The Shark Story pt1 (469 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 1.33 on 3 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Hexidecimal (View user info) at 2005-10-20 13:27:41 EDT
When I was seven years old me and my family moved to Hawaii, specifically the island of Oahu. My dad was in the navy and he traded places with a friend of his who wanted to be stationed closer to the rest of his family in Virginia, where we were. So off we went to the land of grass skirts and luaus.
We lived on a military housing area just across the way from Pearl Harbor, my dad took a ferry there for work. This area did not resemble the Hawaii you saw in movies aside from the palm trees. There were weeds all over the place and instead of grass there were these little sticker things that made it a hazard to walk in your own yard barefoot.
Every family in the housing area had children so there wasn't a shortage of kids to meet or do the many activities. There was a quarter pipe to skateboard down or ride a bike up, a community center with a pool table and videogames to play and a lagoon to fish in. A lagoon with sharks in it, among other things.
The day had started like any of the many others I had gone to the lagoon to fish. I woke up, had breakfast, gathered my tackle box and fishing rod, and hopped on my bike and headed to the lagoon. I said hi to the people I passed that I knew and just waved to the ones I didn't. Covering the mile or so it was to the lagoon in good time.
The lagoon itself was actually 2 lagoons, separated by a road on a solid bridge with a 6ft chain link fence on both sides of the road. The fence on both sides was supposed to keep kids out of the water, but since shark sightings were so rare they never bothered to fix the holes some long gone group of kids had made. This was our fishing spot and it kept us out of trouble.
I arrived at the lagoon and I was not surprised to see that no one was there, most of the other kids didn't show up till after lunchtime and by 3 o'clock it could be damn near crowded. I liked to get there early for some quiet time alone and then meet up with the others later. So I hopped off my bike, fixed my line and headed around the fence for my first cast of the day.
Then I saw it.
In the water was a homemade raft constructed from those large blue plastic drums and a couple beer kegs, with planks on the top forming a platform. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. But it was more than just cool looking. Because the area where everyone would stand to fish was hardly wider than a street curb I realized I could stand or sit on this raft to fish.
The raft was tied to the fence by a very worn piece of rope and floating at the end of its length about 10 feet away from the edge of the road/bridge thing. I grabbed the rope and pulled the raft over to where I was and sat my pole down on it. Then, while still holding the rope at about 1 foot from the fence, I half knelt down and reached my foot onto the raft. The raft held still enough that I went ahead and pivoted my body so I was facing the fence and put my other foot down on the raft. Now that I had both feet down on the raft I went ahead and let go of the rope.
And I slipped.
Now I was in the water.
User Reviews
Submitted by Darshiscool (user info) at 2005-10-21 01:15:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
cool
Submitted by GDR (user info) at 2005-10-20 15:11:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Good story, though kind of predictable, good job neverless.
Submitted by WildcatMcGee (user info) at 2005-10-20 14:05:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Short and sweet: a good thing. There was no real crescendo drawing up to the 'to be continued' portion. Without one it was a little dissapointing.
An entertaining read but a let down at the end. Keep going.