Saburou sat in Jirou’s room. It was bare and quiet. He could hardly hear the ocean waves from here. Above the sunken irori fireplace on the floor there still was a kettle hung, waiting to be heated. He looked up at the corner of the ceiling from where a ray of sunlight was seeping in. Below that, on the floor, there was a puddle.
“I keep forgetting to fix this damn hole and the rain gets in from here every time!” Saburou remembered Jirou complaining at the hole that he finally never got to fix although he had had plenty of planks propped up against the wall beside half a dozen bamboo fishing rods. The biggest fishing rod among them had a glossy lacquer finish. Jirou must have gotten it from the city, Saburou wondered.
Jirou would always sing a little rhyme while he would fish. It was a rhyme they had all learnt from Tou-jii as kids so Saburou was also familiar. He struggled to remember the words and his throat was still sore from the incident that happened a day ago. Either way, he tried to sing it to himself in a low voice:
“The secrets of the ocean blue
Tell me li’l fish, I wish I knew,
Scampering went the tiny crab,
Mindful of the old seagull’s jab.
Flight of the flying fish in the air, — ”
Suddenly another voice joined in:
“Splash went the mackerel over there.” Saburou spun his head around to find Jirou standing by the door. His eyes widened, “Jirou?” He asked.
“Sampē,” the owner of the voice corrected. Saburou rubbed his eyes and looked again. The person standing there was indeed not Jirou but his son who looked like a younger version of his father.
“Oh it’s you,” Saburou said standing up, “where were you? I entered the house as I didn’t find anyone although the door was open.” He asked although the answer was obvious from the fishing rod and a pail full of sea breams and horse mackerels.
“Saburou! I am coming with you!” The boy exclaimed as though the question was never asked, “aren’t you going to find my dad in the Ryūgū ?”
“No!” Saburou’s voice came out louder than he expected but not enough to stop the kid.
“Why not? Do you think I’m a weekling? That I don’t know how to navigate the sea?” The boy pressed so much that he didn’t let Saburou speak.
“You aren’t going anywhere, Sampe! Your father has already lost his life at sea and I have not been able to take care of him, I will not be able to look after a child on the boat!” Saburou snapped.
Suddenly a seagull broke into the house. It was getting chased by four eagles and had taken refuge into a space it thought the eagles wouldn’t come in. With excessive speed, it banged against the confined walls of the small hut.The eagles lost track of the foe and flew away. Making a magnificent U-turn, the intruder came flying towards Saburou with its claws wide open. Saburou ducked. The seagull went for its second chance and pecked at the poor man’s hair. Saburou tried to ward off the bird with his arms in vain and ran out of the house.
“Damned bird!” Saburou said under his breath when he had at last managed to shoo away the bird.The seabreeze had started to get stronger and it blew Saburou’s already dishevelled hair in every direction. Although he knew it would get dark soon, he plopped himself on one of the boulders of the rocky beach. He pursed his lips and heard himself breathe hard through his nose. He needed some time to calm down, some time alone to figure out how he would go to the Ryūgū. His eyes were in the direction of the horizon but weren’t really looking at it.
The incident of the storm and the oarfish that had disintegrated into millions of other fish replayed in his memory. He thought about Jirou’s advice to leave the net and go. His eyes teared up and he bit his lips trying to stop his mouth from making a grimace. He thought about the alternate future where he hadn’t pulled the oarfish out of the water and had saved his friend instead.
Two crabs came out from under the boulder he was sitting on and scuttled into the sea. He wiped his tears off. So unlike me, he thought. He put his head in his hands and tried to think hard but his head was filled with the images of his friend’s boat, the storm and the giant messenger. He got up and kicked the sand up in anger but realized that he disturbed a number of crabs that had come up to the shore. The crabs retreated radially away from Saburou.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to disturb you all,” Saburou apologized to the crabs. The tide had risen as it had gotten darker and there were quite a few crabs that had come out on the shore now. And they kept increasing. A moment ago, he hadn’t noticed but soon their scuttling began ringing in his years. Saburou found it strange as these crabs don’t aggregate in this manner unless they were molting and protecting themselves but the shore around him was filled with the maroon crustaceans. Apart from the shuffling sound of the crabs on the rocks and sand, Saburou thought he heard something, or someone, rather. He felt a shudder when he didn’t find anyone. He snickered at himself. No way, he thought.
The wind in his hair and around his ears started to bother him as he felt chilly. He figured it would be better to return home so he turned to go but he heard it again, a voice, no, — two, or was it a million? Saburou refused to believe it and was determined to walk ahead but he couldn’t speed up with the multitude of crabs at his feet. They were clambering at his feet as though he was just another obstacle on their way.
“Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle,” the millions of hurried steps went but Saburou seemed to be hearing something more. He stopped on his tracks and stuffed his fingers into his ears but he still heard them, — voices that chanted, “ehhossa! Ehhossa!”
The crabs began gathering, clambering, clustering and heaping up on each other in a rhythmic parade. Saburou didn’t know what they were up to but he tried hard to listen to the mumbling he heard merely out of curiosity, even though he had blocked his ears.
“Ehhossa!
Ehhossa!
To work we go, the mitten crabs,
Ehhossa!
No doubt, if Lord Ryūjin bids us,
Ehhossa!
Find young Saburou on the shore
And have a word or two,
To work we go, the mitten crabs,
Ehhossa!”
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