Chapter 4 - The Fisherman and the Goldfish
clownfish - 0 | clownfish - 3 | clownfish - 5
Shen Dong hung frozen in the water and watched the clownfish slowly drift by him. It waved its tail to make a circuit around him then finally used its mouth to lightly tap Shen Dong’s finger. He saw that distinctive scarring on the clownfish’s back and it nearly made him choke.
When swimming without any breathing gear, the most important thing to focus on was keeping calm. He hadn’t been holding his breath for a even third of his usual capacity yet he suddenly felt that burning need to breath.
He ignored the clownfish making circles around him and kicked up toward the surface. In this kind of situation, choking on river water wasn’t great but not that big of a deal, but if he choked on sea water, now that was a different story.
His head broke the surface and he took a deep breath. After a few more regulated breaths he dropped down into the water again to see if the clownfish was still around.
It took a moment for his eyes to readjust to the water but he found instead he was surrounded by bubbles. Had the situation been different, he’d probably have found it quite comfortable.
There was a swell in the water near him then suddenly someone dragged at his elbow and dragged him up to the surface.
Cao Mu’s grinning face appeared before him.
“Why’d you jump in?” Cao Mu raised a hand. In his fist was Shen Dong’s freshly taken off shirt. “Your clothes are all wet now.”
Shen Dong ignored him and instead swam toward the cliff face. After climbing up, and paying no mind to his see-through shorts, he rounded on Cao Mu. A moment passed then he opened his mouth. “W-what the, the, the hell is going o-on?!”
“I already said!” said Cao Mu. He squatted and tapped a finger against the rocks, clearly feeling down. “You just don’t believe me.”
“You s-s-said…” Shen Dong already had a stammer but now added with the shock of the present situation he could barely make his tongue move.
“I said I’m a fish!” Cao Mu shouted, looking up at Shen Dong. “A fish! A clownfish! The clownfish you’ve been throwing into the ocean these past few days, that fish! I thought you were a good person, but you don’t believe me…”
Shen Dong didn’t reply and just continued to point at Cao Mu.
A mysterious naked man.
A man who says he’s a clownfish.
Says he, Shen Dong, has been chucking him in the ocean over and over.
Was this that story about The Fisherman and the Goldfish?
Then where’s my pot of gold?
“What’s with you?” asked Cao Mu after a while.
“I think I should go back and sleep a while,” replied Shen Dong. He blinked and dropped his hand then turned to go.
“Hey! Shen Dong!” Cao Mu shouted from behind him, his voice laden with mirth. “You didn’t stammer?”
“Eh?” Shen Dong’s instinctive reaction to hearing the word ‘stammer’ was to grab the nearest rock and smash.
“I said you didn’t stammer. Just then, when you were talking, you didn’t stammer,” Cao Mu said happily as he fell into step next to him.
“I-I didn’t…” Shen Dong suddenly realised that he did indeed seemed to speak normally for a moment, but then shut his mouth when he heard the stutter again.
“Your voice’s real nice when you’re not stuttering,” Cao Mu said as he followed behind, carrying his wet clothes.
“Oh.” Shen Dong continued on.
“But why do you stutter anyway?” Cao Mu was curious. “Were you born with it? In the village there’s a girl who stutters too and she was born with it…”
All this talk of stuttering was sending Shen Dong’s mind for a loop and he reached back to give Cao Mu a smack on the arm. “Shut up!”
“You’re hitting people again!” Cao Mu retorted as he retreated a few steps. “You really gotta fix that problem or else sooner or later someone’s going to retaliate!”
“R-r-retaliate, you…” Shen Dong squinted his eyes. Retaliate? It’s just you!
But after a few moments of this, Shen Dong’s mind got back on track again. The problem at hand wasn’t whether he stuttered, or whether Cao Mu was planning on retaliating, but the fact that Cao Mu wasn’t human!
On thinking this, a cold sweat passed over Shen Dong, turned away, and began to run.
