Prisoner of the Island

Chapter 4: The Reeducation of an English Gentleman

Captain Stuart Turnips opened his eyes. The room was dark. Whatever he was lying on was hard. He could make out a faint light coming from the crack at the bottom of a door. He could also hear a fan whirring overhead. He felt a wetness on his forehead but when he tried to wipe it he found that his hands were bound. He tried to kick his feet and found that those were bound as well. He shouted for help. Within a few seconds the door sprung open and a dark-haired woman in a nurse’s uniform sprang through. He could not make out her face in the dark but she very quickly flicked a switch and the room lit up with florescent light. The nurse began speaking in a foreign language but quickly changed to English. “Young man, you so lucky be alive.” She continued: “You on Island of Scar-manga and you will be placed on trial as a Engrish Spy and shot unless you agree to subject self to a struggle session.” *

Captain Stuart didn’t think it was an appropriate time to ask what happened to his ship Blue Side of American and his crew. This nurse seemed to be in an angry mood, and since she was administering him a rather large shot . . . the room went dark again.

Captain Stuart awoke in the same room. This time he noticed that he was no longer bound. The dark-haired nurse was there. “You may notice we no longer bind hands and feet. You free to walk grounds of Scar-manga’s Estate.” She said brightly. The change in her demeanor gave Stuart the courage to ask a few questions. “What happened? Why am I here?”

“You hurt when Chinese People’s Navy capture you boat. You crew is all prisoner of the 41st People’s Liberation Army Group. You now on Tunga Island as special guest of Scar-manga.”
“So what happened that I’m here and they are with the 41st People’s thing-a-ma-jig?”

“Scar-manga find out that English gentleman was leading ship and not a peasant pirate. He ask for permission to reeducate you from Chinese People’s Army commander. Scar-manga has special relationship with Chinese people’s democratic government.” Stuart noted that her voice turned venomous when saying the words peasant.

Captain Stuart began to wonder what Scaramanga had in mind for him. He had to meet this fellow and see if the mental image that his father presented of the ruthless killer in the employ of the CHICOMs stood up to his first meeting. For sure, Scaramanga must have done something to get on the bad side of Her Majesty's Government. Whatever injuries he had sustained during the attack on Blue Side of American were on the mend – largely through the medical attention provided by Scaramanga’s English mangling nurse. Was Scaramanga trying to return him to health for some unseen reason? Why wouldn’t he have just let the CHICOMs deal with him or kill him?

And What of his ship? His Crew?

* Struggle session: A self-confession of crimes against the Revolution. The Red Guards would taunt the people being "struggled." They'd make them denounce their families or whatever "old" pre-Revolutionary concept they were accused of clinging to in a counter-revolutionary manner. The struggle session became notorious during the Chinese Cultural Revolution as a means of gaining political power and humiliating -- sometimes murdering -- one's personal enemies. Although these took place in great numbers all over China, all with the goal of uprooting the old order and replacing it with a new, purified socialism; in nearly every case the object achieved was petty and base. A few people were picked out to confess their crimes against the people, and the people supposed to punish the offenders.