9
Three days later –
The fisherman opened his eyes again. He had difficulty opening his eyelids in the morning sunlight. It was so beautiful over the sea to see. So calm and serene.
Instantly, noise of many voices awoke him.
When he looked around, listening to the voices, he discovered many known faces beside him on the shore.
He thought it to be a reverie. That he discovered his wife, he discovered his little daughter among others, among the faces. They were sitting so close to him, he could feel their breaths.
He was scared to believe all this – so he closed his eyes. But he had to reopen them soon when he heard his daughter say, ‘daddy?’
The fisherman was reborn. He found all this real. No illusion.
He was beside himself with joy.
He could not believe this reunion.
The fisherman asked very slowly, ‘how?’
One from the crowd eagerly explained, ‘you were stuck in the boat. Ropes and strings had wrapped you around a broken framework of your fishing boat. That’s how you floated up to the shore. There’. He pointed to a broken flank of his fishing boat a little hence.
The fisherman looked where the man pointed. He saw the broken piece of the fishing boat – the piece with the words ‘water nymph’.
An in-charge for the coast guard came out pushing the crowd, to say-
‘We found you stranded here. That night was real debacle. We lost all hopes for you, it was impossible. But thanks to your wife’s belief that her husband would come back. She has been starving since your disappearance. She had been waiting for you on the shore until you opened your eyes, here’, the man in the uniform said very proudly.
The fisherman looked at his wife. She was looking so sickly, morbid. Her tearful eyes became so sentimental that she only could say, ‘how could you?’
The fisherman smiled happily.
‘Sorry to interrupt’, the man in the uniform spoke up suddenly, ‘the dead mussel that also drifted with your ‘water nymph’ is no ordinary shell. If I’m not wrong it must contain a pearl which we call rainbow-dwarf’.
‘What is that?’ asked the fisherman excitedly. Tired, his voice shook up.
‘It is a rare small pink pearl….highly valuable’.
The in-charge paused a little bit, and then resumed with a sign of doubt, ‘first you escaped unhurt. Then you came up with this damned rare deep sea thing. I wonder how?’ saying this much the man returned a lidded container to the fisherman.
His words so far had left the crowd speechless. Now rose a little murmur.
Before he went out, he said, ‘you may call me anytime for any help. For the time being, very careful about everything, and best of luck’.
The fisherman watched him go.
Then he gave the container to his wife and said, ‘your surprise gift. Happy marriage anniversary’.
The wife of the poor fisherman gave it back to her husband. She barely smiled through tears and said, ‘stupid’.
–
