Shark Lover

by Marie, Gracie

  “A seal? How did this happen?” Cathy asked as she tried untangling it from the hook. He was bleeding from the lip and crying out as she tried to remove the hook. “Oh, I feel terrible for him. What should we do Chris?”

  “It is feeding time, I’m sure this little guy mistook the bait as his lunch. Don’t worry I got this,” He said as he grabbed a towel and started patting down the seal’s lip. “Don’t cry little guy, I’ll get you unhooked from here.” He untangled the hook from the seal as the seal shrieked in pain. “It’s okay, here boy let me bandage you up.”

  Cathy watched Chris with the seal in approbation. He was so good with animals and the way that he comforted the seal made her have more respect for him. Since he was a hardcore military man, she didn’t expect for him to have such a sensitive side. The way he bandaged up the seal’s lip made her smile. He took such good care of him, talking to him while he was trying to ease his pain away. She rubbed the side of the seal to try to help him as well. Chris finished bandaging up the seal and looked at her.

  “I think he’s ready to go back into the sea. What do you think?” He asked smirking. “You’re the marine biologist.”

  “Let me take a look at him.” She knelt down and took a look at the seal’s face and eyes. He appeared to be healthy looking and ready to get back to the water. “He looks okay, I don’t think we damaged anything that would really hinder him while he was swimming. I think it was just his lip. We bandaged it up, so he should be good to go. I do however think that we should use a hoist to get him back into the water. It would be less painful than just throwing him overboard the boat.”

  “Good idea,” He said as he ran over to get the hoist. “Let’s lift him up and set him on it.” They both took an end of the seal and put him on the hoist. Chris then lowered it slowly down into the ocean. They both watched as the seal swam back to life. Cathy was glad he wasn’t hurt. She had been worried for a while. She didn’t plan on injuring another creature. She almost wanted to give up the hunt for Mandy, but they were too close to finding her that she couldn’t give up just yet.

  “Do you still see Mandy on the tracker?” She asked Chris as he pulled up the anchor and started steering the boat again.

  “She left this area once she saw the seal attacked I believe. She scattered to a few miles north. We can still get to her. It should only take a few minutes.” He spoke as rain started pouring down brutally.

  “Chris!” Cathy cried. “It’s pouring down rain, I can barely see anything. How will we get back?”

  “I sure didn’t see this coming. We should probably head back. It doesn’t look like it’s going to clear up anytime soon. There’s a raincoat underneath the fish cabinet over there.” He pointed to the cabinet as he started driving the boat away as fast as he could. “Hopefully we can make it back. I can barely see where we are.”

  Cathy’s teeth chattered as she shivered in her cold clothes. She was completely drenched in water and felt as if she had been dumped in a bucket of cold ice. After grabbing the raincoat, she ran over and stood next to Chris at the wheel. He was powering up the boat at a speed that felt like they were racing. She would have preferred to have gone slower in conditions like this, but she knew that they had to get back to base quickly. The waves were thrashing the sides of the boat angrily. She grabbed ahold of Chris’s arm in order to stay in place and to keep from flying all around the boat.

  “Don’t worry, we’re almost back. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” He whispered comfortingly.

  Cathy just nodded her head. She didn’t like storms. They had always scared her. When she was little, she had hid underneath her bed for hours just to avoid the sound of thunder and the big bolts of lightning. Her mother had always told her that she dealt with the storms worse than the dog did. Cathy just couldn’t help it, storms reminded her of a dark time. A time that she didn’t want to remember.

  “Cathy, sit down I need to tell you something very important,” Her father said to her as he made a motion for her to sit down at the kitchen table with him. “Now I am only telling you right now. Your sister isn’t ready to hear about this yet. I’m telling you because I think you will be mature enough to handle this.”

