big fish, small fish
Zefelino's father never wears swimsuit . He always wore trousers with rolled legs, a short-sleeved shirt, and a hat with white fabric, and never left the reef group. His hobby is cape , the flat, sticky mollusk , whose hard scale and stone are almost integrated. To take them down, Zefelino's father had to use his knife, and every Sunday he looked at every stone on the headland with his glasses. He could continue like this until his small basket was filled with caps; some of them were eaten as soon as they were picked, and he sucked the moist and sour meat of caps, as if they were sucked out of a spoon; and he put the other caps into the basket. He raised his eyes from time to time, turned his somewhat blank eyes to the smooth sea, shouting, "Zefellino! Where are you?"
Zefellino stayed in the water all afternoon. The two of them came to the cape together, and then their father threw him there and hurried to follow his cape. The captain is so firm and stubborn that it is impossible to attract Zefelino's attention; first of all, the crabs, then the octopus, then the jellyfish , and then all kinds of fish. Since the beginning of summer, his hunting has become more and more complicated and clever: now, there is no young man as big as him and can drive a hunting gun as good as him with an underwater hunting rifle. Those with better underwater skills are the short and fat guys, with good endurance and sufficient muscles; Zefelino is growing like this. On the ground, he held his father's hand like that, and looked like a young man with a shaved head, a big mouth, and someone who needed someone to pat his head to move forward. On the water, he was better than anyone else; he was even more powerful underwater.
That day, Zefelino prepared all the equipment for underwater hunting. He had the diving mask last year, which was his grandmother's gift; a cousin had a small foot, so he lent his flippers to him; he took the shotgun from his uncle's house, and he didn't say anything when he took it, but told his father that they lent him. Besides, he is a careful child. He is good at playing guns and is considerate in dealing with things. Everyone feels relieved to lend him things.
The sea is beautiful and clear. Zefelino said to all the instructions, "Okay, dad," and then went into the water. He was pressing against the glass face covering with the snorkel, kicking his legs like a psces tail, and was also fucking the tools that looked like both spears, rifles, and harpoons in his hands, no longer looked like humans. However, as soon as he climbed the sea, although he was half buried in the water, he could quickly recognize that it was him: from the way he clamped his flippers, from the way he held his gun in his armpits, from the momentum he was moving forward on the water.
The seabed was initially sand and then stones. Some stones were eroded on the surface and were bare, while others were covered with dense brown kelp like beards. In every crevicle of the reef, or between the trembling fibrous roots soaring in the water, a big fish could suddenly appear. Behind the glass mask, Zefelino rolled his uneasy eyes with all his concentration.
When you first discover the seabed, you will think it is beautiful: but just like every other thing, the most beautiful thing is still behind, you have to use the strokes again and again to fully understand it. It's like drinking these underwater scenery: go, you will never be able to go. The mask's glass is a huge single eye that devours these shadows and colors. Now that the darkness is over, he is far away from the reef; on the sand on the seabed, the thin ripples outlined by the flow of sea water can be identified. The sun's light reached the bottom, swaying and flashing, and groups of bait-chasing fish flashed continuously: the extremely small group of fish were moving straight, and then suddenly made a right-angle turn.
Suddenly a cloud of sand rose, and it was a golden snapper on the bottom of the sea and patted her tail. It did not find that it had aimed at that harpoon.Zefelino was already snorking; while the golden snapper, the sides with lines were swinging casually for a few times, jumped away and rushed to the water. The fish and the fisherman swam all the way to a small bay, surrounded by reefs with thorny sea urchins, and the stones there were porous and bare. "Here it can't escape," thought Zefelino; at that moment, the golden snapper disappeared. A bunch of small bubbles emerged from some caves and grooves, and then it stopped quickly, and then bubbled up again in another place; anemone kept glowing. The golden snapper poked out from the mouth of one hole, then disappeared into another cave, and soon came out of a hole that was extremely far away. It swam down the bottom along a mountain-like reef, and Zefelino saw a place on the bottom of the sea that was shiny green. The fish lost its direction in that light, and Zefelino swam immediately after it.
passed through a low arch hole at the foot of a rock, and above it was the high depth of water and sky. The shadow of light-colored stones surrounds the seabed and falls deeper on a half-soaked reef in the water. Zefelino thrust his waist and kicked his flippers, ready to float to the water to change his breath. The trachea was exposed, and he blew out a few drops of water that had penetrated into the mask, but the young man's head was still buried in the water. He found the golden snapper again; even: two! At the same time, he saw a whole team of golden snappers swimming peacefully on his left, while another group shining on the right. The fish in this place are extremely rich, and they are almost enclosed. No matter what direction Zefelino looks at, he can always touch the flashing slender fins and dazzling scales, so that he was so shocked and ecstatic that he could not shoot out a single shot.
You should not be anxious at this time. You should study the best attack, and at the same time you should be careful not to spread your fear. Zefelino's head was still buried under the water, swimming to the nearest reef; in the water, along the rock wall, he saw a white hand hanging there. The sea is still; on the tight and clear sea surface, there are circles of concentric circles spreading, like a drop of raindrops falling down. The young man looked up. An obese woman leaning over the edge of the reef, wearing a swimsuit, is basking in the sun. She was crying. Tears slid down from their cheeks and fell into the sea.
