I realized with horror that the tanker was not simply coming our way-it was in fact bearing

down
on us. The
bow was a vast wall of metal that was getting wider every second. A huge wave girdling it was
advancing
towards us relentlessly. Richard Parker finally sensed the looming juggernaut. He turned and
went "Woof!
Woof!" but not doglike-it was tigerlike: powerful, scary and utterly suited to the situation.
"Richard Parker, it's going to run us over! What are we going to do? Quick, quick, a flare! No!
Must row. Oar
in oarlock...there! HUMPF! HUMPF! HUMPF! HUMPF! HUMPF! HUM-"
The bow wave pushed us up. Richard Parker crouched, and the hairs on him stood up. The
lifeboat slid off the
bow wave and missed the tanker by less than two feet.
The ship slid by for what seemed like a mile, a mile of high, black canyon wall, a mile of castle
fortification
with not a single sentinel to notice us languishing in the moat. I fired off a rocket flare, but I
aimed it poorly.
Instead of surging over the bulwarks and exploding in the captain's face, it ricocheted off the
ship's side and
went straight into the Pacific, where it died with a hiss. I blew on my whistle with all my might. I
shouted at
the top of my lungs. All to no avail.
Its engines rumbling loudly and its propellers chopping explosively underwater, the ship churned
past us and
left us bouncing and bobbing in its frothy wake. After so many weeks of natural sounds, these
mechanical
noises were strange and awesome and stunned me into silence.
In less than twenty minutes a ship of three hundred thousand tons became a speck on the horizon.
When I
turned away, Richard Parker was still looking in its direction. After a few seconds he turned
away too and our
gazes briefly met. My eyes expressed longing, hurt, anguish, loneliness. All he was aware of was
that
something stressful and momentous had happened, something beyond the outer limits of his
understanding. He
did not see that it was salvation barely missed. He only saw that the alpha here, this odd,
unpredictable tiger,
had been very excited. He settled down to another nap. His sole comment on the event was a
cranky meow.
"I love you!" The words burst out pure and unfettered, infinite. The feeling flooded my chest.
"Truly I do. I
love you, Richard Parker. If I didn't have you now, I don't know what I would do. I don't think I
would make
it. No, I wouldn't. I would die of hopelessness. Don't give up, Richard Parker, don't give up. I'll
get you to
land, I promise, I promise!"