Foreign Soil: The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa Summary & Analysis

In a flashback, Asanka stares at the ocean and wonders how much time they have before the storm breaks. When the two men greeted their passengers at the start of their journey, they warned them not to wear white—it’s too visible at night. Asanka guesses their boat is somewhere near Galle right now, but he’s not sure. Everyone is standing vigilant.

The two boatmen, whom Asanka refers to as Mustache and Ponytail, start dividing the group in two. Mustache orders Asanka and some others to get in the fish hold at the front of the boat. Asanka doesn’t like small spaces, not since the first time he tried to escape the Tigers—as punishment, the Tigers locked Asanka and his friend Dinesh in a potato chest and nailed the chest shut. Thinking of this makes Asanka sick; he remembers how Dinesh cried for his mother, whom he hadn’t seen in a year, and peed his pants.

Mustache, threatening Asanka with his fish knife, orders Asanka to get inside the fish hold. Asanka refuses and feels himself start to cry, which is unusual for him, since he no longer fears things or  shudders at the sight of “naked butchered bodies of nearly still girl-women lying ripped on the roadside.” Now, the stumps where Asanka’s fingers used to be begin to ache. He can’t get kicked off this boat, and he can’t go back to Sri Lanka. His parents sold everything for him to get a spot on this boat, and the soldiers are watching his house in Dehiwala.

Just then, another passenger, a small man (Chaminda), gets up from his place on the cabin floor. Reasoning that Asanka is just a kid, he insists on going into the fish hold in Asanka’s place. The small man gestures for Asanka to take his place on the cabin floor, and Asanka does so.

Asanka thinks back to when he was five and would go fishing at his grandparents’ place in Gampaha. He remembers one fishing trip as “the first time [he] ever saw death close up.” On that trip, he watched as his poppo gutted the fish and dumped their insides off the side of the boat.

Asanka’s thoughts are interrupted when Mustache walks over to the man (Chaminda) who helped Asanka and attacks his face with the fish knife. The man clutches his bleeding face. Asanka stares at Mustache and sees his own face that day he lost his finger and was locked in the potato chest. As Asanka and the others drive the ship out of the bay, they spot another boat headed their way. Ponytail, looking nervous, approaches Asanka and the other men on the cabin floor and orders them to act like normal fisherman.

Just then, Asanka sees three shirtless men crouched atop long poles. They look like they’re floating above the water. They stare into it, fishing rods in their hands. Tied to the stilts are plastic bags filled with the men’s catch. The fishermen nod at Asanka’s boat as they pass. What Asanka just saw shocks him: he thought there weren’t any more stilt fishermen of Kathaluwa. He closes his eyes, and when he opens them, the fishermen are gone. Asanka figures he must have imagined them.

Elsewhere, in the story’s present, Loretta wakes up and smells liquor on Sam’s breath. “Client drinks,” he explained in a text to her last night—a text that Loretta received after she and her mom had been waiting for Sam at the restaurant for nearly an hour. Loretta was furious. Now, she turns away from Sam and looks at her alarm clock: it’s just past seven. She thinks about turning off the alarm, since Saturday is Sam’s only day to sleep in, but she decides she doesn’t care.

The alarm goes off. When Sam stirs, Loretta tells him she has to go to the center. Sam thinks she’s lying and accuses her of letting the alarm go off to punish him for getting too drunk last night. He then tries to initiate sex with Loretta. She resists at first but eventually gives in; her and Sam’s bodies go so well together. Even so, she knows that sexual chemistry isn’t enough to sustain a marriage. After Sam finishes, Loretta reaffirms that she has to go to the center, since Viv can’t go today. Sam protests, but Loretta gets out of bed to get ready anyway. She misses her old job at the Asylum Seekers Center and volunteers on Saturdays to continue doing that work.

