Boy Who Cried Shark

by Davy Ocean

  Humph. I turn around and bury my hammer in the net.

  “It’s worse than being dead, being a ham-ham-hammer head,” I whisper to myself. “I should’ve stayed in bed. I’m a ham-ham-hammerhead.”

  I flex my fins. I want to pound the ground with them.

  “What kind of lyrics are they?” someone calls out from behind me.

  Huh?

  “They’re, like, totally the worst lyrics EVAH!”

  I flip around and see Cora and Pearl, the dolphin twins. They must have swum up behind me while I was trying out my latest useless rap.

  Cora and Pearl strike poses. They look just like G-White’s backup singers.

  “If you wanna do lyrics right . . . , ” says Pearl.

  “You gotta sing about love,” says Cora, and they high-fin each other.

  “You gotta get smoochy-woochy.” Pearl blows a kiss at Cora, who takes a picture of her on her SeaPhone.

  “You gotta get lovey with the dovey.” Cora puckers her lips and flutters her eyelashes as Pearl takes a picture of her. Pretty soon their camera-phones are flashing almost as much as the lights on The Shark Factor last night.

  I think I’m going to be sick. I start to swim away, but the camera flashes are following me.

  “Don’t you want us to help you, Harry?” says Cora as she swims alongside me.

  I say nothing. I don’t want to be mean. It’s not their fault I didn’t get to see G-White last night. I just want to be left on my own to sulk.

  Pearl starts to rap while Cora drums her fins on her stomach. “Harry wants to sing, but he ain’t got a thing. Bring it.”

  I swim out of the school grounds toward the Point, but the twins don’t look like they’re going to leave me alone. They’re having far too much fun rapping about me.

  “Harry, don’t run away-listen to what we say. Word.”

  Hopefully they’ll leave me alone soon. I swim on like crazy, trying to get away from them. But Cora and Pearl swim after me, laughing and singing. I stick my fins in my ears, but I can still hear them.

  I’m at the Point now. There’s nowhere else to go except the deep ocean. If I just ignore the twins, maybe they’ll go away.

  Or maybe they won’t. Maybe today is going to be even worse than yesterday!

  And then something catches my eye. Out in the dark wall of water beyond the Point I see a huge shadow.

  I take my fins out of my ears.

  “Don’t look so sad; you’re really not that bad.”

  “Yes, he is.”

  “I know-I just wanted a rhyme.”

  “Shhh!” I say. “Look!”

  I point toward the shadow. It’s big and getting bigger. I squint into the darkness.

  Oh, man!

  It’s a great white.

  And it’s coming this way.

  But it’s not just any great white. I’d know that shape anywhere.

  It’s GREGOR!

  “It’s a great white!” I yell.

  But before I can say that I think it’s Gregor, the twins start SCREAMING.

  “We’re under attack! We’re under attack!”

  CRASH!

  That’s Cara knocking into my left hammer as they rush to get away.

  “Wait!” I yell. My head is stinging and my stomach feels like a washing machine as I spin around and around. “He’s not going to hurt you.”

  But it’s too late. I manage to stop myself spinning and see the twins racing back toward town screaming, “We’re all going to die! We’re all going to die!”

  I look back over my shoulder. Gregor is still moving toward me through the water. But I can’t stay and talk to my hero. I’ve got to find Pearl and Cora. I’ve got to stop them.

  I try to use my hammer-vision to locate a fast-moving current to ride on. Dolphins and hammerheads are both fast swimmers, but Pearl and Cora have had a good head start and I’m still dizzy from all the spinning.

  Unfortunately, it seems that the lazy Sunday feeling of the town has spread to the water, as the currents are all really slow. I’ll just have to kick my tail as hard as I can.

  My muscles are starting to cramp from all the swimming I’ve already done this morning. But I can’t stop. I need to catch up with the twins. I kick even faster and feel myself surge through the ocean. I’m going almost as fast as Gregor! I can do this! I’m sure I can get to them before they cause any panic.

  Or maybe not.

  As I reach the main road, I see fish, sharks, and crabs coming out of their houses and stores. Some are still in their pajamas. Some little kids are crying, and their moms and dads are putting their fins around them.

