MAFIA 75: TROUBLE AT THE PRECINCT [HIDDEN]

[celaph]

ghug -- Conftown
Rumi -- Almost conf town. Aside from the fact that she has just acted very towny as many have already said, Rumi has confirmed peeked in a setup that disincentives peeking for mafia with the oracle.

PE -- Very town. Being wrong isn’t scum indicative and while PE was wrong on Snowy, his reasons for being wrong weren’t scummy. And besides that, his progression on people and the concern/paranoia that he is showing feels incredibly towny.
Bona -- Very town. The confidence that he is pushing forward with in this game while continuing to read it and build on his reads are hallmarks of town Bona.

Bo -- Lean town. He hasn't been the most active, but I found his early posts as he was catching up good. I think he’s aptly described rdr’s play in a way that aligns with my own views:

Oh, and rdr is doing that thing he did the last time I saw him as scum where he mentions that everything and everyone sucks and then gives himself an alibi until everyone forgets it happened so he doesn’t have to go into detail.

He gets town points for his vote D2 and EoN2 post about Neon. At the same time, I don’t see anything here that tells me he definitely couldn’t have been scum with Snowy in the same way that I feel about Bona.

Worcej -- Null to townlean. His early pressure on Neon looks extra good after HB’s flip. His votes D1 and D2 are both on Snowy/Byz counterwagons with little explanation. His surge in activity this night after learning that he has a vote back feels natural after moping about N3-D4, though I initially found his sadness at the lack of vote oversold. What has me leaning town are that there are a couple of posts that don’t feel like how mafia think, though maybe I’m just bad at mafia.

Truthfully, I believe the mafia players all know their tags by now. 1/17 chance to get the oracle is mighty low.

​​

Have me as the second highest wagon. Since I have the no-vote power, scum are never going to actually target me so if I accidently die then you're confirming snowy's slot is the BD and effectively loose nothing since my vote doesn't actually count.

If I was mafia and had this tag, why wouldn’t me and my team have freed me of it on N1?

If I was mafia - I would have peeked on D1 to know what tag I had to plan for the BD movement. I would do it regardless of the concern of accidentally hitting the self oracle. Knowing I have any special tag would be critical for executing the NK and BD actions.

Mechanically, there is no point as mafia to keep the tag on themselves because it effectively neuters the team by taking a vote away.

Otherwise, I am not going to fault you for reading me as defending Byz because that’s exactly what I was doing. I was just doing it as a stupid towny not trusting the origins of the case on Byz.

Chaqa -- Scumlean. Sheeping other people’s views I think Chaqa’s not unlikely to be doctor here; the way he approached the tags felt like he had a lot more info than other people. He should also be getting substantial townpoints for bringing the D1 Byz wagon up to tie with Damo.

That said, the way he moved off Snowy D2 doesn’t feel natural to me. At the start of the day, he end votes Snowy. Then, as it becomes clear that Snowy isn’t going to be immediately hammered, he gets off Snowy, but promises to come back to the wagon later. And then finds his way onto the Sabi wagon who, as of his previous comment, “was never a scumread” as soon as Chaqa becomes the primary Snowy CW.

He also came around on voting out Vecna, his strongest townread for most of the game, for some weak semi-mechanical info with no other defense of him. He didn’t seemed troubled to let his strongest townread go.


Rdr -- I think it’s likely he’s either VT or scum here and I’m leaning the latter, though it could be a smart play as either. I’m not a fan of the way that he’s been pushing on me.

[celaph]

And if that's true, it actually mostly clears bo, because whoever performed the kill had Martin Riggs and snowy ended the night with Elliot Ness.

There is no way to tell drivee from driver simply from name tags because everything moves in a loop.

[celaph]

paging celaph to the claims department, celaph to the claims department

*beep* *boop* (What noises do pagers make? I’m no boomer).

I am an A+ town who hasn’t yet peeked and will be peeking at the start of the day.

[Bonatogether]

reading celaph
pensees

by bonatogether

this guy is the lowest posting person alive lol

Newbies are so wonderfully... serious.

Feel like this post makes them likely town though. It's the exact sort of post a newbie trying to solve makes to try to understand the game. One that would be much more likely to made if they had scum chat to turn to.

##UNVOTE for now, but my vote needs a new home

This was my impression too. It's not a hard plan for new scum to come up with I think as it lets them control the flow of information, but I want to at least give Rumi a day or two before pushing them given their initial honesty.


Is scum chat open right now? I feel like it's normally a night thing here. Weak townslip?

is this a townslip? idk man, lol

That’s not what Rumi did, though. Rumi actually specifically called Byz’s read “reasonable but dangerous,” then proceeded to spend the rest of the post describing how he could be getting deceived by Rumi—not how he could be buddying Rumi.

If Rumi had expressed suspicion of Byz for getting to the right answer with relatively little data, then I’d agree with you, but that’s not what Rumi did. Rumi instead suggested that Byz might have set himself up to be fooled. That’s mafia indicative to me, particularly for newer mafia players.

I'm with Eden on this one. I think his interest in Rumi is reasonably well explained by Rumi being a new player who is playing atypically. He seems miffed that he's getting pressure over this, but I'm not seeing it as scum indicative.

is the 'he' and 'his' referring to byz or eden here? i think eden. this post is fine but it's not really a dot-connector.

Its a logic problem mindset. I'll always have this. Something of an obsession with understanding how and why. Mysteries are supposed to be solvable by the reader. (or in this case the participants)

This is Mafia, not And Then There Were None (and yes, this is a dig at Christie's writing)

This person is town and I will die on that hill. This play is not scum.

Also hi hi.

What makes you so confident in this read?

easy questions

Eden doesn't seem townie rn

What about their reaction makes you think "scum" and not it being some sort of ego issue/town being upset that anyone dares vote them?

I could see either reaction rn, so I'm curious what is making it stand out as specifically scummy to you.

I'm liking the way Byz is approaching this game. Me thinks they (Byz pronounds?) town.

lots of talking about byz/rumi & crowd. this post doesn't actually take a stance on the issue being discussed, and to be honest - byz's post isn't even that great. i don't really see why celaph likes the approach.

For whatever reason, "I think I follow you" in this strikes me as scummy. Can't quite explain it, but it's too agreeable in a way that doesn't feel like it aims to solve. I'm usually pretty good at these feel reads.

Actually like this vote for more than just pressure.

For whatever reason, this entire fucking post strikes me as scummy. I can explain it, because I am a townsperson. I do not oversell myself because that's no bueno.

Actually I'm gonna ##vote Byz

I agree that Byz overselling themselves is weird, but it comes off more as rambling than feeling forced to find a reason. It doesn't sound like he has a filter.

> rambling in a three sentence post

Why are you only asking about Celaph when three people did not post?

celaph is my buddy

celaph using emojis is scum (if i'm right i'm waving this exact post around, if i'm wrong it never happened)

I've caught up in reading which was a mistake because I'll be tired tomorrow.

@jamie, I think you're barking up the wrong tree in Eden. He was obviously minimally concerned with the votes on him so early especially the arguably sarcastic vote from Sabi. His comment about not reading the setup was entirely forgettable, notwithstanding the fact that I had forgotten about it until you asked what people thought about his lies and I searched for what you were looking for. And I'm a little put off by the fact that you are fixated on this minutia while ignoring the rest of Eden's actions. Because the way that he has been questioning people to learn more and explaining his views in a way that I can easily see where he is coming from are incredibly towny.

calls eden towny

i wish celaph had more takes n shit i could read

The timing on this is interesting

My town read becomes less and less firm every 6 hours or so on Rumi...sadge

Why does this weaken your resolve? To your earlier point that mafia don't play like Rumi's playing, this fits that bill perfectly. I see no reason that mafia would feel compelled to step down like that.

Now, I believe that some mafia do play with great awareness of normal mafia patterns and intentionally play against them, but I don't see Rumi as one of those people. I don't think he understands the game well enough to pull that off.

this is the well reasoned celaph that i like to see

What is your current read on Ghug? Or Rdrivera? Or Damo?

