I crawled out on the rocks of the shore and pulled the spear after me. One of the outside prongs of the trident was bent so that the space between it and the next prong was now too wide. I looked for a hole in the rock to stick the spear point in so I could bend it back. It took a while but I found one and slowly, so I wouldn’t snap the metal, I bent it into shape. Soon I was back in the water again, having reloaded the gun before I got back in. Dad had said that in a couple of years I’d be strong enough to load the gun under water with my arms, but for now every time I fired it, I’d have to get out and push it down, so he had said, “Make each shot count.”

This time I decided that I’d find something to shoot that was big enough so that the spear points could impale it. Also that I’d swim over to the sandy side of our bay so as to be able to shoot fish against the sand and not bend my spear point again on the rocks.

When I was right out in the middle where you never saw any fish at all, I looked down and my heart sort of froze. I stopped breathing and couldn’t believe that right below me was the biggest octopus I had ever seen in all the years I had been snorkeling.

It was swimming slowly across the sandy bottom. After a couple of seconds of squirting itself forward, it settled down and started to change color. It just lay there, its huge bulbous head swaying in the water.

As soon as I saw it I felt afraid to shoot it and yet knew that if I didn’t, I’d be sorry the rest of my life. I floated above it, making a plan. It was out in the open; how could I sneak up on it? The longer I waited the more nervous I got, thinking the octopus might take off and go deeper, where I couldn’t reach it.

I couldn’t think of any clever way to approach it, so I just dove straight toward it. It sat perfectly still but at the last minute as I held out my arm, sticking my spear out toward it, it darted away and left a cloud of sand and ink to mark the spot where it had been.

Now, deep underwater, I discovered how well my flippers really worked. I kicked with all my might. I did not want to lose this octopus. I was swimming right behind it as it jetted forward over the sand. I desperately wanted a breath of air and wished Dad had given me Aqualungs along with my spear gun so I could breathe underwater!