Gaia Girls Way of Water

by Lee Welles

  Miho began to laugh too. When she thought of his small, stinky apartment and then imagined him at an office, making websites to sell…well, this! It was hilarious. They both ended up collapsed on the floor cushions until tears peeked out of their eyes.

  When the hilarity ended, Miho asked again, “Why can’t you do something like that here?”

  He answered in Japanese: “I never think about that—until you came.” He looked at her and shook his head. Then he looked out at the bright morning light. “There was no Internet when I left Goza. Maybe now I can have my computers here. I am uncertain though. I have been with this company long time. It would be disloyal.”

  “Why is it disloyal to do what makes you happy?” Miho asked.

  Ojisan’s jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. “Why. I hate this question! This is what your mother said to me! It is not right. If everyone ask why, no one make a commitment! No one do the right thing.”

  Miho took a deep breath and felt much like she did when she went deep with the lags; she couldn’t see where she was going, but there was another way to understand. “Please excuse me, Ojisan. But you say that Ama are no longer in Goza, why?”

  He seemed startled. He cleared his throat. “They know how to make the oysters create pearls. No one has to go find them anymore. They are cultured on farms and always come out perfect. I will show you. I will take you to Toba.”

  “So, they do it a new way, because it is better?”

  Ojisan looked at her, an odd look dancing across his face. “I need cigarettes. I’ll be back,” and he went out the door before she could say anything else.

  He was the strangest grownup she had ever met. It was like he didn’t understand himself. But he was thinking about Goza! Miho thanked her windy-wave wish, grabbed a few more bites, and cleared off the table. She hoped Mr. Tomikoro was saying nice things about her. Maybe he would say something that would help Ojisan. After all, he had been her Oji’s teacher, too.

  When Ojisan returned, he was quiet. He went from room to room, standing still and staring at the walls and sliding them back and forth a little. Miho didn’t know what to do. She finally asked him if she could go to the beach—thinking, of course, she would head down to her cove and look for her friends.

  Ojisan held up one of the bowls of pearls. “Do you know how much these are worth?” Miho shook her head. “Very few people risk diving for this kind of pearl anymore.” He dragged his fingers through the bowl. “And you have so many.”

  “Do you think I found so many because no one is diving for wild pearls anymore?”

  He frowned at her. “You ask too many questions! I thought American girls only want to go shopping and talk on the phone.” He shook his head and began to rub the bridge of his nose. “OK. I will make you a deal. If you can find ten more pearls by the time we leave on Sunday, I will find a way for us to come back…for good.” Miho grabbed his hand and shook it…deal!

  “So American,” he muttered.

  33

  Futo

  Miho couldn’t believe it! Ten pearls would be easy, especially if the pod could help her out. She yelled out to Ojisan that she would be back before dinner and set off at a run to the cove. The summer sun perched high in its vault of blue, and by the time she reached the rocky ledge, she was wet with sweat.

  There were no dolphins, no Gaia. She dove in anyway and began to slap the water and yell, “Ohayo!” She slapped and yelled and had just begun to feel silly when the now familiar high, warm voice of Gaia, came from behind her.

  “That is a lot of noise for one little human to make.” Gaia was floating on her back, rubbing her paws, but not looking at Miho.

  “Gaia! Where is the pod? If I can find 10 pearls, I can stay in Goza! Isn’t that cool?” Gaia didn’t look at her. “Then I can come!” She added, “Whenever you need me, whatever you need me for.”

  Gaia rolled and looked at her with dark, sad eyes. “I suggest you find them on your own, my dear.”

  “But Gaia, the lags are so much faster than me! I mean, if they’re all here and they help me, they can find ten before dinner time! Ojisan will be so surprised.” Miho’s imagination was already off ahead, seeing Ojisan congratulating her and setting up his new office in one of the empty rooms.

  “Sometimes faster is not better,” Gaia said, and began to rub her black paws over her whiskered face.

  “C’mon, Gaia! You’re the one that’s been saying, ‘Hurry, hurry.’ Why did you say that if faster isn’t better?”

  The otter rolled a few times and shook her whiskered face. “There are times to hurry, to understand, for example. There are times to go slow, to follow my breathing, just like you followed the breath of the dolphins.”

