“Grandmother!” she panted, “I need some things because I’m going on a fishing trip.”
“Slow down, when are you leaving?” Nukuluve asked, coming out of her hut.
“Tuesday morning, after the games the Monday. I need some gear. I don’t have anything.”
“What do you need?”
“Keoni said I need a spear, some nets, a knife, and a water gourd.”
“I have everything,” she responded, going back into her hut. A few minutes later she emerged with her arms full.
“These were your mother’s fishing things. The strap is to tie the knife to your arm, and this larger satchel is for holding the nets and the water gourds. Here, take some extra gourds, you never know when you will get a chance to refill them.”
“Why do we need water gourds? Don’t our mermaid bodies assimilate water from the ocean?”
“Not as well as you would think. Also, do not forget you are part human, too. You will get thirsty from all that exercise—swimming all day—even though your body may not need it, the cool fresh-water will taste good going down your throat.”
On Monday morning Mina woke up with a familiar elation: her practicing had been going so well that she had decided to compete in the show jumping event of the Island Games. As the Okawiians gathered on the beach on the west side of the island, Mina noticed a large, ornate chair, obviously meant for the chief, set up with about 10 chairs on each side. In front of the chairs was a long block with seven places, each one with a flower wreath draped over it. Mina figured that these were for the winners.
“Where will the rest of the people sit?” she asked her grandmother.
“Usually the young people watch from the water where they can easily see both the underwater and above water events.”
“What about the kids under 8?”
“They sit in that shallow area over there and duck under to watch when they want to.”
Mina gulped. She realized that everyone would see her, and that the Chief and elders sitting on the beach would only see three of the seven events, including her event. The other Okawiians lined up on the beach facing the island with their heels in the water, and she joined them.
Chief Akolo stepped forward. “Welcome to the 157th Annual Island Games.” The crowd clapped and splashed their feet in the water in good cheer. “Those who have decided to compete may swim out to Halapua, who will direct you to your stations.”
About half of the islanders dove into the water and made their way to Halapua, who served as director and announcer for the Games. Mina was glad she had decided to compete; from the looks of it, everybody under 30 competed, including all of the children, as well as those adults who were dominant in one sport or another.
In the waiting area for show jumping, Mina found herself in a group some of the kids from her class, Hiva, and, to her great chagrin, Ana.
“I thought you usually competed in spear throwing,” Mina said to her.
“Yeah, I compete in two events.” Ana tied up her hair and gave her a fake smile. “Spear throwing is after this, so I’m lined up here first.”
When she turned away, Mina clenched her fists. She had just managed to learn the moves that Hiva had demonstrated on Luta: front dive, backwards dive, a dive on her side, flip, and double flip. Now that she was up against Ana, she really wanted to win, but didn’t really have a plan.
Nervously she watched the first few events. Paul easily took the win in the high jump, as did Pekelo in the long jump. A few islanders she only knew in passing won the regular races, and she watched Maria line up to take her turn through in the ring race (Mina privately called this “the slalom”). They were timed individually for this event, and the winner wouldn’t be announced until the closing ceremony.
“Next will be show jumping. Will the contestants please line up here.” Halapua announced.
The kids from her class went first. Each one could successfully do the front dive, but had various levels of success at the other jumps. Halapua’s twin boys were the best their 8-year-old peers, doing fabulous back dives and flips.
Ana went next, surprising the judges and everyone in the audience by replacing the flip with a double flip, and the double flip with a triple flip.
Mina’s jaw dropped; she didn’t know how she could outdo that. Thankfully Hiva was called next and she had another few minutes to try and think of something. Hiva’s jumps were the same as she had performed on Luta, but they were more perfectly executed than Ana’s.
Halapua nodded to Mina and she took her place at the start.
As she prepared to begin, she suddenly thought back to her diving class. She had only done it for about a year before competitive swimming took over all her time, but she learned a couple things there that hopefully would translate nicely to her mermaid body.
