'Fast Food for Fast People'

 

Chapter 10

‘FAST FOOD FOR FAST PEOPLE’

 

This time Irving chose a place to dive in the north of the island. After having picked up their equipment and a packed lunched prepared by the hotel, they set out. The road, like most of them there, had little traffic, and what there was, was generally tourists or small vehicles carrying goods moving leisurely. After all, on the island nobody knew what the word ‘fast’ meant.

“Let’s follow them until they stop, and then we’ll see,” Filo said from the driving seat of the van that was the property of the king of fast food on the island. That’s why both of them felt sure of not being recognised. Who on earth would suspect a van with the slogan ‘Fast food for fast people’. Repeat, once again, nobody on the island knew what the word ‘fast’ meant.

“We’ll follow them till they stop, and then we’ll see,” Filo added.

Irving took no notice of the van, as it kept at a discrete distance. The sea no longer had the dismal aspect that it had had on that disastrous day with Amanta and Jorge. Irving stopped the motorbike and saw that there were boats for hire. Camette got off the motor bike, asked the cost of hiring a boat by the hour, and paid. They climbed aboard and set off across the sea in an easterly direction. Filo and Curro got out of the van, got a boat, and went in chase of the couple.

“Irving, look! The sea here is as clean as the first time we went diving,” Camette commented as they were putting on their gear.

“Hurry up! I’ll go down first and tell you what it’s like down under.” Irving dropped into the sea. He swam around the boat going further out each time. He swam towards the coast, but didn’t see any caves or anything of interest. The thing that most attracted his attention was the number of fish, the sea was full of them. He rose to the surface.

Camette saw him and waved, “What’s it like this time?”

“There are neither shipwrecks nor caves, on the other hand there are loads of fish. Come on, get in the water.”

Camette slipped into the water to join Irving, and they swam as if they were out for a stroll. The sun’s rays lit up even the sea bed, and in Camette’s eyes the fish appeared as if of silver, they didn’t have the aspect of being real. They explored for several minutes, all the time getting nearer to the coast. But to their great dismay they didn’t find anything out of place or of much interest. Just fish. They rose to the surface and swam back to the boat. They climbed aboard and Camette got out the prepared lunch, while Irving set up a tarpaulin which would protect them from the sun during their lunch.

“I’m hungry and tired,” Camette said.

“You shouldn’t say such things, being alone with a man and on a boat.”

“What you want is to take advantage of me. Is that it?”

“No, what I want is to eat your part of the lunch. I’m dying of hunger.”

“There’s more food. If  you prefer we can eat it all now. Although I had thought of keeping some by for later.”

The movement of the boat was making them drowsy when the sound of another boat’s engine quickly aroused them.

“Irving, there’s a boat coming straight towards us.”

“Let’s hope it’s not bringing Amanta and Jorge.”

“It’s them, Grandfather, the ones on the motorbike,” Curro said.

“Yes, my son. I’m going closer and I’ll have to call them.” Filo slowed down and slowly approached the other boat. Irving and Camette were in sight. “Hey, you two, listen! I’m Filo from the temple with my grandson.”

Irving looked at Camette, “What does the old rogue want from us? Shall I let him on?”

“I suppose it won’t do any harm.”

“Come aboard,” shouted Irving. Camette stuck a camping knife in her pants pocket, and shook the remains of their lunch into the sea.

“Do you remember me and my grandson? Every day we go to the temple for lunch.”

“You haven’t gone there for lunch today. There wouldn’t have been time to get here. Why the change of routine?” Irving asked.

“Because we saw you two on the motorbike and for some time I have noticed how much interest you have in the sacred fire fish.”

“I’m interested in all the strange and peculiar things there are in the world, later I write articles about them. The fish of the myth on this island is strange. But there is something even stranger.”

Filo’s face lit up, “Go on, go on talking, please.”

“The number of fish that breed in these waters is enormous, and yet it’s forbidden to catch them, as if they were a species in danger of extinction.”

“That’s what happened in ancient times. They were almost extinct and look what the answer was.”

“Would you like something to eat and drink?” Camette asked them.

“We have food and drink, so if it’s no bother to you we’ll eat here with you, even though I see you’ve finished.”

“No problem,” Irving said.

The old man and the boy produced from a basket: bread, tomatoes, meat, onions, fruit, and a bottle of water and, a knife for each one. They ate in silence until they were both full up. Then they started speaking again. Curro made himself comfortable under the tarpaulin in a canvas chair and fell asleep.

Filo’s boat was tied to Irving and Camette’s. The sun shone with great intensity above the tarpaulin, but a gentle breeze made its way under it. Filo’s voice was the only sound to be heard. “All the fish are of one species and from this came the sacred fire fish. There is only one true example of the sacred fire fish. And this appears at crucial times. It’s as if it were the official protector of the species, and every time the life of these fish is in danger the sacred fire fish appears.”

“How do we know that what you say is true?” asked Irving.

“There are people on the island who can verify it but they wouldn’t do so, and those you would believe,” Filo answered.

“Why have you told us? Or do you tell everyone?”

“I’m an ignorant old man but I have been observing people all my life, and I know when someone is to be trusted.”

“Does the couple we went to dive with know this story? You must know who I’m referring to, Amanta and Jorge, the friends of the curator of the museum,” said Irving.

“Those two give me a bad feeling. Be careful with them. It could be they know the fish exists, the same as the curator knows. What I do know, is that nobody knows how to decipher the hieroglyphs.”

“How do you know that?” asked Camette with her eyes wide open.

“Once, after a visit from some archaeologists, the curator was in a bar and I heard him say that it was a shame they couldn’t know the full and true story.”

“What were you and the curator doing in the same bar?” Irving asked.

“In spite of his gentlemanly airs, at bottom he’s an islander with an islander’s tastes.”

Camette went to get something to drink and returned with iced water. “There’s nothing else, we’ve finished the other drinks.”

The sky was now tinged orange by the sun, and the sea took on a darker hue. Filo  woke Curro up. “Thank you both for having listened to me. It’s time for us to go, and you too.”

“Thanks for trusting us, and your visit. Goodbye,” Irving said, with Camette nodding in agreement.

Filo’s boat was five minutes away from theirs when Irving started up the engine. Camette was beside him. “Do you think the story forms part of the tourist side of the island, or do you think it’s true?”

“That they don’t understand the hieroglyphs, I believe. But the rest, I don’t know,” Irving answered.

Of  Filo and Curro and the van they saw nothing more that afternoon. Later, on going to bed Irving remembered something to do with Filo. He decided he would ask Camette the next day.