“Shen Dong! Shen Dong!” Cao Mu shouted after him.
You just keep yelling! Shen Dong didn’t look back and didn’t stop running though he could hear Cao Mu’s bare feet slap against the ground behind him. Shen Dong suddenly felt oddly worried. Would Cao Mu hurt his feet running on the rocky ground like that?
Regardless, going bare feet didn’t impede Cao Mu’s ground speed though it should be mentioned that Shen Dong’s shoes were full of water and he was still having to grab at his shorts.
Shen Dong’s state of mind on entering his room was similar to a person being chased by a person wielding a large kitchen knife and he slammed and locked the door immediately behind him then leaned against it.
Before he could even catch his breath, there was a hammering at the door. “Shen Dong! Open up!” came Cao Mu’s muffled voice.
“No,” was Shen Dong’s immediate reply.
“I was wrong!” Cao Mu banged the door again, his voice quieter this time.
“Ah?” Shen Dong stared. Wrong?
“I’m not a fish. I lied to you.” Cao Mu didn’t knock on the door again and his voice was coming from lower down. Perhaps he’d crouched down. “I… I live over there. At the village. I’m not a fish.”
Who you trying to fool?!
Though Shen Dong wished what he was saying was true, he knew it wasn’t. He’d seen too much.
Cao Mu’s jumping ability, how he could just disappear in the water within seconds, that strange cloud of bubbles, that little clownfish with the scar on its back that had swum around him…
All of these things made it impossible for a simple ‘I was lying to you’ to explain away.
He didn’t know what to do.
“Open the door,” Cao Mu said suddenly. He really did seem to be sitting in the doorway.
Shen Dong said nothing.
“I’m really not a fish. I was just teasing.” Cao Mu’s voice was even quieter now almost as though he were talking to himself. “You like hitting people, right? I lied to you, so, come out and hit me, you stutterer.”
Shen Dong held back the urge to kick the door open.
“Stutter, Shen Dong, stutter. If you don’t come out, I’ll keep saying it. Stutter, stutter…”
Every time he heard that word, Shen Dong would explode. To him, it was no laughing matter. Whoever brought it up, that person was toast, but right now, he couldn’t deal with Cao Mu like normal that since besides the matter of Cao Mu not being human, there was one other thing Shen Dong hadn’t figured out: why was Cao Mu so set on following him around like this?
“Stutter Dong,” Cao Mu chanted away outside. “Shen Dong, come out and hit me. I’ve already said ‘stutter’ so many times, aren’t you angry?”
Shen Dong ignored him and slowly slid down the wall to sit on the ground. His mind was a mess, it was like he was in the middle of a dream. He remembered that when he was little, when he’d wanted to catch a mermaid, he hadn’t wished on any fairy or anything, so why was all this happening now?
And so Shen Dong sat on the floor and zoned out while listening to Cao Mu’s voice.
After some length of time, Cao Mu also fell silent. Shen Dong slowly rose and stretched his stiff body. Then he took a few deep breaths, turned, and opened the door.
There was no one there. Shen Dong couldn’t quite describe this feeling. He knew there was a chance that Cao Mu would have already left by this time, but still, on seeing the empty door, he couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
He didn’t know why Cao Mu was so bent on following him but he could tell he didn’t have any bad intentions. Before, he’d refused to open the door no matter what Cao Mu said. Could he have hurt the feelings of… this fish?
Bullshit!
Shen Dong stepped out of his door and was just deciding what to do now when he suddenly heard Cao Mu’s voice. “Shen Dong.”
“Oh.” Shen Dong turned. Not only was Cao Mu still around, but he had also put on those clothes. He was sitting leaned against Chen-shu’s chicken coop looking listless. “I,I thought y-you’d left.”
“Left?” Cao Mu continued to lean against the chicken coop and stared at Shen Dong. After staring for a while he sighed and looked down. “I forgot why I’m sitting here.”
