The Escape
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He was close to the rocks, and he could see the surface. The light from the surface changed quickly up and down as the waves were rising quickly up against the rocks. And then he saw it. The rope. Then again the rope appeared at this time, for some reason. He reached out and grabbed it. He could feel coral wrapped around the rope. He pulled tight, and the rope stopped moving. It stayed taut. It was tight. It was attached to something; he didn't know what. He pulled on the rope, and he used it to pull himself up out of the water as he smashed into the rocks, bruised the side of his arm, and...
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The Shark
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Pablo moved away from the shark as quickly and quietly as he could. He knew he needed to stay calm. He understood that he shouldn't make any sudden movements. No frantic paddling. He also knew his other option was to maximize his size, that if the shark was passing by, if he stayed vertical and looked as large as possible. But he was not thinking of that just right now. And he knew he needed to keep watching it, and if the shark turned towards him, he would have to face it. He needed to keep watching, always watching it. And if it moved, rotate his body to stay facing it. But at this time, he...
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The Rope
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Something like a rope passed him again. It was not tied to anything. It was floating. It moved slowly, back and forward, like seaweed. Pablo watched it for a moment. It did not feel dangerous. He reached out and pushed the rope away from his body. He pushed it to the side so he could start to go up. His breath was running out. His chest felt tight. He needed to go back to the surface. Then he saw more of it. Not all at once. At first, it was only a shape. A grey shape moving in the water. It did not look like a rope anymore. It looked like skin. That was when he understood. It was a shark. He...
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Learning the Water
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Pablo had only learned to swim recently. He was in his early twenties. It took him a long time. He worked full time. He also had a part-time job. That day, he swam out from the shore and dived down. He wanted to see the rocks he had heard about under the water. He did not know how deep the ocean was there. Even close to land, it could be very deep. He felt like he was about five meters down. He did not look up at the surface. Something touched the back of his leg. It frightened him, but he kept going. The seaweed was large. It felt thick, like kelp. It brushed past the tattoo on his leg. He...
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Pablo — The Kitchen
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Perhaps he thought when he got home he could hang his wooden spoons up, although at the moment they were sitting in a great big blue jar—which seemed to be the right place, as then he could just grab them beside the air fryer, you know, that kind of thing, when he was cooking on the run. This was making him hungry now, thinking about all these wooden spoons and the boat made of wooden spoons. He was thinking about dinner. Maybe he could have some nice pasta with some garlic and some black pepper, vegetables, and maybe some olives. He might be able to put some tuna in there too, and he may...
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The boat made of wooden spoons
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After his swim, Pablo decided that he was going to sit down and do some writing. And when he sat down, he suddenly remembered that he had a dream the other night about a boat, and the boat was made from wooden spoons. Why would a boat be made of wooden spoons? That was an interesting idea. They must have been all glued together because the boat was bobbing along quite well in the water, and there was a small crew of sailors sitting in the boat having a lively chat. What were they talking about? He wondered. He hadn't remembered that part of the dream. Was the discussion about coming to land or...
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Swim First
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From here on, new episodes are released on Apple Podcasts.
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The Room
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The Lite Library: A short fragment as the show rolls out on Apple Podcasts.
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Not a Busy Day
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Pablo jumped up to snatch the newspaper
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info_outlineHe was close to the rocks, and he could see the surface. The light from the surface changed quickly up and down as the waves were rising quickly up against the rocks. And then he saw it.
The rope. Then again the rope appeared at this time, for some reason. He reached out and grabbed it. He could feel coral wrapped around the rope. He pulled tight, and the rope stopped moving. It stayed taut.
It was tight. It was attached to something; he didn't know what.
He pulled on the rope, and he used it to pull himself up out of the water as he smashed into the rocks, bruised the side of his arm, and scraped his elbow. He wrapped his arm around the rope tight and pulled himself up onto a large rock and looked down at the rope, which had tangled around a large piece of wood, a large piece of wood that was wedged within the rocks.
He looked behind him, and he could see a huge wave. He quickly climbed up the next step of rocks before the wave crashed into the rocks, coming up underneath out of the rocks and lifting the piece of wood up and the rope up out of the rocks and sweeping it back out to the ocean among the seaweed.
He looked out into the ocean to try and see the shark. It was gone, along with the timber and the piece of rope.
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