The Grey Fin

                                Written on Oct 18, 19, 2013


"There is a shark in the jungle!" he said. He looked terrified, shaking at his hands and his feet. "They lack faith!" He said "Nobody believes me!" Everybody around him just stood there and looked at him. They didn't know what to think. Could he be telling the truth? All their children seemed to think so. Their parents had to stay up all night telling their children that there was nothing to be afraid of.

"Papa! Papa!" Mr. Richardson heard his son yell these words from his room. He knew what it meant, Papa is Swahili for Shark. Once again, Mr. Richardson didn't know what to think. But he stood up and walked over to his sons bedroom, he wasn't in too much of a hurry either, it was as if his son had cried wolf, once too many times. When he walked in he saw his son asleep in his bed. He told himself, that Timmy, his son, must of had a dream.

However, his son didn't awake. Apparently, he was still dreaming. Mr. Richardson didn't want to wake him to see if he was okay. He didn't even shake him to see if whether he would react. Now Mr. Richardson wasn't the only person that acted like that. But he was the one most expected to not be.

Early the next morning, Mr. Richardson got up and walked to his son's room, but Timmy wasn't there. He thought to himself, but he didn't panic, not in till he checked all of his son's usual hide outs, under his bed, closet, even at his friends house.But as soon as he saw that Timmy wasn't there either, he began to shake at his hands. Then his head started to grow hot, he started to feel light headed as if he was about to faint, but then he heard a knock at the door.

He made his way to the door, stumbling at his feet, while using the walls to support himself, he opened the door, and it was the man from last night, the one speaking about the shark inside the jungle. But his eyes were red, like a beet, and he was holding an empty bottle of Jack Daniels in his left hand, when he began to speak;

"your son - name is Timothy?"
"Yes!" Mr. Richardson answered as he braced his body at the sound of his son's name.
"They told me. I saw him late last night, - it was actually early this morning" he stopped and started coughing, softly at first, but then it got harder in till vomit came out. He began to feel woozy and then fell back and then stumbled over his own feet and then he fell down on to the ground.

"Where did you see him?" Mr. Richardson asked as he stepped down into his vomit, drawing the man up to him with first-ed hands maintaining a tight grip on his shirt. But the man was dead to the world. And by that time, all his neighbors were standing on the curve looking on. Mr. Richardson stood straight, he walked over the man and then said to the small crowd of neighbors; "Has anyone seen Timmy?" He asked again and again moving to the left and to the right of the crowd.

At that time a few law enforces broke through everyone and walked over to speak to Mr. Richardson, while the paramedics, whom were right behind them came for the man. The officers were conversing with Mr. Richardson, jotting down facts for their report.

Meanwhile, Mr. Richardson was watching the two paramedics pick up the man's body from the ground, while another took a sample of his vomit. When they put him upon the stretcher Mr. Richardson noticed that they didn't zip him up. For he thought that the man was dead. At that he began to realize that he was answering the officers questions about his son subconsciously. But he didn't care, for he was willing to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in order to get his son back.


Afterwards, Mr. Richardson went searching for his son. Meanwhile, he saw officers searching by car and even by helicopter. They searched in peoples houses and cars, and even the jungle.

Later that night Mr. Richardson made a trip to the hospital to see the man. He walked in and went up to the front desk, but he didn't know what to say, when they asked him who he was looking for, he didn't know how to answer. At that time, one of the officers that was speaking to him happened to be walking by and so he went over and asked him questions about that man.

"His name is Munro," the officer clarified. Mr. Richardson started to explain to the officer what he was doing there, at the hospital, when the officer got paged by his dispatcher, he reached for the microphone and then answered, the dispatcher responded with; "Kuna papa katika msitu" followed by static. The officer kept his ear close to his mic waiting for the rest, but then another voice came in and told the officer to hurry back to the office. And at once the officer departed from Mr. Richardson and did so.

After the officer left, Mr. Richardson walked up to the desk and asked if there was anyone by the name Manro in the hospital since this morning. One name pulled up on her computer screen. He asked if he could speak with him. He got his room number then walked up to see him. He walked into his room and saw him laying in his bed looking back at him.

"You said you saw my son," Mr. Richardson shouted "Where did he go?" The man just looked at him, mean in a way, as if he was trying to scare him.
"This morning you came to my house, ready to tell me something about my son," he said "Finish what you were about to say... Please!... Where is my son?!"

Still, the man refused to speak to him. At that time, Mr. Richardson began to think to himself, as he was passing before his bed, he started piecing things together in his anger and despotism.

"Wait!" Mr. Richardson said in front of the man, "That shark! That story you told, he believed you! Last night he must of had a dream about it... Papa! Papa! KUNA PAPA KATIKA MSITU! KUNA PAPA KATIKA MSITU!!" he kept shouting in his anger. The man's eyes blew up at him, and then he said; "I don't believe you."

