Shark Lover (13 page)

“I
am Marc. I’m thirteen years old. I’m a surfer. I saw you struggling out in the
ocean, so I went to go rescue you.”

“What
happened?” She held her hand to her head in pain.

“You
looked to have been stuck in the current. That often happens when you go far
out in the ocean like that. Are you okay?” He asked concerned.

“I’m
okay. I’m starting to remember now.” She sat up, her eyes leaving this world
for another. “I was swimming out in the ocean. I was having a lot of fun. Then
I saw a gray fin. I thought it was a dolphin, so I swam further out. The fin
kept swimming further away, so I kept going further out. Before I knew it, I
was stuck in really big waves. I kept kicking my feet and swimming as hard as I
could, but I couldn’t leave the spot. No matter what I did, I couldn’t leave. I
thought I was going to be stuck out there forever.” Her eyes grew sad as she
put her hands through her wet, tangled blond hair.

“Yeah,
it’s never good to swim out too far. Usually the current will just suck you in
and eat you up alive. Also I think that gray fin was a shark. I saw it too,
when I was coming back to bring you to the shore. I was worried it was going to
attack us, but for some reason it decided not to. At least we lucked out there.
I am glad you are okay. Do you have a parent or guardian that I could call to
come get you? I can also call the hospital, if you think you need to see a
doctor. Just let me know what I can do to help. I’ll do whatever I can.”

“You
saved my life, Marc. I can’t thank you enough. I would have died out there if
it wasn’t for you.” She looked in his eyes and gave him a small, childish
smile.

Marc
shrugged in disagreement and modesty.

“I
don’t need to go to the hospital, I am fine now. I actually live a few streets
away from here. My mother doesn’t know I came down here. She would never let me
go to the beach alone. She would be furious with me if she found out that I
went swimming in the ocean without her.”

“Do
you want me to walk you back? Are you sure you don’t need anything? I just want
to make sure you are okay.”

“I
think I can make it. Thanks for everything Marc.” She stood up and gave him a
wet hug as he smiled. “You saved my life. You are a hero.”

“Oh,
stop. Really. It wasn’t a big deal. I just saw someone in trouble and I wanted
to help.” He stated modestly again.

“It’s
a big deal to me.” Her brown eyes trembled with gratification. “Thank you
again. I’ll see you around, Marc.”

She
walked off slowly and ran up to the stairs. He watched her from the distance to
make sure she was still okay. After her shadow disappeared, he started walking
off the beach as well. He wondered where his dad was. It seemed like it had
been forever since he last saw him. Once he was on the parking lot, he traced
his dad’s car. He wasn’t in it. Confusedly, he started looking around the
parking lot and called out for his father.

“Dad?
Are you around here?” He cupped his hands around his mouth, shouting as loud as
he could.

He
still didn’t see his father. He started to worry that something bad had
happened to him. The sun was starting to set and the beach had cleared out for
the most part. He hadn’t seen his father near the water, he had no clue where
he could have gone. It had been a long time and Marc knew that he had probably
gotten restless after waiting so long. It would have been hard for anyone to be
patient for that long of a time.

“Dad?”
He called out again to the sea of abandoned cars.

To
his left he saw a figure approaching. He looked closer. Squinting his eyes, he
could barely see the figure with the sun blasting into his eyes. The figure
moved briskly and had a pep to his step. It indeed was his father.

“Son,
there you are. I am so proud of you. You are a champion.” He said as he threw
Marc into his arms.

“I
know, I know Dad. I won a surfing competition. It’s great.” Marc said
distractedly, still thinking of the incident that happened just moments ago.

“I
don’t mean the competition, Son.” He looked straight into his child’s eyes. “I
saw what you just did. The way you ran out into the ocean and risked your life
to save that girl. You overcame waves, a shark and your fears. You are a true
champion.”

“Nah,
I just did what anyone else would have done in my position. I saved someone who
needed help.”

“Don’t
be so modest. What you did there is quite remarkable. You are a conqueror. You
have the makings of a true hero.”

