JAWS

As a kid, I remember being obsessed with mermaids. Whenever we went on a ferry or a boat ride, I would perch myself at the window and pray and wish that this time, I would catch a glimpse of a mermaid, finally. I never did. Except that one time on our way to Penang, I was totally convinced that that something bobbing in the water was a mermaid, until my father crashed all hope and dream when he told me that it was actually a log. An insignificant, boring piece of wood.

It was only natural that Ariel, the little mermaid was and still is my favourite Disney princess. I used to have its story book that came with a cassette. I listened to it religiously that I memorized every single word and every sound effect. Long before there was Astro, there was MegaTV. The only movie that I didn't mind being played on re-run was Splash. Daryl Hannah is the cutest mermaid ever, full-stop.

I've always envied the mermaids, swimming gracefully, disappearing into another world underwater, belonging to somewhere that we don't. Plus mermaids are all pretty and they have beautiful and shiny tails. I want to be one of them!

That might be why snorkeling was love at first dip for me. The freedom to swim freely without having to surface ever so often for air. Adding to the effect was Perhentian's magical underwater scenery that could make you believe for a moment that there is actually a secret kingdom down there. The sapphire blue water is transparent, so it feels like you are moving weightlessly among the vibrantly coloured fishes and curiously shaped corals. That was as close as I would ever get in real life to being a not-so-little mermaid.

I was on a roll, swimming past corals after corals, hollering to shoals of fishes "sup dudes?" as if I've known them my whole life, smiling and waving at them as they stop to greet me (I am the princess of the sea after all), until out of nowhere a figure made an appearance about 10 feet away in front of me that made me stop dead in my track. It was only about 4-feet long but the pointy triangular fin on its back was enough to send shivers down my spine. Just as quickly as it appeared it vanished, swimming into the vast blue sea to who-knows-where. What if it was planning to come back and attack me from behind? My ass, no!

I bobbed my head out of the water and realized that I have gotten quite carried away in my role play as a mermaid that the boat and everyone else's was far away. I panicked. It would take me at least 5 minutes to swim back, considering that I am not a real mermaid who can glide swiftly in the water. So I turned back and started paddling away. Furiously. In my mind, there's only one thought : To save my ass!

I didn't care that the shark has a black-tipped fin, I didn't care what Zam's book "Coral Reef Fishes" says, I didn't care that my boyfriend and I had came to a conclusion after consulting the book that no shark in this island is to be considered highly aggressive, it was a shark. I blame it all on Steven Spielberg for making that legendary movie Jaws.

On my erratic swim back to the boat I swam past one of my friend who was oblivious to the fact that a monstrous black-tip shark (somehow the size of the shark got bigger in my head as time ticked) was tailing me. I thought to warn him, but then I remembered that several hours ago while we were testing out our snorkeling gears for the first time by the beach and we all got pretty mesmerized by the vast species of sea creatures even so near the shoreline that we compared notes of what each of us saw, he announced "I saw a black fish with a giant ass", and it was only coincidence that at that time I was wearing a freaking black tights. So I decided to pass the idea of warning him and left him there to his fate. Muahaha.

After what seemed like eternity I reached our boat. Boyfriend was nearby. I signaled him to get onto the boat. Between catching my breath, I recounted to the boatman and boyfriend the suspenseful moment being hunted by a blood-thirsty giant shark. The boatman smiled, telling us that this place is called the 'Shark Point' but as of late, it was considered lucky to catch a glimpse of them as their numbers are reclining. Though he said, they are timid creatures by nature so they are more likely to quickly swim away if they see human. Oh..so the shark might not have followed me after all. But you can't be too sure sometimes, Mr Smarty-Pants-Boatman.

And then we heard a loud shrill coming from a lady another group nearby, "AAAARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SHARKKKKKK SSSSSSHARRRKKKK!!" The group, floating with their life jackets on, was staying close to each other, so the lady's scream made the whole group went berserk. A kid even cried. More crying and screaming from the group ensued.

I turned to boyfriend, snorted and rolled my eyes, "Chill la aunty, it's just a harmless black tip reef shark, not a great white."