5 1.5: Discovery

"Ahh.... Eh... Huh....??" I stammered at the shapely figure before me; words incorrigible at the least making no heads or tails of a normal conversation. "Ahhh..... Iiiisssssshhhhh....." words seethingly escaped from my lips as I stared googly eyes at her while enduring the stinging pain at my knees at the same time.

"Eh Abang..... Are you alright?" asked the young woman with a hint of concern in her voice. I looked up from my position and squinted. The sun rays positioned slightly behind her gives off an impression as a halo around her. I chuckled slightly and said, "I'm alright. Just feeling a bit hot only after walking around for some time." I said while spreading my hands. "Ala Abang, you go wait at the 'meeting point' while Ani prepare you some drinks ok?" the young lady nonchalantly spoke while at the same time without realising introducing her name to me so I would not be in a situation to know her name later; whilst pointed to the direction of the group of bare bodied men sitting under the cooling shade of an umbrella tree.

"Alright Ani, thank you very much for your concern," I muttered under my breath which was still audible to her. She walked off and headed beeline to one of the thatch houses; waved leisurely and spoke a few words to the women who were thumping their long sticks at the mortar filled with grains, and then went straight in after using a small coconut shaped cup to wash her feet at the foot of the wooden staircase.

I looked at her direction and suddenly felt that I am unable to peel my eyes off her back as she sashayed her hips. From my point of view, that young Ani seemed to be only 16 or slightly over. "Who is she and does she have any reference to me?" I pondered as Istood up and brushed the debris at my knee and looked carefully at the cuts and grazes due to the sudden fall earlier. I then gingerly walked over to the men and sat down.

"Hey, Bo. You just came back from the beach? You looked as if you had never seen your sister before." intrigued one of the men with a tattoo of a seagull on his left chest. "Ya la Bo. There's no chance for the stormy seas to die down at this moment. Just look at Cheng now. Just wait another few more days before we head to the seas and collect our 'treasures' soon. You just wait for us to haul in the 'treasures' and you can weigh them afterward." another man quipped in while pointing at Cheng; the man with a tattoo of a seagull on his chest.

"So my name is Bo after all. A very weird yet simple name." I thought silently to myself and while chatting with the rest of them I quickly discovered that the trio; Cheng, Ding, and Eun were blood brothers and fisherman by trade. I am somewhat their supervisor to help them sort, weigh and sell it to the other interested parties from other nearby settlements. They hauled in green mussels from the seas which attached over time by a thick thumb-sized rope and they used several coconuts as a buoyant.

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The rope was then suspended into the sea by several meters and was weighed down by rocks at the bottom of the ocean. The men dived from their wooden paddle boats called sampans and held their breaths underwater while using a dagger to separate the green mussels from the rope. Once the green mussels had been removed from the rope; it is then placed into a small net shaped like a sling bag that was tied to their waists. Then men made a few trips diving underwater and making their way to their sampans to dump the mussels inside.

Upon filling the desired amount then they climbed up into their sampans and rowed back to the beach. Since the sampans had no keel and also a flat bottom, it is advantageous for the fishermen to row in straight unto the beach. The flat bottom sampan also had a big advantage of not having a tendency to tip overboard when they climbed aboard from the sea. The total number of these ropes that were in the sea right now was no less than 50 so on a good haul of 'treasure', the trio could haul in about 150kg of mussels a day.

A short while later, Ani arrived carrying a rectangular tray with a wooden gourd and 3 wooden cups. A small wooden bowl contained a golden liquid that looked like a glaze. "Abang, here's some tea and honey to sweeten it. Also after you clean your scrapped knees you can apply the honey to it as well," advised Ani and while I nodded, I can't help myself at looking at the dimples as she smiled warmly at me.

Towards the end of the day, I discovered that Ani was indeed my little sister and both of our parents had long since passed away in a tragic sea incident some 3 years ago. I searched at the back of my mind of who Bo was and any kind of significance or reference it may impact anywhere in the near future. So I was in no hurry to find out who I am and what am I suppose to do in the next few days and also to find out what happened to the original Bo.