Tony had continued diving and taking
courses for higher levels of diving skills.
One day, the dive master told his students that they would be diving at
the manta ray feeding grounds. That
morning, Tony checked out his diving gear, filled his tank and joined the
others on the dive boat.
Tony had seen pictures of mantas, and he
had watched videos of divers swimming with mantas. The actual experience of seeing mantas close
up was another matter altogether.
Mantas have very large mouths, but they eat
only the smallest creatures in the sea.
They swim around with their mouths open wide enough to swallow thousands
of these tiny sea creatures.
From time to time, a manta would get
curious about Tony and the other people who were swimming near them. The manta would then swim close to them and
pass over them. Tony excitedly took
pictures and videos of the mantas as they passed near his fellow divers. Other divers did the same for Tony.
Tony and the other divers had exchanged
email addresses and promised to post their videos and pictures on line. By doing this, they’d be able to share
pictures and videos of themselves swimming close to these gentle giants.
After several dives like this one, the dive
boat returned to the Chamorro Bay Resort.
The divers returned each item of gear to its proper place and returned
to their hotels. Tony returned to the
local home where he had been staying for the past several days.
It rained that night. Tony slept fairly well for most of the
night. Just before sunrise, he was
awakened by a noise outside. Then he
heard voices in the Kanifay language. He
wasn’t sure, but one of the people sounded like the owner of the house where Tony
was staying. Tony quickly got dressed
and went outside to see what the problem was.
“It was that fox again,” the homeowner
said to Tony.
“You saw it?” Tony asked.
“No, but look. You can see its footprints.” He pointed to the footprints near their
feet. “What do you say we follow these
prints and see where they lead?”
“Okay.
I’d like to know that myself.”
Tony wasn’t really sure he wanted to know, because the footprints
already looked as though they led toward Cindy’s house. As they followed the footprints, Tony asked
the homeowner, “Has the fox ever killed any of your chickens?”
“Not yet,” the man said, “but it’s only a
matter of time before it does eat one.
Foxes do like to eat chickens. I
want to get that fox before I lose any chickens.”
“As much as foxes like chickens, don’t you
think it’s strange that the fox has never killed any of your chickens?”
“It’s a strange fox.”
The fox’s footprints continued leading
toward Cindy’s house. Shortly after
sunrise, Tony noticed something strange about the footprints. “What’s this?” he asked. “The footprints look different. They don’t look like fox footprints.”
“They don’t look like any kind of
footprints I’ve ever seen before,” the man said looking into Tony’s eyes.
“What do you think it is?”
“I don’t know. Let’s keep following the prints.” As they kept following the footprints, the
footprints kept changing, little by little.
After a time, the homeowner looked at Tony and asked, “What do you make
of it, Tony?”
“I don’t want to get anybody into
trouble—”
“Just say what you’re thinking.”
“These are a girl’s footprints. As near as I can figure, the fox ran from
your house and went toward where we are now.
Back there, where the footprints look strange, the ground must have been
slippery. Then here, a girl came and
picked up the fox and carried it away.”
“Do you see a girl’s footprints leading
toward the place where she picked up the fox?”
“No, sir, I don’t.”
“Then no girl walked this way to pick up a
fox. When you saw the strange-looking
footprints back there, did you see any sign of the fox slipping on anything?”
“No, sir, I didn’t. What could have happened?”
“Let’s just follow the footprints and see
where they lead.”
They followed the footprints until they
ended at a stone path. The homeowner
looked down the path and said, “Just like last time. The prints end at the same place as before;
and foxes don’t leave footprints on a stone path.”
“What’s this all about?” Tony asked. “I don’t understand it.”
“Let’s go back to the house and talk about
it. As we go back, I want you to take a
careful look at the way the footprints change.”
When Tony and the homeowner were back at
the house, Tony said, “I think I know what you’re going to tell me, but I have
a hard time believing it.”
“You think I’m going to tell you about a
local superstition. What do you think it
is?” the man asked.
“Are you going to tell me that there’s a
girl out there who turns into a fox?”
“You saw the same footprints I did. You also saw the fox’s footprints turn into a
girl’s footprints.”
“They looked
as if they had turned into a girl’s footprints.
There may be another explanation for what we saw.”
“Such as?”
“I don’t know. Do you really believe that Cindy is a fox?”
“Not until this morning, when I saw the
footprints. I believed she had been
keeping a fox. Now I’m thinking, yes,
she’s a fox fairy.”
The words fox fairy surprised Tony; he had never heard of fox fairies. “What’s a fox fairy?” he asked.
“Foxes aren’t native to the Carolines,”
the homeowner began. “They were brought
here from Japan just before the Pacific War.
As for fox fairies: On Kanifay Island, all we can know about them are
the stories from all over the world, especially East Asia. A fox fairy—also called a fox spirit—is a
spirit that can turn into a fox or a person—usually a beautiful young
woman. To change into a fox or a woman,
they have to use some kind of energy, such as energy from the sun or the
moon. There are different stories, so
some fox fairies are good and some are dangerous.”
“Why would she be a fox by day and a
person by night instead of the other way around?” Tony asked.
The homeowner said, “Foxes do most of
their hunting at night, between nine and midnight, and between three o’clock
and sunrise. That may be it; or maybe
the moon changes her into a fox, and the sun changes her back again. I don’t know.”
The man looked straight into Tony’s eyes
and said, “You two seem to be getting along very well. I know you’ll want to keep her safe.” When he saw that Tony wasn’t sure how to
answer him, the man said, “It’s all right.
Everybody likes her; I like her, too, but there’s still a law. If anybody sees her in her fox form, he can
kill her and get $100 for it. Even if
nobody on Kanifay Island is willing to kill her, there’s still the Caroline
Island government’s Department of Safety.
They’re very serious about getting rid of all the foxes on Kanifay
Island. They may not give us any choice
in the matter.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know if there’s anything you can
do; but, if you can, see if you can talk with her.”
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