Hello everybody! The Manager here! Today we welcome Sunny our “Cabana” Boy to the STAFF that have published a post on Paradise! He had written a very cute and charming intro.. but then he spilled his little yellow bucket and all the words washed away! As Sunny got distracted by the flowing ink and followed as it flowed around the manager wrote a new intro! Today Sunny writes about…. Sunny! His tales as a fisherman! Check it out and don’t forget to leave a like! Likes are great bait you know?!
Sunny lay stretched out on his belly in the pale pink sand. The waves lapped gently at the beach to his right, and a rod with a gigantic reel was propped in the sand. A line stretched from the long, whippy willow pole far out into the sea where a bright yellow bobber floated, unwatched.
A tiny yellow crab held Sunny’s attention as it scuttled hither and yon on the pink sand, making a lovely picture as it sifted through the grains seeking the small bits of food. The sun beat warmly down on Sunny’s back, making him a bit drowsy. His eyelids fluttered down and soon no one was awake on the beach but the crabs.
Further out in the calm sea, a seagull hovered over the bright yellow bobber, wondering if it was worth hanging around to see what Sunny caught. He often shared his catch with the gulls, or sometimes he had delicious human snacks he would tear into small pieces and toss into the air for the delight of watching the acrobatic gulls swoop and catch them on the wing.
Suddenly the bobber wobbled. Then again. It shook and bounced up and down in the water a few times, and then vanished beneath the turquoise sea.
Sunny was alerted by the whining buzz of his reel as the line went screaming off of it at great speed. He jumped up out of the sand, startling the little crabs who ran in every direction. Grabbing his rod and reel he gave it a jerk, although it was clear the hook was firmly seated in something. Whatever it was, it gave an almighty jerk back that nearly yanked Sunny right off his bare feet into the ocean.
With all his strength, Sunny caught his balance and tucked the rod into the wide thick belt he wore for this very purpose. He began to play the sea creature, reeling back line as it went slack and bracing himself when it ran again. It quickly became clear that this was no cute little baby perch he had on the line, but something enormous.
Beautiful green and grey and brown lemon sharks often cruised in the shallows around the dock and the edges of the island, but this was much too large to be one of those fairly harmless and quite pretty fish. Sunny realized now that he must have had a little nap in the sand, and the line had drifted out far out into the sea, beyond the shallows and past the shelf that dropped down and down and down to unfathomable depths away from the feet of Pinkie’s Paradise Island.
Deep, deep in the turquoise sea, what could it be? There were some giant groupers, and even some huge old moray eels that lived far below the island in caves and grottos among the coral. Fat and old from eating well on the bright fish who lived on the reef. That must be it, Sunny thought as he worked and worked and wrestled and strove with the great heavy and strong sea creature. Yes, it was probably one of those groupers. And what good eating it would make! Why, some of them got up to 600 pounds. He could make a lot of fish fillets out of that and have a big fish fry for all the island resort guests tonight!
The sun sank towards the sea and still the battle raged on. Sunny ached in every inch of his body and more than once had thought of cutting the line and letting the vast creature go, but now his curiosity had gotten the better of him. The big fish was not jumping out of the water at all, but now and then he caught a swirl of a mighty tall sail like fin that was bigger than anything he had seen on the biggest grouper he had ever brought in.
If he ever got this creature landed, how on earth would he bring it up the beach?
Just as the sun touched the sea and sent one last golden beam streaking across the wet horizon, the water began to boil and roll and in every way signal that something big was coming up. Sunny was busy reeling in the slack, feeling this would be his one and only chance to conquer the sea creature that he was now dying of curiosity to see. What could it possibly be that was so big and so strong and so determined to fight for half a day or more!
