The Legend of the Fishermen of Sicily

It's exceptionally hot and humid today.

When Rosalia left home that evening, she wondered if it was going to rain heavily, but the weather forecast said it would rain the next afternoon.

I looked up at the sky; it was pitch black, and I couldn't see any obvious cloud walls.

She remembered Simon saying that if you don't see cumulonimbus clouds, the rain won't come.

Thinking about the fishing prices these past two days, where one day's income could equal two days' earnings, such an opportunity was too rare... so I still headed to the beach.

We didn't see any villagers along the way. As news of the impending heavy rain spread, the villagers reduced the frequency of their outings.

Surprisingly, there was someone on the beach, and that person was even sitting on her boat.

......

Seeing Rosalia appear, Leo's feelings were indescribably complicated.

She's fearless, short on money, not exactly an experienced fisherman, and doesn't interact much with the villagers... with all her advantages maxed out, there's a 90% chance she'll go out to sea tonight.

He really wouldn't feel at ease if he didn't come all this way.

"Don't go today. I heard the heavy rain is coming early, it's going to rain tonight," Leo said bluntly.

Although she was grateful for Leo's advice, Rosalia stubbornly helped herself onto the gunwale:

"The place I'm going to isn't far from the coast, so if it gets raining, I can come back quickly. Thank you."

She leaned against the gunwale and stared at Leo, her meaning all too clear—please come down.

Leo jumped off the small boat, but did not abandon his purpose for coming today:

"I heard it will definitely rain by tomorrow night at the latest, so you'll be back in no time and won't be able to catch many... You'd better not go."

Rosalia, who was pushing the boat, looked up again to observe the clouds, convinced that her husband was right:

"I will keep an eye on the weather, and if clouds roll in, I will come back immediately."

Leo didn't want her to go, so he didn't offer any help. Instead, he offered various reasons in the hopes of changing the woman's mind.

But the person opposite him was more stubborn than he had imagined, occasionally replying with a word or two, and then pushing the boat out to sea alone.

This step had exhausted almost all of Rosalia's strength. She climbed onto the fishing boat, panting, and said to Leo:

"Your cat likes to sleep in front of my house. If it rains at night and you're worried, you can go there to look for it. Okay, go back now."

After saying that, she picked up the oar and rowed the boat away.

......

Rosalia rowed very slowly.

One reason is that it consumes a lot of physical energy and requires time to recover.

Secondly, because she was waiting for something...

The expected "Be careful" never came, so she gave up on the strange idea and focused on rowing.

But suddenly, a splashing sound came from the back of the boat.

Rosalia turned around and saw a soaking wet man climbing up from the stern of the ship.

She instinctively put down the oar and reached for the rope-cutting knife she always carried, but the man spoke before she could draw the knife.

"I'll go with you today."

Leo sat down behind Rosalia and picked up the oars she had thrown away from the ground.

"Why?" Rosalia asked, touching the knife.

You helped me out of trouble, and I'll stand up for you. We're even now.

Rosalia didn't understand why Leo would deliberately invite "trouble".

Leo hadn't rowed in a long time, and he wielded the oars like they were broadswords.

"The two of them can at least look out for each other."

Rosalia's cold retort:

"Didn't you ever consider that something that could have ended with one person dying has now turned into two deaths?"

Rosalia spoke of death without hesitation, because she was not afraid.

But Leo was scared, and he was also quite superstitious, so he quickly patted the wooden boat:

"Pah, pah, pah! How could anything happen? If the weather were even slightly off, I'd row the boat back immediately. But why are these oars so hard to use!"

He struggled clumsily with the oars.

Seeing that Rosalia kept staring at him without saying a word or offering any help, Leo guessed that the sensitive Sicilian probably felt uneasy and insecure sitting in the back.

He stood up, wanting to sit in the front, but as soon as he stood up, Rosalia moved.

She took her hand off the knife at her waist, took an oar from Leo's hand, and began to row.

Leo sat back down and carefully observed Rosalia's rowing movements. Before long, he learned and mastered them.