I'm leaning town on rdr with the only real thing holding me back is a couple of odd comments he's made.

For example, I agreed with his overall sentiment about Byz:

I really like this post. Not so sure about Eden as I don't read him well, but many townie points to Byz

Eden called out rdr's lack of willingness to read Eden earlier, but I was also thrown off by him awarding "many" townie points. Byz's post wasn't that good and it feels like a weird thing to exaggerate. He's also said that he's better as mafia than town though he's done well as town before and feels like he's trying to lower expectations.

Besides the oddities, I feel like he's put out some good takes. I liked his earlier read on Byz, his comments about Sabi x Eden, and his recent question about Bona. So I'm tempted to keep him around, though keeping an eye on the slot.

Ghug's NAI in the sense that I think scum ghug is easily capable of playing like this, but he's playing exactly like I would expect town ghug to play. He's 'inactive', but speaking in a way that I can tell that he is still reading the game critically. You can see both an initial reaction and him fitting that reaction into a larger context that feels like he's trying to solve.

Damo has been entirely forgettable. Certainly a point of concern.

ditto what i said

i think it's easy to tell ive got midgame laziness

I think ill resort to proving my townyness this game by mediocre shittalking, snowy style

SQUACK!

alt confirmed - get em @bo

My pronouns are he/him celaph

Reading your ISO, I would like to know who you actually scumread. I know some players solve by townread, but if it comes down to it, who are you pushing over today?

Thanks for the pronouns.

There is no vote I love at the moment, I'm leaning ##vote damo right now. The more I've thought about it the more I'm bothered by the fact that his most notable post is commenting on the metas of the people who've played here before and not anything about the current game.

There is a cluster of people just after damo who I don't love and could see voting out (pyxxy, dargo, jamie, chaqa). I should also reread Sabi in the morning. I liked rdr's comment about them x Eden being tvt, but my largest note about them is that they disliked other people critiquing their play which is NAI.

lackluster reasoning on damo but not like many other people were much better. in addition, paragraph 2 is mediocre but can't complain, i felt similarly about those wagons.

@Eden: In the context of these comments, what do you feel about the fact that Sabi is hardcore defending Byz, complaining and criticising anyone who suspects or votes Byz.... as if Byz is basically Sabi's top townread and, apparently, a hillock that Sabi is prepared to die on.

I don't agree with your characterization of Sabi as hardcore defending Byz here. Compare the way that Sabi talks about Neon and Byz. They have a much more active townread on Neon whereas they seem to be rather null on Byz, only defending their townyness by saying that they aren't actively scummy.



With Neon, Sabi seems to genuinely townread her, it's not just a blanket protection for being a new person.

I concur

We are back to mindmelding together

• princess neon: her defense/hard shielding of Rumi doesn't feel like it's opportunistic or an attempt to pocket him. Her genuine read and belief in him being town has seems confident but not in a tmi way (like the way wolfs know who is town because they aren't wolfs). Her posting hasn't been stiff and awkward

Neon is town but I will let yall figure that out but I swear to God if you scare her off I will send you to the shadow relm.

I veto any D1 kill in neon. Find someone else

In contrast, Sabi shows far less confidence in defending Byz

Hmm I'm surprised by you town leaning Justin.
Why is giving you rdr is mafia pings? Do you think he's still in his wolf range?

Sabi, are you pocketing me btw?

No. If I were you were have been townread by me with a lot more conviction. You are just null atm

You're going to flip Byz just as likely so then what? I isoed Byz and he doesn't seem agenda driven in this game like he did in Bona game.

reasonable data post but not much analysis. sad!

RIP damo

I think we need to seriously consider that pyxxy was trying to cause a tie there.

Likely the opposite. I think Pyxxy's vote going through decreases the chance of a tie by ensuring the number of people with relevant votes is odd. Assuming his vote goes through, we can only tie if one of the vote changing tags is off the wagons and the other is on the right wagon to make a difference. As for why he didn't vote earlier, I'm not entirely sure. @Pyxxy, if you haven't said already, why didn't you vote earlier?

One random thought is if Pyxxy and Byz are scum, does Pyxxy intentionally vote just after the deadline so that he can 'vote' for scum knowing his vote will be invalid?

defending the pyx, comes up with oddball theory.

I'm not fully caught up, but I should probably actually do my job instead of just reading the thread.

@Neon, when you went to bed before EoD1, did you intend to wake up before the deadline?

Your initial scumread of me was fine, though I think you're overstating my zealous in reading Byz. I then doubled my post count which you clearly noticed having responded to two of my posts though not my response to your scumread. You then proceeded to make no additional comments about me before heading to bed leaving your vote on me. You clearly didn't care if I died.

I can see you fitting in as a town who didn't have strong scumreads and was as happy with my wagon as any other, but it also doesn't feel like you were/are trying to resolve me. Why didn't you respond to my defense against your scumread? I see you now have me as "probably just town" though it's not clear where you are getting that from and feels like you are following the group wisdom.

getting scum engaging other scum feels from this post - specifically bolded parts

I'm in the middle of people trying to understand Eden's vote though with the benefit of the bot letting me know his vote has moved since.

I don't think his vote is a sign that he has a scum read on Bona, but rather that he wants to generate information from Bona to back his read. Even just looking at D1, he puts Bona as solid town before latter concluding that Bona is light on content.

Solid Town: Rumi, Bona

Bona son, I went to reread your big catch-up post that impressed me the first time, and on a reread I note that you’re actually pretty light on alignment-specific conclusions and mostly recapping. Can you tell me who you’re open to killing, who you are willing to give a day, and who you think is just town?

He once again put Bona as solid town N1 before adding that

But yea I do kinda have to admit that he hasn’t had the zeal this night phase that I’m used to. And I’m pretty sure I caught him booting up HOI4 while I was home for lunch, so it’s not school yet.

The important part of the post is not the fact that Bona was playing Hoi4, but that he was lacking in zeal. If I had to guess, I think that Eden townread is mostly vibe based which is why he both asked Bona for more information D1 and is trying to generate more information on Bona today.

tl;dr PE very towny, probably not a cop. Get off his wagon.

again, barely uses this analysis of a vote to drive analysis of alignments

Hey celaph, wanna ##VOTE Veccypoo with me?

Veccypoo considered harmful?

I think the biggest, and most obvious, concern regarding Vecna is that he hasn't made significant contributions since D1. To some degree this can be explained by his belief that Snowy is scum who has already given up, though I think that there is too much uncertainty to simply call the day over.

I also had a more positive view of Vecna's D1 than you did; I had no problem with his D1 reads:

sabi feels pretty genuine

worcej so far doesnt feel like he's trying to fake shit. his stuff all just feels pretty mellow

i rarely read fuck all, but i dont see why people are suspicious of eden. feels pretty towny in his poking overall. his comments on chaqa feel pretty standard.

not overly thrilled by darg btw. he seems to rely a bit too much on easy points.

I will say that scum Vecna+town Byz/Snowy would nicely explain

this also feels towny as fuck. hello thought pattern-shit

interesting, I wasnt reading Byz any which way, but this confbiasses pretty nicely to a sudden turnaround to bus.

here's something, i guess, but he doesn't give anything as something that HE believes - they're just reasonable possibilities.

I voted ghug partially because I am a little worried about him. He's creation of the Vecna wagon felt off at times and he's been rather agreeable towards me and defensive of me which just makes me concerned I'm being pocketed. At the same time, I feel like he's actually put together coherent reasons for his push to get people away from Snowy/Byz generating discussion that is protown.

More so, I was curious how rdr would respond because I prefer him to a ghug wagon. Jamie did a great post on rdr here:

To add to that, I feel like rdr's reaction to ghug's creation of the Vecna wagon was really inauthentic. On pg 177 he lists ghug and Vecna simply as two people that haven't impressed him alongside Bo and Snowy. The next page he votes Vecna saying that ghug could be bussing him before only later posting a scumread on Vecna, one with no connection to ghug.