With a final roar the water broke and the sea sephents head rose, and rose, and rose into the darkening sky! Sunny had hooked a true monster from the depths. Easily thirty feet of the beast was out of the water, and far more clearly trailed behind. Fins shaped almost like legs, like those of a coelacanth dangled and flailed wildly, throwing fish scented waters through the air that hit Sunny like the rain of a hurricane. The creature let out a bellow similar to the bark of a catfish but with the volume of a foghorn. The water foamed with his thrashing tail, as long again as his entire body.
Glowing golden eyes the size of semi-truck hubcaps swiveled and fixed on Sunny. The great fish drew back on himself in an S like a striking snake and for one stunned, horrified moment all Sunny could see was a great cave-like mouth lined with dagger teeth. A pointed tongue curled and Sunny glimpsed the twinkle of his tiny little hook embedded in it’s center.
He threw the rod and reel down, turned, and ran.
Knowing, like I’m sure you do, that Sunny has beautiful dragonfly wings, you are wondering why he didn’t fly. Well, the truth is, he runs much faster than he can fly.
Sunny ran as far and as fast as his feet would carry him. All thoughts of how tired and how sore and how terribly lazy he normally is completely left his body on a wave of adrenaline and pure terror. He blazed up the beach, into the jungle, past the resort where he could see the guests lined up agog at the beast in the water. The people on the third floor balcony could look eye to eye with the thing!
Maybe Sunny was running so fast you couldn’t see him. Maybe everyone was a bit more busy wondering if the creature could make landfall. Whatever, no one seemed to be aware as he flashed past tables and through the doors and then up and up and up the mountains behind the resort until he reached a secret little trail he thought only he knew that led to a cave in a clearing.
When he reached the cave he finally managed to stop his flying feet. He fell bonelessly to the earth and concentrated on getting oxygen into his struggling lungs. And then the beast roared again.
Quickly, he jumped to his feet and staggered a moment before he made it to a tall tree. Now he flew. He flew and flew up to the very top of the tallest tree and then he could look down and see the creature, still in the shallows, weaving side to side like a cobra and clearly using those glowing eyes to look for his tormentor. That wide mouth opened again and suddenly a rainbow of round rubber balls shot out and across the waters and the beach.
There were yellow balls. And red balls. And blue balls. And green balls. And purple balls. And of course, pink balls. Some balls were even clear, like bubbles, and they floated up into the air as if they were weightless. Balls from the size of softballs to soccer balls to beach balls bounced and rolled across the beach and floated on the surface of the sea, carooming off the top of the waves caused by the monsters flipping tail.
The monster reared back as if to spit more bouncy balls but instead he shook his head, and opened and closed that great maw of a mouth over and over, making quite horrible sounds until with a very distinct “PTOOEY” Sunny saw the twinkle of his fish hook as it caught the light of the moon and flew out of the monster’s tongue and down to the pink sands.
Grumbling in its throat, the monster took one last gasp, one last long evil eye cast towards the beach, before it turned and swam away.
Sunny heard the laughter of relief and chatter coming from the guests still standing on the balconies and around the pool in the resort. There was a bit of a rush towards the bar, so Kuro had to stop standing stock still in shock and get busy mixing cocktails in pitchers. Then guests began to tiptoe down to the beach, first in ones and twos, and then in small groups and picking up those bright rubber balls that were shining in the moonlight.
As if by magic and mutual agreement, suddenly everyone was playing on the beach with the sea monster’s balls. There were people playing catch, or dodgeball or something like volleyball without a net.
The manager of the resort, Pinkie, walked down the beach to where Sunny’s rod and reel lay abandoned in the sand. She picked them up and looked around. Sunny gulped. He had a feeling she was not going to be very happy with him.
He pulled some young limber tree branches towards himself and wove a little sleeping platform high in the top of the tree. Relaxing, he watched the guests playing in the moonlight with all the pretty balls. Maybe in the morning he would fly back down to the resort and set about his chores as if nothing had ever happened. Everyone seemed to be having fun. Pinkie couldn’t really stay mad at him, right?
Pinkie's Paradise 