第6章 Tired of the Old Man

    it was getting into the afternoon and the boat still moved slowly and steadilybut there was an added drag now from the easterly breeze and the old man rode gently with the small sea and the hurt of the cord across his back came to him easily and smoothly

    once in the afternoon the line started to rise againbut the fish only continued to swim at a slightly higher levelthe sun was on the old man"s left arm and shoulder and on his backso he knew the fish had turned east of north

    now that he had seen him once,he could picture the fish swimming in the water with his purple pectoral fins set wide as wings and the great erect tail slicing through the darki wonder how much he sees at that depth,the old man thoughthis eye is huge and a horse,with much less eye,can see in the darkonce i could see quite well in the darknot in the absolute darkbut almost as a cat sees

    the sun and his steady movement of his fingers had uncramped his left hand now pletely and he began to shift more of the strain to it and he shrugged the muscles of his back to shift the hurt of the cord a little

    “if you"re not tired,fish,”he said aloud,“you must be very strange”

    he felt very tired now and he knew the night would e soon and he tried to think of other thingshe thought of the big leagues,to him they were the gran ligas,and he knew that the yankees of new york were playing the tigres of detroit

    this is the second day now that i do not know the result of the juegos,he thoughtbut i must have confidence and i must be worthy of the great dimaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel what is a bone spurhe asked himselfun espuela de hueso we do not have themcan it be as painful as the spur of a fighting cock in one"s heeli do not think i could endure that or the loss of the eye and of both eyes and continue to fight as the fighting cocks doman is not much beside the great birds and beastsstill i would rather be that beast down there in the darkness of the sea

    “unless sharks e,”he said aloud“if sharks e, god pity him and me”

    do you believe the great dimaggio would stay with a fish as long as i will stay with this onehe thoughti am sure he would and more since he is young and strongalso his father was a fishermanbut would the bone spur hurt him too much

    “i do not know,”he said aloud“i never had a bone spur”

    as the sun set he remembered, to give himself more confidence,the time in the tavern at casablanca when he had played the hand game with the great negro from cienfuegos who was the strongest man on the docksthey had gone one day and one night with their elbows on a chalk line on the table and their forearms straight up and their hands gripped tighteach one was trying to force the other"s hand down onto the tablethere was much betting and people went in and out of the room under the kerosene lights and he had looked at the arm and hand of the negro and at the negro"s facethey changed the referees every four hours after the first eight so that the referees could sleepblood came out from under the fingernails of both his and the negro"s hands and they looked each other in the eye and at their hands and forearms and the bettors went in and out of the room and sat on high chairs against the wall and watchedthe walls were painted bright blue and were of wood and the lamps threw their shadows against themthe negro"s shadow was huge and it moved on the wall as the breeze moved the lamps

    the odds would change back and forth all night and they fed the negro rum and lighted cigarettes for himthen the negro,after the rum,would try for a tremendous effort and once he had the old man, who was not an old man then but was santiago el campeon,nearly three inches off balancebut the old man had raised his hand up to dead even againhe was sure then that he had the negro,who was a fine man and a great athlete,beatenand at daylight when the bettors were asking that it be called a draw and the referee was shaking his head,he had unleashed his effort and forced the hand of the negro down and down until it rested on the woodthe match had started on a sunday morning and ended on a monday morningmany of the bettors had asked for a draw because they had to go to work on the docks loading sacks of sugar or at the havana coal pany otherwise everyone would have wanted it to go to a finishbut he had finished it anyway and before anyone had to go to work

    for a long time after that everyone had called him the champion and there had been a return match in the spring but not much money was bet and he had won it quite easily since he had broken the confidence of the negro from cienfuegos in the first matchafter that he had a few matches and then no morehe decided that he could beat anyone if he wanted to badly enough and he decided that it was bad for his right hand for fishinghe had tried a few practice matches with his left handbut his left hand had always been a traitor and would not do what he called on it to do and he did not trust it

    the sun will bake it out well now,he thoughtit should not cramp on me again unless it gets too cold in the nighti wonder what this night will bring

    an airplane passed overhead on its course to miami and he watched its shadow scaring up the schools of flying fish

