Fishing had always been the way to live for
Lin and his friends. Fro ma very young age, their parents had taught them the
best parts on the river and the ocean where they could easily catch a vast
array of fish and other living being from the ocean’s floor. They even had a
friend named Chen, who lived his life by diving on the ocean and fishing things
that many net couldn’t pull away from the sea. When he was lucky enough to find
pearls, he would sell them and stop working for a month or so.
However, the rest of them could never take a
day off or anything like that. They had to work every single day for many
hours, from dusk till dawn, no matter how tired and bored they sometimes got.
The youngest one of them was Sun, who had only started the year before. He had
being made to leave school but, after a very vivid argument, his mother had
managed to convince the father to let him stay in school. So Sun had to wake up
really early to fish for a while with his father and then he would go back at
it in the afternoon.
It was a hard life for such a young person but
it wasn’t a unique thing for anyone on that region. They all had to do things
that they didn’t really want for themselves. Most young people, for example,
had the ambition to travel to big city, any of them, and being able to live the
lives they sometimes saw on advertisements or on the television set, when
people had one. It was a matter of doing what was needed to be able to reach
that moment when they could choose their own path.
When in his family’s boat, Sun would often try
to do his homework but the fishing rods that he put on the edge would always
move in the precise moment he was concentrating, on the verge of getting to a
point where he would advance in his studies. He was doing poorly on some of his
assignments and he really needed to get better soon if he wanted to get ahead
in life. He knew the only way to get out of his town would be to learn more
than others, to be smarter than any of the people he knew.
Suddenly, one of the rods moved violently and
then it was pulled into the water. It didn’t float for a moment or anything; it
just disappeared in the blink of an eye. Sun leaned over the boat and tried to
fish for the rod but the only thing he got out of it was a powerful bit from a huge
carp that suddenly came out of the water. Normally, a fish bite wouldn’t really
hurt but this one left a red mark on Sun’s hand. However, the weirdest thing
was to see the carp looking back at him, almost as if it was staring. Then, out
of nowhere, the carp spoke with a deep voice.
He moved his mouth very differently than a
human would but it was obvious that it was the one who was speaking. There were
no other boats in the vicinity and Sun was too stunned to produce any words.
The fish wanted to know where he was, as he had been following a current for
some days and now it seemed he had found himself on the opposite side of the
current. He apologized to Sun for biting him, but he explained he had been very
scared when looking up and watching a hand reach for something.
A little bit calmer, Sun rubbed his eyes and
moved his hair around: he was obviously surprised but also very skeptical that
it was actually happening. It seemed much more probable that he had fallen
asleep in the boat and the sun on his head had created some kind of illusions
or nightmares. It was very uncomfortable for that to happen, because of the
response his parents would have if they looked at him sleeping on the boat. Yet
again, he wasn’t very close to the beach.
So Sun decided to play with the moment and
just decided to ask the carp more questions, in order to really understand what
was happening. Sun asked the fish where he wanted to go. The animal named a bay
that he had never heard about. It had to be somewhere very far, so he just told
the carp the name of the river that was nearby and the one of the bay they were
talking on. The carp then did something even more unexpected than asking: it
yelled, very loud, a very harsh curse word.
The carp told Sun he really needed to go where
he wanted because his whole family was reuniting for a very special event. He
explained that he was part of a very special kind of carps that turned golden
after a certain amount of time. When that happened, they were allowed to join a
special school of fishes that could travel the ocean at fast speeds and could
also grant wishes to anyone, human or animal, that came across them. It was a
special thing that only they could do.
Sun then interjected. He was very interested
by that story because his mother had told him about how his maternal
grandmother had come across a golden carp when she was young. Apparently, the
fish had healed her from a very powerful disease that was creeping its way
through her young body. The wish had made her well, and even better, it had
made her a very vivacious woman until her last day. He remembered her from his
toddler years and asked the carp if it was possible to know which carp had
granted that wish, in order to give his thanks.
The carp moved his head from side to side. He
explained that golden carps never returned to the same place twice, so it was
rather difficult to know which carp had granted which wish. Then, it started
swimming back and forth. It was obvious he was really upset by the fact he was
going to miss the best and most unique event in his life. Sun realized that,
illusion or not, he should help the fish just because he had been the cause of
him existing. No grandmother would have meant no Sun.
He proposed the fish to jump on the boat in
order to help him get somewhere, anywhere he wanted. Maybe there were other
carps nearby that could help him get to the place he wanted to go. The carp was
a bit skeptical of the plan but it really wanted to get to the event so he
asked Sun to take him to a place where he could talk to many other fish. Maybe
in such a hub he would be able to get some information on how to get where he
needed to be. Time was of the essence.
So Sun pulled the rods into the boat, a net
filled with only water and then turned on the engine. The carp told him it
would follow from underwater. Sun tried to remember the place where his father
would fish every single day but then he realized the place would be crowded and
all other fishermen would see the talking carp. Sun still believed he was asleep
or maybe delusional, but it wasn’t enough to make him do such a stupid thing.
They would capture the carp and kill it or maybe sell it because of its
abilities.
He stopped the boat at least three times;
changing courses frequently because he remembered people would be there. Maybe
even his friends who would taunt him. When the carp swam to the front and asked
why he appeared to be so indecisive, Sun realized he wasn’t dreaming at all. He
started taking it more seriously, less like a weird dream and more like
something that was really important to do. He turned to the carp and was about
to say he was sorry about not being able to help but then he remembered Chen.
He was a good friend and had told him once
where he fished for oysters and other animals. Sun turned on the engine again
and in a matter of only minutes they were in the spot used by Chen to have his
leisurely life. Then, Sun jumped out of the boat and indicated the carp to
follow him.
The carp followed and they found a colony of
mollusks on the ocean floor. The carp started communicating with them and Sun went
back to his boat. The carp surfaced later on, thanking him for his help. When
the carp left, smaller fish appeared out of nowhere and jumped into the boat.
Sun’s family was very surprised by his success.
