During the next two weeks or so, Tony kept
himself busy learning what he could about scuba diving skills, and practicing
he newly learned skills in diving.
Cindy, still on her summer vacation, made traditional handicrafts and
danced at the Kanifay Living History Museum every Thursday. Each Tuesday and Saturday, she made
traditional handicrafts and stick danced at the Kanifay Traditional
Village.
When Tony and Cindy were not busy with
those activities, they often found time to spend with each other. When they did so, they usually enjoyed
Kanifay Island’s attractions, events, other recreation, and food and
drink. Tony looked for chances to talk
with Cindy about whether she was a fox fairy; but the more he thought about
what he might say, the crazier the thought seemed to him.
Then the time came for him to take a plane
to Abba Tuda Island and stay there for a few days for a few wreck dives. Abba Tuda was around 930 miles from Kanifay
Island, but there was no direct flight from Kanifay to there. Tony would have to fly 525 miles to Guam,
then another 625 miles to Abba Tuda.
Since only one flight a week went from Guam to Kanifay, Tony would be
away from Kanifay Island for a week. If
any fox-related problems came up, Tony would not be able to help Cindy; he
probably wouldn’t even know about the problem until he returned to Kanifay
Island.
Abba Tuda Island was one of the best wreck
diving sites on Earth. During the Battle
of Abba Tuda Island from February 17-19, 1944, very many ships and airplanes
had been sunk. Over sixty Japanese ships
and dozens of planes were lying on the bottom of Abba Tuda Bay. Tony looked forward to putting on his diving
gear and taking a look at a few of them.
After Tony and the other divers had landed
at Abba Tuda International Airport, they rode a shuttlebus to the bay. For the next few days, their home would be a
small ship called the SS Lori Price. On the Lori
Price, they would eat all their meals, sleep, get to know each other
better, and follow orders from the ship’s captain. The Lori
Price would also be their dive ship.
The captain of the Lori Price told the divers that there were no aircraft carriers or
battleships sunk in Abba Tuda Bay. The
captain explained why. A week before the
famous battle, the Japanese learned that the Americans would attack. For that reason, when the attack came, all
the larger ships were at sea.
Tony and the others dived many times over
the next few days, but I’ll describe a few of their dives.
One of the ships was lying on its
side. Since the water in that place was
not very deep, the divers didn’t have to swim more than a few feet to get to
it. Also, because the water wasn’t very
deep there, the ship was covered with coral.
After seventy years under the waters of the bay, the warship had become
a beautiful garden of undersea plants and animals.
One of the places on this ship the divers
saw was room number five. There they
found shells for their very large guns.
The shells weighed almost as much as a small shuttlebus and could be
fired more than fifty miles. They were
some of the biggest shells in the world.
Another ship was in water 140 feet
deep. Because it was that deep, the ship
wasn’t covered with coral; not much coral grows that deep. On that ship, the divers saw a small machine—the
kind that farmers drive when they work on their land. Inside the ship, they saw many bombs that
weighed 100 pounds each. When the divers
swam from the ship, they were glad to get away from the bombs.
Another ship was in 150 feet of
water. During the war, that ship had
been used to carry water to Japanese-held islands that didn’t have any fresh
water. On that ship, the divers saw a
small, two-person tank. That ship didn’t
have much coral on it either.
Still another ship was very close to the
top of the water. That ship was like a
forest, with coral and many other animals and plants all over the side of the
ship. Large and small, colorful fish
swam in and out of the ship, and all over it. Inside the ship, they found
airplanes, extra parts for airplanes, and many other things. Near the front of the ship, on the inside,
they found a Zero fighter plane.
One of the last ships the divers visited
was a large ship called the Montevideo. The Montevideo
wasn’t a warship; it was a ship from the nation of Uruguay, and it had carried
tourists. The Montevideo was sunk because it happened to be in the wrong place at
the wrong time.
While Tony was enjoying a few days of
wreck diving, Cindy was going about her life, enjoying her final summer
vacation before starting her first year at Ponape Island State College, far
from Kanifay Island. Cindy decided to go boating with friends.
For thousands of years, Carolinians and
their Pacific Island relatives had been some of the best sailors in the
world. With their sailboats, they
traveled long distances even as far east as Panama and Colombia.
The Carolinians have continued their
tradition of making sailboats. It takes
several Kanifay natives—usually young men—several months to make a sailboat. When it’s finished, it belongs to everyone
who built it; they can enjoy it together.
One of Cindy’s friends, who had helped
build a sailboat, invited her to join him and his friends in sailing. On the afternoon that Tony was getting ready
to return to Kanifay Island, Cindy went sailing near the island.
No one was sure just how the accident
happened. All anyone knew was that a
careless person on another boat got too close to the boat on which Cindy was
sailing. When they tried to keep from
hitting the boat, the hit a rock that they didn’t see because it was underwater. Cindy fell against something and hurt her
head and caused it to bleed. Cindy’s
friends returned to the land and took her to a hospital as quickly as
possible. They tried to call her father,
but her father was on a fishing trip near another island.
It was late in the afternoon. Cindy kept asking what time it was, and saying
that she had to leave to go home. The doctor
refused to let her leave because he said that he needed to keep her in the
hospital for a few days to make sure she would be all right. Cindy kept saying that she had to leave to go
home. Finally, a nurse gave Cindy a shot
to make her sleep.
In another hour or so, the sun went down,
and it began to get dark. While a nurse was in Cindy’s hospital room caring for
Cindy, the nurse saw a change come over Cindy.
The nurse quickly pressed a button to call for a doctor. Then she turned on a light to make sure that
she saw what she thought she was seeing.
A moment later, the nurse and the doctor watched as Cindy, still
sleeping, turned into a fox.
“Doctor,” the nurse said, “shall I call
the Department of Safety?”
“No,” the doctor said. “Call the chief of police.” As the nurse turned to leave, the doctor
called her back and said, “And don’t tell anyone else about this. We should let the chief of police decide what
to do.”
“Are you saying that you don’t even want
the Department of Safety to know about this?”
“Especially not the Department of Safety.”
After making many calls over the next few
hours, the hospital finally reached Cindy’s father. Cindy’s father quickly went to the hospital
and talked with the doctor and the chief of police. Then he made an emergency call to Tony aboard
the SS Lori Price. After explaining the problem to Tony, Cindy’s
father said, “Get back here as soon as possible; and don’t say anything to
anybody about this.”
Tony had no idea how he could be of any
help, but he was willing to do whatever he could.
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