week 6

UNDER THE OPEN SEA

Once upon a time in the pristine depths of the Mediterranean Sea, there was this town on the coast of Italy that fell into the sea. It was this quaint Italian town built on cliffs that towered over the Mediterranean Sea.  On a clear bright sunny day, sunrays passed through the water like sparkles lights that lit up the ruins of the fallen town. Schools of fish could be seen swimming towards this ruin.  Now, it was inhabited by all kinds of sea creatures common in the Mediterranean Sea.  The town was covered in algae and overgrown by coral.  The ruins were thriving with live-moving shells with its inhabitants, clams, lobsters, crabs of all sizes and other weird-looking sea creatures that hid in the many crevices of the fallen town.  Tall seaweed stalks anchored themselves between the rubble of the town’s buildings and rusted-out mangled and twisted motor vehicles of that day.  This was the final end of that quaint Italian town.

Above this town’s ruins, a boat threw its anchor overboard. A young and eager new diver named Kai, was ready to explore this underwater world. He was 13 years old, who swam most of his life in pools, but just got his diver’s certification. He was going out diving with his family’s relatives who fished and dived for a living.  They wanted to initiate him to the family business. 

Kai and the group of family divers jumped off the boat. “Splash!” The blue clear water of the Mediterranean was cold and caused goose bumps to spontaneously appear all over Kai’s body.  Now, breathing through the mouthpiece attached to his oxygen tank, Kai swim down to the ruins with the group. The light had dimmed as he swam deeper and deeper to get to the old fallen town. Old cars from the 1920s and 1930s were scattered everywhere.  Many of them had come to rest on the sea’s floor in different positions and smashed up.  The cars were rusted and overgrown with algae and coral. The buildings’ rubble was overtaken by coral formations.  Long stalks of seaweed swayed to the currents of the sea as they reached towards the sea’s surface.  Kai and the other divers swam in search of treasures and antiques hidden in the ruins of this quaint Italian town.  Suddenly as Kai swam through the tall, thick stalks of seaweed, he hears what sounds like a song. Kai swam toward the sound leaving the group.  The soothing sounds got louder and louder.  Finally, he spotted an amazing creature sitting on a mound of coral.  

The creature looked like a mermaid.  It was covered in shiny jewelry, had a fish-like tail and long red flowing hair on its head.  Kai quickly swam behind the tall seaweed to hide.  The fish swam around the mermaid while she sang. Suddenly the mermaid turned around and spotted Kai in the seaweed. She swam towards him. Kai was surprised by her action. His eyes were wide open through his facemask.   She said, “Who are you?” Kai tried to talk to her but his mouthpiece attached to his oxygen tank prevented him and he just made sounds and bubbles.. The mermaid could not understand him.  Then suddenly a net dropped from above and over the mermaid. Kai said “No!!!” and tried to motion “no” again with his hands.  The divers captured the mermaid.  The mermaid was struggling in the net as they swam her back up to the boat.

Back up on the boat, Kai sat in his cabin disappointed and sad watching the mermaid get captured.  The men on the ship put her in a container filled with seawater and put her in a storage cabin off the main deck. Kai try to run to her but one of the older men stopped him.  As he sat there in deep thought about what was going to happen to the mermaid; he suddenly got up.  He slowly opened the door of his cabin, looked down the hall and quietly slipped out of his cabin. He walked down the hallway and up the stairs to get to the deck the mermaid was on.  When he got to the storage cabin, he saw her in a very large water tank.  She laid there motionless and appeared sad. Kai walked up to the tank. He puts his hands on the glass and tapped it. The mermaid turned her head to Kai.  Kai shouted, “I’m going to try to get you out!” Kai started looking around for something to break the tank. He picked up a hammer that he found in a toolbox.  He told her to hang on.  He then grabbed a smaller tank that barely fit her size and filled it with seawater. Kai smash the big tank with the hammer.  The seawater rushed to fill the cabin floor.  Kai moved back. The mermaid was on the floor trying to breath. Kai ran to her and picked her up and put her inside the small tank of seawater.  Kai said, “Hang in there”.  Kai covered the tank with a large white cloth and placed the tank on a dolly. Outside, Kai looked and made sure know one was following him.  He pushed and raced the dolly toward the bow of the boat.  As he took off the cloth from the tank, the mermaid looked at him as she put her hands on the glass of the tank. Kai opened the railing gate on the side of the boat.  Suddenly, one of the crew men spotted Kai, “Hey you what are you doing!”  Kai quickly shouted to the mermaid “GO AND GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE YOU GET CAPTURED.” The mermaid looked at him and jumped out of the small tank and into the Mediterranean Sea.  Kai looked over the rails to watch the mermaid be free, swimming towards the sunset and disappearing into the horizon.