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COPYRIGHT

  The Old Gringo And The Sea

  By Danilo Galbraith

  Copyright 2015 Danilo Galbraith

  Cover by Danilo Galbraith

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  INDEX

  Copyright

  The Old Gringo And The Sea

  About The Author

  Promotional Code

  THE OLD GRINGO AND THE SEA

  1.

  Two young sailors were ten miles away the northern coast of Ecuador when they suddenly felt the first bumps on the bottom of the vessel.

  Like every morning, they went out for fishing, to bring something to their families.

  Those shots didn't prelude anything good, especially with the rumors spreading in the village of Asuncion. Those waters seemed to be infested by a sea monster: a giant and terrible octopus. The rumors started a couple of months ago and were magnified by the mysterious disappearance of a vessel and its crew. This episode dated only a week before that morning.

  After two hours of sailing, those initial warning shots weren't followed by any other worrying sign. Anyway the sailors didn't feel serene. The situation remained silent but they were too aware of the threat represented by those sounds.

  "It's returning" Gerardo said. He was the most mature of the two fishermen. On his face, already marked by sea and fatigue, there was a couple of blacks whimsical mustache. The sea taught him to be pessimistic.

  "Maybe it decided to leave us alone" Alfonso said. He was a skinny but fierce boy. His hypothesis was expressed with hope, but without conviction.

  "It's returning" Gerardo repeated gravely.

  As if someone heard their words, the silence on the boat became strangely painful and the air started to be filled by an unexplained smell.

  Suddenly a tentacle came out of the water, just few feets from the right side of the vessel, and drew an arc in the air, turning the tip in a sweeping circle on its main axis. Finally it shots like a whip toward the young Alfonso.

  The boy dodged the threat rapidly. A flick of the last second, a reflex escaped from the sudden terror of that vision. Gerardo looked at his companion running below deck.

  "No!" he shouted "Don't move!"

  He learned a useful tip in case of unfortunate encounters with sharks: don't fret if you don't want to appear as a target.

  That tip should have been considered as useful even in this situation. A new tentacle came out from the left side and intercepted Alfonso. Its stinging suckers rubbed on the arms of the poor boy, recognizing their prey, and began to entangle around his thin body. The poor guy threw some terror screams.

  "Diablo!" Gerardo swore.

  He picked up the harpoon from a corner of the vessel. His determination was exalted by desperation and fear. Chasing a cry to give himself courage, he rushed toward the tentacle. Another horrible limb of the monster tried to catch him but he swerved it. He finally dived, with the recklessness of the adrenaline, to strike the slimy texture of the tentacle imprisoning his partner.

  The monster seemed to express a burst of anger directly from the depths of the sea. The tentacle still created havoc in the vessel, but plunged into the sea along with the other arts of the monster.

  For the rest of the trip, the two sailors didn't speak. Alfonso trembled all the time, staring into the void. Gerardo asked him to reach the shore in the shortest possible time. The operation succeeded, without further incidents.

  2.

  Asuncion was a small village between sea and mountains. The sea was the immense Pacific Ocean, the mountain was the rather modest hill that the people of Asuncion nicknamed "San Jose hump."

  The town of Asuncion was composed by a few fishermen's houses and a recently paved square, decorated with a couple of benches and several flower beds. That area represented the “official” town square.

  It was Sunday and a public village meeting was held for the first time in the history of Asuncion. All the people gathered around a makeshift stage, consisting of a wagon. On it the administrative head of the village stood with authority.

  "Try to understand" the headman said. His name was Heribert and all that he wanted was to calm down the people around him "I may bring the matter to the central government but I can't mention similar patterns."

  "But there's a monster!" a fisherman screamed. He was rapidly supported by other ones, in an attitude of protest.

  The issue mentioned by Mr. Heribert was the giant polyp that menaced the fishery with its dreadful presence. The fishing activity, for decades, had always been accomplished with slow rhythms, and punctuated by the regular passage of the time and the seasons. The mysterious disappearance of a vessel and its crew was a traumatic event for the honest people of Asuncion, but was accepted, as well as other tragedies happened over the years. The sea had always been hostile. The problem, according to Mr. Heribert, was the supernatural element that surrounded the accident had been, exalted by the rumors and the alleged sightings of the monstrous octopus. Those unpleasant rumors found the definitive consecration through the testimony of Alfonso and Gerardo who referred the close encounter with the giant tentacles of the creature.

  Mr. Heribert could not suggest to his people any kind of claim against the central government of Ecuador. He believed that causing troubles or worries couldn't help him or his career opportunities.

  Similarly, Gerard concluded that he could not expect any support from that man or anybody else in the town square.

  "Let's go Alfonso!" he said loudly "It's a wast of time!"

  Alfonso really wanted to stop him but his mouth couldn't even open. The commander of his vessel had already started to stride toward home.

  "Gerardo, come back here!"

  It was like wasting breath. Alfonso was the only one who felt the texture of the slimy monster on his own skin. He knew that the villagers, in their own way, had tried to find a solution for the problem. But in the end, everyone was unable to deal with it. So denying the problem would soon have been easier.

