It was in 2003, a Timor-born Australian was living at my uncle's house in my hometown. His name was Ikun. I called him "uncle" since I had known and was very close to him for over a year. Ikun came to my hometown as a tourist, but then he stayed longer for exploring more on the beautiful beaches and marine life in the area. During his stay with us, he decided to bring his fishing boat. It's worth like thousands of dollars; a high speed, luxury according to my thoughts at the time. That boat was to facilitate him to go with me and local fishermen for fishing and other recreational activities. He told me one morning, “hey... Profirio, I have to get my fishing boat here so that we can go fishing and go to another island.” I was so happy because I was about to ride my first high speed boat that I had never ridden before in my life as a boy who lived in the coastal area. That morning even though the tide was high, so much currents, and rain - windy weather; again, Ikun told me, Profirio “go find three fishermen to go with us to hunt lobsters.” The place we were going to for hunting lobsters was ten kilometers away from the town. "OK uncle" I answered.
Three fishermen were found. They were hungry to ride a modern fishing boat too because it would be their prime experience, so they were excited. Before going, we sat for our breakfast, joking about how many lobsters out there were just simply powerless and hopeless that we could catch. We were boasting like the lobsters’ mother and father would unconditionally let their children available for us to be adopted and housed into the human’s stomach. It’s not just that simple any way. To get the lobsters, we need to conquer tides, currents, and even rainy windy weather on that day. The weather was haunting us, but we did not care, and we did not change our minds about going.
The boat was loaded with four guys and one boy. We were heading to the eastern part of the town. After reaching the area, the three fishermen jumped down to the water. They started to hunt lobsters. Unlike being on the water surface, swimmers who go underwater usually do not know what is happening above them. Instead, divers could only hear the noise of the tides, and seeing fishes were bouncing on their house floor of rocky coral reef and saying a quick hello to everyone that is passing by their neighborhood.
Above the water surface, we both, Ikun and I were looking around and talking about the weather condition that we were in. Ikun said that we should go here and there. He sounded like driving boat on the huge water surface is like walking on his own house floor without fearing any shouts or complains from anybody else. It was different actually. Out of the blue, we suddenly saw bubbles of clouds everywhere coming together and shaped like a huge and giant pole or column of cloud that was erected from the sea body all the way up to the sky. I asked Ikun, “What is that uncle?”, “That is Tornado” he replied. While replying my question, Ikun's eye balls were not moving, and his body was freezing. Eventually, the object was heading towards us, and it ran like a horse.
Seeing that unwanted giant object coming towards us, I was about to cry. Ikun shouted, "We must gooooo..!." Since the tornado coming from the western part, Ikun drove the boat to the eastern part with full speed. The motor engine was gizzzzzzzz so fast and, we were like flying on the sea. I had mixed feelings: fear due to the tornado, and excitement due to the fast running boat which I demonstrated by screaming wahooooo in the front.
On our way of escaping, I suddenly saw another column of cloud, but smaller, coming from the eastern part. I shouted, “Uncle.....!!, there is another tornado over there.” He then returned the boat back heading to our original position. Now, we did not have any choice. Ikun turned the nose of the boat to onshore so that we could find caves or any place to hide in. But, when reaching the coast, we did not have any idea where and how to park the boat. The boat is too big to handle in such an urgent and panic situation. We just stood on the beach while holding the boat to make sure that it did not go away. If the Tornado had came closer, it would have swallowed us.
Fortunately, God was with us. The tornado scene faded slowly in our sight. It took only ten minutes to go away. We were so relieved after a gust of wind blew that pole of cloud away. It was a tense situation so we did not remember that our three other brothers were still in the sea, looking for lobsters. Ikun then hugged me and said, "let's go and find our brothers." We pushed the boat down to the deeper water and then restarted the engine and left.
We found our three brothers in the sea were safe, and we called them to stop fishing down there. They were shocked after we told them about the game that we just had played with the tornado, the game called "chase and catch." The tornado had never caught us in that game. We won the game after all. Those three fishermen imagined that they would have gone either to heaven or hell if the tornado had followed their footprint in the sea.
Despite having a terrible experience, we did have something to cheer for. A bunch of lobsters were given up by their parents for us. Then we brought it all back home. Together we did a small gathering to ponder what had happened to us. We were baking, boiling all the lobsters. They four (uncle and the three fishermen) ate the lobsters with wine and beers. While Ikun was sipping a bottle of beer, he spoke to us, "we could have died if God did not pull that giant away." We cheered and were grateful.
The End...
Hope it gives you an inspiration....
