Through a Fish's Eye

2. Through a Fish's eye

The ravager aqua was now mine. I had conquered it all as my tail flips and my fins jump in and out of the water's ancient skin. Like I imagined my brothers did before me. In no time my scales grew thicker, and my wings grew longer. Even my tail's splashes are competing with the dolphins of the seas. Though every time I leap out of the water my tiny little head ponders on him. Did he eventually find his place among the many clouds as his eyes wanted to so long ago? 

It was thanks to him that I was reunited with the aqua. It gave me so many things that I once saw that he had. I finally found a pearl even better than I could ever imagine in slumber. Then thanks to her, I was able to expand my bloodline a hundred-fold. Thinking about it, I wished I could have seen what a fluffy cloud and the son of the sea would bring to this world. If it's anything like mine, then their eyes would have been even brighter. Luckily, I got to see him one last time.

Maybe it's been a few years since his eyes last met mine. Purposefully I ran by the aqua near the human ports; it was still far enough to be in the middle of nowhere. As if fate shot down with thunderous applause, my tail got snagged by a small silver net. Along with some other brothers of the sea. Most escaped as it was lifted from the waters. Only leaving a few to see what had become of him. 

His hair, once-prestigious black, was now drenched seaweed. He had a crusty shaven beard, and his nose was crooked. The only thing familiar was the yellow coat he wore since I remember him dancing himself into it every morning after feeding me. Even that now looks tired and worn out.

One by one his hands took fish while his eyes examined each scale. He threw some in an aqua bowl while others back into the sea. When it was my turn, his hands remained motionless for the longest time, holding me in his palms as our eyes locked. Even though I was bigger now, his eyes still saw the child he would come and talk to every day. The child he always had but thrown back to the sea. And what I would soon come to realize, was a friend. His tears then started to hydrate my drying scales.

For the first time, I could not only see but understand the pain that projected through his pairs of golden browns. And with that, the many times he tried to share that pain with me. All those times he would talk to me, he was sharing his problems, aspirations, regrets, and many other things that made up his being. I might have been the only thing in his life that he could do so, and yet, I never understood to respond back 

I owed him. Maybe because he might have failed himself, but he didn't with me. I flapped my mouth looking like I'm gasping for air. That was the only way I could show him, no, say to him that I for once understand. A simple thank you. 

By the way, his ears jumped up, it's almost like they hear every word. Tears were coming down to the wood of his boat, adding to what must have been many to its collection. To my surprise, he lifted me towards his mouth. My gills could taste the onion and the mustiness of them. But that didn't matter, once he talked to me, animated like he would do years go.  

"I don't know if you can understand me Little Orange, but thank you for everything."

He had no idea how much I understood him at that moment. It felt like the seas wrapped themselves around my body. Hovering me over like he was carrying his child, he placed me back into the water. It might as well have been him. He was the son of the sea, and I was his successor. 

In the end, his smile made me sure that idea was true. I didn't leave him. I remained flat within the aqua, being there for his last act. His greasy hands grasp the spear that I've seen him with for so long. His eyes just stared into the fluffy white as he attempted it once more. Luckily for him, the tip was sharpened. His body was now like mine, lying flat in the aqua's hands. I swear when his body fell, the heavens of fluffy white were crying silky red.

To think I started it all from above the aqua. It makes me remember the days when we would watch the bright stars glisten over the water as the sun starts setting behind it. He would always smile at such a beautiful sight, every time. Each time, I figuratively say a prayer, hoping that the soaring songs of the white, would carry me back into the endless aqua, giving me peace.  At the end of it all, for a brief moment, he shared that dream with me. The aqua carried his body, finally giving him the peace he deserved. It gave us both that. 

Maybe, in his final moments, he saw that through my eyes. And now, thinking it all over again, I now see the world through his. And I wouldn't have it any other way.