  “Have you seen them?” a squid calls to me as I zoom past.

  “Seen what?”

  “The school of great whites. The twins said they’re about to attack Shark Point!”

  Oh no! This is worse than I thought.

  Panic is spreading through the town. A turtle bus coming in from the Crabton road has clearly tried to turn around and crashed into the side of a supermarket. It looks like all the passengers and the turtle are okay, but the coral wall of the supermarket has a huge hole in it, and loads of bags of piranha puffs are drifting out into the water.

  I swim on.

  In the distance I catch a glimpse of Cora and Pearl as they reach Seahorse Square. If they’ve caused this amount of panic just going up the main road, who knows what’s going to happen next!

  I kick on, ignoring the pain in my tail and fins and the burning in my gills.

  Cora and Pearl disappear around the corner. All I can hear is the buzz of conversation from the fish and sharks in the street. The number-one topic is “Shark alert!”

  When I get to Seahorse Square, there’s already a crowd gathering around Cora and Pearl. Fish, dolphins, crabs, and sharks. The dolphin twins are outside the mayor’s office, banging on the door.

  “What’s all this noise about?” a voice shouts from the other side of the square.

  Oh no!

  It’s Dad. He’s got his mayor’s chain around his neck. He pushes through the crowds toward his office. Mom is swimming behind him and her face looks all concerned. I can see that she’s looking for me and she’s really worried. I hold up my fin and wave to her, knowing exactly what’s coming next.

  Mom catches sight of me and her face lights up. “Angelfish! You’re all right!”

  “Yes, Mom, I’m fi-pshhhtttttthh!”

  I’m trying to say that I’m fine, but she swims across so fast and throws her fins around me so hard that my mouth is buried in her coat.

  More and more fish are cramming into the square. Everyone seems terrified. I need to do something.

  “I need to do something!” Dad says.

  Huh?

  He swims up above the crowd, waving his fins around.

  “Citizens of Shark Point!”

  Everyone ignores him and continues to panic.

  “CITIZENS OF SHARK POINT!” Dad yells at the top of his gills.

  Everyone still ignores him.

  Mom lets me go. “WILL YOU ALL BE QUIET?!” she shouts. Silence falls.

  Mom’s using “the voice.” It’s the voice she uses to tell me off when I’ve been very bad. It’s loud and it’s scary. I hear a bottom tooting.

  I look around, and see Joe blushing as he swims into the square. “Sorry!” he whispers.

  He’s followed by Ralph, Rick, and Donny.

  It seems like the whole town is here. Rick takes a flubbery swipe at my hammer, but I manage to duck out of his way and float nearer to Mom. He wouldn’t dare to now, not when she’s using “the voice.”

  “Citizens of Shark Point,” Dad says again, a little calmer now. “We must not panic. We must be calm. We must not worry ourselves unnecessarily!”

  “It’s all right for you; you’re a shark,” a turtle calls from the crowd. “It’s not you who’s going to get eaten, is it?”

  The shouting and the panicking start again. An old, ruddy-faced dolphin called Mr. Bottl
enose brings Cora and Pearl forward. “Now, tell everyone what you saw, girls.”

  Cora trembles.

  Pearl shakes.

  “Well, w-w-w-we didn’t really see anything,” Cora stutters.

  “H-H-H-H-Harry did,” Pearl says, pointing at me.

  It seems every eye in the square is now looking at me. I can feel my cheeks turning red.

  “Oh, look, he’s turning pink, just like a girl,” Rick snickers to Donny.

  Mr. Bottlenose swims up and looks at me. “Did you see great whites, boy?”

  “Yes, but only-”

  Before I have time to tell them the rest, Mr. Bottlenose is spinning around, yelling, “It’s true! It’s true!”

  “Um, if we could just calm down a bit,” says Dad.

  Mr. Bottlenose grabs my fin. “Take us to them, boy,” he bellows. “We’ve got to see what we’re up against!”

  With that, twelve strong dolphins come out of the crowd and follow as Mr. Bottlenose leads me back toward the edge of the Point. Mom and Dad swim after us.

