THE STORM IS NOT YET OVER

Chapter 3.5

"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.

He is quite old, that's why no one wants to accept his application. His crew also quit and started to look for a different job. I remain by my father's side, even if there's only the two of us, we will still voyage.

After several days, things are getting dire. We were slowly losing our savings. We only eat 2 times a day and it feels like we are left behind… I mean why are they still there? What actions does our government take? They all keep saying things on the news but we are not receiving any help…

Some reporters came to our place, they interviewed my father and other fishermen. It's breaking to see my father cry in front of a camera just to ask for some help on our national TV but what choice do we have? We are just there, hoping our message reaches the officials of our country because we badly need their help. Those foreign vessels are taking all the goods that we usually have, they are basically taking away our livelihood and we can't even do something to defend ourselves.

The next day, dark clouds suddenly appear. It looks like heavy rainfall is about to hit us. We still risked it and tried to voyage and catch some fish. Luckily, it did not rain and we were able to trawl for 3 days worth of our daily expenses once we sold it to the market. But in this situation, we need to do this everyday to at least earn little by little.

Days have passed but the dark clouds never left. I am starting to worry because this is quite uncommon. The breeze outside is starting to get colder than usual, as if snow is about to happen for the first time in our country. We are getting a little bit nervous, that is why we cancelled our sail today and opened our radio.

"Breaking news, a tropical cyclone will directly hit our Country. The cyclone appears to move slowly, gathering more water in the ocean. That is the reason why we have been experiencing dark clouds for the past few days. It is expected to land on Thursday morning. It is said to be the strongest tropical cyclone that we will experience for the past 3 years. We strongly advise those who are in remote areas to relocate into the nearest evacuation center. I repeat…"

My mind suddenly goes blank… The direction of the storm is this way and we only have 3 days to evacuate or else we are doomed.

"Tay, Nay, We have to leave now" I said.

"But where are we gonna go?" My mom answered.

"To the town, we can still make it if we leave now" I answered.

"Even if we reach the town, we won't make it there" My father responded.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"We barely live everyday here, how are we gonna live there? We will just starve to death…" My father sadly said as he walked back to our boat.

"Tay, Where are you going?" I asked.

"I'll try to fish once more, maybe we could stock some food before the storm hits us" He said.

In desperate times, instead of evacuating, we are at the ocean, trying to make a living. Later that day we headed to the market. We gathered all the remaining savings that we have to purchase food and stack up for the rest of the storm. I would like to suggest that we should just use the money to commute to the town but my father would argue that we should just use it for food.

The next day, my father and I hammered more nails on our roof. We also put some heavy rocks so that the wind won't easily blow it. My Mother is salting some of our fresh food to preserve it a bit longer. She also prepares our things at home in case the flood gets inside of our house. It is starting to rain, I hope we are ready for the landfall tomorrow.

The next morning, I'm not even sure if it is already morning. The clock says it is but the surroundings tell me otherwise. Everything is black, the wind outside is roaring, the rain is nonstop. We are sitting inside of our house, in front of a Gasera.

We are trying our best to eat as minimal as possible to survive longer but at the same time have the strength for the rest of the day. The sea level is rising, we are actually quite far from the shore but right now it looks like there's not much of a distance. Indeed, this is the strongest typhoon we have encountered in the past years.

Days like these continue, it feels like we are slowly getting suffocated in a small box. Our food ration is almost empty, it's been more than a week since we stayed inside of our house. We are not that rich to stack for months but we tried our best to survive this long. We all know that the storm won't end within the week, we need to do something or else we will starve to death. That moment we both knew what we had to do. My father looked me in the eye, even without saying a word, we both headed out and tried to catch some fish. Even my mother can't say a thing, she just prayed for our safety.

It is the first time that I walk at 120 degrees forward, it feels like I am climbing a mountain. We board our ship and voyage in darkness, tides whipping around, looking like a vast land mass, a mountain to climb to be precise. When we reached a certain distance, we threw the fish net and tried our best to stand still even though our ship couldn't stay still. We trawl the net with all the remaining strength that we have, hoping we caught something. After pulling up the net, we did not even look at what we caught, instead we focused everything on making it back alive. I can't see any light of hope but deep down I know, this won't be the last voyage that I will go on.

We manage to get back home, holding a pitiful size of catch. My mother hugged us tight, we risked our lives just to have something to eat in 3 more days.

After 4 more days, we finally saw a light literally. The sun rises after the storm. It feels warm but we have to deal with the aftermath because the problem is not yet over. We voyage immediately as we are desperate to have something on our plate. My father and I went to the sea at full speed but something is quite wrong, it looks like we are heading to the northern west, where foreign vessels reside.

"Tay, Why are we heading that way?" I asked.

"We need to trawl something huge or else we won't make it this month" my father answered.

"But it is risky! They are armed!" I responded.

"What choice do we have?" He replied.

We are getting closer, a siren starts to alarm. I told my father to go back but he is not slowing down. They are saying something on their megaphones but I couldn't understand them. The situation is escalating quickly and before I grasp the situation, I heard 2 gunshots.

It's weird because I thought that the storm is over, why is everything turning pitch black again? I am slowly losing my consciousness and then I said...

"The storm is not yet over..."