(20 Sept. 86) I visited Echo Pier after work because the night was perfect and I wanted to spend some time relaxing by the peaceful lagoon rather than hanging around my room.
The three constables working at DSC had pooled their money and bought a large container of cooked rice. Kaious Brown produced a can of Ox and Palm corned beef hash from Australia and some hot sauce. Kaious has a portly figure and he no doubt has eaten many cans of corned beef over the years. The current Marshallese diet can’t compare to the nutrient rich diet of their ancestors before the westerners arrived. He divided the rice among the constables and then looked at me.
“Would you like some?”
I said thanks but no thanks. I can never tell for sure if a Marshallese really wants to share his food or not. As I noted before, this is a custom that could have been around for several thousand years. It’s an automatic response to a visitor. So I always answer after looking at their faces and listening to the tone of their voices.
Anyway, I was happy that I had declined the offer of food when Kaious opened the can of hash and dumped out three relatively equal portions over the plates of rice. The highly salted meat contained large globules of fat and the smell emanating from the mixture reminded me of a can of cheap dog food.
I wondered how they could eat that. Their answer was, “It’s really good.” It is, they said, their favorite food. But an hour later two of the constables were asking around for Alka-Seltzer.
We went out on the pier to enjoy the breeze and I mentioned that I had to leave and get a few hours sleep since I would be flying up to Gagan later in the morning.
One of the constables suddenly remembered something and called to me.
“You remember Marie?”
Of course I did. How could any man forget Marie.
“She died last night.”
This bit of news caused a brief anxiety pain in my chest. Beautiful Marie. I never met her but her death put me in a somber mood. She was everything a woman should be. Not because of her surface beauty but because she was a nice human being. The feeling was unanimous.
How did it happen? The basic story, on which everyone agreed, was that Marie attended a little party last night (the 19th) for the employees of the Yuk Club and had some alcohol for the first time. Late last night or early this morning she was arrested by the Ebeye police for disturbing the peace. I have heard the constables compare the police on Ebeye to the worst criminal element there. If you have a problem don’t call them – just handle it yourself.
The Ebeye police strip all prisoners naked before they are placed in a cell. No one knows what happened at the jail other than Marie died in police custody. The police said she committed suicide by hanging. Case closed.
(22 Sept. 86) An ambulance made the slow drive to the dock, picked up Marie’s body and brought her to the morgue on Kwajalein.
Photos-Ray Kania
Filed under: Almost Paradise Volume 1
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