My Bestfriend Got Eaten By A Shark

(The Road to the Sugar, 2009)

I met Marco in Oahu, when I started to studying art history there. We met at the first day, and his humor attracted me to start talking to him, and soon before I knew it we were buds.

Marco had grown up in Hawai’i, and spoke in animal sounds. I was the only who understood him, and so that might have led to our friendship, but I’d like to believe it was more than just that.
We had classes together, and often we’d escape, and just walk around, joking about everything, and life in general. We had only known each other for a week, and I already thought of him as my best friend, he was always good times, and he was the company you wanted in any condition, at any time.

When Carlos with his dumb Mohawk had provoked a shark at the dock, Marco and I thought it was funny to tease the great white by presenting our feet just before its giant jaws. I was holding my balance with my left foot in front of me and over the sea, I realized how stupid this was, and this moment of forgetfulness is usually how you end up doing something you’ll regret; only after it is too late. And like clockwork, Marco was laughing and took a misstep into the water.

It all changed at that moment, my world was warped, distorted, and flipped, and I felt disoriented for the shortest of moments, but long enough to feel the world was a scary place. I reached for Marco, and didn’t see the human-qualities he had anymore like the ability to walk upright and talk with a whale of sense of humor, instead I saw a killer whale in its environment, and for the first time it felt unnatural to see a whale in the sea. I pulled Marco up and he managed to kick off the shark, but I couldn’t lift him back on to the dock. He continued to splash and call in his whale tongue something I could no longer understand.

I pulled as hard as I could as a gathered crowd to watch all the excitement of the sea before them. I managed to get Marco on the dock again, and we were both breathing hard, and the fear hadn’t settle in both of our eyes and hearts. I knew I was losing a friend today, and in a way I feel like I had. I looked over to Marco, and saw nothing in his big black eyes, and that was when Jaws II came from the side of the dock, and grabbed Marco by the tail fin and took him back into the sea. I held on to Marco for as long as I could, and with all my strength I pulled, not wanting to lose my friend. The shark ripped away at Marco, and I felt my grip slowly fading, like a butterfly falling in the sky.
The sea turned red, and I was on the dock, alone, and I felt lost. I looked down at my hands, and they were still red from the previous struggle, he was gone. I lost my bestfriend today, and there was nothing I could do, he belonged to the sea, and I belonged to the land.

In a flash of memories before me I saw a montage of the best moments Marco and I had together. His sense of humor will live on I told myself as I got back up and looked at that useless crowd and said in the voice of Marco, “Oh Well”.