Sam convinced Loretta to quit working for the center, citing the job’s low pay and long hours—neither of which would work once they have kids. He suggested that Loretta work at new firm for a few years before going on maternity leave. Hearing Sam say this last bit delighted Loretta, and she fantasized about having their empty, “soulless” house happy and full of children. But it’s been seven months since Loretta left the center, and Sam hasn’t brought up children again.

Elsewhere, in the story’s present, Asanka stares at the blue watch the Brother of St Laurence lady gave him on her visit a few months ago. He keeps the watch tucked into the springs of his bunk. The bunk is approximately eight of Asanka’s foot lengths long, and Asanka’s room is just over 16 foot lengths long. It’s 7:44 now. Any minute, an access card will open the door to Asanka’s unit, and it’ll be time for morning checkup. Sometimes, Asanka thinks about making a run for it when the door opens, but he doesn’t know what the Australians would do to him—would they be like the Tigers?

At 7:45, a guard walks in and orders Asanka out of bed. When the guard sees Asanka rouse, he moves on to the next room. Asanka has had a room to himself since Chaminda died. Asanka goes about his morning routine, using his watch to count the seconds that go by; at 07:45:28 he opens his drawer; at 07:55:00 he takes out his jeans and T-shirt. He has to count like this, because if he stops, “he will be locked in the chest. They will shove him in the fish hold. […] Dinesh will be dead, and his face will already be decaying.” The doctor Asanka sees says none of this is real, but Asanka doesn’t believe him.

Asanka used to stay in bed all day, but they’ve been making him get up at 7:45 ever since Chaminda’s death. It’s hard for Asanka to find ways to fill his days. He thinks he “deserves to die” because he left Dinesh behind. He wishes they didn’t fight for the Tigers—he wishes they’d just the Tigers take all their fingers instead.

Asanka showers a little after eight. He feels the water wash the blood off his body, though he hasn’t killed anyone since he escaped the Liberation Tigers. The doctor told Asanka that the blood isn’t real—that he’ll never be locked in a chest again. But then the doctor walked away, leaving Asanka behind in the chest.

Asanka remembers when the cleaner found Chaminda’s body; it was covered in vomit and had been sitting there for a day before the cleaner found it. Asanka found Chaminda earlier in the day. He met Chaminda on the journey to Australia, and Chaminda became like family to him. Asanka decided that Chaminda deserved some peace after all they’d been through, so he just closed Chaminda’s eyes and didn’t tell anyone he had died. The news hasn’t mentioned Chaminda’s death, but the center has installed locks on doors where they keep cleaning fluids.

In a flashback to his journey on the fishing boat, Asanka wakes up soaking wet. His right hand is tied to the bench with Chaminda’s shirt—Chaminda did this after Asanka told him he couldn’t swim. Now, the storm has passed, the ocean is calm, and the sky is blue again. Mustache is talking to some men by the fish hold. Chaminda appears before Asanka. He’s holding a fish and motions for Asanka to drink from it. Asanka drinks the fish blood. The ship’s water containers broke a few days ago, and nobody has had anything to drink since. Asanka looks at Chaminda’s bare chest and fears that Chaminda will burn up without his shirt. Chaminda’s been looking after Asanka ever since the fish hold incident, and Asanka isn’t used to such kindness. Asanka tried to smile at Chaminda last night, but Chaminda told him it wasn’t necessary: he should just say thank you. He looked so sad when he said it.

There are carved notches on the boat bench that Ponytail has added to keep track of how long they’ve been at sea; according to the notches, they’ve been traveling for 35 days. The sea is often turbulent at night, and Asanka fears they’ll never make it to shore. They lost a man four days ago. Nobody even noticed until headcount the next morning.

Back in the present, Loretta makes her way to the Villawood Immigration Detention Center. There’s a crowd of reporters and camera crews gathered outside when she arrives. Loretta doesn’t go near them; she doesn’t want to know what’s happened. 