Zefelino lifted the mask on his forehead and said, "I'm sorry."
The fat woman said, "Look at what you said, boy," and continued to cry. "You catch your fish."
"This place is full of fish," he explained. "Did you see how many fish are there?"
The fat woman's face comforted her a little, and she looked straight ahead with tears in her eyes. "I really didn't see it. What should I do? I can't help but want to cry."
Zefelino is the most capable when talking about the sea and the fish; however, when he touches people, he looks as if he is speechless. "I'm sorry, madam..." So I wanted to go back to his golden snapper, but a fat woman who was crying was such a rare sight that made him look at her intriguedly.
"I'm not a lady, young man," said the fat woman, her noble voice with a slight nasal sound. "You should call me Miss. Miss de Maggistris. What's your name?"
"Zefelino."
"Good boy, Zefelino. How are you fishing? Or how are you hunting? How are you talking about it?"
"I don't know what to say. I haven't caught anything yet. But this is a good place."
"But be careful when you take that hunting rifle. Not that you should be careful when you hold that gun. What can I do if I am a poor person? I mean you, be careful not to hurt yourself."
Zefelino promised her that she told her not to worry. Then he sat down next to her on the rock, and watched her cry for a while. It seemed that for a few moments, she paused for a moment, sucked her breath with her red nose, raised her head, and shook it. At the same time, there seemed to be another burst of tears at the corners of the eyes and under the eyelids, and then it soon overflowed from the eyes.
Zefelino didn't know what to think. It was a heartbreaking thing to watch a lady crying.But how can you feel sad when facing such a sea paddock filled with all kinds of fish? I should be full of excitement and thoughts in my heart. Jump into the green pool and following the fish, how could you lean against an adult who was crying with tears? At the same moment, in the same place, there are two kinds of tortures that are so opposite and incoordinated at the same time. Zefelino could not consider these two things at the same time; but he could not let any of the torture go away.
"Miss," he asked.
"You said."
"Why are you crying?"
"Because I'm very unfortunate in love."
"Ah!"
"You can't understand, you are still a child."
"Do you want to swim with a mask?"
"Thank you, I'm happy. Is it interesting?"
"This is the most interesting thing in the world."
Miss de Maggistris stood up and clasped the strap of the swimsuit on her back.
Zefelino gave her the mask and explained clearly how to wear it. She shook her head half-joking and half-shy, putting her mask on her face, but against the light, she could still see her eyes crying continuously. She went down the sea with a not-very elegant movement, like a seal, flew face down.
Zefelino also jumped into the water and swam.
"If you see any fish, please tell me." He shouted to De Maggistris. He is not a joke in the water; he rarely gives the privilege of fishing with him.
But the lady raised her head and made a gesture that was not good. The glass became hazy and the outline on her face could not be seen clearly. She took off her mask. "I can't see anything," she said, "the tears blurred the glass. I can't. I'm so sorry." Then she stayed there, crying, in the water.
"It's awful," Zefelino said. He didn't even have half a piece of potato that could wipe the glass clean (the Italians have the habit of using potatoes to wipe glass), but he took some saliva and put on a mask again. "Look at how I did it," he said to the fat man. They swam forward together in the sea. He relied on his flippers and his head was buried under the water. She was scratching her sideways, one arm spreading and the other bent, and her head was thrusting in pain, looking extremely sad.
Miss de Maggistris swam badly, her whole body was sideways, and she rushed forward clumsyly with each stroke of her arm. Below her, fish were running in the sea, starfish and squid swam freely, and anemones were opening their mouths. In front of Zefelino, what is ushered in is a dazzling scenery. The water is very high, and the sandy seabed is covered with small pieces of reefs. Between the reefs are strands of kelp that ripples when the sea water surges. But looking down there, on a large area of even-textured sand, it was like a reef waving in the still water covered with kelp.
Suddenly, Miss de Maggistris saw him disappearing head down, but his hips were exposed for a moment, then his flippers, and then his faint shadows that were potentially underwater, slowly descending to the bottom of the sea. It was too late when the wolf perch discovered danger: the thrown harpoon had hit it obliquely, and the fork in the middle of the harpoon poked its tail, penetrated from one side of the fish, and then came out from the other side. The wolf bass raised its spiny fins, puffed the water, and broke out suddenly. The other forks of the harpoon did not poke it. It risked its tail to lose, and it also hoped to escape. But what it got was that another fork of the harpoon was stabbed into the fin, and it was finished. The barrel had retracted its line, and above the fish was Zefelino's satisfied pink shadow.
The harpoon that pierced the wolf perch came out of the water, followed by the young man's arm, then the head wearing a mask, and the blisters gurgling out of the snorkel. Zefelino showed his face: "See? How beautiful this is! Miss, have you seen it?" This is a thick wolf perch with silver and black. But the woman was still crying.
Zefelino climbed up the corner of a rock; Miss de Maggistris followed him with great difficulty. In order to put the fish in a cool place, the young man chose a small groove full of water. They squatted beside them. Zefelino stared at the glittering color of the wolf perch, stroked its scales, trying to make Miss de Maggistris do as he did.
