Boat Trip

Chapter 2

BOAT TRIP

 

The boat was very simple and comfortable. There was space for ten seated passengers with protection from the sun with a dark green tarpaulin. Filo had installed it after receiving many complaints of burnt arms and legs and sunstroke. The tarpaulin was a complete success because it meant that they were able to work the boat during the hottest hours of the day. Another extra was the portable fridge near the controls. Filo kept it full of canned drinks, ice creams, ice lollies, and water, in order to make the trip even more agreeable.

“Gus, I don’t know if I’ll be able to put up with the movement of the boat,” Sonila complained.

“Then, jump!” Gus answered, opening a can of cold beer. “Want some?” he asked his wife.

“How you can drink so unconcernedly, I just don’t understand!” said Sonila trying to keep her balance on the seat.

“Filo said that he’d go very fast until he reached a certain distance and then he’d slow down. Don’t you remember?”

It was not long before the boat began to slow down. “Well, at last we’re going at a speed more like my idea of an excursion than a race,” Sonila noted.

Filo had slowed down to a pleasanter speed. The passengers relaxed and leant against the cushions made of the same green tarpaulin. Curro went from one to the other asking if they would like a cold drink. Gus had finished his beer and was in a good mood. Sonila, now calmer, drank iced water. Don and Mavis, friends of the couple, were arguing about whether or not it was worth taking photos.

“This Filo says he’s going to take us to the place where the revenge of the fish took place, the burning of the boats and the fishermen,” Don said.

“Isn’t it fantastic how they still remember the exact spot where the disaster happened?” sighed Mavis.

Don looked at her and with one hand touched his wife’s forehead saying, “Either you’ve got a temperature or you’re stupid. Well, you haven’t got a temperature so you must be stupid, coming out with such ridiculous ideas. Neither Filo nor anybody else on the island knows exactly where the famous incident took place. The site is assumed by the distance from a fixed point on the island. But they don’t really know. All of this forms part of the business created around the myth. Who knows how old the stelas are? They’re probably not even as old as you.”

“I’m not that old, Don,” Mavis moaned.

“See what I mean? They could be quite recent.”

Gus, turned to his friend saying, “Don, you’re not right. It says in the guide books that archaeologists have inspected the stelas and the ancient buildings and they are older than we think.”

“So what! What I’m trying to explain to Mavis is that no one can know the exact spot of the myth,” Don said.

“It doesn’t matter, it looks to me like the whole story is an invention to encourage tourism,” commented Gus, raising a second can of beer to his mouth and enjoying the cold liquid sliding down his throat. He looked at Sonila who was asleep against the cushions. “Don, look at Sonila. She never wants to lie down after eating in the hotel, yet here she is, sleeping like a log.” Mavis and Don looked at the sleeping Sonila as if she were some rare species. “She made me buy tickets for the excursion because she wanted to see the coast and the fish. Now look how interested she is.”

Mavis turned round to look behind her. The island was quite far away. “Don, is there a lifebelt on board?”

“Why? Are you thinking of swimming back?”

“I’m afraid. Look! The island is already far away.”

“What d’you want me to do! We’re out here to spend a pleasant afternoon and you have to put on a show.”

“I’m not putting on a show,” said Mavis, used to Don’s lack of delicacy.

Filo and Curro knew the passengers reactions very well. They knew them only too well. They paid them no attention. There was nearly always more than one asleep in a few minutes after leaving port. The sun shining on the waves, and the movement of the boat, and the comfort of the cushions made them enter into a deep drowsiness. Half asleep they were more manageable, awake they asked what could be embarrassing questions. Since the islanders had stopped fishing, the fish had multiplied and you could say that they were the main attraction for the tourists. Filo had had a hard think before investing in extras for the boat. The other boat owners had to copy him or think about changing their business. At the same time as Filo, Curro, and the small group were roaming around the sea, there was only one other boat nearby, and that belonged to Pancho, Filo’s brother.

Filo stopped the engine and addressed the passengers, “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the spot where the story tells us that the fish turned against us. If you want to see them you only have to look over either side of the boat, but be careful. We don’t want any accidents, do we!”

Everybody’s eyes looked down into the water, and to their great surprise they saw they were indeed in the middle of a large bank of fish. They weren’t very big, more or less the size of the palm of your hand. Without a doubt they were the descendents of the original sacred fire fish.