“All
right Dad, maybe I did do something great. I’ll take that at least.” He looked
out at the ocean from the parking lot, watching the sun set into the horizon.

“What
you did makes me proud to be your father. While you were the greatest surfing
champ today, what you just did there, that makes me feel like I accomplished my
job as a dad. You are strong and fearless. You help others in need. You are
true to yourself.”

“Thanks.
Dad, you know it’s all because of you. I am who I am because of you. Without
you I would be nothing,” He moved aside from his dad and started walking
towards the car. “Let’s go home. I’m pretty tired. I need to eat and then
rest.”

“Nonsense.
You were blessed with a good soul. You always do the right thing.” He opened
the car door. “Home it is. Let’s get the hero something to eat and some sleep.”

Marc
smiled as he looked out into the sunset, recalling the day’s events. He felt
good. Successful even. It wasn’t because he had nailed a 360 or an Ariel. It
wasn’t because he was a Junior Surf Champion. He had saved a life. A young
girl, who had the rest of her life to live would now live on to see another
day. A mother would be able to hold her child at night instead of crying
longing tears. That’s what meant the most to him.

A
fin swimming quickly by his face snapped him out of his flashback. The sharks
were so close, he could reach out and touch them if he wanted to. He didn’t
want to of course, but he did want to take a closer look at these dangerous
creatures. Moving closer to the edge of the cage, he peered out at the sharks.
He saw one in the middle of the other two. She appeared to have the crooked fin
that Chris had talked about before they went down.

“Cathy,
isn’t that Mandy?” He asked quickly. “She’s so close to us right now. We should
try to tag her.”

“Yep,
that’s her. I know it for sure. She has the key shaped fin.” She looked at the
sharks as the neared by the cage, grabbing for the tuna on the line. Mandy
plunged towards them and tried to eat the fish in one large gulp. The fish lay
half-eaten, ready for the next attack. “I want to tag her, it’s the perfect
time. She’s going to take another bite out of this fish and she will be so
close to us. I just haven’t heard anything from Chris yet.”

“Hey,
Chris? Should we tag Mandy now? She’s right next to us.” Marc asked quickly,
pleading for Chris to answer as fast as he could. He knew that time was running
out and they needed to tag Mandy while she was still there.

“Chris?”
Cathy cried desperately into her speaker inside the hood of her mask. “Are you
still with us Chris? We need to know if we can tag Mandy now. We haven’t heard
any of your instructions!”

“Chris?”
Marc added into the line, he looked at Cathy exasperated.

“I
don’t think he’s there anymore. All I hear is static. I think the microphone
system went out somehow.” Cathy stated with certainty.

“Well,
what do we do now? Should we go back up now?” He questioned nervously.

“No.
I know they are going to pull us up soon, since they lost connection on the
speakers. I am not giving up on tagging Mandy. I have waited too long for this
opportunity and I am going to take it.”

“Cathy,
are you sure you know what you are doing? We could be seriously hurt if you
don’t.” He said with tension.

“I
know what I am doing I promise.” She called back confidently. “Now hand me the
tagging needle and applicator.”

“I
hope you are sure about this. You’re making me really uneasy.” He opened up his
diving pouch and took out the equipment. Handing it over to her, he felt his
stomach move. He knew he was getting nauseous, but he didn’t want to say
anything to ruin the tagging for Cathy. Mandy swirled up in the water,
attacking the hanging tuna for the third time. She was right in front of their
faces and he knew it was the perfect time to tag her. “Cathy, now is the time.
Tag her!” He shouted.

“Calm
down. I need you to relax,” She said still fully composed and controlled. “I
need to wait until she stops moving around so briskly. Once she is still and
calm, I will reach out and tag her. I need to be able to reach the back of her
dorsal fin to tag her correctly.”

He
backed away from the front end of the cage and moved closer to the middle so he
could still see, but not interfere with what she was doing. “Do your thing. I
trust you.”

