Night Boat

Old pier wood creaked and groaned as we amble-danced in the yellow  circles cast by our flashlights- pale reflection of the glittering, pure-bright  scintillations gleaming above in softened obsidian sky. The chug-purring launch bounced softly in the current. We streamed in  took a seat along the sides.  In quickened laugh-talk,  anticipatory, we jabbered our way into open water. Lanterns illumed the sea on either side of our craft, luring a lambent chum of glowing plankton,  drawn like watery moths-  A silver shape sliced an angle across the water! Then more,  schools of silvery squid slashing the borders of light, quick sentient missiles. “Shhh,” Preston, our leader, shhh’d us “I heard a sea lion over there” As she said it, I heard the sharp blow of expelled breath. Subdued, we waited. “Look! …There!” Something gray broke the water Then rocketing, rolling  toward us, unbelievably fast snatched a squid and sped into the dark. It must have dove deep, the other side of the boat never saw it.

I got a good, close look- the barreling body rolling joyously in the hunt It came again! Then again! We were all standing, straining to see. Reluctantly, I yielded my place to a person  from the other side and then, suddenly, there were three! They streaked beneath us repeatedly till the captain finally doused the light and steered us pier side. And, after- After the lab where we squinted over fresh plankton slides watching microscopic monsters devour each other, I thought of those playful, happy sea lion faces, how they moved so freely, orienting themselves Independent of gravity it seemed. How they live without pockets  or oppressive politics. I was glad I got to see them Before Fukushima radiation spread across the sea- Our unreturnable gift to them.