At the time the Smith siblings completed the consummation of their passion, when it became clear that they or Raymond’s team would likely win the race, a small and skinny surfer let the wave carry her to the top of its crest long before Raymond did later on. Realizing how formidable her competition was, she no longer had too much interest in winning and wanted to have fun in the last stage of the race instead. She enjoyed the strong summer wind blowing through her hair from behind and the summer sun shining on the sublime landscape, with its raging sea, ragged cliffs, stone-cutting river, and tall trees further inland. She didn’t let the song sung on the cliffs push her to the edge of her power, instead simply enjoying the music coming from down there. While the twins were flying toward the apple from below and Raymond and and his friends were hurtling toward it from above, her only goal was to surf down the wave without sinking into the gushing water masses. She comfortably surfed down … as comfortable as riding down the side of a tumbling monster wave as tall as a skyscraper can get, that is.
Out of nowhere, she found herself launched out of the water and directly at the apple. Twelve outstretched hands around her reached for the fruit of victory. Six faces turned to her in surprise and got deathly pale, even whiter than the snow-white faces of Ashley and Ashton normally were. Twelve eyes got wide. Six mouths screamed or yelled in fear as she passed between Raymond’s team and the Smith siblings. The young surfer was still unaware of the reason for her unforeseen thrust and the fearful reactions of her competitors. The shark had jumped out of the tumbling wave and rammed the young surfer’s board from beneath. In spite of the huge beast in their midst, twelve hands closed around the apple and got … nothing but thin air. A thirteenth hand, a skinny one, instinctively closed its fingers around the fruit and snatched it away inches before them.
“What an unbelievable turn of events!” said the reporter. “After having apparently lost any chance of winning, Park Hae snatches victory away from the most promising candidates thanks to the shark’s jump.”
On the wave, outcries of fear mixed with curses from Raymond’s team. Watching the big screen on the cliff, Gwen also hissed “Crap!” and stomped the ground. Pleasantly surprised that the apple she had long given up was in her hand, the winner looked down to see what had happened … and screamed. There was the shark’s head, formidably equipped with prey-detecting sensors of several kinds and razor-sharp triangular teeth. Her scream was muffled when she fell into the flood due to her shock and vanished into the gushing water together with the shark.
Shouts of worry came from the crowd. Many held their breath. The surfers who had managed to stay afloat rode out the rest of the fallen wave and looked around for any sign of the winner or the shark.
“What has happened? What has happened?” said the reporter. “What a macabre turn of events it would be if the one who helped Park Hae win the race would also be the one to gobble her up! A rescue team is already on the way. Let’s hope for the best.”
“Let’s save her,” said a surfer who belonged neither to Raymond’s team nor to Gwen’s.
Raymond and his friends made no attempt to help. Instead, they surfed to the river’s narrow shore and scrambled onto land. Raymond wiped his forehead. “Safe at last! And serves her right for stealing our prize! Why, if I have the fins of that shark on my plate one day, I’ll have the satisfaction of indirectly eating the brat who stole my victory!”
He didn’t know that a reporter was aiming her directional mike directly at his mouth and broadcast his words live to the world. This was not of great help in earning him sympathies. To his dismay but almost everyone else’s great relief, Park Hae suddenly appeared from the waves holding onto her surfboard with one hand and still clutching the apple with her other. The surfers swam toward her. They all started being gently dragged downriver by the excess water flowing back to the sea and the current of the river itself.
“What a relief!” The reporter made a sigh that could be clearly heard. His tone changed yet again. “But what’s that? Oh, no!”
A triangular fin rose from the water behind Park Hae, who was hanging onto her board. Her body below her shoulders was underwater. The onlookers held their breath. Even the overseer and the reporter didn’t manage to bring any word over their lips. Most of the surfers stopped. Only Ashton, who was closest to her, Ashley, and the surfer who had called for saving Hae swam on toward the young woman despite the apparent threat, for they knew the rescue team couldn’t arrive in time. But although the Smith siblings and their colleague were excellent swimmers, the shark was a much better swimmer still. Before any of the surfers, he reached Hae and … nuzzled her with his snout. The onlookers made a hearable sound as they collectively sighed in elation and relief.
“Aw, he just wants to play!” said Ashley, swimming beside her brother.
“Why, of course he does!” said Ashton. “Don’t you feel his playful mood?”
Ashley turned to her brother with a blank expression on her face. “You dumb-ass! You could’ve checked his purpose right at the beginning. Then we would’ve known all along that he didn’t harbor any predatory intentions toward any of us.”
“Uh-huh, and couldn’t you have done the same, fellow dumb-ass? And even if he had thought we were seals and wanted to eat us, we could have telepathically told him that we’re humans. In any case, we would’ve been spared a lot of worries.”
The reporter listened in on their words with her directional mike and broadcast them on TV, and the reporter laughed. “How funny! Ashton and Ashley Smith have thought so far outside the box to solve the problem of a missing teammate, but it hadn’t crossed their mind to make standard use of their mental and spiritual powers and abilities to solve the potential shark problem. Heck, I’m pretty sure many of our TV viewers came up with that idea right from the start.”
Wielding their telepathy, the twins found out that the reporter’s guess was true.
“How wonderful! I’m so happy that massive shark hasn’t harmed her and just wants to play, and I’m sure our audience feels the same.”
Hae stroked over the shark’s skin backwards, the direction in which it was smooth. The huge hunter enjoyed the small surfer’s massage. The onlookers were impressed by Hae’s fearlessness, but also a bit worried, yet their worries turned out to be for naught. They all saw firsthand how gentle the supposedly aggressive animal could be.
Ashton mocked, “Look what a bloodthirsty killing machine…”
Ashley finished his sentence, “…the shark is!”
A marine biologist made her way to the reporter and beckoned to him that she’d like to talk. She showed him who she was with her badge.
The reporter said, “We’ll now have a word from an ocean expert on the shark.” And he passed the microphone to the biologist.
The woman said, “As we all can see with our own eyes, sharks are beings with feelings, not the merciless monsters some ignorant people describe them as. Still, what Park Hae is doing should only be done by professionals, for sharks remain wild animals and may attack a person if he or she makes a mistake. It’s best for us humans to leave them mostly alone to keep them and ourselves from harm, protect them, and conserve their habitats.”
“Thank you, Dr. Wilma Hartz,” said the reporter.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr5eOOAQ73L
