Twist

One morning, three-quarters of the way into the journey, Anthony watches as one of the crew, Petrus, emerges from the engine room. Petrus takes a call from the satellite phone on the deck. When he finishes, Conway comes to take the phone and puts a hand on Petrus’s shoulder. At noon, the Georges Lecointe stops for a half hour, during which the crew holds a memorial service for Petrus’s mother, who died of pneumonia in Mozambique.

The crew sings a Xhosa funeral song with Petrus, and Anthony is surprised to see Petrus cry in front of all the men. After the ceremony, everyone, including Petrus, returns to work. That night, Anthony sees Conway cleaning the freshwater generator tank with Petrus. He takes a picture of their shoes sticking out from the tank.

Anthony stops drinking for the first time in 18 years. With no alcohol aboard, he has no choice. After a week on the boat, he feels a change in himself. Time seems to expand, and his liver no longer hurts. He exchanges some messages with his editor and monitors the news, but he cannot do any substantial work on his article until the cable repair begins.

To fill his days, Anthony begins writing a letter to his son. He thinks hard about what he wants to say to Joli, hoping that the letter can serve as the beginning of their reconnection. It has been many years since the last time he and Joli met, but now, Anthony wants his son to know how much he longs for a relationship with him.

He remembers the last time they were together. Joli was polite but uninterested in Anthony. Joli is 16 years old now, and Anthony wonders if he can reconnect with his son like Conway plans to reconnect the cables. He even considers texting Joli but cannot settle on an appropriately meaningful message.

One day, Conway asks Anthony to go for a jog with him. As they move across the deck, Conway reveals that there is another cable break, in shallow waters off the Ghana coast. It is a minor break, the cable pulled up by fishermen, but the Georges Lecointe will sail to fix that cable after they complete their current mission. It will mean extra weeks at sea, but Anthony assures Conway that this does not bother him.

Conway then tells Anthony that the publicist for his company in Brussels wants to speak with him about an article coming out. He gives Anthony the satellite phone. The publicist tells Anthony that there is a soon-to-be-published story about how the Georges Lecointe is moving too slowly, posing a threat to the African economy. She asks Anthony to write a story that assures the world that the ship is on schedule.

At first, Anthony is hesitant to sacrifice his journalistic integrity for a promotional article, but he decides to take the work. After the call, Conway commends Anthony for taking on the task, but he asks not to be quoted. Conway’s belief that he is not a part of the story shocks Anthony. He asks Conway about how Zanele is doing, but Conway does not answer, saying he cannot be distracted.

Anthony retires to his room, where he spends hours writing the story. When he sends it to the publicist, she writes back with apologies, informing him that she settled the matter with the reporter, and the article is no longer necessary.

On the sixth night at sea, Conway’s deputy checks on Anthony, warning him of an approaching storm. When the deputy asks what Anthony is doing, Anthony tells him that he writes to his son. The deputy is happy to hear that and reveals that nearly everyone on board has children, but he refuses to share any more. Anthony commits himself to finishing the letter to Joli. He waits out the storm, not falling ill this time.

When they reach the site of the cable break, the Georges Lecointe begins trawling for the cable, dragging a hook along the bottom of the ocean. As they work, Anthony thinks of how they could pull up an older cable, left in the depths as technology surpassed it. It reminds him of when his father once unearthed a rib cage with his tractor, bones from the famine still lurking in the ground.

Conway continues to trawl the ocean floor, bringing up mud, plastic, plants, and even deep-sea life, but no cable. He gifts Anthony a container of deep-sea mud, telling him he will never hold anything from so deep in the ocean in his life. On the fourth night of their search, they bring up a translucent octopus. Conway orders it to be preserved for scientists to examine back on shore.

On the fifth day, Anthony goes to the computer room. He catches two men looking at a picture of Zanele. They ask him not to tell Conway. Later, Anthony searches for Zanele on the internet in his cabin, learning about her acting career. He finds photos of her with a fellow actor, Aubrey Mmodi, who helped found their theater troupe. He finds no pictures of Zanele with Conway.

That night, Anthony asks Conway about Zanele again. He tells Anthony that she and the children are doing well and that she is preparing for the premiere. He cuts the conversation off again, saying that he cannot be distracted and must focus on the task in front of them. In this moment, a memory of the one time he saw his parents being affectionate toward each other rises in Anthony’s mind. Conway brings Anthony back from his reverie and explains that they are making one last attempt to find the cable before changing their tactics, which could add weeks to their work.

Late that night, Anthony hears a foghorn, and music plays over the speakers. Their final effort to find the cable succeeds. Conway tells Anthony that the repair is the easy part, and his excitement is palpable. Anthony notices that Conway’s emotions about the cable must be about Zanele as well, as this cable connects Cape Town and London, where Zanele was and now is.