  “You’ve got to listen!” I plead, but Mr. Bottlenose waves me aside and swims on determinedly.

  Ralph and Joe swim up beside me. “You had any lunch yet?” asks Ralph.

  “Is that all you can think about?” I say.

  “I’m starving! I hardly had any of your kelp krispies earlier because I was so tired.”

  “Don’t remind me,” I say a bit grumpily. But I don’t mind I missed The Shark Factor so much anymore, now that I know we’re about to see Gregor in the flesh. And hopefully then everyone will calm down. Gregor is a superstar now-he’s not going to eat anyone.

  Eventually we get to the edge of the Point. Mr. Bottlenose pushes me forward. “Where are they, boy? Show us.”

  I flick on my hammer-vision and scan the dark water ahead. “Mr. Bottlenose, please, it’s not-”

  “No need to be scared, boy,” Mr. Bottlenose interrupts. “Just show us where you saw them and we’ll do the rest.”

  The strong dolphins are rolling up their shirtsleeves and getting ready for trouble.

  PING!

  My hammer-vision bursts into life and starts giving me information.

  Gregor’s still here! And he’s coming toward us.

  PING! Fifty feet and closing.

  PING!!! Forty feet and closing.

  “What can you sense, boy? Tell us!” Mr. Bottlenose yells.

  “It’s a great white, all right,” I say. “And it’s coming this way . . . but, Mr. Bottlenose, you must listen to me, it’s only Gre-pshhhtttttthh.”

  That’s Mom, pulling me into her coat again. “Don’t worry, my little starfish. I’ll protect you!”

  “But li-pshhhtttttthh! It’s okay, we’re not in any da-pshhhtttttthh!”

  I give up.

  The strong dolphins have all formed a line on the edge of the Point, protecting the crowds of fish and sharks behind them. My hammer-vision is PINGING like crazy.

  We can all see the shadow coming toward us out of the gloom. It’s the biggest shark I’ve ever seen.

  It must be Gregor. But then . . .

  “Sea-flowers for sale, sea-flowers! Who will buy my lover-ly sea-flowers?”

  Huh?

  Double “huh?”

  TRIPLE “HUH?”!

  Out of the gloom comes the shark. But it’s not a great white.

  It’s a great big basking shark! She’s wearing a long floral dress and a floppy fern hat, and carrying a huge bag of flowers. “Oh, who will buy my lover-ly sea-flowers? Bouquet of sea urchins? Vase of coral clusters?” she says.

  The citizens of Shark Point aren’t panicking anymore-they’re laughing.

  At me!

  The basking shark can’t stop grinning as the relieved townsfish rush up to her to buy her flowers.

  FLUBBER!!!!

  Rick boings my rubbery hammerhead from behind. “Awesome hammer-vision, T-Bone face,” he whispers in my jangling ear. “What’s going to be next? Giant squids under all our beds?”

  A new, horrible list starts writing itself in my mind.

  1. I can’t rap.

  2. I’VE GOT A STUPID HEAD!

  3. My hammer-vision isn’t working properly anymore.

  My hammer-vision was the ONLY cool thing about being a hammerhead. Now everyone thinks it doesn’t work.

  There are now exactly ZERO cool things about being a hammerhead shark.

  ZERO cool things about being ME!

  Cora and Pearl aren’t talking to me. They blame me for the panic they caused in town yesterday.

  Rick and Donny snicker and whisper every time they swim past me in the school hall.

  Joe and Ralph are trying to be nice, but I can tell they’re a little bit embarrassed to be friends with the ‘kid who cried great white,’ as everyone on the jellyfishion news last night was calling me. You would think that Mom and Dad would be trying to cheer me up, but no. They’ve been too busy trying to get Dad on jellyfishion so that he can tell everyone what a great mayor he was yesterday.

  When I get to my desk in class, I see that someone has drawn a big bunch of flowers on it.

  Great.

  I’m never gonna live this down.

  Luckily, the first lesson after assembly is PE with Mr. Skim, our flying-fish teacher, and there’s going to be a cross-seabed swim. At least that gives me a chance to make the other kids remember that I’m a fast shark with a great sense of direction (when my hammer-vision is working properly, that is).