Boys are playful, and since it was something they had just learned, they grabbed Rosalia's oar and started paddling forward.

The two had nothing to talk about, and for a while, the only sound on the sea was the splashing of oars against the waves.

Leo loved the atmosphere. Listening to the white noise made him feel calm and relaxed. All his worries, stress, barriers, and prejudices disappeared.

After an unknown amount of time, Rosalia, who was in front, suddenly spoke up and asked:

"Why take pictures of the boat?"

"This is the custom in my hometown."

"What are the rules?"

"When saying things that might bring bad luck, you should pat the wood to prevent anything bad from happening," Leo asked the person in front of him. "Don't Sicilies value their faith a lot? Don't you have similar rules? For example, what shouldn't you say at sea?"

Rosalia's emotionless reply:

"I have no faith."

"No faith?" Leo was taken aback.

After the seaside restaurant stopped selling seafood and he couldn't get a cappuccino after 11 a.m., the third strange thing he encountered in Sicily happened.

Are there any coastal residents without religious beliefs?

Rosalia's voice reached Leo's ears:

"If there really is a God, he will send Simon home safely."

Then came a deathly silence.

Leo tried several times to comfort the poor man in front of him, but he really didn't know what to say.

It doesn't seem like a particularly appropriate way to put it, and Rosalia might not even need it.

Fortunately, the silence only lasted for two or three minutes before Rosalia spoke up again:

"I'm going down now."

"Have we arrived?" Leo looked around and realized that they were indeed not far from Malzamemi.

The town's outline and lights are clearly visible.

Judging by sight, this place is at most 1 kilometer away from Marzamemi, in the southwest of the village.

"We can go further, but I can't dive that deep." Rosalia put on her gear, checked her fishing tackle one last time, and then jumped into the sea.

......

Leo didn't just sit on the boat and wait.

This voyage with Rosalia was a valuable learning and practical opportunity.

Leo had studied diving systematically and could deduce a lot of useful information from Rosalia's breathing frequency and surface breathing time.

She spends 30-45 seconds underwater and 15-25 seconds surfacing to breathe.

Based on her age and physical condition, the water depth in the underwater work area is estimated to be between 5 and 8 meters.

Rosalia needed to catch her breath for a while each time she surfaced, so to conserve her energy, Leo would adjust the direction of the fishing boat to catch her.

During this process, he observed that the water outlets clustered along a line, rather than at a single point.

This indicates that there are obvious reference points underwater, and she is searching sequentially according to a certain pattern, and the terrain is not complicated.

If the underwater terrain is complex and there are no reference points, her starting point would likely be very scattered and without any discernible pattern.

Diving is very physically demanding, and Rosalia has to get back on the boat to rest every ten minutes or so to regain her strength before going back down.

After three such trips, Rosalia's time underwater suddenly increased—from 30-40 seconds to more than 40 seconds, with the longest she stayed underwater being around 50 seconds.

It seems the diving depth has changed.

After being lifted out of the water this time, she held onto the side of the boat and gasped for breath.

Leo, observing the anomaly, asked:

Is there anything happening underwater?

Rosalia tried to regulate her breathing and shook her head to indicate that everything was normal.

Did the diving depth change?

Is it because your physical strength is being depleted too quickly?

Leo suggested:

"Come up and rest for a bit."

Rosalia did not refuse. After boarding the ship, she looked at the clouds in the sky and said intermittently:

"Underwater visibility is getting worse, and heavy rain is probably coming, but I found a dense area of ​​sea urchins. We'll go back after we finish harvesting them there."

Rio was greatly relieved that Rosalia brought up the matter of returning home; it seemed that this woman wasn't so stubborn after all.

"How many more times do we need to go?" Leo asked.

"Two times is about right." After saying that, Rosalia closed her eyes to rest, preparing for the final two dives.

She rested for a full fifteen minutes before going down.

The moment I entered the water, I heard a voice behind me—

"Please be careful, we'll be back soon."