Too Young to Die (3 of 4)

On the harbour wall a crane stood isolated, defiant as the dark foaming mass crashed over it. There was a headland to the north that made up that side of the bay and I could see the ocean rising and falling against the cliffs possibly by thirty or forty feet.

 

I had a Grouper and a Red Mullet, it was enough. I had been in the water for about three hours and the current was slowly carrying me out to sea. I put my head down and began to fin for shore. Five minutes later I was aghast to see open water ahead, the current was turning me, so I zig zagged, a slow process but I was heading in the right direction. Two hours of hard finning and legs like jelly I was contemplating my extraction when something grabbed me from behind and my heart stopped, I turned, it was him. Relief turned to concern when I saw his face – ghastly white, – he shouted – every other word drowned by the noise of the sea that he’d explain later. I was to give him my weight belt, speargun and fish – he would go in first. They say every seventh wave is a big one, I saw him count and he was gone. The wave lifted him onto the harbour wall and receded again leaving a twenty five foot drop to the rocks below. The next wave crashed in, but he was already safe. I waited, he waved I swam. Closing on the harbour wall a mass of water welled up behind me. Glancing up I saw him waving me back, I had been too slow or the wave hadn’t been big enough. Turning I began to fin back out to sea, but ‘she’ was already retreating, water disappearing beneath me. I felt what I had dreaded, my fins brushing the rocks I had to keep up with the receding ocean. I don’t know if I heard the roar of the water or saw the wave first; it was too quick, but I dived into the wave and tried to swim up and out of it while ‘she’ forced me down. I was swallowing repeatedly as my lungs searched in vain for oxygen and then suddenly I was free once more. I looked up at the shore and I swear he was laughing, but he later denied it. Almost drained of energy we began again, timing it to perfection and ‘she’ dropped me unceremoniously onto the harbour wall.

 

We began to sort ourselves out. I judged my Grouper to weigh around seventeen pounds but he had more with four Red Mullet, three Bream and a smaller Grouper. A crowd had gathered, small children with that curious look on their faces. The men were examining the fish and there was a good atmosphere. I saw the old man from earlier. The old man slapped me on the back. ‘Loco,’ he said and grinned.

Sorry this has dragged on from 2 episodes to 4 😉 But I discovered there was more of the telling than I first remembered, stick with me please I promise next week is the finale. Love you for reading 🙂