"Do you see how beautiful it is? Do you see how it poked people?" When he felt that the fat woman was frustrated, he was gradually expanding his interest in the fish, and he said, "I'll check if I can get another one up," and after that, he was fully armed and jumped into the water.
The woman stayed with the fish. She realized that there was no more unfortunate fish than this one. She stroked her fingers through its circular mouth, gills, and tail; then she saw that thousands of small holes were opened in its beautiful silver figure. The water flea and miniature parasites on the wolf perch have been in charge for a long time, and are still gnawing on its flesh to open the way for itself.
Zefelino didn't care about these things, he had surfaced again, with a golden shadow poking on the harpoon, and he reached it in front of Miss de Maggistris. So the two divided the work: the woman took the fish off the harpoon and placed them in the groove on the shade; Zefelino then sank his head into the water and caught another fish. But before he went into the water, he always had to see if Miss de Maggistris had stopped crying: if she had not stopped crying and looked at the wolf perch, this small shadow, what else could comfort her?
The golden stripes cross the sides of the small shadow. The two fins on its back lined up. Between these fins, the lady saw a thin and deep wound, which was older than the hole pierced by the harpoon. It should be . The seagull was pecking the fish's back with great force. What people don't understand is how that bite didn't kill it. Who knows how long the small shadow has been carrying this pain.
Even faster than Zefelino's harpoon was a snapper, which was on the tiny and uncertain group of black bars, ready to attack. The snapper swallowed a black bartender in time, but the harpoon poked into its throat at the same time. Zefelino has never caught a fish so well.
"This snapper is amazing!" he shouted and took off his mask. "I turned out to be behind the black bar, and the snapper ate a black bar, and I..." He explained the scene at that time, stammering his excitement. A fat and beautiful fish is usually hard to hunt: Zefelino wants Miss de Maggistris to eventually participate in his joy. And she looked at the thick silver body, the throat of a small blue fish that had just swallowed into the throat, but this time the fish was torn to pieces by the harpoon's fork teeth: This is the life of the entire ocean.
Zefelino caught another gray rockfish, a red rockfish, a golden snapper with yellow stripes, a chubby black-cheeked fish, and a flat sprig-fin fish; and even a leopard bream with moustache and prickly zaozi. But among all the fish, except for the wounds poked by the harpoon, Miss de Maggistris also found bites that the water fleas had gnawed on the fish, a spot of an unknown parasite, or a hook that had been pierced into the throat for a long time. The bay discovered by the young man, the place where various fish dated, perhaps an animal shelter sentenced to long-term near-death crimes, a marine infectious disease hospital, and an arena for fighting for the death.
Now Zefelino is busy with his reefs: Octopus! He discovered the community hiding at the foot of a large rock. A fat purple octopus had appeared on the harpoon, and a liquid similar to diluted ink was oozing from its wounds; a strange sense of uneasiness caught Miss de Maggistris. To place the octopus, they found another groove from a distance, and Zefelino would never leave it again, admiring the gradient gray and pink skin.It was a little late, and the young man had goose bumps on his body. Anyway, he had been swimming in the sea for a long time. But Zefelino was still not sure whether he wanted to give up the entire octopus he just found.
Miss is observing the octopus, looking at its slippery body, its suction cup-shaped mouth, and its slightly reddish, almost liquid-shaped eyes. This is the octopus, the only guy who made her feel neither scar nor pain in the arrested thing. Its tentacles are as flesh-red as humans, so soft and winding. The tentacles are covered with hidden armpits, which arouses people's thoughts about health and life. A few tired convulsions make the tentacles turn left and right, and the suction cups on the tentacles also expand slightly. Miss de Maggistris's hand was hanging in the air, making the octopus caressing, and her fingers imitated the octopus' twitching movements, and getting closer and closer, almost touching it.
Night has fallen and waves have begun on the sea. The octopus' tentacles trembled in the wind, like a whip, and suddenly used all his strength to grab Miss de Maggistris' arm. She stood on a reef, as if she wanted to escape her imprisoned arm, and threw a scream similar to "Octopus! The octopus hurts me!"
Zefelino, as soon as he drove a squid out, his head was exposed to the water, and he saw the fat woman's arm lying on her arm, and it was stretching one of its tentacles to her throat. He also heard the string of screaming tail sounds, which was a high and continuous wail, but a wailing that - at least that's what the young man felt - no longer crying.
A man with a knife ran over and kicked the mollusk's eye: he simply cut off its head. That was Zefelino's father. After he filled the basket of hats, he came to the reef group to find his son. He heard the shout, and gathered his glasses' gaze and saw the woman, so he ran to help her with the blade he used to remove the hat. The tentacles soon collapsed; Miss de Maggistris fainted.
When she woke up, she saw that the octopus was cut into several pieces. Zefelino and his father gave her the octopus to fry. It was evening and Zefelino put on his shirt. The father used precise gestures to show her how to make a delicious octopus plate. Zefelino looked at her, and there were a few times when he thought she was about to cry again; however, she didn't she shed a single tear.