Meanwhile, at 10:00:01, the visiting hour bell sounds. Asanka sometimes thinks that he sees his family, but it’s only in his head. Other times, when a room checker rouses him from sleep, his thoughts flash back to the night the Tigers came for him. They said that all Tamils had to make sacrifices to fight back against the government that mistreated them. Asanka’s father insisted that Asanka was too young to fight and tried to reason with them, but they had a gun to his head. Asanka quietly volunteered to go with the soldiers; his father cried.

Asanka wanders down the hallway toward the common area. He knows he has to stop counting and seeing blood; if he doesn’t, they’ll send him to the Blaxland Unit, which is where they send people who are unwell. He’s been there before. Chaminda tried to tell them that he’s just a boy, but Immigration doesn’t believe him. And they shouldn’t; Asanka isn’t a boy—“Not after what he’s done, what he’s seen.” Now, Asanka looks up and sees the stilt fishermen hanging upside down.

Back in the present, Loretta signs in at the center. An officer scans her purse and body. She apologizes to Loretta for the invasiveness as she rummages through Loretta’ purse. “There was an incident recently,” she explains. But Loretta already knows about this; Chaminda was one of her cases. Loretta is irritated when the officer tells Loretta she can’t take in the flatbread and candy she brought with her. 

It’s 10:05:21. Asanka approaches the door to the visiting room but wonders if they’ll even let him in like this—he’s covered in blood. But he walks inside, and nobody stops him. He knows to look for the woman’s (Loretta) hair—Chaminda told him the woman would be able to help him. As he waits for her, he examines a picture of the world posted to the noticeboard. He finds Indonesia, the Cocos Islands, Sri Lanka, and the Indian coast on the map. The distance he traveled to get here seems so small. Asanka continues to wait for the woman. He recalls his father telling him to be strong, but now he considers this advice “foolish optimism.” 

In a flashback to Asanka’s journey aboard the boat, Chaminda and Ponytail frantically yell at Asanka to pull himself up out of the water (Asanka has been sick and now must relieve himself in the water, so he doesn’t infect the rest of the passengers). Eventually, Chaminda and Ponytail, who’ve been holding onto a rope that’s attached to Asanka, get Asanka back onto the ship. Asanka is freezing cold. Chaminda, angry, tells Asanka that he was only supposed to relieve himself and then let them pull him back in. Asanka calmly explains that he was talking “to them,” gesturing toward the stilt fishermen. The others give Asanka a puzzled look, then they ask what “they” said. Asanka points in the direction the fisherman showed him and explains that there’s a boat and land waiting for them there. Ponytail is worried and says Asanka needs water; Chaminda tries not to cry. 

Back in the present, Loretta heads to the visiting area. She sees a young man of about 17 or 18 years (Asanka) looking at her from across the room. He’s very thin and has thick black hair. Loretta smiles, and walks over to meet Asanka, but Asanka doesn’t smile back. 10:16:55, Asanka is facing Loretta. She has red hair, just like Chaminda said she would. But it’s a nice red, like a sunset—not like blood. She looks so new and “unbroken.” He wants to touch her, not believing she’s real. In a brief flashback, Ponytail wonders if they can trust what Asanka said about there being land and a ship nearby—he thinks Asanka is crazy. But Chaminda climbs up on the ship’s roof to investigate, and then another man laughs. 

Asanka tells Loretta that Chaminda is dead, and Loretta immediately knows he must be Asanka—Chaminda told her so much about him. Loretta asks Asanka if he wants to sit down, but he doesn’t seem to register her question. She can’t believe how young he is. Ever since Viv called her to tell her about Chaminda, Loretta has tried to forget the horror of Asanka’s situation. When Loretta listened to Viv’s voicemail, she collapsed on the floor. Sam came home and found her there. He was angry when he learned what was wrong and felt Loretta was overreacting. He insisted that “some of [these people] just aren’t right in the head.” 

On Loretta’s last day at the center, Chaminda’s case was almost closed. She left a note detailing his release memoranda on Viv’s computer, but it got lost. In retrospect, Loretta should have known; stuff like that happens all the time at the center.