  Mr. Skim is waiting for us on the field, doing fin-ups in his shiny tracksuit. “Okay,” he says, getting up as we file out of the locker rooms. “The route for today’s cross-seabed swim is quite simple. From school you take the coast road to the Point, go around the headland, back across the coral marsh, then under Crabton Bridge, and back to school. Any questions?”

  My stomach sinks as Rick raises a fin. “Mr. Skim, what should we do if we see any vicious, dolphin-eating, urchin-chewing, crab-killing, fish-feasting FLOWER SHARKS on the swim?”

  Everyone, including Ralph, thinks this is hilarious. If the seabed could open up and swallow me right now, I’d be the happiest hammerhead alive.

  Mr. Skim smiles but doesn’t play along. “Any serious questions?”

  Rick and Donny are high-finning each other, and Cora and Pearl are typing something on their SeaPhones. Probably putting Rick’s joke up on Plaicebook.

  Great.

  Mr. Skim blows his whistle, and the swim is underway.

  I kick away with my tail as fast as I can. Normally I would swim slower to be with Ralph and Joe-they’re not as fast as me and I don’t like to leave them behind. But today, I just want to get my hammer down and swim as fast as I can. My face feels waaaaaaay red after Rick’s joke, and the faster I go, the cooler the sea water is, taking the heat out of my cheeks.

  I get to the Point in record time, just ahead of the leading pack. Rick’s a very fast swimmer, but I think he’s too busy fooling around with Donny and showing off to the dolphin twins to keep up with me today. I sneak a look behind me, and see him swimming on his back, blowing bubbles out of his gills at Cora and Pearl who are laughing their heads off.

  I kick on.

  Over the Point and on to . . .

  Oh, blubber!

  I can’t remember which way Mr. Skim wanted us to go. Was it around the headland first, or down across the coral marsh? If Rick and the others see me going back to ask directions, I’ll never hear the end of it. “Harry’s had another hammer-vision epic fail!” I can almost see their Plaicebook status updates now.

  I zoom down onto the coral marsh, convinced that I’m going in the right direction. I kick on and on, determined to get to the finish line first.

  The water is getting warmer. I can feel it on my face.

  Double blubber!

  I should have taken more time to think about the route. It would have been the headland first, before the coral marsh, because from the Point, the coral marsh route will take me straight to
ward . . .

  The shallows.

  This is the one place that none of us are allowed to go, except accompanied by an adult. As the spongy coral marsh thins out, the seabed becomes sandy and shallow. The light becomes much brighter, and the water much warmer.

  The chances of bumping into human beings, or leggy air-breathers as we call them, are really increased here.

  But if I turn around, and go back the way I came, I’m going to be last in the cross-seabed swim.

  I can’t be last.

  What should I do?

  Then I have an idea. If I continue on, right across the shallows, there’s a coral channel that doubles back and comes right out at the Crabton Bridge. If I go as fast as I can, I could use that instead of going around the headland, and still win the race.

  Smart!

  I swish my tail and start swimming at double speed.

  The seabed is leveling out. The water is heating up like a lovely relaxing hot spring, and the sunlight glitters all around. It’s a shame we don’t get to go to the shallows very often, it’s a really beautiful and welcoming place . . . .

  PING!

  Huh?

  My emergency hammer-vision is kicking in at the first sign of danger. Up above me is a huge shadow blocking out the sun. Suddenly, I’m in a shaft of cold water, and I don’t know if I’m shivering from the cold or from fear.

  Probably both!

  The shadow is big and black as it skims through the water. My hammer-vision is PINGING off the scale. I slam to a halt. There’s only one thing that shadow can be.

  A shark.

  I listen to hear if it’s selling flowers.

  Nothing. No sound at all.

  A huge shark cutting silently through the water can only be up to one thing.

  Hunting.

  And a shadow that big can only be from one kind of hunter.

  A GREAT WHITE!

  Now I’m torn.

  Do I want to go on and win the race, or should I go back, get the others, and show them that I do know a great white when I see one?