Underwater

Keon Ulani, paleontologist, lives an uneventful life with his two children in Honolulu, Hawaii. But one day, all calm leaves the waters. Only he can stop the 40 foot madness from controlling the sea.

Underwater

By Gabriella Reardon

 “What will it be this morning, Keon?” Lila asked enthusiastically.

I slid onto my usual stool, the one with ripped red leather that was located exactly three quarters of the way down the counter from the entrance. Lila approached me from the kitchen with a chubby, blistered hand reaching into her coffee stain-splattered apron for a  pen and pad of paper.

“Today I’ll just settle for a cup of joe. Way too busy to eat right now.” I responded. I was busy. I had stayed up all night studying Ariaspis fossils, and now I had a long , strenuous day at the lab for boring staff meetings. But thankfully enough, after two p.m. my day was freed up so I could go home and type up the rest of my speech for National Geographic. They wanted me to host the fifth annual Nat Geo Paleontologists’ Convention!

Lila retrieved a cup full of steaming coffee for me, and the delectable aroma of arabica wafted into my nostrils. When I sipped the hot beverage, I smirked, happy to know that there was no other way I’d rather start the day.

I picked up the copy of the Star Advertiser I grabbed on my way in, and immediately found interest in the front page’s news report:

“Multiple Fishing Boat Disappearances in Local Areas Baffle Police.”

As I read on, I realized that the information that authorities have confirmed was at a minimum, and the article was actually mainly made up of theories for where exactly the boats went. One part made me chuckle, as it said that the missing boats and missing persons among them might have been the cause of an unknown sea creature’s hunger. Really, what shark could be large enough to eat a whole boat?

“How are Gillian and Tobias doing?” I jumped when Lila’s voice broke through the indistinct chatter and clanking of plates coming from the kitchen.

“Hm? What? Oh, them. Pretty good, I guess. No calls from school saying they beat anyone up, so I guess that’s okay.” I trust Gillian and Tobias to handle things on their own. Gillian is almost in middle school, after all. And Tobias loves his privacy, so I respect that.

“You sure? I mean, no news on their grades, friends, activities?”

“Well, I drive Gillian to dance every Wednesday and then on Saturday I drop Tobias off at the rec center for basketball. There really isn't much outside of that. They’re only thirteen and nine, remember?”

“Oh, I remember. But what you better remember is to be around those kids more often. It’s hard enough for them to grow up with only a father figure to rely on. Seems to me that you have been treating work more like a kid to you than you have with Gillian and Tobias. ” Lila retorted accusingly.

I just scoffed and went back to reading the newspaper.

After about five minutes, I was on my way out the door.

I deeply inhaled the beach air and took in the early morning's surroundings. The sun had just risen and cast an orange radiance onto the ocean’s shimmering surface that was only about two hundred feet away. Already the sand was scattered with surfers who were donning their body suits and cleaning off their boards to start the day. Tranquility seemed infinite around me.

But, this infinity stopped short in its tracks in a matter of seconds.

While slowly wandering down the beaten stone path that led to where I parked my jeep, I heard a distant yell. Then again, even louder. It was coming from the beach, and was a yell that meant danger was right around the corner.  

 "Shark! Shark in the water! Get out!" a surfer screamed, his hands flailing as he attempted to catch attention to swimmers already in the water.

My eyes widened to what I saw. Way out in the distance, there was a surfer in a grey suit. They were so far away you couldn't tell if they were male or female, but they seemed very unaware of the warning shouts, and of something that was hard not to notice.

About one hundred feet away from the surfer, I spotted a giant blob of darkness under the ocean’s surface that was moving fast towards them. This was no ordinary sea creature. It was bigger than any animal I had ever seen. Then without warning, it lifted its head out of the water.

This indeed was no ordinary sea creature. Especially since it's supposed to be extinct.

The megalodon, or also called the Carcharodon megalodon, is known as a huge, streamlined version of the great white shark. It was believed to be a thriving species from sixteen to two million years ago. How one was there, right in front of my eyes, I don't know.