  After all, there had always been some sort of legends. The coast of Ecuador had always been very rich of them. Tales of newts, sirens and supernatural beings who appeared in front of amazed sailors. They were on the agenda in the past. The giant polyp was simply destined to add itself to the other weirdos.

  The only problem was that Alfonso could not trick himself. Those aberrant tentacles touched his skin. Gerardo assumed an attitude of resignation. The people in the square of Asuncion were only able to make two hours of chat. Alfonso would have been left alone. And eventually, in the future... treated as a madman.

  Even with this perspective in mind, he understood very well that trying to convince Gerardo was just useless. His friend have decided to leave the village. Maybe he would have tried to cultivate manioca in another country.

  He listened the talk for a while but, as expected, the assembly didn't generate any line of action against the giant octopus' threat. After expressing various abstract intentions, they went home together.

  'But I'm going to do something ... " Alfonso promised to himself. He had half a mind.

  3.

  In the depths of the ocean
, a being from another world finally began to feel in control. The memories of an old grievance roamed in the dark depths of his mind. The initial sense of disorientation, felt in those waters, was unknown. However, it was gradually decreasing. No other living being could hinder his power. The helpless creatures roaming in the ocean were weak and dull. They feared its mass and its ferocious wickedness. Only a few beings, weak and pathetic too, tried to assemble a minimal resistance to its relentless tentacles.

  Tanador (the name the giant polyp remembered to have) had studied them for some moments, like an entomologist in front of some insects. In those brief instants he felt the temptation to crush them without mercy. But something stopped him. Curiosity. Those beings were so weak, but not so dull. He had established a tenuous telepathic contact with one of them, touched by its suckers. His mind had revealed an unsuspected depth. That's why he was still alive.

  Tanador was feeling that the key to understand this new world was in his mind. Maybe, probing the depths of his brain, it would have been possible to understand its real enemy and his chances.

  Swimming lazily, Tanador prepared for a long wait.

  4.

  At home, Alfonso communicated his decision to his parents and his sister Marisol:

  "I'm going to Quito, to seek help from the Old Gringo."

  "Who?" Marisol asked.

  "The Old Gringo" He answered. Pointing at his father he said: "You told me that ten years ago he helped some villagers in the neighborhood against the wicker landowners and the local criminals."

  The Old Gringo was one of the many legends of his childhood. He was described as an elder ex-mercenary who served the oppressed people. No one knew whether to defend the good, or to atone for the sins and iniquities committed during his personal skirmishes. A lot of villagers pursued his myth, facing with many lights and even some shade. His supporters appreciated the goodness of his cause and his indomitable spirit. His detractors called him “stubborn warmonger”. Alfonso only knew that he needed a myth to destroy another one.

  “I know him" the father laconically replied "But I don't know where he is at the moment. And I don't know if he is willing to help us...".

  "I'm going to try a tour of Quito bars" Alfonso said "everything will just be better than sitting idle while my future is taken away under my feet."

  "Be careful" his anxious mother said "You know, your father wanted to be an hero once upon a time. See him now ..."

  Alfonso's father intervened a few years ago during a robbery, in defense of the victim. His right leg was wounded and he could no longer go to sea. His fisherman job finished and since than he could only sit on the shore, mending nets and trying to sell the few fish his son could get during in his sea sessions.

  "But a bad result doesn't mean a bad choice" the father said "Go Alfonso. Just do the right thing."

  "I'm going" he simply said.

  5.

  It was night. The seedy bars in Quito were a threat for decent people and a refuge for rogues and loafers. Alfonso, unfortunately for him, belonged to the first category. But he was there for a mission that didn't allow fear.

  The bar was called "La Luna Caliente". Outside the entrance, in the dirty street, two drunks were dozing on the sidelines while a bunch of other drunks were singing a weird version of a popular song. The smell of wine and various other spirits was intollerable.

  Inside the bar, the situation wasn't better. Alfonso coughed, entering in that dark and unwelcoming place. A smoky mist, charged by the smells of cigars and rum, floated in the air.

  Clearing his voice, Alfonso went up to the bartender, a seraphic man, almost bald except for a ridiculous half-circle of dirty hair.

  "I'm looking for the Old Gringo" Alfonso said.

  "Mh?" he replied without batting an eyelid.

  "I was told..."

  "You were told wrong!"

  A man of forty, with a red bandana on his head addressed Alfonso with an angry tone.

  "You should offer a drink. My friends are thirsty, you know" he grinned, extracting the blade of a lucent knife.

  "I really ..."

  "You... what?!?" The man shouted and putted the knife on his throat "Give me some money or I'll open a smile from ear to ear, passing under the chin."

  "I have no money ..."

  The bandana man took a step back. A second later his face revealed the features of the fury. Without warning, he kicked the stomach of Alfonso, who immediately bent over in pain, falling on his knees.

  "Maldido!" Mister Bandana shouted "Te mato! I'm killing you!"

