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Dudley and the Whales
When a different storm rose over a different sea, the frightened sailors cast lots to determine whose god had called it. The lots fell on a groggy passenger. “Take me up and cast me into the sea,” said the passenger. But when the lots fell on Parker, he said something else. He said: “What me?” And of course it was a fish that came along to eat Jonah. But when they finally cast away the boy, they’d eaten most of him. The fish only got the offal. | | | When a different patriarch stayed his blade, he spared a different boy from sacrifice. But Eben left out Abraham’s fear, the tremor that passed through Abraham’s body when he drew the knife, the way his left hand clenched with despair. Then God saved Isaac, so they sacrificed a ram instead.
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< | So who’s Abraham? He’s close kin to Dudley, both drew the knife. But only Dudley used it. The part of Dudley that holds the knife to the boy’s neck, full of fear and trembling, is Abraham. The part of Dudley that plunges the knife into the jugular, that part is Jonah. Because after the knife goes in, the boy dies. But after Jonah plunges into the sea, the whale swallows him, waiting for Jonah's penance before spitting the prophet out on the land. That’s Dudley in the boat on the twenty-first day, he’s Jonah in the belly of the whale. Both did the thing calmly. The storm died down. The boat and its passengers were spared. In the belly of the whale, all that remains is penance. | >
> | So who’s Abraham? He’s close kin to Dudley, both drew the knife. But only Dudley used it. The part of Dudley that holds the knife to the boy’s neck, full of fear and trembling, is Abraham. The part of Dudley that plunges the knife into the jugular, that part is Jonah. Because after the knife goes in, the boy dies. But after Jonah plunges into the sea, the whale swallows him and requires penance of Jonah in exchange for freedom. That’s Dudley in the boat on the twenty-first day, he’s Jonah in the belly of the whale. Both did the thing calmly. The storm died down. The boat and its passengers were spared. In the belly of the whale, only penance remains. | | | On the seventeenth day, Dudley wrote his wife: “I am sorry dear, that I ever started such a trip, but I was doing it for our best.” He repented the sin already committed, the sin of taking to sea, but Dudley also repented the sin soon to be committed, the sin of sacrificing the boy and eating him. | |
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< | Eating the boy was the custom of the sea. But the facts of R v. Dudley disclose Dudley’s prayer for forgiveness before the butchering. And even if not a sinner before god, Dudley was more than a Christian. He was a citizen of the British Empire. His citizenship was more than the place of his birth. Even Kurtz was born in Britain. Unlike Kurtz, Dudley returned home. If he had stopped being British, even in the boat—even if the boat wasn’t British—he would have died like Kurtz. Thus for the part of Dudley that was a citizen of the British Empire, the killing was murder under the laws of the Crown. | >
> | The facts of R v. Dudley disclose Dudley’s prayer for forgiveness before the butchering. And even if not in that regard a sinner in the hands of an angry god, Dudley was more than a Christian. He was a citizen of the British Empire. He had always been a citizen, even on the boat. And when he finally found rescue, he filed his report straightaway, in accordance with Merchant Shipping Act of 1854, with Cheesman at the customs house. So while for the part of Dudley that was a child of god, the killing may not have been a sin, for the part of Dudley that was a citizen of the British Empire, the killing was murder under the laws of the Crown. | | | That is why Dudley called out before the magistrate: “It was the left side” where he’d stabbed Parker. That is why Dudley set about writing accounts as soon as aboard the Montezuma. It’s why Dudley cried when they extended bail. Not because of the bail, but because the mayor had said the defense of necessity was too grave for a mere magistrate to decide. By then, Dudley knew: The truth that was a truth before the law was a part of the truth that was the truth of his confession and penance. But the truth before the law could only be spoken by the court—or the Crown. |
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