His father arrived in a white Cadillac at 7:05, and Colin was waiting for him at the curb in front of the house.
The old man slapped him on the shoulder and said, “How ya doin‘, Junior?”
“Okay,” Colin said.
“Ready to catch some big ones?”
“I guess.”
“They’re going to be biting today.”
“They are?”
“That’s the word.”
“From who?”
“From those who know.”
“The fish?”
His father glanced at him. “What?”
“Who are those who know?”
“Charlie and Irv.”
“Who’re they?”
“The guys who run the charter service.”
“Oh.”
Sometimes Colin had difficulty believing that Frank Jacobs was really his father. They were not at all alike. Frank was a big, rangy, rugged man, six-foot-two, a hundred and eighty pounds, with long arms and large, leathery hands. He was an excellent fisherman, a hunter with many trophies, and a highly skilled archer. He was a poker player, a partygoer, a hard drinker but not a drunk, an extrovert, a man’s man. Colin admired some of his father’s qualities; however, there was a great deal that he merely tolerated, and a few things that aroused anger, fear, and even hatred. For one thing, Frank routinely refused to admit to his mistakes, even when proof of them was before his eyes. On those rare occasions when he realized he could not avoid an owning up, he sulked like a spoiled child, as if it were grossly unfair for him to be held responsible for the results of his own errors. He never read books or any magazines other than those published for sportsmen, yet he had an unshakable opinion about everything from the Arab-Israeli situation to the American ballet; and he stubbornly, vociferously defended his uninformed views without ever realizing that he was making a fool of himself. Worst of all, he lost his temper at the slightest provocation but regained his composure only with enormous effort. When he was very angry he behaved like a raging madman: shouting paranoid accusations, screaming, punching, breaking things. He had been in more than a few fist fights. And he was a wife beater.
He also drove too fast and recklessly. During the forty-minute ride south to Ventura, Colin sat straight and stiff, hands fisted at his sides, afraid to look at the road but also afraid not to look. He was amazed when they made it to the marina alive.
The boat was the Erica Lynn. She was large and white and well maintained, but there was an unpleasant odor about her that only Colin seemed to notice-a blend of gasoline fumes and the stench of dead fish.
The charter group was composed of Colin, his father, and nine of his father’s friends. They were all tall, tan, rugged-looking men, just as Frank was, with names like Jack and Rex and Pete and Mike.
As the Erica Lynn cast off, maneuvered out of the harbor, and motored toward the open sea, a breakfast of sorts was served on the deck aft of the pilot’s cabin. They had several thermos bottles filled with bloody marys, two kinds of smoked fish, chopped green onions, slices of melon, and soft rolls.
Colin ate nothing because, as usual, mild seasickness took hold of him the moment the boat moved away from the dock. From experience he knew that he would be all right in an hour or so, but until he got his sea legs, he wasn’t taking any chances with food. He even regretted having eaten the two cookies and orange juice, although that had been an hour ago.
At noon the men ate sausage and chugged beer. Colin nibbled at a roll, drank a Pepsi, and tried to stay out of everyone’s way.
By then it was clear to all of them that Charlie and Irv had been wrong. The fish were not biting.
They had begun the day in pursuit of shallow-water game only a couple of miles from shore, but the shoals had seemed deserted, as if every aquatic citizen in the neighborhood had gone away on vacation. At ten-thirty they had moved farther out, into deeper water, where they rigged for bigger game. But the fish were having none of it.
The combination of high energy, boredom, frustration, and too much liquor created an explosive mood. Colin sensed trouble coming long before the men decided to play their dangerous, violent, and bloody games.
After lunch they trolled in a zigzag pattern-northwest, south, northwest, south-starting ten miles off shore, moving steadily farther out. They cursed the fish that weren’t there and the heat that was. They stripped out of their shirts and trousers, put on swimsuits they’d brought along; the sun darkened their already brown bodies. They told dirty jokes and talked about women as if they were discussing the relative merits of sports cars. Gradually they began to spend more time drinking than watching their lines, chasing shots of whiskey with cold cans of Coors.
