Nino was a fisherman and hunter, and one
day he went fishing with another friend. Nino knew that I don’t particularly
like fish, and especially not freshwater fish, and he usually gave them to his
friend. One of the main types of fish they caught was carp, and one day he
brought home a live fish that had a very distinctive coloring: he was a bright orange, and how
could anyone eat a goldfish?!
One day as I was feeding him, I noticed the interesting way he went for his food: he would
circle around the bottom of his bowl, stop in dead center and then swim straight up with his mouth wide open and grab as much food as he could. He did this several times until there was nothing left in the bowl. I watched in horrified fascination and decided then and there to name him Squalo, after the shark in “Jaws”.
He actually stayed with us for several
years and was a never-ending source of hilarity. Then, we moved to Sicily, and
we went by train. Our daughter was only two months old and so we could only
take a couple of suitcases with clothing and our daughter. Some of our friends
asked if they could have him, because they got that same source of hilarity. It
was good to know it wasn’t just me.
The second story is about my up-close, in-my-face
encounter with a shark – a real one this time. A group of teenagers and our
adult supervisors went down to Loma Linda, near San Miguel in Baja California;
we had a sister church there and we often went down to help them with various
works.
I loved going down for several reasons,
and they were usually happy to see me, too, because I spoke pretty good Spanish
and I think I was actually the only one in our group who spoke Spanish. And the
only one of our Mexican friends who spoke any English was their Pastor. And so,
I acted as official interpreter. It was fun.
And so one time that we went down in the
summer, we all took our bathing suits with us, along with sleeping bags because
our leaders had decided, since it was summer and the temperatures were fairly mild,
we could camp out on the beach at San Miguel on the way home, and since the water
was also fairly warm, we went swimming.
I am a more than decent swimmer – I was swimming before I could walk and I was born on a Naval vessel; I considered myself a mermaid (one can dream, no?). The waves were amazing for bodysurfing, and that’s what I was doing. The others tired of it, but I just kept riding the waves. That is, until I heard the others calling me and pointing at something on my left. I turned in time to see a fin speeding toward me: not a dolphin fin, which is common enough, but another, more sinister type of fin.
There were no waves in sight; well, yes, there was, but it was nowhere near enough, So, I put on my superpowered feet and Aquagirl speed, and swam faster than I had ever swum before. I’m pretty sure I could have out swum Mark Spitz and broken all speed records, and Mr. Jaws never had a chance.
I don’t know if he was a local denizen or not, but I decided I was never going to swim in San Miguel Beach ever again.
Copyright
© 10 April 10, 2021. Mary E. Purpari. All Rights Reserved
"Born on a naval vessel" I want to hear more about that! :D
ReplyDeleteThe Multicolored Diary
Ah, well, my Dad was in the American military at the time I was born and since the nearest military base was Camp Pendleton, in Oceanside, California, and the maternity section of the hospital was on a ship, I was born on the ship. My Dad wasn't there, though.
DeleteI can imagine the adrenaline got your speed up! Close encounter!
ReplyDeleteClose encounter of the worst kind. I've had a very healthy respect of sharks, even the so-called safe sharks (who still have several rows of teeth). That was one scary moment. And the worst nightmare I ever had as a mother involved my five-year old daughter and a shark, and my not being able to run to her because I was in the hospital. My screams woke up everyone in my hospital room (thank goodness that was the only true part of my dream)
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