The Extinct

CHAPTER
30

After he’d visited his room and brushed his teeth, which he hadn’t done in almost twenty hours, Eric took to walking the streets. The roads were well paved but the sidewalks were uneven and parts were made of cobblestones which, though charming, hurt his feet and ankles. The smells of the city were amazing. A mix of Hindu spices from the open markets, sweet vegetables broiling over spits, honey-tea coming from the tea houses, and the salt of the ocean air.

There was a cafe not more than a block from the hotel and Eric sat on the patio in a metal chair and ordered a coffee from a slim woman with caramel skin. It was brought back with sugar, some milk, and a little powdery chocolate on a separate dish. As he drank, he watched the hordes of people moving through the street. It was as packed as Bangkok, but the people here didn’t have a sense of urgency. There were no honking car horns or angry shouting.

Many of the people had hard faces, faces that had seen much of life. But there was little sadness in them. They had a fortitude that prevented sadness. Or maybe they were so busy surviving they just didn’t have time for such a wasteful emotion?

Though the heat was boiling many of the women wore the traditional Hindu headscarves but weren’t sweating. It appeared they were working just as hard as the men, selling handmade items or carrying large jugs of water or food from here to there. In some ways they worked harder than the men because most of them had children by their sides. Some of them smiled and nodded hello to Eric, but most ignored him. He got the feeling that there was an implicit agreement between the street hawkers and the restaurants that they would not hassle the customers while they were eating.

Eric stayed at the cafe well into the afternoon, ordering a dish of lamb with yogurt sauce for dinner. The people were friendly and he’d struck up a conversation with some Australian tourists that sat at the table next to him. They informed him that the lamb was actually made from a vegetarian paste. There were apparently only a handful of places in the city one could get fresh cooked meat.

As the sun began its descent and the sky went pink and gold, Jalani came to the cafe and sat next to him. She had a glimmer in her eyes that Eric hadn’t seen in Bangkok. He had a sense that it was brought about from the feeling that one is where one belongs. “I have a special treat for you now,” she said. “Oh yeah? What?” “It is a surprise. Come, I will show you.”

They left the cafe and made their way down a winding street, past hawkers of jewelry and gold and trinkets that crowded around Eric, trying to sell him wooden key rings and wallets and handmade flutes.

“Mahogany!” one of the merchants yelled as he held a flute in Eric’s face.

Jalani said, “It is not mahogany, it is painted.”

They walked down a few more blocks and took a right turn through a long alleyway between two old apartment buildings. A jeep was waiting for them and they climbed in and drove the two miles to the beach. Jalani gave him a bathing suit she had with her and they both changed in the bathrooms. When they emerged they were near a golden sand beach. There was a wooden pier jutting out into the sea and Jalani headed for it, not waiting for Eric. As they approached Eric could see a canoe lashed to the pier. There were two oars and some chains next to a cooler inside the canoe.

The water was stilling for the coming evening. The sunlight reflected off of it a bright orange as they walked to the end of the pier and Jalani motioned for Eric to climb into the canoe.

“Where we going?” Eric said.

“It is a surprise. But I promise, you will enjoy it.”

Eric climbed in and sat in the back as Jalani took the front. She grabbed an oar and unlashed from the pier before beginning to paddle out into the vast expanse of water. Eric took the other oar and tried to keep rhythm but found Jalani was paddling too fast and gave up the effort. For such a small frame she was incredibly strong.

When they were a few hundred yards from shore, Jalani stopped paddling and looked around at the murky water. Her eyes were slits and her brow furrowed from concentration as she stared into the depths, though Eric couldn’t see more than a few feet below the surface. Jalani opened the cooler. There was a fat chicken inside, its feathers plucked and its head cut off. She stabbed a large iron hook through it and attached the hook to a thin chain. She then tied the chain to the front of the canoe and threw the chicken overboard. Eric was about to say something but Jalani stopped him with a motion of her hand and they sat in silence nearly ten minutes.

Finally, a streak of gray breaking through the surface a dozen feet from the boat; the dorsal fin of a shark. It was swimming in a wide arch around the boat, the peak of its tailfin sticking out of the water about four feet behind its dorsal fin.

“Holy shit,” Eric said.

“Take the ropes.”

Eric looked down and saw two ropes wound in tight circles attached to the canoe with bolts. He grabbed them and held on. “What are we-”

“Keep quiet!”

The shark appeared colossal since only a flimsy piece of wood was separating Eric from him. There was splashing behind them and Eric turned to see another shark approaching, its skin gray-brown in the sunlight. It swam near the chicken and Jalani pulled up on the chain and hauled the chicken back in the canoe until the shark swam around to the other side. “Jalani, what the hell are we doing?” “He wasn’t big enough.” “Big enough for what?”

There was more splashing and more fins, about five of them. They were circling the canoe and taking small bites in the cloud of blood the chicken carcass gave off. But every time one of them would come in to feed, Jalani would pull the carcass back onto the canoe.

Suddenly there was a commotion as the sharks banked away from the canoe, swimming into the depths. The water began to still and the ocean went silent. Eric glanced around. Even the smaller fish that had come by earlier to have a look at the carcass had vanished. There was nothing.

“The ocean has grown still,” Jalani said.

Eric had gone from nervousness to fear and was gripping the ropes so tightly it hurt his hands. As he let go to examine them the canoe lurched forward, throwing him back and nearly over the side. Jalani reached out and grabbed his shirt collar, bringing him into place.

The canoe stopped moving. The only sound now was Eric’s heavy breathing. Before he could say anything the canoe jerked forward and then tilted to the side, nearly submerging the two of them. Jalani was squealing with delight, laughing as the water splashed onto her face. Eric thought she sounded insane.

The canoe was spinning slowly now; whatever was underneath was circling. It began heading out farther into sea, pulling them along.

“Unhook the fucking line!” Eric shouted.

Jalani grabbed an oar and began paddling backward.

The pulling motion of the canoe slowed and then stopped. Eric could see a large mass coming up from the water. The water was parting as the creature made its way to the surface just off the port side of the canoe. He noticed the dorsal fin first, about two feet high and silver gray. The tail. Then the monstrous head with pitch-black eyes and jagged white teeth. It was a great white shark.

The shark was circling them, the hook jutting through the flesh of its mouth. It was at least as large as the canoe, about twelve feet, and Eric got the impression that the canoe would crumble if it decided to attack.

The enormous fish swam slowly, the circles gradually decreasing as it approached the canoe. It was tilted slightly to the side and its black eye was kept steady, staring. Finally the shark passed only a few feet away and Eric saw its terrible mouth as it opened, taking in the residual blood in the water. When it was near enough, to Eric’s shock, Jalani slammed the oar into the shark’s snout.

The pain made the shark thrash violently from side-to-side and then shoot away. The canoe followed as Jalani laughed. The shark was in a frenzy now. It was lashing its powerful body left and right and the canoe was being thrown one way and then the other as if caught in a storm.

The shark dove. The canoe followed, its front end completely submerging as it was being pulled down. It started going vertical and Jalani unhooked the chain, the canoe slapping back horizontally on the water.

Jalani looked back to Eric with a big smile, water dripping from her soaking hair into her eyes. Silently, she picked up an oar and began paddling back to the pier.