In the present, Asanka observes Loretta. She looks sad when he says Chaminda’s name. All Asanka wants to do is wrap his arms around the woman’s waist and let her comfort him. He remembers how Chaminda made them kiribath the night before he died—he’d convinced a volunteer to bring them coconut milk and rice. The meal wasn’t perfect—they had to cook the rice in the microwave—but eating it made them feel like they were home.

In a flashback, Asanka sits on a bench on the ship and rubs his legs, which are still numb with cold. The other men are gathered on one side of the deck, staring at the other boat. It’s made of metal and is unlike anything they’ve ever seen before. As the boat draws closer, Asanka sees that the men onboard are pointing big machine guns at them. Asanka drops to the floor and screams. The men on the boat are soldiers, and he knows what soldiers do. Chaminda runs to Asanka and kneels beside him to comfort him; he promises that the men on the other boat don’t have guns and aren’t soldiers—they’re Australian officials. And the government officials “in this country” aren’t like the government people in Sri Lanka.

Back in the present, Loretta asks how old Asanka is, but he tells her he doesn’t know. The Tigers took him when he was 14, he explains, but he doesn’t know how long ago that was. He knows that he was on the boat for 37 days and in the center for 421 days—but that’s it. He begs Loretta to help him. Loretta can’t—she doesn’t work here anymore—but there’s no way Asanka can understand this; he’s just a child. Asanka tells Loretta more about what he’s been through. The Tigers took his thumb after he refused to rape a young girl; then they later took his finger when he tried to escape. Immigration keeps asking him questions, but they don’t listen to him. Loretta sees his hopeless eyes and remembers why she started working here in the first place.

There’s a commotion behind Loretta and Asanka as a group of men in suits appears in the doorway. Asanka says they—the government people—must be “filming again.” Then he abruptly smiles and tells Loretta he has to go. Loretta stares as Asanka walks away from the suit-clad men and through the doorway to the center. He walks carefully, one foot in front of the other, as though balancing on a tightrope. 

Back in his room, Asanka removes two metal hairpins he discreetly stole from the lawyer (Loretta). He drags the pin along the concrete wall to remove its rounded plastic end, revealing a sharp pointed piece of metal underneath. He jabs the sharp metal into his skin, but he can’t feel any pain. If he were to slip away in the middle of the night, like the man on the boat did, probably nobody would remember he ever existed, either.

Asanka hears the stilt fishermen in the distance, but he can’t see them. He looks inside his pocket for the floss he took from Loretta’s purse, then he uses the floss and the hairpins to sew his mouth shut. Asanka goes to check the time but finds that his watch is missing. He thinks maybe the fishermen hooked it when he passed beneath them.  He walks to the mirror and ties a knot in the floss, tightening the stitches and sealing his mouth shut. He thinks of the embroidery his mother used to do. He holds a tissue over his mouth and heads back to the visitors room; the fisherman are back again, hanging from the ceiling. He walks past the new visitors to the outside area.

In a flashback, the Australians climb onto Asanka’s boat. At some point, they bring him onboard their big, metal boat and wrap a blanket around him. A man in a uniform asks if there was anyone else onboard. Chaminda tells him about the man they lost but admits that he doesn’t know the man’s name. The uniformed Australian man looks around at Asanka and the others, then he brings a small machine to his mouth and speaks into it. A voice speaks back. In Asanka’s mind, the man becomes a stilt fisherman, and he and Chaminda are fish.

Back in the present, Loretta sits in her car. She thinks about the strange way Asanka walked away from her. She wants to get out of the car, go back to the center, and talk to Asanka some more; she doesn’t know what will become of him. Loretta begins to cry as she watches the news crews swarming the building. “Fuck Sam,” she thinks to herself, “fuck having a baby, fuck her new job[.]” He doesn’t feel like her husband anymore. And she doesn’t know why she’s crying about him here, in the Villawood parking lot. As she pulls out of the lot, she notices something happening behind her: everyone is “shouting, sprinting, pointing at a figure moving slowly and steadily toward the fence, across the asphalt of the visitors yard.”