If rdr had that legitimate scumread on Vecna before his vote, why didn't he speak to that scumread with his vote? And given that his scumread has nothing to do with ghug, why does he initially move to implicate ghug alongside Vecna? His initial vote reads as someone with an agenda to which he only later crafted a justification to fit.

##vote rdr

woohoo, content. gives a vote, doesn't keep it there till EoD - he joins the eod2 flashwagon on sabi. we'll see if he sticks to it

What are your thoughts on Bona mr C?

He's content light, but he's also locked on Snowy with a confidence that I've seen before from town Bona. If Snowy flips scum I think Bona looks quite good. Though if he flips town I start to worry that he has been coasting through today.

he doesn't actually say he townreads me here. he doesn't actually give any mfing reads



going to post what i have at :59 - i believe that celaph's d1 shows a fair amount of data analysis/collation, and some opining, but not much interacting or analysis of bigger picture stuff.

[Chaqa]

Not the Doctor, hopefully take a hit for yalll

Just a VT

[ghug]

Ok my reads don't super matter but:
I think bo's claim might make him clear.
I kinda legitimately don't trust Eden at this point but he'll look better if I die so we'll deal with that then.
I peeked whatever night now is and my tag is the protagonist of Speed.
Darg started with it in case you forgot.
Chaqa sus.
Jack Traven
Celaph looking bad mechanically.
Bona probably good.
Rumi probably good but maybe possibly resting on laurels.
Rd idfk so probably scum by POE. Hope he's a PR or gets the Oracle.
Love you bye.

[President Eden]

fuck we all wrote essays lmao

[rdrivera2005]

I hard claim I don't need to claim because I am 100% confirmed not dying tonight.

[President Eden]

How Worcej Got His Vote Back By Being Totally Scum Guys

























psych

How Jamie Maybe Gave Worcej His Vote Back

Let’s put ourselves in Jamie’s seat. It’s N3. You’ve played more mafia than you can possibly remember. You’ve GMed plenty. You’ve balanced setups before. You even diligently read setups. That asshole Eden always gives you grief about how you play town because he’s too prideful to admit he can’t read you worth a shit, but nobody questions your mechanical acumen.

You cannot possibly expect to survive N3, right? After all, there’s no evidence that the mafia has lost its ability to Overkill, and you’re an outed Cop in a setup with scarce little in the way of direct Cop mitigation. You’re dying N3. It’s pointless to even consider alternatives.

That means your scan is useless right? Wrong. You can still swap tags!

You know worcej is the no voter. You know you’re getting a visit from the Strongman tonight. You know that because of order of operations, if you scan worcej, the Strongman will take the no-vote tag from you. So obviously, you scan worcej and make sure that the no-vote tag ends up on a mafia for D4. (As an aside, given how easily the mafia fixes this problem, you can see why I wanted to wait to discuss this until EON! Maybe they worked this out, but if they didn’t, why give them the answer?)

You make some noise about “if I die kill Vecna” because you suspect him and you want to lean into that sweet sweet Cop clout while you can. But it’s readily apparent from the record that you didn’t actually do anything involving Vecna. In the meantime, you’re throwing the mafia off your scent a bit. Sure, they might be able to figure things out when they see the D4 vote count… or they might not.

I believe Jamie scanned worcej to steal the no vote tag in anticipation of being killed N3 and giving the no vote tag to the mafia. I further believe that this makes celaph the Strongman, but I acknowledge this theoretically makes any Hamilton Brian voter an eligible Strongman, including me.

I also fully acknowledge that there is no direct proof that Jamie did any of this. But I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a better play for him to make. And it tidies up some issues I’ve been having in solving things, such as “How did the Bus Driver move all these tags around?” Simple: they didn’t. Jamie helped.








also I deffo don’t believe Chaqa is the Doctor lol dis dude straight cappin on god, I just wanted to hope he could bait a really bad nightkill

[DemonRHK]

NIGHT HAS ENDED PLEASE HOLD

[ghug]

fuck we all wrote essays lmao

Not me I'm working

[rdrivera2005]

fuck we all wrote essays lmao

I don't.

[Bonatogether]

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA
by brainbogether
f his behaviour and his great dignity.

I do not understand these things, he thought. But it is good that we do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers.

Now, he thought, I must think about the drag. It has its perils and its merits. I maa little sleep."

Under the stars and with the night colder all the time he ate half of one of the dolphin fillets and one of the flying fish, gutted and with its head cut off.

"What an excellent fish dolphin is to eat cooked," he said. "And what a miserable fish raw. I will never go in a boat again without salt or limes."

If I had brains I would have splashed water on the bow all day and drying, it would have made salt, he thought. But then I did not hook the dolphin until almost sunset. Still it was a lack of preparation. But I have chewed it all well and I am not nauseated.

The sky was clouding over to the east and one after another the stars he knew were gone. It looked now as though he were moving into a great canyon of clouds and the wind had dropped.

"There will be bad weather in three or four days," he said. "But not tonight and not tomorrow. Rig now to get some sleep, old man, while the fish is calm and steady."

He held the line tight in his right hand and then pushed his thigh against his right hand as he leaned all his weight against the wood of the bow. Then he passed the line a little lower on his shoulders and braced his left hand on it.

My right hand can hold it as long as it is braced, he thought. If it relaxes in sleep my left hand will wake me as the line goes out. It is hard on the right hand. But he is used to punishment. Even if I sleep twenty minutes or a half an hour it is good. He lay forward cramping himself against the line with all of his body, putting all his weight onto his right hand, and he was asleep.

He did not dream of the lions but instead of a vast school of porpoises that stretched for eight or ten miles and it was in the time of their mating and they would leap high into the air and return into the same hole they had made in the water when they leaped.

Then he dreamed that he was in the village on his bed and there was a norther and he was very cold and his right arm was asleep because his head had rested on it instead of a pillow.

After that he began to dream of the long yellow beach and he saw the first of the lions come down onto it in the early dark and then the other lions came and he rested his chin on the wood of the bows where the ship lay anchored with the evening off-shore breeze and he waited to see if there would be more lions and he was happy.

The moon had been up for a long time but he slept on and the fish pulled on steadily and the boat moved into the tunnel of clouds.

He woke with the jerk of his right fist coming up against his face and the line burning out through his right hand. He had no feeling of his left hand but he braked all he could with his right and the line rushed out. Finally his left hand found the line and he leaned back against the line and now it burned his back and his left hand, and his left hand was taking all the strain and cutting badly. He looked back at the coils of line and they were feeding smoothly. Just then the fish jumped making a great bursting of the ocean and then a heavy fall. Then he jumped again and again and the boat was going fast although line was still racing out and the old man was raising the strain to breaking point and raising it to breaking point again and again. He had been pulled down tight onto the bow and his face was in the cut slice of dolphin and he could not move.

im really cool

This is what we waited for, he thought. So now let us take it.

Make him pay for the line, he thought. Make him pay for it.

He could not see the fish's jumps but only heard the breaking of the ocean and the heavy splash as he fell. The speed of the line was cutting his hands badly but he had always known this would happen and he tried to keep the cutting across the calloused parts and not let the line slip into the palm nor cut the fingers.

If the boy was here he would wet the coils of line, he thought. Yes. If the boy were here. If the boy were here.

The line went out and out and out but it was slowing now and he was making the fish earn each inch of it. Now he got his head up from the wood and out of the slice of fish that his cheek had crushed. Then he was on his knees and then he rose slowly to his feet. He was ceding line but more slowly all the time. He worked back to where he could feel with his foot the coils of line that he could not see. There was plenty of line still and now the fish had to pull the friction of all that new line through the water.

Yes, he thought. And now he has jumped more than a dozen times and filled the sacks along his back with air and he cannot go down deep to die where I cannot bring him up. He will start circling soon and then I must work on him. I wonder what started him so suddenly? Could it have been hunger that made him desperate, or was he frightened by something in the night? Maybe he suddenly felt fear. But he was such a calm, strong fish and he seemed so fearless and so confident. It is strange.

