by Theo Shapiro
****
Mandin woke up to shouts and calls from Breeze. This can’t be good, Mandin thought to himself. He quickly swam to the other side of the rock that they used as shelter and found Breeze swimming around frantically. By this time there were about a dozen other wahoo’s swimming with Breeze trying to calm her.
When she saw Mandin she quickly swam up to him. “Where is he? The last time I saw him he was with you. Did he say anything to you?”
“Slow down. Kermit? No, the last time I saw him I had sent him to bed last night.”
“Did he say anything to you?”
“Yeah, he wanted to come with me. He was saying he wasn’t afraid of the Fit Tún. I had just told….I know where he is.” Without another word Mandin took off as fast as he could. He was sure it was nowhere near as fast as the wahoo could swim, and he wished more than anything he had their speed.
Breeze easily caught up with him. “Where is he? Are you sure you know where he is?”
“Yes, last night I told him about a time when I was traveling with a shark and…”
“You’re friends with a shark? You are insane.”
“I never said we were friends I just said I traveled with him, and I prefer mad over insane. The point is that shark was captured by the Fit Tún and managed to escape. I think Kermit saw that as a challenge and wanted to prove he could face the Fit Tún as well.”
“Oh Poseidon. My poor child. But that doesn’t explain how you know where he is.”
“The first time I saw him he was swimming near the surface where you say the Fit Tún do their fishing, I’m sure he went back there.” The two of them continued to swim as fast as they could. In a matter of minutes they reached the area where Mandin first saw the flash. Breeze started calling for him and Mandin kept spinning around, praying to see any flash.
After a couple of minutes Breeze’s shouts turned into sobs and Mandin was starting to lose hope. He knew what Breeze was thinking, but he didn’t want to give up. “Maybe I was wrong. He could be somewhere else. Snuck off with some friends, he’s young and there’s plenty of other places he could be off getting in trouble at.”
Mandin was trying to think of something else to say when he saw the flash. It was the same flash he had seen before. He didn’t even wait for a second flash to confirm his sight and he took off toward the flash. This wasn’t like the first time when he saw a flash then another one in a different location, this time Mandin saw the flash go off in or very close to the same location over and over. It reminded him of a blinking light in a lighthouse.
As he got closer to the flashing he saw that it was Kermit, and there was something seriously wrong. Kermit was facing Mandin and looked to be swimming as hard as he could but he wasn’t moving or coming any closer.
Kermit saw Mandin and started shouting to him. “Mad Mandin! Help me please! I was wrong; I am scared of the Fit Tún. I want to go home! Mom!” Kermit had seen Breeze who was right behind Mandin.
Mandin and Breeze were now close enough to see a large hook was hooked into Kermit’s lip. The hook was set very deep. Spending time with wahoo’s Mandin learned they had sharp teeth and have used them before to chew through fishing line, but this hook and line was so far at the size of Kermit’s mouth that he couldn’t bite it. Mandin felt like it was taking forever to reach Kermit and he realized why. Kermit was being dragged away from them. The Fit Tún at the other end of the line was starting to pull Kermit toward the boat.
The clear line was hard to see but after straining his eyes Mandin found the line from the corner of Kermit’s mouth and followed it up toward the surface. Bobbing on top of the water was a small boat. It couldn’t have been more than 12 feet long, but it was dangerous nonetheless. Kermit was being pulled backward slowly at first but it was clear his strength was starting to fade and he was wearing out. His speed meant nothing now.
Mandin expected Breeze to start screaming, crying, and panicking at any second, but when he glanced at her he saw a strength and resolve he never knew she had. Her eyes were filled with determination and anger. There was no sign of fear. That’s when Mandin realized there was more to the story how Kermit lost his father than he knew. Mandin could see it in her eyes; Breeze had been in this situation before. She had seen her love pulled from the ocean by the Fit Tún directly in front of her. At the time she may not have been able to do anything, just as Mandin couldn’t do anything to help the shark, but this time she was not going to watch the only thing she loves literally be ripped away from her world.
