Prologue
‘The Sea is gone’
‘The Sea is gone ... no , really !!’
The little girl panted as she shook her mother awake. The mother pulled herself out of the bed and
drew the curtains, spilling early morning sunshine into the room.
She squinted to look across the backyard that overlooked the bay of Fundy. She could not believe her eyes!
Attack of the Crabs
Once upon a time, long long ago, there was a small little
kingdom called Anrock near the Bay of Fundy.
The people in the kingdom were happy fishermen and women. They would all work through the day and get together
in the evening, sing and dance together.
Then one day, the kingdom was attacked by the ferocious
crabs of the underland.
Crabs of all shapes and sizes started crawling out of the
ocean. Crabs of all forms - big ones with large claws and small ones with small
pinchers and tiny ones with hairy spider like legs. Crabs of all colors –furious
red ones, greedy greenish ones, lazy brown ones and the snooty blue ones.
They came out of the ocean in hoards, overrunning the
fishing village. They gobbled up the fishing nets. They bit through the fishing
boats making them sink into the bottom of the ocean. They even climbed up the
roof of the houses and made big holes in them.
The fisher folks had to run away from the villages. The ones
those remained had to guard their houses round the clock. The men fought them with
swords. Then women joined the fight trying to keep the Crabs away from their
houses using pitchforks.
But the creepy, crawly creatures kept on pouring out of the
sea into the villages around the bay.
The fisher folks were losing the fight. The head of all the villages rode
to the King’s castle.
King Pembroke heard the plea of the unhappy subjects. “The Crabs have attacked our villages, please
help us …’, they pleaded.
The King was enraged. He took out his deadliest sword, assembled his
bravest soldiers, put on his strongest armor and rode on his fastest horse
towards the Bay of Fundy.
Prince of Clams
King Pembroke had many friends who lived in the ocean. He knew
that he would need their help to defeat the Crabs. So he stopped by the castle
of the Prince of Clams.
The prince lived in a castle that was different from all the
other castles in the world - it was under the ground! What looked like flat marshy
seabed next to the Bay, was actually the roof of the huge castle. Millions of clams stood guard of the Castle,
keeping watch through tiny peepholes
.
‘I am here to see the Prince of Clams’, King Pembroke announced.
The section of the ocean floor he was
standing in stared to move into the ground. He was greeted by the cheerful clicky voice of
the prince of Clam.
‘Good to see you my friend!’, the prince announced. The prince knew about the Crabs. ‘They have
come in from the underland’, he said somberly.
‘Can you help me?’, The King asked.
The clam clicked thoughtfully. He then clicked some more. ‘There
is one person who can help you ‘ , he finally declared. The king waited
expectantly as the clam clicked some more.
‘The God of the Sea – Poseidon’, the clam said after a
pause, ‘ the God of the sea can tame the crabs. The crabs need the sea to
survive …’
‘But I don’t know how to reach Poseidon …’ , King Pembroke voice had a hint of dejection. He had heard
about the legend of the God of sea who lived in deepest oceans – far far away
from the bay of Fundy.
‘But I know someone who does! ’, the prince of Clam said with
a cheerful click.
The Travelling Salmon
‘Yes , that is correct ‘ , the Atlantic Salmon said
twitching his snout ‘ I have met Poseidon ...’ , he wiggled his tail and twitched
his snout some more ‘ … met him several times …’ , he said in a calm monotonous
tone.
Prince clam had told the King that the Travelling Salmon was
back from his ocean trip. ‘The golly fellow comes back to the stream it was
born in. Imagine, traveling to all those wonderful faraway places in another continent,
only to come back here!’
‘The fish may be nuts, but I tell you - he knows Poseidon. He has surely
met him many times’, King Pembroke recalled Prince Clam’s words as he stood near the
Chamcook Lake talking to the Travelling Salmon. The lake was connected to the
ocean by the winding Chamcook river , which plunged down a huge waterfall
before merging into the bay.
‘Seven times ... I have met him seven times – once in each
of my ocean trips ..’ , the travelling salmon continued ‘ In fact Poseidon taught me how to jump up that waterfall - all twelve feet of it’ , The salmon flicked
its tail in the direction of the waterfall.
‘Can you convey our message
to Poseidon to help us? The Crabs are destroying the villages and they must be stopped!
‘ , the King made an earnest plea.
‘But the villagers have fished us to near extinction’, the
salmon replied. A tinge of sadness accentuated its monotonous voice, ‘They have
polluted the streams and built dams on the rivers that makes it impossible for
us to come back to the places we were born in …’
‘Why should I help you and your villagers ...’ , the
travelling Salmon stared at King Pembroke.
‘I will make sure you and your kind are protected ‘, The
King did not bat his eyelids ‘ Even if you choose not to help me … Travelling
salmon, that is a word that I give to
you today !’
The travelling salmon glided around the lake as several
other salmon joined him. They looked very happy. The salmon picked up speed and headed out
towards the river ‘ I will help you ‘, it said jumping over a rapid.
‘How will I know that you have conveyed him our message?’,
The king asked .
‘You will know’, the salmon said as it jumped down the
waterfall.
The Sea is gone
‘The Sea is gone!!’
The little girl panted as she shook her mother awake. The mother pulled herself out of the bed and
drew the curtains, spilling early morning sunshine into the room. She squinted her
eyes to look across the backyard that overlooked the bay of Fundy. She could not believe he eyes!
She picked up the pitchfork that was carefully placed beside
the door and cautiously walked out into the backyard of the house. The house was
perched on top of a cliff overlooking the bay.
The sea was indeed gone!
And the crabs had gone away with it!
Tears of joy welled into her eyes as she looked along the coastline
which was lined with thousands of men, women and children, waving their swords and
pitchforks into the air. A roar of cheer rang across the bay as the woman and
her little girl joined in.
King Pembroke stood with the men and women and stared at the
empty horizon.
‘You will know’
Epilogue
The sea did come back. In six hours to be precise. The nasty
Crabs of the underland did not come back with it. The Sea has been receding into
the horizon twice a day since then – perhaps just to make sure that the crabs
do not come back and terrorize the small little kingdom near the Bay of Fundy.
The breeding grounds of salmons are now protected in the
Kingdom.
Authors Note: Bay of Fundy in the Atlantic coast of North
America is known for the highest tides in the world. The sea level drops by more
than forty feet between the tides. The coastline recedes almost to the horizon in
a lot of places leaving the coastal fishing towns somewhat embarrassed with
their docks anchoring boats balanced on the dry ocean bed. Twice in a day, these
quaint seaside towns would transform to (just) quaint towns overlooking vast expanse
of ocean bed laden with silt and weeds.
I was sitting on the deck
of a cottage in one such town, trying hard to get out of an obstinate writer’s
block. The cottage (an amazing vacation rental) was perched on a cliff
overlooking the Bay of Fundy in St Andrews, Canada. A path wound down from the cottage
to the seashore where my kids were busy chasing crabs with enviable enthusiasm.
The crabs sought shelter in the receding
sea that was fleeing with an amazing pace because of the low tide.
‘Keep an eye on the kids’;
said my wife ‘I am going in to fix us some lunch’.
I nodded, fixing my gaze
at the two children who were squealing with delight digging out crabs of all
shapes and sizes from the ocean bed and putting them into a yellow bucket. ‘We
will let them all go after we are done playing’, my seven year old daughter had
assured me.
The kids went further
and further away from the cliff as the ocean receded, almost as if they were
chasing the ocean into a beating retreat.
I had found my story!