"You better be fearless and confident yourself, old man," he said. "You're holding him again but you cannot get line. But soon he has to circle."

The old man held him with his left hand and his shoulders now and stooped down and scooped up water in his right hand to get the crushed dolphin flesh off of his face. He was afraid that it might nauseate him and he would vomit and lose his strength. When his face was cleaned he washed his right hand in the water over the side and then let it stay in the salt water while he watched the first light come before the sunrise. He's headed almost east, he thought. That means he is tired and going with the current. Soon he will have to circle. Then our true work begins.

After he judged that his right hand had been in the water long enough he took it out and looked at it. "It is not bad," he said. "And pain does not matter to a man."

He took hold of the line carefully so that it did not fit into any of the fresh line cuts and shifted his weight so that he could put his left hand into the sea on the other side of the skiff.

"You did not do so badly for something worthless," he said to his left hand. "But there was a moment when I could not find you."

Why was I not born with two good hands? he thought. Perhaps it was my fault in not training that one properly. But God knows he has had enough chances to learn. He did not do so badly in the night, though, and he has only cramped once. If he cramps again let the line cut him off.

When he thought that he knew that he was not being clear-headed and he thought he should chew some more of the dolphin. But I can't, he told himself. It is better to be light-headed than to lose your strength from nausea. And I know I cannot keep it if I eat it since my face was in it. I will keep it for an emergency until it goes bad. But it is too late to try for strength now through nourishment. You're stupid, he told himself. Eat the other flying fish.

It was there, cleaned and ready, and he picked it up with his left hand and ate it chewing the bones carefully and eating all of it down to the tail.

It has more nourishment than almost any fish, he thought. At least the kind of strength that I need. Now I have done what I can, he thought. Let him begin to circle and let the fight come.

The sun was rising for the third time since he had put to sea when the fish started to circle.

He could not see by the slant of the line that the fish was circling. It was too early for that. He just felt a faint slackening of the pressure of the line and he commenced to pull on it gently with his right hand. It tightened, as always, but just when he reached the point where it would break, line began to come in. He slipped his shoulders and head from under the line and began to pull in line steadily and gently. He used both of his hands in a swinging motion and tried to do the pulling as much as he could with his body and his legs. His old legs and shoulders pivoted with the swinging of the pulling.

"It is a very big circle," he said. "But he is circling."

Then the line would not come in any more and he held it until he saw the drops jumping from it in the sun. Then it started out and the old man knelt down and let it go grudgingly back into the dark water.

"He is making the far part of his circle now," he said. I must hold all I can, he thought. The strain will shorten his circle each time. Perhaps in an hour I will see him. Now I must convince him and then I must kill him.

But the fish kept on circling slowly and the old man was wet with sweat and tired deep into his bones two hours later. But the circles were much shorter now and from the way the line slanted he could tell the fish had risen steadily while he swam.

For an hour the old man had been seeing black spots before his eyes and the sweat salted his eyes and salted the cut over his eye and on his forehead. He was not afraid of the black spots. They were normal at the tension that he was pulling on the line. Twice, though, he had felt faint and dizzy and that had worried him.

"I could not fail myself and die on a fish like this," he said. "Now that I have him coming so beautifully, God help me endure. I'll say a hundred Our Fathers and a hundred Hail Marys. But I cannot say them now."

Consider them said, he thought. I'll say them later.

Just then he felt a sudden banging and jerking on the line he held with his two hands. It was sharp and hard-feeling and heavy.

He is hitting the wire leader with his spear, he thought. That was bound to come. He had to do that. It may make him jump though and I would rather he stayed circling now. The jumps were necessary for him to take air. But after that each one can widen the opening of the hook wound and he can throw the hook.

"Don't jump, fish," he said. "Don't jump."

The fish hit the wire several times more and each time he shook his head the old man gave up a little line.

I must hold his pain where it is, he thought. Mine does not matter. I can control mine. But his pain could drive him mad.

After a while the fish stopped beating at the wire and started circling slowly again. The old man was gaining line steadily now. But he felt faint again. He lifted some sea water with his left hand and put it on his head. Then he put more on and rubbed the back of his neck.

"I have no cramps," he said. "He'll be up soon and I can last. You have to last. Don't even speak of it."

He kneeled against the bow and, for a moment, slipped the line over his back again. I'll rest now while he goes out on the circle and then stand up and work on him when he comes in, he decided.

It was a great temptation to rest in the bow and let the fish make one circle by himself without recovering any line. But when the strain showed the fish had turned to come toward the boat, the old man rose to his feet and started the pivoting and the weaving pulling that brought in all the line he gained.

I'm tireder than I have ever been, he thought, and now the trade wind is rising. But that will be good to take him in with. I need that badly.

"I'll rest on the next turn as he goes out," he said. "I feel much better. Then in two or three turns more I will have him."

His straw hat was far on the back of his head and he sank down into the bow with the pull of the line as he felt the fish turn.

You work now, fish, he thought. I'll take you at the turn.

The sea had risen considerably. But it was a fair-weather breeze and he had to have it to get home.

"I'll just steer south and west," he said. "A man is never lost at sea and it is a long island."

It was on the third turn that he saw the fish first.

He saw him first as a dark shadow that took so long to pass under the boat that he could not believe its length.

"No," he said. "He can't be that big."

But he was that big and at the end of this circle he came to the surface only thirty yards away and the man saw his tail out of water. It was higher than a big scythe blade and a very pale lavender above the dark blue water. It raked back and as the fish swam just below the surface the old man could see his huge bulk and the purple stripes that banded him. His dorsal fin was down and his huge pectorals were spread wide.

On this circle the old man could see the fish's eye and the two gray sucking fish that swam around him. Sometimes they attached themselves to him. Sometimes they darted off. Sometimes they would swim easily in his shadow. They were each over three feet long and when they swam fast they lashed their whole bodies like eels.

The old man was sweating now but from something else besides the sun. On each calm placid turn the fish made he was gaining line and he was sure that in two turns more he would have a chance to get the harpoon in.

But I must get him close, close, close, he thought. I mustn't try for the head. I must get the heart.

"Be calm and strong, old man," he said.

On the next circle the fish's back was out but he was a little too far from the boat. On the next circle he was still too far away but he was higher out of water and the old man was sure that by gaining some more line he could have him alongside.

He had rigged his harpoon long before and its coil of light rope was in a round basket and the end was made fast to the bitt in the bow.

The fish was coming in on his circle now calm and beautiful looking and only his great tail moving. The old man pulled on him all that he could to bring him closer. For just a moment the fish turned a little on his side. Then he straightened himself and began another circle.

"I moved him," the old man said. "I moved him then."

He felt faint again now but he held on the great fish all the strain that he could. I moved him, he thought. Maybe this time I can get him over. Pull, hands, he thought. Hold up, legs. Last for me, head. Last for me. You never went. This time I'll pull him over.

But when he put all of his effort on, starting it well out before the fish came alongside and pulling with all his strength, the fish pulled part way over and then righted himself and swam away.

"Fish," the old man said. "Fish, you are going to have to die anyway. Do you have to kill me too?"

That way nothing is accomplished, he thought. His mouth was too dry to speak but he could not reach for the water now. I must get him alongside this time, he thought. I am not good for many more turns. Yes you are, he told himself. You're good for ever.

On the next turn, he nearly had him. But again the fish righted himself and swam slowly away.

You are killing me, fish, the old man thought. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer or more noble thing than you, brother. Come on and kill me. I do not care who kills who.

Now you are getting confused in the head, he thought. You must keep your head clear. Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man. Or a fish, he thought.

"Clear up, head," he said in a voice he could hardly hear. "Clear up."

Twice more it was the same on the turns.

I do not know, the old man thought. He had been on the point of feeling himself go each time. I do not know. But I will try it once more.

He tried it once more and he felt himself going when he turned the fish. The fish righted himself and swam off again slowly with the great tail weaving in the air.

I'll try it again, the old man promised, although his hands were mushy now and he could only see well in flashes.

He tried it again and it was the same. So, he thought, and he felt himself going before he started; I will try it once again.