When they reached Kermit’s side he started crying even harder. Kermit could barely form any words he was sobbing so hard. “P-p-please. I juuss wannaa g-g-goo home. I don’t want tooo be an explorer. I thought if I could escape a Fit Tún trap then I would show how b-b-bra-ave I am.”
Breeze broke her concentrated stare at the fishing lone and looked at her son. “Sshh. Don’t you worry. You are the bravest fish I know. You’re going to get out of this. Everything is going to be fine. Mandin and I are going to get you out of this, just keep fighting, don’t give up.”
“I’m so tired, I don’t think I can keep resisting.” Kermit was now directly under the boat and starting to be pulled toward the surface. As the line was reeled in Kermit’s body was twisted so he was forced to face the boat. He tried to swim backward but it didn’t appear to do any good.
Mandin launched himself at the fishing line and bit down as hard as he could. Eels have an incredibly strong bite and hoped that the line would snap right off. It didn’t.
He kept biting. He had flashbacks to trying to save the shark, but this time he knew that Kermit would not be able to escape the Fit Tún. Breeze went to the line a couple inches above Mandin and started biting at the rope as well. Kermit continued to swim as hard as he could.
For a moment with all three of their efforts combined the line stopped moving toward the surface, but then it slowly continued to rise. At this point Breeze’s back was nearly breaking the surface. She bit down with even more desperation. Then she was raised too far out of the water and she had to let go of the line. Now it was only Mandin between Kermit and the boat.
Mandin wrapped his body around the line to get a good grip and put all his weight on the line he could. Below him Breeze was in Kermit’s face encouraging him to keep swimming. Now Mandin was less than an inch from being dragged above the water line. He cinched his body tighter, refusing to let go.
Mandin felt the dry air and wind hit his body and he nearly let go to flee below the surface, but he fought every instinct he had and continued to gnaw at the rope. He could feel the line was starting to stray. Mandin opened his mouth as wide as he could and bit down with ever muscle he had in his jaw. He felt the line split in two, each end flying in separate directions.
Kermit went shooting backward, ramming into his mother and Mandin dropped back below the surface, feeling the gentle touch of the water engulf his entire body. Without saying a word the three of them swam as deep as they could, until they could no longer see the boat.
Once they were sure they were safe Breeze embraced Kermit and the two sat there crying. Mandin felt uncomfortable not knowing if he should go or stay. He decided it was time for him to move on, but when he turned to swim away Kermit and Breeze stopped him.
“Thank you for saving me.” Kermit said. “I’m sorry for the trouble I caused you.”
Mandin started to laugh. “Nonsense! That was one of the best adventures I had ever been on.”
Kermit brightened. “Yeah, I guess you’re right! That was one crazy adventure, but I think one is enough for me, and I got a souvenir.” Kermit was talking about the fishhook that was still lodged in the side of his mouth. Mandin would have told him that eventually the hook might fall out, but Kermit looked at it with a sense of pride. He showed it off to all the others telling the story that he fought off the Fit Tún. He might stretch the truth a bit about what happened, but Mad Mandin knew that to tell a real good story some facts needed to be stretched.
After saying goodbye to Kermit, Breeze swam up to him. Mandin was glad to see Breeze didn’t blame him for what happened. She actually insisted that she owed him. “I have to admit I was wrong about you.” She said. “When I first met you I thought you were crazy and I see that’s not the case. You’re definitely mad, but not crazy.”
“That’s all I ever wanted to hear.” Mandin said smiling.
“I wish there was more I could do to repay you, but I do know something that you might find interesting. I heard from a friend that not too far from hear a Fit Tún boat had just sunk not even a day ago. I’m not sure where but I know it’s west. If you hurry you might be able to have an adventure there before some other sea creatures claim it for themselves.”
“Hmm, I’m intrigued. How did you hear about that?”
“Let’s just say I have some friends in interesting places. A single parent needs good information and it helps to have friends in different places.”
“Well I hope I come across this ship, but I don’t know if I’ll ever find it. After all if I know where I’m going then there’s no point in going.” With that Mad Mandin turned around and swam off into the setting sun not even realizing he was swimming west.