  “What is it Daddy?” She asked in fear. She wondered if he was finally going to tell her what was going on. For weeks she had questioned why he had always been leaving mysteriously. She wanted to know where he went and why he kept leaving them. She didn’t understand why her parents kept fighting. They had always seemed happy throughout her entire life. She originally had blamed it on her and Carly getting older. It was never easy to deal with teenagers. She blamed herself for being difficult when her parents needed her.

  “Sit down first Cat and then I will tell you. It’s nothing to be worried about. Now just sit down and relax.” He still pointed at the chair where he wanted to sit down.

  “Is everything okay? Does it have to do with you and Mommy? Are you splitting up? Oh, this is so terrible! I never thought we would have divorced parents! You both seemed so happy together all of the time.” She cried not wanting to sit down. She began pacing back and forth throughout the kitchen floor. She couldn’t believe that this was happening.

  “We’re not getting divorced Cat. It doesn’t have anything to do with that. It has to do with me.” He gave up on getting her to sit down. He knew his eldest daughter too well. He knew her free spirit and her unwillingness to follow the rules. It had been hard for others to understand her the way that he did. Teachers and authoritive figures had always said she caused trouble, but what they didn’t understand was that she was trying to follow her own path.

  “Are you splitting up then? Is that what this is about? Then you are just blaming yourself for it?” She couldn’t stop pacing. Her fears were beginning to get the best of her.

  “No, Cat we aren’t splitting up. Your mother and I have been fighting a lot because of my condition.” He explained calmly.

  “What do you mean your condition? What’s going on Daddy?” She finally sat down in the chair after exhausting herself by her hardcore pacing habit.

  “This isn’t easy to say to you and I haven’t told anyone but your mother. Cat, I have cancer and I only have six months to live.” He looked deep in her eyes pleading for empathy and held her hand as he saw her eyes grow with worry.

  “What? Are you sure Daddy? The doctor could be wrong. Maybe he got your condition wrong.” She said as tears started to come to her eyes. She didn’t want to think about her father dying. He wasn’t supposed to die this early in his life. She and Carly were so young. Her father wouldn’t live to see them finish school, get married or hold his first grandchild. Tears started streaming down her face and she started thinking of all the things that he would miss.

  “Yes Cat, I wouldn’t be telling you if the doctor said it wasn’t true. I have been going to chemotherapy more often now and that’s why my hair is now gone. I didn’t just decide to go bald, it’s the chemo that is taking it away. I’m really sorry Cat, I didn’t want to tell you but your mother thinks it’s best that you know so that we can enjoy these last six months together. I want us to live our time out to the fullest. I want to spend every day I have left with you girls and your mother. I’m not going to leave this world full of regret.” He said looking away from her and out the window. He could see that they sky was clouding up and it was about to start raining. The rain started hitting the window pane like the soft tears falling from Cathy’s eyes.

  “Daddy, why didn’t you tell me sooner? I could have helped you. I would have,” She said in-between sobs. “I didn’t want you to live in pain. If I would have known earlier we wouldn’t have had to do all of this stuff that hurt you.”

  “No, Cat I don’t want to live my life in fear. I don’t know exactly how much longer I will live, but I don’t want to miss out on your life. If I just sit back and let myself die, I’m going to miss out on all of your lives. The three of you mean the world to me and I don’t want to miss out on
a second of it.”

  “When did you find out Daddy?” She asked wiping the tears from her face.

  “I’ve known for a long time Cat. Since you were a little girl. At that time, you were just too little to understand. I didn’t want to upset you. It wouldn’t have been fair to you to know that the whole time you had been alive, your father was dying,” He said with pain in his voice. “I didn’t want you to go on living your life that way. At least this way we had years of fun and you didn’t have to think about a timeline.”

  “But Daddy, you lied to me!” She said standing up from the table. “I wish I would have known earlier! It’s not fair, now we only have six months left. If I would have known sooner, I would have spent more time with you. I wouldn’t have argued with you. I wouldn’t have been such a brat!” She yelled as a big bolt of lightning flashed through the window and she screamed. A big boom of thunder followed and she leapt underneath the table in fear. Slowly crawling out, she looked at her father’s face and instantly felt bad for what she was saying to him. She knew it wasn’t his fault and he was just trying to do what was best for them.