  Miho thought about that. Follow her breathing? I don’t get it. Miho forgot about her Shodo, forgot about understanding. All she could think about was being able to live in Goza. She shook her head. “No, Gaia. I gotta get those ten pearls today.”

  Gaia floated over. The sunlight that bounced off the water reflected off her dark, otter eyes and pierced right into Miho’s mind. Gaia’s voice seemed to be carried right on those flecks of light. Be patient and more pearls will come right to you. I breathe: in, out—life, death. You took the oysters; they will return. Everything has its own cycle. Everything will go around if you wait.

  Maybe it was because Gaia used the word ‘death.’ Miho suddenly felt that the pearls were owed to her. She had given her parents to the sea. She had been lost in this strange world of Japan, and it was her turn to get something. She wanted to stay in Goza!

  “I’m not waiting! I’m gonna get ten pearls so I can stay. I’m staying for YOU, Gaia!” She reached out to the otter, but Gaia was now nothing but a ring of ripples on the water. Miho spun around, looking for the round, bobbing head. It appeared far off, a speck on the horizon.

  Gaia’s voice drifted back, sounding like far-off thunder. “Sometimes the old way is best, sometimes the new, sometimes the quick way, sometimes the slow. Do you have understanding? Until you do, you do not know the Way of Water.”

  Miho was left, rising and falling in the swells considering these words. But the desire she had nursed all week came back to the surface of her mind. Ojisan had said ten more pearls to stay in Goza—that was what she would do!

  On the horizon, the curling of fins broke the surface. She went under and sent out her best Dolphinese greeting. She was overwhelmed with the flurry of echolocation scans and greetings. The pod was sharing news of the school of anchovies they had successfully bunched up and eaten.They were scanning her, checking her, inside and out and they were pinging her pictures of where they were going.

  Of course, Miho didn’t recognize their pictures of the shoreline. Even if she had been there, she would know it from the top down, what the hills, the buildings, and the beach looked like. The dolphins sent pictures of the ocean floor rising to become the land—a sort of reverse beach.

  They dipped and swirled around her; some pinged out pictures of a pod of pilot whales, some flicked her with their pectoral fins and re-sent the picture of the reverse beach. She knew it was their way of saying, “C’mon, here is where we’re going; go with us!”

  Miho began to send out her own pictures—pictures of oysters with pearls. It became an acoustical debate. Miho insisted on her picture, what she wanted; about half the pod insisted on heading to the beach. Even their pictures of wave-riding, surfing waves in toward the shore, something she loved to do, couldn’t sway her.

  The pod split in two. Miho was pleased to see that Notch, Star, Shinju, Curly, Larry, and Moe were among the 15 or so lags that stayed to help her. She grasped the now-familiar notched dorsal fin and they went west, while the rest of the pod peeled away to the east.

  Star and Shinju again flanked her, no matter who pulled her. She liked that; she felt part of their small family. She wondered if maybe Notch or one of the Three Stooges was Shinju’s father. She couldn’t begin to know how to ask such a thought in Dolphinese, so
she didn’t.

  The top layer of water was very warm, so the lags went deeper to stay cool. While they were down in the murky dark, the sun only a memory above, Star sent her pictures of where they were going. It was a ledge, outside of a small bay. The bay had boats, but they wouldn’t be getting that close. The oysters clung to the ledge and no humans swam that deep. Star sent Miho several different pictures, showing that there were perhaps as many as 20 or 30 pearls!

  Miho was elated—Goza was in her grasp! She kicked her own feet in anticipation and the dolphins sensed her urgency. They began to cruise shallower and leap free of the surface to breathe. It was faster that way and Miho now knew how to breathe and keep up. Shinju sent her small ping forward and Miho could barely make out the shelf. They were getting close.

  They slowed and began to go deep. As promised, just past the place where the ocean depths rose, turned and began to level out, the rocks were clustered with oysters! Miho let go of her ride, Moe, and started scanning the oysters for herself. She tugged free the first one containing a pearl within its fleshy belly and rose to the surface.

