The village where Brando was born was a once famous seaside resort. It was a divers` haven
skirted by ribbons of corals. But not for long. The place lost its charm when the corals were
destroyed. They were smashed to pieces by the boy-fishermen to drive the fishes away from their
coral homes and into the waiting fishing nets. The boy-fishermen worked for the muro-ami fishing
magnate, Don Carlo.
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But village kids believed otherwise. Teasing, they insisted that what fascinated Brando`smother were not pictures of divers, but of frogs. So, Brando came to be called by many names: Brandong Palaka (frog), Brandong Syokoy (merman) and Brandong Palikpik (fin). Of these, the last sounded least insulting, almost pleasant to the ears, that Brando even seemed pleased to be known far and wide as Brandong Palikpik.
It was on the eve of the town fiesta, just before dark, when strange but amiable-looking men stopped by the eatery run by Brando`s mother. This group of seven men arrived on a
big outrigger. They were dressed in bulky jackets and trousers and had on oversized
rubber shoes. Wearing big smiles on their faces, they went to the counter where Brando
and his mother was.
"Good evening," greeted the one who seemed to be the leader of the group.
"Good evening. What`s yours?" Brando`s mother asked.
"I`m sorry. But we really came here only to ask for directions - to the house of Don
Carlo. The fellow who owns the fishing boats. Do you know him?
"Yes. Of course. Who wouldn`t know him in this village? Almost all of the boys here
work for him," she answered. "You would never miss his house. Nobody for miles around
has a house that big, and with a water playground yet. All right, you go out through that
door and then follow the footpath leading to the main road..."
"Wait Ma, I`ll just accompany them," interrupted Brando, who was then leafing
through a file of skin diving magazines,
"No. It`s almost nighttime. We`ll be having our supper in a little while."
"Please Ma."
And Brando`s mother, knowing her child`s continuing fascination with the water
playground in Don Carlo`s compound gave in. "Okay. But be sure to return at once." Then
addressing the leader of the group, she asked, "By the way, why do you want to go to Don
Carlo`s house?"
"We`re looking for jobs. As fishermen."
"I don`t think that this is the right time to go there looking for jobs. We`ll be celebrating
our fiesta tomorrow, and all the men in that compound have started getting drunk early
this afternoon. They can get really rowdy."
"No problem with that. We also drink. We`ll know how to get along with them."
"Oh well, if you insist."
Don Carlo`s house was unique - a manifest symbol of his obsessive taste for the
grandiose. It`s not enough that he owned the biggest fishing fleet in the whole province.
He also had to live in the most luxurious mansion thereabouts, complete with a water
playground for his only child, Kai. Its huge swimming pool had tubular slides attached to
an enormous concrete whale. But the centerpiece of the playground was the twisting slide
that rose several stories high. This playground was heaven to Brando. His greatest desire
was to be allowed to spend a day in it, along with other village kids who were on good
terms with Kai. He got invited, all right. But the long time it took him, with his unwieldy
feet, to climb the slide tower`s narrow ladder bored the impatient kids. Add to that the envy
they felt, when Brando, upon hitting water, flitted fish-like through the whole length of the
pool.They can never top that. So they seldom invited him.
Kai opened the gate himself. He was wrapped in a towel, having spent with the village
kids a daylong frolic at his water playground. "Oh Brando, it`s you. Come on in."
Even if they seldom get to play together, Kai actually had a soft spot for Brando, whom
he admired for his agility underwater. What really prevented him from inviting Brando more
frequently to their frolics were the sly ways of the envious kids who dissuaded him from
doing so. They wanted Kai all to themselves.
"Who are they?" Kai whispered.
"They are fishermen looking for work. They want to see your father," Brando said, also
lowering his voice.
"Papa has visitors upstairs. He cannot attend to your companions tonight. After the
fiesta, maybe. But anyway, come inside. Have some food and drinks."
Kai introduced the strangers to a group of fishermen. They were carousing near a big
kettle hanging over a low fire. Simmering in the kettle was a tasty soup of goat`s meat.
Kai and Brando retired to a spot near the outdoor shower where Kai resumed dressing.
