Life of Pi

“No.”

“Did it appear to you that the ship was properly loaded?”

“It was my first time on a ship. I don’t know what a properly loaded ship should look like.”

“You believe you heard an explosion?”

“Yes.”

“Any other noises?”

“A thousand.”

“I mean that might explain the sinking.”

“No.”

“You said the ship sank quickly.”

“Yes.”

“Can you estimate how long it took?”

“It’s hard to say. Very quickly. I would think less than twenty minutes.”

“And there was a lot of debris?”

“Yes.”

“Was the ship struck by a freak wave?”

“I don’t think so.”

“But there was a storm?”

“The sea looked rough to me. There was wind and rain.”

“How high were the waves?”

“High. Twenty-five, thirty feet.”

“That’s quite modest, actually.”

“Not when you’re in a lifeboat.”

“Yes, of course. But for a cargo ship.”

“Maybe they were higher. I don’t know. The weather was bad enough to scare me witless, that’s all I know for sure.”

“You said the weather improved quickly. The ship sank and right after it was a beautiful day, isn’t that what you said?“

“Yes.”

“Sounds like no more than a passing squall.”

“It sank the ship.”

“That’s what we’re wondering.”

“My whole family died.”

“We’re sorry about that.”

“Not as much as I am.”

“So what happened, Mr. Patel? We’re puzzled. Everything was normal and then…?”

“Then normal sank.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. You should be telling me. You’re the experts. Apply your science.”

“We don’t understand.”

[Long silence]

Mr. Chiba: “Now what?”

Mr. Okamoto: “We give up. The explanation for tke sinking of the tsimtsum is at the bottom of the Pacific.”

[Long silence]

Mr. Okamoto: “Yes, that’s it. Let’s go. Well, Mr. Patel, I think we have all we need. We thank you very much for your cooperation. You’ve been very, very helpful.”

“You’re welcome. But before you go, I’d like to ask you something.”

“Yes?”

“The Tsimtsum sank on July 2nd, 1977.”

“Yes.”

“And I arrived on the coast of Mexico, the sole human survivor of the Tsimtsum, on February 14th, 1978.”

“That’s right.”

“I told you two stories that account for the 227 days in between.”

“Yes, you did.”

“Neither explains the sinking of the Tsimtsum.”

“That’s right.”

“Neither makes a factual difference to you.”

“That’s true.”

“You can’t prove which story is true and which is not. You must take my word for it.”

“I guess so.”

“In both stories the ship sinks, my entire family dies, and I suffer.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can’t prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?”

Mr. Okamoto: “That’s an interesting question…”

Mr. Chiba: “The story with animals.”

Mr. Okamoto: “Yes. The story with animals is the better story.”

Pi Patel: “Thank you. And so it goes with God.”

[Silence]

Mr. Okamoto: “You’re welcome.”

Mr. Chiba: “What did he just say?”

Mr. Okamoto: “I don’t know.”

Mr. Chiba: “Ok look—he’s crying.”

[Long silence]

Mr. Okamoto: “We’ll be careful when we drive away. We don’t want to run into Richard Parker.”

Pi Patel: “Don’t worry, you won’t. He’s hiding somewhere you’ll never find him.”

Mr. Okamoto: “Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, Mr. Patel. We’re grateful. And we’re really very sorry about what happened to you.”

“Thank you.”

“What will you be doing now?”

“I guess I’ll go to Canada.”

“Not back to India?”

“No. There’s nothing there for me now. Only sad memories.”

“Of course, you know you will be getting insurance money.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. Oika will be in touch with you.”

[Silence]

Mr. Okamoto: “We should be going. We wish you all the best, Mr. Patel.”

Mr. Chiba: “Yes, all the best.”

“Thank you.”

Mr. Okamoto: “Goodbye.”

Mr. Chiba: “Goodbye.”

Pi Patel: “Would you like some cookies for the road?”

Mr. Okamoto: “That would be nice.”

“Here, have three each.”

“Thank you.”

Mr. Chiba: “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Goodbye. God be with you, my brothers.”

“Thank you. And with you too, Mr. Patel.”

Mr. Chiba: “Goodbye.”

Mr. Okamoto: “I’m starving. Let’s go eat. You can turn that off.”

C H A P T E R I 0 0

Mr. Okamoto, in his letter to me, recalled the interrogation as having been “difficult and memorable. ”He remembered Piscine Molitor Patel as being “very thin, very tough, very bright.”

His report, in its essential part, ran as follows: