Life of Pi

“I’m very sorry, Okamoto-san. It’s the fatigue.”

“You’re bringing our service into disrepute!”

“Very sorry, Okamoto-san.”

Mr. Okamoto: “They could be bones from another small animal.”

“They were meerkats.” “They could be mongooses.”

“The mongooses at the zoo didn’t sell. They stayed in India.”

“They could be shipboard pests, like rats. Mongooses are common in India.”

“Mongooses as shipboard pests?”

“Why not?”

“Who swam in the stormy Pacific, several of them, to the lifeboat? That’s a little hard to believe, wouldn’t you say?”

“Less hard to believe than some of the things we’ve heard in the last two hours. Perhaps the mongooses were already aboard the lifeboat, like the rat you mentioned.”

“Simply amazing the number of animals in that lifeboat.”

“Simply amazing.”

“A real jungle.”

“Yes.”

“Those bones are meerkat bones. Have them checked by an expert.”

“There weren’t that many left. And there were no heads.”

“I used them as bait.”

“It’s doubtful an expert could tell whether they were meerkat bones or mongoose bones.”

“Find yourself a forensic zoologist.”

“All right, Mr. Patel! You win. We cannot explain the presence of meerkat bones, if that is what they are, in the lifeboat. But that is not our concern here. We are here because a Japanese cargo ship owned by Oika Shipping Company, flying the Panamanian flag, sank in the Pacific.“

“Something I never forget, not for a minute. I lost my whole family.”

“We’re sorry about that.”

“Not as much as I am.”

[Long silence]

Mr. Chiba: “What do we do now?”

Mr. Okamoto: “I don’t know.”

[Long silence]

Pi Patel: “Would you like a cookie?”

Mr. Okamoto: “Yes, that would be nice. Thank you.

Mr. Chiba: “Thank you.”

[Long silence]

Mr. Okamoto: “It’s a nice day.”

Pi Patel: “Yes. Sunny.”

[Long silence]

Pi Patel: “Is this your first visit to Mexico?”

Mr. Okamoto: “Yes, it is.”

“Mine too.”

[Long silence]

Pi Patel: “So, you didn’t like my story?”

Mr. Okamoto: “No, we liked it very much. Didn’t we, Atsuro? We will remember it for a long, long time.”

Mr. Chiba: “We will.”

[Silence]

Mr. Okamoto: “But for the purposes of our investigation, we would like to know what really happened.”

“What really happened?”

“Yes.”

“So you want another story?”

“Uhh… no. We would like to know what really happened.”

“Doesn’t the telling of something always become a story?”

“Uhh… perhaps in English. In Japanese a story would have an element of invention in it. We don’t want any invention. We want the ‘straight facts’, as you say in English.”

“Isn’t telling about something—using words, English or Japanese—already something of an invention? Isn’t just looking upon this world already something of an invention?”

“Uhh…”

“The world isn’t just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn’t that make life a story?”

“Ha! Ha! Ha! You are very intelligent, Mr. Patel.”

Mr. Chiba: “What is he talking about?”

“I have no idea.”

Pi Patel: “You want words that reflect reality?”

“Yes.”

“Words that do not contradict reality?”

“Exactly.”

“But tigers don’t contradict reality.”

“Oh please, no more tigers.”

“I know what you want. You want a story that won’t surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won’t make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality.”

“Uhh…”

“You want a story without animals.”

“Yes!”

“Without tigers or orang-utans.”

“That’s right.”

“Without hyenas or zebras.”

“Without them.”

“Without meerkats or mongooses.”

“We don’t want them.”

“Without giraffes or hippopotamuses.”

“We will plug our ears with our fingers!”

“So I’m right. You want a story without animals.”

“We want a story without animals that will explain the sinking of the Tsimtsum.”

“Give me a minute, please.”

“Of course. I think we’re finally getting somewhere. Let’s hope he speaks some sense.”

[Long silence]

“Here’s another story.”

“Good.”

“The ship sank. It made a sound like a monstrous metallic burp. Things bubbled at the surface and then vanished. I found myself kicking water in the Pacific Ocean. I swam for the lifeboat. It was the hardest swim of my life. I didn’t seem to be moving. I kept swallowing water. I was very cold. I was rapidly losing strength. I wouldn’t have made it if the cook hadn’t thrown me a lifebuoy and pulled me in. I climbed aboard and collapsed.

“Four of us survived. Mother held on to some bananas and made it to the lifeboat. The cook was already aboard, as was the sailor.