  Alfonso barely had the time to lift his eyes to see what was going on. He only lowered his head, awaiting his fate.

  A few seconds later, nothing was happened.

  Alfonso decided to raise his eyes.

  "You said you was searching for me, boy. May I know why?".

  The speaker was a fierce-eyed elderly man. He had stuck the armed wing of Mr. Bandana with her wrinkled hand full of rings. His white hair were gathered in a ponytail and her figure was slender and athletic looking, even further streamlined and ennobled by a long gray raincoat. It was the Old Gringo, there were no doubts.

  "How do you dare, old man?" Bandana man said, angrily.

  In response, the Old Gringo twisted his arm until the man was forced to release the knife. Once on the floor, it was casted away by a kick.

  "Maldido!" Bandana screamed again "Help me!"

  Three dudes rushed. The carried iron bars, knives and broken bottles.

  A second was enough for The Old Gringo. He understood the situation and, without hesitations, he finished to twist the Bandana's arm, who screamed on the ground.

  The first big guy attacked him in the meantime, but he dodged his lunge. The Old Gringo removed the threat of his knife with the left hand, than dug the knuckles of his right hand directly on the opponent's carotid. The man started to cough for the shortness of his breath. Gliding with a supernatural agility behind the latter one, he used the body of the first one as shield against another one armed by a bar. At the same time, he shot a quick kick to the hand of the third one, who was wielding a broken bottle. The shattered glass injured his hand and he swore. The Old Gringo took advantage of the situation and launched a terrible fist against his face: he instantly fainted. The Old Gringo then launched the body of the first big guy against the second one like a sack of potatoes. The fight was easily held by him. He was able to parry and evade all their uncoordinated onslaughts. His raincoat accompanied his elegant movements, cutting the thick smoke of the room in a surreal choreography. Finally, a couple of well arranged shots putted K.O. the remaining menaces.

  Alfonso observed the fight open-mouthed.

  "Thanks for your help, boy" the Old Gringo said ironic, noticing that he remained motionless for the surprise during the whole battle.

  "I..."

  "We should go now" he interrupted "Let's talk in a different place. This is a bit too quiet for my taste."

  Jumping over the bodies of his unconscious enemies, he walked towards the exit. Alfonso followed him.

  6.

  "From what you describe, it seems to me that you have faced a giant polyp" the Old Gringo said.

  They were walking through the semi-deserted streets of Quito. The boy was explaining his big problem.

  "Since it appeared, it has sowed the terror across the coast and has led us to the downfall. No one is willing to risk his life for such a little reward. Someone even said that the monster is the devil himself. "

  "Mh?" The Old Gringo arched an eyebrow, skeptical.

  "Yes, the devil. There is something supernatural about that octopus. Something terrible. Very terrible. I can't even explain the bad feelings it gives to me... but it seems a very evil thing. "

  "Listen to me, boy" the Old Gringo replied, " When I was younger, I found myself in similar situations and tended to paint my enemy with my symbolic meanings, like you're doing now. This behavior didn't help me during the fight. I didn't even
help me to grow as a man. You are young. Please, leave these foolish thoughts to the philosophers. We're action men".

  "We are mere humans. I really don't know if we can be able to defeat it..." Alfonso said "But I want to give it a try. I can't keep living this way."

  The Old Gringo looked at the boy for a few seconds without speaking. Than he smiled. He liked his fragility and his insecurity but also his impetuosity.

  "Very good, boy. That's the spirit."

  Neither the Old Gringo nor Alfonso said nothing. The silence of the city was disturbed only by the steady beat of their footsteps. An high and senior figure in a grey raincoat and a young boy distressed looking, but sincere and honest, roamed the streets of Quito as if there was no tomorrow. Then the Old Gringo spoke.

  "There's nothing that can't be defeated by organization, human strength and determination. There's no time to underestimate us."

  Then, pointing his finger to the starry night, he said:

  "Tomorrow we're going to kick monsters, demons and polyps! Even if it's the last thing we'll ever do."

  And while a star was falling to the east side of the sky, Alfonso asked himself if he had chosen the right person.

  7.

  That first encounter with the Old Gringo was certainly a valid attempt to solve the problem. Anyway Alfonso spent the whole night awake.

  The villagers didn't approve the help of a foreign dude. The elder adventurer appeared too sure of himself. Many doubts were raised about his conduct, his plans of attack and even his mysterious past.

  Alfonso felt he was the only one supporting him.

  The Old Gringo had a simple but extremely dangerous plan: he would have patrolled the coast and sea areas in which the giant polyp was sighted. Once the he would have shown it his great firepower.

  In addition to these difficulties, Alfonso began to have nightmares in which the terrible sea monster seemed to hunt him down to the depths of his brain. He saw it huge and invincible while it was crushing him with its hideous mass, like an insect, with one of its supernatural tentacles. These nights of terror contributed to lower his enthusiasm for the collaboration with the Old Man. The distrust of the rest of the country contributed too.