“They don’t look as if they have anything special about them,” said Sonila, “They are the most ordinary fish I’ve ever seen.”

“I’m going to ask Filo where the fire comes from,” said Mavis.

Don caught her by the arm, “Don’t do anything silly, I can tell you where. The fish carry lighters under their tails.”

Everyone else laughed, Mavis shot him a look, saying, “Good thing you aren’t thinking of making a living as a comedian. We’d die of hunger!”

Filo and Curro waited patiently while cameras were busy working taking photos of the fish. When there was nothing left to photograph, Filo started up the engine, and making a huge circle over the sea went back towards the coast.

“We’re going to take some photos of us with Filo,” said Sonila.

“What are you going to say when your friends ask why Filo isn’t wearing shoes?” Gus asked.

“He’s more daring,” his wife answered with a smile. “Gus, come here and take one of me with these two charming islanders.”

Gus’s reply was lost what with the noise of the engine and  the noise from Sonila.

“Where are we going now?” asked Mavis.

“To visit another part of the island,” Don said. “The fish are disappointing, aren’t they? After hearing so many stories of fish and fire, on seeing them, they are the same as those you can buy at the fishmonger’s back home. Hey, Filo, tell us something about the island that has nothing to do with fish,” pleaded Don.

Filo was ready for this request. “What kind of things interest you all?”

“A myth, a legend, anything.”

 

“Well, once, in a village on the other side of that mountain over there,” pointing, “There lived a man. He had neither wife nor children because he had a very fixed idea about the type of woman he wanted to marry. ‘I want a woman who is so sweet I could eat her,’ he would say to his neighbours. Every young girl who was presented to him never matched up to his desires. So the mother of the latest girl to be rejected by him decided to avenge her daughter.

“All summer she collected the honey from her husband’s bees. At night she worked with the beeswax and the honey in a little hut. It took her a long time to get the amount she needed, but at last she had enough. The woman was very good with her hands as she was used to making candles. After many long nights she had produced the figure of a beautiful girl. The water in the river was magic on certain days of the year. She waited anxiously for one of those days and filled a flask with water, then carefully let some drops fall onto the girl’s vital organs. Now she looked liked a real woman, and the ‘mother’ took her home.

“The following day was market day, and early in the morning in the middle of the square she introduced the boy to the girl. With just one look, the young man fell in love with the girl and said, ‘This is a very sweet girl, she is the one for me.’

“The woman and the rest who were in on the joke began to laugh. The young man didn’t understand until he realised the girl was melting. From head to foot she was returning to her real state. Honey. The man covered his face with his hands and cried in shame and sadness. The woman went up to him and said, ‘Appearances can deceive. Marry my daughter and you will see that she is sweeter than honey.’

“They got married, and so every year on their wedding anniversary, the mother-in-law gave the son-in-law a little honey doll.”

 

“Is that a true story?” asked Mavis.

“Well, ma’am, I don’t know whether or not it’s true. But there is a village where dolls are still made of honey, even though nowadays they are also made from chocolate, marzipan, and candy.”

“How nice!” exclaimed Sonila.

The boat approached the coast with views of beaches, caves, trees, and brightly coloured plants. Amongst the varying shades of green, the colours that stood out so strongly as to almost blind the viewer were yellow, red, violet and white. These tropical plants grew free and were of the size and height that nature had intended them to be. This resulted in their having a disturbing effect on the foreigners.

Filo slowed down so as to make the manoeuvre of the boat easier. Everyone looked into the water and observed how the black rocks jutted out from the white sand of the sea bed. The waves had lost their rhythm as they moved around the rocks and the boat was shaking as a result. No one dared to break Filo’s concentration and that’s why silence reigned during the bit of the trip that took them back to dry land.

“Remind me that we mustn’t swim here,” Gus said to Sonila.

“Why have you brought us here, Filo?” Don asked.

“Hasn’t it occurred to anyone to fix their eyes on the sea?” answered Filo.

“The fish, is that it?” asked Sonila.

“Exactly there are fish here, too,” said Filo.

There weren’t many but they were much bigger.

“Where do they live?” asked Sonila.

“There are caves on this side of the island which provide them with shelter.”