  When Miho broke into the air she realized her dilemma; she had no way to open the tough oyster shell. She banged it between her two fists, but knew that like a sea otter, she would need two rocks.

  She called to Notch. She showed him an oyster getting crushed between two rocks and pinged him the image of the rocky jetty that framed the bay. Notch became agitated. He pushed back her image at her. She re-sent it over and over, not understanding.

  She couldn’t carry home ten oysters! She needed to bust them open and stuff the much smaller pearls into her pockets. Couldn’t he see that? Shinju rose beside them, an oyster perched between her small black lips. Miho took it from Shinju, glad that someone was helping her.

  She sent the image of the rocky end of the jetty to Shinju and the youngster didn’t hesitate; she pushed her small dorsal into Miho’s hands. Miho was hampered by holding the oysters, but able to hold onto Shinju anyway. They set off slowly across the surface of the choppy sea.

  Notch kept pushing in front of them and slowing down. He was blasting sounds at Miho that made her wince. What’s his problem? I need rocks to open these things! She dropped one oyster to grab his black-tipped rostrum and gave it a shove to one side. If she could stand up to Ojisan, she could stand up to Notch too!

  Shinju continued to tow her toward the jetty. As they reached it, Curly, Larry, and Moe each arrived with an oyster. Miho stuck out her tongue at Notch, who was now swimming back and forth a few feet from the jetty. She used two rocks to pop open the oysters and soon had four large pearls snug in her pocket. She dove back in and began to swim back toward the oyster bed.

  Shinju was there, offering her dorsal fin for a ride. Before Miho could grab on, Notch sent out a call and Miho found herself surrounded by white stripes and black lips. Star rushed up and pushed Shinju away from her. Miho didn’t understand. She dove further under, where maybe she could hear better. The pod dove with her. A sort of argument ensued.

  Notch sent her the very pictures she had put out earlier—pictures of whole oysters. Miho kept sending pictures of pearls freed from the oysters and instead, safe in her pocket. Star kept deflecting Shinju’s ideas away, a sort of dolphin, “Don’t interrupt!” It was then, as they squabbled near the jetty that their whole world split open.

  The sea was torn apart with a sound so big and meaningless that it blanked everything. It was like having someone turn out the lights and slap you hard in the face at the same time. Her head filled with a buzzing sound that crowded out all but the most important thought, Hold your breath!

  Miho now understood the phrase, “dazed and confused.” She didn’t know which way was up! She couldn’t understand the frantic dolphin calls that filled the water around her. When she felt a fin thrust in her hand, she grabbed on. It was one of the Stooges—she wasn’t sure which one. His swimming was erratic, first up, then down and rolling too much. He didn’t seem to be aware of her need to get a breath. Miho started getting her wits about her and blew a short stream of bubbles. Her eyes followed them up to the ring of bright blue above. She needed to breathe!

  The world exploded again! This time, Miho lost all thought and lost her air.When she bobbed to the surface she was coughing and gagging and spitting sea water. She heard an outboard motor fire up. An inflatable zodiac boat sped toward them and in the bow, a man was lighting a fuse! To her left and right, two more boats closed in. A dorsal fin was thrust into her hand. By reflex, she grabbed hold. She went under just as the third explosion hit the pod like a wall and pushed them forward. The pod went past the jetty and into the small bay.

  Notch was sending fast, repeated pictures of swimming past the zodiacs, out to the open ocean, but the buzzing of the outboards was like a curtain. The pod’s sonar couldn’t see past it, so they didn’t dare go there. Miho could see the bottom rising and knew they were getting close to shore. The boats were closing in! Above the water, she could hear the muffled sound of men yelling.

  Cold fear began to grip her in a way she hadn’t felt since the bull shark had rushed her so long ago and so far away. Where was the lifesaving ring? No one was yelling, “Pull Miho, pull hard!” Instead, as the water grew even shallower, she heard horrid cries—cries of pain.

  Miho saw two long poles with gaffing hooks on the ends plunge into the water and, right in front of her, the hooks dug into Moe’s flesh! Her friend was yanked from the water! Miho had to come up. She had to breathe. She had to know what was really happening.

