AN AFTERNOON IN ABERDEEN by Rolleen

"Stop here," Michael told the driver as they pulled up to a row of fruit stands set against the lush, green hills of Aberdeen. Emily and Michael stepped out of the taxi and were greeted by the sweet aroma of oranges and melons. Emily, who was new to traveling abroad, had felt disoriented since arriving in Hong Kong two days ago. She relied on Michael, who was a seasoned diplomat, to guide her through their travels.

"Want to take a stroll before we grab lunch?" Michael asked Emily.

"Sure," Emily replied. "There's so much to see in Hong Kong."

The couple had spent their first two days on the island of Victoria, where they were staying at the Hilton hotel. They had taken the Star Ferry across the bay to visit Kowloon on the mainland several times. Today, they were exploring Aberdeen.

As they walked along the pier, the first thing Michael and Emily noticed was the numerous Chinese junks scattered across the bay. While there were a few of these flat-bottomed ships in Victoria Harbor, they were outnumbered by foreign ships. Emily and Michael watched as the small ships with their battened sails caught the wind and glided effortlessly across the water.

"Is it what you expected?" Michael asked.

"It's even more beautiful than I could have imagined," Emily said in awe.

"Fresh fish, fresh fish!" a small, brown man called out to them as they walked past his open booth. His voice was just one of many that surrounded Emily and Michael as they navigated the crowded streets. Amidst the hustle and bustle, a young naked boy squatted on the ground while his sister prodded him to continue on. Old women, dressed in dark tunics and pants, carried wooden poles on their shoulders with various items for sale hanging from them. A mix of strong and conflicting odors enveloped Emily and Michael as they made their way through the dense crowd.

"Want to ride on sampan? Ten American dollar for half hour ride around Aberdeen Bay?" a voice called out from behind them. Emily turned to see a large Asian girl wearing light blue pants and a white over-blouse, with pleading eyes, standing on the pier.

"Ride on sampan? Only ten American dollar?" the young girl repeated. Emily thought to herself, "That's like forty or fifty dollars to her!"

Michael negotiated with the girl, "Five American dollars."

She tossed back her long, black hair, smiled a toothless grin at Michael, and calmly replied, "Ten American dollar.”

Michael firmly shook his head and took Emily's hand, leading her away. After walking about twenty feet, the young entrepreneur ran up and grabbed onto Emily's sleeve. "Nine American dollar," she offered, lowering her price. Emily looked nervously at Michael, who stared sternly into the girl's dark eyes and said, "Five American dollars. Take it or leave it.”

The girl simply stood there shaking her head. Michael and Emily continued on their way, but not for long. The determined girl wedged herself between them, placed her hand on Michael's shoulder, and said, "Six American dollar." Michael remained firm, saying, "No way.”

The girl stood there for a few seconds, looking down at the ground and shifting her feet. Finally, she looked up and said, "Okay, you win. Five American dollar." Emily secretly let out a sigh of relief. This persistent saleswoman was starting to make her uneasy.

They followed the girl down the pier to a small sampan, which was hidden behind a dilapidated shack. Michael climbed into the boat and helped Emily, who was timid, board the bobbing sampan. Their guide jumped in, grabbed the oar, and began to row from the stern of the boat. Once they were away from the pier, she turned to Michael and Emily and said, "Pay now. Five American dollar. Two passenger. Make ten American dollar.”

Emily and Michael looked at each other in shock. They couldn't believe that they had been duped by the cunning young woman. Michael grudgingly pulled out a ten dollar bill and handed it to the girl. She pocketed the money and paddled the sampan further out to sea, heading towards the well-known boat colony in Aberdeen Bay.

The countless boats were tightly packed into a small area with waterways snaking through them. Their guide navigated the boat down one of the waterways, and Michael and Emily were immersed in a culture unlike anything they had ever experienced. It reminded Emily of the exciting pirate stories she had read as a child. She watched as the boat people moved effortlessly from one reddish-brown junk to another, seemingly unconcerned about the possibility of falling into the water. Women wearing large, circular straw hats hung their laundry out to dry on ropes strung between the masts, creating a striking scene with the colorful clothes flapping in the breeze like flags from every country waving in the wind. Shirtless children entertained themselves by jumping from boat to boat.

It was difficult to imagine that some of these people had spent their entire lives on the water, never setting foot on the land just a few yards away. They had chosen to live as boat people in order to avoid paying taxes for living on land. Judy valued her freedom as she compared her world to the limited one of these people.

As the sampan drifted further into this wilderness of floating homes, Emily began to feel very uncomfortable. She looked back and realized that she could no longer see the shore. She felt strangely disconnected from civilization. A sense of vulnerability seemed to loom over her. She found herself feeling paranoid about everything that moved and breathed around her. Could she trust this girl, who had so deceitfully led them to her boat? Or was this a setup to get Michael and her to the other side of the junks, hidden from any form of rescue? These people were certainly strange and a little unsettling to Emily. She became alert to every movement, every person, and every boat.

She had worked herself up into a mild state of panic when she saw a small motorboat heading straight towards their sampan. Three menacing-looking individuals stared directly at Emily and Michael. As the boat got closer, she tried to shake off her fear, but it seemed to grow inside her like an out-of-control storm. She was about to jump off their boat when the threatening trio passed by without incident.

As they watched the boat disappear around the corner of a massive, ancient junk, Emily tried to compose herself. However, even as she stepped off the boat at the end of the journey, she was still aware of the anxiety she had felt throughout the trip. When the young girl had rowed her boat out of earshot, Emily turned to Michael. "I know you'll think I'm being ridiculous, but I was terrified that we were going to be robbed back there in the middle of that boat village.”

Michael chuckled and shook his head. Then he leaned over and whispered in Emily's ear, "To be honest, I was just as relieved as you were to get back on solid ground. I used to hear some crazy stories about these people when I was in the Navy." He gave Emily's hand a little squeeze, as if to say "Thank goodness we made it out alive," and they walked off to find a restaurant.

As Michael and Emily ate lunch in one of the nearby restaurants, discussing their harrowing adventure, a little boy playfully chased his sister from boat to boat. A mother hung her family's clothes on a homemade line. A father returned home with the fresh fish he caught that morning. A teenage boy worked on repairs to the boat that served as his family's home. Life in the small boat village continued as usual.