boat

I was standing in a small row boat with B. The boat was rocking on the waves, tipping; a gentle and rhythmic seesawing. I was trying to iron a white, long-sleeved business shirt. As I was ironing one sleeve, the other would dip into the water. I would try to iron that sleeve dry and another part of the shirt would be lapped by the ocean swell. Eventually, I put the shirt aside. As we talked, B and I could see a young boy in an even smaller boat than ours, a little further out to sea. He was facing the shore, looking back at us. Behind him, a giant grey and shiny-scaled fish was moving through the water, as long as the largest of blue whales, but most certainly a fish. We watched as it passed behind him, rising up and diving down, so that its gleaming back and fins arched above the water’s surface. The fish seemed to go on and on, inspiring our awe at its mammoth size. All the while, the boy, unaware of the huge fish so close to him, watched us from his little boat.