch replied.
"No shit," Revy replied, taken back slightly by Dutch's trepidation.
"Are we…" Rock's words dropped off as he came onto the bridge. Just the sight of the North Korean shoreline, the vast expanse of nothingness was enough to unsettle anyone who gazed upon it.
"Just got off the radio with the Harbormaster," Benny said over Dutch's earpiece. Dutch flipped a switch on the control panel, broadcasting Benny over the radio in the bridge, "Pushy, but not too bad a guy. Says we're cleared to dock and our cargo is ready and waiting for us."
"Good work, Benny boy," Dutch replied. "Rock?"
Just the mere mention of his name, Rock knew what was coming, "You and Revy get topside. Put on your best businessman smile," Dutch ordered. As Rock and Revy proceeded to the door to the deck, Dutch called out again, "Revy?"
"Yeah?"
"Keep your shit together. I don't give a fuck what anybody on that dock says; keep your guns in their holsters. Someone starts some shit, feel free to turn it into a cluster fuck, but I don't want this turning unnecessarily complicated."
"Yeah, yeah," Revy replied with a sour look on her face.
Rock and Revy headed out onto the deck just as Benny came onto the bridge, "Everything alright?"
The Lagoon closed in on the dock as Dutch replied, "So far, so good."
-
On the dock, Revy followed closely behind Rock, fully prepared to unleash all manner of hell at the drop of a hat. Rock greeted the Harbormaster with a slight bow, "An-nyeong ha-seo."
The Harbormaster was a gruff, unshaven old man. He wore a life preserver over his vest, a knitted hat to keep his ragged grey hair under control, and a half-smoked cigar hung from his lips, "Speak English, kid."
Rock quickly straightened himself out, "My apologies. We're here to pick up for the Bougainvillea Trading Company? Lagoon Company."
The Harbormaster checked his clipboard and replied, "Right. I just talked to one of yours; gimme a minute."
The man turned, headed into a small office on the dock and picked up a radio.
"Everything cool, Revy?" Dutch asked over her earpiece.
"Looks like he's making the call to bring the cargo over. Can't imagine they like doing this shit in broad fuckin' daylight," Revy replied.
Within a few moments, two rickety old passenger vans pulled up at the edge of the dock. Their rear doors faced the Lagoon and immediately, both sets of doors burst open, and the girls were forced out by two small men shouting in Hangul. One of the little men approached Rock and asked, "You Lagoon Company?"
"That's right," Rock replied.
"Two more girls die this morning…" Rock's enthusiasm over this job took yet another turn for the worse, "…you take 22 now."
Rock turned to face Revy and she pressed a finger to her earpiece, "We might have a problem, Dutch."
"What's up?" Dutch asked.
"They say they lost two of the girls this morning," Revy replied.
"Fuck," Dutch rubbed his fingers into his forehead as he thought on the situation for a moment. "Fuck it. What the hell are we supposed to do about it? Better they died here than on my boat."
Revy nodded to Rock bringing Rock to turn back to the little Korean man, "Alright."
The two men continued shouting at the girls, herding them like sheep onto the deck of the Lagoon. The Harbormaster threw the Lagoon's tie-off back to its deck, and just like that, their visit to North Korea was over.
"We clear?" Dutch asked over Revy's earpiece.
She did a quick headcount and replied, "22 half-dead girls on deck; let's go."
Much as it killed Rock, he again found himself forcing thoughts through his mind to keep him sane, "It's just a job."
Rock waved for the girls to follow him, and politely requested, "Please follow me."
The girls failed to budge in the least. They may have not understood English, or been paying attention to Rock's gesture; but the sound of the slide, scraping along the frame rails of Revy's cutlass, gathered their attention immediately.
Rock looked to his partner with concern in his eyes. While she had drawn and loaded a gun, she made no threatening movements with it. She merely asserted her position with the weapon and the girls understood perfectly. They followed Rock into the ship's rear entrance and finally, into the hold.
Revy followed closely behind them, and just as she closed the door behind them, Rock asked the group, "Yong-o-rul hahl-jool asim-ni-ka?"
A young girl in the corner replied with a cough, "Me."
Yong-o-rul hahl-jool asim-ni-ka? - Does anyone speak English?
This is the third time I've written back story for Revy. Every time it's different, and every time, it gets harder.