“W-waiting for me to c-come out and… and hit you.” Talking so much made Shen Dong want to sigh with all the wasted effort, but since it was Cao Mu, there was no way around it.
“Really?” Cao Mu’s brow furrowed as he thought about it. Then he slapped his leg and laughed. “Right! So, are you going to hit me?”
“No.” Shen Dong sighed and found a rock nearby to sit down on.
“Wanna chat?” Cao Mu asked rather excitedly. He made to get up then swayed and leaned against the wall again.
“Oh.” Were his legs numb? Shen Dong looked at him and said nothing else.
“I’m a little tired,” said Cao Mu as he got up again. He shot Shen Dong an embarrassed smile. “I’ll just go bubble-up in the water a bit and come back. Don’t go back into your room, okay?”
“Oh.” Shen Dong nodded and also stood. This he had to see through, see exactly how Cao Mu transformed.
Cao Mu slowly made his way toward the sea, seemingly not minding that Shen Dong was following him. When he arrived, he stripped off his clothes, tossed them onto the rocks and jumped into the water.
The way he jumped wasn’t quite like before since here there was less coral.
Shen Dong stood above on the rocks. He got why this guy didn’t like to wear clothes. Once you get in the water, all they did was cause you trouble.
But from the moment Cao Mu entered the water, Shen Dong didn’t have time to think about anything else.
From where he landed, there was now countless bubbles fizzing in the water. So many in fact that it turned the whole area white.
As for Cao Mu, he’d already completely disappeared.
Shen Dong could feel a cold sweat on his palms. He looked around, but couldn’t see Cao Mu anywhere. All he could do was wait for the bubbles to subside.
After they did, Shen Dong slowly crouched.
The last threads of sanity in this fantasy snapped.
Cao Mu was gone and in his place was a single, bright orange clownfish.
Shen Dong saw that distinctive scaring on its back.
Actually, even if there was no scarring it wouldn’t change the conclusion.
If a person were to call up a TV station and tell them all about all this, it would definitely cause a stir.
Then again, they’d probably just think he was a nutcase.
Just like a dream…
If he’d known earlier…
Shen Dong didn’t wait for Cao Mu to re-imerge. Instead, he got up and went back to his home and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He rarely smoked, usually just a bit when he was working, but right now, he needed to calm down.
After smoking one cigarette he saw Cao Mu coming towards him. He looked to be doing a lot better and he even had a smile on his face.
“I thought you’d holed up in your room again,” said Cao Mu as he found a rock to sit down on facing Shen Dong. He was in a good mood. His hair was still wet and there were beads of ocean water on his face and these glittered in the sun.
“You…” Shen Dong took the cigarette from his mouth and held it. “Why… do you… keep following… me?”
“There’s no one else here,” Cao Mu laughed. “Just you.”
“Oh.” Shen Dong coughed a little. He had a point. The only long term resident on the island was indeed himself since Chen-shu often went back to his home on the mainland to stay. Shen Dong acted like he planned on living on this island till he died.
“I used to not find other people to chat to,” said Cao Mu as he squinted in the sunlight. “I used to chat to my grandpa. We were always together.”
“Oh.”
“But I haven’t seen him for a while… He might have died.”
Cao Mu was calm as he said this and his face betrayed no feelings of grief. Shen Dong couldn’t help but find it odd. Even if they were blood related, if you called someone ‘grandpa’ surely you couldn’t stay that calm. Not just that, what was with the automatic assumption that not seeing him for a while meant that he was dead?”
“He was old, and swam slowly,” Cao Mu looked at the ground. “Maybe he got eaten or got caught…”
Shen Dong massaged his temple. “You grandpa is a fish?”
“Oh,” Cao Mu looked up at him. “You’re not stuttering. How much you sometimes do, then sometimes don’t?”
“I-I don’t kn-know.” Shen Dong furrowed his brow.