Mandy
finished eating the tuna and sped away from the front of the cage. She still
could sense the sweet smell of fish and kept circling the cage, hoping that
more tuna would come about. Slowing passing the side of the cage, she stopped
right at Cathy and just stared at her. Cathy took the applicator in her dive
glove and stuck her hand outside of the cage. She inserted the needle into the
back end of Mandy’s dorsal fin. She inserted the tagging dart at an angle
towards the head fin of Mandy. It went in smoothly. Mandy didn’t appear to
think so. She started roughhousing, trying to swim away as fast as she could.
Cathy’s hand was still on the applicator as she was trying to pull it back into
the cage.

“Marc!”
She shrieked. “Hurry help me take it out!”

He
swam closer to Cathy’s side and pulled Cathy back with all of his might. She
moved into his arms as he closed in on the shark. With steady hands, he pulled
out the applicator making sure that the tagging dart was still fastened on to
Mandy’s dorsal fin. Mandy swam away as fast as she could, forcing the other
sharks to scatter as well. Cathy breathed in a huge sigh of relief as she
looked at Marc in gratitude.

“You
saved my life.” She said breathlessly. “You saved Mandy too.”

“It’s
not a big deal, I knew you were in danger. I needed to help you.”

“You’re
too modest. It is a big deal. You are a hero.” She stated admiringly as the
cage slowly started to move out of the water. She was glad that the incident
was over. They had tagged Mandy, even though it had been a struggle. She could
barely speak. She was so out of breath from fighting her hardest to do what she
was meant to do. By tagging Mandy, they would be able to track her whereabouts
and figure out shark patterns better. Looking up, she could see the light from
above. They had reached the surface.

It
didn’t take long for the crew to pull in the cage to the boat. The team looked
worried and frazzled. She attributed that to the microphone system going
completely out. What horrible timing that had been. They had just been about to
tag Mandy and Chris was gone. Without Marc by her side, she wouldn’t have known
what to do. He had brought out her fearless confidence, then he had saved her
life. She was grateful to have him in her life. Chris was rushing over to them
as she stepped out of the cage with Marc. She didn’t feel like talking. She was
out of breath, still in shock and she knew he would probably get frustrated
with her for tagging Mandy without his permission.

“Are
you guys okay? The speaker system went out. I’m not sure what happened. That’s
never happened before.” He said looking alarmed.

Marc
looked at Cathy, sensing her shock. He turned back to Chris. “Yeah, we are
fine. It just got a little rough down there once your speaker went out. Luckily
Cathy and I could still hear each other. We actually got around to tagging
Mandy before you pulled us out. The tag dart should still be in her dorsal
fin.”

“You
tagged Mandy without my help?” He spoke with defiance. “How did you even manage
that? It’s a dangerous task to take on. Especially without any assistance.”

“It
was my idea. I know it was probably idiotic, but I figured since we were
already down there we should just tag her. We didn’t want to let you or the
rest of the Shark Savers crew down. Cathy and I worked together. It wasn’t too
bad of a fight. Mandy didn’t like the needle application obviously and she did
fight us a bit after we inserted it. We ended up pulling it out quickly enough
for her not to attack or hurt us.”

“Well,
I am glad it worked out. We will have to track her later. And are you sure it
was your idea? This sounds a lot like something Cathy would do,” He said
looking directly at her. “She’s fearless and she never gives up on a task given
to her.”

“No,
it was my idea. I…” He started.

“It’s
okay Marc, you don’t have to take the blame for me,” She said as she turned
towards Chris. “It was my idea. I know I shouldn’t have done it and I am sorry.
I just wanted to tag her badly.”

“Don’t
be too sorry. You did a good job.” He patted her on the back. “Next time, just
wait for my instructions. Hopefully we won’t have any more speaker issues in
the future. And just to let you know, you are probably one of my best divers. I
can’t afford to lose you. Nobody else is as courageous and daring as you, just
know when to hold it back. Sometimes you can take it too far, to the point
where you put yourself and others in danger.”