He took all his pain and what was left of his strength and his long gone pride and he put it against the fish's agony and the fish came over onto his side and swam gently on his side, his bill almost touching the planking of the skiff and started to pass the boat, long, deep, wide, silver and barred with purple and interminable in the water.

The old man dropped the line and put his foot on it and lifted the harpoon as high as he could and drove it down with all his strength, and more strength he had just summoned, into the fish's side just behind the great chest fin that rose high in the air to the altitude of the man's chest. He felt the iron go in and he leaned on it and drove it further and then pushed all his weight after it.

Then the fish came alive, with his death in him, and rose high out of the water showing all his great length and width and all his power and his beauty. He seemed to hang in the air above the old man in the skiff. Then he fell into the water with a crash that sent spray over the old man and over all of the skiff.

The old man felt faint and sick and he could not see well. But he cleared the harpoon line and let it run slowly through his raw hands and, when he could see, he saw the fish was on his back with his silver belly up. The shaft of the harpoon was projecting at an angle from the fish's shoulder and the sea was discolouring with the red of the blood from his heart. First it was dark as a shoal in the blue water that was more than a mile deep. Then it spread like a cloud. The fish was silvery and still and floated with the waves.

The old man looked carefully in the glimpse of vision that he had. Then he took two turns of the harpoon line around the bitt in the bow and laid his head on his hands.

"Keep my head clear," he said against the wood of the bow. "I am a tired old man. But I have killed this fish which is my brother and now I must do the slave work."

Now I must prepare the nooses and the rope to lash him alongside, he thought. Even if we were two and swamped her to load him and bailed her out, this skiff would never hold him. I must prepare everything, then bring him in and lash him well and step the mast and set sail for home.

He started to pull the fish in to have him alongside so that he could pass a line through his gills and out his mouth and make his head fast alongside the bow. I want to see him, he thought, and to touch and to feel him. He is my fortune, he thought. But that is not why I wish to feel him. I think I felt his heart, he thought. When I pushed on the harpoon shaft the second time. Bring him in now and make him fast and get the noose around his tail and another around his middle to bind him to the skiff.

"Get to work, old man," he said. He took a very small drink of the water. "There is very much slave work to be done now that the fight is over."

He looked up at the sky and then out to his fish. He looked at the sun carefully. It is not much more than noon, he thought. And the trade wind is rising. The lines all mean nothing now. The boy and I will splice them when we are home.

"Come on, fish," he said. But the fish did not come. Instead he lay there wallowing now in the seas and the old man pulled the skiff up onto him.

When he was even with him and had the fish's head against the bow he could not believe his size. But he untied the harpoon rope from the bitt, passed it through the fish's gills and out his jaws, made a turn around his sword then passed the rope through the other gill, made another turn around the bill and knotted the double rope and made it fast to the bitt in the bow. He cut the rope then and went astern to noose the tail. The fish had turned silver from his original purple and silver, and the stripes showed the same pale violet colour as his tail. They were wider than a man's hand with his fingers spread and the fish's eye looked as detached as the mirrors in a periscope or as a saint in a procession.

"It was the only way to kill him," the old man said. He was feeling better since the water and he knew he would not go away and his head was clear. He's over fifteen hundred pounds the way he is, he thought. Maybe much more. If he dresses out two-thirds of that at thirty cents a pound?

"I need a pencil for that," he said. "My head is not that clear. But I think the great DiMaggio would be proud of me today. I had no bone spurs. But the hands and the back hurt truly." I wonder what a bone spur is, he thought. Maybe we have them without knowing of it.

He made the fish fast to bow and stern and to the middle thwart. He was so big it was like lashing a much bigger skiff alongside. He cut a piece of line and tied the fish's lower jaw against his bill so his mouth would not open and they would sail as cleanly as possible. Then he stepped the mast and, with the stick that was his gaff and with his boom rigged, the patched sail drew, the boat began to move, and half lying in the stern he sailed south-west.

He did not need a compass to tell him where south-west was. He only needed the feel of the trade wind and the drawing of the sail. I better put a small line out with a spoon on it and try and get something to eat and drink for the moisture. But he could not find a spoon and his sardines were rotten. So he hooked a patch of yellow gulf weed with the gaff as they passed and shook it so that the small shrimps that were in it fell onto the planking of the skiff. There were more than a dozen of them and they jumped and kicked like sand fleas. The old man pinched their heads off with his thumb and forefinger and ate them chewing up the shells and the tails. They were very tiny but he knew they were nourishing and they tasted good.

The old man still had two drinks of water in the bottle and he used half of one after he had eaten the shrimps. The skiff was sailing well considering the handicaps and he steered with the tiller under his arm. He could see the fish and he had only to look at his hands and feel his back against the stern to know that this had truly happened and was not a dream. At one time when he was feeling so badly toward the end, he had thought perhaps it was a dream. Then when he had seen the fish come out of the water and hang motionless in the sky before he fell, he was sure there was some great strangeness and he could not believe it. Then he could not see well, although now he saw as well as ever.

Now he knew there was the fish and his hands and back were no dream. The hands cure quickly, he thought. I bled them clean and the salt water will heal them. The dark water of the true gulf is the greatest healer that there is. All I must do is keep the head clear. The hands have done their work and we sail well. With his mouth shut and his tail straight up and down we sail like brothers. Then his head started to become a little unclear and he thought, is he bringing me in or am I bringing him in? If I were towing him behind there would be no question. Nor if the fish were in the skiff, with all dignity gone, there would be no question either. But they were sailing together lashed side by side and the old man thought, let him bring me in if it pleases him. I am only better than him through trickery and he meant me no harm.

They sailed well and the old man soaked his hands in the salt water and tried to keep his head clear. There were high cumulus clouds and enough cirrus above them so that the old man knew the breeze would last all night. The old man looked at the fish constantly to make sure it was true. It was an hour before the first shark hit him.

The shark was not an accident. He had come up from deep down in the water as the dark cloud of blood had settled and dispersed in the mile deep sea. He had come up so fast and absolutely without caution that he broke the surface of the blue water and was in the sun. Then he fell back into the sea and picked up the scent and started swimming on the course the skiff and the fish had taken.

Sometimes he lost the scent. But he would pick it up again, or have just a trace of it, and he swam fast and hard on the course. He was a very big Mako shark built to swim as fast as the fastest fish in the sea and everything about him was beautiful except his jaws.

His back was as blue as a sword fish's and his belly was silver and his hide was smooth and handsome. He was built as a sword fish except for his huge jaws which were tight shut now as he swam fast, just under the surface with his high dorsal fin knifing through the water without wavering. Inside the closed double lip of his jaws all of his eight rows of teeth were slanted inwards. They were not the ordinary pyramid-shaped teeth of most sharks. They were shaped like a man's fingers when they are crisped like claws. They were nearly as long as the fingers of the old man and they had razor-sharp cutting edges on both sides. This was a fish built to feed on all the fishes in the sea, that were so fast and strong and well armed that they had no other enemy. Now he speeded up as he smelled the fresher scent and his blue dorsal fin cut the water.

When the old man saw him coming he knew that this was a shark that had no fear at all and would do exactly what he wished. He prepared the harpoon and made the rope fast while he watched the shark come on. The rope was short as it lacked what he had cut away to lash the fish.

The old man's head was clear and good now and he was full of resolution but he had little hope. It was too good to last, he thought. He took one look at the great fish as he watched the shark close in. It might as well have been a dream, he thought. I cannot keep him from hitting me but maybe I can get him. Dentuso, he thought. Bad luck to your mother.

The shark closed fast astern and when he hit the fish the old man saw his mouth open and his strange eyes and the clicking chop of the teeth as he drove forward in the meat just above the tail. The shark's head was out of water and his back was coming out and the old man could hear the noise of skin and flesh ripping on the big fish when he rammed the harpoon down onto the shark's head at a spot where the line between his eyes intersected with the line that ran straight back from his nose. There were no such lines. There was only the heavy sharp blue head and the big eyes and the clicking, thrusting all-swallowing jaws. But that was the location of the brain and the old man hit it. He hit it with his blood mushed hands driving a good harpoon with all his strength. He hit it without hope but with resolution and complete malignancy.