Unfortunately,  I knew exactly what about to happen the second the shark opened it's mouth. The surfer fell off their board and tried to swim away, but they were no match for the giant jaws of the megalodon. The surfer disappeared into the creature without much fuss.

I didn't really know what to think. I just saw someone get eaten by a shark. A shark that went extinct more than a million years ago.

My mind transformed the scene to a blur, and my claustrophobia began to kick in. While everything moved in slow motion, I felt like the sky was falling onto, ready to squash me like a bug. I was about to slip into unconsciousness, when-

"Sir. Sir, are okay?" An elderly woman using a walker was standing beside me, tapping my shoulder.

"Oh, um. I'm good. Thanks." My cheeks heated up , tinging my tanned skin with red.  Before anyone got a chance to ask me a question or talk to me about what I saw, I ran to my car and drove directly to the lab.

*****************************************

"If it wasn't a megalodon, what the heck was it?!" Tanner yelled. My co-workers were all sitting around the coffee table, with greasy egg wraps and crumbling blueberry muffins half eaten in front of them. The news was on the television in the corner of the room, but it was apparent that no one was watching it.

"Keon! Where have you been? We have been waiting for you all morning!" Tanner shouted angrily when he noticed me walk in. His veins were popping out of his neck, and his dark green eyes were bugging out of his head the way they do when he's stressed out. Something must have been wrong.Tanner was usually even-tempered and calm, despite his constant bossiness.

"I saw the whole thing. The attack, everything."

The room instantly quieted down.

"Well, what was it?!" Tanner demanded.

"It was definitely something special, I can tell you that right now. Not anything we have ever seen before. I don't want to make any assumptions, but it looked like it could be a Carcharodon megalodon, or at least a distant relative of it." I said.

Immediately, the silence in the room broke and conversation erupted. My co-workers began to unconsciously team up on each other. The coffee table became the battlefield of theory and belief.

Tanner and I left the break room, both knowing that arguing wouldn't help the situation. Tanner spoke as soon as the door closed behind him, separating us from the rest of the scientists.

"Keon, whatever you saw out there, it isn't natural. We need to find it. Quickly." he said.

His voice was deadly serious.

"I know, Tanner. But this thing won't be easy to catch. It was at least forty feet long. Not to mention how much it might weigh.  I mean, we might have to go out there with a cargo ship and load it onto there!"

"Oh my God. This is a revolutionary discovery. We will have to work harder than we ever have. Well, I better head back in there, stop all that fighting. You go home. You probably have stuff to do. I have nothing better to do than hang out here."

"Thanks so much Tanner. I'll be in around seven tomorrow." I was grateful for the day to myself, as I rarely ever got them. I was in desperate need of a nap, and it would be a nice surprise for Tobias and Gillian when they get home and see me there.

The moment I walked into the house, I rushed upstairs, leaped into bed and took a well-deserved nap. After a full seven hours of  deep sleep, I awoke to the sound of the door opening and two feet scampering inside.

I rubbed the eyes, balanced my glasses onto my nose and thumped downstairs.

“Daddy, Daddy!” I heard a small voice call.

Gillian, dressed in a little peach-colored sundress and with her blonde hair in two pigtails on each side of her head, came running towards me and hooked her arms around my waist in a strong embrace.

“Not now honey, I have to get straight to work. I have that speech to write for National Geographic.” I said sternly.

“Oh, okay. But after you’re done, you wanna watch me practice my dance for the recital?” she asked expectantly.

“Sorry, Gillian, I can’t. That speech will take me all night. Why don’t you ask Tobias?”

“Last time I asked Toby, he told me to shut up and get out of his room.”

“Well, that wasn’t very nice was it? Where is your brother anyways?” I questioned. I looked into his room to find him missing from his usual seat in his beanbag chair.

"He didn't get off the bus today so I think he stayed after for the detention he...told me not to tell you about." Gillian ended her sentence with a whisper directed mainly to herself.

