Hundred Red Scales

THREE DAYS, ISLAND-HOPPING EASTWARDS Laundry lines stretch out past the mangrove trees. They flap like sails over the water: skeins of yarn, sheets of cloth, dyed this morning. + In these islands, spoken language marks you as a foreigner. The monitor-folk do not speak, and did not make words. Merchants who travel here negotiate with sign and gesture. They come to buy textiles of exquisite craft. N…