The shark swung over and the old man saw his eye was not alive and then he swung over once again, wrapping himself in two loops of the rope. The old man knew that he was dead but the shark would not accept it. Then, on his back, with his tail lashing and his jaws clicking, the shark plowed over the water as a speed-boat does. The water was white where his tail beat it and three-quarters of his body was clear above the water when the rope came taut, shivered, and then snapped. The shark lay quietly for a little while on the surface and the old man watched him. Then he went down very slowly.

"He took about forty pounds," the old man said aloud. He took my harpoon too and all the rope, he thought, and now my fish bleeds again and there will be others.

He did not like to look at the fish anymore since he had been mutilated. When the fish had been hit it was as though he himself were hit.

But I killed the shark that hit my fish, he thought. And he was the biggest dentuso that I have ever seen. And God knows that I have seen big ones.

sabi is a SIMP

It was too good to last, he thought. I wish it had been a dream now and that I had never hooked the fish and was alone in bed on the newspapers.

"But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated." I am sorry that I killed the fish though, he thought. Now the bad time is coming and I do not even have the harpoon. The dentuso is cruel and able and strong and intelligent. But I was more intelligent that he was. Perhaps not, he thought. Perhaps I was only better armed.

"Don't think, old man," he said aloud. "Sail on this course and take it when it comes."

But I must think, he thought. Because it is all I have left. That and baseball. I wonder how the great DiMaggio would have liked the way I hit him in the brain? It was no great thing, he thought. Any man could do it. But do you think my hands were as great a handicap as the bone spurs? I cannot know. I never had anything wrong with my heel except the time the sting ray stung it when I stepped on him when swimming and paralyzed the lower leg and made the unbearable pain.

"Think about something cheerful, old man," he said. "Every minute now you are closer to home. You sail lighter for the loss of forty pounds."

He knew quite well the pattern of what could happen when he reached the inner part of the current. But there was nothing to be done now.

"Yes there is," he said aloud. "I can lash my knife to the butt of one of the oars."

So he did that with the tiller under his arm and the sheet of the sail under his foot.

"Now," he said. "I am still an old man. But I am not unarmed."

The breeze was fresh now and he sailed on well. He watched only the forward part of the fish and some of his hope returned.

It is silly not to hope, he thought. Besides I believe it is a sin. Do not think about sin, he thought. There are enough problems now without sin. Also I have no understanding of it.

I have no understanding of it and I am not sure that I believe in it. Perhaps it was a sin to kill the fish. I suppose it was even though I did it to keep me alive and feed many people. But then everything is a sin. Do not think about sin. It is much too late for that and there are people who are paid to do it. Let them think about it. You were born to be a fisherman as the fish was born to be a fish. San Pedro was a fisherman as was the father of the great DiMaggio.

But he liked to think about all things that he was involved in and since there was nothing to read and he did not have a radio, he thought much and he kept on thinking about sin. You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought. You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. It you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more?

"You think too much, old man," he said aloud.

But you enjoyed killing the dentuso, he thought. He lives on the live fish as you do. He is not a scavenger nor just a moving appetite as some sharks are. He is beautiful and noble and knows no fear of anything.

"I killed him in self-defense," the old man said aloud. "And I killed him well."

Besides, he thought, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive. The boy keeps me alive, he thought. I must not deceive myself too much.

He leaned over the side and pulled loose a piece of the meat of the fish where the shark had cut him. He chewed it and noted its quality and its good taste. It was firm and juicy, like meat, but it was not red. There was no stringiness in it and he knew that it would bring the highest price in the market. But there was no way to keep its scent out of the water and the old man knew that a very bad time was coming.

The breeze was steady. It had backed a little further into the north-east and he knew that meant that it would not fall off. The old man looked ahead of him but he could see no sails nor could he see the hull nor the smoke of any ship. There were only the flying fish that went up from his bow sailing away to either side and the yellow patches of gulf-weed. He could not even see a bird.

He had sailed for two hours, resting in the stern and sometimes chewing a bit of the meat from the marlin, trying to rest and to be strong, when he saw the first of the two sharks.

"Ay," he said aloud. There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.

"Galanos," he said aloud. He had seen the second fin now coming up behind the first and had identified them as shovel-nosed sharks by the brown, triangular fin and the sweeping movements of the tail. They had the scent and were excited and in the stupidity of their great hunger they were losing and finding the scent in their excitement. But they were closing all the time.

The old man made the sheet fast and jammed the tiller. Then he took up the oar with the knife lashed to it. He lifted it as lightly as he could because his hands rebelled at the pain. Then he opened and closed them on it lightly to loosen them. He closed them firmly so they would take the pain now and would not flinch and watched the sharks come. He could see their wide, flattened, shovel-pointed heads now and their white-tipped wide pectoral fins. They were hateful sharks, bad smelling, scavengers as well as killers, and when they were hungry they would bite at an oar or the rudder of a boat. It was these sharks that would cut the turtles' legs and flippers off when the turtles were asleep on the surface, and they would hit a man in the water, if they were hungry, even if the man had no smell of fish blood nor of fish slime on him.

"Ay," the old man said. "Galanos. Come on, Galanos."

They came. But they did not come as the Mako had come. One turned and went out of sight under the skiff and the old man could feel the skiff shake as he jerked and pulled on the fish. The other watched the old man with his slitted yellow eyes and then came in fast with his half circle of jaws wide to hit the fish where he had already been bitten. The line showed clearly on the top of his brown head and back where the brain joined the spinal cord and the old man drove the knife on the oar into the juncture, withdrew it, and drove it in again into the shark's yellow cat-like eyes. The shark let go of the fish and slid down, swallowing what he had taken as he died.

The skiff was still shaking with the destruction the other shark was doing to the fish and the old man let go the sheet so that the skiff would swing broadside and bring the shark out from under. When he saw the shark he leaned over the side and punched at him. He hit only meat and the hide was set hard and he barely got the knife in. The blow hurt not only his hands but his shoulder too. But the shark came up fast with his head out and the old man hit him squarely in the center of his flat-topped head as his nose came out of water and lay against the fish. The old man withdrew the blade and punched the shark exactly in the same spot again. He still hung to the fish with his jaws hooked and the old man stabbed him in his left eye. The shark still hung there.

"No?" the old man said and he drove the blade between the vertebrae and the brain. It was an easy shot now and he felt the cartilage sever. The old man reversed the oar and put the blade between the shark's jaws to open them. He twisted the blade and as the shark slid loose he said, "Go on, galano. Slide down a mile deep. Go see your friend, or maybe it's your mother."

The old man wiped the blade of his knife and laid down the oar. Then he found the sheet and the sail filled and he brought the skiff onto her course.

"They must have taken a quarter of him and of the best meat," he said aloud. "I wish it were a dream and that I had never hooked him. I'm sorry about it, fish. It makes everything wrong." He stopped and he did not want to look at the fish now. Drained of blood and awash he looked the colour of the silver backing of a mirror and his stripes still showed.

"I shouldn't have gone out so far, fish," he said. "Neither for you nor for me. I'm sorry, fish."

Now, he said to himself. Look to the lashing on the knife and see if it has been cut. Then get your hand in order because there still is more to come.

"I wish I had a stone for the knife," the old man said after he had checked the lashing on the oar butt. "I should have brought a stone." You should have brought many things, he thought. But you did not bring them, old man. Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

eden is ligmatic, condition is terminal

"You give me much good counsel," he said aloud. "I'm tired of it."

He held the tiller under his arm and soaked both his hands in the water as the skiff drove forward.

"God knows how much that last one took," he said. "But she's much lighter now." He did not want to think of the mutilated under-side of the fish. He knew that each of the jerking bumps of the shark had been meat torn away and that the fish now made a trail for all sharks as wide as a highway through the sea.