"Tobias? In trouble? That doesn't sound like him at all."

"He has been getting into a lot of trouble lately. That's just what I have heard from the messages from what teachers left on the answering machines though."

What? His teachers called? I thought, perplexed by just the idea of Tobias getting disciplined.

I just shook my head and entered my office, determined to finish my speech.

5:26, the clock read. I finally added the last details to my work, and glancing over to the glowing numbers, I scrunched my face together and rubbed my stinging eyes.

Out of the blue, I heard the door slam and the sound of wet sneakers squeaking on the hardwood.

"Hey, Dad." Tobias said, peaking his head into my office. I instantly felt fury pulse through my head.

"Where the heck have you been?" I began my excoriation in the most cliche way possible.

"Just shootin' hoops with Harry and Peter." he replied calmly.

"Don't you dare lie to me young man! You were in detention."

Tobias' s face immediately took the shape of guilt and embarrassment.

"Okay, yeah I was. But it was only because I'm not doing so well in the class and the teacher wanted me to make up work."

"What class? And what's the grade?" I demanded.

"In science I have a...um, I'm failing." His usually expressionless eyes welled up with tears.

"How could this happen? Every day I tell you to do homework before anything else and I thought you did do that but..." I trailed off.

"In case you haven't noticed, Dad," he said the name like an insult.

"You never really have been there for me to enforce these rules. I rarely ever see you. You are always locked up in here, in your office, working. It's like you don't even care about Gillian or me."

"Of course I care. But, I do this work because I want the best the best for the both of you and-"

"You want the best for us? Why don't you try showing up to one of my basketball games once in a while! Or go to one of Gillian's dance rehearsals! Her recital is next week. Bet you didn't know about that." Tobias spat at me. A knife, dipped in the poison of hatred,  drove itself into my heart. I sighed, and went back to work.

        Days passed, and the tension at work was starting to get worse. We sent out at least three different search teams and no signs whatsoever of any humongous, forty foot sharks near Hawaii. More and more people started to doubt the shark even existed, and that troubled me deeply.

Until exactly two weeks after the attack, when we got news of the strange fish.

It was an average day in the lab, tests being run, research being recorded. I was sitting at my desk, checking my email to see if I ever got a reply from the Head of the Hawaii Ocean Safety Team Advisory Board.

“Keon, get over here!” Tanner said hysterically, grabbing hold of my lab coat and dragging me over to the phone.

Oh God, I wonder what’s up with him. I thought with curiosity.

Tanner shoved the phone into my hands and scampered off. I hesitantly lifted the phone to my ear, reluctant to find out who’s on the other end of the line.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Ulani? Is that you?” A small, almost squeaky voice answered me.

“Yes, this is him.”

“You won’t believe this. We found it.”

“You found the megalodon?

“Yes. We are in Kiholo Bay. The shark-it’s circling us. We need help. Please, call the Coast Guard!” The voice was desperate and frantic, and I heard cries in the background.

“Oh my God. Hold on, I’ll get them.” I took the phone away from my ear and shouted to Robbie to get the Coast Guard to send a rescue helicopter out to Kiholo Bay.

“Stay right there. Help is on the way. I said to the person on the other end of the line.

No answer.

All I could hear was static, water sloshing around, and screams. I was too late. The megalodon got them.     

After lots of thought, I came to a conclusion.  I needed to go out there and get the shark myself. If I won’t be able to do it, no one will.

The team I put together consisted of Tanner, George, Darren, Robbie and I, along with the drivers of the cargo ship who would be trailing far enough behind us to not attract the attention of the shark, but close enough to get to the shark fast after we put it to sleep.