The cobalt-blue ocean was unusually calm. The swells seemed to have been tamed with oil; they rolled smoothly, almost sluggishly, beneath the Erica Lynn.
The boat’s engine produced a monotonous noise-chuga-chuga-chuga-chuga-chuga-that you could eventually feel as well as hear.
The cloudless summer sky was as blue as a gas flame.
Whiskey and beer. Whiskey and beer.
Colin smiled a lot, spoke when spoken to, but mostly just tried to be invisible.
At five o‘clock the sharks showed up, and the day got ugly after that.
Ten minutes earlier, Irv had started chumming again, dumping bucketsful of stinking, chopped bait into their wake, trying to attract big fish. He had done the same thing half a dozen times before, always without effect; but even under the gimlet-eyed stares of his disillusioned clients, he continued to express confidence in his methods.
Charlie was the first to spot the action from his place on the bridge. He called to them through the loudspeaker: “Sharks off the stem, gentlemen. Approximately one hundred and fifty yards.”
The men crowded along the railing. Colin found a spot between his father and Mike, wedged himself into it.
“One hundred yards out,” Charlie said.
Colin squinted, concentrated hard on the fluid landscape, but he could not find the sharks. The sun shimmered on the water. There appeared to be millions upon millions of living things wriggling across the surface of the sea, but most of them were only slivers of light dancing from point to point on the waves.
“Eighty yards!”
A shout went up as several of the men spotted the sharks at the same instant.
A moment later Colin saw a fin. Then another. Two more. At least a dozen.
Suddenly line sang out of one of the reels.
“A bite!” Pete said.
Rex jumped into the deck-mounted chair behind the bent and jerking rod. As Irv strapped him down, Rex slipped the deep-sea rig out of the steel brace that had been holding it.
“Hell, sharks are just junk fish,” Jack said disdainfully.
“You’re not going to get a trophy for a shark, no matter how damned big it is,” Pete said.
“I know,” Rex said. “And I’m not about to eat the damned thing either. But I sure as hell won’t let the bastard get away!”
Something took the bait on the second line and ran with it. Mike claimed that chair.
At the start it was one of the most exciting things Colin had ever seen. Although this wasn’t his first time on a charter boat, he watched in awe as the men battled their catches. They shouted and swore, and the others urged them on. Muscles bulged in their thick arms. Veins popped out in their necks and at their temples. They groaned and thrashed and held on, pulling and reeling, pulling and reeling. Perspiration streamed from them, and Irv patted their faces with a white rag to keep the sweat from getting in their eyes.
“Keep the line taut!”
“Don’t let him throw the hook!”
“Run him some more.”
“Tire him out.”
“He’s already tired out.”
“Be careful they don’t tangle the lines.”
“It’s been fifteen minutes.”
“Jesus, Mike, a little old lady would’ve landed him by now.”
“My mother would’ve landed him by now.”
“Your mother’s built like Arnold Schwarzenegger.”
“He’s breaking water!”
“You got him now, Rex!”
“Big! Six foot or more!”
“And the other one. There!”
“Keep fighting!”
“What the hell will we do with two sharks?”
“Have to cut ‘em loose.”
“Kill ‘em first,” Colin’s father said. “You never let a shark go back alive. Isn’t that right, Irv?”
“Right, Frank.”
Colin’s father said, “Irv, you better get the gun.”
Irv nodded and hurried away.
“What gun?” Colin asked uneasily. He was uncomfortable around firearms.
“They keep a.38 revolver aboard just for killing sharks,” his father said.
Irv returned with the gun. “It’s loaded.”
Frank took it and stood by the railing.
Colin wanted to put his fingers in his ears, but he didn’t dare. The men would laugh at him, and his father would be angry.
“Can’t see either of the critters yet,” Frank said.
The fishermen’s hard bodies glistened with sweat.
Each rod appeared to be bent far beyond its breaking point, as if it were held together by nothing more than the indomitable will of the man who controlled it.
Suddenly Frank said, “You’ve almost got yours, Rex! I can see him.”
“He’s an ugly son-of-a-bitch,” Pete said.
Someone else said, “He looks like Pete.”
“He’s right on the surface,” Frank said. “He doesn’t have enough line to run deep again. He looks beat.”
