Going to fish required the fisher man or men to wear protective wears like life jacket to fish especially in the sea but many have ignored this safety measures in the sense that water incidents are rare and fisher men are skilled in swimming. same applied to those of us that use the beach or swimming pool.
I have always admire the way my parent treated each other while growing up as a child and I vowed to make my wife the queen of my life. Growing up was pleasant going with the fact that my parents were Christians and had followed the biblical principles to the core in their marriage and bring up their children. Growing up with Jane; my younger sister was the best thinks that happened to me during my childhood life.
Jane was such an admirable damsel that everybody will love her to be his/her sister. Like my mum, Jane was so soft, kind-hearted and respectful despite having a photocopy face of my beautiful mum. I grow up to love her as my only sister. I care and protected her like the only think I have got to live on as mum will always remind us to watch each other’s back that the world is full of wicked people even our friend cannot be exempted most at time.
Due to child bearing issue my parent had, there was a huge age gap between Jane and me. I was 9 years older than her and you could decipher why I love her so much. Those days, I had nobody to play with or defend me whenever I go out to play with other kids in the street and if there happened to be a misunderstanding, other kid will always queue behind their own. It doesn’t matter who was a faulty and the saying goes ‘’ blood is thicker than water’’. So, when Jane was born not only was dad and mum admired her as an angel, I took upon myself to ensure nobody; I mean nobody gets to hurt her in anyway.
We have lived there the coast of Canebay where my dad had spent over 30 years of his life as a fisherman. I cannot say dad was poor but he always took care of everything as a responsible father and we were better of as family than majority of the community even though I had always wished he was a bit richer than he was. So, I decided to surpass him in his trade a s I had little formal education. I personally decline to go to college so that Jane can go to any University of her choice. She was such a brilliant and smart girl. Every other day accept on Sundays, I got out with dad to fish at different fishing sites in the sea. I actually learnt a lot from him and mum on the other hand is the chief trader of the house. Before we come back from the sea, she has sold all the fish caught the previous night or day.
On that freaky Friday the weather was quite promising as usual and there was no sign that the face of the weather will change anytime soon. So, dad informed me that we shall go fishing across the shore. There was this spot in the sea dad had told me he had been lucky catching fish there and for over 5 years I started following him, during the winter whenever we get to this spot, we are always blessed with big catch.
We took a 30 minutes journey to the Canbay sea, went to our hurt where dad normally anchor the canoe. I have packed in all the fishing tools needed. Mummy had handed a flask of food and dad brought along some hot drinks that will often use to counter the cold breeze in the night. Dad gave mum a huge and promised to bring big catch home as she wished us good luck. I waved at mum and she beams with a smile that reminds me of Jane.
‘’Please call Jane tonight’’ I told mum
When it was time after taking some rest, I pushed the canoe to the sea shore and we sailed off. The relationship between me and dad was mutually excellent and we discussed at length on different topics.30 minutes later, the cloud began to change speedily. We thought it was one of those rains gathering cloud that forms and disappeared. The cloud is becoming darker with visible lightening with no sound at first. Dad with experience said the cloud will fizzle soon as we continued our sail.
Then came a thunder sound banging at close range with lightning hitting all over the place, this was accompanied by sea storm that was rocking our canoe. Dad advised we stop sailing and move close to sea coast nearby. Before I could respond to him, our canoe was hit by thunder. The canoe nosedived into the storm along the wind direction. I was just shouting to reach out to dad as we could barely hear ourselves. The lightening was striking non-stop and before I could know it, dad had fallen off the canoe as it shot up from his end. I held unto the canoe with all the energy I could muster. The last I saw dad was when the canoe threw him up the sea.
Dad was a good swimmer but age must have taken toll of him. I believe he must have tried swimming his way out of the storm but the turbulent water surface had posed a challenge which could have probably toast him a few times in the air.
I was just there helpless; there was nothing I could do. There have been little noise about wearing life jacket to fishing in the sea but dad had another view of it and I have imbibed it. Life jacket was never fisher men thing in Canabay, the fishing community didn’t value it much as almost all the fisher men could swim and there were scanty incidents in the sea.
After some couple of minutes the storm subsided and I was still holding unto the canoe with little energy remaining in me. I managed to enter the boat, relaxed for a couple of seconds as my eyes were all over the place looking out for dad. The canoe rocked a few times before I could lay hold of the oat and paddled it around the area to see if I could see dad. But the more I tried the more I never believed dad was gone. I spend virtually some more 3 hours roaming the sea looking for him until it down on me to call other canoe some miles away to help me search for dad.
We toured the whole place and few more hours later, we saw dad couple floating on the sea surface some meters away. An indifferent cold caught me but people from the other canoe held me and took me off shore. When I got home here is mum cry already. ‘’Who must have told her the tragedy that struck’’ I asked myself. Anyways, bad news fly faster than good one. On getting to some inches close, mum sighted me amidst the crowd, she ran, held me and broke the final news that sent my world to a total collapse and steering at my face for some few seconds. We were crying together.
‘’Jane is dead’’ she said.
‘’She went swimming with some friends and got carried away by the tide’’
M head swelled as I wonder in disbelieve. I was exhausted already and couldn’t give out a shout. I by passed her, went to the pavement and sat. I spent hours upon hours trying to believe it was all a movie.
‘’Oh, my only jewel is taken away from me’’
‘’what I wicked world we live’’ I moaned her and dad all days and my soul searches for peace and answers. This was the worst freaky Friday of my life.
This is my entry for the week on @pete freaky Friday contest as my part to sensitize fisher men and swimmers on the need to always wear a life jacket in the sea. For entry, please see below
https://scorum.com/en-us/fishing/@pete/it-s-the-first-freaky-friday-of-2019
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