"Okay, men, this will be hard, but I think we can do it." The day before the trip out to sea, the crew and I all sat around the map we put together that would be helping us travel to Kiholo Bay. After a full three days of preparation, we had a foolproof plan set up:

First, we would drive the boat into Kiholo Bay. Then, we would lower chunks of cow meat into the water (donated by a friend) that would attract the megalodon easily. As the shark would swim up to us, we would have George ready with the loaded tranquilizer. Before the shark sinks to the bottom of the ocean, the cargo ship will lower it's newly optimized crane into the water, grab the shark, and lift it onto the cargo ship's deck. So we won't have to travel far back, we set a deal with the Kiholo Aquarium to let us use their empty shark tank for the storage of the megalodon.

           **************************************************

On the day of the trip while loading everything onto the boat, I gave a small, apprehensive goodbye to Gillian and Tobias. If I didn’t come back from this trip, there would be no one left for them.

"Tobias, if I don't return, you'll be the man of the house."

"Yeah yeah, I get it. But to be honest, if you didn't come back, the house would still have the same emptiness it always has had, and I will still be just as fatherless as I have grown up to be." he sneered. I guess he held a grudge.

I walked up to Gillian and hugged her as tight as I could.

"I'm gonna miss you sweetie."

"Me too. When you come back, will you go to my recital?"

"Well, I will see. When I get back I will be really busy with doing the tests on the shark." I said sorrowful.

"Yeah, okay. I get it." Gillian huffed dramatically and ran off the dock to where Tobias was waiting for her.

Our voyage out to Kiholo Bay was easygoing, up until we found the shark.

“Keon! I see something!” called Robbie from the starboard. I looked up from my book to see a fin poking out of the water, and as it moved closer I recognized it's large yet sleek body hidden under the blue waves.

"George, get the tranquilizer ready!" Tanner shouted. The knockout serum was in the form of a needle the size of a harpoon, and George would have have shoot it perfectly. He only got one shot, one opportunity.  If he missed it, we were literal dead meat.

Thankfully George the sharpshooter had no trouble aiming. Right when the megalodon began rising out of the water, he sent a tranquilizing bullet right into the megalodon’s right pectoral fin.

"Quick, call over the cargo ship!" George yelled to me once the shark was hit.

We clicked the Morse code signal for "ready" with the boat's headlight, and the cargo ship chugged over to our area of the ocean. As the crane powered on, I realized my hands were shaking like crazy. Was I this nervous?

In about ten minutes, the shark was loaded onto the ship. But wait- how will it survive the ride back without water?

"You need to splash it with water the whole ride back!" I hollered over to the men tying the megalodon to the boat.

"What?!" One responded

"Just do it! This thing needs to be ALIVE when we get back!"

So they pulled the hose out from the under the deck and showered its water onto the shark until we had arrived at the aquarium.

The sedative would only last for a couple days, so we had very little time to spare when working with Jaws, which was what we decided on naming him. He was lying on his side in a wading pool, tests constantly being done on him, and never once was he left alone.   

                ***************************************************************    

It was a grim day when we found out that Jaws had to be put down. Tanner came up to me, looking crestfallen and disappointed.

“Keon, I’m so sorry. I know how much work and effort you put into this project. All of those nights you spent here, doing nothing but researching and gathering information. But we can’t let this animal live. If we send it back into the ocean, it could cause a second plague. No seafood would ever be safe to eat again, not to mention swimming would be nothing but dangerous. I promise you all the remains of the fish will be specially conserved for only the best marine biologists. And your name will forever be related to Jaws. You caught him, you own him.”

“Thanks so much Tanner, I really appreciate it. At least I will be able to know that not all the work I did went to waste.” I chuckled halfheartedly.  

“And through all this, I have had an epiphany. Tanner, I’m a workaholic. My kids need me. I mean, I missed my own daughter's dance recital for this ridiculous project! That’s why I’ve decided to step down from my position, and have Darren take my place. He deserves it more than me. All I have discovered this past month is how bad of a parent I am. I’ll also be using up all my vacation days the next couple of weeks for a well earned trip to Maine to go skiing with the kids.”

Without waiting for Tanner’s reaction, I left the lab, and didn’t go back for a long time.