گردباد نزدیک‌تر میشه

Chapter two

The hurricane gets closer

September 16

The Wings School of Flying was not far from Miami. Max had been a student there for nearly a year. He had always wanted to fly, and he had always loved the wide open sky. As a small boy he loved watching the clouds during the day and looking at the stars at night.

At Christmas other boys asked for toys, but all Max wanted were books about the stars and a telescope so he could look at them more closely.

He spent night after night on the beach with his telescope, looking at the stars and learning their names. When other boys were playing tennis or going sailing, he stayed at home to study.

He needed really good grades to get into flying school. And in the end his hard work was worth it. He was top of the class at high school, and the flying school accepted him immediately.

And after all those years watching the sky, Max was able to fly right up into it. It was like a ride into another world, a new and empty world that was clean and beautiful, like a world that had only just begun.

But right now Max felt terrible and even the thought of his next flying lesson didn’t help. It was lunchtime and he was sitting in the school cafeteria, looking unhappily out of the window at another beautiful sunny day.

He could not stop thinking about Ikemi. He could not understand her. He had thought that she really liked him, he had thought that maybe she even loved him.

And now, suddenly, she didn’t want to see him again. Her father was more important to her than he was and that hurt him badly. He decided, unhappily, that the best thing to do was to forget her and get on with his life.

But how could he get on with his life? Each minute of the day he thought about her, and each time he thought about her it hurt him.

One of Max’s flying teachers, Ross Peters, sat down next to him. Max was one of Ross’s favorite students. He was intelligent, serious, hardworking, and very quick to learn. Everyone liked Max.

If anyone needed help or advice, they asked Max. Ross Peters looked at Max’s unhappy face and smiled at him.

“What’s the matter Max? Not hungry?” he asked.

Max shook his head. “No, sir, no, I’m not.”

The teacher looked closely at Max. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Max shook his head again. “No, it’s OK, thanks. I’m OK.”

Ross Peters began to eat his lunch. He had never seen Max look so unhappy before. “Did you hear about the hurricane out in the Atlantic, Max? They say it’s a big one.

Max nodded. “Yeah. I heard something about it on the radio.”

“I used to fly a hurricane hunter,” Ross said.

Max looked at his teacher in surprise. “You flew a hurricane hunter! A plane that chases hurricanes? Wow! What’s it like, flying into a hurricane?”

Ross Peters thought for a moment. “Well,” he said slowly, “it’s a lot more fun and a lot more frightening than the biggest Disney ride you’ve ever been on.

There you are, flying along, and you know you’re going to meet a wall of wind coming towards you at anything up to 200 kilometers an hour.

And as well as the winds coming straight at you, there are all the winds inside the hurricane which are going up and down, up and down like elevators in an apartment building.”

He smiled. “But once you get inside the eye of the hurricane, it’s amazing. There’s no wind, the sky is a beautiful blue, and the sun shines. It’s hard to believe there are killer winds all around you.”

Ross looked at his watch and got up to go.

“By the way,” he said, “Are you busy after school? I’ll be working on my seaplane the Manatee again, and I could really use some help. I’ve started painting her now and I’m hoping to get her finished by the end of the week.”

Max looked happier. “Yes, sir, I’d love to help. I’ll come down and see you there after school.”

Just then the music on the radio stopped. The room went quiet as students and teachers stopped talking to listen to the weather forecast.

“And now for a hurricane warning. Hurricane Irene, with winds up to 260 kilometers an hour, is traveling towards Cuba. Antigua, Nevis, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and the coastal areas of southern Florida are under hurricane watch.”

The forecast ended and everyone began to talk at once. “A hurricane! Wow! Do you think it will hit us? Do we need to leave the area?” asked one student.

“I don’t think so,” Ross Peters replied. “We get up to thirty hurricane warnings every year and nothing usually happens. Hurricanes often change course. It’s very hard to tell which way they’ll go. I don’t think this hurricane will reach us.”

In a small apartment in Key Biscayne, Ikemi was also listening to the hurricane warning. She turned off the radio and looked thoughtful.

Her father had gone fishing yesterday evening. As usual, he went alone. As usual, he had only taken a cooler full of beer and a couple of loaves of bread.

Ikemi sometimes tried to give him fruit, or cheese, or cookies to take onto the boat. But he never wanted it.

Hiru was a good fisherman. He always came home after a night or two with the cooler empty of beer but full of tasty fresh fish.

“Ikemi! How about sushi for lunch?” he always shouted as he came into the apartment. Ikemi always ran out to meet him and look at the fish he’d caught.