He was a fish to keep a man all winter, he thought. Don't think of that. Just rest and try to get your hands in shape to defend what is left of him. The blood smell from my hands means nothing now with all that scent in the water. Besides they do not bleed much. There is nothing cut that means anything. The bleeding may keep the left from cramping.

What can I think of now? he thought. Nothing. I must think of nothing and wait for the next ones. I wish it had really been a dream, he thought. But who knows? It might have turned out well.

The next shark that came was a single shovel-nose. He came like a pig to the trough if a pig had a mouth so wide that you could put your head in it. The old man let him hit the fish and then drove the knife on the oar down into his brain. But the shark jerked backwards as he rolled and the knife blade snapped.

The old man settled himself to steer. He did not even watch the big shark sinking slowly in the water, showing first life-size, then small, then tiny. That always fascinated the old man. But he did not even watch it now.

"I have the gaff now," he said. "But it will do no good. I have the two oars and the tiller and the short club."

Now they have beaten me, he thought. I am too old to club sharks to death. But I will try it as long as I have the oars and the short club and the tiller.

He put his hands in the water again to soak them. It was getting late in the afternoon and he saw nothing but the sea and the sky. There was more wind in the sky than there had been, and soon he hoped that he would see land.

"You're tired, old man," he said. "You're tired inside."

The sharks did not hit him again until just before sunset.

The old man saw the brown fins coming along the wide trail the fish must make in the water. They were not even quartering on the scent. They were headed straight for the skiff swimming side by side.

He jammed the tiller, made the sheet fast and reached under the stern for the club. It was an oar handle from a broken oar sawed off to about two and a half feet in length. He could only use it effectively with one hand because of the grip of the handle and he took good hold of it with his right hand, flexing his hand on it, as he watched the sharks come. They were both galanos.

I must let the first one get a good hold and hit him on the point of the nose or straight across the top of the head, he thought.

The two sharks closed together and as he saw the one nearest him open his jaws and sink them into the silver side of the fish, he raised the club high and brought it down heavy and slamming onto the top of the shark's broad head. He felt the rubbery solidity as the club came down. But he felt the rigidity of bone too and he struck the shark once more hard across the point of the nose as he slid down from the fish.

The other shark had been in and out and now came in again with his jaws wide. The old man could see pieces of the meat of the fish spilling white from the corner of his jaws as he bumped the fish and closed his jaws. He swung at him and hit only the head and the shark looked at him and wrenched the meat loose. The old man swung the club down on him again as he slipped away to swallow and hit only the heavy solid rubberiness.

"Come on, galano," the old man said. "Come in again."

The shark came in a rush and the old man hit him as he shut his jaws. He hit him solidly and from as high up as he could raise the club. This time he felt the bone at the base of the brain and he hit him again in the same place while the shark tore the meat loose sluggishly and slid down from the fish.

The old man watched for him to come again but neither shark showed. Then he saw one on the surface swimming in circles. He did not see the fin of the other.

I could not expect to kill them, he thought. I could have in my time. But I have hurt them both badly and neither one can feel very good. If I could have used a bat with two hands I could have killed the first one surely. Even now, he thought.

He did not want to look at the fish. He knew that half of him had been destroyed. The sun had gone down while he had been in the fight with the sharks.

"It will be dark soon," he said. "Then I should see the glow of Havana. If I am too far to the eastward I will see the lights of one of the new beaches."

I cannot be too far out now, he thought. I hope no one has been too worried. There is only the boy to worry, of course. But I am sure he would have confidence. Many of the older fishermen will worry. Many others too, he thought. I live in a good town.

He could not talk to the fish anymore because the fish had been ruined too badly. Then something came into his head.

"Half fish," he said. "Fish that you were. I am sorry that I went too far out. I ruined us both. But we have killed many sharks, you and I, and ruined many others. How many did you ever kill, old fish? You do not have that spear on your head for nothing."

He liked to think of the fish and what he could do to a shark if he were swimming free. I should have chopped the bill off to fight them with, he thought. But there was no hatchet and then there was no knife.

But if I had, and could have lashed it to an oar butt, what a weapon. Then we might have fought them together. What will you do now if they come in the night? What can you do?

"Fight them," he said. "I'll fight them until I die."

But in the dark now and no glow showing and no lights and only the wind and the steady pull of the sail he felt that perhaps he was already dead. He put his two hands together and felt the palms. They were not dead and he could bring the pain of life by simply opening and closing them. He leaned his back against the stern and knew he was not dead. His shoulders told him.

I have all those prayers I promised if I caught the fish, he thought. But I am too tired to say them now. I better get the sack and put it over my shoulders.

He lay in the stern and steered and watched for the glow to come in the sky. I have half of him, he thought. Maybe I'll have the luck to bring the forward half in. I should have some luck. No, he said. You violated your luck when you went too far outside.

"Don't be silly," he said aloud. "And keep awake and steer. You may have much luck yet."

"I'd like to buy some if there's any place they sell it," he said.

What could I buy it with? he asked himself. Could I buy it with a lost harpoon and a broken knife and two bad hands?

"You might," he said. "You tried to buy it with eighty-four days at sea. They nearly sold it to you too."

I must not think nonsense, he thought. Luck is a thing that comes in many forms and who can recognize her? I would take some though in any form and pay what they asked. I wish I could see the glow from the lights, he thought. I wish too many things. But that is the thing I wish for now. He tried to settle more comfortably to steer and from his pain he knew he was not dead.

He saw the reflected glare of the lights of the city at what must have been around ten o'clock at night. They were only perceptible at first as the light is in the sky before the moon rises. Then they were steady to see across the ocean which was rough now with the increasing breeze. He steered inside of the glow and he thought that now, soon, he must hit the edge of the stream.

Now it is over, he thought. They will probably hit me again. But what can a man do against them in the dark without a weapon?

He was stiff and sore now and his wounds and all of the strained parts of his body hurt with the cold of the night. I hope I do not have to fight again, he thought. I hope so much I do not have to fight again.

But by midnight he fought and this time he knew the fight was useless. They came in a pack and he could only see the lines in the water that their fins made and their phosphorescence as they threw themselves on the fish. He clubbed at heads and heard the jaws chop and the shaking of the skiff as they took hold below. He clubbed desperately at what he could only feel and hear and he felt something seize the club and it was gone.

He jerked the tiller free from the rudder and beat and chopped with it, holding it in both hands and driving it down again and again. But they were up to the bow now and driving in one after the other and together, tearing off the pieces of meat that showed glowing below the sea as they turned to come once more.

One came, finally, against the head itself and he knew that it was over. He swung the tiller across the shark's head where the jaws were caught in the heaviness of the fish's head which would not tear. He swung it once and twice and again. He heard the tiller break and he lunged at the shark with the splintered butt. He felt it go in and knowing it was sharp he drove it in again. The shark let go and rolled away. That was the last shark of the pack that came. There was nothing more for them to eat.

The old man could hardly breathe now and he felt a strange taste in his mouth. It was coppery and sweet and he was afraid of it for a moment. But there was not much of it.

He spat into the ocean and said, "Eat that, Galanos. And make a dream you've killed a man."

He knew he was beaten now finally and without remedy and he went back to the stern and found the jagged end of the tiller would fit in the slot of the rudder well enough for him to steer. He settled the sack around his shoulders and put the skiff on her course. He sailed lightly now and he had no thoughts nor any feelings of any kind. He was past everything now and he sailed the skiff to make his home port as well and as intelligently as he could. In the night sharks hit the carcass as someone might pick up crumbs from the table. The old man paid no attention to them and did not pay any attention to anything except steering. He only noticed how lightly and how well the skiff sailed now there was no great weight beside her.

She's good, he thought. She is sound and not harmed in any way except for the tiller. That is easily replaced.

He could feel he was inside the current now and he could see the lights of the beach colonies along the shore. He knew where he was now and it was nothing to get home.

The wind is our friend, anyway, he thought. Then he added, sometimes. And the great sea with our friends and our enemies. And bed, he thought. Bed is my friend. Just bed, he thought. Bed will be a great thing. It is easy when you are beaten, he thought. I never knew how easy it was. And what beat you, he thought.

