9 1.9: The Catch

The trio who were at sea about 20 meters away waved their hands to acknowledge that I was there when I whistled at them. I went near the shoreline and found that it was rather prestine and had no other floatsom or driftwood around the edge where the waves were breaking at the shore.

"Maybe it's high tide right now." I thought to myself and walked back to the makeshift A-frame shelter that I found waking up to the other day. The area was quite clean and there was a smouldering fire quite near the shelter. Most probably it was made in order to ward off the mosquitoes and other gnats.

I picked some dry wood around the shelter and dumped it into the smoldering fire. As the twigs and kindling of the pine trees are dry, it quickly caught fire and billowed whitish grey smoke inland. I gathered some more wood and placed them at the side, occasionally throwing a few pieces into the fire preventing it from being extinguished.

I sat down in the makeshift A-frame shelter and looked around the vicinity and can't help wondering how the sales of the green mussels also known as 'treasures' by the fishermen going to take place.

As it was difficult to tell the time, I took a piece of wood and stuck it in the sand in an upright manner. If I guessed right, the time when I reached the shore hadn't gone past midday yet and there would be a fixed shadow in the middle of the wood to indicate that the sun was directly overhead.

At this moment the shadow from the stick was pointing towards the sea and that indicates it's still in the first part of the morning.

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After some while, I saw Eun rowing back to the shore heading towards my direction and was calling out to me to approach him. I stood up and walked towards the shoreline as he landed his craft deftly near me. He climbed off his craft and dumped a basket on the shore. I saw there's another 3 more such baskets in his craft.

"Aaahhhh..... This one's for us. Let's roast them at the fire now. I can't wait to try them." Eun pointed to the basket that he had brought ashore.

Inside the basket were the largest shelled mussels I had seen! There were about the length of the palm and had no barnacles attached to it. The shell looked clean and seemed to be glistening in the sun. Only a few strands of seaweed was among the cluster of the shells.

Eun gingerly picked the basket up and headed to the smoldering fire and squatted right next to it while using a stick to spread the embers. He then took some sticks and lay them diagonally on the embers before placing a few shells on it.

A while later the other two brothers, Cheng and Ding also arrived at the shore after guiding their craft and landed at the shore. They had about 3 baskets each in their sampan and walked leisurely towards us. "You had your lunch already?" asked Ding.

"Nope, just coffee and some fried tapioca," I replied. "Same here. Its almost lunchtime though. We rest a bit after this and wait for the merchants to come and collect the shells from us later." quipped Cheng as he squatted next to Eun and began poking through the embers with a stick.

The sizzling of the mussels states that it was halfway done and when the shells opened up and exposing its juicy and sumptuous fleshy meat inside, Ding then picked up a few pieces and put it on a dry banana leaf that he had picked earlier.

The aroma of the freshly baked mussels was almost identical to the clams or other shellfish that was baked over a volcanic rock in my time. Except for the missing condiments such as chili sauce and fresh lime juice, eating these while being near the sea would truly heighten one's appetite.

I picked one up from the banana leaf and opened the shell wide before scraping it off before placing the meat in my mouth. I can't help blowing it using my breath while the exquisite taste exploded within my mouth.

This was my first time trying on fresh mussels direct from the sea. Otherwise, in my previous life, these mussels can be bought from the supermarket frozen section and mainly those sizes that Eun had brought in were mainly from Australia.

The freshness!! The sweetness!! The chewiness!! Sensations ran wild as the mussels were slowly chewed and savored between my molars; setting off multitude explosions of tastes on my taste buds. It was the high of living in this era I suppose.

The rest of the brothers too picked the baked mussels and quickly ate them while blowing them in order to cool it off before scraping the meat and placing them into their mouths. Their look of positive indulgence on their palate shows that they are generally satisfied with their haul.

"Today not much to bring ashore. The rest of the mussels would take a few days before harvesting. We will come back the day after tomorrow for another harvest." said Ding as a matter of fact as he stuffed another piece or morsel in his mouth and spoke between eating. The rest nodded in agreement including myself.

I took a few more to consume, the same goes for the rest of them. Before long the small basket of raw mussels had been baked and consumed and it left a pile of empty shells next to the glowing embers leaving about some five to seven pieces inside the small carryon basket.

I pondered on how many mussels were there on a single piece of rope that lay suspended in the ocean. Just then Cheng collected the empty shells and buried them under the sand near the edge of the pine trees, most probably to act as a kind of fertilizers.

Cheng went into the trail afterward and brought a bunch of coconuts along with him on the way back to the makeshift A-frame shelter. He used his dagger to took the top off and punched a triangular shaped hole on top of the core.

He popped the triangular part that was carved out by his dagger and handed one to me. I drank up almost immediately while thanking him while slowly placing my lips at the opening; the taste of the sweet and saltish juice dribbling down my throat as I gulped every single mouthful. I wiped my mouth against the back of my hand when I had emptied the contents.

Such simple pleasure of this drink was found abundance in the forest behind the pine trees and I was wondering how much it could cost in the markets of my previous life.

"Time to take a short nap before the merchants come and trade the 'treasures:'" said Cheng as he went to the makeshift A-frame shelter and stretched himself down. The rest followed him to the shelter and lay down.

With a full stomach and the soft billowing of sea breeze; I find it hard to keep my eyes open. Before I dozed off, I made a mindful reminder to ask the brothers whether they had seen what I had seen the night before.

Before long my eyes were shut and I was lost in the midday nap....