    “with so much flying fish there should be dolphin,”he said,and leaned back on the line to see if it was possible to gain any on his fishbut he could not and it stayed at the hardness and waterdrop shivering that preceded breaking the boat moved ahead slowly and he watched the airplane until he could no longer see it

    it must be very strange in an airplane, he thought i wonder what the sea looks like from that heightthey should be able to see the fish well if they do not fly too highi would like to fly very slowly at two hundred fathoms high and see the fish from abovein the turtle boats i was in the cross-trees of the mast-head and even at that height i saw muchthe dolphin look greener from there and you can see their stripes and their purple spots and you can see all of the school as they swimwhy is it that all the fast-moving fish of the dark current have purple backs and usually purple stripes or spots the dolphin looks green of course because he is really golden but when he es to feed,truly hungry,purple stripes show on his sides as on a marlincan it be anger,or the greater speed he makes that brings them out

    just before it was dark, as they passed a great island of sargasso weed that heaved and swung in the light sea as though the ocean were making love with something under a yellow blanket,his small line was taken by a dolphinhe saw it first when it jumped in the air,true gold in the last of the sun and bending and flapping wildly in the airit jumped again and again in the acrobatics of its fear and he worked his way back to the stern and crouching and holding the big line with his right hand and arm,he pulled the dolphin in with his left hand,stepping on the gained line each time with his bare left footwhen the fish was at the stern,plunging and cutting from side to side in desperation,the old man leaned over the stern and lifted the burnished gold fish with its purple spots over the sternits jaws were working convulsively in quick bites against the hook and it pounded the bottom of the skiff with its long flat body,its tail and its head until he clubbed it across the shining golden head until it shivered and was still

    the old man unhooked the fish,rebaited the line with another sardine and tossed it overthen he worked his way slowly back to the bowhe washed his left hand and wiped it on his trousersthen he shifted the heavy line from his right hand to his left and washed his right hand in the sea while he watched the sun go into the ocean and the slant of the big cord

    “he hasn"t changed at all,”he saidbut watching the movement of the water against his hand he noticed that it was perceptibly slower

    “i"ll lash the two oars together across the stern and that will slow him in the night,”he said“ he"s good for the night and so am i”

    it would be better to gut the dolphin a little later to save the blood in the meat,he thoughti can do that a little later and lash the oars to make a drag at the same timei had better keep the fish quiet now and not disturb him too much at sunsetthe setting of the sun is a difficult time for all fish

    he let his hand dry in the air then grasped the line with it and eased himself as much as he could and allowed himself to be pulled forward against the wood so that the boat took the strain as much,or more,than he did

    i"m learning how to do it,he thoughtthis part of it anywaythen too,remember he hasn"t eaten since he took the bait and he is huge and needs much foodi have eaten the whole bonitotomorrow i will eat the dolphinhe called it doradoperhaps i should eat some of it when i clean itit will be harder to eat than the bonitobut,then,nothing is easy

    “how do you feel,fish”he asked aloud“i feel good and my left hand is better and i have food for a night and a daypull the boat,fish”

    he did not truly feel good because the pain from the cord across his back had almost passed pain and gone into a dullness that he mistrustedbut i have had worse things than that,he thoughtmy hand is only cut a little and the cramp is gone from the othermy legs are all rightalso now i have gained on him in the question of sustenance

    it was dark now as it bees dark quickly after the sun sets in septemberhe lay against the worn wood of the bow and rested all that he couldthe first stars were outhe did not know the name of rigel but he saw it and knew soon they would all be out and he would have all his distant friends

    “the fish is my friend too,”he said aloud“ i have never seen or heard of such a fishbut i must kill himi am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars”

    imagine if each day a man must try to kill the moon,he thoughtthe moon runs awaybut imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sunwe were born lucky,he thought

    then he was sorry for the great fish that had nothing to eat and his determination to kill him never relaxed in his sorrow for himhow many people will he feed,he thought but are they worthy to eat himno,of course notthere is no one worthy of eating him from the manner of his behavior and his great dignity

    i do not understand these things,he thoughtbut it is good that we do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the starsit is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers

    now,he thought,i must think about the dragit has its perils and its meritsi may lose so much line that i will lose him,if he makes his effort and the drag made by the oars is in place and the boat loses all her lightnessher lightness prolongs both our suffering but it is my safety since he has great speed that he has never yet employedno matter what passes must gut the dolphin so he does not spoil and eat some of him to be strong

    now i will rest an hour more and feel that he is solid and steady before i move back to the stern to do the work and make the decisionin the meantime can see how he acts and if he shows any changesthe oars are a good trick;but it has reached the time to play for safetyhe is much fish still and i saw that the hook was in the corner of his mouth and he has kept his mouth tight shutthe punishment of the hook is nothingthe punishment of hunger,and that he is against something that he does not prehend,is everythingrest now,old man,and let him work until your next duty es

    he rested for what he believed to be two hours the moon did not rise now until late and he had no way of judging the time nor was he really resting except parativelyhe was still bearing the pull of the fish across his shoulders but he placed his left hand on the gunwale of the bow and confided more and more of the resistance to the fish to the skiff itself

    how simple it would be if i could make the line fast,he thoughtbut with one small lurch he could break iti must cushion the pull of the line with my body and at all times be ready to give line with both hands

    “but you have not slept yet,old man,”he said aloud“ it is half a day and a night and now another day and you have not sleptyou must devise a way so that you sleep a little if he is quiet and steadyif you do not sleep you might bee unclear in the head”

    i"m clear enough in the head,he thoughttoo clear i am as clear as the stars that are my brothersstill i must sleepthey sleep and the moon and the sun sleep and even the ocean sleeps sometimes on certain days when there is no current and a flat calm

    but remember to sleep,he thoughtmake yourself do it and devise some simple and sure way about the linesnow go back and prepare the dolphinit is too dangerous to rig the oars as a drag if you must sleep

    i could go without sleeping,he told himselfbut it would be too dangerous

    he started to work his way back to the stern on his hands and knees,being careful not to jerk against the fishhe may be half asleep himself,he thought

    but i do not want him to resthe must pull until he dies

    back in the stern he turned so that his left hand held the strain of the line across his shoulders and drew his knife from its sheath with his right handthe stars were bright now and he saw the dolphin clearly and he pushed the blade of his knife into his head and drew him out from under the sternhe put one of his feet on the fish and slit him quickly from the vent up to the tip of his lower jawthen he put his knife down and gutted him with his right hand,scooping him clean and pulling the gills clearhe felt the maw heavy and slippery in his hands and he slit it openthere were two flying fish insidethey were fresh and hard and he laid them side by side and dropped the guts and the gills over the stern they sank leaving a trail of phosphorescence in the water the dolphin was cold and a leprous gray-white now in the starlight and the old man skinned one side of him while he held his right foot on the fish"s headthen he turned him over and skinned the other side and cut each side off from the head down to the tail

    he slid the carcass overboard and looked to see if there was any swirl in the waterbut there was only the light of its slow descenthe turned then and placed the two flying fish inside the two fillets of fish and putting his knife back in its sheath,he worked his way slowly back to the bowhis back was bent with the weight of the line across it and he carried the fish in his right hand

    back in the bow he laid the two fillets of fish out on the wood with the flying fish beside themafter that he settled the line across his shoulders in a new place and held it again with his left hand resting on the gunwalethen he leaned over the side and washed the flying fish in the water,noting the speed of the water against his handhis hand was phosphorescent from skinning the fish and he watched the flow of the water against it the flow was less strong and as he rubbed the sides of his hand against the planking of the skiff,particles of phosphorus floated off and drifted slowly astern

    “he is tiring or he is resting,”the old man said“now let me get through the eating of this dolphin and get some rest and a little sleep”

    under the stars and with the night colder all the time he ate half of one of the dolphin fillets and one of the flying fish, gutted and with its head cut off

    “what an excellent fish dolphin is to eat cooked,”he said“and what a miserable fish rawi will never go in a boat again without salt or limes”

    if i had brains i would have splashed water on the bow all day and drying,it would have made salt,he thoughtbut then i did not hook the dolphin until almost sunsetstill it was a lack of preparationbut i have chewed it all well and i am not nauseated

    the sky was clouding over to the east and one after another the stars he knew were goneit looked now as though he were moving into a great canyon of clouds and the wind had dropped