“What I don’t understand is why they are much bigger than the other ones we saw before,” Sonila said. The rest, including Gus, were staring at her. Sonila continued, “I was afraid. I suppose I was expecting something to happen.”

“Such as? A demonstration of how the fire works,” suggested Gus.

“I’m sure that if we pay Filo and his grandson a nice sum of money he would be able to give us a performance of the first disaster,” commented Don.

Filo and Curro winked at each other. How little these foreigners knew about the tropical world!

When the government embarked on its tourism programme it knew it would have to do it very well. There could be no half measures. The result was a well set up organisation in those latitudes instead of the usual laid-back attitude. Spread out along the coast were marinas and tourist areas. Every place had something different to offer the visitors, so as to encourage them to get out and about, spending money instead of hanging around the hotels. Filo directed the boat towards a harbour called ‘The Shipwrecks’ due to the number of boats shipwrecked nearby over the centuries. For taking the tourists there, Filo received ten per cent of any money spent in the various attractions and shops.

On finding their feet on dry land again the group was taken from the little harbour where Filo had tied up the boat to a shopping centre. “You’ve got half an hour to visit the shops. Here are the cards of the shops where you’ll be well served,” Filo said on handing out the cards. “On the hour we’ll meet at the entrance of the Aquarium where there will be a special fish show,” finished Filo, taking hold of Curro’s arm.

The group now liberated from the confines of the boat, felt happy to be able to walk through the narrow street in the centre which was shut off to traffic. In every shop there was a souvenir of the fire fish. Games were included too: jigsaw puzzles, kits on how to make a fish, and a guessing game called ‘Look for the Fish’. Sonila was  turning round a revolving card display, but showing little interest.

“If you don’t stop moving it, the shop assistant will ask you what you want,” said Gus. “D’you want to buy something?”

“I’m not over keen. There are postcards in the hotel, we don’t have to buy these. Gus, I don’t feel too good.”

“D’you want to throw up? Your face is very white.”

Sonila looked at her wristwatch, “Can we go to the aquarium now. My legs are killing me.”

Gus guided Sonila out of the shop to the street, the air wasn’t too cold. Sonila took a deep breath, “Now I feel a bit better.”

Mavis and Don were waiting for them at the entrance to the aquarium with the rest of the group.

“First we are going to see the aquarium and then the show,” Filo informed them.

The aquarium was built around a pool where the fish would perform later. In the smaller aquariums there were various types of fish, but all from the same family as the sacred fire fish.

“Don, I’d like to take a little one home as a souvenir of our holiday,” effused Mavis.

“You only want it so as to show off in front of the neighbours. By the way, how are you going to explain that it can’t breath fire?” answered Don.

“Don’t try to dissuade me. I want to take home one of those fish.”

“Mavis, in this aquarium the water is murky. Don’t you think it’s a disgrace how it’s been left?” asked Gus.

Sonila was looking at the nearest aquarium, in spite of the dirtiness of the water she could make out the face of a large fish. “Come on, Gus, I don’t feel well, let’s go for the fish show.”

“Not again!” exclaimed Gus, taking her outside. To Sonila’s eyes the aquarium had appeared to be full of smoke, instead of being just murky, but she didn’t tell anyone, keeping her suspicions to herself so as not to make herself look ridiculous. Filo had been observing her and smiled on seeing her leave the aquarium on her husband’s arm.

The performance of the fish was not as good as had been expected. But then what can you expect from fish. Mavis, worried about Sonila’s silence, asked Gus, “What’s the matter with Sonila? Did the boat upset her?”

“Probably,” grunted Gus.

“You know we have to go back on it,” said Mavis.

“Are you telling me or are you giving me orders?” asked Gus sarcastically.

Don turned his head to get his wife’s attention, “Mavis, look at the little ones.”

Mavis left Sonila and Gus in peace and tried hard not to show her real interest in the fish. In Mavis’s mind there was only one thought and that was how to get her latest whim. It was impossible for her to explain the strange, fascinating hold that the sacred fire fish had over her. For Mavis it wasn’t important if the myth was a fiction just created for the tourists or not, for her the most important thing was that the sacred fire fish might exist amongst those that swam in the coastal waters. She only wanted a little one, nothing else. What damage could it cause to get one and take it home!