Close encounter - Part IV

A stray dog sniffs the still wet sand for something to chew as the seagulls fly overhead heading towards their respective fishing grounds. On a calm morning like this, nothing seems to disrupt nature’s balance. Waves come and go with its usual persistence, crabs walk-out of their burrows in their never-ending quest for food.

Fishermen are long gone with their boats for their arduous work in clock-work fashion. There’s only one little used-to-be red and white boat called "Galante" ("Gallant" in English) without an engine or savior far away from the tideline. By the looks of it, not even money could save it, its best days are long gone.

Gerhard and Emma wake up to the sound on breakfast being made. They don’t know what disturbed their slumber first, could it be the lady cutting onions downstairs? Or the smell of fried eggs that lingered in the air inside and outside the guest house they rented for this getaway? They ‘re not sure, but it really doesn’t matter. The naked couple start kissing each other tenderly, the way newlywed only know how to do it. Gerhard does its best to get out of the soft white linen that shielded them from the sea breeze, but there’s no hurry, this idyllic getaway deserves a laidback approach. Without further notice, they decide it’s time for undisguised lust to take the lead once more.

“Alright, Alejandro… I’ll be near those rocks on your left.” Sandro point out with his index finger a solitary rock that dares to break the surface of water.

“Am I going with you?”

“Not on this dive. Let me get some fish for lunch and I’ll take you to a better place, this is kind of deep and I want you to hunt for seashells with me.”

"Ok, but what I suppose to do here all alone?”

“First of all, finish your breakfast. Second, to keep an eye on me. Third, to receive my catch. Is that enough for your?”

“Ok, but…”

“No “BUT” Your role is important here, you’re my eyes on surface.” Looking straight into Alejandro’s eyes, he continues: “My speargun is attached to my diving buoy, just keep an eye on it and you’ll know where am I. Relax, it won’t take long.”

Sandro gathers his equipment and gets ready to jump overboard. The boy a bit uneasy to be left alone on the boat tries to gesticulate something but prefers not to. He simply watches his uncle get ready and jump from the starboard side of the small boat. As his head submerges, a long squirt comes from the inside of his uncle’s snorkel hitting Alejandro in his neck and shoulder. As he jumps back, a laughing Sandro crosses glances with the boy and makes a gesture with his index and middle finger to remind Alejandro that he is being watched.

The boy watches from where he’s sitting, how Sandro slowly drift away by the current while he loads his double rubber speargun. When done, he brings the floating buoy closer and makes sure that everything is in place. Looking back at the boat, makes the “OK” sign gesture to Alejandro and waits for the boy reply. The boy waves and just like a seal, he plunges into the depths gracefully.

Alejandro watches as the buoy moves in the direction where Sandro dove. It remains there for merely 30 seconds, then he could see the tip of the black snorkel and following a well-synchronized maneuver, exhales forcefully blowing the water out of the tube.

Sandro looks again at the boat; he is aware that he has an 11-year-old boy onboard all alone. He knows Alejandro won’t do anything stupid, but kids will always be kids. They don’t know the true consequences of their actions, pitifully you got to travel through life’s path to understand what danger means.

The boy watches at the divers as he moves in the direction of the rock that stands alone. This rock is known as “The Whale.” Fishermen love to give locations names, it’s easier for them to communicate using names instead of coordinates on a daily basis. “The whale/wolf/pig/dog” are among the most used ones, but not only animals take the spotlight while picking names. In this case, “The whale” make sense and the boy is slowly finding out that fisherman have a particular way of seeing the world around us.

Sandro stand still for a minute, then dives down without even leaving ripples behind him. The boy watches how the fins got out of the water and start to sink gracefully dive after dive. In the quietness of the deck, he looks around and sees the plate with his breakfast still on the seat. His now cold scrambled eggs look not-so-inviting, but he decides to take a spoonful. Rocked by the waves, engulfed in solitude, he chewed his breakfast while watching at Sandro freedive for their next meal.

With a big breath, dives once more. As he goes down, he sees in the distant a promising dark spot. He reaches the bottom and moves as stealthy as he can towards the small crevice. Something moved inside, he quickly puts the tip of his gun right in the entrance of the cave and looks inside once again.

He sees a mouth, an eye and shots. Leaving everything behind he rushes to the surface to take some air. The bottom is around 35 feet deep. For someone like him is not deep at all. In less than 30 seconds he is ready to dive back. His right hand grips at the entrance of the cave while his left hand reached for the spear. Providing zero-to-no-resistance the fish is being pulled out of the crevice by Sandro. A beautiful Red Snapper of about 9 or 10 pounds moves still trying to get away but the shot damaged its spine. The job is done, a nice catch for today’s meal.

Sandro gets to the surface and yells:

“ALEJANDRO! LOOOK!” Holding the fish with both hands he tries to raise it above his head to show the boy his catch.

Alejandro starts to cheer from the distance and holding his arms up in the air, celebrate his Uncle’s achievement.

He quickly attaches the fish to his buoy and moves in the direction of some moving fish he saw from the surface. He gets closer and tries his luck once again. His bravado brings results once more, another but smaller snapper joins the first on his buoy.

Not every dive is fructiferous, in a matter of 20 minutes he manages to get at least 5 fishes on his buoy. He knows it's more than enough fish for today and even tomorrow. The current placed his red floating device at some distance from his gun. He usually leaves 40 feet of slack between them, enough to maneuver in this shallow water around “The Whale.”

While strolling around a promising crevice, he feels a hard pull from the line attached to the buoy. Looks up and sees a big shadow where the line ends. He let go and slowly starts to get in the direction of the surface. As he gets closer, he manages to see what’s pulling his line. A shark of around 6 or 7 feet is biting the big snapper furiously on its tail and body.

Without giving it much thought, acting on pure instinct, our knight in his neoprene armor stand his ground.

To be continued.