Chapter 3 No Time to Cry

 

The next few days were hot, and summer visitors from New York began arriving in Amity.

Sunday was the twentieth of June. By twelve in the afternoon there were many people on Old Mill Beach. Children played near the water.

A boy of six walked up the beach. He sat down next to his mother. *

'Can I go swimming?' he asked.

His mother turned to look at him. 'No. It's too cold.'

'Can I go out on my boat? I won't go far. And I won't go swimming. I'll just sit on my boat.'

His mother sat up. She looked up and down the beach. Fifty metres away a man stood in the water. He had a child on his back.

'Yes. But don't go too far out. And don't swim.'

'OK,' he said. He pulled the little boat out into the water and climbed on to it.

The shark swam under the water. It was sixty metres from the shore.

The boy sat on his boat and looked back towards the beach. His mother was about fifty metres away. He put his feet into the water and kicked towards the shore.

The shark saw nothing, but it felt the sea move. It knew there was something near, and began to swim up towards the surface. It moved slowly first, then faster.

The boy stopped, and the shark swam below him. Then it turned again.

The shark swam up fast. Its mouth opened.

The boy could not cry out - he had no time. The shark's head hit the boat and pushed it out of the water. Nearly half of the fish — with the boy and most of the boat in its mouth — came above the surface. Its jaws closed together and cut off the boy's legs. They dropped slowly down into the water.

On the beach the man with the child turned to his son and pointed at the sea. 'Did you see that?'

'What, Daddy?' His child looked up at him.

'Out there! A shark or something! Something very big!' The boy's mother opened her eyes. She looked over at the

man, and saw him point at the water. People were running away from the sea.

She sat up. Suddenly she remembered. 'Alex,' she said.

The phone rang. Brody got up from his lunch and answered it. When he came back he looked afraid and angry.

'What is it?' asked Ellen.

'A shark attack. On a child.'

'Oh no!' And you didn't close the beaches...'She stopped.

'Yes, I know,' he said. 'I didn't do my job.'

Twenty minutes later Brody arrived at the police station. The boy's mother was in the office.

'I'm sorry,' said Brody.

The woman began to cry.

Suddenly the door opened and Hendricks ran into the room. 'Shark attack!' he cried.

'We know, Leonard,' said Brody. 'This is the boy's mother.' 'Boy?' said Hendricks. 'What boy? This was a man, an old man. Five minutes ago.'

On Monday morning, Brody arrived at the police station soon after seven. He went into his office and found a newspaper on his desk. On the front of the newspaper it said, SHARK ATTACK KILLS TWO IN AMITY.

Brody sat down and began to read the story.

'Is that from New York?'

Brody looked up and saw Meadows at the door. 'Yes. Did you write about it, too?'

'I did,' said Meadows. 'And I spoke to Matt Hooper last night.'

'Does he think that one fish is doing all this?'

'He doesn't know, but he thinks it is. He thinks it's a Great White.'

'I do, too. I don't know a white shark from a green shark. But I think it's one fish. Can we do anything...?'

'Yes, there's one thing,' said Meadows. 'We can put food in the water for the shark. That'll bring him to us.'

'But then what do we do?'

'We catch him. With a harpoon.'

'Harry, I don't have a police boat! And I don't have harpoons.'

'There are fishermen here. They have...'A noise outside the office stopped Meadows.

Suddenly the door opened, and a woman ran into the room with a newspaper in her hand. It was the mother of Alex Kintner.

Hendricks came up behind her and said,'I'm sorry, Mr Brody, I tried to stop her.'

'That's OK, Leonard,' said Brody. 'Come in, Mrs Kintner.'

She walked up to Brody.

'What can I do...?'

The woman hit him in the face with the newspaper. Brody jumped back. The newspaper fell to the floor. 'You knew it was dangerous!' she cried. 'You knew that the shark killed somebody on Thursday. But you didn't do anything.'

Brody did not answer for a second. Then he said,'Yes, it's true, but it's - Mrs Kintner...'

The woman looked into Brody's eyes and began to cry. 'You killed Alex!' she said. 'Why?'

'It's...' Brody did not have the words. 'It's a long story,' he said.

 

Chapter 4 Flicka

 

Brody sat on the beach and looked at the sea.

