Blood attracted the shark from deep down in the sea. Suddenly, he was on top of the blue water, shining in the sun. Then he fell back into the sea and started swimming in the direction of the skiff and the fish.
Sometimes he lost the scent of the fish. But when he picked it up again, he swam hard in that direction. He was a big Mako shark who swam as fast as the fastest fish in the sea, and everything about him was beautiful, except his jaws. His back was blue like a sword fish, his belly was silver, and his thick skin was smooth and handsome. He looked like a sword fish except for his huge jaws. Just under the surface you could see his fin moving quickly through the water. Inside his jaws all of his teeth were shaped like claws. They were long and sharp on both sides. The shark is so fast and strong that he is king of the sea. Now he smelled a fresh scent and swam quickly through the water.
When the old man saw him coming, he knew that this shark was not afraid. He prepared the harpoon and some rope as the shark approached. The rope was short as he had cut some away before to tie the fish.
The old man’s head was clear now and he was ready, but he was not hopeful. I can’t win, he thought. He watched the great fish come closer. This might be a dream, he thought. I cannot keep him from hitting me but maybe I can get him.
The old man saw the shark’s mouth open and take a bite of the fish just above its tail. The shark’s head and back came out of the water and the old man could hear the noise of skin and flesh ripping when he pushed the harpoon down onto the shark’s head between his eyes. That was the location of the brain and the old man hit it using all his strength. Despite this, he worried that this was not over yet and that things might still get worse. The shark turned over again and again, wrapping himself in the rope. The old man knew that he was dead but the shark would not accept it. Then, on his back, with his tail lashing and his jaws clicking, the shark plowed over the water. Three-quarters of his body was clear above the water when the rope broke. The shark lay quietly for a little while on the surface and the old man watched him. Then he went down very slowly.
“He took about forty pounds,” the old man said aloud. He took my harpoon too and all the rope, he thought. And now my fish bleeds again and there will be other sharks soon.
He did not want to look at the damaged fish anymore. When the fish had been hit, it felt like he was hit.
But I killed the shark that hit my fish, he thought. And he was the biggest one that I have ever seen. And God knows that I have seen big ones.
I knew I could not catch the shark, he thought. I wish it had been a dream now and that I had never caught the fish and was alone in bed reading newspapers.
“But man is not made for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” I am sorry that I killed the fish though, he thought. Now I do not even have a harpoon to protect myself. The shark is cruel, strong, and intelligent. But I was more intelligent than he was. Perhaps not, he thought. Perhaps I only had a better weapon.
“Don’t think, old man,” he said aloud. “It’s time to sail home.”
But I must think, he thought. Because it is all I have left. That and baseball. I wonder how the great DiMaggio would have liked the way I hit the shark in the brain? It was no great thing, he thought. Any man could do it.
“Think about something cheerful, old man,” he said. “Every minute now you are closer to home. You sail lighter now for the loss of forty pounds.”
He knew this part of the current could be dangerous. But there was nothing to be done now.
“Yes, there is,” he said aloud. “I can tie my knife to the bottom of one of the oars.”
So, he did that.
“Now,” he said. “I am still an old man. But I do have a weapon.”
The breeze was fresh now and he sailed on well. Some of his hope returned.