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Dreams

I sat on the beach by the edge of the sea just after the sun went down. The colours
of the sand, the ocean, the sky, were dark and secret; deep blues, purples and greys.
The water came not in big waves, it gently lapped the sand at my feet.

A man had caught some fish to eat, an experienced fisherman, and they were laid
out before us. Each fish was strangely beautiful and very different from all the others
in shape and in colour. He spoke knowingly and affectionately of his fond prize, but
pointed out one whose flesh, he said, could not be eaten - it was poisonous. A
dark creature, purplish black.

I knew that in my turn I would be required to catch my own fish for food, alone,
without the fisherman's guidance. The poison fish worried me: who knows if there
weren't many dangerous species, and how was I to distinguish them from the good?
I had fished many times myself but always in fresh water, never in the sea. The
ocean fishes were strange and unknown to me.

Again I found myself on the shore, but now I was alone. And again everything was
quiet, dark and peaceful, and I was peaceful too. I looked in the the shallow
water at my feet and discerned small fishes swimming about, of four or five inches
in length. I was pleased to find them swimming so close to me, seemingly unafraid.
I decided to try to catch one in my bare hands, but I was sure that as soon as I
broke the surface they would all dart away alarmed.

But they didn't. I slipped a slightly trembling hand beneath a fish, and he stayed there,
hovering quietly. I gently made a cup around him and still he didn't flee. And then I
closed my hand competely and took him from the water. He flopped a bit in my palm
with his strong silver body, but I had the feeling that he trusted me and knew I
wouldn't hurt him. I was moved. I also caught some other fishes in this way, and I
let them all go.

I went back to where the fisherman had been but he was gone. His brightly coloured
fishes, much bigger than mine, lie still on the sand. So I set them free. I was relieved
to see them all quickly recover; they swam smartly into deeper water and into the
invisible. All but one, that is, who was slower to recuperate. It lay panting in the
shallows, tilted off balance. I worried that it wouldn't get better.