Though it seemed like him not stuttering when talking in person with someone was new, the fact that Cao Mu kept emphasising it whenever it happened still pissed him off.
“Grandpa’s probably not coming back,” Cao Mu said, getting up and sitting down next to Shen Dong on the ground. “These past some days I’ve just been on my own zoning out.”
Shen Dong didn’t reply. He more or less understood now why Cao Mu kept seeking him out.
He looked at Cao Mu’s face. Just how old was he?
When he himself had come to the island he’d not even been twenty. From the start, he’d never thought there was anything wrong with zoning out or doing nothing and he’d never even thought about finding someone to accompany him. In a year, the only time he saw another person was during the shift changes with Chen-shu, and even then, if you added up all the time, it probably only amounted to a few hours tops.
“H-how old are, are you?” Shen Dong couldn’t guessed Cao Mu’s age. He looked younger than Shen Dong, his eyes were incredibly clear and pure, and it was in fact that that had given Shen Dong the deepest impression those two days ago.
“How old?” Cao Mu stared at him and fell silent for a while. Then he laughed, a little embarrassed. “I don’t know.”
Shen Dong stared back at him. He himself had times when he needed a moment to figure out how old he was, but this was the first time he’d met someone who genuinely didn’t know how old they were.
“You…” Shen Dong thought back to that little fish scale. He knew fish scales could be used to figure out a fish’s age, so perhaps he could do that now. “D-do you have, have a scale?”
“Right now, no,” said Cao Mu as he checked his arms and pulled at his shirt collar to check his body. “Sometimes there’s one or two, but after going in the water, they disappear. What you want them for?”
“T-to check how, how old y-you are.” Shen Dong hadn’t spoken so much in years yet in just half a day, he felt like he’d spoken a few year’s worth. It was exhausting.
“Then tonight I’ll give you one to check!” Cao Mu said with a smile.
“Oh,” Shen Dong replied. He was starting to feel extremely tired. “W-where do you live?”
“That way,” Cao Mu said, pointing. “Have you gone out there before?”
“Oh.” Shen Dong looked out where Cao Mu pointed. To the south there were a few little islands that you could walk to when the tide was low. He’d been fishing there with Chen-shu before though he’d never seen any sighs of anyone living there before.
“You want to sleep?” Cao Mu suddenly asked.
“Yeah,” Shen Dong said, nodding. From last night to now he hadn’t slept a wink, his mind had been so full of insanity. Right now though, he felt that if he slept, he might not wake up again.
“Go sleep then,” Cao Mu said, standing. “I’ll go.”
“Ah?” Shen Dong hadn’t expected the Cao Mu who had continually bugged him to chat would suddenly announce he was leaving.
“Bye!” Cao Mu waved at him then turned toward the sea. After walking ab it he suddenly turned. “Do you remember my name?”
“Cao Mu.”
“I remember yours too. You’re Shen Dong!”
A while after Cao Mu left, Shen Dong finally went back into his home and lay on his bed. He had no energy left to think about what had happened that day or even to take off his shoes or take off his seawater soaked clothes. Instead, he just closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Shen Dong rarely dreamed. Usually dreams were fuelled by what happened in the day, and since nothing happened on the island, nothing happened in the dream, only a few about fixing the lighthouse’s light or things like that.
But today was different. Perhaps it was from not having many dreams for so many years that it now felt the need to compensate with rushing wind, water, sound, and a whole manner of other things.
He felt helpless. This dream was not a memory, he knew that yet, his parents and relatives… It was awful. Everyone was crying and wailing and he felt an unbearable pain in his chest, and yet he had no idea why…
In the middle of the dream, he suddenly heard something wrapping against a window. It immediately pulled him from the dream and back to reality.
Outside the window the sky was already dark, though he wasn’t sure what time it was.
There was someone knocking rhythmically against the window. This scared Shen Dong at first, but then he looked and saw Cao Mu’s face looking in. Then he remembered that on the island he was no longer alone.