Shark - A Story in The Submarine World - Part III
Many of them come from other seas, having made a long but always merry journey. These guests confer a special elegance to the beaten Neptuno, who, by the way, is beginning go show symptoms of old age. But yet-we all know it the good old man still travels to the Classic Greece-Hellas, his home-country. He travels with mere leisure purposes, when Christmas time is near.
In Greece he is the owner of a great residence and reigns under the name of Poseidon the God of the Seas, he is the brother of Jupiter and Pluton. When the concert comes to an end the procession begins with Neptune leading it across the endless submarine plains and it ends precisely at Neptune’s splendid palace. This is certainly an unforgettable sight, worthy contemplating and kept one’s memory.
Papa Firpo –a fierce looking shark- is the owner of a so rugged skin, comparable only to the rougher earthen abrasive membrane, a real rasp which he often employs in his household duties. That old shark, good as a Moro crab is the one in charge of the organization of events that, because of their quality could be regarded as trascendent and beneficial for the community. Firpo is a public figure in the submarine world and with fervor and effectiveness he performs all the jobs related to his craft. His family regard him as “slow”, but the truth is that. Firpo is dreamers who possess great wisdom. His relatives do not understand him.
Sapona has a totally different personality. She is always possessive and protective and always prepared to support him on every way. She is the watcher of her home, talks too much and thinks very little. Being a female, and with the aim of not breaking the traditional rules, she is the one that makes the serious decision. Sometimes she looks rather plump but it is neither a translucent optical illusion nor the effect of the dyspepsia, the reason is that she keeps all her opinions for herself. She is the great matriarch and regarding the family security she transforms herself into a very aggressive tiger, she usually does not have anything to say, but when she does, she it in a charming fashion. When she intends to reflect upon herself, she falls asleep. She adorns herself with the silence and the modesty.
Old Homero used to say that it is not wise to trust a woman. Well, the great poet of the Troy war was not a prophet, but he certainly was blind. Well, he could make mistakes.
One rainless, very dry day, Casper was placidly reading the Biblie and he ran intro the passage describing the odyssey of Jonas, the earth dweller, and he became most interested in the story. In this book of the Old Testament is said that the awkward and comfort-loving Jonas intended to avoid the sacred mission that had been entrusted to him from abode. So, he decided to take a small boat and row in the opposite direction, but a violet storm made him throw himself to the ocean and there, he was entirely swallowed without any consideration or regard by a large whale that located him inside her cavernous belly. Now the whale looked even more corpulent. For three days and some hours the whale took Jonas for a ride and fed him without charge-something that he never appreciated – and then the whale threw him up without any protocol near a beach. He was rather battered with his dignity tossed on the sandy ground. Casper pondered on the biblical passage and according to his young and impulsive nature made the decision to pierce the belly of the first whale he would see circulating in his realm. Very soon one of them will appear.
Nevertheless when the moment came, Casper could not satisfy his curiosity and carry out his misdemeanor because the wale looked completely helpless, benevolent and motherly, so smiling and respesctable regardless her huge proportion, that he desisted from his purpose. He then thought that the biblical episode had been only a notion fancied by the idle prophet. And from that day on he became friendly and protective of the whales, without reservation.
Torcuata –such was the name of the lady whale- was a very warm blood animal measuring eighteen meters lengthwise. When they meet she would flirt with him winking her right eye, when they cross one another, but if they happen to do it leftwards, she would wink the left eye.
What a beautiful whale!, Casper said to himself. How can it be possible that those ruthless whalers –comedy characters- feel inclined to glut their cruelty destroying the whale’s lineage by means of a bloody and systematical extermination? Fortunately a group of compassionate earth dwellers have managed to put an end to such an irrational slaughtering, hopefully forever.
Casper’s smart and sensitive attitude won him the praising not only of the shark community, but of the whole submarine society. If he had surrender to his insane primitive instincts, the tribes as a whole would had turned against him and also against the Dogish family. They would have rejected them when learning that he was just another vandal, a ruthless, unkind shark who deserved to be compared with those contemptible earth habitants who have forgotten the most elemental principles.
After all, he admitted, he could have never really harmed Torcuata… much less when he happened to think that such a full, robust whale, could have been pregnant, expecting the arrival of a cub. Can you imagine!
Import manuscripts have been preserved down there with the effective help of the millenary turtles of the Chelonian and Testudinata families, who, perpetually thoughtful, tearful and toothless, slowly and philosophically, move their five hundred kilos around. On said manuscripts have been recorded the marine trips made over three thousand years ago B.C. by well known earth dwellers. In those days the old Venetians already used to pay visits to them, cutting the sea waters with their powerful vessels. Menes, the great Egyptian Pharaoh, who founded Memphis, insisted on doing so. Ptolomeo, the famous Greek-Egyptian, an outstanding astronomer, would send messages to them. Marco Polo, the prominent Venetian traveler, and Cook, Colon, Vasco, Newton, Magallanes and many others, crossed the oceans searching for their secrets. Using their restless minds, some scientists established a link between the tides and the moon. Picard, from Belgium, also reached down there, in the inmense Pacific Ocean in his batisphere. The famous Capitan Nemo together with his comrades, traveled in his fantastic Nautilus submarine, sailing thousand of leagues, in order to establish relations with the ocean habitants. And the other Nautilus, pursuing the same end achieved an astonishing goal: he managed to sail under the polar ice trying to open friendship bonds and enhancing the scientific field. Cousteau, the scientist-ichtiologist, the lover, was constantly descending in his bathysphere, enormously attracted by that marine world, with the aim to offering the foolish earth dwellers and incredible image of the flora and fauna. He would constantly show them those unique resources, trying to display before them the singular hope of an inexhaustible feeding source for the future, and at the same time, trying to instill them with some wisdom.
To be continued...
Read the Shark - A Story in The Submarine World – Part I
Read the Shark - A Story in The Submarine World – Part II
Ramiz Barquet
E-mail: galleria_nelly@hotmail.com
■ Learn about Ramiz Barquet
■ Currently part of the work of Ramiz Barquet can be admired and acquired at Nelly Art Gallery, located at 558 Morelos Street in downtown. Opening hours from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. & from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. Phone: 223-1193 • E-mail: galleria_nelly@hotmail.com
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