He was asleep when the boy looked in the door in the morning. It was blowing so hard that the drifting-boats would not be going out and the boy had slept late and then come to the old man's shack as he had come each morning. The boy saw that the old man was breathing and then he saw the old man's hands and he started to cry. He went out very quietly to go to bring some coffee and all the way down the road he was crying.
Many fishermen were around the skiff looking at what was lashed beside it and one was in the water, his trousers rolled up, measuring the skeleton with a length of line.
The boy did not go down. He had been there before and one of the fishermen was looking after the skiff for him.
"How is he?" one of the fishermen shouted.
"Sleeping," the boy called. He did not care that they saw him crying. "Let no one disturb him."
"He was eighteen feet from nose to tail," the fisherman who was measuring him called.
"I believe it," the boy said.
He went into the Terrace and asked for a can of coffee.
"Hot and with plenty of milk and sugar in it."
"Anything more?"
"No. Afterwards I will see what he can eat."
"What a fish it was," the proprietor said. "There has never been such a fish. Those were two fine fish you took yesterday too."
"Damn my fish," the boy said and he started to cry again.
"Do you want a drink of any kind?" the proprietor asked.
"No," the boy said. "Tell them not to bother Santiago. I'll be back."
"Tell him how sorry I am."
"Thanks," the boy said.
The end of semester grading is in sight. I have one more set of exams and papers to finish. I don't think students realize the amount of work that goes into these last days of the semester. While they're out celebrating, professors are chained to their laptops. Full-time professors work hard. Contingent professors (who often have second and third jobs to pay the bills) work even harder. That may not be a popular opinion in academia, but it's true. There's an ivory tower, and adjuncts and contingents are in the dungeon.
Saint Marty's koan for tonight: sometimes, it is the size of the fish that matters.
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