The Southseas

"Keep the blanket around you," the boy said. 'You'll not fish without eating while I'm alive.''Then live a long time and take care of yourself,' the old man said. 'What are we eating?' 'Black beans and rice, fried bananas, and some stew.'" – Old Man and the Sea




The sunset with dolphins had been as lively as ever.  Captiva was little more than wind-formed mound of sand and so there were very few natural impurities to their beaches -- all white sand churned in and among white shells, which tumbled up onto the beach pleasantly, rarely by waves any taller than Lily's ankles.  The sailboats that drifted by sliced through layers of horizon and at the very correct moment the spinnakers bisected the setting of the orange sun and it all looked very pastel until the sleek hump of a dolphin surfaced to interrupt the perfect peace.  Lily had walked in several feet, quite shallow, and waited for the flying fish spit up near her, some of them landing randomly on the thick sand then wiggling back into the water thinking, she supposed, to fake out the dolphins then climb back into the water seeking an escape route.  The grandmother took her traditional seat up into the landed beach chairs, her one gin and tonic in her hand, thinking, knowing, that these were the postcards of moments. The grandfather had now two things that he was thinking about at all times.

Whereas before it was only Lily  on his mind at hours like these, now he kept one eye to the east to his sunken treasure ship, what might be the Hispaniola.  They returned back to the room earlier than normal -- he wanted to wake up earlier, before the sun, to get things ready for the dive.  He had sat back out onto the open breezeway on his chair and recovered his sweet cigar. After two easy puffs he had fallen asleep when Lily opened up the screen door and saw that he was hunched forward with chin nearly resting in his chest.
"What did grandma say about these cigars, Pa?" she said out loud, disturbed by the cigar that was rolling around on the floor, still lit.
"Oh, Oh, yes, this will be the last of it, I promise," he said, and smiled. There were creases along the sides of his eyes that looked something like ancient river patterns, as tributaries descending to the gulf that was his eyes.  What they had seen? "You know, Lily, you and I are going to find some very amazing things I believe."
"Like what you wouldn't tell me about at the bottom today?"
"Yes, you remember. But I did not say what I had found."
"But I know what it is, Pa," she said as she crushed out the small notch of fire at the tip of the cigar.
"What is it that you think?"
"I think that there are large jewels down there, red, ruby, and green." The old man nodded as if this could be possible.
"Someday Lily, I believe you will come back to this very place and show someone very special what is at the bottom. We will keep it a family secret, what do you say?"
"That will be very hard for me, Pa, you know I am not very good at keeping them."
"This one, I believe you might," he said.  He could remember his years as a chef back at Point Reyes, California, the very expectation of finding his day's oysters near Hog Island, what treasures!
"Tomorrow, yes, we will find our oysters, now it is time for you to go to bed and dream of sand dollars."