She successfully completed her first few jumps, and then took a deep breath before attempting her unpracticed surprise move. Swimming forward, Mina abruptly flipped onto her back and propelled herself into the air, completing a double back flip. As she landed, she knew she had accomplished the move, but didn’t know how her form had been. If she succeeded, it would be a close call between her, Ana, and Hiva.
After her turn, Mina stayed to watch the spear throwing competition. Ana easily won by throwing her spear through all 15 rings placed at different distances and angles from the throwing box. Two other competitors each hit 14 of the 15 rings.
Mina swam toward the beach after the spear throwing, not really interested in watching the fishing competition, when Keoni passed her in the water.
“You’re not going to watch me fish?” he asked her earnestly.
“Oh! You’re in that?” she asked somewhat awkwardly.
“Yeah, I’m giving it a shot this year.”
“Sure, I’ll watch you,” she said, turning to following him back out, and wishing she had said something less stupid on the way.
Keoni was unfortunately not the best fisherman on Okawii when it came to fishing by hand. He caught 17 fish in the allotted time, which turned out to be just average, especially compared to the 32 caught by the winner.
After the fishing, all of the Okawiians in the water flopped out onto the shore, rolling around in the sand until they got their legs back. Then they once again lined up with their heels in the water.
The five clear winners took their places on the block, and everybody clapped for them.
Standing next to the winner’s stand, Halapua raised his hand and the island fell silent.
“The official times are in for the ring race.” Everybody looked at Eloni, heavily favored to win. “The fastest in the ring race this year is Maria, who completed the course in 1 minute, 44 seconds.”
Although this was clearly an upset, the Okawiians clapped and hollered for Maria just as they would have for Eloni. It seemed that unsportsmanlike conduct was either unknown or untolerated on Okawii. Mina smiled as she clapped, proud of her friend.
“We also have the results for the show jumping competition,” said Halapua.
One of the judges stepped forward and whispered something to Halapua, who nodded.
“This was difficult to evaluate, but our judges have decided to award first place to Ana for her perfectly executed triple flip.”
Mina applauded with the others and tried to smile as Ana took her place on the stand to receive her flower wreath for her second first-place finish. This outcome was, of course, to be expected. As a new person on the island, Mina hardly could have assumed she could beat the natives, and especially not ones as athletic as Ana. Still, the result was a letdown for Mina.
Halapua held his hand up once more for silence. “However, this year the judges have decided to send two jumpers to Lilo for the Mermaid Games. Also representing Okawii will be Mina, for a previously unseen jump: the double backflip, with the stipulation that she practice it and make it perfect for the Greater Mermaid Games.”
Everyone turned toward Mina clapping. Her eyes widened. No one had
told her anything about representing Okawii at some other Games. She was surprised and delighted that she had placed in a sport she had only just learned about a few weeks earlier. It would be a great honor to be able to represent Okawii, but she was worried that she would have to go home before the Mermaid Games would be held. Then Ana effectively would have won by getting to be the sole Okawiian representative in show jumping.
She looked over at her grandmother, who nodded and blinked both her eyes at her to show how proud she was. A quick thought popped into her head that she should ask her grandmother which events her mom had participated in.
Halapua nodded to her, “Go up.”
She looked at the winner’s block. The spaces for each winner were only about 2 feet by 2 feet. Ana had a foot in the last two spaces for the two events she had won. Mina, urged on by Halapua, climbed up into the last space. Any normal person occupying two spaces would have moved over, but Ana stubbornly refused to move her left leg. Finally Mina positioned herself awkwardly in front of Ana’s leg, at the front edge of the block. She smiled and resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
Chief Akolo stood from his chair. “Congratulations to our winners who will represent Okawii at the Greater Mermaid Games.”
The winners hopped off the block into the sand. Ana gave Mina the slightest shove off the front edge, and then jumped off next to her and ran over to hug Maria.
As Chief Akolo had requested, on Tuesday morning at dawn the six young fishermen gathered at the dock, gear in hand. It was a perfect morning. The Pacific was calm and a few lone clouds dotted the sky.
