The boy stands atop sharkfin rock, closes his eyes against the orange dawn, sucks in one last breath, and dives.
Breaking the skin of the sea is like slipping inside a new universe. The right universe. Before his father left for the north to join the revolutionaries, he said the boy was born for the sea. His long-limbed body is awkward on land, but shimmies with dolphin grace underwater. Even at thirteen, his lungs are stronger than any man in the village and salt barely stings his eyes.
Underwater, the boy is his true self. Underwater, he is free. Underwater, there is no war.
He left his spear behind. He’ll hunt later, return home with enough fish dangling from his spear to make his mother smile. Right now he is a seeker, not a hunter, and finds Lord Fish at once, looping gracefully around coral pinnacles. Lord Fish knows the boy is here for he lazily swipes his vast tail and cruises away from the coral.
Lord Fish should have moved to other waters by now, but the boy is sure it lingers for him. It wants to tell him something, but these swims always end in the same place—the mouth to an underwater cave. The first time, he imagined treasure and wriggle-swam through the underwater tunnel until it opened into a great airy cavern. Empty, its dark broken only by a crack in the rock above.
Yet still he lets Lord Fish bring him here, sure there must be a reason.
They swim back, the boy’s fingers gripping a fin, until his lungs scream for air and he pushes back up to the other, more frightening universe. He dives again with his spear but Lord Fish is gone. The boy pins a marbled grouper to coral, blood blossoming. His mother will be happy.
That afternoon, the moment the village has long feared is finally upon them. The two armies approach the village from both sides. Each army has foreign friends, who have brought machines that are dragons, flying and breathing fire.
Rattan and bamboo homes are shredded by the bombs. Far across the palms he sees the market ablaze and knows he no longer has a mother.
Everything is panic. The people run into the gunfire of enemies. Palms crackle with fire, burning fronds falling and spreading flames. No escape.
And then the boy remembers the cave. He carries his screaming, twisting little sister to the rock and they leap.
Lord Fish is gone, his promise fulfilled. The boy kicks hard to the promontory even as bullets whistle overhead. He tells his little sister to take a deep breath, and hold onto his foot.
Down they dive, to the underwater cave and despite his sister’s thrashing panic, they make it through to the great dark cavern. The boy holds his shaking sister. The sound of bombs can still be heard, but far away. Here they are safe, even if only for one more day.