  “Cat, it’s not like that. I didn’t lie to you. I just didn’t want to tell you because I knew it would ruin our time together. As a father, I have enjoyed seeing you live your life. I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I would have told you earlier. You wouldn’t have acted like yourself and you would have treated me differently. I didn’t want it to be like that,” He said explaining rationally. “I didn’t know that I would end up dying from the cancer. I had just recently found out that it would be taking my life. In the beginning, the doctors had told me that it would be curable. I was going to chemotherapy about once a month, trying to remove the cancer. They thought they would be able to get rid of it, but that just didn’t happen. It ended up spreading to more places in my body and now the chemotherapy won’t help to kill it off. I just want these last few months to be special. I don’t want you to think of me as going away, I want you to think of it as me just saying see you later.”

  She looked at her father with sadness in her eyes. She hated that she had to see him like this. The last thing that she ever wanted in her life was to watch her father die. She never thought that it would happen like this. He was too young to be dealing with all of this. Feeling his pain, she went over and hugged him. Another bolt of lightning lit up the entire house and the thunder was even louder this time, but she didn’t care. She didn’t have time to be fearful or scared. She needed to be there for her father when he needed her most. And right now he needed her more than ever.

  “Cathy? Is everything okay?” Chris asked as he waved a hand in front of her face.

  “Chris?” She asked back. “Where are we?” She looked around in confusion as she realized the boat had been parked safety at the dock and the water was calm. The last she had remembered was being stuck in the middle of the ocean in a huge storm. Her clothes still felt wet from the rain. She tried getting up, but she stumbled. Chris pulled her up from the boat and let her grab his arm as she tried to steady herself.

  “Well, I think you blacked out. Are you afraid of thunderstorms by chance? I’m just assuming that your body went into fear and completely shut off. I was getting pretty worried about you. I was about to give you CPR, but then I noticed that you were still breathing.”

  “Yes, I am afraid of storms. I always have been, but wow I am so sorry about that. I should have been helping you in that storm, not blacking out from the world. We might not have made it out alive.” She said still holding his arm to help herself get off of the boat. For once in her life, she was tired of being near the ocean. She wanted to be away from it. Just the smell of the salty water and fish was making her completely sick.

  “Don’t be so dramatic,” He said smiling at her. “Remember I used to be a sailor. It’s not the first time that I have been caught in a storm like that. It was a mild storm anyways. There’s nothing to be afraid about and we’re back on land now. So that’s always a reassuring feeling isn’t it?”

  “Yes! You have no idea how happy I am to be back on stable land. It feels great. I feel great. That’s right, I forgot that you used to sail. That’s definitely a helpful skill to have. I can see why you are one of the official captains for Shark Savors now.” She said with happiness.

  Spending time with Chris helped eliminate her pain that she was feeling. She hated being sad all of the time and moping. It reminded her of when her dad had first died. For the first few months she hadn’t really wanted to do anything. She mostly had spent all of her time alone and had missed out on a big chunk of her high school life. The depression and sadness had overcome her life. She didn’t want this time to be like that. Marc had been the love of her life, but she didn’t want to be depressed and sad all of the time. While she was still having trouble dealing with the loss, it was nice to spend time with a friend who brought some joy into her life.

  Chapter 15

  “Would you like some more tomatoes for your salad?” Chris asked Cathy as he sprinkled some pepper onto his. “It looks a little dry for you over there.” He sneered at her from across the table as he watched her twiddle her fork while picking up the big, leafy greens.

  “Sure, that would be great. It is a little dry. It’s hard to explain, but I don’t like dressing on my salad. I like to eat all natural foods.” She said as she grabbed the tomatoes from Chris.

