“Don't jump,fish,”he said.“ Don't jump.”
You are killing me fish,the old man thought.But you have a right to.Never have I seen a greater,or more beautiful,or a calmer or more noble thing than you,brother.Come on and kill me.I do not care who kills who.
But he was that big and at the end of this circle he came to the surface only thirty yards away and the man saw his tail out of water.It was higher than a big scythe blade and a very pale lavender above the dark blue water.It raked back and as the fish swam just below the surface the old man could see his huge bulk and the purple stripes that banded him.His dorsal fin was down and his huge pectorals were spread wide.
The moon had been up for a long time but he slept on and the fish pulled on steadily and the boat moved into the tunnel of clouds.
He could not see by the slant of the line that the fish was circling.It was too early for that.He just felt a faint slackening of the pressure of the line and he commenced to pull on it gently with his right hand.It tightened,as always, but just when he reached the point where it would break,line began to come in.He slipped his shoulders and head from under the line and began to pull in line steadily and gently. He used both of his hands in a swinging motion and tried to do the pulling as much as he could with his body and his legs. His old legs and shoulders pivoted with the swinging of the pulling.