"The shark's dragging two barrels now," Quint said. "We stay out here until we find him again, it won't take too long."
"But we could radio in and get a bigger boat out here and get this kid out of the way..."
****
It wasn't long before the four of them were sitting, or standing, about in the cabin.
Brody stood to one-side and occasionally checked the small cut on his head. He felt silly for doing so when the Tendo girl had come on board with a gaping hole in her leg, but he couldn't really stop himself.
"Don't worry, chief," Quint said. "It won't be permanent."
Brody looked a little confused and glanced about for a bit as Quint laughed. Hooper simply stared in a slightly drunken manner as Nabiki rolled her eyes.
Nabiki, due to her wounded leg, had been afforded a corner of the bench, with Hooper between her and the sharker. She sat with a cup of some alcoholic beverage in her hand and quietly took another drink, barely feeling the kick at all.
"You want to see something permanent?" Quint asked, chuckling as he removed a cap from shattered tooth. "Hey, Hooper. You want to feel something permanent?"
Quint leaned forward and tipped his cap back, inviting Hooper to feel under it.
"Knocko Nolans, St. Patty's day. Boston," Quint said by way of explanation.
"I've got that beat," Hooper said wearily. "I do, I've got that beat." He leaned forward and rolled back his sleeve showing a scar there. "It's a moray eel, bit right through my wet suit."
He looked to Nabiki for a moment, who shrugged.
"An eel once gave me indigestion," she said off-handedly. The comment was shrugged off by the pair of manly men already engaged in the contest of scars.
"Hmm, well, I don't know about that," Quint said. He stretched out his arm then and Nabiki watched as the muscles strained to stretch the arm. "You see that?"
"You can't extend it," Nabiki said, off-handedly. Quint looked at her for a moment. "My father, my younger sister, her fiancee, most of their acquaintances, all martial artists." They stared at her blankly. "Sort of like karate. I used to ref the matches, I've seen a lot of injuries. I've sort of...developed a sense for it."
"Right," Quint said, momentarily derailed from his story. "Well, Hooper," as if Nabiki had never spoken. "I was in an Oki bar in San Francisco at a arm-wrestling competition and in the semi-final, celebrating me third wife's deemeese, big Chinese fella, he pulled me right over."
Hooper followed up with a scrape that a bull shark had given him once, and Quint returned with his thresher's tail slash. What followed was a toast and a comment about his broken heart. Then Hooper, obviously a bit drunk, turned to Nabiki and started to speak.
"But she beats us both," Hooper said, pointing a bit shakily.
"I hope you don't expect me to strip down and show you," Nabiki said with a hint of distaste. "I don't mind lifting up a t-shirt to give a show, but stripping off a one-piece is a different story."
"Don't worry girl," Quint said. "I seen it. You were on the news a bit the other day, with that two piece and the big mark out for anyone to see. Some might have accused you of playing up to the cameras."
"There's a chance of that," Nabiki said in guarded tone.
"What's that one?" Brody asked, laughing slightly and pointing to Quint's arm.
"Oh, that was a tattoo," Quint said hesitantly. "I got that removed."
"Let me guess," Hooper said. "'Mother.'"
"Hooper," Quint said. "That was the US Indianapolis."
Hooper's humor suddenly died as Nabiki blinked and stared at the man across from her in renewed caution.
"You were on the Indianapolis?" Hooper asked, also glancing at Nabiki.
"What happened?" Brody asked.
"Well, a Japanese sub put two torpedoes into her," Quint said, turning to look at Nabiki. "Coming back from delivering the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb."
Nabiki sculled the remains of her cup of booze and settled down to listen to Quint's tale of the horror of those three days spent with the sharks coming to feed. She politely folded her hands and waited quietly for him to finish as Quint watched her for reaction and Brody and Hooper stared as well.
"So, which do you hate more?" Nabiki asked when Quint had had his say. "The Japanese, or the sharks?"
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(Posted Sat, 24 Jul 2004 18:25)
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