Love #4: The Fisher's Belt

 


The old fisher brought his adult daughter to the airport. His wife was too upset to come. 

Their daughter's marriage had failed. Alone and childless, she had looked for work to buy her own house and dignity. The old fisher thought it futile. “You work, you work, you work until you die and the dream money will still not be paid.” He spoke in broken English and struggled to make her understand. He constantly had to appeal to her with his hands and face, “How you say?” She will only speak English.

Their daughter has formed an internet relationship and has saved enough to travel to Australia for 12 months, “To see if I can make it.”

The old fisherman had walked with her from their village to the airport to try and talk her out of it. But she is proud and only wishes to say farewell and part on good terms. 

“And what if he does not respect you?”

“There are other men.”

He says “I am ill, I will die soon. Your mother is old. You should be here for her. Not for me. Family comes first.”

“I will be close. Australia is not so far. I can send money.”

He looked at the passenger jets on the tarmac and shook his head, “Money is not love.”

He turned from her, eyes full of tears, “I cannot look at you. You know your aunt will go first. Then me. Then your mother. I give my little money to your aunt to help her. She is mean and nasty, but we are all she has. She is my responsibility. I am the young man to care for the old woman.”

“I am making a better life for myself. With the money I can provide you all with something better.”

“No money will come of this. They will find ways of taking back dishonestly that which is honestly paid. No love will come of this, the single men who shower you with promises have full heads and empty bellies. They are not fishers. They are not like us.”

“What am I to do?”

“Let me make you a fine woven belt. Fishers will see that belt and respect it. You will find a good man to love by watching them as they look at the belt.”

She shook her head, “The world is different now. Fishers are just men.”


Copyright Dark Aelf, 2021 

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Comments

Anonymous said…
When time has passed and she is no longer a girl, but a middle-aged woman, when all the men she has met over time have used her up and none of them stayed; her parents will be gone.
She will be all alone and deeply regret that she did not stay and care and pour all her love into the only people who truly loved her. Instead of wasting it on men who did not appreciate her worth and discarded her without a second thought. .
Peter Quinton said…
Dear Anonymous (those who truly loved her)
Thank you for your insights.
I was given this story at the airport at Suva, Fiji. It is heartbreaking. I have travelled with it for many years, hoping that the decisions taken brought love and and joy to all. But, like you, i fear another outcome.
It is a cautionary story: the search for love involves risk, uncertainty and dislocation. What pain the modern world has brought us all.
Peter
Anonymous said…
("It is a cautionary story: the search for love involves risk, uncertainty and dislocation.")

Indeed it does but that is to be expected. No great reward without great risk. I believe finding true love is worth almost everything. ... Short of losing yourself.

The woman in the story did not know what love is. She was merely chasing a selfish fantasy, . Before you find real love, you have to be able to give it. Real love is never selfish