As the oldest of the group, Keoni took charge. “We won’t be able to talk to each other for a while, so listen up. We stay together in a tight pod the entire time. We’ll do the V formation. Filipe, you’re in front, Mina and Maria, you’re next, and Ana, Paul and I will be in the rear. It’s going to be a long swim, so we’re just going to go at a steady pace. Tonight we’ll rest at Tuka,” he turned to Mina and Maria, “It’s a small island about a day’s swim away. The tuna fishing waters aren’t far from there. Our goal is to bring home two or three large tuna alive. They will swim home with us in our large nets to be slaughtered immediately before the feast for maximum freshness. Any questions?”
Filipe stepped forward. “So I assume the spears and knives are for other dangers?” he asked tentatively.
“Yes, just for safety. They’re not to be used on the tuna. We’re not dragging dead or wounded tuna home. Plus, the trail of blood would draw the attention of sharks.”
Then Ana spoke up. “Just one last question. I don’t want to be a hater or anything, but are we sure that Mina has the swimming skills necessary for so long a journey?” She turned to Mina. “I mean, I know you’re good and all, but this is the big time, and someone not strong enough for the trip would just be a danger to the group.”
Mina blushed and started, “I, uh…”
“She will be just fine for the journey,” interrupted Keoni. “Chief Akolo and Halapua think her swimming is adequate, and that’s good enough for me. In case of extreme fatigue, for anyone,” he looked around at them, “There are a few uninhabited islands along the way we can rest at.”
Ana pouted and rolled her eyes.
Grateful that Keoni stood up for her, Mina was now more determined than ever to prove herself as a real Okawiian. She sent a sidelong look toward Ana, but Ana smirked and looked only at Keoni.
Mina took a deep breath to subdue her growing anger. She decided to take advantage of the fact that the others were there to say something to Ana about her behavior. Ana surely wouldn’t make a scene in front of Keoni.
Mina sidled up to her and whispered, “Hang on a sec.”
When the others had left to start wading into the ocean, she continued, “Enough already. Stop picking on me.”
Ana snorted. “You don’t belong here, and I can’t wait until you leave.” Then she turned her back on Mina and headed toward the water.
Filipe sent Mina a sympathetic look.
The first day of swimming was uneventful. They made it safely to Tuka, and Mina swam so well that after the first hour or so the others forgot that she wasn’t a native Okawiian.
That night, next to the fire, Keoni told them more about the next day. “So after we find the school of tuna, we’ll break into two groups of three. It’ll be me, Mina, and Maria in the first group, and Paul, Filipe, and Ana in the second.”
Mina saw Ana make a face in the firelight, obviously displeased that she wasn’t in Keoni’s group.
Keoni continued, “The way we usually do this is that two people with spears shepherd the tuna into a large net held by the third. Typically the strongest person holds the net—in my group it will be me, in the other group it will be Paul. The tuna we’re going after are not small creatures. Hopefully we’ll find bluefin tuna, which can get huge, but we’ll be going for ones between 1 and 2 yards long, and about four to five hundred pounds.”
“How the heck are we going to get 500 pound tuna to swim home with us in our nets?” asked Maria.
Paul answered this time. “Tomorrow, before we find the school, we’ll fish for a few smaller fish and squid, hold them live in our smaller nets, and when we catch the tuna, we put the smaller fish in the large nets with them. They to swim home with us in the nets without a problem if they have some food to keep them company along the way.”
“Plus, as you all know, we’re a lot bigger and stronger in our mermaid forms than as humans,” added Keoni. “The six of us should easily be able to handle 2 or 3 large tuna.”
“That’s a lot of fish,” said Mina. “Even at a large feast, all of the Okawiians couldn’t possible eat over 1000 pounds of fish.”
