Part X: The Great Fish

Had he fallen asleep with the fire still going in the shadow-puppet box again? Honestly, if he had to have one more argument about the high rate of their fire bill...

The sound came again, and was accompanyed by a gentle spray of ocean water. Hiro opened his eyes and looked around. The sound wasn't his wife at all. In fact, she was most likely several hundred miles from where he was, and rotting in hell. Hopefully.

The sound, instead, was coming from a school of dolphins that were playing around his boat. Hiro stretched, and went to the bow of the ship to get a closer look. The dolphins were swimming back and forth, diving and batting each other's fins playfully.

'I must be rather far south,' thought Hiro. 'Dolphins are warm-blooded creatures. So therefore, they must live someplace warm.' Hiro threw off his clothes and realized he was right, and also slightly embarassed.

Hiro pulled his dirty, torn tunic back on and lazily watched the dolphins play. First, one jumped in the air, about five feet above the water. Then, a second jumped about ten feet above the water, and the other dolphins made high pitched chirping sounds that sounded for all the world like laughing. A third dolphin approached, swam back and forth, and then launched himself in the air.

The dolphin never landed. As he flew in the air, the water seemed to swell as if giving birth. It became black and murky, and Hiro swore he could see an enormous eye below the surface. A chasm opened in the water, flanked by what looked like large, white pieces of cracked wood. The chasm opened wider, and the dolphin desperately scrambled against the air, trying to evolve fast enough to sprout wings and fly.

Alas, it was not meant to be. The dolphin plunged into the chasm, with a long squeak that sounded something like, "Oh, sh--"

Hiro bolted back from the bow of the ship. 'Oh, sh is right,' thought Hiro. 'I better be quiet and not attract the attention of whatever that was...'

Just as suddenly as the chasm had opened, it closed, and the swell disappeared beneath the surface. Again the day was calm, but it was not the same. The dolphins looked at each other and chattered to each other nervously instead of playing. Hiro had bolted to the center of the ship, and chattered to himself nervously.

Had he just seen what he thought he had seen? If he had, he would be in bigger trouble than he had ever been. Because the great fish was on his tail...*

*And as we all know, giant monsters love to eat Japanese people.


NEXT WEEK: Night of 1,000 Dolphins


THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF X-BALL:
PART I       PART II       PART III       PART IV

PART V      PART VI      PART VII      PART VIII

PART IX      PART X