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The underside of the raft became host to a multitude of sealife, like the net but smaller in form. It started with a softgreen algae that clung to the life jackets. Stiffer algae of adarker kind joined it. They did well and became thick. Animallife appeared. The first that I saw were tiny, translucent shrimp,hardly half an inch long. They were followed by fish no biggerthat looked like they were permanently under X-ray; theirinternal organs showed through their transparent skins. Afterthat I noticed the black worms with the white spines, the greengelatinous slugs with the primitive limbs, the inch-long,motley-coloured fish with the potbellies, and lastly the crabs, halfto three-quarters of an inch across and brown in colour. Itried everything but the worms, including the algae. Only thecrabs didn't have an unpalatably bitter or salty taste. Everytime they appeared, I popped them one after another into mymouth like candy until there were none left. I couldn't controlmyself. It was always a long wait between fresh crops of crabs.
The hull of the lifeboat invited life too, in the form of smallgooseneck barnacles. I sucked their fluid. Their flesh made forgood fishing bait.
I became attached to these oceanic hitchhikers, though theyweighed the raft down a little. They provided distraction, likeRichard Parker. I spent many hours doing nothing but lying onmy side, a life jacket pushed out of place a few inches, like acurtain from a window, so that I might have a clear view.
What I saw was an upside-down town, small, quiet andpeaceable, whose citizens went about with the sweet civility ofangels. The sight was a welcome relief for my frayed nerves.