It was a noisy gathering. Don Carlo`s men were drunk. While two of them laid sprawled
on benches asleep, others engaged in confused talk and argued in loud voices.
"Where are you from?" Iteng, the fellow in charge of refilling the wine glass, asked.
"We are from Mongpong," the leader of the strangers replied. "We are fishermen. We
want to work for Don Carlo."
"My, you come at the wrong time. This is not the time for interviewing job applicants.
Tomorrow`s fiesta, and tonight, well, tonight`s the time for drinking - our rehearsal for
tomorrow`s main event," Iteng said with a laugh. "Don Carlo himself is busy drinking with
his big shot pals. They must be drunk by now. Better have a drink so that your coming
here won`t be a total waste of time. Here." Iteng handed a glass of reddish coconut wine to
the leader.
For several minutes, Don Carlo`s men and the strangers took turns drinking from that
single glass. A bowl of steaming soup was also passed around. Moments later, Iteng
noticed something: " O, where are your companions?"
"Oh, they must have gone somewhere to take a leak."
"Can`t be sure. They might be vomiting instead."
"Could be, with wine this potent."
Iteng chuckled: "We don`t call that dragon`s blood for nothing."
Iteng was again pouring wine from a pitcher when the compound was rocked by explosions in the boatyard. Though roused savagely from their stupor, Don Carlo`s men were so numbed by alcohol that they failed to react. Amidst the tumult, they dimly saw their newly-built boats being blasted by the dynamites detonated by the strangers. They saw them too, rushing out of the gate half-carrying Kai and Brando who were both struggling and shouting for help. Using the tricycles parked outside the compound, the strangers escaped.
The strangers were not from Mongpong. They were the secret inhabitants of the
dreaded Durian Reef whose existence have long been suspected by the villagers. Those
who dared ventured in the vicinity of the reef never came back, their disappearance
conveniently explained as accidents - wrecks caused by the spiny rocks resembling the
spikes of the durian fruit after which the reef was named. The reef was never inhabited by
humans. It has no vegetation. Fresh water could only be had from depressions in the
rocks, natural reservoirs filled by rain during the monsoon season. No place was safe
for mooring as submerged spines could easily pierce any hull.
But the reef was a sanctuary. Since the earliest times, undetected by humans, the
reef provided an ideal abode for a tribe of amphibious creatures. They are like humans in
most aspects, except for the fins protruding from their torsos, their scaly limbs and their
webbed feet. They breathe with their lungs when on land and through their skin
underwater. And they hop when they want to move faster from place to place. To sustain
themselves, these creatures tended the corals, which are nests for dozens of species of
fishes. Thus, the havoc wreaked on these corals by Don Carlo`s boy-fishermen caused
the dwindling of their food supply.
After shedding off his suffocating human clothing, the leader, now displaying the lean
muscular body of a fish-eater, began to speak: "I`ll tell you why we destroyed your
father`s boatyard. We wanted to scare Don Carlo, to stop him from sending into our sea
his coral-breaking gang. Remember the fishermen from your village who disappeared
months ago? It is against our rules to have any contact with humans- but we have to
punish them.They were exploding dynamites in our sea. We thought that would stop Don
Carlo from pursuing his destructive ways. We were mistaken. Not only won`t he stop- he
even taunted us by building more boats!"
"The fishermen, where are they?" asked Kai.
"We held them captives for a while, but they tried to escape. So, we killed them and
fed them to the fishes." Kai and Brando shuddered on hearing that, their pristine world of
boyish pranks and jealousies exposed for the cloistered unreality it really was.
"So you see, there is no hope of you ever returning home. We need you here to protect
us from revenge attacks by your father."
"But Kai hasn`t done you any wrong. Why punish him for the faults of his father?"
Brando asked, pleading.
"I know, I know. But as I`ve told you, we need him as shield to prevent any revenge
attacks. Don`t worry, both of you won`t be harmed as long as the humans don`t attack us.
Especially you, Brando. With those fins for feet, why, you might even be one of us. But
enough of that!
"Let me just warn you. You are captives. You`ll be given enough food, but you`ll be
closely guarded. You can go play in the sea, but remember that you cannot escape for
my followers are fast swimmers. As speedy as barracudas. Don`t ever try to escape,
because if you do, we`ll have no choice but to destroy you.