Then he left his fishing things in the hall and carried the cooler into the kitchen. He tied a scarf around his head like a sushi chef in a Japanese restaurant, and together they cooked the rice and cut up the fish. Sushi was Ikemi’s favorite meal.

Ikemi decided it was too soon to start worrying about her father. She went over to the window and looked out. It was another beautiful calm day.

“I’m sure he’ll come back by this evening,” she said to herself. “He’ll hear the hurricane warning and he’ll come straight back. He won’t stay out all night with a hurricane coming.”

She packed her books and checked the time. She should go to school, she had a class in an hour. There was nothing she could do.

“He’ll be back soon,” she said. She picked up her things and left the apartment. Soon she was driving into Miami and parking in the school parking lot. She hurried. She didn’t want to be late for her class.

At the same time, a long way out to sea, Hiru was having a good day. It was wonderful weather for fishing. The sea was calm, and the sky was cloudless.

He had caught lots of fish already. He opened a beer and continued to watch his line as it disappeared into the water. Maybe today he’d catch a really big fish. He certainly felt lucky. He took a long drink of the cold beer. Life was good.

Since the death of his wife, Hiru had spent most of his free time on the sea, fishing. He had bought the boat a year after she died. She had died slowly, little by little.

It was a bad death and the pain of it had almost destroyed him. He was left alone with Ikemi. For a long time Ikemi was the only person he could talk to.

He turned his back on family and friends who tried to help him. He did not answer the door or the telephone. He only wanted to be left alone. He did not want sad-faced people sitting in his house telling him how sorry they were.

He did not want kind neighbors bringing nicely cooked food for him and the child. He did not want friends to put their arms around his shoulders and tell him that the pain would get better in time.

He did not want the pain to get better. The pain was important to him. The pain and the anger he felt kept her near to him, kept her alive.

But he could not explain that to all those kind and noisy people who wanted him to forget his pain, forget his anger, make new friends, meet new people, forget her.

So he bought a boat. A strong little fishing boat. He called the boat the Elizabeth, his wife’s name. And when he could, he left Ikemi with friends or family and went out to sea on the Elizabeth.

At first the sea was just an escape from the awful emptiness his wife’s death had left behind. On the Elizabeth, he could be alone with his pain, alone with his anger, alone with his sadness.

It was only here, far from all those too friendly, too loud Americans that he could find peace. And little by little the pain and the anger left him.

The stillness of the sea on calm days made him feel better, the waves on stormy days made him wildly happy, and the bite of a fish on the end of his line made him forget his pain. And so it was that the sea saved him.

But now, years later, he needed the sea as much as ever. He needed to fish. He respected the fish he caught. He respected them because they were brave, they were clever, they were strong, and they fought hard.

They fought hard, they fought long, and they never stopped fighting until they were out of the water and no hope was left. Hiru respected the fish he caught a lot more than he respected the Americans he did business with. He did not really understand Americans.

Hiru often wished he had gone back to Japan after Elizabeth had died. But by then Ikemi was already doing well at her American school. She had friends, a beautiful place to grow up in and she spoke English much better than Japanese.

Hiru had taken her to Tokyo a few times, but she didn’t like the crowded narrow streets, the noise, the food, the long, boring evenings with her Japanese cousins.

She always wanted to get back to Florida, to her friends, to the sea, to the free life she enjoyed in America. Hiru began to think that his beautiful daughter was like a fish, swimming free in the ocean.

He did not want to catch her and shut her in the narrow streets of Tokyo and small rooms of a Tokyo apartment. She was not a thing to catch and put in a small glass bowl. He did not want to fight her. She needed to be free. So Hiru had decided to stay in Florida.

He opened another beer and looked at his watch. It was almost time for the weather forecast. He got up to turn on the radio. Then there was a pull on his line. Another fish!

He sat down quickly and began to pull the line in. There was another pull on the line, then another. It was a big fish! Quickly, he let out some line.

The fish was fighting hard. Hiru stood up and looked over the side of the boat. This fish was bigger than anything he’d caught so far - and he’d been fishing in these waters for years. Hiru got ready for a fight.

Little by little, he pulled the line in when he felt the fish was resting. When the fish decided to run, he let the line out. The fish was fighting bravely.

Hiru fought back, slowly pulling the big fish in. He fought the fish for five, ten, fifteen minutes. The fish fought back. Slowly, he pulled the fish nearer.

It was going to be a long fight and Hiru forgot about the weather forecast on the radio. This was it, this was the big one!