At that time they began to hear many footsteps running out in the hall, it was the police, they opened the door, they rushed in, pushed Mr. Richardson to the side, and then they sat in front of the man and then started to question him. All the while Mr. Richardson was standing behind them listening in, as one of the officers said that a helicopter spotted a great white in the jungle, they don't know for sure but they think it is slowly dying.

They said that its moved since this evening, progressing, surviving and even compensating for its environment. "Munro, you told us the truth, and so we apologize for not believing you. But God only knows that something needs to be done about this."
"Wait a minute," Mr. Richardson interrupted the officer and then looked at the man and said, "A minute ago you said that you didn't believe me."

"Who is this man speaking?" an officer asked aloud. "This is Mr. Toby Richardson." said the cop that Mr. Richardson was speaking to before. "Last night his son went missing and early this morning, Munro here was found at his house passed out outside his door." "That is right," agreed Mr. Richardson "So i came here to hear him finish what he had to say."

At that Munro looked up at Toby Richardson and then said, "I was drinking last night and i passed out on the dirt, and for some reason i sat up and i saw your son walking to toward the jungle with a back pack, then i tried to call to him, i didn't think that he could hear me but he did, he turned around, looked and ran to me. He said somethings to me, but i don't remember what. I just remember that he hugged me, and he tried helping me up, but i kept falling down, i started to realize that he wanted me to go with him, so then i tried to hold him there with me, to prevent him, but then i must of passed out again, because when i woke up he was gone. That's the truth."

"He doesn't have a clue." Mr Richardson said "He just has some ideas." An officer began to stand up and speak to Mr. Richardson, saying, "We were planning on flying back out to the jungle to take care of the shark, tomorrow at sunrise, but because your son may be out their, we'll do it tonight. Don't do anything foolish. I can't expect you to go home and wait for our call about your son. For that reason i order you to fly back with us."

They Left Munro in his room. They drove back to the station. They took cars and trucks and even helicopters ascended and they all made their way to the jungle. Toby Richardson ended up riding with the Sargent in a safari jeep to the jungle. He was sitting behind the passenger seat, hoping and praying that his son was still alive. He started to look out the window and saw the helicopters flying ahead of them with their bright lights shining down.

On arriving at the jungle they began to drive inside, through the trees, one vehicle followed the other straight toward the sharks vicinity. When Toby over heard one of the pilots up in the helicopter say, "We see the shark," and then another pilot said, "now we're going to depart and look for the boy." As he was hearing this he looked up ahead and saw one of the helicopters depart from the other. Within about 15 minutes he heard over the intercom,

"We found him!... oh man, he is injured, his leg has been bleeding but Timmy apparently wrapped his shirt around it tight... he is passed out, but... he'll be alright."

Toby's heart seemed to fall out. But then the Sargent turned to him and said, "He's gonna be alright, we have great doctors."
"We got him on the helicopter, we're headed to the hospital now. He's gonna be fine." the pilot said "over and out."

Then the Sargent turned the jeep around and headed back to the hospital...
Toby spent the night by Timmy's bed, so that he was the first thing that he saw when he woke up and that is exactly what happened. Timmy woke up with a smile on his face, and he embraced his father with a warm hug and then after conversing at length, the nurse and the Sargent stepped into the room, and while the nurse was checking Timmy's leg, Timmy looked at him and asked about the shark with a concerned look on his face.

Immediately the Sargent asked "You mean Willy, we flew him back in the ocean. Because we knew that sharks were your favorite animal, so we figured that, that is what you would have wanted." Timmy smiled at him. At that time another nurse came into the room with ice cream for little Timmy. The Sargent leaned into toward Mr. Richardson and asked if he can see him outside.

They stepped out and then the Sargent picked up Timmy's backpack from off the floor and handed it to him. Mr. Richardson looked at him and then asked, "Did you really free that shark?" "Of course," the Sargent said "I wouldn't lie to the boy." he continued, "We found some meat in the bag. I guess Timothy was trying to feed him, and perhaps got a little too close."

"How did the shark end up in the jungle?" Mr. Richardson asked. "We don't know. That's the truth. Maybe the wind did it? Or maybe Timothy knows, you know dreams have a way of showing us things that our psychical eyes can't see. Now let me leave you alone with your son. okay... It's nice to meet you Mr. Richardson." "Call me Toby." Mr. Richardson said to the Sargent. He smiled and nodded and then turned around and walked away, and then Toby brushed the bag against his chest and then walked into the room and he stayed with his son.

THE END WRITTEN OCT 18-19 through midnight. Ended 12:49am Started about 9:00pm