“So am I,” Rex said. “So will you for God’s sake shoot the bastard?”
“Bring him a bit closer.”
“What the hell do you want? You want me to make him stand up against a wall and wear a blindfold?”
Everyone laughed.
Colin saw the slick, gray, torpedolike creature only twenty or thirty feet from the stem. It was riding just under the waves, dark fin protruding into the air. For a moment it was very still; then it began to pitch and toss and twist wildly, trying to free itself from the hook.
“Jesus!” Rex said. “It’ll tear my arms right out of their sockets.”
As the fish was drawn nearer in spite of its violent struggle, it rolled from side to side, writhing on the hook, willing to tear its own mouth to shreds in hope of getting loose, but succeeding only in setting the barbed hook even deeper. Its flat, malevolent head rose from the sea as it rolled, and for an instant Colin was staring into a bright and very alien eye that shone with a fierce inner light and seemed to radiate pure fury.
Frank Jacobs fired the.38 revolver.
Colin saw the hole open a few inches behind the shark’s head. Blood and flesh sprayed across the water.
Everyone cheered.
Frank fired again. The second shot entered a couple of inches back of the first.
The shark should have been dead, but instead it seemed to take a new life from the bullets.
“Look at the bastard kick!”
“He doesn’t like that lead.”
“Shoot him again, Frank.”
“Get him square in the head.”
“Shoot him in the head.”
“You got to get a shark in the head.”
“Between the eyes, Frank!”
“Kill it, Frank!”
“Kill it!”
The foam that sloshed around the fish had once been white. Now it was pink.
Colin’s father squeezed the trigger twice. The big gun bucked in his hands. One shot missed, but the other took the prey squarely in the head.
The shark leaped convulsively, as if trying to heave itself aboard the boat, and everyone on the Erica Lynn cried out in surprise; but then it fell back into the water and was absolutely still.
A second later Mike brought his catch to the surface, within striking distance, and Frank fired at it. This time his aim was perfect, and he finished the shark with the first shot.
The sea foam was crimson.
Irv rushed forward with a tackle knife and severed both lines.
Rex and Mike collapsed in their chairs, relieved and surely aching from head to foot.
Colin watched the dead fish drifting belly-up on the waves.
Without warning the sea began to boil as if a great flame had been applied beneath it. Fins appeared everywhere, converging on a small area immediately aft of the Erica Lynn: a dozen… two dozen… fifty sharks or more. They slashed viciously at their dead comrades, ripped and tore at meat like their very own meat, smashed into one another, fought over every morsel, soaring and diving and striking in a mindless, savage feeding frenzy.
Frank emptied the revolver into the turmoil. He must have hit at least one of the monsters, for the commotion grew considerably worse than it had been.
Colin wished he could look away from the slaughter. But he couldn’t. Something held him.
“They’re cannibals,” one of the men said.
“Sharks will eat anything.”
“They’re worse than goats.”
“Fishermen have found some pretty strange things in sharks’ stomachs.”
“Yeah. I know a guy who found a wristwatch.”
“I heard of someone finding a wedding ring.”
“A cigar case full of water-logged stogies.”
“False teeth.”
“A rare coin worth a small fortune.”
“Anything indigestible that the victim was wearing or carrying, it stays right there in the shark’s gut.”
“Why don’t we haul in one of these mothers and see what it’s keeping in its belly?”
“Hey, that might be interesting.”
“Cut it open right here on the deck.”
“Might find a rare coin and get rich.”
“Probably just find a lot of freshly eaten shark meat.”
“Maybe, maybe not.”
“At least it’s something to do.”
“You’re right. It’s been one hell of a day.”
“Irv, better rig one of those rods again.”
They started drinking whiskey and beer again.
Colin watched.
Jack took the chair, and two minutes later he had a bite. By the time he’d brought the shark alongside, the feeding frenzy had ended; the pack had moved away. But the frenzy aboard the Erica Lynn had just begun.
Colin’s father reloaded the.38. He leaned over the railing and pumped two bullets into the huge fish.
“Right in the head.”
“Scrambled his fuckin’ brains a little.”