  The scene in the fierce light of day was beyond imagination! Directly in front of her, a boat had its deck rails down and there, on the wooden planking, was Moe. Blood streamed from his wounds. Two men pushed against his head, moving him back from the water. A third man wound a rope around his tail.

  The water was frothing with dolphins, desperate to escape. She saw men wading into the water carrying ropes and hooks and knives. It was like the kind of Halloween movie her parents would never let her watch. And now, it was all happening in front of her, for real.

  Miho ducked under, not wanting to see and hoping to remain unseen. Below the surface, the water was filled with wild calls and sonar zinged about. Calls of what to do and calls of pain intermingled, filling the water with as much confusion as the explosions had.

  Notch sped past her, his tail thrashing furiously in the shallow water. He was still sending the image of swimming out past the three zodiacs hemming the bay. Miho turned to follow him, but ran smack into little Shinju. Her small tail was beating the surface trying to get away from the men in the zodiacs, who were now hitting the surface with paddles. Miho saw a gaffing hook cut through the water toward little Shinju!

  Miho threw her hip into Shinju’s side, moving her out of the way of the cruel, grasping hook. She felt the hook grab the back of her shorts! As Miho tried to move away from the bite of it, she threw both her arms around Shinju’s diminutive dolphin body.

  The two of them were pulled from the water! Miho tightened her grip as she felt the full weight of the baby dolphin. Out of the water, Shinju was heavier than Miho! The two frightened mammals were slung onto the wooden deck! Even in the air, Miho could hear Shinju calling for her mother.

  Miho looked around for Star. The water beneath them was a boil of tails and dorsal fins and frantic dolphins throwing their heads in the air in an attempt to turn and run. The zodiacs closed in tighter. Miho looked to her left in time to see Notch, cruelly snared at the end of two gaffing hooks, land beside her. One man began tying a rope to his tail and another approached his head. The man had a knife!

  Miho jumped to her feet, but had to turn away from Notch. The man who had pulled her and Shinju out of the water stood, wide-eyed, yelling, “Hey! Where did you come from?”

  Time seemed to slow for Miho. From the corner of her eye, she saw the man with the knife kneel down by Notch’s head. In front of her, the man who had yelled lowered the bloodstained hook of his long po
le and poked it at her!

  Miho looked down. She meant to look at Shinju, but her eye was pulled to the cresting wave of scar on her hand. That scar was proof of her courage. Kimo. Trying hard not to see the horror all around her, she put that kimo into motion.

  Her Hokusai hand flashed out and grabbed the shaft of the gaffing hook. With a quick twist, she had it out of the man’s hand! She spun the pole in a way that made the end of the shaft connect with his cheek with a wet, “THOCK!” The man fell to the deck, holding his face. His howls mixed with the high, agonized squeals coming from the dolphins.

  Good! Miho thought.

  The deck was now red and slick. Blood was running into the bay, staining it pink. Miho had the gaffing hook in hand and turned side-to-side, wanting to know where to run, what to do. She heard an engine fire up and looked up just in time to see dear, sweet, Moe being pulled away by his tail.

  He called out to her, but she could only stand there, frozen in horror as the asphalt began to darken in his wake; the rough road rubbing the very skin from him. Her stomach lurched and her vision began to narrow. It was if her mind wanted to shut down completely and not face this grim reality.

  A hand grabbed her shoulder from behind. The rough grip snapped her back to herself. Miho whipped the gaffing hook around and under her right arm. She felt it connect with her assailant’s rib cage. He too, hit the deck, but this time there was no howl of pain, just a “HOOOOF” sound.

  Miho looked down at her feet, willing them to move. She was ankle deep in water and blood and there was little Shinju, kicking her small tail and trying to do… something, anything. Miho knew how she felt.

  She let go of the gaffing hook, dropped to her knees, and placed her hands against Shinju’s back. She braced her feet against the second fallen man and pushed with all her might! Shinju began to slide to the edge of the deck. Miho felt a hand close around her ankle!

  Without knowing what she was going to do, she flipped onto her back and swung her free leg in a high, wide arc. Miho felt her instep connect with the third man’s knee and saw the joint bend out sideways at a most unnatural angle. But then again, everything about that boat was unnatural!