Dad - Part Two
The breeze was stronger now and the sound of the air mixed with the sleepy noise of the engine, and I felt happy. I looked at my dad. He was looking out to sea holding a salad sandwich in one hand and holding his hat on with the other – he didn’t want his head to burn in the strong sunshine. Everybody was busy eating and drinking tea (even Steven had a hot mug of PG Tips because he had realized his dozen beer bottles weren’t at all popular). Conversation had stopped and Aunt Mary had even closed her eyes – her half-eaten pork pie on her knee. Only Uncle Tom looked fully awake, sitting in the cabin looking ahead for boats or other dangers…
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz! A noise! Everybody looked around, surprised. What was that?
‘Bite!’ shouted Steven and he dropped his mug of tea and picked up the rod*. ‘Stop the engine, Tom!’ Steven pressed a button on the reel* and pulled hard. ‘Big one, I think,’ he shouted. Here, Tom, it’s all yours!’
With the engine now stopped, Uncle Tom climbed out of the cabin and Steven handed him the rod*. Uncle Tom started to turn the reel* as fast as he could.
‘Take it easy, Tom!’ said Steven. ‘Here she comes now! You’re doing fine!’
Everybody looked ahead. I saw how the rod* bentb2 into a ‘C’ shape. The line* went straight into the dark sea – what exactly was on the other end was a mystery to me.
Suddenly, a long silver fish jumped into the air not far from the back of the boat.
‘Oooh!’ we children called out.
A couple more minutes later, and Uncle Tom said in a calm voice ‘Get the net, Steven. She’s close!’ Steven was already at the back of the boat. He pushed the net under the water, and then raised it carefully. The large shining creature wet and jumping with great energy fell out of the net into the boat.
‘Wow! What type of fish is it, Uncle Tom?’ I shouted excitedly.
‘A bluefish, Steven?’
‘Yep!’ he said. And it’s a beauty! Here, let’s weigh it. He took out some scalesb2 from his box of fishing equipment and hung the fish on them. One angry fish eye seemed to look hard at me as it hung there, its body as long as Steven’s arm, now beaten and waiting for certain death. Before I could begin to feel sorry for it, Steven announced, looking very proud, that it weighed eight kilos!
Uncle Tom switched on the engine and soon we were moving again over the waves. My brother, cousin Cindy and I went over to look at it. We touched its cold body with our fingers and admired its bright blue and green colours.
‘Are we going to put it back in the sea now?’ my little brother, Ben, said.
‘Ehm, I thought we could take it home for dinner this evening,’ said Uncle Tom.
‘Well, we can put it back in the sea when it’s had some dinner with us,’ suggested Ben.
Everybody laughed – except Ben and Cindy.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz! The noise again! Everybody looked up. The end of another rod* was moving backwards and forwards quickly. Steven jumped across the boat and picked up the rod*.
‘Stop the engine, Tom’. He looked at my dad. ‘It’s your turn, Harry!’ he said.
‘Perhaps Aunt Mary or Angela would like to try…’ Dad said, looking confused.
‘Oh, come on, Dad!’ I shouted. ‘You can do it!’ I really wanted to see Dad catch a fish like Uncle Tom’s. Why could Dad never do anything better than my uncle?
Steven pushed the rod* into Dad’s hand, and Dad started turning the reel*. He looked worried and nervous. He looked at me. He knew what I was thinking. I tried to encourage him.
‘Come on, Dad! You can do it!’ I shouted.
Then his hat blew off his head and flew out to sea.
‘My hat!’ he shouted and put the rod* down. ‘I must have my hat! Can we get it back, Tom?’
‘Please, Dad! Forget the hat! Get the fish!’
Dad paused, and then picked up the rod* again and pulled.
‘There’s nothing there!’ he said.
Steven took the rod* from him.
‘Yeah, it’s gone,’ he said quietly. ‘A pity. It seemed like a big one. You’ve got to keep pulling though. If you stop pulling, it’ll get away.’
‘Sorry,’ said Dad, and he looked upset. ‘I was worried about losing my hat.’
I put my head down. I couldn’t hide my disappointment.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Uncle Tom with a smileb1. ‘We’ll go back for your hat then you can catch another one.’
‘Yes, we’ll catch another one!’ laughed Ben and Cindy together, jumping up and down.
Jumping in a small boat isn’t a good idea, Uncle Tom, told me afterwards. And what happened next happened very quickly. The box of beer on the roof fell off. Uncle Tom was sitting under it and the heavy bottles fell on his head! Uncle Tom’s eyes closed and he fell backwards into the sea. Aunt Mary, screamedb1 and stood up. ‘Tom!’ she shouted.
Steven was looking around, confused. ‘Where’s the life ring?’ he was saying to himself. ‘There should be a life ring!’
But Dad was on his feet. He quickly took off his sandals and shirt and dived into the water.
‘Harry! No!’ screamedb1 Mum. But it was too late. We ran to the side of the boat and looked down. There was nobody there. We were silent. The whole world for us stopped except for the dark waves that struck the side of the boat one after the other – plop, plop, plop… I felt a pain inside my chest and tears came to my eyes.
‘Dad, Dad. Please come back!’ I shouted into the cold water below.
Suddenlyb1, there was something under the water. Dad’s head appeared above the waves right next to the side of the boat. Another body shape – Uncle Tom. Dad was holding him by the shoulders – Uncle Tom’s head now out of the water.
‘Help me!’ called Dad, exhausted. ‘Help me get Tom onto the boat!’
We all pulled at Uncle Tom’s jacket, and soon he was in the boat. Dad followed breathing heavily. But Uncle Tom wasn’t moving. We all looked terrified at him – his eyes closed. Was he dead?
But Dad moved quickly. He got down on his knees and put his ear near Uncle Tom’s nose. Then, he held his wristb2 for a few seconds. Then he put his hands flat on Uncle Tom’s chest and began to push down hard – once, twice, three times, again and again. We all waited and hoped…
Suddenlyb1, Uncle Tom was coughing and water was shooting out from his mouth. Dad lifted Uncle Tom to a sitting position, and now Uncle Tom was breathing. He looked up at our faces, and after a few seconds he smiledb1. We all cried out in happiness and hugged each other. My mum was crying and she hugged Dad. We were a family again and the danger had passed.
I looked at my dad, who was smiling.b1 Then I noticed there was blood coming from his ear.
*****************
Steven was able to get the boat back to the harbour. He also spoke some Spanish and managed to call for help on the boat’s radio, so when we arrived, there was an ambulance waiting for us, and Dad and Uncle Tom were taken to hospital in Cadiz. Uncle Tom was fine, and Dad’s ear injury wasn’t serious, fortunately.
Family life continued like before. Uncle Tom was the way he had always been – full of fun, joking and smilingb1, good at everything. Dad was the same too - quiet, a little shy, not sure of himself, and I still beat him when we played shooting at the goal. But all that didn’t bother me any more. Although we rarely spoke about it, nobody forgot those terrible moments on Uncle Tom’s boat on that summer fishing trip in the south of Spain. There was a hero in our family, a real hero who had saved us all. That hero was my dad.