  He had even chopped them up into bite-sized salad toppings. It was nice to be around someone who understood what being a vegetarian was like. Sometimes it was exhausting eating only vegetables and fruits. Chris always had new ideas on vegetarian meals that Cathy really appreciated. He had even made her a nice side of vegetarian lasagna. She didn’t have a clue that he kept all of this delicious food in the lab.

  “So do I, it feels so much better on the body.” He took another bite of his salad before looking up at her again. “Did you want to go back out on the boat later? I had someone take over all of my classes for today. I figured it would be an all-day thing. Actually you can probably hear the kids if you listen close enough. Even though I had these walls built to be sound-proof, you can still hear their loud laughter occasionally.” He glanced at the walls and put his ear closer to one as Cathy giggled.

  “You look silly doing that,” She remarked as she laughed. She had to admit she was having a good time with Chris. He was taking away the horrible thoughts that she had been having all day. It was good to be around someone when she felt so depressed inside. Once she stopped laughing she could hear the kids through the walls. “They are pretty loud.” She couldn’t believe that they could still hear them from inside of his office. “I would like to go out again. Once I got off the boat, I couldn’t even imagine going back out again. But I feel like we should keep trying. Do you see Mandy on the shark tracker still? Maybe we could figure out if she’s still there. She was being such a pain before. I think she’s on to our tricks. Sharks are a lot smarter than they let on.”

  “Animals are a lot smarter than most people think that they are. A lot of people can’t pick up on an animal’s intuition as well as you or I can,” he said as he took the mobile shark tracker out of his pocket. “She’s still in that same area, feeding probably. Do you want to go back now? We would have a better chance of catching her. I think the storms have stopped for today.”

  “I’m ready. Let’s go catch a shark.”

  * * *

  “I can’t believe we still didn’t catch her.” Cathy sighed in disappointment once Chris had parked his jeep back at Shark Savors. They had invested another three hours in trying to hunt Mandy down, but they still came up empty. Cathy had thought for sure they would have captured Mandy by now. Her patience was running out. Even though they had only been trying for a day, it felt like an entire lifetime. She couldn’t contain her disappointment with the fact that she couldn’t find the shark that had killed the love of her life.

  “I know it’s frustrating, but don’t worry. We’re not goin
g to give up. We can come back tomorrow after work and your classes. We’ll go every day until we find her.” Chris stated firmly with determination. Cathy admired his attitude and his willingness to keep the fight going. Chris kept her motivated. Without him, she might have already given up.

  “Alright, so tomorrow then. I will stop by after my work at the aquarium is done. I do have a night class tomorrow night, so we can’t stay out too late,” She said as her stomach rumbled. “Wow I guess it’s dinner time already. Who knew that this search could take an entire day? I’m just upset we didn’t come up with anything.”

  “Sounds like a plan. I’ll see you tomorrow once your work is over. Just give me a call or just pop on in. You know where to find me. We won’t give up until she is captured. I promise you that much. Have a good night.” He got out of the jeep and started heading in the building.

  “Chris!” Cathy called out as she jumped out of his jeep and started running after him.

  He turned around abruptly. “Yes? Is everything alright Cathy?” He asked looking apprehensive.

  “Yes, everything is fine. It’s just I…I…” She stammered as she looked at the ground sheepishly. “I wondered if you wanted to come over to my apartment for dinner. It’s the least I can do for you after everything you have done for me. You took off the entire day to help me search. I would love to thank you with a great dinner.”

  “Thanks for the invitation, but you don’t have to do that. I would help you anyways. I’m not looking for any type of reward or payback. I just want to help out a friend in need.” He put his hand on her arm. “There’s no need to thank me.”

  “But I insist. I really want to do this. Carly is making seafood pasta. I don’t know if you are interested, but she’s a great cook. I would love for you to meet her. She will probably be assisting us on tomorrow’s search.” Cathy insisted with a bargain that was hard for Chris to turn down. He could tell that she was the type of girl who always got what she wanted and she was about to again right now.