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"But aren`t you going to ask for any ransom?" Brando asked.
"What ransom?"
"Ransom. Money in exchange for the freedom of Kai. His father has plenty of it. I`m
sure that he`ll be most willing to pay you any amount you demand."
"Money won`t be of any use here. Everything here we can have for free. No, we don`t
need money."
"But what do you need? Why don`t you tell Don Carlo what you need? Perhaps he can
give you that. He will give anything for the safe return of his son."
"I don`t know why I allow you to argue with me. But all right, I`ll indulge you. All we
need are fishes, lots of it, to feed our expanding population. But you humans refuse to see
that your maniacal destruction of our corals are depriving the fishes of nests. You refuse to
understand that you can no longer bring back to life the corals that you have destroyed.
Now, how can Don Carlo do that? How can he restore the corals?"
Brando spoke no more. He had no answer to that. So, he and Kai went to sleep
distressed. The leader was right. How could anyone replace the corals? How could
anyone guarantee nests for fishes now that the corals are fast disappearing? With these
questions in mind, Brando fell asleep.
Nowadays, Brando was no longer sure whether he did the remembering in his dream.
But anyhow, the pictures of boat wrecks and scuba divers he saw in the diving magazines
he was reading on the night these creatures came into their eatery, did gave him the idea.
About an hour before dawn, Brando, who was no longer able to sleep, asked that the
leader be awakened. Though still drowsy, the leader again good-naturedly yielded to
Brando`s persistence. Brando proposed to him his idea. And the leader, being the
reasonable creature that he really was, readily gave his approval. By midday, with three
amphibious creatures as escort, Brando was well on his way to his own village, to the
mansion of Don Carlo, to relay to him the demands of their abductors.
Not a week passed when there appeared, crossing over to the edge of the horizon, a
flotilla, sailing for the Durian Reef. Dozens of boats made up the flotilla, which was Don
Carlo`s entire fishing fleet. As the fleet neared its destination, the boats scattered to
encircle the reef. When Don Carlo`s yacht blew its horn, the crew of the fishing boats
did quickly their assigned tasks. After fifteen minutes or so, they lowered the lifeboats
down the side of their vessels. The crew were abandoning the fishing boats for these were
starting to list.But no one was surprised nor was there any panic , for this was Brando`s very idea. In exchange for the safe return of his son, Don Carlo agreed to sink his entire fishing fleet in the sea surrounding Durian Reef. He ordered his men to scuttle the boats by boring
holes on their bottoms.
The moment the sea swallowed the last of the fishing boats, a small canoe paddled by
Kai appeared, gingerly making its way around the spiny rocks to the yacht, where Don
Carlo, Brando, and the cheering crew was waiting for him.
Many years would passed before anyone can appreciate the logic of the maneuver. If
anyone should ever go diving around the fringe of the reef, dozens of varicolored apparitions
would provide him with visual delights. The boats sunk by Don Carlo`s men now lay
unmoving about a hundred feet below. Their former grayish hues are no longer visible
because their hulls are now plastered with swaying colonies of colorful sea anemones.
Aside from these, reddish species of sponges and bluish starfishes found refuge on the
wreckage of the boats.
And darting in and out of the portholes, funnels, doors and other vents and orifices of
the boats are fishes, several varieties of them, flashing colors that would surely light up any
aquarium. But no, the wrecks are supposed to be sanctuaries, artificial nests for fishes
needed by generations of those mysterious amphibious creatures for their survival.
The village where Brando grew up again became a famous seaside resort. From Don
Carlo`s pier, divers board yachts bound for the reef. The boat wrecks encircling Durian
Reef became major tourist attractions, luring divers from all over the world. Pictures of
scuba divers posing alongside the wreckage of Don Carlo`s fishing boats were often
featured in skin diving magazines abroad.
The village is once more a busy place. But most busy are Kai and Brando, who found
their calling guiding divers in their underwater treks. Brandong Palikpik found at last his
true milieu, for underwater, having fins for feet is not freakish. It is the most natural thing
in the world.
End
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