'Hello, Mr Brody,' Hendricks said. He walked up to Brody. 'What are you doing here?'

'Ben Gardner went out there this morning. He's looking for the shark. But I can't see him on his boat.'

'Was there anybody with him?' 'I' don't know.'

'Do you want to go and see? It'll be light for two more hours. I can get a fast boat.'

Brody felt afraid. He was a very bad swimmer. 'OK,' he said. 'You get the boat. I'll call his wife.'

Twenty minutes later Brody climbed into the Hendricks' boat.

'What did she say?' asked Hendricks.

'Nothing. She called him on his radio, but there was no answer. Perhaps he turned it off. And there was nobody with him?'

'No.'

'I' don't understand,' said Hendricks. 'Why did he turn his radio off? People don't usually do that.'

Hendricks started the boat, and they moved out to sea. Gardner's boat was more than a kilometre from the shore. As they got nearer, Brody read its name: Flicka.

When they were fifty metres from the Flicka, Hendricks slowed the boat down.

Brody stood up and called out, 'Ben! 'There was no answer.

The two men climbed on to the fishing boat. 'Are you here, Ben?' Again, there was no answer.

There was a sudden noise and Brody jumped. It was from the radio.

Brody looked at Hendricks. 'He didn't turn off his radio

'I don't understand it, Mr Brody. Did Ben fall overboard? But he's not in the water and he swims very well.'

Brody looked down into the water and saw four holes in the boat. 'Look at these, Leonard. Can you see what made them?'

Hendricks went down into the sea and looked at the holes. After a few seconds he looked up and said, 'Have you got a knife?'

Brody gave Hendricks a knife. 'What can you see?' he asked.

'I don't know. Something white in one of the holes.'

Hendricks put his head back down into the water. After a short time, he came up and said, 'OK. I've got it.'

Brody helped Hendricks back on to the boat and Hendricks dropped something big and white into Brody's hand.

'It's a tooth!' said Hendricks. 'Oh no! Do you think the shark got Ben?'

Brody did not answer. He looked at the tooth again. Then he put it in his bag. 'We can't do anything here now,' he said.

It was nearly dark when they got back. Harry Meadows met them. He had a young man with him.

'This is Matt Hooper, Martin. What did you find out there?'

Brody told them about the boat. Then he took out the tooth and handed it to Hooper.

'What is it Matt?' said Meadows.

Hooper looked at the tooth. 'It's from a very big Great White Shark.'

'What do you think happened?'

'I think this fish killed Mr Gardner.'

'How?' said Brody.

'Perhaps he fell overboard. Perhaps the fish pulled him over.'

'What about the tooth in the boat?'

'The fish attacked the boat.'

'What for?'

'Sharks are not very clever, Mr Brody. They try to eat everything.'

'But a boat...!'

'A shark doesn't think. To him it wasn't a boat. It was something big in the water. Remember that sharks are afraid of nothing in the sea. They attack anything.'

'And why is he staying around here for so long?'

'I don't know. It's unusual, but sharks are unusual. We don't understand much about them. But I can try and find this shark. Can I have a boat?'

'Yes, I'm sorry to say,' said Brody. 'Ben Gardner's. We'll get you out to it tomorrow. Do you think you can catch that fish?'

'I'm not going to catch it.'

'Then what are you going to do?'

'I don't know. I'll see.'

Brody looked into Hooper's eyes and said, 'I want somebody to kill that fish.'

Hooper laughed. 'Who are you going to get to do the job?'

'There's a fisherman called Quint,' said Meadows. 'But I don't know much about him. He works somewhere near Promised Land Beach.

Hooper said, 'Look, Mr Brody, this is only a shark!'

Brody began to feel angry. Hooper did not understand!

The next day Larry Vaughan met Brody and Hooper. 'Hello, Martin. I heard about Ben Gardner. What are you going to do?

'We closed the beaches down.'

'I know that! Nobody is coming to Amity now.'

'So what do you want me to do?' said Brody.

'I thought... Can we open the beaches for the Fourth of July weekend?'

'No, we cannot.'

'Now listen...'

'No, you listen, Larry. I listened to you before, and two people died. We're going to catch that fish. Then we'll open the beaches.'

'But this town is dying!'

'I' know, Larry,' said Brody. 'But we can do nothing about it.'