Pangeku: A place to relive

Chapter 3.5 (v2)

THE STORM IS NOT YET OVER

"Tay!"

I sprinted down to the coast to warmly welcome my father after a successful trawl.

"Oy Marvs! Didn't I tell you to wait for me at our home?" My father said.

"Tay, it's too boring there, plus I missed you!" I responded.

"Haha, after selling those fish at the market, we're gonna eat your favorite!" My father said.

"Jalibee?" I asked.

"Jalibee is quite far from here, maybe on your birthday, how about I'll buy a fresh chicken so that you can still have a fried chicken!" My father answered.

Those were the good old days, I love fast foods but we rarely have those because our place is way too far from the city. Though I find it peaceful and for me, everything is perfect.

Years have passed and I am finally old enough to help my father! They wanted me to go to school but I refused since it's a long trip to school, plus I really want to be a fisherman and there's nothing wrong with that, they just let me do what I want. Now that I am 16 years old, I finally help my father trawl fishes. Every second is priceless because I am doing what I want, together with my father.

Every successful trawl is a celebration later on. We call that "Inuman" and it's all fun! But there are times that our voyage cost way more than our income because of an unsuccessful catch. Those were the times that we were eating rice with some salt, sometimes we poured coffee on our rice. It might sound tragic but for me it wasn't, we just have to eat together, tell some stories and boom, the dish magically tastes better!

Simple life, we just go where the current takes us. There are hard times but we still manage to make it through. Storms are the biggest obstacle we always overcome but things are about to be way more complicated.

One day, we were sailing on the northern west. We usually go to that direction because it is rich in aquatic resources, meaning to say fish are easier to trawl on that area. But today is different...

"Tay, what are those?" I asked.

"It looks like foreign vessels" My father answered.

"That's quite huge for a fishing vessel.." I replied.

"I don't think that those are fishing vessels, it looks like a coast guard" One of the crew responded.

"What makes you think that those are coast guards?" I asked.

"I recognized them, back then when you were still young, our ship travelled way too far from the country's borderline. Our compass was broken, that's why we were lost that time. It was a horrifying experience because they were about to attack us. They are armed, guns are pointed at us and they are saying something we couldn't understand. luckily they just let us leave and we made it back safely" He explained.

"But why are they here? This place is ours right?" I questioned.

"Let's head somewhere else for now, maybe they are just doing some business stuff there. We can still fish there some other time" My father replied.

I quite disagree with my father's decision because based on our different voyages, we have the most successful trawl in that area. Though I can sense their traumatic experience, everyone on the ship seems to agree with my father that's why I did not say a word.

Weeks have passed but those coast guards are still in that area. Our income is deflating, as expected, trawling somewhere else is not efficient. Going far south is an option but it's very risky since we need to invest more in terms of our resources just for a chance of trawling more.

"Tay, what should we do?" I asked.

"I already talked with our coast guards but they said they were also driven away." My father answered.

"What? THAT IS NOT FAIR, WE ARE GETTING BULLIED IN OUR OWN COUNTRY?" I furiously stated.

"Our coast guards said that they already reported this incident to our government but it's been weeks, nothing changed... Maybe the problem is bigger than we thought it was..." My father hopelessly said.

I was shocked when I heard my father but I was even more surprised when I saw his face. For the first time, I saw him hopeless.
I do understand why, we don't have any other job besides fishing and if that situation continues, we will be forced to do other jobs or else we will die of hunger.