'What do you do in the boat?' asked Wladek.

'Fuck them silly, you ass, what do you think?' and with that he rolled over and went to sleep.

Wladek stared at the ceiling and, touching the silver band, thought about what George had said, wondering what it would be like to 'fuck' Zaphia.

The next morning they hit a storm, and all the passengers were confined below decks. The stench, intensified by the ship's steam heating system, seemed to permeate Wladek!s very marrow.

'And the worst of it is,' groaned George, 'I won't make a round dozen now.'

When the stonn abated, nearly all the passengers escaped to the deck.

Wladek and George fought their way around the crowded gangways, thankful for the fresh air. Many of the girls smiled at George, but it seemed to Wladek that they didn't notice him at all. He would have thought they couldn't miss him in his fifty - ruble coat. A dark - haired girl, her cheeks made pink by the wind, passed George and smiled at him. He turned to Wladek.

'I'll have her tonighL'

Wadek stared at the girl and studied the way she looked at George.

'Tonight,' said George, as she passed within earshot. She pretended not to hear him and walked away, a little too quickly.

'Turn round, Wladek, and see if she is looking back at me!

Wladek turned around. 'Yes, she is,' he said, surprised.

'She's mine tonight,' said George. 'Have you had Zaphia yet?$ 'No,' said Wladek. 'Tonight.'

'About tinie, isn't it? You'll never see the girl again once we've reached New York.'

Sure enough, George arrived at supper that night with the dark - haired girl. Without a word being said, Wladek and Zaphia left them, arms round.each other's waists, and went on to the deck and strolled around the ship several times. Wladek looked sideways at her pretty young profile. It was going to be now or never, he decided. He led her to a shadowy corner and started to kiss her as she had kissed him, open - mouthed. She moved backwards a little until her shoulders were resting against a bulwark, and Wladek moved with her. She drew his hands slowly down to her breasts. He touched them tentatively, surprised by their softness. She undid a couple of buttons on her blouse and slipped his hand inside. The first feel of the naked flesh was delicious.

'Christ, your hand is cold,' Zaphia said.

Wladek crushed himself against her, his mouth dry, his breath heavy. She parted her legs a little and Wladek thrust clumsily against her through several intervening layers of cloth. She moved in sympathy with him for a couple of minutes and then pushed him away.

'Not here on the deck,' she said. 'Let's find a boat!

The first three they looked into were occupied, but they finally found an empty one and wriggled under the tarpaulin. In the constricted darkness Zaphia made some adjustme4ts to her clothing that Wladek could not figure out, and pulled him gently on top of her. It took her very little time to bring Wladek to his earlier pitch of excitement through the few remaining layers of cloth between them. He thrust his penis into the yielding softness between her legs and was on the point of orgasin when she again drew her mouth away.

'Undo your trousers,' she whispered.

He felt an idiot but hurriedly undid them, and thrust again, corning immediately, feeling the sticky wetness running down the inside of her thigh. He lay dazed, amazed by the abruptness of the act, suddenly aware that the wooden notches of the boat were digging uncomfortably into his elbows and knees.

'Was that the first time you've made love to a girl?' asked Zaphia, wishing he would move over.

'No, of course not,' said Wladek.

'Do you love me, Wladek?'

'Yes, I do,' he said, 'and as soon as I've settled in New York, I'll come and find you in Chicago!

'I'd like that, Wladek,' she said as she buttoned up her dress. 'I love you, too.'

'Did you fuck her?' was George's immediate question on Wladek's return.

cyes.9 'Was it good?'

'Yes,' said Wladek, uncertainly, and then fell asleep.

In the moming, they were woken by a room full of excited passengers, happy in the knowledge that this was their last day on [)card the Black Arrow.

Some of them had been up on deck before sunrise, hoping to catch the first sign of land. Wladek packed his few belongings in his new suitcase, put on his only suit, and his cap and then joined Zaphia and George on deck. The three of them stared into the mist that hung over the sea, waiting in silence for their first sight of the United States of America.

'There it is,' shouted a passenger on a deck above them, and cheering went up at the sight of the grey strip of Long Island approaching through the spring moming.