“Shark’s got a brain like a pea.”
“Same as yours?”
“That thing dead?”
“Ain’t movin‘.”
“Bring it up.”
“Let’s have a look inside.”
“Find that rare coin.”
“Or the false teeth.”
Whiskey and beer.
Jack reeled in as much line as he could. The dead shark was bumping against the side of the boat.
“Damn thing’s ten feet long.”
“Nobody’s going to haul that baby up with just a gaff.”
“They have a winch.”
“It’s going to be a messy job.”
“Might be worth it if we find that rare coin.”
“We’re more likely to find a coin in your stomach.”
With five men, two ropes, three gaffs, and a power winch, they managed to hoist the shark out of the sea and over the stem railing, and then lost control of it a second before it was down, so that it crashed onto the deck, whereupon it came back to life unexpectedly, or half life anyway, for the bullets had hurt it and stunned it, but they had not killed it, and the beast thrashed on the deck, and everyone jumped back, and Pete grabbed a gaff and swung and slammed the hook into the shark’s head, spraying blood on several people, and the mighty jaws snapped, trying to get at Pete, and another man rushed forward with another gaff and embedded the long point in one of the shark’s eyes, and a third gaff found its way into one of the bullet wounds, and there was blood everywhere, so that Colin thought of the Kingman killings, and all the men in their swimsuits were spotted and streaked with blood, and Colin’s father yelled for everyone to stand back, and although Irv told him not to fire toward the deck, Colin’s father put one more round in the shark’s brain, and finally it stopped moving, and everyone was very excited, talking and shouting at once, and they got down in the blood and rolled the shark over and tore at its belly with the gutting knife, and the white flesh resisted for a moment but then gave, and out of the long rent spilled a putrid, slimy mass of guts and half-digested fish, and those still standing cheered while those on their knees pawed through the disgusting muck, looking for the mythical rare coin, the wedding ring, the cigar case, or the false teeth, laughing and joking, even tossing handfuls of gore at one another.
Suddenly Colin found the strength to move. He bolted toward the front of the boat, slipped in blood, stumbled, almost fell, regained his balance. When he had gone as far from the revelers and as far forward as he could, he leaned through the railing and vomited over the side.
By the time Colin finished, his father was there, towering over him, the very image of savagery, skin painted with blood, hair matted with blood, eyes wild. His voice was soft but intense. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I was sick,” Colin said weakly. “Just sick. It’s over now.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I’m okay now.”
“Do you try to embarrass me?”
“Huh?”
“In front of my friends like this?”
Colin stared, unable to comprehend.
“They’re making jokes about you.”
“Well…”
“They’re making fun of you.”
Colin was dizzy.
“Sometimes I wonder about you,” his father said.
“I couldn’t help it. I threw up. There wasn’t anything I could do to stop it.”
“Sometimes I wonder if you are my son.”
“I am. Of course I am.”
His father leaned close and studied him, as if searching for the telltale features of an old friend or milkman. His breath was foul.
Whiskey and beer.
And blood.
“Sometimes you don’t act like a boy at all. Sometimes you don’t look like you’ll ever make a man,” his father said quietly but urgently.
“I’m trying.”
“Are you?”
“I really am,” Colin said despairingly.
“Sometimes you act like a pansy.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sometimes you act like a goddamned queer.”
“I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
“Do you want to pull yourself together?”
“Yeah.”
“Can you pull yourself together?”
“Yeah.”
“Can you?”
“Sure I can.”
“Will you?”
“Sure.”
“Do it.”
“I need a couple of minutes-”
“Now! Do it now!”
“Okay.”
“Pull yourself together”
“Okay. I’m okay.”
“You’re shaking.”
“No I’m not.”
“You going to come back with me?”
“All right.”
“Show those guys whose son you are.”
“I’m your son.”
“You’ve got to prove it, Junior.”
“I will.”
“You’ve got to show me proof.”
“Can I have a beer?”
“What?”
“I think maybe it would help.”
“Help what?”
“It might make me feel better.”
“You want a beer?”
“Yeah.”
“Now, that’s more like it!”
Frank Jacobs grinned and mussed his son’s hair with one bloody hand.