when we were kids, my brother and i, we did odd jobs on the island to try and earn enough money to feed ourselves aside from the occasional meals the locals would give us
we had shelter in a really warm cave in the winter and a cool hut on the beach during the warmer months, but it was the yearning desire of the world outside of our own that made our formative years exciting, kept us going
on top of the hill overlooking the sea was a bungalow belonging to a rather eccentric older man
the man would occasionally come down to the village to gather supplies, often appearing unkempt and in several states of disarray
he rarely spoke to anyone or looked them in the eyes, had as little contact with the villagers as possible, and every time i saw him he was likely drunk and had a cigarette dangling out of his mouth or in his shaky hands
eventually one of my jobs when i became a teenager was to deliver supplies from the village store to people who had trouble getting around
naturally one day i had an order to go up to the old mans house on top of the hill, the village store owners warned me not to go inside of his house, which is essentially what everyone else said
my brother was off down by the sea helping rescue a baby octopus from a fishing net so i went up the hill on my own to deliver goods to the old man
i was intending to leave them on his porch and ding the chime and run off, however once i got to his house he was sitting on the porch smoking, and upon noticing me he waved me up the steps to his porch
his door was open, so he beckoned me to follow him inside, hunched over from hurting his back in some sort of way, he struggled a bit to move around
i carried the supplies inside and set them down in his eating room
it was then i began to notice something about his house, it was not what i had expected at all, it was an absolute showplace inside, like a museum!
marble floors, persian rugs, antique furniture, elegant statues, portraits, aged copper lamps, lots and lots of bronze and brass fixtures, gold and silver behind display cases, what an amazing discovery for an otherwise typical island sea weathered house
i complimented him for the unusual appearance of the inside of his house, he frowned and grumbled something under his breath, then motioned for me to help him put away his supplies
after i was done helpin the old man, he motioned for me to follow him once again, this time over to a small egyptian chest which he opened and had obviously contained various artifacts
out of the opulent chest he fished a rather large tooth, he claimed it belonged to a tiger shark, he then somehow was able to thread the needle in his condition with a leather string and make a necklace out of it
he presented me with this gift, telling me that forty years before this time he had captured that shark in his net while fishing
as if to prove his story, he rummaged through some drawers in an antique cabinet and pulled out some old black and white pictures which included him and the shark on his old boat
one thing that stood out to me from the pictures, other than the shark of course, was how young and vibrant he appeared, also he was smiling
and the name of his boat; jonah's ascent
i never understood exactly what that meant at the time, but he was a dedicated fisherman, 24/7 back then it seems
eventually he was able to make enough money to retire and live comfortable in his family bungalow on top of the hill
the village down below hadn't the faintest idea that in spite of its rustic appearance this bungalow was filled full of treasure
apparently things aren't always as they seem