Ana snickered. “We preserve it for later,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Every family will get a good amount to smoke, and the island has a large supply of emergency food that is buried for dire emergencies,” said Keoni, smiling in an effort to not make Mina uncomfortable that she asked such an elementary question. A few hours swim from here are spawning grounds that they return to every year at about this time. If they’re not there yet, we’ll swim north from there and hopefully run into the school as they’re on their way south to that spot.”
The next day, having taken another dose of the White Coral and armed with small nets of fish and squid, the six Okawiian youth were about a half hour away from the tuna spawning grounds. Mina saw the reefs and realized they were near an island. She motioned to Keoni. He nodded and she heard his answer of ‘uninhabited’ in the muffled sounds of water-speak.
Filipe, who was again at the front of the pod, spotted the tuna first. It was just a small group of about 10 fish, but they were the right size that the mermaids were looking for. They broke into their groups, with Keoni, Maria, and Mina pursuing a fat, dark skinned tuna, and Paul, Ana, and Filipe going for a longer, bluish fish.
Paul quietly removed his large net from his satchel and parked himself about twenty meters away, while Filipe and Ana got their spears out and tried to direct the chosen fish toward him. Ana, being two years older than Filipe, was taller, and thus slightly bigger as a mermaid as well, so the tuna kept trying to escape on Filipe’s side. He guided it back toward Ana again and again, waving his arms in the water, but the tuna kept veering away from them.
Frustrated, Filipe finally prodded the fish a little too enthusiastically with his spear. A spot of blood appeared on the tuna that got larger and larger as more blood spilled out of the wound.
Paul saw the blood in the water, and dropped his head. This tuna was now no good for them. They couldn’t drag a bleeding tuna back 200 miles without attracting other unwanted predators. Paul’s group would have to go back to the group of tuna and start from scratch, that is, if they were still there. More likely, they would have to swim on toward the spawning grounds.
Meanwhile, Keoni, Mina, and Maria were successful in catching their tuna. Mina found it easier than Filipe to guide the tuna toward Keoni an
d his net. Once they got it to Keoni, Mina and Maria grabbed parts of the net to surround the fish while Keoni tied it off, throwing in a couple small fish for it for the time being. Not far off, Keoni caught sight of a large rock underwater, and he motioned to them to help him drag the tuna toward the rock. It was evident that he wanted to tie the net to the rock so they could go back and potentially catch a third fish.
Just as Keoni was tying the net to the boulder, they heard Paul’s muffled shout. Looking over, they saw the blood in the water and realized that this fishing trip wasn’t going to go as planned.
Keoni swam toward Paul’s group to help get them out of the situation if need be, and Maria and Mina, not understanding the significance of what was going on, followed.
On Keoni’s signal, all six mermaids again got into their pod formation as they swam back toward the caught tuna in order to drag it away from the bloody scene, but it was too late. A pair of tiger sharks had smelled the blood and were approaching the area. Mina heard them tear the wounded tuna to pieces and threw up a little bit in her mouth. The small school of tuna had long dispersed, and although the pod of mermaids was swimming away as fast as possible, the sharks, egged on by the taste of the tuna, spotted them as their next prey.
The tiger sharks were gaining on the mermaids. Keoni thought fast, and looked around for any available options. He finally spotted a small opening in the ground ahead that the mermaids could fit into and the sharks could not. Maria, Paul, and Ana, as more experienced mermaids, were doing the same scanning as Keoni and also spotted the hole and quickly swam down into it. The sharks noticed them break away from the pod and chased them down, but they were able to escape into the cave just in time.
Filipe and Mina were too busy trying to outswim the sharks to think about looking for places to hide. Mina’s heart was pounding and her tail was moving faster than it ever had. She and Filipe split up, and so did the sharks. Now both had one shark behind them, eager for the taste of their blood.
Keoni tried to point out the cave to them, but they weren’t paying attention. Out of habit he swam down after the others while the sharks swam over his head after the two they had deemed lesser swimmers. Right before he got to the cave, his sense of duty kicked in and he refused to leave the other two to their fates. Propelled by adrenaline, he swam upward and was able to spear the shark chasing Filipe just in time to save him.