The Southseas

"The sun rose thinly from the sea and the old man could see the other boats, low on the water and well in toward the shore, spread out across the current. The the sun was brighter and the glare came on the water and the, as it rose clear, the flat sea send it back at his eyes so that it hurt sharply and he rowed without looking into it." Old Man and The Sea


To be up this early in the morning was a revelation for the grandfather. It had been too long, he thought, since he woke in the same pattern as the sun. At that moment, when the world goes from the dark to the first glimpses of the sun as it used spread out behind him along the cliffs to the north of San Francisco, was to find the peace for the day, for only then could you map out the hours and the varieties of birds that either clung to their shrubs on land or skimmed the shallows of the bays by certain hours and tides as they too were magnetically pulled by the shifting of the heavens.  A certain smell of the fishing rose up to them at the beach, a faint smell of motor oil as the local fisherman were already skipping by the straits at the resort, and the smell of eucalyptus and jasmine from behind them at the small golf course. It was true, he began to think, that he had lost some of his initial zeal for finding some enormous treasure for its own sake -- to become a treasure hunter and historian of the sea.  He had been this all the while, of course, nothing, really, but that very thing for all of these years but that nobody would have known this but he and his mind and his stories in which he lived inside.  Lily had found a moth washed up on the shore and was trying to find it some dry ground.  As the water line scooted into the sand, she ran from it, as if chased, and spoke to it as though it were a new friend.  Aha, he thought, this is the adventure, is it not? "What do you say we paddle back out to our spot out on the strait before all the boats anchor in?" He asked.
"I believe there is a dolphin kingdom down there," she said, "that is why you want to go back."
"You may be right about that," but how will we know unless we see." A comforting breeze stirred up. At that hour, despite the sun reaching up over the thin blue line across the bay, the water and the air was still a bit crisp.  He had secretly brought with him some very makeshift tools and a bag.  The children's shovel and bucket would have to do for the treasure seeking, and the bag might work for bringing shells back up to the surface as he hid the jewels in his back pocket.
"What is that out there, Gpa?"
"Where are you looking?" he said as he turned around the face the open water.
"Something floating and moving very slowly. It comes to the top then down and back up again."
"We should go paddle and see, shouldn't we?"