"Nothing," he said aloud. "I went out too far."

When he sailed into the little harbour the lights of the Terrace were out and he knew everyone was in bed. The breeze had risen steadily and was blowing strongly now. It was quiet in the harbour though and he sailed up onto the little patch of shingle below the rocks. There was no one to help him so he pulled the boat up as far as he could. Then he stepped out and made her fast to a rock.

He unstepped the mast and furled the sail and tied it. Then he shouldered the mast and started to climb. It was then he knew the depth of his tiredness. He stopped for a moment and looked back and saw in the reflection from the street light the great tail of the fish standing up well behind the skiff's stern. He saw the white naked line of his backbone and the dark mass of the head with the projecting bill and all the nakedness between.

He started to climb again and at the top he fell and lay for some time with the mast across his shoulder. He tried to get up. But it was too difficult and he sat there with the mast on his shoulder and looked at the road. A cat passed on the far side going about its business and the old man watched it. Then he just watched the road.

Finally he put the mast down and stood up. He picked the mast up and put it on his shoulder and started up the road. He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.

Inside the shack he leaned the mast against the wall. In the dark he found a water bottle and took a drink. Then he lay down on the bed. He pulled the blanket over his shoulders and then over his back and legs and he slept face down on the newspapers with his arms out straight and the palms of his hands up.

He was asleep when the boy looked in the door in the morning. It was blowing so hard that the drifting-boats would not be going out and the boy had slept late and then come to the old man's shack as he had come each morning. The boy saw that the old man was breathing and then he saw the old man's hands and he started to cry. He went out very quietly to go to bring some coffee and all the way down the road he was crying.

Many fishermen were around the skiff looking at what was lashed beside it and one was in the water, his trousers rolled up, measuring the skeleton with a length of line.

The boy did not go down. He had been there before and one of the fishermen was looking after the skiff for him.

"How is he?" one of the fishermen shouted.

"Sleeping," the boy called. He did not care that they saw him crying. "Let no one disturb him."

"He was eighteen feet from nose to tail," the fisherman who was measuring him called.

"I believe it," the boy said.

He went into the Terrace and asked for a can of coffee.

"Hot and with plenty of milk and sugar in it."

"Anything more?"

"No. Afterwards I will see what he can eat."

claim do c (extra space to prevent immediate control-f)

n1: jamie
n2: worcej
n3: eden
n4: ghug
peek d1: jack traven (vanilla)

claiming now because i don't believe sitting on the info provides more utility + im not sure about when i could be nked

go make some mechs shit with that please

"What a fish it was," the proprietor said. "There has never been such a fish. Those were two fine fish you took yesterday too."

"Damn my fish," the boy said and he started to cry again.

"Do you want a drink of any kind?" the proprietor asked.

"No," the boy said. "Tell them not to bother Santiago. I'll be back."

"Tell him how sorry I am."

"Thanks," the boy said.

The boy carried the hot can of coffee up to the old man's shack and sat by him until he woke. Once it looked as though he were waking. But he had gone back into heavy sleep and the boy had gone across the road to borrow some wood to heat the coffee.

Finally the old man woke.

"Don't sit up," the boy said. "Drink this." He poured some of the coffee in a glass.

The old man took it and drank it.

"They beat me, Manolin," he said. "They truly beat me."

"He didn't beat you. Not the fish."

"No. Truly. It was afterwards."

"Pedrico is looking after the skiff and the gear. What do you want done with the head?"

"Let Pedrico chop it up to use in fish traps."

"And the spear?"

"You keep it if you want it."

"I want it," the boy said. "Now we must make our plans about the other things."

"Did they search for me?"

"Of course. With coast guard and with planes."

"The ocean is very big and a skiff is small and hard to see," the old man said. He noticed how pleasant it was to have someone to talk to instead of speaking only to himself and to the sea. "I missed you," he said. "What did you catch?"

"One the first day. One the second and two the third."

"Very good."

"Now we fish together again."

"No. I am not lucky. I am not lucky anymore."

"The hell with luck," the boy said. "I'll bring the luck with me."

"What will your family say?"

"I do not care. I caught two yesterday. But we will fish together now for I still have much to learn."

"We must get a good killing lance and always have it on board. You can make the blade from a spring leaf from an old Ford. We can grind it in Guanabacoa. It should be sharp and not tempered so it will break. My knife broke."

"I'll get another knife and have the spring ground. How many days of heavy brisa have we?"

"Maybe three. Maybe more."

"I will have everything in order," the boy said. "You get your hands well old man."

"I know how to care for them. In the night I spat something strange and felt something in my chest was broken."

"Get that well too," the boy said. "Lie down, old man, and I will bring you your clean shirt. And something to eat."

"Bring any of the papers of the time that I was gone," the old man said.

"You must get well fast for there is much that I can learn and you can teach me everything. How much did you suffer?"

"Plenty," the old man said.

"I'll bring the food and the papers," the boy said. "Rest well, old man. I will bring stuff from the drug-store for your hands."

"Don't forget to tell Pedrico the head is his."

"No. I will remember."

As the boy went out the door and down the worn coral rock road he was crying again.

That afternoon there was a party of tourists at the Terrace and looking down in the water among the empty beer cans and dead barracudas a woman saw a great long white spine with a huge tail at the end that lifted and swung with the tide while the east wind blew a heavy steady sea outside the entrance to the harbour.

"What's that?" she asked a waiter and pointed to the long backbone of the great fish that was now just garbage waiting to go out with the tide.

"Tiburon," the waiter said, "Eshark." He was meaning to explain what had happened.

"I didn't know sharks had such handsome, beautifully formed tails."

"I didn't either," her male companion said.

Up the road, in his shack, the old man was sleeping again. He was still sleeping on his face and the boy was sitting by him watching him. The old man was dreaming about the lions.

i left some messages in there for people lol

my role has an extra space in there to prevent an immediate control f

[DemonRHK]

The man sat on the edge of the roof, swinging his feet back and forth, looking out into the dawn. A spotlight with a jacket on it sat beind him, shining uselessly into the encroaching light. A older fellow sat down beside him on the roof and handed him a cup of coffee.

"Hey there fella. How'd ya sleep?" The man asked with a warm smile.

The grizzled, sleep deprived man didn't look back, taking the cup and downing it without hesitation. "Rough. Can't make heads or tails of anything in this place."

The old man nodded and tilted his head toward the light. "What's with that?"

The gizzled man sigh, looking back. "A crude attempt at a call for help."

The older man gave a sad, but warm smile. "You know what they say fella. 'Darkest before the dawn' and all of that."

The man rose from the edge, looking down morbidly as he did so, before sighing and turning and walking over to the light. He grabbed the handle, and pulled to turn it off.

If by some cruel chance, or some mysterious circuit completed by the jacket on top of it, the light surged, sending untold voltage through the man. He opened his mouth to scream but the electricity paralized his vocal cords. He finally got one foot up, not realizing the fatal error, and broke the circuit. The force of the explosion blew his shoes off and sent him carreening of the his of the roof to the horror of the older man.

He felt the wind rush, but could not see it, eyes charred from the power, as he impacted the neighboring building, catapulting through the window to the horror and shrieks of the offices workers some ten stories lower than where he started. As the sounds of the world started o fade, he wondered if his daughter would be safe in the world he left behind...

-----

PRESIDENT EDEN has DIED! They were JAMES GORDON, the VANILLA TOWN!

48 hours remain in Day 5.

YOU MAY POST

[Bonatogether]

we ball

[ghug]

Lol scum has gotta be pretty stupid.

[Bonatogether]

going to continue my celaph iso but i'm fine parking my vote there for now

##vote celaph

[ghug]

Did celaph not claim there?

Also bona what did you claim I'm lazy

[worcej]

God damn Bona lol

Also, I accept I can never read eden. Also a weird NK if you ask me…

[worcej]

Did celaph not claim there?

Also bona what did you claim I'm lazy

search for “do c”